Shearing or Compressing a Soft Glass in 2D: Time-concentration superposition

We report surface shear rheological measurements on dense insoluble monolayers of micron sized colloidal spheres at the oil/water interface and of the protein $\beta$-lactoglobulin at the air/water surface. As expected, the elastic modulus shows a changing character in the response, from a viscous liquid towards an elastic solid as the concentration is increased, and a change from elastic to viscous as the shear frequency is increased. Surprisingly, above a critical packing fraction, the complex elastic modulus curves measured at different concentrations can be superposed to form a master curve, by rescaling the frequency and the magnitude of the modulus. This provides a powerful tool for the extrapolation of the material response function outside the experimentally accessible frequency range. The results are discussed in relation to recent experiments on bulk systems, and indicate that these two dimensional monolayers should be regarded as being close to a soft glass state.Comment: to appear in PR

Cross-National Differences in Victimization : Disentangling the Impact of Composition and Context

Varying rates of criminal victimization across countries are assumed to be the outcome of countrylevel structural constraints that determine the supply ofmotivated o¡enders, as well as the differential composition within countries of suitable targets and capable guardianship. However, previous empirical tests of these ‘compositional’ and ‘contextual’ explanations of cross-national di¡erences have been performed upon macro-level crime data due to the unavailability of comparable individual-level data across countries. This limitation has had two important consequences for cross-national crime research. First, micro-/meso-level mechanisms underlying cross-national differences cannot be truly inferred from macro-level data. Secondly, the e¡ects of contextual measures (e.g. income inequality) on crime are uncontrolled for compositional heterogeneity. In this paper, these limitations are overcome by analysing individual-level victimization data across 18 countries from the International CrimeVictims Survey. Results from multi-level analyses on theft and violent victimization indicate that the national level of income inequality is positively related to risk, independent of compositional (i.e. micro- and meso-level) di¡erences. Furthermore, crossnational variation in victimization rates is not only shaped by di¡erences in national context, but also by varying composition. More speci¢cally, countries had higher crime rates the more they consisted of urban residents and regions with lowaverage social cohesion.

Multiphase flow of miscible liquids: jets and drops

Drops and jets of liquids that are miscible with the surrounding bulk liquid are present in many processes from cleaning surfaces with the aid of liquid soaps to the creation of biocompatible implants for drug delivery. Although the interactions of immiscible drops and jets show similarities to miscible systems, the small, transient interfacial tension associated with miscible systems create distinct outcomes such as intricate droplet shapes and breakup resistant jets. Experiments have been conducted to understand several basic multiphase flow problems involving miscible liquids. Using high-speed imaging of the morphological evolution of the flows, we have been able to show that these processes are controlled by interfacial tensions. Further multiphase flows include investigating miscible jets, which allow the creation of fibers from inelastic materials that are otherwise difficult to process due to capillary breakup. This work shows that stabilization from the diminishing interfacial tensions of the miscible jets allow various elongated morphologies to be formed.Keywords: miscible, transient interfacial tension, drop

The Aussie, 1918-1931: cartoons, digger remembrance and First World War identity

Feelings of community, cultural definition and memory were kept alive through the soldiers’ mass circulation tabloid, the Aussie, examined here in the light of theorization of memory and representation, applied to both text and cartoons. The publication’s aim for veterans’ values to become shared national values is analysed in the light of its high profile usage of soft cartoon humour and also of nostalgia – highlighting the limitations as well as the effectiveness in terms of Australia’s evolving national identity. When the post-war economic situation worsened, deeper issues of national tension were glossed over by the use of scapegoats such as ‘profiteers’ and ‘lazy workers’. The armed forces were obliged to take on a political role of lobbying for their cause, but the Aussie as ‘cheerful friend’ experienced its own identity crisis that proved to be terminal