Quantum Group Invariant Supersymmetric t-J Model with periodic boundary conditions

An integrable version of the supersymmetric t-J model which is quantum group invariant as well as periodic is introduced and analysed in detail. The model is solved through the algebraic nested Bethe ansatz method.Comment: 11 pages, LaTe

Exact solution and surface critical behaviour of open cyclic SOS lattice models

We consider the $L$-state cyclic solid-on-solid lattice models under a class of open boundary conditions. The integrable boundary face weights are obtained by solving the reflection equations. Functional relations for the fused transfer matrices are presented for both periodic and open boundary conditions. The eigen-spectra of the unfused transfer matrix is obtained from the functional relations using the analytic Bethe ansatz. For a special case of crossing parameter $\lambda=\pi/L$, the finite-size corrections to the eigen-spectra of the critical models are obtained, from which the corresponding conformal dimensions follow. The calculation of the surface free energy away from criticality yields two surface specific heat exponents, $\alpha_s=2-L/2\ell$ and $\alpha_1=1-L/\ell$, where $\ell=1,2,\cdots,L-1$ coprime to $L$. These results are in agreement with the scaling relations $\alpha_s=\alpha_b+\nu$ and $\alpha_1=\alpha_b-1$.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, to appear in J. Phys.

Abortion in the United States' bible belt: organizing for power and empowerment

Over the last 30 years, conservative power in the United States, financed and organized by Christian fundamentalist sects, the Catholic Church, and conservative corporate and political leadership, has become more threatening and potentially destabilizing of progressive democratic principles and practices. Powerful interlocking political, financial and social forces are arrayed against women in many Southern and Western states. They are having destructive effects on women's ability to control their fertility and maintain bodily integrity and health. Poor women and women of color are disproportionately affected by restrictions on abortion services. Strategically developed interventions must be initiated and managed at every level in these localities. It is urgent to coordinate and empower individuals, multiple organizations and communities to engender effective changes in attitudes, norms, behavior and policies that will enable women to obtain reproductive health services, including abortion care. This paper describes contextual factors that continue to decimate U.S. women's right to health and, then, describes a community organizing-social action project in a number of US' states aimed at reversing the erosion of women's right to have or not to have children

Severe upper airway obstruction due to delayed retropharyngeal hematoma formation following blunt cervical trauma

BACKGROUND: We report a case of severe upper airway obstruction due to a retropharyngeal hematoma that presented nearly one day after a precipitating traumatic injury. Retropharyngeal hematomas are rare, but may cause life-threatening airway compromise. CASE PRESENTATION: A 50 year-old man developed severe dyspnea with oropharyngeal airway compression due to retropharyngeal hematoma 20 hours after presenting to the emergency department. The patient also had a fractured first cervical vertebra and was diagnosed with a left brachial plexopathy. The patient underwent emergent awake fiberoptic endotracheal intubation to provide a definitive airway. CONCLUSION: Retropharyngeal hematoma with life-threatening airway compromise can develop hours or days after a precipitating injury. Clinicians should be alert to the potential for this delayed airway collapse, and should also be prepared to rapidly secure the airway in this patient population likely to have concomitant cervical spinal or head injuries

'Prove me the bam!': victimization and agency in the lives of young women who commit violent offences

This article reviews the evidence regarding young women’s involvement in violent crime and, drawing on recent research carried out in HMPYOI Cornton Vale in Scotland, provides an overview of the characteristics, needs and deeds of young women sentenced to imprisonment for violent offending. Through the use of direct quotations, the article suggests that young women’s anger and aggression is often related to their experiences of family violence and abuse, and the acquisition of a negative worldview in which other people are considered as being 'out to get you' or ready to 'put one over on you'. The young women survived in these circumstances, not by adopting discourses that cast them as exploited victims, but by drawing on (sub)cultural norms and values which promote pre-emptive violence and the defence of respect. The implications of these findings for those who work with such young women are also discussed

Proposed Measurement of an Effective Flux Quantum in the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

We consider a channel of an incompressible fractional-quantum-Hall-effect (FQHE) liquid containing an island of another FQHE liquid. It is predicted that the resistance of this channel will be periodic in the flux through the island, with the period equal to an odd integer multiple of the fundamental flux quantum, $\phi_{0}=hc/e$. The multiplicity depends on the quasiparticle charges of the two FQHE liquids.Comment: Late

Hasbara 2.0: Israel’s Public Diplomacy in the Digital Age

The Internet has been a counter-public space for Palestinian liberation politics for over a decade, and digital technologies have become an increasingly important tool for solidarity groups across the world. However, the Israeli state and Zionist supporters worldwide are harnessing the same technologies and platforms to mobilize technology primarily to increase pro-Israel sentiments. The aims of this article are to examine hasbara [Israeli public diplomacy] through an exploration of similar diplomacy programmes; to illustrate how social media have affected the basic algorithms of hasbara; and to probe the assertions of hasbara in the light of pro-Palestinian solidarity. Through a study of public diplomacy, this article critically analyzes hasbara as a site of contestation and a method that is hampered by contradictions. On the one hand, there has been a massive growth in hasbara in recent years—indicated by the increase in funding for it and by its professionalized and centralized character; and on the other hand, hasbara has attracted sharp critiques in Israel for its reputed failures. To understand this contradiction, hasbara must be placed within the context of Israel’s settler-colonialism, which sets the state apart from other ‘post-conflict’ states. This article reviews the methods utilized in hasbara, as well as their readjustment in the context of recent wars. Events in 2014 illustrate that hasbara actually destabilizes Israel’s diplomacy. Online journalism and the suppression of solidarity for Palestine together stimulate more criticism and, in turn, help to shift public opinion. Paradoxically, therefore, adjustments (‘hasbara 2.0’) have underlined the image of Israel as a colonial power engaged in violent occupation