2,944 research outputs found
De-Centering Dominance, Reclaiming Resilience
Although there is a significant body of literature bolstering the concept, the term “resilience” is often misused and abused in the academy at the expense of the most marginalized students and community members. In this article, I advocate for reclaiming resilience as using creativity to survive and challenge dominant views of resilience. Furthermore, I call for de-centering dominance in conversations about diversity and inclusion to represent and serve the needs of marginalized students navigating institutional barriers and systems that were never meant for them
Exploring what lies behind public preferences for avoiding health losses caused by lapses in healthcare safety and patient lifestyle choices
© 2013 Singh et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0),which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Background: Although many studies have identified public preferences for prioritising health care interventions based on characteristics of recipient or care, very few of them have examined the reasons for the stated preferences. We conducted an on-line person trade-off (PTO) study (N=1030) to investigate whether the public attach a premium to the avoidance of ill health associated with alternative types of responsibilities: lapses in healthcare safety, those caused by individual action or lifestyle choice; or genetic conditions. We found that the public gave higher priority to prevention of harm in a hospital setting such as preventing hospital associated infections than genetic disorder but drug administration errors were valued similar to genetic disorders. Prevention of staff injuries, lifestyle diseases and sports injuries, were given lower priority. In this paper we aim to understand the reasoning behind the responses by analysing comments provided by respondents to the PTO questions. Method: A majority of the respondents who participated in the survey provided brief comments explaining preferences in free text responses following PTO questions. This qualitative data was transformed into explicit codes conveying similar meanings. An overall coding framework was developed and a reliability test was carried out. Recurrent patterns were identified in each preference group. Comments which challenged the assumptions of hypothetical scenarios were also investigated. Results: NHS causation of illness and a duty of care were the most cited reasons to prioritise lapses in healthcare safety. Personal responsibility dominated responses for lifestyle related contexts, and many respondents mentioned that health loss was the result of the individual’s choice to engage in risky behaviour. A small proportion of responses questioned the assumptions underlying the PTO questions. However excluding these from the main analysis did not affect the conclusions.
Conclusion: Although some responses indicated misunderstanding or rejection of assumptions we put forward, the results were still robust. The reasons put forward for responses differed between comparisons but responsibility was the most frequently cited. Most preference elicitation studies only focus on eliciting numerical valuations but allowing for qualitative data can augment understanding of preferences as well as verifying results.EPSRC through the MATCH programme(EP/F063822/1 and EP/G012393/1) and HERG within Brunel University
Vortex matter in superconducting mesoscopic disks: Structure, magnetization, and phase transitions
The dense vortex matter structure and associated magnetization are calculated
for type-II superconducting mesoscopic disks. The magnetization exhibits
generically first-order phase transitions as the number of vortices changes by
one and presents two well-defined regimes: A non-monotonous evolution of the
magnitude of the magnetization jumps signals the presence of a vortex glass
structure which is separated by a second-order phase transition at
from a condensed state of vortices (giant vortex) where the magnitude of the
jumps changes monotonously. We compare our results with Hall magnetometry
measurements by Geim et al. (Nature 390, 259 (1997)) and claim that the
magnetization exhibits clear traces of the presence of these vortex glass
states.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Nonlinear supersymmetry: from classical to quantum mechanics
Quantization of the nonlinear supersymmetry faces a problem of a quantum
anomaly. For some classes of superpotentials, the integrals of motion admit the
corrections guaranteeing the preservation of the nonlinear supersymmetry at the
quantum level. With an example of the system realizing the nonlinear
superconformal symmetry, we discuss the nature of such corrections and
speculate on their possible general origin.Comment: 11 page
A Review of Symmetry Algebras of Quantum Matrix Models in the Large-N Limit
This is a review article in which we will introduce, in a unifying fashion
and with more intermediate steps in some difficult calculations, two
infinite-dimensional Lie algebras of quantum matrix models, one for the open
string sector and one for the closed string sector. Physical observables of
quantum matrix models in the large-N limit can be expressed as elements of
these Lie algebras. We will see that both algebras arise as quotient algebras
of a larger Lie algebra. We will also discuss some properties of these Lie
algebras not published elsewhere yet, and briefly review their relationship
with well-known algebras like the Cuntz algebra, the Witt algebra and the
Virasoro algebra. We will also review how Yang--Mills theory, various low
energy effective models of string theory, quantum gravity, string-bit models,
and quantum spin chain models can be formulated as quantum matrix models.
Studying these algebras thus help us understand the common symmetry of these
physical systems.Comment: 77 pages, 21 eps figures, 1 table, LaTeX2.09; an invited review
articl
Localization of N=4 Superconformal Field Theory on S^1 x S^3 and Index
We provide the geometrical meaning of the superconformal index.
With this interpretation, the superconformal index can be realized
as the partition function on a Scherk-Schwarz deformed background. We apply the
localization method in TQFT to compute the deformed partition function since
the deformed action can be written as a -exact form. The
critical points of the deformed action turn out to be the space of flat
connections which are, in fact, zero modes of the gauge field. The one-loop
evaluation over the space of flat connections reduces to the matrix integral by
which the superconformal index is expressed.Comment: 42+1 pages, 2 figures, JHEP style: v1.2.3 minor corrections, v4 major
revision, conclusions essentially unchanged, v5 published versio
On a modular property of N=2 superconformal theories in four dimensions
In this note we discuss several properties of the Schur index of N=2
superconformal theories in four dimensions. In particular, we study modular
properties of this index under SL(2,Z) transformations of its parameters.Comment: 23 page, 2 figure
An E7 Surprise
We explore some curious implications of Seiberg duality for an SU(2)
four-dimensional gauge theory with eight chiral doublets. We argue that two
copies of the theory can be deformed by an exactly marginal quartic
superpotential so that they acquire an enhanced E7 flavor symmetry. We argue
that a single copy of the theory can be used to define an E7-invariant
superconformal boundary condition for a theory of 28 five-dimensional free
hypermultiplets. Finally, we derive similar statements for three-dimensional
gauge theories such as an SU(2) gauge theory with six chiral doublets or Nf=4
SQED.Comment: 27 page
Yang-Lee Zeros of the Two- and Three-State Potts Model Defined on Feynman Diagrams
We present both analytic and numerical results on the position of the
partition function zeros on the complex magnetic field plane of the
(Ising) and states Potts model defined on Feynman diagrams
(thin random graphs). Our analytic results are based on the ideas of
destructive interference of coexisting phases and low temperature expansions.
For the case of the Ising model an argument based on a symmetry of the saddle
point equations leads us to a nonperturbative proof that the Yang-Lee zeros are
located on the unit circle, although no circle theorem is known in this case of
random graphs. For the states Potts model our perturbative results
indicate that the Yang-Lee zeros lie outside the unit circle. Both analytic
results are confirmed by finite lattice numerical calculations.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures. Third version: the title was slightly changed.
To be published in Physical Review
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