1,155 research outputs found
“I Wouldn’t Want to Be a Gender Expert:” Gender Experts in Peace Mediation
Peace mediation is a professional practice that is increasingly reliant on thematic technical experts, including gender experts. The strategy of including gender expertise in peace mediation reflects the Women, Peace and Security agenda and the call to include dedicated gender expertise in all peacemaking efforts. Based on interviews with peace mediation practitioners, the article analyzes the role of gender experts in peace mediation. We argue that there is a tension between the art of mediation and the art of gender expertise that reflects the gendered power dynamics of peace mediation. We conclude that the strategy of appointing gender experts to peace mediation teams will not “dismantle the master’s house.” However, we acknowledge that without a gender expert very little will be accomplished on this issue. For peace mediation to address the gendered foundations of conflict we argue for the development of an alternate feminist peace mediation practice
Experimental demonstration of painting arbitrary and dynamic potentials for Bose-Einstein condensates
There is a pressing need for robust and straightforward methods to create
potentials for trapping Bose-Einstein condensates which are simultaneously
dynamic, fully arbitrary, and sufficiently stable to not heat the ultracold
gas. We show here how to accomplish these goals, using a rapidly-moving laser
beam that "paints" a time-averaged optical dipole potential in which we create
BECs in a variety of geometries, including toroids, ring lattices, and square
lattices. Matter wave interference patterns confirm that the trapped gas is a
condensate. As a simple illustration of dynamics, we show that the technique
can transform a toroidal condensate into a ring lattice and back into a toroid.
The technique is general and should work with any sufficiently polarizable
low-energy particles.Comment: Minor text changes and three references added. This is the final
version published in New Journal of Physic
Quasi-2D Confinement of a BEC in a Combined Optical and Magnetic Potential
We have added an optical potential to a conventional Time-averaged Orbiting
Potential (TOP) trap to create a highly anisotropic hybrid trap for ultracold
atoms. Axial confinement is provided by the optical potential; the maximum
frequency currently obtainable in this direction is 2.2 kHz for rubidium. The
radial confinement is independently controlled by the magnetic trap and can be
a factor of 700 times smaller than in the axial direction. This large
anisotropy is more than sufficient to confine condensates with ~10^5 atoms in a
Quasi-2D (Q2D) regime, and we have verified this by measuring a change in the
free expansion of the condensate; our results agree with a variational model.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figur
Orion\u27s Bar: Physical Conditions Across the Definitive H\u3csup\u3e+\u3c/sup\u3e/H\u3csup\u3e0\u3c/sup\u3e/H\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e Interface
Previous work has shown the Orion Bar to be an interface between ionized and molecular gas, viewed roughly edge-on, which is excited by the light from the Trapezium cluster. Much of the emission from any star-forming region will originate from such interfaces, so the Bar serves as a foundation test of any emission model. Here we combine X-ray, optical, infrared (IR), and radio data sets to derive emission spectra along the transition from H+ to H0 to H2 regions. We then reproduce the spectra of these layers with a simulation that simultaneously accounts for the detailed microphysics of the gas, the grains, and molecules, especially H2 and CO. The magnetic field, observed to be the dominant pressure in another region of the Orion Nebula, is treated as a free parameter, along with the density of cosmic rays. Our model successfully accounts for the optical, IR, and radio observations across the Bar by including a significant magnetic pressure and also heating by an excess density of cosmic rays, which we suggest is due to cosmic rays being trapped in the compressed magnetic field. In the Orion Bar, as we had previously found in M17, momentum carried by radiation and winds from the newly formed stars pushes back and compresses the surrounding gas. There is a rough balance between outward momentum in starlight and the total pressure in atomic and molecular gas surrounding the H+ region. If the gas starts out with a weak magnetic field, the starlight from a newly formed cluster will push back the gas and compress the gas, magnetic field, and cosmic rays until magnetic pressure becomes an important factor
On the Hydrodynamic Interaction of Shock Waves with Interstellar Clouds. II. The Effect of Smooth Cloud Boundaries on Cloud Destruction and Cloud Turbulence
The effect of smooth cloud boundaries on the interaction of steady planar
shock waves with interstellar clouds is studied using a high-resolution local
AMR technique with a second-order accurate axisymmetric Godunov hydrodynamic
scheme. A 3D calculation is also done to confirm the results of the 2D ones. We
consider an initially spherical cloud whose density distribution is flat near
the cloud center and has a power-law profile in the cloud envelope. When an
incident shock is transmitted into a smooth cloud, velocity gradients in the
cloud envelope steepen the smooth density profile at the upstream side,
resulting in a sharp density jump having an arc-like shape. Such a ``slip
surface'' forms immediately when a shock strikes a cloud with a sharp boundary.
For smoother boundaries, the formation of slip surface and therefore the onset
of hydrodynamic instabilities are delayed. Since the slip surface is subject to
the Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, the shocked cloud is
eventually destroyed in cloud crushing times. After complete cloud
destruction, small blobs formed by fragmentation due to hydrodynamic
instabilities have significant velocity dispersions of the order of 0.1 ,
where is the shock velocity in the ambient medium. This suggests that
turbulent motions generated by shock-cloud interaction are directly associated
with cloud destruction. The interaction of a shock with a cold HI cloud should
lead to the production of a spray of small HI shreds, which could be related to
the small cold clouds recently observed by Stanimirovic & Heiles (2005). The
linewidth-size relation obtained from our 3D simulation is found to be
time-dependent. A possibility for gravitational instability triggered by shock
compression is also discussed.Comment: 62 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Ap
Nonlinear Aeroelastic Framework Based on Vortex-Lattice Method and Corotational Shell Finite Element
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97077/1/AIAA2012-1976.pd
3-D Photoionization Structure and Distances of Planetary Nebulae II. Menzel 1
We present the results of a spatio-kinematic study of the planetary nebula
Menzel 1 using spectro-photometric mapping and a 3-D photoionization code. We
create several 2-D emission line images from our long-slit spectra, and use
these to derive the line fluxes for 15 lines, the Halpha/Hbeta extinction map,
and the [SII] line ratio density map of the nebula. We use our photoionization
code constrained by these data to derive the three-dimensional nebular
structure and ionizing star parameters of Menzel 1 by simultaneously fitting
the integrated line intensities, the density map, and the observed morphologies
in several lines, as well as the velocity structure. Using theoretical
evolutionary tracks of intermediate and low mass stars, we derive a mass for
the central star of 0.63+-0.05 Msolar. We also derive a distance of 1050+_150
pc to Menzel 1.Comment: To be published in ApJ of 10th February 2005. 12 figure
Evaluation of Rodent Spaceflight in the NASA Animal Enclosure Module for an Extended Operational Period (up to 35 days)
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Animal Enclosure Module (AEM) was developed as a self-contained rodent habitat for shuttle flight missions that provides inhabitants with living space, food, water, ventilation, and lighting for shuttle flight missions, and this study reports whether, after minimal hardware modification, the AEM could support an extended term up to 35 days for Sprague-Dawley rats and C57BL/6 female mice for use on the International Space Station. Success was evaluated based on comparison of AEM housed animals to that of vivarium housed and to normal biological ranges through various measures of animal health and well-being, including animal health evaluations, animal growth and body masses, organ masses, rodent food bar consumption, water consumption, and analysis of blood contents. The results of this study confirmed that the AEMs could support 12 adult female C57BL/6 mice for up to 35 days with self-contained RFB and water, and the AEMs could also support 5 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats for 35 days with external replenishment of diet and water. This study has demonstrated the capability and flexibility of the AEM to operate for up to 35 days with minor hardware modification. Therefore, with modifications, it is possible to utilize this hardware on the International Space Station or other operational platforms to extend the space life science research use of mice and rats
Optimization of plasma mirror reflectivity and optical quality using double laser pulses
We measure a record 962.5 % specularly reflected energy fraction from an interaction with a plasma mirror surface preionised by a controlled prepulse and find that the optical quality is dependent on the inter pulse time delay. Simulations show that the main pulse reflected energy is a strong function of plasma density scale length, which increases with the time delay and reaches a peak reflectivity for a scale length of 0.3 m, which is achieved here for a pulse separation time of 3 ps. It is found that the incident laser quasi near field intensity distribution leads to nonuniformities in this plasma expansion and consequent critical surface position distribution. The plasma mirror optical quality is found to be governed by the resultant perturbations in the critical surface position, which become larger with inter pulse time delay
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