Integrated street design in high-volume junctions: The case study of London’s Oxford Circus

While traditional street design relied upon segregating vehicles and pedestrians in urban areas to ensure smooth traffic flow, urban planners and traffic engineers are gradually moving away from it. Instead, under the more modern concept of integrated street design, more space and freedom of action is provided to pedestrians, the needs of whom were previously omitted. An example space to have undergone redevelopment to a more pedestrian-oriented design is London’s Oxford Circus junction. Comparing with the results of a study pre-redevelopment, the present study aims at identifying the shift in the perceptions of the pedestrians when using the space post-implementation of the new design at Oxford Circus, but also at drawing generic conclusions on the perceptions of the pedestrians towards such schemes. A questionnaire is developed and data is collected through on-street interviews with pedestrians at Oxford Circus. The results show that integrated street design offers improved way-finding, better perceived safety and more pleasant environments for pedestrians

The Solar Neighborhood XV: Discovery of New High Proper Motion Stars with mu >= 0.4"/yr between Declinations -47 degrees and 00 degrees

We report the discovery of 152 new high proper motion systems (mu >= 0.4"/yr) in the southern sky (Declination = -47 degrees to 00 degrees) brighter than UKST plate R_{59F} =16.5 via our SuperCOSMOS-RECONS (SCR) search. This paper complements Paper XII in The Solar Neighborhood series, which covered the region from Declination = -90 degrees to -47 degrees and discussed all 147 new systems from the southernmost phase of the search. Among the total of 299 systems from both papers, there are 148 (71 in Paper XII, 77 in this paper) new systems moving faster than 0.5"/yr that are additions to the classic ``LHS'' (Luyten Half Second) sample. These constitute an 8% increase in the sample of all stellar systems with mu >= 0.5"/yr in the southern sky. As in Paper XII, distance estimates are provided for the systems reported here based upon a combination of photographic plate magnitudes and 2MASS photometry, assuming all stars are on the main sequence. Two SCR systems from the portion of the sky included in this paper are anticipated to be within 10 pc, and an additional 23 are within 25 pc. In total, the results presented in Paper XII and here for this SCR sweep of the entire southern sky include five new systems within 10 pc and 38 more between 10 and 25 pc. The largest number of nearby systems have been found in the slowest proper motion bin, 0.6"/yr > mu >= 0.4"/yr, indicating that there may be a large population of low proper motion systems very near the Sun.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomical Journa

From spin to anyon notation: The XXZ Heisenberg model as a D3D_{3} (or su(2)4su(2)_{4}) anyon chain

We discuss a relationship between certain one-dimensional quantum spin chains and anyon chains. In particular we show how the XXZ Heisenberg chain is realised as a $D_{3}$ (alternately $su(2)_{4}$) anyon model. We find the difference between the models lie primarily in choice of boundary condition.Comment: 13 page

Universality of finite-size corrections to the number of critical percolation clusters

Monte-Carlo simulations on a variety of 2d percolating systems at criticality suggest that the excess number of clusters in finite systems over the bulk value of nc is a universal quantity, dependent upon the system shape but independent of the lattice and percolation type. Values of nc are found to high accuracy, and for bond percolation confirm the theoretical predictions of Temperley and Lieb, and Baxter, Temperley, and Ashley, which we have evaluated explicitly in terms of simple algebraic numbers. Predictions for the fluctuations are also verified for the first time.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figs., Latex, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Magnetized strangelets at finite temperature

The main properties of magnetized strangelets, namely, their energy per baryon, radius and electric charge, are studied. Temperature effects are also taken into account in order to study their stability compared to the 56Fe isotope and non-magnetized strangelets using the liquid drop model. Massive quarks are considered with the aim to have a more realistic description for strangelets in the astrophysical context and the environment of heavy ion colliders, playing also an important role in the thermodynamical quantities of the quark gas. It is concluded that the presence of a magnetic field tends to stabilize more the strangelets, even when temperature effects are taken into account. Magnetized strangelets in a paired superconductor phase (magnetized color flavor locked phase) are also discussed. It is shown that they are more stable than ordinary magnetized strangelets for typical gap values of the order of O(100) MeV.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, discussion extended, new references adde

Observing Spontaneous Strong Parity Violation in Heavy-Ion Collisions

We discuss the problem of observing spontaneous parity and CP violation in collision systems. We discuss and propose observables which may be used in heavy-ion collisions to observe such violations, as well as event-by-event methods to analyze the data. Finally, we discuss simple monte-carlo models of these CP violating effects which we have used to develop our techniques and from which we derive rough estimates of sensitivities to signals which may be seen at RHIC

Using a model of group psychotherapy to support social research on sensitive topics

This article describes the exploratory use of professional therapeutic support by social researchers working on a sensitive topic. Talking to recently bereaved parents about the financial implications of their child's death was expected to be demanding work, and the research design included access to an independent psychotherapeutic service. Using this kind of professional support is rare within the general social research community, and it is useful to reflect on the process. There are likely to be implications for collection and interpretation of data, research output and the role and experience of the therapist. Here, the primary focus is the potential impact on researcher well-being

Ethical issues in the use of in-depth interviews: literature review and discussion

This paper reports a literature review on the topic of ethical issues in in-depth interviews. The review returned three types of article: general discussion, issues in particular studies, and studies of interview-based research ethics. Whilst many of the issues discussed in these articles are generic to research ethics, such as confidentiality, they often had particular manifestations in this type of research. For example, privacy was a significant problem as interviews sometimes probe unexpected areas. For similar reasons, it is difficult to give full information of the nature of a particular interview at the outset, hence informed consent is problematic. Where a pair is interviewed (such as carer and cared-for) there are major difficulties in maintaining confidentiality and protecting privacy. The potential for interviews to harm participants emotionally is noted in some papers, although this is often set against potential therapeutic benefit. As well as these generic issues, there are some ethical issues fairly specific to in-depth interviews. The problem of dual role is noted in many papers. It can take many forms: an interviewer might be nurse and researcher, scientist and counsellor, or reporter and evangelist. There are other specific issues such as taking sides in an interview, and protecting vulnerable groups. Little specific study of the ethics of in-depth interviews has taken place. However, that which has shows some important findings. For example, one study shows participants are not averse to discussing painful issues provided they feel the study is worthwhile. Some papers make recommendations for researchers. One such is that they should consider using a model of continuous (or process) consent rather than viewing consent as occurring once, at signature, prior to the interview. However, there is a need for further study of this area, both philosophical and empirical

A Molecular Platinum Cluster Junction: A Single-Molecule Switch

We present a theoretical study of the electronic transport through single-molecule junctions incorporating a Pt6 metal cluster bound within an organic framework. We show that the insertion of this molecule between a pair of electrodes leads to a fully atomically engineered nano-metallic device with high conductance at the Fermi level and two sequential high on/off switching states. The origin of this property can be traced back to the existence of a HOMO which consists of two degenerate and asymmetric orbitals, lying close in energy to the Fermi level of the metallic leads. Their degeneracy is broken when the molecule is contacted to the leads, giving rise to two resonances which become pinned close to the Fermi level and display destructive interference.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Reprinted (adapted) with permission from J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013, 135 (6), 2052. Copyright 2013 American Chemical Societ