S=1/2 chains and spin-Peierls transition in TiOCl

We study TiOCl as an example of an S=1/2 layered Mott insulator. From our analysis of new susceptibility data, combined with LDA and LDA+U band structure calculations, we conclude that orbital ordering produces quasi-one-dimensional spin chains and that TiOCl is a new example of Heisenberg-chains which undergo a spin-Peierls transition. The energy scale is an order of magnitude larger than that of previously known examples. The effects of non-magnetic Sc impurities are explained using a model of broken finite chains.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures (color); details on crystal growth added; to be published in Phys. Rev.

Charge Stripping Reactions in Mass Spectrometry: A Study of Diatomic and Triatomic Inorganic and Organic Ions

Charge stripping reactions of the type m• + N--+ m2• + N + ehave been studied for a variety of diatomic and triatomic inorganic and organic ions. Ionisation energies of the m• ions, IE (m+--+ m2• ), have been determined, most of them for the first time. The method is fast and straightforward; it is applicable to both molecular and fragment .ions. The relative cross-sections for the charge stripping processes have been also determined; they show llrge variations from one species to another. Cases of possible interferences, which are fairly infrequent, are described and discussed

From toothpick legs to dropping vaginas: Gender and sexuality in Joan Rivers' stand-up comedy performance

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2011 Intellect.This article employs sociocultural analysis to examine Joan Rivers’ stand-up comedy performances in order to reveal how she successfully operates in a sphere of artistic expression that has been, and continues to be, male-dominated. The analysis uncovers how Rivers’ stand-up comedy performance involves a complex combination of elements and how it fuses features that are regarded as ‘traditionally masculine’, such as aggression, with features frequently used by other female stand-up comedians, such as self-deprecating comedy and confessional comedy. Furthermore, the analysis exposes the complex ways in which constructions of gender and sexuality are negotiated and re-negotiated in Rivers’ stand-up comedy performance, and illustrates how dominant ideological identity constructions can be simultaneously reinforced and subverted within the same comic moment

On the poverty of a priorism: technology, surveillance in the workplace and employee responses

Many debates about surveillance at work are framed by a set of a priori assumptions about the nature of the employment relationship that inhibits efforts to understand the complexity of employee responses to the spread of new technology at work. In particular, the debate about the prevalence of resistance is hamstrung from the outset by the assumption that all apparently non-compliant acts, whether intentional or not, are to be counted as acts of resistance. Against this background this paper seeks to redress the balance by reviewing results from an ethnographic study of surveillance-capable technologies in a number of British workplaces. It argues for greater attention to be paid to the empirical character of the social relations at work in and through which technologies are deployed and in the context of which employee responses are played out

Description of Generalized Continued Fractions by Finite Automata

A generalized continued fraction algorithm associates with every real number x a sequence of integers; x is rational iff the sequence is finite. For a fixed algorithm, call a sequence of integers valid if it is the result of that algorithm on some input x0. We show that, if the algorithm is sufficiently well-behaved, then the set of all valid sequences is accepted by a finite automaton. I. Introduction. It is well known that every real number x has a unique expansion as a simple continued fraction in the form

Cost-effectiveness of telehealth in people with social care needs: the Whole Systems Demonstrator cluster randomised trial

Introduction: The Whole Systems Demonstrator pilots introduced telehealth and telecare into three local authority areas using an integrated approach to deliver health and social care to those with high care needs and long-term conditions. Proponents of these technologies have given cost savings as one rationale for advocating their introduction and widespread implementation; proponents have also advocated their potential to improve the quality of life for their users. Until recently, evaluations of telehealth and telecare in high-income countries have been based on relatively small-scale pilots; few such evaluations have been designed as randomised controlled trials. The WSD study was a pragmatic cluster-randomised control trial, representing the largest-scale trial of telehealth and telecare to be carried out in the UK. This presentation focuses on the results of the WSD telecare questionnaire study. Objectives: To examine the costs and cost-effectiveness of telecare compared to standard support and treatment. Methods: Economic evaluation conducted in parallel with a pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trial of Telecare. 2600 people with social care needs participated in a trial of a community-based telecare intervention in three English local authority areas. Approximately half of the participants in the telecare trial also consented to participate in the WSD telecare questionnaire study, which collected information on a number of patient-reported outcome measures and also on the self-reported use of a range of health and social services. Health and social costs were calculated by attaching nationally applicable unit costs to self-reported service use data. The unit costs of telecare support and treatment provided were calculated drawing on administrative and financial data sources and interviews with key informants. The primary outcome for the cost-effectiveness analysis was the quality-adjusted life year (QALY). Secondary outcomes included measures of health-related quality of life and well-being. We employed multivariate analyses to explore the cost-effectiveness of the intervention Results: The presentation will describe the results of the economic evaluation of telecare, addressing the cost of care and treatment packages used by those participating in the telecare questionnaire study and the results of the cost-effectiveness analysis. These results will be available by the time of the presentation. Conclusions: These will be available by the time of the presentation

Darcin: a male pheromone that stimulates female memory and sexual attraction to an individual male's odour

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Among invertebrates, specific pheromones elicit inherent (fixed) behavioural responses to coordinate social behaviours such as sexual recognition and attraction. By contrast, the much more complex social odours of mammals provide a broad range of information about the individual owner and stimulate individual-specific responses that are modulated by learning. How do mammals use such odours to coordinate important social interactions such as sexual attraction while allowing for individual-specific choice? We hypothesized that male mouse urine contains a specific pheromonal component that invokes inherent sexual attraction to the scent and which also stimulates female memory and conditions sexual attraction to the airborne odours of an individual scent owner associated with this pheromone.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using wild-stock house mice to ensure natural responses that generalize across individual genomes, we identify a single atypical male-specific major urinary protein (MUP) of mass 18893Da that invokes a female's inherent sexual attraction to male compared to female urinary scent. Attraction to this protein pheromone, which we named darcin, was as strong as the attraction to intact male urine. Importantly, contact with darcin also stimulated a strong learned attraction to the associated airborne urinary odour of an individual male, such that, subsequently, females were attracted to the airborne scent of that specific individual but not to that of other males.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This involatile protein is a mammalian male sex pheromone that stimulates a flexible response to individual-specific odours through associative learning and memory, allowing female sexual attraction to be inherent but selective towards particular males. This 'darcin effect' offers a new system to investigate the neural basis of individual-specific memories in the brain and give new insights into the regulation of behaviour in complex social mammals.</p> <p>See associated Commentary <url>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/8/71</url></p

Moebius strip enterprises and expertise in the creative industries: new challenges for lifelong learning?

The paper argues that the emergence of a new mode of production – co-configuration is generating new modes of expertise that EU policies for lifelong learning are not designed to support professionals to develop. It maintains that this change can be seen most clearly when we analyse Small and Medium Size (SMEs) enterprises in the creative industries. Drawing on concepts from Political Economy - ‘Moebius strip enterprise/expertise’ and Cultural Historical Activity Theory - project-object’ and the ‘space of reasons’, the paper highlights conceptually and through a case study of an SME in the creative industries what is distinctive about the new modes of expertise, before moving on to reconceptualise expertise and learning and to consider the implications of this reconceptualisation for EU policies for lifelong learning. The paper concludes that the new challenge for LLL is to support the development of new forms expertise that are difficult to credentialise, yet, are central to the wider European goal of realising a knowledge economy