Feasibility study for the Cryogenic Orbital Nitrogen Experiment (CONE)

An improved understanding of low gravity subcritical cryogenic fluid behavior is critical for the continued development of space based systems. Although early experimental programs provided some fundamental understanding of zero gravity cryogenic fluid behavior, more extensive flight data are required to design space based cryogenic liquid storage and transfer systems with confidence. As NASA's mission concepts evolve, the demand for optimized in-space cryogenic systems is increasing. Cryogenic Orbital Nitrogen Experiment (CONE) is an attached shuttle payload experiment designed to address major technological issues associated with on-orbit storage and supply of cryogenic liquids. During its 7 day mission, CONE will conduct experiments and technology demonstrations in active and passive pressure control, stratification and mixing, liquid delivery and expulsion efficiency, and pressurant bottle recharge. These experiments, conducted with liquid nitrogen as the test fluid, will substantially extend the existing low gravity fluid data base and will provide future system designers with vital performance data from an orbital environment

'An Apotheosis of Well-Being': Durkheim on austerity and double-dip recessions

This article is an attempt to contribute a view on the economic crisis from classical sociology, a voice often missing from the sociological response to the crisis. The work of Émile Durkheim provides a unique perspective here centred on morality and inequality produced in a historical context akin to our neoliberal times. It is argued there are four key points to take from Durkheim’s work. Firstly, that the initial credit crunch can be more fully understood with reference to the economic anomie which Durkheim sees as ‘chronic’ in a time of marketization. Secondly, that this creates an antagonistic relationship between a supposedly self-dependent rich and lazy poor. Thirdly, this conception of self-dependency and individual initiative makes any attempt to regulate the economy akin to sacrilege. Finally, the state is unwilling to intervene due to the emergence of ‘pseudo-democracies’. Therefore, Durkheim’s theory accounts for the initial crisis, austerity and double-dip recessions in a sociological framework. The article concludes by returning to the centrality of morality to the crisis for Durkheim and highlighting the omission of this in contemporary debates

Corrections to the universal behavior of the Coulomb-blockade peak splitting for quantum dots separated by a finite barrier

Building upon earlier work on the relation between the dimensionless interdot channel conductance g and the fractional Coulomb-blockade peak splitting f for two electrostatically equivalent dots, we calculate the leading correction that results from an interdot tunneling barrier that is not a delta-function but, rather, has a finite height V and a nonzero width xi and can be approximated as parabolic near its peak. We develop a new treatment of the problem for g much less than 1 that starts from the single-particle eigenstates for the full coupled-dot system. The finiteness of the barrier leads to a small upward shift of the f-versus-g curve at small values of g. The shift is a consequence of the fact that the tunneling matrix elements vary exponentially with the energies of the states connected. Therefore, when g is small, it can pay to tunnel to intermediate states with single-particle energies above the barrier height V. The correction to the zero-width behavior does not affect agreement with recent experimental results but may be important in future experiments.Comment: Title changed from ``Non-universal...'' to ``Corrections to the universal...'' No other changes. 10 pages, 1 RevTeX file with 2 postscript figures included using eps

Detection of Coulomb Charging around an Antidot in the Quantum Hall Regime

We have detected oscillations of the charge around a potential hill (antidot) in a two-dimensional electron gas as a function of a large magnetic field B. The field confines electrons around the antidot in closed orbits, the areas of which are quantised through the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Increasing B reduces each state's area, pushing electrons closer to the centre, until enough charge builds up for an electron to tunnel out. This is a new form of the Coulomb blockade seen in electrostatically confined dots. Addition and excitation spectra in DC bias confirm the Coulomb blockade of tunnelling.Comment: 4 pages, 4 Postscript figure

Existence of solutions for a higher order non-local equation appearing in crack dynamics

In this paper, we prove the existence of non-negative solutions for a non-local higher order degenerate parabolic equation arising in the modeling of hydraulic fractures. The equation is similar to the well-known thin film equation, but the Laplace operator is replaced by a Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator, corresponding to the square root of the Laplace operator on a bounded domain with Neumann boundary conditions (which can also be defined using the periodic Hilbert transform). In our study, we have to deal with the usual difficulty associated to higher order equations (e.g. lack of maximum principle). However, there are important differences with, for instance, the thin film equation: First, our equation is nonlocal; Also the natural energy estimate is not as good as in the case of the thin film equation, and does not yields, for instance, boundedness and continuity of the solutions (our case is critical in dimension $1$ in that respect)

Questioning policy, youth participation and lifestyle sports

Young people have been identified as a key target group for whom participation in sport and physical activity could have important benefits to health and wellbeing and consequently have been the focus of several government policies to increase participation in the UK. Lifestyle sports represent one such strategy for encouraging and sustaining new engagements in sport and physical activity in youth groups, however, there is at present a lack of understanding of the use of these activities within policy contexts. This paper presents findings from a government initiative which sought to increase participation in sport for young people through provision of facilities for mountain biking in a forest in south-east England. Findings from qualitative research with 40 young people who participated in mountain biking at the case study location highlight the importance of non-traditional sports as a means to experience the natural environments through forms of consumption which are healthy, active and appeal to their identities. In addition, however, the paper raises questions over the accessibility of schemes for some individuals and social groups, and the ability to incorporate sports which are inherently participant-led into state-managed schemes. Lifestyle sports such as mountain biking involve distinct forms of participation which present a challenge for policy-makers who seek to create and maintain sustainable communities of youth participants

Tunneling through a multigrain system: deducing the sample topology from the nonlinear conductance

We study a current transport through a system of a few grains connected with tunneling links. The exact solution is given for an arbitrarily connected double-grain system with a shared gate in the framework of the orthodox model. The obtained result is generalized for multigrain systems with strongly different tunneling resistances. We analyse the large-scale nonlinear conductance and demonstrate how the sample topology can be unambiguously deduced from the spectroscopy pattern (differential conductance versus gate-bias plot). We present experimental data for a multigrain sample and reconstruct the sample topology. A simple selection rule is formulated to distinguish samples with spectral patterns free from spurious disturbance caused by recharging of some grains nearby. As an example, we demonstrate experimental data with additional peaks in the spectroscopy pattern, which can not be attributed to coupling to additional grains. The described approach can be used to judge the sample topology when it is not guaranteed by fabrication and direct imaging is not possible.Comment: 13 pages (including 8 figures

Coherent Resonant Tunneling Through an Artificial Molecule

Coherent resonant tunneling through an artificial molecule of quantum dots in an inhomogeneous magnetic field is investigated using an extended Hubbard model. Both the multiterminal conductance of an array of quantum dots and the persistent current of a quantum dot molecule embedded in an Aharanov-Bohm ring are calculated. The conductance and persistent current are calculated analytically for the case of a double quantum dot and numerically for larger arrays using a multi-terminal Breit-Wigner type formula, which allows for the explicit inclusion of inelastic processes. Cotunneling corrections to the persistent current are also investigated, and it is shown that the sign of the persistent current on resonance may be used to determine the spin quantum numbers of the ground state and low-lying excited states of an artificial molecule. An inhomogeneous magnetic field is found to strongly suppress transport due to pinning of the spin-density-wave ground state of the system, and giant magnetoresistance is predicted to result from the ferromagnetic transition induced by a uniform external magnetic field.Comment: 23 pages, 12 figure

The Paradoxes of Democracy and the Rule of Law

The promise of modernization after the Second World War was that economic growth, equality, the rule of law and democracy would proceed together. In many ways, this has happened. Yet many of the promises of social progress developed after WWII have been undermined by internal tensions within the democratic project, as well as by social and economic trends. While stating the challenges that these trends have posed for democratic institutions and actors, we also look at the responses (both proposals and practices) that have emerged in order to address those challenges. In doing this, we note that the very conception of democracy as liberal democracy (based on delegation and majority voting) is under stress as neoliberalism has attacked those very intermediary institutions (parties, unions, voluntary associations) that had been at the basis of the development of the welfare state and democratic capitalism. We start by noting the growth in inequality, which means that formal democracy is shaped by uneven power resources as concentration of wealth provides advantages in the capacity to influence public decision making with mutual convertibility of economic and political resources. The spiral of inequality and corporate political power is reflected in a growing legitimacy crisis in old and new democracies. Liberalism, which promised the separation between the state and the market, has evolved into neoliberalism, , based on the domination of the corporation, exacerbated by privatization and de-regulation. This has raised private profit criteria about considerations of the broader public good and in many cases encouraged corruption. The ensuing inefficiency and lack of transparency foster institutional mistrust, with perverse effects. Challenges are also related to the fact that democracy has been mainly defined in a national mode, with the demos identified as the nation. Economic rescaling produced by global capitalism has however a produced both de-territorialization and re-territorialization, which requires a (yet unachieved) rethinking of the basis for democracy but also of welfare and its foundation in both identities and institutions. In the North and (with different characteristics) in the South of the globe, movement of capital and of people pose challenges of national pluralism and its constitutional recognition, questioning key concepts such as the definition of political community and popular sovereignty and the . relationship between human rights and citizenship. Citizenship is more appropriately considered as related not to fixed institutions but rather as ‘acts of citizenships’ requiring subjectivity and agency and more inclusive conceptions. The main actors in democratic development have been affected by these challenges. Political parties are an important element in democracy but they have become an interest in their own right. A crisis of representation has emerged from growing social detachment of political parties from social cleavages as well as of elected representatives from the citizens. This had most dramatic effects on the Left, when left-wing parties have supported neoliberal reforms. Relying on expertise for the development of progressive policies is not a solution given the non-accountable power of science as well as the increasing challenges of privatization of knowledge-making, opacity of knowledge production and persistence of fundamental class imbalances in access to knowledge. Participatory channels of access to institutions have been opened to ‘ordinary citizens’ but, within neoliberalism, they are often based on individualist conceptions and do not address fundamental issues of inequalities. While citizens often call for direct participation, existing experiments rarely empower the citizens. While the judiciary has been seen as a surrogate for democratic participation for marginalized minority groups, its capacity for rights enforcement is limited by the expansion (in particular at international level) of a lex mercatoria as well as the use of courts in order to protect economic freedom from democratic dynamics. The rule of law has also been subverted by unequal access to the law and by the influence of money while the judiciary also has its own particular interests and corporate lawyers assume a brokerage function in globalized markets. On the other hand, in the control of political dissent, the state, rather than being weakened from globalization, increases its reach and power. The ‘war on terror’ has been used to challenge the rule of law by states of emergency as well as authoritarian drifts with attempts at imposing a permanent ‘state of exception’. On the other hand, progressive social movements have addressed growing inequalities and democratic crises by developing alternative visions of democracy, stressing participation over delegation and deliberation over majoritarian decision-making. Participatory and deliberative conceptions have been prefigured as well as elaborated in recent waves of protests. The consolidation of oppositional actors, however, faces challenges in the fragmentation of the potential social bases, the need to build a new collective identity as well as to establish channels of access to power. This has resulted from, but also triggered, the reduction in citizens’ entitlements and the weakening of the social contract upon which social progress depends

Belligerent broadcasting, male anti-authoritarianism and anti-environmentalism: the case of Top Gear (BBC, 2002–2015)

This article considers the format and cultural politics of the hugely successful UK television program Top Gear (BBC 2002–2015). It analyzes how—through its presenting team—it constructed an informal address predicated around anti-authoritarian or contrarian banter and protest masculinity. Regular targets for Top Gear presenter’s protest—curtailed by broadcast guidelines in terms of gender and ethnicity—are deflected onto the “soft” targets of government legislation on environmental issues or various forms of regulation “red tape. Repeated references to speed cameras, central London congestion charges and “excessive” signage are all anti-authoritarian, libertarian discourses delivered through a comedic form of performance address. Thus, the BBC’s primary response to complaints made about this program was to defend the program’s political views as being part of the humor. The article draws on critical discourse analysis and conversation analysis to consider how the program licensed a particular form of engagement that helped it to deflect criticisms, and considers the limits to such discursive positioning. We conclude by examining the controversies that finally led, in 2015, to the removal of the main presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, and the ending of this version of the program through the departure of the team to an on-demand online television service