The ground state of a spin-1/2 neutral particle with anomalous magnetic moment in a Aharonov-Casher configuration

We determine the (bound) ground state of a spin 1/2 chargless particle with anomalous magnetic moment in certain Aharonov-Casher configurations. We recast the description of the system in a supersymmetric form. Then the basic physical requirements for unbroken supersymmetry are established. We comment on the possibility of neutron trapping in these systems

Women of "The Wire"

In this paper we analyze the representation of women on the popular television show The Wire. We discuss how, while writers attempt to portray race, crime, and inner-city life with sociological accuracy, characterizations of women, and of violence against women, are not especially complex or realistic. In particular, the crime of rape is underrepresented. While the show does feature certain competent, successful professional women, overall the portrayal of underclass women differs significantly from that of underclass men, featuring far fewer sympathetic female characters and demonizing several. In these ways the show succumbs to the sexist, patriarchal norms that characterize much of the representation of women in popular entertainment products. Some posit that this asymmetry of gender representation results from the male-oriented street experience of the show's male writers.En aquest treball s'analitza la representació de la dona en el popular programa de televisió The Wire (El cable). Discutim com, mentre que els escriptors intenten retratar la raça, el crim i la vida a les ciutats amb precisió sociològica, les caracteritzacions de la dona i de la violència contra la dona no són especialment complexes o realistes. En particular, el delicte de violació està infrarepresentat. Encara que l'espectacle presenta diverses dones competents i amb èxit professional, en general, el retrat de les dones de classe baixa difereix significativament del dels homes de classe baixa. Així, presenta els personatges femenins molt menys solidaris i fins i tot en demonitza uns quants. El programa sucumbeix, doncs, a les normes sexistes i patriarcals que caracteritzen gran part de les representacions de la dona en productes d'entreteniment popular. Alguns postulen que aquesta asimetria de la representació de gènere és el resultat de l'experiència del carrer fonamentalment androcèntrica dels escriptors del programa.En este trabajo se analiza la representación de la mujer en el popular programa de televisión The Wire (El cable). Discutimos cómo, mientras que los escritores intentan retratar la raza, el crimen y la vida en las ciudades con precisión sociológica, las caracterizaciones de la mujer y de la violencia contra la mujer no son especialmente complejas o realistas. En particular, el delito de violación está infrarrepresentado. Aunque el espectáculo presenta a varias mujeres competentes y con éxito profesional, en general, el retrato de las mujeres de clase baja difiere significativamente del de los hombres de clase baja. Así, presenta a los personajes femeninos mucho menos solidarios e incluso demoniza a varios. El programa sucumbe, pues, a las normas sexistas y patriarcales que caracterizan gran parte de las representaciones de la mujer en productos de entretenimiento popular. Algunos postulan que esta asimetría de la representación de género es el resultado de la experiencia de la calle fundamentalmente androcéntrica de los escritores del programa

The Ethics of Advocacy for the Mentally Ill: Philosophic and Ethnographic Considerations

In this Article, we critically address several philosophical underpinnings of ethical decision-making that impact persons with psychiatric disorders. We focus our attention, however, upon an admittedly limited target area. Thus, we canvass a select number of significant issues that pose unique problems for humanity. The purpose of these excursions is that of reflection. In brief, we will speculatively examine: (1) the relationship between human rights and the law; (2) the relationship between mental illness and the law (i.e. the rights of the mentally ill); (3) the ethics of involuntary confinement (i.e., taking away and giving back rights to the mentally ill); (4) the ethics of advocating for the rights of the mentally ill; and (5) the philosophical limits of ethical (mental health) advocacy

A Virtual Data Grid for LIGO

GriPhyN (Grid Physics Network) is a large US collaboration to build grid services for large physics experiments, one of which is LIGO, a gravitational-wave observatory. This paper explains the physics and computing challenges of LIGO, and the tools that GriPhyN will build to address them. A key component needed to implement the data pipeline is a virtual data service; a system to dynamically create data products requested during the various stages. The data could possibly be already processed in a certain way, it may be in a file on a storage system, it may be cached, or it may need to be created through computation. The full elaboration of this system will al-low complex data pipelines to be set up as virtual data objects, with existing data being transformed in diverse ways

Unchained Reaction: The Collapse of Media Gatekeeping and the Clinton–Lewinsky Scandal

In this article we use the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal to illustrate a fundamental change in the contemporary American media environment: the virtual elimination of the gatekeeping role of the mainstream press. The new media environment, by providing virtually unlimited sources of political information (although these sources do not provide anything like an unlimited number of perspectives), undermines the idea that there are discrete gates through which political information passes: if there are no gates, there can be no gatekeepers. This article is part of a larger project in which we argue that alterations in the media environment have eroded the always uneasy distinction between news and entertainment. Overall, this erosion, one result of which is the collapse of the gatekeeping function, is rapidly undermining the commonsense assumptions used by both elites, citizens and scholars to understand the role of the media in a democratic society

Terrorism and the Media: Patterns of Occurrence and Presentation, 1969-1980

What we have to do is tell people about what\u27s going on in the world. This quote from Ted Koppel, an ABC anchorman, taken from a recent TV commercial for the network news, captures the key focus of this paper. To what extent does television news accurately inform its viewers about what is going on in the world? We begin to answer this question by focusing on one topic which is both of political significance and has received a large amount of coverage from the networks: International terrorism. (I) By comparing the amount and type of coverage which international terrorism received from the networks over the period 1969 to 1980 to a more systematic set of data based upon world-wide reports of international terrorism over the same period, we can test the degree to which viewers are provided with an accurate picture of what international terrorism is, where it is happening, against whom, and how often. In addition, we look more closely at network treatment of a single terrorist incident to speak to the more subtle ideological aspects of media coverage. The organization of this paper is as follows. In the next two sections we examine television news in general terms, discussing its strengths and weaknesses as a provider of information, considering previous theoretical and empirical work on the topic, and laying out our expectations. In the fourth section we give the details of our specific analysis, discussing the choice of international terrorism, operationalizing concepts, describing the data sets, and explaining the methods. Section five is a presentation of results with a brief discussion. Section six is a more detailed case study of coverage of the seizure of the Dominican Republic Embassy in Colombia in 1980. The final section consists of a summary, discussion and some concluding remarks concerning network coverage of international terrorism, and the larger questions of television as a source of political information and political agendas

Heeeeeeeeeeeere\u27s Democracy!

After two decades of declining news audiences, decreasing newspaper circulation, and increasing uneasiness over the blurring of public-affairs and entertainment media, the heightened ratings for television news in the wake of September\u27s terrorist attacks came as a relief to many observers. Journalists, especially, saw it as reassuring evidence that, when it really mattered, Americans still turned to them. However, that increased audience has largely dissipated, and even a closer look at the patterns of news-media consumption at the peak of the crisis suggests that journalists are whistling past the graveyard if they conclude that Americans rely on them as much as in the past

The Year of the Woman? Candidates, Votes and the 1992 Elections

The struggle for political power has been long and difficult for women in the United States. The barriers to participation in politics have been both legal and cultural, overt and subtle. In colonial America there were few direct limits on women\u27s participation. However, the combination of franchise restrictions based on property ownership and the overwhelming propensity for property to be held in a man\u27s name meant that few women participated in electoral politics as either voters or officeholders

\u3cem\u3eFictional\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eNon Fictional\u3c/em\u3e Television Celebrates Earth Day: Or, Politics Is Comedy Plus Pretense

While there is much new work in the field of communications that challenges such distinctions, many scholars who study the medium still assume a clear and natural separation between fictional and non-fictional television. Falling into the former category are most prime-time shows, specials, movies and other broadcasts serving, it is assumed, primarily as entertainment. Further, many scholars assume that such shows have little impact on the way people think about the \u27real world\u27, in general, and politics, in particular. In the latter category are shows like the news, documentaries and other public-affairs programming. Such shows are assumed to deal with events or conditions in the \u27real world\u27. With few exceptions, for example, political scientists examine only \u27nonfiction\u27 television when they search for the effect of the medium on political attitudes and beliefs. In this paper we critically examine the distinction between \u27fiction\u27 and non-fiction\u27 television, arguing that it does not hold up under close scrutiny. Indeed, its unexamined persistence tends to blind scholars to the full political implications of television for democratic politics in the United States

Let Us Infotain You: Politics in the New Media Age

Political communications scholars, members of the press, and political elites have traditionally distinguished between entertainment and non-entertainment media. It is in public affairs media in general and news media in particular that politics is assumed to reside, and it is to this part of the media that the public is assumed to turn when engaging the political world. Politics, in this view, is a distinct and self-contained part of public life, and citizen is one role among many played by individuals. As a former network television executive put it, in the civic education of the American public, entertainment programming is recess. But people, politics, and the media are far more complex than this. Individuals are simultaneously citizens, consumers, audiences, family members, workers, and so forth. Politics is built on deep-seated cultural values and beliefs that are imbedded in the seemingly nonpolitical aspects of public and private life. Entertainment media often provide factual information, stimulate social and political debate, and critique government, while public affairs media are all too often diversionary, contextless, and politically irrelevant. In this chapter we build upon the premises contained in the opening quote from Edelman: that politics is largely a mediated experience; that political attitudes and actions result from the interpretation of new information through the lenses of previously held assumptions and beliefs; and that these lenses are socially constructed from a range of shared cultural sources. We also agree with Edelman that this has always been the case, and so to the extent that researchers have ignored or downplayed entertainment media, popular culture, art, and so forth, in the construction of both news and public opinion, we have missed a critical component of this process