141 research outputs found
European household waste management schemes: Their effectiveness and applicability in England.
This paper reviews European household waste management schemes and provides an
insight into their effectiveness in reducing or diverting household waste. The
paper also considers the feasibility of replicating such schemes in England.
Selected case studies include those implemented using variable charging schemes,
direct regulation and household incentivisation (reduced disposal charges). A
total of 15 case studies were selected from developed countries in the EU where
some schemes have operated for more than a decade. Criteria for assessing the
effectiveness and replicability of schemes were developed using scheme progress
towards targets, response time, compatibility with government policy, ease of
administration and operation, and public acceptance as attributes. The study
demonstrates the capability of these schemes to significantly reduce household
waste and suggests changes to allow their possible adoption in England. One of
the main barriers to their adoption is the Environmental Protection Act, 1990
that prevents English local authorities (LAs) from implementing the variable
charging method for household waste management. This barrier could be removed
through a change in legislation. The need to derive consistent data and
standardise the method of measuring the effectiveness of schemes is also
highlighted
The Normal State Resistivity of Grain Boundaries in YBa2Cu3O7-delta
Using an optimized bridge geometry we have been able to make accurate
measurements of the properties of YBa2Cu3O7-delta grain boundaries above Tc.
The results show a strong dependence of the change of resistance with
temperature on grain boundary angle. Analysis of our results in the context of
band-bending allows us to estimate the height of the potential barrier present
at the grain boundary interface.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
A characterization of positive linear maps and criteria of entanglement for quantum states
Let and be (finite or infinite dimensional) complex Hilbert spaces. A
characterization of positive completely bounded normal linear maps from
into is given, which particularly gives a
characterization of positive elementary operators including all positive linear
maps between matrix algebras. This characterization is then applied give a
representation of quantum channels (operations) between infinite-dimensional
systems. A necessary and sufficient criterion of separability is give which
shows that a state on is separable if and only if
for all positive finite rank elementary operators
. Examples of NCP and indecomposable positive linear maps are given and
are used to recognize some entangled states that cannot be recognized by the
PPT criterion and the realignment criterion.Comment: 20 page
High critical current densities in superconducting MgB2 thin films
Superconducting MgB2 thin films were prepared on Al2O3(0001) and MgO(100)
substrates. Boron thin films were deposited by the electron-beam evaporation
followed by post-annealing process with magnesium. Proper post annealing
conditions were investigated to grow good superconducting MgB2 thin films. The
X-ray diffraction patterns showed randomly orientated growth of MgB2 phase in
our thin films. The surface morphology was examined by scanning electron
microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). Critical current density
(Jc) measured by transport method was about 10^7 A/cm^2 at 15 K, and
superconducting transition temperature (Tc) was ~ 39 K in the MgB2 thin films
on Al2O3.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, submitted on Apr. 4, 2001, only one pdf fil
Dynamical mass generation of a two-component fermion in Maxwell-Chern-Simons QED_3: The lowest ladder approximation
Dynamical mass generation of a two-component fermion in with a
Chern-Simons term is investigated by solving the Schwinger-Dyson equation
formulated in the lowest ladder approximation. Dependence of the dynamical
fermion mass on a gauge-fixing parameter, a gauge coupling constant, and a
topological mass is examined by approximated analytical and also numerical
methods. The inclusion of the Chern-Simons term makes impossible to choose a
peculiar gauge in which a wave function renormalization is absent. The
numerical evaluation shows that the wave function renormalization is fairly
close to 1 in the Landau gauge. It means that this gauge is still a specific
gauge where the Ward-Takahashi identity is satisfied approximately. We also
find that the dynamical mass is almost constant if the topological mass is
larger than the coupling constant, while it decreases when the topological mass
is comparable to or smaller than the coupling constant and tends to the value
in without the Chern-Simons term.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, Version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Characteristics of a Delayed System with Time-dependent Delay Time
The characteristics of a time-delayed system with time-dependent delay time
is investigated. We demonstrate the nonlinearity characteristics of the
time-delayed system are significantly changed depending on the properties of
time-dependent delay time and especially that the reconstructed phase
trajectory of the system is not collapsed into simple manifold, differently
from the delayed system with fixed delay time. We discuss the possibility of a
phase space reconstruction and its applications.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures (to be published in Phys. Rev. E
Current reversal with type-I intermittency in deterministic inertia ratchets
The intermittency is investigated when the current reversal occurs in a
deterministic inertia ratchet system. To determine which type the intermittency
belongs to, we obtain the return map of velocities of particle using
stroboscopic recording, and numerically calculate the distribution of average
laminar length . The distribution follows the scaling law of , the characteristic relation of type-I
intermittency.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure
Narratives of ethnic identity among practitioners in community settings in the northeast of England
The increasing ethnic diversity of the UK has been mirrored by growing public awareness of multicultural issues, alongside developments in academic and government thinking. This paper explores the contested meanings around ethnic identity/ies in community settings, drawing on semi-structured interviews with staff from Childrenâs Centres and allied agencies conducted for a research project that examined the relationship between identity and the participation of parents/carers in services in northeast England. The research found that respondents were unclear about, especially, white ethnic identities, and commonly referred to other social categorizations, such as age, nationality, and circumstances such as mobility, when discussing service users. While in some cases this may have reflected legitimate attempts to resist overethnicizing non-ethnic phenomena, such constructions coexisted with assumptions about ethnic difference and how it might translate into service needs. These findings raise important considerations for policy and practice
BFFT formalism applied to the minimal chiral Schwinger model
We consider the minimal chiral Schwinger model, by embedding the gauge
noninvariant formulation into a gauge theory following the
Batalin-Fradkin-Fradkina-Tyutin point of view. Within the BFFT procedure, the
second class constraints are converted into strongly involutive first-class
ones, leading to an extended gauge invariant formulation. We also show that,
like the standard chiral model, in the minimal chiral model the Wess-Zumino
action can be obtained by performing a q-number gauge transformation into the
effective gauge noninvariant action.Comment: 11 Latex pages. Revised version: New section and more references
included. To appear in MPL
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