49,427 research outputs found
Promoting green issues and sustainability in UK higher education libraries
Climate change affects us all. Individually and collectively, we must reduce our carbon footprint to protect the future of the planet. But how can higher education libraries contribute? In April of 2007, a request was made to SCONUL libraries â via LIS-SCONUL â for information on library green initiatives that they were taking forward. The responses highlighted that there is growing interest in the issue and that sustainability issues are beginning to be taken very seriously. This is partially driven by the greater awareness of the need to reduce carbon emissions throughout society. Specifically within higher education, it is also a result of encouragement by funding bodies, such as the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) (see http://www.hefce. ac.uk/lgm/sustain/), through pressure from groups such as People and Planet and their âgreen leagueâ of higher education institutions (http:// peopleandplanet.org/gogreen/greenleague2007), and through rewards for excellence such as the Times Higher Education and Higher Education Academy Awards for an outstanding contribution by a higher education institution to sustainable development. Library staff are often active in wider institutional sustainability initiatives and can act as âchampionsâ for environmental issues and initiatives. Most of the libraries that responded to the request for information have aligned their green initiatives/ policies with those of their host organisation. Some libraries have participated in a wider institutional initiative to apply for the environmental management standard, ISO 14001. However, there are many specific ways that libraries can become more environmentally friendly and can make a difference
Magnetic studies of the lightly Ru doped perovskite rhodates Sr(Ru,Rh)O
The solid solution between the ferromagnetic metal SrRuO and the enhanced
paramagnetic metal SrRhO was recently reported [K. Yamaura et al., Phys.
Rev. B 69 (2004) 024410], and an unexpected feature was found in the specific
heat data at =0.9 of SrRuRhO. The feature was reinvestigated
further by characterizing additional samples with various Ru concentrations in
the vicinity of =0.9. Specific heat and magnetic susceptibility data
indicate that the feature reflects a peculiar magnetism of the doped
perovskite, which appears only in the very narrow composition range
0.850.95.Comment: Accepted for publication in a special issue of Physica B (the
proceedings of SCES04
Updated Analysis of the Mass of the H Dibaryon from Lattice QCD
Recent lattice QCD calculations from the HAL and NPLQCD Collaborations have
reported evidence for the existence of a bound state with strangeness -2 and
baryon number 2 at quark masses somewhat higher than the physical values. A
controlled chiral extrapolation of these lattice results to the physical point
suggested that the state, identified with the famed H dibaryon, is most likely
slightly unbound (by 13 14 MeV) with respect to the
threshold. We report the results of an updated analysis which finds the H
unbound by 26 11 MeV. Apart from the insight it would give us into how
QCD is realized in Nature, the H is of great interest because of its potential
implications for the equation of state of dense matter and studies of neutron
stars. It may also explain the enhancement above the
threshold already reported experimentally. It is clearly of great importance
that the latter be pursued in experiments at the new J-PARC facility.Comment: Invited presentation at APPC12 (12th Asia Pacific Physics
Conference), July 14-19, 2013, Chiba, Japa
Changes in the polar vortex: Effects on Antarctic total ozone observations at various stations
October mean total column ozone data from four Antarctic stations form the basis for understanding the evolution of the ozone hole since 1960. While these stations show similar emergence of the ozone hole from 1960 to 1980, the records are divergent in the last two decades. The effects of long-term changes in vortex shape and location are considered by gridding the measurements by equivalent latitude. A clear eastward shift of the mean position of the vortex in October with time is revealed, which changes the fraction of ozone measurements taken inside/outside the vortex for stations in the vortex collar region. After including only those measurements made inside the vortex, ozone behavior in the last two decades at the four stations is very similar. This suggests that dynamical influence must be considered when interpreting and intercomparing ozone measurements from Antarctic stations for detecting ozone recovery and ozone-related changes in Antarctic climate
NiO Exchange Bias Layers Grown by Direct Ion Beam Sputtering of a Nickel Oxide Target
A new process for fabricating NiO exchange bias layers has been developed.
The process involves the direct ion beam sputtering (IBS) of a NiO target. The
process is simpler than other deposition techniques for producing NiO buffer
layers, and facilitates the deposition of an entire spin-valve layered
structure using IBS without breaking vacuum. The layer thickness and
temperature dependence of the exchange field for NiO/NiFe films produced using
IBS are presented and are similar to those reported for similar films deposited
using reactive magnetron sputtering. The magnetic properties of highly textured
exchange couples deposited on single crystal substrates are compared to those
of simultaneously deposited polycrystalline films, and both show comparable
exchange fields. These results are compared to current theories describing the
exchange coupling at the NiO/NiFe interface.Comment: 9 pages, Latex 2.09, 3 postscript figures. You can also this
manuscript at http://www.wsrcc.com/alison/fixed-nio/manuscript.html To be
published in _IEEE Trans. Magn._, Nov. 199
Finite size scaling of the correlation length above the upper critical dimension
We show numerically that correlation length at the critical point in the
five-dimensional Ising model varies with system size L as L^{5/4}, rather than
proportional to L as in standard finite size scaling (FSS) theory. Our results
confirm a hypothesis that FSS expressions in dimension d greater than the upper
critical dimension of 4 should have L replaced by L^{d/4} for cubic samples
with periodic boundary conditions. We also investigate numerically the
logarithmic corrections to FSS in d = 4.Comment: 5 pages, 6 postscript figure
Velocity measurements for a solar active region fan loop from Hinode/EIS observations
The velocity pattern of a fan loop structure within a solar active region
over the temperature range 0.15-1.5 MK is derived using data from the EUV
Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) on board the Hinode satellite. The loop is aligned
towards the observer's line-of-sight and shows downflows (redshifts) of around
15 km/s up to a temperature of 0.8 MK, but for temperatures of 1.0 MK and above
the measured velocity shifts are consistent with no net flow. This velocity
result applies over a projected spatial distance of 9 Mm and demonstrates that
the cooler, redshifted plasma is physically disconnected from the hotter,
stationary plasma. A scenario in which the fan loops consist of at least two
groups of "strands" - one cooler and downflowing, the other hotter and
stationary -- is suggested. The cooler strands may represent a later
evolutionary stage of the hotter strands. A density diagnostic of Mg VII was
used to show that the electron density at around 0.8 MK falls from 3.2 x 10^9
cm^-3 at the loop base, to 5.0 x 10^8 cm^-3 at a projected height of 15 Mm. A
filling factor of 0.2 is found at temperatures close to the formation
temperature of Mg VII (0.8 MK), confirming that the cooler, downflowing plasma
occupies only a fraction of the apparent loop volume. The fan loop is rooted
within a so-called "outflow region" that displays low intensity and blueshifts
of up to 25 km/s in Fe XII 195.12 A (formed at 1.5 MK), in contrast to the
loop's redshifts of 15 km/s at 0.8 MK. A new technique for obtaining an
absolute wavelength calibration for the EIS instrument is presented and an
instrumental effect, possibly related to a distorted point spread function,
that affects velocity measurements is identified.Comment: 42 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Ap
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