563 research outputs found
Gender and sexuality: the discursive limits of 'equality' in higher education
This special issue sets out to investigate a number of areas of concern, regarding gender and sexuality, which are identifiable in the current British higher education environment. We argue that current dominant 'neoliberal' discourses, which emphasise the commodification of higher education in the UK, function to set limits upon 'equality'. While these discourses often suggest a widening of opportunities within higher education, with an emphasis upon unlimited individual freedom and choice, the lived experience can be rather different for women and sexual minorities. This issue explores the impact such discourses are having upon gender and sexuality identities and practices in the academy
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A glass half full or half empty?: A comparison of diversity statements among Russell group UK vs US Research universities
The term diversity is ubiquitous in university mission statements, strategic plans, recruitment brochures, and university websites. This paper argues aims to compare university diversity statements from US Research Tier 1 universities with those from the elite UK Russell group universities In order to compare the language of diversity, we have used the techniques of corpus linguistics. A corpus is an electronic collection of sample texts which can then be processed by software, in this case the Oxford Wordsmith Tools (Scott 1996) package. This enables a corpus to be searched for frequent words, concordances (the linguistic environment of target words), and collocations (the company that those words keep). The resulting analysis suggests that there are differences between US and UK diversity statements, significant enough that they cannot be said to conform to the same 'genre'. There is overall similarity in terms ofvocabulary choice and of grammatical structures used (nominalizations, modalities etc), however, the UK Russell group diversity statements display a modality position of certainty, which resonates with the noun commitment. In contrast, US Research university diversity statements are formulated more as aspirations, and focus on benefit to the community, but claim a less certain outcome. Diversity is seen as 'a good thing' and signified by multiple linguistic markers of appreciation. The word frequency analysis of the diversity statements suggests that they are largely made up ofsemantically vague lexical items - Strategically Deployable Shifters - which contribute little to the overall meanings of the statements. These words, e.g. excellence, diversity, respect, even equality are multi-functional, polysemic abstractions which invoke fair play. Discursively embracing diversity commits institutions to recognizing little difference, and certainly not to institutional or structural change, rather diversity is seen as the property of individuals, and is congruent with the project of the neoliberal university
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Queer eye for the straight guy: confirming and confounding masculinities
Magnetic Transformations in the Organic Conductor kappa-(BETS)2Mn[N(CN)2]3 at the Metal-Insulator Transition
A complex study of magnetic properties including dc magnetization, 1H NMR and
magnetic torque measurements has been performed for the organic conductor
kappa-(BETS)2Mn[N(CN)2]3 which undergoes a metal-insulator transition at
T_MI~25K. NMR and the magnetization data indicate a transition in the manganese
subsystem from paramagnetic to a frozen state at T_MI, which is, however, not a
simple Neel type order. Further, a magnetic field induced transition resembling
a spin flop has been detected in the torque measurements at temperatures below
T_MI. This transition is most likely related to the spins of pi-electrons
localized on the organic molecules BETS and coupled with the manganese 3d spins
via exchange interaction.Comment: 6 pages, 5 Figures, 1 Table; Submitted to Phys.Rev.B (Nov.2010
Large angle magnetization dynamics measured by time-resolved ferromagnetic resonance
A time-resolved ferromagnetic resonance technique was used to investigate the
magnetization dynamics of a 10 nm thin Permalloy film. The experiment consisted
of a sequence of magnetic field pulses at a repetition rate equal to the
magnetic systems resonance frequency. We compared data obtained by this
technique with conventional pulsed inductive microwave magnetometry. The
results for damping and frequency response obtained by these two different
methods coincide in the limit of a small angle excitation. However, when
applying large amplitude field pulses, the magnetization had a non-linear
response. We speculate that one possible cause of the nonlinearity is related
to self-amplification of incoherence, known as the Suhl instabilities.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, submitted to PR
Magnetization Reversal in Elongated Fe Nanoparticles
Magnetization reversal of individual, isolated high-aspect-ratio Fe
nanoparticles with diameters comparable to the magnetic exchange length is
studied by high-sensitivity submicron Hall magnetometry. For a Fe nanoparticle
with diameter of 5 nm, the magnetization reversal is found to be an incoherent
process with localized nucleation assisted by thermal activation, even though
the particle has a single-domain static state. For a larger elongated Fe
nanoparticle with a diameter greater than 10 nm, the inhomogeneous magnetic
structure of the particle plays important role in the reversal process.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B (2005
Thermally Activated Magnetization and Resistance Decay during Near Ambient Temperature Aging of Co Nanoflakes in a Confining Semi-metallic Environment
We report the observation of magnetic and resistive aging in a self assembled
nanoparticle system produced in a multilayer Co/Sb sandwich. The aging decays
are characterized by an initial slow decay followed by a more rapid decay in
both the magnetization and resistance. The decays are large accounting for
almost 70% of the magnetization and almost 40% of the resistance for samples
deposited at 35 . For samples deposited at 50 the magnetization
decay accounts for of the magnetization and 50% of the resistance.
During the more rapid part of the decay, the concavity of the slope of the
decay changes sign and this inflection point can be used to provide a
characteristic time. The characteristic time is strongly and systematically
temperature dependent, ranging from x at 400K to x at 320K in samples deposited at . Samples deposited at 50
displayed a 7-8 fold increase in the characteristic time (compared to the samples) for a given aging temperature, indicating that this timescale may
be tunable. Both the temperature scale and time scales are in potentially
useful regimes. Pre-Aging, Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) reveals that the
Co forms in nanoscale flakes. During aging the nanoflakes melt and migrate into
each other in an anisotropic fashion forming elongated Co nanowires. This aging
behavior occurs within a confined environment of the enveloping Sb layers. The
relationship between the characteristic time and aging temperature fits an
Arrhenius law indicating activated dynamics
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