Exclusion of ethnic groups from the realm of humanity: Prejudice against the gypsies in Britain and in Romania

Copyright @ 2005 PromolibroPrejudice against ethnic minorities is investigated not only as the establishment of difference between social groups on valued dimensions but also as the denial of similarities that would prevent the inclusion of both ingroups and outgroups in the superordinate category of human-beings. The present study sought to explore the two concepts that are advanced to describe the phenomenon of dehumanisation of out-groups: their ontologisation and their infrahumanisation in relation to the Gypsy minority. British and Romanian participants were asked to rate their national ingroup and the Gypsies using characteristics judged typically human and typically animal following the ontologisation and infrahumanisation literature. The results indicated the the ontologisation of the Gypsies occurs in both national samples whereas their infrahumanisation is only verified for the British participants. The implications of these findings are discussed from the perspectives of the infrahumanisation and ontologisation

Numerical simulations of transverse oscillations in radiatively cooling coronal loops

We aim to study the influence of radiative cooling on the standing kink oscillations of a coronal loop. Using the FLASH code, we solved the 3D ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations. Our model consists of a straight, density enhanced and gravitationally stratified magnetic flux tube. We perturbed the system initially, leading to a transverse oscillation of the structure, and followed its evolution for a number of periods. A realistic radiative cooling is implemented. Results are compared to available analytical theory. We find that in the linear regime (i.e. low amplitude perturbation and slow cooling) the obtained period and damping time are in good agreement with theory. The cooling leads to an amplification of the oscillation amplitude. However, the difference between the cooling and non-cooling cases is small (around 6% after 6 oscillations). In high amplitude runs with realistic cooling, instabilities deform the loop, leading to increased damping. In this case, the difference between cooling and non-cooling is still negligible at around 12%. A set of simulations with higher density loops are also performed, to explore what happens when the cooling takes place in a very short time (tcool = 100 s). We strengthen the results of previous analytical studies that state that the amplification due to cooling is ineffective, and its influence on the oscillation characteristics is small, at least for the cases shown here. Furthermore, the presence of a relatively strong damping in the high amplitude runs even in the fast cooling case indicates that it is unlikely that cooling could alone account for the observed, flare-related undamped oscillations of coronal loops. These results may be significant in the field of coronal seismology, allowing its application to coronal loop oscillations with observed fading-out or cooling behaviour

Miniaturized side-viewing imaging probe for fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM): validation with fluorescence dyes, tissue structural proteins and tissue specimens

Published versio

4U 1626-67 as seen by Suzaku before and after the 2008 torque reversal

Aims. The accretion-powered pulsar 4U 1626-67 experienced a new torque reversal at the beginning of 2008, after about 18 years of steadily spinning down. The main goal of the present work is to study this recent torque reversal that occurred in 2008 February. Methods. We present a spectral analysis of this source using two pointed observations performed by Suzaku in 2006 March and in 2010 September. Results. We confirm with Suzaku the presence of a strong emission-line complex centered on 1 keV, with the strongest line being the hydrogen-like Ne Ly-alpha at 1.025(3) keV. We were able to resolve this complex with up to seven emission lines. A dramatic increase of the intensity of the Ne Ly-alpha line after the 2008 torque reversal occurred, with the equivalent width of this line reaching almost the same value measured by ASCA in 1993. We also report on the detection of a cyclotron line feature centered at ~37 keV. In spite of the fact that an increase of the X-ray luminosity (0.5-100 keV) of a factor of ~2.8 occurred between these two observations, no significant change in the energy of the cyclotron line feature was observed. However, the intensity of the ~1 keV line complex increased by an overall factor of ~8. Conclusions. Our results favor a scenario in which the neutron star in 4U 1626-67 accretes material from a geometrically thin disk during both the spin-up and spin-down phases.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures and 2 tables. Accepted in A&

Sausage mode propagation in a thick magnetic flux tube

The aim of this paper is to model the propagation of slow magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) sausage waves in a thick expanding magnetic flux tube in the context of the quiescent (VAL-C) solar atmosphere. The propagation of these waves is found to be described by the Klein–Gordon equation. Using the governing MHD equations and the VAL-C atmosphere model we study the variation of the cut-off frequency along and across the magnetic tube guiding the waves. Due to the radial variation of the cut-off frequency the flux tubes act as low frequency filters for the waves

Pheochromocytoma – clinical manifestations, diagnosis and current perioperative management

Pheochromocytoma is a neuroendocrine tumor characterized by the excessive production of catecholamines (epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine). The diagnosis is suspected due to hypertensive paroxysms, associated with vegetative phenomena, due to the catecholaminergic hypersecretion. Diagnosis involves biochemical tests that reveal elevated levels of catecholamine metabolites (metanephrine and normetanephrine). Functional imaging, such as 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy (123I-MIBG), has increased specificity in identifying the catecholamine-producing tumor and its metastases. The gold-standard treatment for patients with pheochromocytoma is represented by the surgical removal of the tumor. Before surgical resection, it is important to optimize blood pressure and intravascular volume in order to avoid negative hemodynamic events

Pelvic floor disorders in gynecological malignancies. An overlooked problem?

Cervical, endometrial, ovarian, vulvar, and vaginal cancers affect women of a broad age spectrum. Many of these women are still sexually active when their cancer is diagnosed. Treatment options for gynecological malignancies, such as gynecological surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, are proven risk factors for pelvic floor dysfunction. The prevalence of urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, and sexual dysfunction before cancer treatment is still unclear. Hypotheses have been raised in the literature that these manifestations could represent early symptoms of pelvic cancers, but most remain overlooked even in cancer surviving patients. The primary focus of therapy is always cancer eradication, but as oncological and surgical treatment options become more successful, the number of cancer survivors increases. The quality of life of patients with gynecological cancers often remains an underrated subject. Pelvic floor disorders are not consistently reported by patients and are frequently overlooked by many clinicians. In this brief review we discuss the importance of pelvic floor dysfunction in patients with gynecological malignant tumors