9,456 research outputs found
âFor her own safety and the good of society at largeâ: Eugenics, Sterilization, and Anglo-American Transnationalism in Newfoundland, 1928-1934
From 1928 to 1934, about half of the two dozen women who were surgically sterilized while under the care of American doctors working with the International Grenfell Association (IGA) in St. Anthony, Newfoundland, were sterilized because they were deemed to be mentally unfit or substandard. These sterilizations coincided with rising concern about feebleminded persons and eugenic and legislative solutions across the United States, the British Empire, and beyond, but Newfoundland did not develop a eugenic movement nor did it enact laws to sanction surgical sterilization. What happened in St. Anthony was a result of the otherwise beneficial âAmericanizationâ of the IGA.Environ la moitiĂ© des deux douzaines de femmes qui subirent une stĂ©rilisation chirurgicale entre 1928 et 1934 alors quâelles Ă©taient soignĂ©es par des mĂ©decins amĂ©ricains qui travaillaient pour lâInternational Grenfell Association (IGA) Ă St. Anthony (Terre-Neuve) furent stĂ©rilisĂ©es parce quâelles Ă©taient considĂ©rĂ©es comme mentalement inaptes ou infĂ©rieures. Ces stĂ©rilisations coĂŻncidaient avec la montĂ©e des prĂ©occupations suscitĂ©es par les personnes dâesprit faible et des solutions eugĂ©niques et lĂ©gislatives adoptĂ©es aux Ătats-Unis, dans lâempire britannique et au-delĂ . Aucun mouvement eugĂ©nique ne vit cependant le jour Ă Terre-Neuve, qui nâadopta pas de lois pour approuver la stĂ©rilisation chirurgicale. Ce qui se produisit Ă St. Anthony Ă©tait le rĂ©sultat de lâamĂ©ricanisation de lâIGA, qui fut par ailleurs bĂ©nĂ©fique
Semiclassical quantization of the hydrogen atom in crossed electric and magnetic fields
The S-matrix theory formulation of closed-orbit theory recently proposed by
Granger and Greene is extended to atoms in crossed electric and magnetic
fields. We then present a semiclassical quantization of the hydrogen atom in
crossed fields, which succeeds in resolving individual lines in the spectrum,
but is restricted to the strongest lines of each n-manifold. By means of a
detailed semiclassical analysis of the quantum spectrum, we demonstrate that it
is the abundance of bifurcations of closed orbits that precludes the resolution
of finer details. They necessitate the inclusion of uniform semiclassical
approximations into the quantization process. Uniform approximations for the
generic types of closed-orbit bifurcation are derived, and a general method for
including them in a high-resolution semiclassical quantization is devised
Semiclassical ionization dynamics of the hydrogen molecular ion in an electric field of arbitrary orientation
Quasi-static models of barrier suppression have played a major role in our
understanding of the ionization of atoms and molecules in strong laser fields.
Despite their success, in the case of diatomic molecules these studies have so
far been restricted to fields aligned with the molecular axis. In this paper we
investigate the locations and heights of the potential barriers in the hydrogen
molecular ion in an electric field of arbitrary orientation. We find that the
barriers undergo bifurcations as the external field strength and direction are
varied. This phenomenon represents an unexpected level of intricacy even on
this most elementary level of the dynamics. We describe the dynamics of
tunnelling ionization through the barriers semiclassically and use our results
to shed new light on the success of a recent theory of molecular tunnelling
ionization as well as earlier theories that restrict the electric field to be
aligned with the molecular axis
Photoabsorption spectra of the diamagnetic hydrogen atom in the transition regime to chaos: Closed orbit theory with bifurcating orbits
With increasing energy the diamagnetic hydrogen atom undergoes a transition
from regular to chaotic classical dynamics, and the closed orbits pass through
various cascades of bifurcations. Closed orbit theory allows for the
semiclassical calculation of photoabsorption spectra of the diamagnetic
hydrogen atom. However, at the bifurcations the closed orbit contributions
diverge. The singularities can be removed with the help of uniform
semiclassical approximations which are constructed over a wide energy range for
different types of codimension one and two catastrophes. Using the uniform
approximations and applying the high-resolution harmonic inversion method we
calculate fully resolved semiclassical photoabsorption spectra, i.e.,
individual eigenenergies and transition matrix elements at laboratory magnetic
field strengths, and compare them with the results of exact quantum
calculations.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, submitted to J. Phys.
Novel use of stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) as a tool for isolation of oviposition site attractants for gravid Culex quinquefasciatus
Mosquitoes such as Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae) are important vectors of organisms that cause disease in humans. Research into the development of effective standardized odour baits for blood-fed females (oviposition attractants), to enable entomological monitoring of vector populations, is hampered by complex protocols for extraction of physiologically active volatile chemicals from natural breeding site water samples, which have produced inconsistent results. Air entrainment and solvent extraction are technically demanding methods and are impractical for use in resource poor environments where mosquito-borne disease is most prevalent. This study reports the first use of a simple, robust extraction technique, stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE), to extract behaviourally active small lipophilic molecules (SLMs) present in water samples collected from Cx. quinquefasciatus breeding sites in Tanzania. Extracts from a pit latrine and from a cess pool breeding site attracted more gravid Cx. quinquefasciatus in pair choice bioassays than control extracts, and coupled gas chromatography-electroantennography (GC-EAG) allowed tentative identification of 15 electrophysiologically active chemicals, including the known oviposition attractant, skatole (3-methylindole). Here, we have demonstrated, using simple pair choice bioassays in controlled laboratory conditions, that SBSE is effective for the extraction of behaviourally and electrophysiologically active semiochemicals from mosquito breeding site waters. Further research is required to confirm that SBSE is an appropriate technique for use in field surveys in the search for oviposition cues for Cx. quinquefasciatus
An integrated dynamic modeling framework for investigating the impact of climate change and variability on irrigated agriculture
Many hydrologic systems are likely to be affected by climate change. This is of particular importance given that agricultural production systems are inextricably linked to the hydrologic systems they rely upon. Although irrigation is often employed as a method to dampen the effect of short-term variation in climatic inputs to agricultural production, sources of irrigation water are not immune to long-term climatic change. Irrigation water use decisions are most often made at the farm level. It is at this scale that the economic and social impacts of climate change will be manifest. This paper presents an integrated stochastic dynamic modeling framework that can be used to investigate the viability of irrigated farms under alternative climate change scenarios. The framework is applied to a theoretical farm in the Murray Darling Basin, Australia, under four potential future climate scenarios. It is found that neglecting interannual variability in climatic inputs to agriculture consistently underestimates the reduction in farm viability caused by climate change and that multiyear sequences of climate states strongly influence estimates of farm profitability.Timothy S. C. Rowan, Holger R. Maier, Jeff Connor and Graeme C. Dand
ABLATION TEST RESULTS ON MATERIALS EVALUATED IN THE AVCO 10 MW ARC FACILITY FOR SANDIA LABORATORIES.
Jost Function for Singular Potentials
An exact method for direct calculation of the Jost function and Jost
solutions for a repulsive singular potential is presented. Within this method
the Schrodinger equation is replaced by an equivalent system of linear
first-order differential equations, which after complex rotation, can easily be
solved numerically. The Jost function can be obtained to any desired accuracy
for all complex momenta of physical interest, including the spectral points
corresponding to bound and resonant states. The method can also be used in the
complex angular-momentum plane to calculate the Regge trajectories. The
effectiveness of the method is demonstrated using the Lennard-Jones (12,6)
potential. The spectral properties of the realistic inter-atomic He4-He4
potentials HFDHE2 and HFD-B of Aziz and collaborators are also investigated.Comment: 12 pages, latex, 2 eps-figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.
The role of ethnicity in the attainment and experiences of graduates in distance education
In the UK, the attainment of White graduates (as measured by the class of honours that they have been awarded) tends to be higher than that of graduates from other ethnic groups. This is apparent, in particular, in graduates who have taken courses by distance learning with the Open University. Analysis of data from Open University graduates over three successive years yielded no evidence that the latter trend could be attributed to confounded demographic variables. A postal survey found little variation in perceptions of academic quality or reports of personal development among Open University graduates from different ethnic groups. Quantitative variations in the attainment of graduates from different ethnic groups are not necessarily reflected in qualitative variations in their experience of distance education
Numerical simulations of a non-commutative theory: the scalar model on the fuzzy sphere
We address a detailed non-perturbative numerical study of the scalar theory
on the fuzzy sphere. We use a novel algorithm which strongly reduces the
correlation problems in the matrix update process, and allows the investigation
of different regimes of the model in a precise and reliable way. We study the
modes associated to different momenta and the role they play in the ``striped
phase'', pointing out a consistent interpretation which is corroborated by our
data, and which sheds further light on the results obtained in some previous
works. Next, we test a quantitative, non-trivial theoretical prediction for
this model, which has been formulated in the literature: The existence of an
eigenvalue sector characterised by a precise probability density, and the
emergence of the phase transition associated with the opening of a gap around
the origin in the eigenvalue distribution. The theoretical predictions are
confirmed by our numerical results. Finally, we propose a possible method to
detect numerically the non-commutative anomaly predicted in a one-loop
perturbative analysis of the model, which is expected to induce a distortion of
the dispersion relation on the fuzzy sphere.Comment: 1+36 pages, 18 figures; v2: 1+55 pages, 38 figures: added the study
of the eigenvalue distribution, added figures, tables and references, typos
corrected; v3: 1+20 pages, 10 eps figures, new results, plots and references
added, technical details about the tests at small matrix size skipped,
version published in JHE
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