Microfabrication of Laser-Driven Accelerator Structures

We discuss the potential for using microfabrication techniques for laser-driven accelerator construction. We introduce microfabrication processes in general, and then describe our investigation of a particular trial process. We conclude by considering the issues microfabrication raises for possible future structures.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; Submitted to Tenth Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop (AAC 2002), June 23--28, 2002, Mandalay Beach, California (AIP Conference Proceedings

New Product Development Opportunities for Irish Companies in the British Cheese Market

End of project reportThe primary objective of this research was to identify innovative cheese concepts appropriate for UK consumers and suitable for Irish industry to manufacture. It also aimed to identify personal, situational and market factors that influence consumers when purchasing cheese. This research study used existing market literature, in-depth interviews and consumer focus groups.Dairy Levy Fun

We Walk Among You:Trans Identity Politics Goes to the Movies

Recent legal and social acknowledgement of (some) trans citizenship claims demonstrates the continuing evolution of trans politics and identity and the relationship between socio-political identities and popular culture. This article examines current debates over trans citizenship and identity and argues that certain kinds of identity and citizenship claims have cultural currency in contemporary representations of sex/gender. In order to address these issues, this article highlights key disputes and tensions in contemporary debates about transgender identity, citizenship, and claims to legal rights by examining the ways in which sex/gender identity is portrayed in three films—Cabaret, Transamerica, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Each film demonstrates various ways of interpreting and reworking the constraints of heteronormative binary notions of sex/gender, and these struggles over meaning are also reflected in the ways in which different articulations of trans identity and citizenship claims have been legally and culturally recognized. The article explores the ways in which particular accounts of trans identity are given primacy within law and how film can help us to reflect upon questions about which sexed/gendered people get to count as legal citizens. The article concludes by reminding us that despite discourses of recognition, it is important to remember the exclusionary, as well as the inclusionary, tendencies of law. </jats:p

Epistemic Sentimentalism and Epistemic Reason-Responsiveness

Epistemic Sentimentalism is the view that emotional experiences such as fear and guilt are a source of immediate justification for evaluative beliefs. For example, guilt can sometimes immediately justify a subject’s belief that they have done something wrong. In this paper I focus on a family of objections to Epistemic Sentimentalism that all take as a premise the claim that emotions possess a normative property that is apparently antithetical to it: epistemic reason-responsiveness, i.e., emotions have evidential bases and justifications can be demanded of them. I respond to these objections whilst granting that emotions are reason-responsive. This is not only dialectically significant vis-à-vis the prospects for Epistemic Sentimentalism, but also supports a broader claim about the compatibility of a mental item’s being reason-responsive and its being a generative source of epistemic justification

Statistical Models with Uncertain Error Parameters

In a statistical analysis in Particle Physics, nuisance parameters can be introduced to take into account various types of systematic uncertainties. The best estimate of such a parameter is often modeled as a Gaussian distributed variable with a given standard deviation (the corresponding "systematic error"). Although the assigned systematic errors are usually treated as constants, in general they are themselves uncertain. A type of model is presented where the uncertainty in the assigned systematic errors is taken into account. Estimates of the systematic variances are modeled as gamma distributed random variables. The resulting confidence intervals show interesting and useful properties. For example, when averaging measurements to estimate their mean, the size of the confidence interval increases for decreasing goodness-of-fit, and averages have reduced sensitivity to outliers. The basic properties of the model are presented and several examples relevant for Particle Physics are explored.Comment: 26 pages, 27 figure