Cingulum Militare : Studien zum römischen Soldatengürtel des 1. bis 3. Jh. n. Chr.

The Roman military belt was a "marker" piece of equipment of the Roman soldier, distinguishing him from civilians when he was not wearing arms and armour. This is corroborated both by ancient literature and the frequency and accuracy of the depictions of the military belt on the gravestones of the soldiers. The immense ideological value invested in the belt originated in its function as sword belt, but then developed independently from it. This comprehensive study of the Roman military belt combines the written sources with the pictorial representations of belts and the archaeological finds of the metal mounts, buckles and hangers of the belt. In addition to discussing typological features and analysing the distribution and dating of the different types, questions on the social significance of this distinct piece of equipment are discussed. The book aims to give as broad a picture as possible of the Roman military belt; from its origins and development to its visual, acoustic and physical characteristics and from its ideological value to its influence on the everyday posture of the Roman soldier.Archaeology of Europ

The potential impact of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) on fisheries

The commercial development of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) operations will involve some environmental perturbations for which there is no precedent experience. The pumping of very large volumes of warm surface water and cold deep water and its subsequent discharge will result in the impingement, entrainment, and redistribution of biota. Additional stresses to biota will be caused by biocide usage and temperature depressions. However, the artificial upwelling of nutrients associated with the pumping of cold deep water, and the artificial reef created by an OTEC plant may have positive effects on the local environment. Although more detailed information is needed to assess the net effect of an OTEC operation on fisheries, certain assumptions and calculations are made supporting the conclusion that the potential risk to fisheries is not significant enough to deter the early development of IDEe. It will be necessary to monitor a commercial-scale plant in order to remove many of the remaining uncertainties. (PDF file contains 39 pages.

Shot noise in superconducting junctions with weak link formed by Anderson impurity

A theory is developed to study shot noise in superconducting (SAS) and hybrid (SAN) junctions with singly occupied Anderson impurity (A) as a weak link. The zero-frequency DC component of the shot noise spectral density is calculated at zero temperature as a function of the bias at different Coulomb repulsion strengths U, and show a remarkable structure resulting from combination of electron-electron interaction and Andreev reflections.Comment: 4 two column pages including 4 .eps figure

The role of the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector in Early Help: Critical reflections from embedded social care research

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordData availability statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, Thomas El-Hoss. The data are not publicly available due to their containing sensitive information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.The independent review of children's social care (2022) has proposed a radical reset of England's children's services, shifting a remote, assessment heavy system towards one that works alongside communities to help prevent statutory interventions. However, notions around the harnessing of community resources to deliver Early Help are often underpinned by assumptions regarding the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector and the ease with which such organizations can be integrated into preventative strategies. This paper reports findings from embedded research within a unitary authority in Southwest England during remodelling of its Early Help service to work more collaboratively with local VCSE organizations. The study generated data from ethnographic observations, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 95 participants, including local parents, service providers, VCSE organizations and Council leaders. The findings illustrate that families value the compassionate, responsive and flexible support available within many VCSE settings. However, differences in practice cultures, regulatory pressures on statutory providers, the need to (re)build trust in communities and sensitivities around power-sharing and resourcing meant negotiating VCSE sector integration was fraught with complexities. Few studies have gained such privileged access to a Local Authority's remodelling of Early Help services, and this paper has significant insights for the debates surrounding the independent review of children's social care (2022) and its recommendation to bring services ‘closer to communities’.Torbay Medical Research Fun

Subgap anomaly and above-energy-gap structure in chains of diffusive SNS junctions

We present the results of low-temperature transport measurements on chains of superconductor--normal-constriction--superconductor (SNS) junctions fabricated on the basis of superconducting PtSi film. A comparative study of the properties of the chains, consisting of 3 and 20 SNS junctions in series, and single SNS junctions reveals essential distinctions in the behavior of the current-voltage characteristics of the systems: (i) the gradual decrease of the effective suppression voltage for the excess conductivity observed at zero bias as the quantity of the SNS junctions increases, (ii) a rich fine structure on the dependences dV/dI-V at dc bias voltages higher than the superconducting gap and corresponding to some multiples of 2\Delta/e. A model to explain this above-energy-gap structure based on energy relaxation of electron via Cooper-pair-breaking in superconducting island connecting normal metal electrods is proposed.Comment: RevTex, 5 pages, 4 figure

Valorization of wine‐making by‐products’ extracts in cosmetics

The increased demand for conscious, sustainable and beneficial products by the consumers has pushed researchers from both industries and universities worldwide to search for smart strategies capable of reducing the environmental footprint, especially the ones connected with industrial wastes. Among various by-products, generally considered as waste, those obtained by winemaking industries have attracted the attention of a wide variety of companies, other than the vineries. In particular, grape pomaces are considered of interest due to their high content in bioactive molecules, especially phenolic compounds. The latter can be recovered from grape pomace and used as active ingredients in easily marketable cosmetic products. Indeed, phenolic compounds are well known for their remarkable beneficial properties at the skin level, such as antioxidant, antiaging, anti-hyperpigmentation and photoprotective effects. The exploitation of the bioactives contained in grape pomaces to obtain high value cosmetics may support the growing of innovative start-ups and expand the value chain of grapes. This review aims to describe the strategies for recovery of polyphenols from grape pomace, to highlight the beneficial potential of these extracts, both in vitro and in vivo, and their potential utilization as active ingredients in cosmetic products

Child protection and family support: Experiences in a seaside resort

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordData availability: The data that has been used is confidential.Effective Early Help services are key to halting rising rates of children in care in the UK. Yet despite family support and child welfare interventions being unequally distributed across the country, the role of ‘place’ has received limited attention in the children’s social care arena. This paper examines the connections between coastal challenges, Early Help and child welfare interventions, drawing on embedded research undertaken within a Local Authority on England’s coast with elevated levels of children in care. We focus on families’ experiences raising children in a seaside resort area as well as professionals’ perspectives on the place-based challenges faced delivering effective and accessible Early Help support. The study generated data from ethnographic observations, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups with local parents/carers (n = 57), service managers and frontline professionals (n = 14), and the Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector (n = 22). The findings highlight how the socio-economic challenges associated with many seaside resort areas, including housing pressures, a seasonal and low-wage economy, and the transience of the population, present difficulties for parents/carers in raising and supporting their children. For professionals delivering Early Help, high levels of housing instability, elevated inward migration, resource constraints and challenges around recruitment and retention presented challenges to delivering services. This paper recommends increased emphasis in regulation and resourcing around family support that considers the spatial and geographic dynamics that influence the incidence, structuring, and experiences of child and family welfare.Torbay Medical Support FundWellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of HealthNational Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR

Full Current Statistics in Diffusive Normal-Superconductor Structures

We study the current statistics in normal diffusive conductors in contact with a superconductor. Using an extension of the Keldysh Green's function method we are able to find the full distribution of charge transfers for all temperatures and voltages. For the non-Gaussian regime, we show that the equilibrium current fluctuations are enhanced by the presence of the superconductor. We predict an enhancement of the nonequilibrium current noise for temperatures below and voltages of the order of the Thouless energy E_Th=D/L^2. Our calculation fully accounts for the proximity effect in the normal metal and agrees with experimental data. We demonstrate that the calculation of the full current statistics is in fact simpler than a concrete calculation of the noise.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures (included

Full Counting Statistics of Multiple Andreev Reflections in incoherent diffusive superconducting junctions

We present a theory for the full distribution of current fluctuations in incoherent diffusive superconducting junctions, subjected to a voltage bias. This theory of full counting statistics of incoherent multiple Andreev reflections is valid for arbitrary applied voltage. We present a detailed discussion of the properties of the first four cumulants as well as the low and high voltage regimes of the full counting statistics. The work is an extension of the results of Pilgram and the author, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 086806 (2005).Comment: Included in special issue Spin Physics of Superconducting heterostructures of Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processin

Current noise in long diffusive SNS junctions in the incoherent MAR regime

Spectral density of current fluctuations at zero frequency is calculated for a long diffusive SNS junction with low-resistive interfaces. At low temperature, T << Delta, the subgap shot noise approaches linear voltage dependence, S=(2/ 3R)(eV + 2Delta), which is the sum of the shot noise of the normal conductor and voltage independent excess noise. This result can also be interpreted as the 1/3-suppressed Poisson noise for the effective charge q = e(1+2Delta/eV) transferred by incoherent multiple Andreev reflections (MAR). At higher temperatures, anomalies of the current noise develop at the gap subharmonics, eV = 2Delta/n. The crossover to the hot electron regime from the MAR regime is analyzed in the limit of small applied voltages.Comment: improved version, to be published in Phys. Rev.