Doing Epistemic (In)justice to Semenya

In August 2009, Caster Semenya won the women’s 800m event at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships in Berlin. This victory became a global news story not because Semenya was a newcomer to athletics who had outperformed an established field – but because of the fact that before the race she had been asked to undergo tests to determine whether or not she was a woman. This article uses a hermeneutics of suspicion to argue that the controversy surrounding Semenya was based on a set of assumptions that, although incorrect, drew on hegemonic understandings of sex and gender that dominate the discourse of sport, and were adopted by the media without question. As a consequence, Semenya became the victim of what Miranda Fricker has termed epistemic injustice – a condition that arises when individuals or experiences are marginalized as a result of the absence of concepts and language that would enable us to articulate reality differently

The Role of Final State Interactions in Quasielastic 56^{56}Fe(e,e′)(e,e') Reactions at large ∣q⃗∣|\vec q|

A relativistic finite nucleus calculation using a Dirac optical potential is used to investigate the importance of final state interactions [FSI] at large momentum transfers in inclusive quasielastic electronuclear reactions. The optical potential is derived from first-order multiple scattering theory and then is used to calculate the FSI in a nonspectral Green's function doorway approach. At intermediate momentum transfers excellent predictions of the quasielastic $^{56}$Fe$(e,e')$ experimental data for the longitudinal response function are obtained. In comparisons with recent measurements at $|{\vec q|}=1.14$~GeV/c the theoretical calculations of $R_L$ give good agreement for the quasielastic peak shape and amplitude, but place the position of the peak at an energy transfer of about $40$~MeV higher than the data.Comment: 13 pages typeset using revtex 3.0 with 6 postscript figures in accompanying uuencoded file; submitted to Phys. Rev.

Country characteristics and the incidence of capital income taxation on wages: an empirical assessment

This paper examines the incidence of corporate income taxes on wages using data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for 13 OECD countries. Within a wage-bargaining framework, our econometric analysis shows that a substantial share of the corporate tax burden is shifted from capital to labour. However, the magnitude of this shift is influenced importantly by country characteristics affecting the process of wage determination, such as the degree of capital mobility, a country's relative influence over the world price of output and trade unions’ strength

Probing degradation in complex engineering silicones by 1H multiple quantum NMR

Static {sup 1}H Multiple Quantum Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (MQ NMR) has recently been shown to provide detailed insight into the network structure of pristine silicon based polymer systems. The MQ NMR method characterizes the residual dipolar couplings of the silicon chains that depend on the average molecular weight between physical or chemical constraints. Recently, we have employed MQ NMR methods to characterize the changes in network structure in a series of complex silicone materials subject to numerous degradation mechanisms, including thermal, radiative, and desiccative. For thermal degradation, MQ NMR shows that a combination of crosslinking due to post-curing reactions as well as random chain scissioning reactions occurs. For radiative degradation, the primary mechanisms are via crosslinking both in the network and at the interface between the polymer and the inorganic filler. For samples stored in highly desiccating environments, MQ NMR shows that the average segmental dynamics are slowed due to increased interactions between the filler and the network polymer chains

Sensitivities of the Proton-Nucleus Elastical Scattering Observables of 6He and 8He at Intermediate Energies

We investigate the use of proton-nucleus elastic scattering experiments using secondary beams of 6He and 8He to determine the physical structure of these nuclei. The sensitivity of these experiments to nuclear structure is examined by using four different nuclear structure models with different spatial features using a full-folding optical potential model. The results show that elastic scattering at intermediate energies (<100 MeV per nucleon) is not a good constraint to be used to determine features of structure. Therefore researchers should look elsewhere to put constraints on the ground state wave function of the 6He and 8He nuclei.Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev.

Debris cover and surface melt at a temperate maritime alpine glacier: Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

Melt rates on glaciers are strongly influenced by the presence of supraglacial debris, which can either enhance or reduce ablation relative to bare ice. Most recently, Franz Josef Glacier has entered into a phase of strong retreat and downwasting, with the increasing emergence of debris on the surface in the ablation zone. Previously at Franz Josef Glacier, melt has only been measured on bare ice. During February 2012, a network of 11 ablation stakes was drilled into locations of varying supraglacial debris thickness on the lower glacier. Mean ablation rates over 9 days varied over the range 1.2–10.1 cm d−1, and were closely related to debris thickness. Concomitant observations of air temperature allowed the application of a degree-day approach to the calculation of melt rates, with air temperature providing a strong indicator of melt. Degree-day factors (d f) varied over the range 1.1–8.1 mm d−1 °C−1 (mean of 4.4 mm d−1 °C−1), comparable with rates reported in other studies. Mapping of the current debris cover revealed 0.7 km2 of the 4.9 km2 ablation zone surface was debris-covered, with thicknesses ranging 1–50 cm. Based on measured debris thicknesses and d f, ablation on debris-covered areas of the glacier is reduced by a total of 41% which equates to a 6% reduction in melt overall across the entire ablation zone. This study highlights the usefulness of a short-term survey to gather representative ablation data, consistent with numerous overseas ablation studies on debris-covered glaciers

Application of Multiple Scattering Theory to Lower Energy Elastic Nucleon-Nucleus Reactions

The optical model potentials for nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering at $65$~MeV are calculated for $^{12}$C, $^{16}$O, $^{28}$Si, $^{40}$Ca, $^{56}$Fe, $^{90}$Zr and $^{208}$Pb in first order multiple scattering theory, following the prescription of the spectator expansion, where the only inputs are the free NN potentials, the nuclear densities and the nuclear mean field as derived from microscopic nuclear structure calculations. These potentials are used to predict differential cross sections, analyzing powers and spin rotation functions for neutron and proton scattering at 65 MeV projectile energy and compared with available experimental data.Comment: 12 pages (Revtex 3.0), 7 fig