The social psychology of collective victimhood

Collective victimhood, which results from the experience of being targeted as members of a group, has powerful effects on individuals and groups. The focus of this Special Issue is on how people respond to collective victimhood and how these responses shape intergroup relations. We introduce the Special Issue with an overview of emerging social psychological research on collective victimhood. To date, this research has focused mostly on destructive versus positive consequences of collective victimhood for relations with an adversary group, and examined victim groups' needs, victim beliefs, and underlying social identity and categorization processes. We identify several neglected factors in this literature, some of which are addressed by the empirical contributions in the current issue. The Special Issue offers novel perspectives on collective victimhood, presenting findings based on a diverse range of methods with mostly community samples that have direct and vicarious experiences of collective harm in different countries

Combined local-density and dynamical mean field theory calculations for the compressed lanthanides Ce, Pr, and Nd

This paper reports calculations for compressed Ce (4f^1), Pr (4f^2), and Nd (4f^3) using a combination of the local-density approximation (LDA) and dynamical mean field theory (DMFT), or LDA+DMFT. The 4f moment, spectra, and the total energy among other properties are examined as functions of volume and atomic number for an assumed face-centered cubic (fcc) structure.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Separation of Diastereomers, Structural Isomers, and Homologs of n5 -Cyclopentadienyl Cobalt and Dinuclear Molybdenum Complexes by Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography Using Deoxygenated Solvents

High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is being used as an analytical and preparative tool for the characterization and isolation of a series of air-sensitive organometallic compounds, Reverse phase chranatography with octadecylsilyl-modified silica (ODS) as a stationary phase and polar mobile phases saturated with argon are employed in the separation of products

Effect of granularity on the insulator-superconductor transition in ultrathin Bi films

We have studied the insulator-superconductor transition (IST) by tuning the thickness in quench-condensed $Bi$ films. The resistive transitions of the superconducting films are smooth and can be considered to represent "homogeneous" films. The observation of an IST very close to the quantum resistance for pairs, $R_{\Box}^N \sim h/4e^2$ on several substrates supports this idea. The relevant length scales here are the localization length, and the coherence length. However, at the transition, the localization length is much higher than the superconducting coherence length, contrary to expectation for a "homogeneous" transition. This suggests the invalidity of a purely fermionic model for the transition. Furthermore, the current-voltage characteristics of the superconducting films are hysteretic, and show the films to be granular. The relevant energy scales here are the Josephson coupling energy and the charging energy. However, Josephson coupling energies ($E_J$) and the charging energies ($E_c$) at the IST, they are found to obey the relation $E_J < E_c$. This is again contrary to expectation, for the IST in a granular or inhomogeneous, system. Hence, a purely bosonic picture of the transition is also inconsistent with our observations. We conclude that the IST observed in our experiments may be either an intermediate case between the fermioinc and bosonic mechanisms, or in a regime of charge and vortex dynamics for which a quantitative analysis has not yet been done.Comment: accepted in Physical Review

New Chiral Phases of Superfluid 3He Stabilized by Anisotropic Silica Aerogel

A rich variety of Fermi systems condense by forming bound pairs, including high temperature [1] and heavy fermion [2] superconductors, Sr2RuO4 [3], cold atomic gases [4], and superfluid 3He [5]. Some of these form exotic quantum states having non-zero orbital angular momentum. We have discovered, in the case of 3He, that anisotropic disorder, engineered from highly porous silica aerogel, stabilizes a chiral superfluid state that otherwise would not exist. Additionally, we find that the chiral axis of this state can be uniquely oriented with the application of a magnetic field perpendicular to the aerogel anisotropy axis. At suffciently low temperature we observe a sharp transition from a uniformly oriented chiral state to a disordered structure consistent with locally ordered domains, contrary to expectations for a superfluid glass phase [6].Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure, and Supplementary Informatio

Motivators of and barriers to becoming a COVID-19 convalescent plasma donor: A survey study

Objectives: To determine the motivators and barriers to COVID-19 convalescent plasma donation by those in the United Kingdom who have been diagnosed with or who have had symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) but who have not donated. Background: Convalescent plasma from people recovered from COVID-19 with sufficient antibody titres is a potential option for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19. However, to date, recruiting and retaining COVID-19 convalescent plasma donors has been challenging. Understanding why those eligible to donate COVID-19 convalescent plasma have not donated is critical to developing recruitment campaigns. Methods/Materials: A total of 419 UK residents who indicated that they had been infected with COVID-19 and who lived within 50 km of sites collecting COVID-19 convalescent plasma completed an online survey between 25th June and 5th July 2020. Respondents completed items assessing their awareness of convalescent plasma, motivations and barriers to donation and intention to donate COVID-19 convalescent plasma. Results: Awareness of COVID-19 convalescent plasma was low. Exploratory factor analysis identified six motivations and seven barriers to donating. A stronger sense of altruism through adversity and moral and civic duty were positively related to intention to donate, whereas generic donation fears was negatively related. Conclusions: Once potential donors are aware of convalescent plasma, interventions should focus on the gratitude and reciprocity that those eligible to donate feel, along with a focus on (potentially) helping family and norms of what people ought to do. Fears associated with donation should not be neglected, and strategies that have been successfully used tor recruit whole-blood donors should be adapted and deployed to recruit COVID-19 convalescent plasma donors

Differential branching fraction and angular analysis of the decay B0→K∗0μ+μ−

The angular distribution and differential branching fraction of the decay B 0→ K ∗0 μ + μ − are studied using a data sample, collected by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1. Several angular observables are measured in bins of the dimuon invariant mass squared, q 2. A first measurement of the zero-crossing point of the forward-backward asymmetry of the dimuon system is also presented. The zero-crossing point is measured to be q20=4.9±0.9GeV2/c4 , where the uncertainty is the sum of statistical and systematic uncertainties. The results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions

Opposite-side flavour tagging of B mesons at the LHCb experiment

The calibration and performance of the oppositeside flavour tagging algorithms used for the measurements of time-dependent asymmetries at the LHCb experiment are described. The algorithms have been developed using simulated events and optimized and calibrated with B + →J/ψK +, B0 →J/ψK ∗0 and B0 →D ∗− μ + νμ decay modes with 0.37 fb−1 of data collected in pp collisions at √ s = 7 TeV during the 2011 physics run. The oppositeside tagging power is determined in the B + → J/ψK + channel to be (2.10 ± 0.08 ± 0.24) %, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic

Observation of two new Ξb−\Xi_b^- baryon resonances

Two structures are observed close to the kinematic threshold in the $\Xi_b^0 \pi^-$ mass spectrum in a sample of proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by the LHCb experiment. In the quark model, two baryonic resonances with quark content $bds$ are expected in this mass region: the spin-parity $J^P = \frac{1}{2}^+$ and $J^P=\frac{3}{2}^+$ states, denoted $\Xi_b^{\prime -}$ and $\Xi_b^{*-}$. Interpreting the structures as these resonances, we measure the mass differences and the width of the heavier state to be $m(\Xi_b^{\prime -}) - m(\Xi_b^0) - m(\pi^{-}) = 3.653 \pm 0.018 \pm 0.006$ MeV$/c^2$, $m(\Xi_b^{*-}) - m(\Xi_b^0) - m(\pi^{-}) = 23.96 \pm 0.12 \pm 0.06$ MeV$/c^2$, $\Gamma(\Xi_b^{*-}) = 1.65 \pm 0.31 \pm 0.10$ MeV, where the first and second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The width of the lighter state is consistent with zero, and we place an upper limit of $\Gamma(\Xi_b^{\prime -}) < 0.08$ MeV at 95% confidence level. Relative production rates of these states are also reported.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure