Packing Up Our 2019 Time Capsule ... in 2021

During Roesch Library\u27s renovation, we discovered and opened a time capsule left within a wall during the building\u27s construction in 1970. We decided to pay it forward and asked the campus community to contribute items and ideas to best represent UD and the world in 2019

Vocation Can Change Throughout Life\u27

Student employees of University Libraries reflect on their experiences in connection to their own individual calling and vocational development

Welcome to Roesch Library: Nifty at 50

Celebrate Roesch Library\u27s 50 years on campus with sweets, keepsakes and the success that comes from making the most of the resources, spaces and services in the University Libraries

Concepts and characteristics of the 'COST Reference Microplasma Jet'

Biomedical applications of non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasmas have attracted intense interest in the past few years. Many plasma sources of diverse design have been proposed for these applications, but the relationship between source characteristics and application performance is not well-understood, and indeed many sources are poorly characterized. This circumstance is an impediment to progress in application development. A reference source with well-understood and highly reproducible characteristics may be an important tool in this context. Researchers around the world should be able to compare the characteristics of their own sources and also their results with this device. In this paper, we describe such a reference source, developed from the simple and robust micro-scaled atmospheric pressure plasma jet (μ-APPJ) concept. This development occurred under the auspices of COST Action MP1101 'Biomedical Applications of Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas'. Gas contamination and power measurement are shown to be major causes of irreproducible results in earlier source designs. These problems are resolved in the reference source by refinement of the mechanical and electrical design and by specifying an operating protocol. These measures are shown to be absolutely necessary for reproducible operation. They include the integration of current and voltage probes into the jet. The usual combination of matching unit and power supply is replaced by an integrated LC power coupling circuit and a 5 W single frequency generator. The design specification and operating protocol for the reference source are being made freely available

Swift monitoring of Cygnus X-2: investigating the NUV-X-ray connection

The neutron star X-ray binary (NSXRB) Cygnus X-2 was observed by the Swift satellite 51 times over a 4 month period in 2008 with the XRT, UVOT, and BAT instruments. During this campaign, we observed Cyg X-2 in all three branches of the Z track (horizontal, normal, and flaring branches). We find that the NUV emission is uncorrelated with the soft X-ray flux detected with the XRT, and is anticorrelated with the BAT X-ray flux and the hard X-ray color. The observed anticorrelation is inconsistent with simple models of reprocessing as the source of the NUV emission. The anticorrelation may be a consequence of the high inclination angle of Cyg X-2, where NUV emission is preferentially scattered by a corona that expands as the disk is radiatively heated. Alternatively, if the accretion disk thickens as Cyg X-2 goes down the normal branch toward the flaring branch, this may be able to explain the observed anticorrelation. In these models the NUV emission may not be a good proxy for $\dot m$ in the system. We also discuss the implications of using Swift/XRT to perform spectral modeling of the continuum emission of NSXRBs.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. ApJ Accepte

Schools, religion, and affect: unpacking Australian educator discomfort

Published online: 24 Apr 2023. OnlinePublReligious bigotry, including incidents of discrimination and violence based on religion, continues to rise across Australia. Religion is consequently considered a destabilising factor in Australia’s commitment to diversity. But does Australia’s religious diversity pose a threat to social cohesion or an opportunity? In Australia’s public schools, despite significant curricular and pedagogical advances in the areas of equity and inclusion, it remains unclear how and to what extent educators support the diverse religious identities of learners. Informed by an affective-discursive analytic, this study unpacks a series of emotional encounters at one primary public school in Sydney that serves a community where most families selfidentify with a religion. Educators were invited to discuss how their school responds to religious diversity. This article explores the discomforting affects that entangle liberal humanist commitments to freedoms and secular schooling that emerged in focus groups. The article argues that emotional responses to learners’ religious diversity, particularly of fear or apprehension, speak to a broader national teacher education context in which how religious and secular beliefs and knowledges should come into conversation remains unsettled. If Australian teacher education is to prepare educators for social cohesion, how can learners’ religious identities be genuinely included in curriculum and pedagogy?Nadeem Memon, Samantha Schulz, Stephen Kelly and Dylan Chow

Ab-initio calculation of the electronic and optical excitations in polythiophene: effects of intra- and interchain screening

We present an calculation of the electronic and optical excitations of an isolated polythiophene chain as well as of bulk polythiophene. We use the GW approximation for the electronic self-energy and include excitonic effects by solving the electron-hole Bethe-Salpeter equation. The inclusion of interchain screening in the case of bulk polythiophene drastically reduces both the quasi-particle band gap and the exciton binding energies, but the optical gap is hardly affected. This finding is relevant for conjugated polymers in general.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur