Does religion make a difference? : assessing the effects of Christian affiliation and practice on marital solidarity and divorce in Britain, 1985-2005

Marital breakdown rates were examined among 15,714 adults from the British Social Attitudes dataset for 1985-2005. Separation and divorce peaked at around 50 years of age, and increased significantly over the period of study. Ratios of separation or divorce were compared between respondents who had no religious affiliation and (a) Christian affiliates who attended church at least once a month, (b) Christian affiliates who attended church, but less than once a month, and (c) Christian affiliates who never attended church. The results showed that active Christians were 1.5 times less likely to suffer marital breakdown than non-affiliates, but there was no difference between affiliates who never attended church and those of no religion. Christians who attended infrequently were 1.3 times less likely to suffer marital breakdown compared to non-affiliates, suggesting that even infrequent attendance at church may have some significance for predicting the persistence of martial solidarity

Observation of a multimode plasma response and its relationship to density pumpout and edge-localized mode suppression

Density pumpout and edge-localized mode (ELM) suppression by applied n=2 magnetic fields in low-collisionality DIII-D plasmas are shown to be correlated with the magnitude of the plasma response driven on the high-field side (HFS) of the magnetic axis but not the low-field side (LFS) midplane. These distinct responses are a direct measurement of a multimodal magnetic plasma response, with each structure preferentially excited by a different n=2 applied spectrum and preferentially detected on the LFS or HFS. Ideal and resistive magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) calculations find that the LFS measurement is primarily sensitive to the excitation of stable kink modes, while the HFS measurement is primarily sensitive to resonant currents (whether fully shielding or partially penetrated). The resonant currents are themselves strongly modified by kink excitation, with the optimal applied field pitch for pumpout and ELM suppression significantly differing from equilibrium field alignment.This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, using the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility, under Awards No. DE-FC02-04ER54698, No. DE-AC02-09CH11466, No. DE-FG02-04ER54761, No. DE-AC05-06OR23100, No. DE-SC0001961, and No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. S. R. H. was supported by AINSE and ANSTO

Labour market experiences of young UK Bangladeshi men: Identity, inclusion and exclusion in inner-city London

Detailed qualitative data are used to explore the processes perpetuatinglabour market disadvantage among young UK-Bangladeshi men living in central London. Strong forces of inclusion within the Bangladeshi community are found to interact with forces of exclusion from ‘mainstream’ society to constrain aspirations and limit opportunities. Though diverse forms of young Bangladeshi masculinity are found, a common pattern is heavy dependency on intra-ethnic networks. Negative experiences of and isolation from ‘mainstream’ society further reinforce reliance on ‘our own people’. However, acute ambivalence towards belonging to a dense Bangladeshi community exists, exemplified in the widespread denigration of the restaurant trade. Many respondents express the desire to ‘break out’ and access new experiences. The findings support current policy emphasis on ‘connecting people to work’ but highlight the more fundamental need to connect people across ethnic boundaries. The paper urges researchers to ‘unpack’ ethnicity to consider carefully what ethnic identity implies in terms of access to resources and opportunities for different individuals in different contexts in order better to understand the diversity of labour market outcomes and the persistence of disadvantage

An upgrade of the magnetic diagnostic system of the DIII-D tokamak for non-axisymmetric measurements

The DIII-D tokamak magnetic diagnostic system [E. J. Strait, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 77, 023502 (2006)] has been upgraded to significantly expand the measurement of the plasma response to intrinsic and applied non-axisymmetric "3D" fields. The placement and design of 101 additional sensors allow resolution of toroidal mode numbers 1 ≤ n ≤ 3, and poloidal wavelengths smaller than MARS-F, IPEC, and VMEC magnetohydrodynamic model predictions. Small 3D perturbations, relative to the equilibrium field (10(-5) < δB/B0 < 10(-4)), require sub-millimeter fabrication and installation tolerances. This high precision is achieved using electrical discharge machined components, and alignment techniques employing rotary laser levels and a coordinate measurement machine. A 16-bit data acquisition system is used in conjunction with analog signal-processing to recover non-axisymmetric perturbations. Co-located radial and poloidal field measurements allow up to 14.2 cm spatial resolution of poloidal structures (plasma poloidal circumference is ~500 cm). The function of the new system is verified by comparing the rotating tearing mode structure, measured by 14 BP fluctuation sensors, with that measured by the upgraded B(R) saddle loop sensors after the mode locks to the vessel wall. The result is a nearly identical 2/1 helical eigenstructure in both cases.S. R. Haskey wishes to thank AINSE Ltd. for providing financial assistance

Pedestal bifurcation and resonant field penetration at the threshold of edge-localized mode suppression in the DIII-D tokamak

Rapid bifurcations in the plasma response to slowly varying n=2 magnetic fields are observed as the plasma transitions into and out of edge-localized mode (ELM) suppression. The rapid transition to ELM suppression is characterized by an increase in the toroidal rotation and a reduction in the electron pressure gradient at the top of the pedestal that reduces the perpendicular electron flow there to near zero. These events occur simultaneously with an increase in the inner-wall magnetic response. These observations are consistent with strong resonant field penetration of n=2 fields at the onset of ELM suppression, based on extended MHD simulations using measured plasma profiles. Spontaneous transitions into (and out of) ELM suppression with a static applied n=2 field indicate competing mechanisms of screening and penetration of resonant fields near threshold conditions. Magnetic measurements reveal evidence for the unlocking and rotation of tearinglike structures as the plasma transitions out of ELM suppression.This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Awards No. DE-FC02-04ER54698, No. DE-AC02-09CH11466, No. DE-FG02-07ER54917, No. DE-FG02-89ER53296, No. DE-FG02-08ER54999, No. DE-FG02-08ER54984, No. DE-AC05-00OR22725, No. DE-FG02-86ER53218, and No. DE-FG02- 92ER54139

Markovian Dynamics on Complex Reaction Networks

Complex networks, comprised of individual elements that interact with each other through reaction channels, are ubiquitous across many scientific and engineering disciplines. Examples include biochemical, pharmacokinetic, epidemiological, ecological, social, neural, and multi-agent networks. A common approach to modeling such networks is by a master equation that governs the dynamic evolution of the joint probability mass function of the underling population process and naturally leads to Markovian dynamics for such process. Due however to the nonlinear nature of most reactions, the computation and analysis of the resulting stochastic population dynamics is a difficult task. This review article provides a coherent and comprehensive coverage of recently developed approaches and methods to tackle this problem. After reviewing a general framework for modeling Markovian reaction networks and giving specific examples, the authors present numerical and computational techniques capable of evaluating or approximating the solution of the master equation, discuss a recently developed approach for studying the stationary behavior of Markovian reaction networks using a potential energy landscape perspective, and provide an introduction to the emerging theory of thermodynamic analysis of such networks. Three representative problems of opinion formation, transcription regulation, and neural network dynamics are used as illustrative examples.Comment: 52 pages, 11 figures, for freely available MATLAB software, see http://www.cis.jhu.edu/~goutsias/CSS%20lab/software.htm