A novel experimental method for the measurement of the caloric curves of clusters

A novel experimental scheme has been developed in order to measure the heat capacity of mass selected clusters. It is based on controlled sticking of atoms on clusters. This allows one to construct the caloric curve, thus determining the melting temperature and the latent heat of fusion in the case of first-order phase transitions. This method is model-free. It is transferable to many systems since the energy is brought to clusters through sticking collisions. As an example, it has been applied to Na\_90\^+ and Na\_140\^+. Our results are in good agreement with previous measurements

La ville négociée. Flux et reflux dans une mobilisation locale pour l'accès au logement à Playa del Carmen, Mexique

Housing issues are part of the daily routine for underprivileged social groups in Mexico. This phenomenon is widely analyzed in studies of urban areas and remains a reason for the mobilization of the poorer segments of urban populations. It also often serves as a means of structuring relationships (which can range from peaceful negotiation to violent confrontation) with local political authorities. This issue took on a particular intensity in the context of tourism growth, and the strong pressure this put on real estate, in the city of Playa del Carmen. At different stages of the city’s development, residents organized themselves to give collective weight to their demands for integration into the urban area and into society in general. Such mobilization has produced specific political configurations that involve organised groups of residents, local authorities and private sector initiatives, and are considered here as a starting point for analyzing the process of urban development

Two-step melting of Na41+

The heat capacity of the mass selected Na41+ cluster has been measured using a differential nanocalorimetry method. A two-peak structure appears in the heat capacity curve of Na41+, whereas Schmidt and co-workers [ M. Schmidt, J. Donges, Th. Hippler, and H. Haberland, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 103401 (2003) ] observed, within their experimental accuracy, a smooth caloric curve. They concluded from the absence of any structure that there is a second order melting transition in Na41+ with no particular feature such as premelting. The observed difference with the latter results is attributed to the better accuracy of our method owing to its differential character. The two structures in the heat capacity are ascribed to melting and premelting of Na41+. The peak at lower temperature is likely due to an anti-Mackay to Mackay solid-solid transition

Experimental Determination of Nucleation Scaling Law for Small Charged Particles

We investigated the nucleation process at the molecular level. Controlled sticking of individual atoms onto mass selected clusters over a wide mass range has been carried out for the first time. We measured the absolute unimolecular nucleation cross sections of cationic sodium clusters Na_{n}^{+} in the range n=25-200 at several collision energies. The widely used hard sphere approximation clearly fails for small sizes: not only should vapor-to-liquid nucleation theories be modified, but also, through the microreversibility principle, cluster decay rate statistical models

Northern Togo and the world economy

How global is the world economy? Does it also encompass the remote corners of the Third World where subsistence agriculture still predominates and where the first hard-surface roads have yet to be built? And if it does, when did these areas become incorporated into the world economy? Whereas by 1919 northernmost Togo had hardly any economic contacts with the outside world, the impact which the Great Depression had on it serves as evidence that only 10 years later this rural periphery had lost part of its former isolated, self-sufficient existence. Since then, capitalist penetration has made further inroads into the area. With most other Third-World ‘backwaters’ having experienced similar developments since the turn of the century, today's world economy does appear to be one globe-spanning, interdependent system

Rethinking democracy promotion

Despite the fact that democracy promotion is a major part of liberal foreign policies, the discipline of International Relations has not paid much systematic attention to it. Conversely, the study of democracy promotion is dominated by comparative politics and pays hardly any attention to the international system. This mutual neglect signifies a core weakness in the theory and practice of democracy promotion: its failure to comprehend the development of liberal democracy as an international process. This article argues that a thorough engagement with John Locke explains the failures of democracy promotion policies and provides a more comprehensive understanding of the development of liberal democrac

The internal brakes on violent escalation:a typology

Most groups do less violence than they are capable of. Yet while there is now an extensive literature on the escalation of or radicalisation towards violence, particularly by ‘extremist’ groups or actors, and while processes of de-escalation or de-radicalisation have also received significant attention, processes of non- or limited escalation have largely gone below the analytical radar. This article contributes to current efforts to address this limitation in our understanding of the dynamics of political aggression by developing a descriptive typology of the ‘internal brakes’ on violent escalation: the mechanisms through which members of the groups themselves contribute to establish and maintain limits upon their own violence. We identify five underlying logics on which the internal brakes operate: strategic, moral, ego maintenance, outgroup definition, and organisational. The typology is developed and tested using three very different case studies: the transnational and UK jihadi scene from 2005 to 2016; the British extreme right during the 1990s, and the animal liberation movement in the UK from the mid-1970s until the early 2000s

Rassenschande, genocide and the reproductive Jewish body: examining the use of rape and sexualized violence against Jewish women during the Holocaust

Rape and sexual violence against Jewish women is a relatively unexplored area of investigation. This article adds to the scant literature on this topic. It asks: how and why did women's reproductive bodies (gender), combined with their status as Jews (race), make them particularly vulnerable during the Holocaust? The law against Rassenschande (racial defilement) prohibited sexual relations between Aryans and non-Aryans. Yet, Jewish women were raped by German men. Providing a more nuanced account than is provided by the dehumanization thesis, this article argues that women were targeted precisely because of their Jewishness and their reproductive capabilities. In addition, this piece proposes that the genocidal attack on women's bodies in the form of rape (subsequently leading to the murder of impregnated women) and sexualized violence (forced abortions and forced sterilizations) must be interpreted as an attack on an essentialized group: woman-as-Jew