854 research outputs found
Perceptions and experience of employment regulation in UK small firms
The view that excessive regulation constrains small business growth has been a persistent theme within business and policy communities, although recent studies have demonstrated the actual effects of regulation to be relatively modest. A prior small-scale study proposed four reasons why employment legislation does 'not damage' small firms. We attempt to assess the robustness of these propositions in a large-scale survey of 16 779 small firms. Results provide empirical support for three propositions. Firstly, perceived dissatisfaction masks actual effects. Secondly, competitive conditions mediate regulatory effects; however, even resource-constrained firms reported few negative effects. Thirdly, informality eases regulatory impact. Results failed to confirm that older laws are 'routinised'. Length of time as a business owner was found to be more influential than age of regulation, with owners who have been in business for many years having a longer 'window of exposure' increasing their likelihood of experiencing negative and positive effects
Cooper pair dispersion relation for weak to strong coupling
Cooper pairing in two dimensions is analyzed with a set of renormalized
equations to determine its binding energy for any fermion number density and
all coupling assuming a generic pairwise residual interfermion interaction. \
Also considered are Cooper pairs (CPs) with nonzero center-of-mass momentum
(CMM)--usually neglected in BCS theory--and their binding energy is expanded
analytically in powers of the CMM up to quadratic terms. A Fermi-sea-dependent
{\it linear} term in the CMM dominates the pair excitation energy in weak
coupling (also called the BCS regime) while the more familiar quadratic term
prevails in strong coupling (the Bose regime). The crossover, though strictly
unrelated to BCS theory {\it per se,} is studied numerically as it is expected
to play a central role in a model of superconductivity as a Bose-Einstein
condensation of CPs where the transition temperature vanishes for all
dimensionality for quadratic dispersion, but is {\it nonzero} for all
for linear dispersion.Comment: 11 pages plus 3 figures, revised version accepted in Physical Review
Linear to quadratic crossover of Cooper pair dispersion relation
Cooper pairing is studied in three dimensions to determine its binding energy
for all coupling using a general separable interfermion interaction. Also
considered are Cooper pairs (CPs) with nonzero center-of-mass momentum (CMM). A
coupling-independent {\it linear} term in the CMM dominates the pair excitation
energy in weak coupling and/or high fermion density, while the more familiar
quadratic term prevails only in the extreme low-density (i.e., vacuum) limit
for any nonzero coupling. The linear-to-quadratic crossover of the CP
dispersion relation is analyzed numerically, and is expected to play a central
role in a model of superconductivity (and superfluidity) simultaneously
accommodating a BCS condensate as well as a Bose-Einstein condensate of CP
bosons.Comment: 13 pages plus 2 figure
Ratios of Elastic Scattering of Pions from 3H and 3He
We have measured the elastic-scattering ratios of normalized yields for
charged pions from 3H and 3He in the backward hemisphere. At 180 MeV, we
completed the angular distribution begun with our earlier measurements, adding
six data points in the angular range of 119 deg to 169 deg in the pi-nucleus
center of mass. We also measured an excitation function with data points at
142, 180, 220, and 256 MeV incident pion energy at the largest achievable angle
for each energy between 160 deg and 170 deg in the pi-nucleus center of mass.
This excitation function corresponds to the energies of our forward-hemisphere
studies. The data, taken as a whole, show an apparent role reversal of the two
charge-symmetric ratios r1 and r2 in the backward hemisphere. Also, for data >
100 deg we observe a strong dependence on the four-momentum transfer squared
(-t) for all of the ratios regardless of pion energy or scattering angle, and
we find that the superratio R data match very well with calculations based on
the forward-hemisphere data that predicts the value of the difference between
the even-nucleon radii of 3H and 3He. Comparisons are also made with recent
calculations incorporating different wave functions and double scattering
models.Comment: RevTex 8pages, 12 figure file
Gravitational collapse of a Hagedorn fluid in Vaidya geometry
The gravitational collapse of a high-density null charged matter fluid,
satisfying the Hagedorn equation of state, is considered in the framework of
the Vaidya geometry. The general solution of the gravitational field equations
can be obtained in an exact parametric form. The conditions for the formation
of a naked singularity, as a result of the collapse of the compact object, are
also investigated. For an appropriate choice of the arbitrary integration
functions the null radial outgoing geodesic, originating from the shell
focussing central singularity, admits one or more positive roots. Hence a
collapsing Hagedorn fluid could end either as a black hole, or as a naked
singularity. A possible astrophysical application of the model, to describe the
energy source of gamma-ray bursts, is also considered.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Mosquito Net Use in an Artisanal East African Fishery
Widespread, anecdotal reports of the use of bed nets designed for malaria control (“mosquito nets”) in artisanal fisheries have led to concern from health and natural resource management sectors. However, mosquito net fishing (MNF) may play an important role in the livelihoods of artisanal fishers, an aspect not yet investigated. At a coastal Kenyan site among Giriama fishers, nearly half of homesteads interviewed used mosquito nets as fishing gear, targeting juvenile fish and prawns for subsistence and sale. The majority of mosquito net (MN) fishers here were men, suggesting that the assumption that MNF is a female activity is not valid in this case. However, MN use for fishing at this site is unlikely to impact malaria protection as fishers used old or surplus nets. Respondents perceived both positive aspects of MNF (e.g., food and income) and negative aspects (e.g., impact on fishery). As mosquito nets are widely available, they may enable new entrants to access fisheries. There is a critical need to review current management responses, which predominately focus on banning the practice, and instead promote integrated strategies for sustainable livelihoods
Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
Fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies is an almost
universally used technique that has matured significantly in the last decade.
Model predictions and fitting procedures have improved significantly over this
time, attempting to keep up with the vastly increased volume and quality of
available data. We review here the field of SED fitting, describing the
modelling of ultraviolet to infrared galaxy SEDs, the creation of
multiwavelength data sets, and the methods used to fit model SEDs to observed
galaxy data sets. We touch upon the achievements and challenges in the major
ingredients of SED fitting, with a special emphasis on describing the interplay
between the quality of the available data, the quality of the available models,
and the best fitting technique to use in order to obtain a realistic
measurement as well as realistic uncertainties. We conclude that SED fitting
can be used effectively to derive a range of physical properties of galaxies,
such as redshift, stellar masses, star formation rates, dust masses, and
metallicities, with care taken not to over-interpret the available data. Yet
there still exist many issues such as estimating the age of the oldest stars in
a galaxy, finer details ofdust properties and dust-star geometry, and the
influences of poorly understood, luminous stellar types and phases. The
challenge for the coming years will be to improve both the models and the
observational data sets to resolve these uncertainties. The present review will
be made available on an interactive, moderated web page (sedfitting.org), where
the community can access and change the text. The intention is to expand the
text and keep it up to date over the coming years.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics &
Space Scienc
Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment
This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and
W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with
the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and
the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto
the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions
f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV
and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw
> 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour,
are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017
+/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second
include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables,
revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio
Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS
The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at
the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS
detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4
fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to
Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks
corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new
structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is
also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes.
This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table,
corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter
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