An existential phenomenological exploration of the lived experience of freedom in former political prisoners of the Romanian Communist Gulag

There is an absence of literature on the experience of former political prisoners of the Romanian Communist Gulag and their experience of freedom/oppression. Most research on individuals subjected to physical or/and psychological torture for political reasons has focused on the traumatic experiences of this client group and their sequelae approximating the diagnostic criteria of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It was the purpose of this research to reflect on the gaps in the literature and highlight the potential importance of turning towards an experiential and phenomenological understanding of freedom for this particular subgroup. This was an idiographic investigation capturing the first-hand experiential accounts of six former political prisoners of the Romanian Communist Gulag. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to elicit the participants’ understanding of freedom before, during and after incarceration and the resources that they drew upon in the face of overwhelmingly distressing life circumstances, such as those of political torture. The data was analysed using Critical Narrative Analysis (Langdridge, 2007), a method which facilitates a hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry into the unique individual experiences as well as commonalities amongst participants. The inclusion of a critical moment allowed an exploration of the interplay of personal narratives and the frameworks of dominant narratives and canonical cultural discourses. The participants conceptualised their freedom in close relation to taking action, understood as active political engagement – not so much as an abstract quality or trait; their actions were guided by the compass of their own values and beliefs, which facilitated a positive appraisal of adversity; the noetic dimension of freedom was prominent, articulated as psycho-spiritual autonomy and congruence with the ‘voice within’, which was inseparable form a transcendental orientation towards meaning and didn’t alter with the passing of time. Narrators described the collective power of being with others and their spirituality as central to their coping. Findings also highlighted the significance of disgruntlement with the present political context in Romania and the government’s failure to purge Communism from key power structures and collective mentalities. Canonical cultural narratives of freedom were also discussed with reference to narrators’ stories. The implications of the project’s findings for counselling psychology theory and practice were explored

Controlled synthesis of TiO2 hierarchical nanofibre structures via electrospinning and solvothermal processes : photocatalytic activity for degradation of methylene blue

The present article describes a new titanium oxide‐based (TiO2) photocatalyst that shows promise for acceleration of dye degradation. A hierarchical TiO2 nanostructure comprising nanorods on‐nanofibres has been prepared using a sol&ndash;gel route and electrospinning. Calcination of electrospun nanobre mats was performed in air at 500 &deg;C. The TiO2 nanofibre surface was then exploited as a &lsquo;seeding ground&rsquo; to grow TiO2 nanorods by a solvothermal process in NaOH. The nanofibres had a diameter of approximately 100 nm while the nanorods were evenly distributed on the nanofibre surface with a mean diameter of around 50&ndash;80 nm. The hierarchical nanostructure showed enhanced photocatalytic activity when compared to pure TiO2 nanofibres. This improved efficiency in degrading methylene blue through the photocatalytic process was attributed to the larger specific surface area of the TiO2 nanostructures, as well as high surface‐to‐volume ratio and higher reactive surface resulting in enhanced surface adsorption and interfacial redox reaction.<br /

Visualizing the Quantum Interaction Picture in Phase Space

We illustrate the correspondence between the quantum Interaction Picture-evolution of the state of a quantum system in Hilbert space and a combination of local and global transformations of its Wigner function in phase space. To this aim, we consider the time-evolution of a quantized harmonic oscillator driven by both a linear and a quadratic (in terms of bosonic creation and annihilation operators) potentials and employ the Magnus series to derive the exact form of the time-evolution operator. In this case, the Interaction Picture corresponds to a local transformation of phase space-reference frame into the one that is co-moving with the Wigner function.Comment: Submitted to New Journal of Physic

Dependence of the evolution of the cavity radiation of a coherently pumped correlated emission laser on dephasing and phase fluctuation

Analysis of the dynamics of the cavity radiation of a coherently pumped correlated emission laser is presented. The phase fluctuation and dephasing are found to affect the time evolution of the two-mode squeezing and intensity of the cavity radiation significantly. The intensity and degree of the two-mode squeezing increase at early stages of the process with time, but this trend changes rapidly afterwards. It is also shown that they increase with phase fluctuation and dephasing in the strong driving limit, however the situation appears to be opposite in the weak driving limit. This essentially suggests that the phase fluctuation and dephasing weaken the coherence induced by a strong driving mechanism so that the spontaneous emission gets a chance. The other important aspect of the phase fluctuation, in this regard, is the relaxation of the time at which the maximum squeezing is manifested as well as the time in which the radiation remains in a squeezed state.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figure

Plume characteristics of the Saturn cluster model

Pitot pressure distributions of jets measured in order to determine plume characteristics of Saturn cluster mode

Two-mode entanglement in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates

We study the generation of two-mode entanglement in a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a double-well potential. By applying the Holstein-Primakoff transformation, we show that the problem is exactly solvable as long as the number of excitations due to atom-atom interactions remains low. In particular, the condensate constitutes a symmetric Gaussian system, thereby enabling its entanglement of formation to be measured directly by the fluctuations in the quadratures of the two constituent components [Giedke {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 91}, 107901 (2003)]. We discover that significant two-mode squeezing occurs in the condensate if the interspecies interaction is sufficiently strong, which leads to strong entanglement between the two components.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure

Frictional quantum decoherence

The dynamics associated with a measurement-based master equation for quantum Brownian motion are investigated. A scheme for obtaining time evolution from general initial conditions is derived. This is applied to analyze dissipation and decoherence in the evolution of both a Gaussian and a Schr\"{o}dinger cat initial state. Dependence on the diffusive terms present in the master equation is discussed with reference to both the coordinate and momentum representations.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure

Cork Construction Kit

This article reports on the research and development of a radically simple new form of solid, dry-jointed construction made of expanded cork and engineered timber. It has outstanding whole life performance, and the potential to help sustain biodiverse landscapes, and create buildings with exceptionally low whole life carbon emissions. Building blocks made of cork forestry waste interlock for quick and easy assembly, creating buildings that are low-energy to inhabit and simple to disassemble at the end of the building’s life for reuse. The project investigates an architectural language of cork stereotomy as a progressive reimagining of historic dry-stone construction. The research is architect-led and multidisciplinary, undertaken in three steps from 2014 to 2019. Step one was curiosity-driven research, hypothesising and making the Cork Casket. Step two involved detailed design hypotheses, extensive prototyping, and lab testing addressing structure, fire and weathertightness. The Cork Cabin was created and monitored, and the system design established. Step three created Cork House. As the first building of its type, it is permanent, replicable, and designed to fully meet local building codes. Its corbelled profile knits into its site, with sheltering interiors offering a rich sensory living environment. The research confirms the potential for such simple new forms of off-site plant-based construction to help address construction industry challenges relating to whole life environmental sustainability performance, complexity, quality, and productivity

Cork: an historical overview of its use in building construction

This paper is an intimate portrait of cork used as a construction material, in a history that stretches back over millennia. Cork is the outer bark of Quercus suber, the cork oak tree, harvested around once a decade in a process of stripping that does not harm the tree. The unusual combination of physical and chemical properties of cork has led to its exploitation in a broad range of construction materials and components. This paper traces the changing status of cork as a construction material through time and reveals how its use in architecture has evolved. The paper is structured according to three identifiable chronological phases: early uses from Nuragic to pre-industrial times, the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of Modern Architecture, and the mid-twentieth century to the present day. These are illustrated through case studies which are critically appraised and provide a context for addressing the current status of cork as a bio-renewable construction material

On the Quantum Phase Operator for Coherent States

In papers by Lynch [Phys. Rev. A41, 2841 (1990)] and Gerry and Urbanski [Phys. Rev. A42, 662 (1990)] it has been argued that the phase-fluctuation laser experiments of Gerhardt, B\"uchler and Lifkin [Phys. Lett. 49A, 119 (1974)] are in good agreement with the variance of the Pegg-Barnett phase operator for a coherent state, even for a small number of photons. We argue that this is not conclusive. In fact, we show that the variance of the phase in fact depends on the relative phase between the phase of the coherent state and the off-set phase $\phi_0$ of the Pegg-Barnett phase operator. This off-set phase is replaced with the phase of a reference beam in an actual experiment and we show that several choices of such a relative phase can be fitted to the experimental data. We also discuss the Noh, Foug\`{e}res and Mandel [Phys.Rev. A46, 2840 (1992)] relative phase experiment in terms of the Pegg-Barnett phase taking post-selection conditions into account.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures. Typographical errors and misprints have been corrected. The outline of the paper has also been changed. Physica Scripta (in press