Community learning and development training for professionals engaged in community regeneration and community planning

The study was commissioned by the Scottish Executive Development Department to identify training needs and current provision of community learning and development (CLD) training for a range of professionals (other than those formally qualified in CLD) who are engaged in community regeneration and community planning (Local Government in Scotland Act 2003). It was one of a series of studies emanating from the Scottish Executive response to the review: „Empowered to Practice – the future of community learning and development training in Scotland‟. One of the themes of the report taken up by the Scottish Executive was the need for; „wider opportunities for joint training with other disciplines such as teachers, librarians, college lecturers, health workers and social workers‟

A comprehensive computer program for predicting solar cell performance

Comprehensive computer program for predicting solar cell performanc

Transport Anomalies and Marginal Fermi-Liquid Effects at a Quantum Critical Point

The conductivity and the tunneling density of states of disordered itinerant electrons in the vicinity of a ferromagnetic transition at low temperature are discussed. Critical fluctuations lead to nonanalytic frequency and temperature dependences that are distinct from the usual long-time tail effects in a disordered Fermi liquid. The crossover between these two types of behavior is proposed as an experimental check of recent theories of the quantum ferromagnetic critical behavior. In addition, the quasiparticle properties at criticality are shown to be those of a marginal Fermi liquid.Comment: 4pp., REVTeX, no figs, final version as publishe

Exact Solution of a Jamming Transition: Closed Equations for a Bootstrap Percolation Problem

Jamming, or dynamical arrest, is a transition at which many particles stop moving in a collective manner. In nature it is brought about by, for example, increasing the packing density, changing the interactions between particles, or otherwise restricting the local motion of the elements of the system. The onset of collectivity occurs because, when one particle is blocked, it may lead to the blocking of a neighbor. That particle may then block one of its neighbors, these effects propagating across some typical domain of size named the dynamical correlation length. When this length diverges, the system becomes immobile. Even where it is finite but large the dynamics is dramatically slowed. Such phenomena lead to glasses, gels, and other very long-lived nonequilibrium solids. The bootstrap percolation models are the simplest examples describing these spatio-temporal correlations. We have been able to solve one such model in two dimensions exactly, exhibiting the precise evolution of the jamming correlations on approach to arrest. We believe that the nature of these correlations and the method we devise to solve the problem are quite general. Both should be of considerable help in further developing this field.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

Comment on "Deuterium--tritium fusion reactors without external fusion breeding" by Eliezer et al

Inclusion of inverse Compton effects in the calculation of deuterium-deuterium burn under the extreme conditions considered by Eliezer et al. [Phys. Lett. A 243 (1998) 298] are shown to decrease the maximum burn temperature from about 300 keV to only 100--150 keV. This decrease is such that tritium breeding by the DD --> T + p reaction is not sufficient to replace the small amount of tritium that is initially added to the deuterium plasma in order to trigger ignition at less than 10 keV.Comment: 6 pages, 1 tabl

Rocket study of the X-ray background

The X-ray optical detection system flown on Aerobee 17.08 is described in detail, and the preliminary results of the 24 June 1971 flight are discussed. The optical design, fabrication and parabolic nature of the mirrors, effective aperture of mirror array, and X-ray detectors are considered. Preliminary analysis of data from the flight confirms the extended nature and complex structure of the X-ray source in Virgo. A core of X-ray emission is indicated which is approximately 0.5 deg in diameter and surrounded by an emitting region at least 2 deg across. The Virgo source spectrum is observed to have few low energy photons

Competencies for the multi-disciplinary team caring for severely obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery: a systematic review.

Bariatric surgery is the only intervention leading to sustained weight reduction for severely obese individuals. However, there is variability across the UK in organisation of bariatric services, and perceptions of how to develop and deliver optimum care. This means lack of clarity on competencies and skills required for roles within the multidisciplinary bariatric surgical team. This systematic review was carried out to synthesise literature identifying the competencies required by members of the multidisciplinary team for provision of safe, meaningful and appropriate care for severely obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery. The databases CINAHL; Medline; ERIC; PsycINFO; IngentaConnect; The Knowledge Network, and Web of Knowledge were searched to identify key papers. Papers selected were independently appraised for methodological quality by two reviewers using Joanna Briggs Institute systems. Thirty-six papers were included in the review. The literature was poorly developed, largely consisting of text and opinion, and lacking evaluative content. Pooling of papers generated three synthesised findings: 1) Safe, meaningful and appropriate care may be delivered if staff in each role in the multidisciplinary team achieve a minimum set of competencies; 2) Safe, effective and meaningful care may require a minimum set of competencies for managing a bariatric surgery unit and the multidisciplinary team; 3) To achieve competencies for safe, effective and meaningful care certain approaches to education may be developed. Sensitive care, pre-operative psychological assessment, post-operative care and identification of complications, and team management may be areas in which educational interventions develop, but the conclusion remains tentative because of lack of empirical research in the area

An Experimentally Realizable Weiss Model for Disorder-Free Glassiness

We summarize recent work on a frustrated periodic long-range Josephson array in a parameter regime where its dynamical behavior is identical to that of the $p=4$ disordered spherical model. We also discuss the physical requirements imposed by the theory on the experimental realization of this superconducting network.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX, 2 Postscript figure

Wave localization in binary isotopically disordered one-dimensional harmonic chains with impurities having arbitrary cross section and concentration

The localization length for isotopically disordered harmonic one-dimensional chains is calculated for arbitrary impurity concentration and scattering cross section. The localization length depends on the scattering cross section of a single scatterer, which is calculated for a discrete chain having a wavelength dependent pulse propagation speed. For binary isotopically disordered systems composed of many scatterers, the localization length decreases with increasing impurity concentration, reaching a mimimum before diverging toward infinity as the impurity concentration approaches a value of one. The concentration dependence of the localization length over the entire impurity concentration range is approximated accurately by the sum of the behavior at each limiting concentration. Simultaneous measurements of Lyapunov exponent statistics indicate practical limits for the minimum system length and the number of scatterers to achieve representative ensemble averages. Results are discussed in the context of future investigations of the time-dependent behavior of disordered anharmonic chains.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, submitted to PR

Incommensurate magnetic ordering in Cu2Te2O5X2Cu_2 Te_2 O_5 X_2 (X=Cl,Br) studied by neutron diffraction

We present the results of the first neutron powder and single crystal diffraction studies of the coupled spin tetrahedra systems {\CuTeX} (X=Cl, Br). Incommensurate antiferromagnetic order with the propagation vectors {\bf{k}_{Cl}}\approx[0.150,0.422,\half], {\bf{k}_{Br}}\approx[0.158,0.354,\half] sets in below $T_{N}$=18 K for X=Cl and 11 K for X=Br. No simple collinear antiferromagnetic or ferromagnetic arrangements of moments within Cu${}^{2+}$ tetrahedra fit these observations. Fitting the diffraction data to more complex but physically reasonable models with multiple helices leads to a moment of 0.67(1)$\mu_B$/Cu${}^{2+}$ at 1.5 K for the Cl-compound. The reason for such a complex ground state may be geometrical frustration of the spins due to the intra- and inter-tetrahedral couplings having similar strengths. The magnetic moment in the Br- compound, calculated assuming it has the same magnetic structure as the Cl compound, is only 0.51(5)$\mu_B$/Cu${}^{2+}$ at 1.5 K. In neither compound has any evidence for a structural transition accompanying the magnetic ordering been found