Addressing the needs of international postgraduate students: the role of social capital

Self-evidently, international students are likely to have considerable informational and social needs when coming to study in the UK. This paper reports the findings of a small study of such needs among international postgraduate students in the School of Health Sciences. It was an interview study, with twelve students participating. Though the study was designed to support the creation of an online resource, the findings suggest that meeting those needs satisfactorily requires a multi-faceted approach. Both face-to-face and online processes are needed to help students to develop the social capital necessary to success in undertaking the course, getting to know the university, and adjusting to life in England

Optical Dielectric Functions of III-V Semiconductors in Wurtzite Phase

Optical properties of semiconductors can exhibit strong polarization dependence due to crystalline anisotropy. A number of recent experiments have shown that the photoluminescence intensity in free standing nanowires is polarization dependent. One contribution to this effect is the anisotropy of the dielectric function due to the fact that most nanowires crystalize in the wurtzite form. While little is known experimentally about the band structures wurtzite phase III-V semiconductors, we have previously predicted the bulk band structure of nine III-V semiconductors in wurtzite phase.Here, we predict the frequency dependent dielectric functions for nine non-Nitride wurtzite phase III-V semiconductors (AlP, AlAs, AlSb, GaP, GaAs, GaSb, InP, InAs and InSb). Their complex dielectric functions are calculated in the dipole approximation by evaluating the momentum matrix elements on a dense grid of special k-points using empirical pseudopotential wave functions. Corrections to the momentum matrix elements accounting for the missing core states are made using a scaling factor which is determined by using the optical sum rules on the calculated dielectric functions for the zincblende polytypes. The dielectric function is calculated for polarizations perpendicular and parallel to the c-axis of the crystal

Effect of time delay on feedback control of a flashing ratchet

It was recently shown that the use of feedback control can improve the performance of a flashing ratchet. We investigate the effect of a time delay in the implementation of feedback control in a closed-loop collective flashing ratchet, using Langevin dynamics simulations. Surprisingly, for a large ensemble, a well-chosen delay time improves the ratchet performance by allowing the system to synchronize into a quasi-periodic stable mode of oscillation that reproduces the optimal average velocity for a periodically flashing ratchet. For a small ensemble, on the other hand, finite delay times significantly reduce the benefit of feedback control for the time-averaged velocity, because the relevance of information decays on a time scale set by the diffusion time of the particles. Based on these results, we establish that experimental use of feedback control is realistic.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Europhysics Letter

Asymptotic stabilization of Euler-Poincaré mechanical systems

Stabilization of mechanical control systems by the method of controlled Lagrangians and matching is used to analyze asymptotic stabilization of systems whose underlying dynamics are governed by the Euler-Poincar´e equations. In particular, we analyze asymptotic stabilization of a satellite

An adaptive controller for enhancing operator performance during teleoperation

An adaptive controller is developed for adjusting robot arm parameters while manipulating payloads of unknown mass and inertia. The controller is tested experimentally in a master/slave configuration where the adaptive slave arm is commanded via human operator inputs from a master. Kinematically similar six-joint master and slave arms are used with the last three joints locked for simplification. After a brief initial adaptation period for the unloaded arm, the slave arm retrieves different size payloads and maneuvers them about the workspace. Comparisons are then drawn with similar tasks where the adaptation is turned off. Several simplifications of the controller dynamics are also addressed and experimentally verified

What did Aspiring Young Entrepreneurs in Nicaragua Recognize as Agribusiness and Ecotourism Opportunities using Photovoice as a Data Collection Tool?

Interest in entrepreneurship education by scholars and practitioners as a way to overcome poverty is growing. Yet little is known about how entrepreneurship can be a successful approach to achieving prosperity in resource-poor conditions. Entrepreneurship has been mainly associated with the view of entrepreneurs as super humans capable of solving all problems, especially if operating in resource-rich contexts. This qualitative study’s purpose was to explore, through photovoice methodology, the entrepreneurial opportunities involving agribusiness and ecotourism that Nicaraguan students recognized in their communities. Photovoice allowed the researchers to gain in-depth information from students who expressed in images what may have been difficult to explain in words. The students recognized different opportunities linked to their contexts as expressed through photos documenting local assets and materials. The study participants also indicated interests in doing social good, which suggested a more societally oriented view of entrepreneurship. The poor, including youth often marginalized, were able to recognize business opportunities in concert with their economic conditions. Opportunity recognition may be one of the more promising ways to overcome poverty. Its facilitation holds implications for agricultural, tourism, and rural development curricula and educational programming

New remarks on the Cosmological Argument

We present a formal analysis of the Cosmological Argument in its two main forms: that due to Aquinas, and the revised version of the Kalam Cosmological Argument more recently advocated by William Lane Craig. We formulate these two arguments in such a way that each conclusion follows in first-order logic from the corresponding assumptions. Our analysis shows that the conclusion which follows for Aquinas is considerably weaker than what his aims demand. With formalizations that are logically valid in hand, we reinterpret the natural language versions of the premises and conclusions in terms of concepts of causality consistent with (and used in) recent work in cosmology done by physicists. In brief: the Kalam argument commits the fallacy of equivocation in a way that seems beyond repair; two of the premises adopted by Aquinas seem dubious when the terms `cause' and `causality' are interpreted in the context of contemporary empirical science. Thus, while there are no problems with whether the conclusions follow logically from their assumptions, the Kalam argument is not viable, and the Aquinas argument does not imply a caused origination of the universe. The assumptions of the latter are at best less than obvious relative to recent work in the sciences. We conclude with mention of a new argument that makes some positive modifications to an alternative variation on Aquinas by Le Poidevin, which nonetheless seems rather weak.Comment: 12 pages, accepted for publication in International Journal for Philosophy of Religio

Feedback-controlled transport in an interacting colloidal system

Based on dynamical density functional theory (DDFT) we consider a non-equilibrium system of interacting colloidal particles driven by a constant tilting force through a periodic, symmetric "washboard" potential. We demonstrate that, despite of pronounced spatio-temporal correlations, the particle current can be reversed by adding suitable feedback control terms to the DDFT equation of motion. We explore two distinct control protocols with time delay, focussing on either the particle positions or the density profile. Our study shows that the DDFT is an appropriate framework to implement time-delayed feedback control strategies widely used in other fields of nonlinear physicsComment: 6 pages, 5 figure