Energy Gap Evolution Across the Superconductivity Dome in Single Crystals of (Ba1−x_{1-x}Kx_x)Fe2_2As2_2

The mechanism of unconventional superconductivity in iron-based superconductors (IBSs) is one of the most intriguing questions in current materials research. Among non-oxide IBSs, (Ba$_{1-x}$K$_x$)Fe$_2$As$_2$ has been intensively studied because of its high superconducting transition temperature and fascinating evolution of the superconducting gap structure from being fully isotropic at optimal doping ($x\approx$0.4) to becoming nodal at $x >$0.8. Although this marked evolution was identified in several independent experiments, there are no details of the gap evolution to date because of the lack of high-quality single crystals covering the entire K-doping range of the superconducting dome. We conducted a systematic study of the London penetration depth, $\lambda (T)$, across the full phase diagram for different concentrations of point-like defects introduced by 2.5 MeV electron irradiation. Fitting the low-temperature variation with the power law, $\Delta \lambda \sim T^{n}$, we find that the exponent $n$ is the highest and $T_c$ suppression rate with disorder is the smallest at optimal doping, and they evolve with doping being away from optimal, which is consistent with increasing gap anisotropy, including an abrupt change around $x\simeq 0.8$, indicating the onset of nodal behavior. Our analysis using a self-consistent $t$-matrix approach suggests the ubiquitous and robust nature of s$_{\pm}$ pairing in IBSs and argues against a previously suggested transition to a $d-$wave state near $x=1$ in this system

Finding not seeking: Law on the UK’s Social Science Information Gateway

Unpublished article on the Social Science Information Gateway by Steve Whittle, Information Systems Manager at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studie

Customer Awareness and Satisfaction of Islamic Retail Products in Kuwait

The market for Islamic banking has grown rapidly over the past few years, and this high growth is expected to continue for the near future in Kuwait Banking Industry. At the same time the competition market is being reshaped, with more Islamic financial services institutions than before entering the market. Within this competitive environment customers have been identified as the most important foundational pillar for business sustainability.  Using a questionnaire distributed to 150 Kuwaiti client deals with Islamic banks, the study aimed to examine the factors affecting Kuwaiti customers in the choice of the Islamic Bank, which they deal with, and to study the level of awareness customers have on the Islamic principles that stand behind each retail service provided by the Kuwaiti Islamic Banks. The study also examined the level of satisfaction of services provided by these banks. The study found the twenty three factors investigated by the study were very important in choosing Islamic banks in Kuwait. One Islamic factor only (Bank reputation in regards of abidance with Sharia principles) was one of the first five factors but it took last place. This mean that Kuwaiti customers seek more than abidance by sharia low, they want the same things customers of traditional banks requests from their bank. Kuwaiti customers are aware of Tawaroq and Islamic credit cards, but they aren’t fully aware of Mudarabah, Murabaha, Musharaka and Ijara. The study also found that in spite of a relatively high degree of satisfaction by Kuwaiti customers in general, they are still not fully satisfied with some areas related to Kuwaiti Islamic banks including adherence to Shariah principles. Keywords: Satisfaction, Customer Awareness, Islamic Banks, Islamic Shariah, Mudarabah, Murabaha, Musharaka and Ijara

The indexing of scholarly open access business journals

Introduction There is a small, but rapidly growing, number of scholarly, open access (OA) business journals that are now available on the internet. In May 2004, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 8 business titles. By May 2006, the number had jumped to 26 and as of May 2009, the DOAJ lists 83 business and management titles. An additional 84 economics titles are also available. Looking at other databases: in May 2009, Ulrich’s Periodical Directory includes 113 scholarly OA business and economics journals, 59 of which are refereed. Open J-Gate has 536 OA titles under “Business, economy, and management,” of which 191 are peer-reviewed. In order for the increasing number of open access business journals to achieve credibility and flourish in the academic and professional environments it is not enough for them to simply be published and freely available on the Internet. Researchers need a means to be able to systematically search across the broad spectrum of business journals, and retrieve the articles in their particular areas of research and study. This task has traditionally been accomplished by commercial journal indexing databases, e.g. ABI/Inform or Business Source Complete. If a journal is indexed, it tends to mean increased awareness and usage of the title. This, in turn, leads to potentially higher citation levels, impact, and prestige for the journal title, which then attracts more and better research. If open access journals are not included in these commercial indexing databases, researchers must make a special effort to find them, which discourages use. Therefore, the integration with subscription-based journals into standard library databases is important and desirable. This was recognized in a 2005 survey of OA publishers (Kaufman-Wills Group, LLC, 2005, p.24). Recent years have also seen the emergence of an increasing number of open access indexing services and OA journal repositories with article level indexing, e.g. DOAJ, Open J-Gate, Google Scholar. It is vital that open access journals be indexed in open access databases because in North America they are often the only databases available to business professionals working alone or for smaller organizations, and even for many policy makers in government. Furthermore, in developing countries, OA journals and OA indexes may be all that universities can afford (Ghosh & Das, 2007, p. 230). In 2003, for example, it was estimated that 90% of Indian universities were running their libraries without serial indexes (Willinsky, 2006, p. 174). OA indexing opens up a wide range of research to a much broader audience and facilitates equality of access to scholarly knowledge. Furthermore, because of the global scope of the OA movement, OA journal repositories and indexing services generally provide researchers with a more diverse, global perspective than previously afforded by the established North American and European commercial business information providers