'A Night in the West End, 1914-1918': A Lecture-Concert

In August 1914 theatre managers were worried about the impact of the war on their businesses. Yet rather than causing a decline in theatre-going, the war provided a much-needed boost to the British theatre industry. Across the country theatres played a vital role in the war effort: encouraging recruitment, raising money for various war charities, and, maintaining the morale of both civilians and service personnel. London theatres, with their proximity to the train stations at which men would disembark for their short periods of leave, had a particular role to play. To men on leave from the front, as B. F. Findon wrote, ‘a good entertainment is one of the best panaceas for the physical and mental stress to which they are subjected [when] they are ‘facing the music' in the trenches. Two hours and a half in a London theatre is a fine tonic. It makes them, for the time being, forget the past, enjoy the present, and provides pleasurable reminiscences when they have to endure the grim realities of war’. It was a sentiment echoed across both the media and in official announcements. ‘The people’s amusements’ as Lord Derby announced in January 1917 ‘should go on’ and ‘those who come home should be met with cheerful faces, and their time away from the trenches made amusing’. In this lecture-concert Dr Emma Hanna and Dr Helen Brooks bring together their respective expertise in the histories of wartime music and wartime theatre to explore the story of the wartime West End. With the Invicta Concert Band and professional singers bringing the songs to life, this is a unique opportunity to experience the music and stories from some of the biggest hits of the war years, including Chu Chin Chow, A Little Bit of Fluff, and The Bing Boys Are Here

High frequency resonant experiments in Fe8_8 molecular clusters

Precise resonant experiments on Fe$_{8}$ magnetic clusters have been conducted down to 1.2 K at various tranverse magnetic fields, using a cylindrical resonator cavity with 40 different frequencies between 37 GHz and 110 GHz. All the observed resonances for both single crystal and oriented powder, have been fitted by the eigenstates of the hamiltonian ${\cal H}=-DS_z^2+ES_x^2-g\mu_B{\bf H}\cdot {\bf S}$. We have identified the resonances corresponding to the coherent quantum oscillations for different orientations of spin S = 10.Comment: to appear in Phys.Rev. B (August 2000

Semiconductive and Photoconductive Properties of the Single Molecule Magnets Mn12_{12}-Acetate and Fe8_8Br8_8

Resistivity measurements are reported for single crystals of Mn$_{12}$-Acetate and Fe$_8$Br$_8$. Both materials exhibit a semiconductor-like, thermally activated behavior over the 200-300 K range. The activation energy, $E_a$, obtained for Mn$_{12}$-Acetate was 0.37 $\pm$ 0.05 eV, which is to be contrasted with the value of 0.55 eV deduced from the earlier reported absorption edge measurements and the range of 0.3-1 eV from intramolecular density of states calculations, assuming $2E_a$= $E_g$, the optical band gap. For Fe$_8$Br$_8$, $E_a$ was measured as 0.73 $\pm$ 0.1 eV, and is discussed in light of the available approximate band structure calculations. Some plausible pathways are indicated based on the crystal structures of both lattices. For Mn$_{12}$-Acetate, we also measured photoconductivity in the visible range; the conductivity increased by a factor of about eight on increasing the photon energy from 632.8 nm (red) to 488 nm (blue). X-ray irradiation increased the resistivity, but $E_a$ was insensitive to exposure.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Lepton flavor violating signals of a little Higgs model at the high energy linear e+e−e^{+}e^{-} colliders

Littlest Higgs $(LH)$ model predicts the existence of the doubly charged scalars $\Phi^{\pm\pm}$, which generally have large flavor changing couplings to leptons. We calculate the contributions of $\Phi^{\pm\pm}$ to the lepton flavor violating $(LFV)$ processes $l_{i}\to l_{j}\gamma$ and $l_{i}\to l_{j}l_{k}l_{k}$, and compare our numerical results with the current experimental upper limits on these processes. We find that some of these processes can give severe constraints on the coupling constant $Y_{ij}$ and the mass parameter $M_{\Phi}$. Taking into account the constraints on these free parameters, we further discuss the possible lepton flavor violating signals of $\Phi^{\pm\pm}$ at the high energy linear $e^{+}e^{-}$ collider $(ILC)$ experiments. Our numerical results show that the possible signals of $\Phi^{\pm\pm}$ might be detected via the subprocesses $e^{\pm}e^{\pm}\to l^{\pm}l^{\pm}$ in the future $ILC$ experiments.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. Discussions and references added, typos correcte

A Study of the S=1/2 Alternating Chain using Multiprecision Methods

In this paper we present results for the ground state and low-lying excitations of the $S=1/2$ alternating Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain. Our more conventional techniques include perturbation theory about the dimer limit and numerical diagonalization of systems of up to 28 spins. A novel application of multiple precision numerical diagonalization allows us to determine analytical perturbation series to high order; the results found using this approach include ninth-order perturbation series for the ground state energy and one magnon gap, which were previously known only to third order. We also give the fifth-order dispersion relation and third-order exclusive neutron scattering structure factor for one-magnon modes and numerical and analytical binding energies of S=0 and S=1 two-magnon bound states.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. for submission to Phys.Rev.B. PICT files of figs available at http://csep2.phy.ornl.gov/theory_group/people/barnes/barnes.htm

Investigation of conduction band structure, electron scattering mechanisms and phase transitions in indium selenide by means of transport measurements under pressure

In this work we report on Hall effect, resistivity and thermopower measurements in n-type indium selenide at room temperature under either hydrostatic and quasi-hydrostatic pressure. Up to 40 kbar (= 4 GPa), the decrease of carrier concentration as the pressure increases is explained through the existence of a subsidiary minimum in the conduction band. This minimum shifts towards lower energies under pressure, with a pressure coefficient of about -105 meV/GPa, and its related impurity level traps electrons as it reaches the band gap and approaches the Fermi level. The pressure value at which the electron trapping starts is shown to depend on the electron concentration at ambient pressure and the dimensionality of the electron gas. At low pressures the electron mobility increases under pressure for both 3D and 2D electrons, the increase rate being higher for 2D electrons, which is shown to be coherent with previous scattering mechanisms models. The phase transition from the semiconductor layered phase to the metallic sodium cloride phase is observed as a drop in resistivity around 105 kbar, but above 40 kbar a sharp nonreversible increase of the carrier concentration is observed, which is attributed to the formation of donor defects as precursors of the phase transition.Comment: 18 pages, Latex, 10 postscript figure

Net positive outcomes for nature

Much research and policy effort is being expended on seeking ways to conserve living nature while enabling the economic and social development needed to increase global equity and end poverty. We propose that this will only be possible if the language of policy shifts away from setting conservation targets that focus on avoiding losses and towards developing processes that consider net outcomes for biodiversity

Dapagliflozin: a sodium glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor in development for type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a growing worldwide epidemic. Patients face lifelong therapy to control hyperglycemia and prevent the associated complications. There are many medications, with varying mechanisms, available for the treatment of T2DM, but almost all target the declining insulin sensitivity and secretion that are associated with disease progression. Medications with such insulin-dependent mechanisms of action often lose efficacy over time, and there is increasing interest in the development of new antidiabetes medications that are not dependent upon insulin. One such approach is through the inhibition of renal glucose reuptake. Dapagliflozin, the first of a class of selective sodium glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors, reduces renal glucose reabsorption and is currently under development for the treatment of T2DM. Here, we review the literature relating to the preclinical and clinical development of dapagliflozin