Contributing Factors to Attitudes and Beliefs about Diversity

Diversity is a major issue in the world today. This project studied the attitudes and beliefs about diversity in order to understand where they originate. It focused on family beliefs and educational experiences and whether they each play a role in one’s perspective of other races/ethnicities. The sample consisted of 100 University of New Hampshire undergraduate students recruited through Facebook as well as in-class presentations on campus. Students were asked to complete a survey online. Quantitative results revealed that neither family nor education, as measured with forced-choice questions, were predictive of acceptance of other races. Overall, students reported themselves and their families as being very accepting of other races. However, they noted there was a lack of formal education about the topic of diversity in schools and that they largely came from homogenous schools. Qualitative results reveal that students themselves highlight the importance of exposure to diverse others, family upbringing, the media, and several other key factors as important considerations in how they treat other people; this suggests a multitude of ways that people create their beliefs. Implications for college student curriculum and campus life are highlighted

The correlation between the energy gap and the pseudogap temperature in cuprates: the YCBCZO and LSHCO case

The paper analyzes the influence of the hole density, the out-of-plane or in-plane disorder, and the isotopic oxygen mass on the zero temperature energy gap ($2\Delta\left(0\right)$) for $\rm{Y}_{1-x}\rm{Ca}_{x}\rm{Ba}_2\left(\rm{Cu}_{1-y}\rm{Zn}_{y}\right)_{3}\rm{O}_{7-\delta}$ (YCBCZO) and $\rm{La}_{1.96-x}\rm{Sr}_{x}\rm{Ho}_{0.04}\rm{CuO}_{4}$ (LSHCO) superconductors. It has been found that the energy gap is visibly correlated with the value of the pseudogap temperature ($T^{\star}$). On the other hand, no correlation between $2\Delta\left(0\right)$ and the critical temperature ($T_{C}$) has been found. The above results mean that the value of the dimensionless ratio $2\Delta\left(0\right)/k_{B}T_{C}$ can vary very strongly together with the chemical composition, while the parameter $2\Delta\left(0\right)/k_{B}T^{\star}$ does not change significantly. In the paper, the analytical formula which binds the zero temperature energy gap and the pseudogap temperature has been also presented.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 3 table

Characteristics of the Eliashberg formalism on the example of high-pressure superconducting state in phosphor

The work describes the properties of the high-pressure superconducting state in phosphor: $p\in\{20, 30, 40, 70\}$ GPa. The calculations were performed in the framework of the Eliashberg formalism, which is the natural generalization of the BCS theory. The exceptional attention was paid to the accurate presentation of the used analysis scheme. With respect to the superconducting state in phosphor it was shown that: (i) the observed not-high values of the critical temperature ($\left[T_{C}\right]_{p=30{\rm GPa}}^{\rm max}=8.45$ K) result not only from the low values of the electron - phonon coupling constant, but also from the very strong depairing Coulomb interactions, (ii) the inconsiderable strong - coupling and retardation effects force the dimensionless ratios $R_{\Delta}$, $R_{C}$, and $R_{H}$ - related to the critical temperature, the order parameter, the specific heat and the thermodynamic critical field - to take the values close to the BCS predictions.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Nearest points and delta convex functions in Banach spaces

Given a closed set $C$ in a Banach space $(X, \|\cdot\|)$, a point $x\in X$ is said to have a nearest point in $C$ if there exists $z\in C$ such that $d_C(x) =\|x-z\|$, where $d_C$ is the distance of $x$ from $C$. We shortly survey the problem of studying how large is the set of points in $X$ which have nearest points in $C$. We then discuss the topic of delta-convex functions and how it is related to finding nearest points.Comment: To appear in Bull. Aust. Math. So