Observation of Interaction of Spin and Intrinsic Orbital Angular Momentum of Light

Interaction of spin and intrinsic orbital angular momentum of light is observed, as evidenced by length-dependent rotations of both spatial patterns and optical polarization in a cylindrically-symmetric isotropic optical fiber. Such rotations occur in straight few-mode fiber when superpositions of two modes with parallel and anti-parallel orientation of spin and intrinsic orbital angular momentum (IOAM=$2\hslash$) are excited, resulting from a degeneracy splitting of the propagation constants of the modes.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, and a detailed supplement. Version 3 corrects a typo and adds the journal referenc

Unequal relationships in high and low power distance societies: a comparative study of tutor - student role relations in Britain and China

This study investigated people's conceptions of an unequal role relationship in two different types of society: a high power distance society and a low power distance society. The study focuses on the role relationship of tutor and student. British and Chinese tutors and postgraduate students completed a questionnaire that probed their conceptions of degrees of power differential and social distance/closeness in this role relationship. ANOVA results yielded a significant nationality effect for both aspects. Chinese respondents judged the relationship to be closer and to have a greater power differential than did British respondents. Written comments on the questionnaire and interviews with 9 Chinese academics who had experienced both British and Chinese academic environments supported the statistical findings and indicated that there are fundamental ideological differences associated with the differing conceptions. The results are discussed in relation to Western and Asian concepts of leadership and differing perspectives on the compatibility/incompatibility of power and distance/closeness

The Experiences of Specialist Nurses Working Within the Uro-oncology Multidisciplinary Team in the United Kingdom.

PURPOSE: United Kingdom prostate cancer nursing care is provided by a variety of urology and uro-oncology nurses. The experience of working in multidisciplinary teams (MDT) was investigated in a national study. DESIGN: The study consisted of a national survey with descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. METHODS: A secondary analysis of a data subset from a UK whole population survey was undertaken (n = 285) of the specialist nursing workforce and the services they provide. Data were collected on the experience of working in the MDT. RESULTS: Forty-five percent of the respondents felt that they worked in a functional MDT, 12% felt that they worked in a dysfunctional MDT, and 3.5% found the MDT meeting intimidating. Furthermore, 34% of the nurses felt that they could constructively challenge all members of the MDT in meetings. Themes emerging from open-ended questions were lack of interest in nonmedical concerns by other team members, ability to constructively challenge decisions or views within the meeting, and little opportunity for patients' wishes to be expressed. CONCLUSIONS: Despite expertise and experience, nurses had a variable, often negative, experience of the MDT. It is necessary to ensure that all participants can contribute and are heard and valued. More emphasis should be given to patients' nonmedical needs

New Tetrahedral Global Minimum for the 98-atom Lennard-Jones Cluster

A new atomic cluster structure corresponding to the global minimum of the 98-atom Lennard-Jones cluster has been found using a variant of the basin-hopping global optimization algorithm. The new structure has an unusual tetrahedral symmetry with an energy of -543.665361, which is 0.022404 lower than the previous putative global minimum. The new LJ_98 structure is of particular interest because its tetrahedral symmetry establishes it as one of only three types of exceptions to the general pattern of icosahedral structural motifs for optimal LJ microclusters. Similar to the other exceptions the global minimum is difficult to find because it is at the bottom of a narrow funnel which only becomes thermodynamically most stable at low temperature.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, revte

Unbiased Global Optimization of Lennard-Jones Clusters for N <= 201 by Conformational Space Annealing Method

We apply the conformational space annealing (CSA) method to the Lennard-Jones clusters and find all known lowest energy configurations up to 201 atoms, without using extra information of the problem such as the structures of the known global energy minima. In addition, the robustness of the algorithm with respect to the randomness of initial conditions of the problem is demonstrated by ten successful independent runs up to 183 atoms. Our results indicate that the CSA method is a general and yet efficient global optimization algorithm applicable to many systems.Comment: revtex, 4 pages, 2 figures. Physical Review Letters, in pres

Meeting Report: GBIF hackathon-workshop on Darwin Core and sample data (22-24 May 2013)

The workshop-hackathon was convened by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) at its secretariat in Copenhagen over 22-24 May 2013 with additional support from several projects (RCN4GSC, EAGER, VertNet, BiSciCol, GGBN, and Micro B3). It assembled a team of experts to address the challenge of adapting the Darwin Core standard for a wide variety of sample data. Topics addressed in the workshop included 1) a review of outstanding issues in the Darwin Core standard, 2) issues relating to publishing of biodiversity data through Darwin Core Archives, 3) use of Darwin Core Archives for publishing sample and monitoring data, 4) the case for modifying the Darwin Core Text Guide specification to support many-to-many relations, and 5) the generalization of the Darwin Core Archive to a "Biodiversity Data Archive". A wide variety of use cases were assembled and discussed in order to inform further developments

Meeting Report: GBIF hackathon-workshop on Darwin Core and sample data (22-24 May 2013)

The workshop-hackathon was convened by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) at its secretariat in Copenhagen over 22-24 May 2013 with additional support from several projects (RCN4GSC, EAGER, VertNet, BiSciCol, GGBN, and Micro B3). It assembled a team of experts to address the challenge of adapting the Darwin Core standard for a wide variety of sample data. Topics addressed in the workshop included 1) a review of outstanding issues in the Darwin Core standard, 2) issues relating to publishing of biodiversity data through Darwin Core Archives, 3) use of Darwin Core Archives for publishing sample and monitoring data, 4) the case for modifying the Darwin Core Text Guide specification to support many-to-many relations, and 5) the generalization of the Darwin Core Archive to a "Biodiversity Data Archive". A wide variety of use cases were assembled and discussed in order to inform further developments

Improved Materials for High-Temperature Black Liquor Gasification

The laboratory immersion test system built and operated at ORNL was found to successfully screen samples from numerous refractory suppliers, including both commercially available and experimental materials. This system was found to provide an accurate prediction of how these materials would perform in the actual gasifier environment. Test materials included mullites, alumino-silicate bricks, fusion-cast aluminas, alumina-based and chrome-containing mortars, phosphate-bonded mortars, coated samples provided under an MPLUS-funded project, bonded spinels, different fusion-cast magnesia-alumina spinels with magnesia content ranging from 2.5% to about 60%, high-MgO castable and brick materials, spinel castables, and alkali-aluminate materials. This testing identified several candidate material systems that perform well in the New Bern gasifier. Fusion-cast aluminas were found to survive for nearly one year, and magnesia-alumina spinels have operated successfully for 18 months and are expected to survive for two years. Alkali-aluminates and high-MgO-content materials have also been identified for backup lining applications. No other material with a similar structure and chemical composition to that of the fusion-cast magnesium-aluminum spinel brick currently being used for the hot-face lining is commercially available. Other materials used for this application have been found to have inferior service lives, as previously discussed. Further, over 100 laboratory immersion tests have been performed on other materials (both commercial and experimental), but none to date has performed as well as the material currently being used for the hot-face lining. Operating experience accumulated with the high-temperature gasifier at New Bern, North Carolina, has confirmed that the molten alkali salts degrade many types of refractories. Fusion-cast alumina materials were shown to provide a great improvement in lifetime over materials used previously. Further improvement was realized with fusion-cast magnesia-alumina spinel refractory, which appears to be the most resistant to degradation found to date, exhibiting over a year of service life and expected to be capable of over two years of service life. Regarding the use of refractory mortar, it was found that expansion of the current chrome-alumina mortar when subjected to black liquor smelt is likely contributing to the strains seen on the vessel shell. Additionally, the candidate high-alumina mortar that was originally proposed as a replacement for the current chrome-alumina mortar also showed a large amount of expansion when subjected to molten smelt. A UMR experimental mortar, composed of a phosphate bonded system specifically designed for use with fusion-cast magnesium-aluminum spinel, was found to perform well in the molten smelt environment. Strain gauges installed on the gasifier vessel shell provided valuable information about the expansion of the refractory, and a new set of strain gauges and thermocouples has been installed in order to monitor the loading caused by the currently installed spinel refractory. These results provide information for a direct comparison of the expansion of the two refractories. Measurements to date suggest that the fusion-cast magnesia-alumina spinel is expanding less than the fusion-cast {alpha}/{beta}-alumina used previously. A modified liquor nozzle was designed and constructed to test a number of materials that should be more resistant to erosion and corrosion than the material currently used. Inserts made of three erosion-resistant metallic materials were fabricated, along with inserts made of three ceramic materials. The assembled system was sent to the New Bern mill for installation in the gasifer in 2005. Following operation of the gasifier using the modified nozzle, inserts should be removed and analyzed for wear by erosion/corrosion. Although no materials have been directly identified for sensor/thermocouple protection tubes, several of the refractory material systems identified for lining material applications may be applicable for use in this capacity. Results of the modeling studies suggest that the temperature distribution is higher at the bottom of the gasifier than previously thought. Therefore, it may be possible to reduce the refractory temperature in the gasifier by changing the liquor spray. Also, modeling showed that because of the strong swirl, a separation zone could be formed at the corner of the conical wall where it meets the vertical barrel wall, and some the liquor droplets could be suspended in this zone. The accumulation of droplets in this area could cause instabilities in the performance and also in corrosion of the refractory

Entropic effects on the Size Evolution of Cluster Structure

We show that the vibrational entropy can play a crucial role in determining the equilibrium structure of clusters by constructing structural phase diagrams showing how the structure depends upon both size and temperature. These phase diagrams are obtained for example rare gas and metal clusters.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Computational and Biological Analogies for Understanding Fine-Tuned Parameters in Physics

In this philosophical paper, we explore computational and biological analogies to address the fine-tuning problem in cosmology. We first clarify what it means for physical constants or initial conditions to be fine-tuned. We review important distinctions such as the dimensionless and dimensional physical constants, and the classification of constants proposed by Levy-Leblond. Then we explore how two great analogies, computational and biological, can give new insights into our problem. This paper includes a preliminary study to examine the two analogies. Importantly, analogies are both useful and fundamental cognitive tools, but can also be misused or misinterpreted. The idea that our universe might be modelled as a computational entity is analysed, and we discuss the distinction between physical laws and initial conditions using algorithmic information theory. Smolin introduced the theory of "Cosmological Natural Selection" with a biological analogy in mind. We examine an extension of this analogy involving intelligent life. We discuss if and how this extension could be legitimated. Keywords: origin of the universe, fine-tuning, physical constants, initial conditions, computational universe, biological universe, role of intelligent life, cosmological natural selection, cosmological artificial selection, artificial cosmogenesis.Comment: 25 pages, Foundations of Science, in pres