The study of Chinatown as an urban artifice and its impact on the Chinese community in London

Sociologists claim that the ethnic Chinese community in the United Kingdom cannot be spatially defined. The first reason is that the widely scattered Chinese catering businesses-still the main source of employment for incoming Chinese migrants - makes the Chinese community too dispersed to form residential enclaves. Secondly, the evasive nature of the ethnic Chinese population towards government assistance and strong sense of ethnic solidarity also makes them an "invisible community". The Confucian philosophy governing their way of life further reinforces patrilineal links oriented towards ancestral villages in China. Recent renewed interests in the future of London's Chinatown as the result of a recent development plan has prompted this report to investigate whether a spatial pattern of occupation by the Chinese community exists in Chinatown, or if it is simply an intelligent urban artifice exploited for touristic and commercial purposes. Unlike its historical East End predecessor which has never been exclusively Chinese, present day London Chinatown can be qualified as a "persistent enclave". Whilst it crucially accommodates co-ethnic businesses and facilities for the oriental population, it is not the sole centre for the Chinese community. At the outset, studies on the Chinese have been confounded by their lack of assimilation into host society, inconsistent methods of data representation from the population census and high levels of suspicion by the immigrant community when conducting fieldwork. By first understanding historical developments in London's two Chinatowns and concepts pertaining to Chinese ethnography, this helps substantiate the demographic data, changing land use and household occupation by the Chinese community in Limehouse around 1890 and Soho today. The global and local relationship for these two areas are also analysed syntactically through spatial maps derived from Booth's Map of Poverty of 1889 and a current axial map of London respectively. The spatially-oriented case study of Soho's Chinatown identifies through a public survey a collective mental representation of its neighbourhood area that differs from its administrative designation. Pedestrian movement studies suggest that there is a distinct spatial and temporal pattern of occupation amongst the ethnic Chinese which differs from non-Chinese tourists and locals which can be syntactically measured. The findings support the view that a complex social and spatial relationship exists between the two disparate groups that utilise Chinatown. Whilst its commercial success is crucial to maintaining Chinatown's public profile, it also allows it to continue to function as an important centre for the Chinese community

Brazil nut effect in a rectangular plate under horizontal vibration

An intruder to a group of identical small beads enclosed in a rectangular plate will gradually migrate to either the center or one side of the plate when the plate is subjected to a horizontal vibration. By considering probabilities for a bead to move into and off the space between the intruder and the near side of the plate, we predict that the size ratio and the mass ratio of the intruder to small bead have equal but opposite effects in determining the direction of migration. The prediction is confirmed by a molecular dynamics simulation

Horizontal segregation of mono-layer granules coordinated by vertical motion

We experimentally investigate the segregation of a binary mixture of spherical beads confined between two horizontal vertically vibrating plates. The two kinds of beads are of equal diameter and mass but have different restitution coefficients. Segregation occurs in particular ranges of vibration amplitude and frequency. We find that the collisions between beads at an angle to the horizontal plane induce an effective horizontal repulsive force. When one or both bead types bounce up and down in synchronization, the effective repulsive force between the two types of beads is likely to be larger than that found within a single bead type, resulting in the mixture segregating. Non-horizontal collisions also play a role in stabilizing the segregation state by transferring the horizontal kinetic energy back into vertical motion

Collective motion of inelastic particles between two oscillating walls

This study theoretically considers the motion of N identical inelastic particles between two oscillating walls. The particles' average energy increases abruptly at certain critical filling fractions, wherein the system changes into a solid-like phase with particles clustered in their compact form. Molecular dynamics simulations of the system show that the critical filling fraction is a decreasing function of vibration amplitude independent of vibration frequency, which is consistent with previous experimental results. This study considers the entire group of particles as a giant pseudo-particle with an effective size and an effective coefficient of restitution. The N-particles system is then analytically treated as a one-particle problem. The critical filling fraction's dependence on vibration amplitude can be explained as a necessary condition for a stable resonant solution. The fluctuation to the system's mean flow energy is also studied to show the relation between the granular temperature and the system phase

Energy and phase transition in a horizontally vibrating granular system

The study focuses on the average energy of a monolayer of granular particles confined in a rectangular container. The container is shaken sinusoidally in a horizontal plane. The motion of every particle is recorded by a CCD camera so that the kinetic energy of the system can be analyzed by tracking the trajectory of each particle. It is found that the average energy changes abruptly at a certain critical filling fraction while the configuration of the particles makes a transition from a disordered to a solid-like state. We determine the critical value of the filling fraction and the energy of the solid-like state using a resonant condition

Brazil nut effect in annular containers

This paper investigates the motion of particles between two co-axial cylinders which are subjected to a sinusoidal vertical vibration. We measure the rising time of a large intruder from the bottom of the container to the free surface of the bed particles and find that the rising time as a function of intruder density decreases to a minimum and then increases monotonically. The result is qualitatively opposite to the previous findings in experiments using cylindrical containers where a maximal instead of minimal rising time in the small-density regime was found. The experimental results suggest that the topology of the container plays an important role in the Brazil nut effect

Interventions to improve immigrant health. A scoping review.

Background: Disparities in health between immigrants and their host populations have been described across countries and continents. Hence, interventions for improving health targeting general populations are not necessarily effective for immigrants. Aims: To conduct a systematic search of the literature evaluating health interventions for immigrants; to map the characteristics of identified studies including range of interventions, immigrant populations and their host countries, clinical areas targeted and reported evaluations, challenges and limitations of the interventions identified. Following the results, to develop recommendations for research in the field. Methods: A scoping review approach was chosen to provide an overview of the type, extent and quantity of research available. Studies were included if they empirically evaluated health interventions targeting immigrants and/or their descendants, included a control group, and were published in English (PubMed and Embase from 1990 to 2015). Results: Most of the 83 studies included were conducted in the USA, encompassed few immigrant groups and used a randomized controlled trial (RCT) or cluster RCT design. Most interventions addressed chronic and non-communicable diseases and attendance at cancer screening services, used individual targeted approaches, targeted adult women and recruited participants from health centres. Outcome measures were often subjective, with the exception of interventions for cardiovascular risk and diabetes. Generally, authors claimed that interventions were beneficial, despite a number of reported limitations. Conclusions: Recommendations for enhancing interventions to improve immigrant health are provided to help researchers, funders and health care commissioners when deciding upon the scope, nature and design of future research in this area

Thermodynamics of doubly charged CGHS model and D1-D5-KK black holes of IIB supergravity

We study the doubly charged Callan-Giddings-Harvey-Strominger (CGHS) model, which has black hole solutions that were found to be U-dual to the D1-D5-KK black holes of the IIB supergravity. We derive the action of the model via a spontaneous compactification on S^3 of the IIB supergravity on S^1*T^4 and obtain the general static solutions including black holes corresponding to certain non-asymptotically flat black holes in the IIB supergravity. Thermodynamics of them is established by computing the entropy, temperature, chemical potentials, and mass in the two-dimensional setup, and the first law of thermodynamics is explicitly verified. The entropy is in precise agreement with that of the D1-D5-KK black holes, and the mass turns out to be consistent with the infinite Lorentz boost along the M theory circle that is a part of the aforementioned U-dual chain.Comment: 21 pages, Revte

Beauty is Attractive: Moduli Trapping at Enhanced Symmetry Points

We study quantum effects on moduli dynamics arising from the production of particles which are light at special points in moduli space. The resulting forces trap the moduli at these points, which often exhibit enhanced symmetry. Moduli trapping occurs in time-dependent quantum field theory, as well as in systems of moving D-branes, where it leads the branes to combine into stacks. Trapping also occurs in an expanding universe, though the range over which the moduli can roll is limited by Hubble friction. We observe that a scalar field trapped on a steep potential can induce a stage of acceleration of the universe, which we call trapped inflation. Moduli trapping ameliorates the cosmological moduli problem and may affect vacuum selection. In particular, rolling moduli are most powerfully attracted to the points with the largest number of light particles, which are often the points of greatest symmetry. Given suitable assumptions about the dynamics of the very early universe, this effect might help to explain why among the plethora of possible vacuum states of string theory, we appear to live in one with a large number of light particles and (spontaneously broken) symmetries. In other words, some of the surprising properties of our world might arise not through pure chance or miraculous cancellations, but through a natural selection mechanism during dynamical evolution.Comment: 50 pages, 4 figures; v2: added references and an appendix describing a related classical proces