Mechanisms of Spontaneous Current Generation in an Inhomogeneous d-Wave Superconductor

A boundary between two d-wave superconductors or an s-wave and a d-wave superconductor generally breaks time-reversal symmetry and can generate spontaneous currents due to proximity effect. On the other hand, surfaces and interfaces in d-wave superconductors can produce localized current-carrying states by supporting the T-breaking combination of dominant and subdominant order parameters. We investigate spontaneous currents in the presence of both mechanisms and show that at low temperature, counter-intuitively, the subdominant coupling decreases the amplitude of the spontaneous current due to proximity effect. Superscreening of spontaneous currents is demonstrated to be present in any d-d (but not s-d) junction and surface with d+id' order parameter symmetry. We show that this supercreening is the result of contributions from the local magnetic moment of the condensate to the spontaneous current.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, RevTe

Re-conceptualising Approaches to Meeting the Health Needs of Homeless People

The experience of homelessness not only affects physical health, but can also constrain access to required health care. In a number of European countries, national strategies to tackle homelessness have sought to deliver integrated solutions across housing, health and other social policy areas. This article examines approaches to meeting the health care needs of homeless people in relation to such strategies, drawing upon recent research in Norway and Scotland. The article presents a comparative analysis of approaches to service provision in relation to welfare models and the concepts of universal and specialist provision. The analysis suggests a cross-national shift in the conceptualisation of appropriate responses to the health care needs of those who experience homelessness. The provision of some specialist health services, while reflecting a selective model of welfare, need not be solely interpreted as conflicting with a more universal model of ensuring access to mainstream services. Rather, the challenge is to recognise the need for a process approach which supports an effective transition from the (sometimes necessary) use of specialist services for this group, towards (the ideal of) full integration into mainstream health care

Chinese Singaporean attitudes towards poverty and inequality: A comparative analysis

10.1111/j.1468-2397.2011.00785.xInternational Journal of Social Welfare212149-15

Working time flexibility components and working time regimes in Europe: using company-level data across 21 countries

Working time ?exibility comprises a wide variety of arrangements, from part-time, overtime, to long-term leaves. Theoretical approaches to grouping these arrangements have been developed, but empirical underpinnings are rare. This article investigates the bundles that can be found for various ?exible working time arrangements, using the Establishment Survey on Working Time and Work–Life Balance, 2004/2005, covering 21 EU member states and 13 industries. The results from the factor analyses con?rmed that working time arrangements can be grouped into two bundles, one for the employee-centred arrangements and second for the employer-centred arrangements, and that these two bundles are separate dimensions.Wealso tested the stability of the factor analysisoutcome, showing that although we ?nd some deviations from the pan-Europe and pan-industry outcome, the naming of the components as ?exibility for employees and ?exibility for employers can be considered rather stable. Lastly, we ?nd three country clusters for the 21 European countries using the bundle approach. The ?rst group includes the Northern European countries along side Poland and Czech Republic, the second group the continental European countries with UK and Ireland, and lastly, the southern European countries with Hungary and Slovenia

Neoliberal universities, patriarchies, masculinities, and myself: transnational personal reflections on and from the global North

This article reflects on working in eight universities in Finland, Sweden, and the UK, along with many transnational research projects. These are analysed within the framework of what might be called neoliberal universities, neoliberal trans(national)patriarchies, and neoliberal masculinities. Importantly, these are reflections from the global North, being transnationally located there, rather than glossed as ‘global’ or simply assumed as nationally contextualised. This discussion is located within the burgeoning literature on neoliberalism, and then proceeds to examine, first, experiences in the UK, before those in Finland and Sweden. The final section focuses on the transnationalisation of these neoliberal processes in academia – for example, through transnational research development, projectisation of research, and language use, performance and performativity. In such ways multiple connections are drawn between the greater organisational ‘autonomy’ of universities, contradictions of transnationalisations of academia, and the construction of ‘autonomous’ individual(ist) academics

Social and cultural origins of motivations to volunteer a comparison of university students in six countries

Although participation in volunteering and motivations to volunteer (MTV) have received substantial attention on the national level, particularly in the US, few studies have compared and explained these issues across cultural and political contexts. This study compares how two theoretical perspectives, social origins theory and signalling theory, explain variations in MTV across different countries. The study analyses responses from a sample of 5794 students from six countries representing distinct institutional contexts. The findings provide strong support for signalling theory but less so for social origins theory. The article concludes that volunteering is a personal decision and thus is influenced more at the individual level but is also impacted to some degree by macro-level societal forces

Less time to study, less well prepared for work, yet satisfied with higher education: A UK perspective on links between higher education and the labour market

This paper explores graduates’ views on the relationship between higher education and employment. It draws on a major European study involving graduates five years after graduation and highlights similarities and differences between UK graduates’ experiences and their European counterparts. Specifically we address questions raised in the study about subjects studied and their relevance to entry into the labour market, if the academic level obtained was appropriate, whether graduates, with hindsight of five years, would choose the same subjects or the same institution again, and if they were satisfied with their current job. Such specific questions relate to broader perspectives such as the perceived value of higher education study in relation to initial employment and future life histories. These have to be seen in the context of cultural differences in higher education systems at the time of the research and, perhaps increasing convergences in light of the Bologna agreement

Nonprofits and business:toward a subfield of nonprofit studies

Although the field of nonprofit studies now encompasses a substantial body of literature on the relationship between governmental and nonprofit organizations, the relationship between the business and nonprofit sectors has been less addressed by specialist nonprofit scholars. This Research Note aims to encourage further studies by nonprofit scholars of the business-nonprofit sector relationship. It looks at descriptive evidence to date, proposes a tentative resource-based framework for understanding how nonprofits and business relate to each other in practice and suggests some initial directions for developing a subfield within nonprofit studies

Skills for sustainable development: transforming vocational education and training beyond 2015

There have been recent calls to transform VET and to transform development. This double call leads us to ask: how can skills development best support development that is sustainable for individuals, communities and the planet, whilst promoting social justice and poverty reduction? In considering this question we critique the idea of green skills for the green economy as being inadequate for achieving a transformed and transformative VET that shifts the target from economic growth to the well-being of individuals, and that enables vocational education to play a role in challenging and transforming society and work. Rather, we argue that we must see human development and sustainable development as inseparable, and plan and evaluate VET for its contribution to these. Such an approach must be grounded in a view of work, and hence skills for work, that is decent, life-enhancing, solidaristic, environmentally-sensitive and intergenerationally-aware. It must confront the reality that much current VET is complicit in preparing people for work that lacks some or all of these characteristics. It must be concerned with poverty, inequality and injustice and contribute to their eradication. It must be supportive of individuals’ agency, whilst also reflecting a careful reading of the structures that too often constrain them. In doing all this it must minimise the costs and risks of any transformation for the poor and seek to lock them into better individual and collective lives, not out of them. Finally, it must transform skills, work and the world in ways that are truly sustainable of the people of today but also those who are to inhabit the earth tomorrow

Employment relations and dismissal regulations: does employment legislation protect the health of workers?

Sociologists have long acknowledged that being in a precarious labour market position, whether employed or unemployed, can harm peoples' health. However, scholars have yet to fully investigate the possible contextual, institutional determinants of this relationship. Two institutions that were overlooked in previous empirical studies are the regulations that set minimum compensation for dismissal, severance payments, and entitlements to a period of notice before dismissal, notice periods. These institutions may be important for workers' health as they influence the degree of insecurity that workers are exposed to. Here, we test this hypothesis by examining whether longer notice periods and greater severance payments protect the health of labour market participants, both employed and unemployed. We constructed two cohorts of panel data before and during the European recession using data from 22 countries in the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (person years = 338,000). We find more generous severance payments significantly reduce the probability that labour market participants, especially the unemployed, will experience declines in self-reported health, with a slightly weaker relationship for longer notice periods