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Where's the harm? A social marketing approach to reframing 'problem' drinking cultures
Alcohol consumption is often linked to a broad range of social and health problems, yet alcohol also plays a fundamental role in social bonding between people. This paper considers the potential of social marketing to contribute to alcohol consumption reduction and reframe social norms that encourage 'problem' drinking. Based on qualitative research with a variety of Scottish drinkers, the paper emphasises how and why a better understanding of the culturally bound meanings of alcohol (e.g. social identity, self-concept) are of crucial importance to inform any social marketing approach to reframing excessive drinking
A tunable macroscopic quantum system based on two fractional vortices
We propose a tunable macroscopic quantum system based on two fractional
vortices. Our analysis shows that two coupled fractional vortices pinned at two
artificially created \kappa\ discontinuities of the Josephson phase in a long
Josephson junction can reach the quantum regime where coherent quantum
oscillations arise. For this purpose we map the dynamics of this system to that
of a single particle in a double-well potential. By tuning the \kappa\
discontinuities with injector currents we are able to control the parameters of
the effective double-well potential as well as to prepare a desired state of
the fractional vortex molecule. The values of the parameters derived from this
model suggest that an experimental realisation of this tunable macroscopic
quantum system is possible with today's technology.Comment: We updated our manuscript due to a change of the focus from qubit to
macroscopic quantum effect
Pattern formation during the evaporation of a colloidal nanoliter drop: a numerical and experimental study
An efficient way to precisely pattern particles on solid surfaces is to
dispense and evaporate colloidal drops, as for bioassays. The dried deposits
often exhibit complex structures exemplified by the coffee ring pattern, where
most particles have accumulated at the periphery of the deposit. In this work,
the formation of deposits during the drying of nanoliter colloidal drops on a
flat substrate is investigated numerically and experimentally. A finite-element
numerical model is developed that solves the Navier-Stokes, heat and mass
transport equations in a Lagrangian framework. The diffusion of vapor in the
atmosphere is solved numerically, providing an exact boundary condition for the
evaporative flux at the droplet-air interface. Laplace stresses and thermal
Marangoni stresses are accounted for. The particle concentration is tracked by
solving a continuum advection-diffusion equation. Wetting line motion and the
interaction of the free surface of the drop with the growing deposit are
modeled based on criteria on wetting angles. Numerical results for evaporation
times and flow field are in very good agreement with published experimental and
theoretical results. We also performed transient visualization experiments of
water and isopropanol drops loaded with polystyrene microsphere evaporating on
respectively glass and polydimethylsiloxane substrates. Measured evaporation
times, deposit shape and sizes, and flow fields are in very good agreement with
the numerical results. Different flow patterns caused by the competition of
Marangoni loops and radial flow are shown to determine the deposit shape to be
either a ring-like pattern or a homogeneous bump
Guidelines for a Space Propulsion Device Based on Heim's Quantum Theory
The text of the calligraphy on the front page means Cosmos, comprising the two chinese symbols for space and time. This calligraphy was done by Hozumi Gensho Roshi, Professor of Applied Sci-ences at Hanazono University, Kyoto, Japan in September 2003. The two red squares depict the sea
BEGINNING A NEW ERA OF DROUGHT MONITORING ACROSS NORTH AMERICA
Drought experts from the United States, Canada, and Mexico met at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, for a three-day workshop in late April 2002 to discuss the U.S. Drought Monitor program and to develop a plan for initiating a new program of drought monitoring for North America. Since its inception in 1999, the U.S. Drought Monitor (DM) has been extremely successful in assessing and communicating the state of drought in the United States on a weekly basis. This success, and the recognition that an ongoing comprehensive and integrated drought assessment was needed throughout all three countries, led to a commitment to build a continent-scale program on the model of the DM. The new drought monitoring program is part of a broader effort to improve the monitoring and assessment of climate extremes across the continent through a cooperative effort that was established in 2001 between the three countries.
Drought monitoring has become an integral part of drought planning, preparedness, and mitigation efforts at the national, regional, and local levels. Drought can develop in all regions of the continent, and its effects can be devastating. Since 1980, major droughts and heat waves within the United States alone have resulted in costs exceeding $100 billion (inflation-adjusted), easily becoming one of the most costly weather-related disasters on the continent during that time (Lott and Ross 2000). The presence of severe to extreme drought in approximately 30% of the United States at the beginning of June 2002, heavy agricultural losses, water restrictions, and numerous large wildfires throughout much of the western United States are reminders of the devastation that can result from prolonged precipitation deficits
Evaluational adjectives
This paper demarcates a theoretically interesting class of "evaluational adjectives." This class includes predicates expressing various kinds of normative and epistemic evaluation, such as predicates of personal taste, aesthetic adjectives, moral adjectives, and epistemic adjectives, among others. Evaluational adjectives are distinguished, empirically, in exhibiting phenomena such as discourse-oriented use, felicitous embedding under the attitude verb `find', and sorites-susceptibility in the comparative form. A unified degree-based semantics is developed: What distinguishes evaluational adjectives, semantically, is that they denote context-dependent measure functions ("evaluational perspectives")—context-dependent mappings to degrees of taste, beauty, probability, etc., depending on the adjective. This perspective-sensitivity characterizing the class of evaluational adjectives cannot be assimilated to vagueness, sensitivity to an experiencer argument, or multidimensionality; and it cannot be demarcated in terms of pretheoretic notions of subjectivity, common in the literature. I propose that certain diagnostics for "subjective" expressions be analyzed instead in terms of a precisely specified kind of discourse-oriented use of context-sensitive language. I close by applying the account to `find x PRED' ascriptions
Geometry and symmetries of multi-particle systems
The quantum dynamical evolution of atomic and molecular aggregates, from
their compact to their fragmented states, is parametrized by a single
collective radial parameter. Treating all the remaining particle coordinates in
d dimensions democratically, as a set of angles orthogonal to this collective
radius or by equivalent variables, bypasses all independent-particle
approximations. The invariance of the total kinetic energy under arbitrary
d-dimensional transformations which preserve the radial parameter gives rise to
novel quantum numbers and ladder operators interconnecting its eigenstates at
each value of the radial parameter.
We develop the systematics and technology of this approach, introducing the
relevant mathematics tutorially, by analogy to the familiar theory of angular
momentum in three dimensions. The angular basis functions so obtained are
treated in a manifestly coordinate-free manner, thus serving as a flexible
generalized basis for carrying out detailed studies of wavefunction evolution
in multi-particle systems.Comment: 37 pages, 2 eps figure
We police it ourselves': Group processes in the escalation and regulation of violence in the night-time economy
The attempt to regenerate city centres has led to the creation of a ‘night-time economy’ (NTE) based around alcohol-led entertain
ment. This has been accompanied by an increase of violence. Using insights from social identity research on collective action, we
argue that NTE violence can be viewed as a group-level phenomenon. Twenty focus groups were conducted with participants
who socialise together (total number of participants = 53). Participants discussed their experiences of the NTE, including violence.
A thematic analysis of the transcripts drew out four ways in which NTE violence is discussed in group terms: intergroup violence,
intragroup violence, intragroup intervention (escalation) and intragroup intervention (regulation). The analysis reveals that groups
can have both negative and positive roles in NTE violence, including regulating fellow group members away from violence. In
demonstrating the importance of intragroup regulation of violence in the NTE, we extend social identity research beyond the focus on intergroup crowd violence and reveal the practical potential of harnessing such processes in anti-violence intervention
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