Ruppeiner Geometry of Anyon Gas

We derive the thermodynamic curvature of a two dimensional ideal anyon gas of particles obeying fractional statistics. The statistical interactions of anyon gas can be attractive or repulsive. For attractive statistical interactions, thermodynamic curvature is positive and for repulsive statistical interactions, it is negative, which indicates a more stable anyon gas. There is a special case between the two where the thermodynamic curvature is zero. Small deviations from the classical limit will also be explored.Comment: 12 page

Transcendence over Diversity: black women in the academy

Universities, like many major public institutions have embraced the notion of ‘diversity’ virtually uncritically- it is seen as a moral ‘good in itself’. But what happens to those who come to represent ‘diversity’- the black and minority ethnic groups targeted to increase the institutions thirst for global markets and aversion to accusations of institutional racism? Drawing on existing literature which analyses the process of marginalization in higher education, this paper explores the individual costs to black and female academic staff regardless of the discourse on diversity. However despite the exclusion of staff, black and minority ethnic women are also entering higher education in relatively large numbers as students. Such ‘grassroots’ educational urgency transcends the dominant discourse on diversity and challenges presumptions inherent in top down initiatives such as ‘widening participation’. Such a collective movement from the bottom up shows the importance of understanding black female agency when unpacking the complex dynamics of gendered and racialised exclusion. Black women’s desire for education and learning makes possible a reclaiming of higher education from creeping instrumentalism and reinstates it as a radical site of resistance and refutation

Prevalence of Muscle Dysmorphia and Associated Health Activities in Male Medical Students in Karachi, Pakistan

Background: Muscle Dysmorphia (MD) is a subtype of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and is currently classified under anxiety disorders (subheading: Obsessive-compulsive disorder) in DSM 5. MD is hypothesized to affect the self-esteem and social outlook of the younger generation. MD shows a higher rate in males and may influence their self-confidence rendering them more prone towards using steroids, supplementary proteins and other drugs to alter their physical outlooks as shown in previous studies. This problem has been on the rise lately due to revolutionary advancement in the media and film industry and the abrupt changes about the standards of physical good looks and body shapes. With the lack of studies done in our population, our study will be helpful to consider the prevalence of the disease in our setting and increase awareness in the general public and clinicians. We hope to help clinicians/ therapists find better options in managing the disease. Materials: We performed a cross-sectional study with a sample size of 246 medical school students in Karachi to collect data through self-administered questionnaires. We used the DSM 5 criteria for the diagnosis of BDD and additional questions on the presence of MD. Nutritional habits, exercise routines, use of supplements and drugs were also obtained for exploratory analysis. Results: Our study predicted the prevalence of MD to be 25%. Other main findings included statistical significant associations between MD and the thoughts and practice of steroid use for muscularity. Conclusion: MD is an underdiagnosed and often unrecognized disease that we believe has significant consequences for the young male population. Further work is needed on this in our part of the world. Our research, we believe, can be a stepping stone for further studies that would incorporate wider populations

Race and sex: teachers' views on who gets ahead in schools?

The research reported here was part of a large study of the impact of age, disability, race and sex on the teaching profession in England. The basic question asked in this research was how do these factors interact with career aspirations and achievements of classteachers, promoted teachers and headteachers? There were three different data sources: a large postal survey drawn from diverse geographic regions across England with over 2000 respondents; face‐to‐face individual interviews with over 100 teachers in 18 case study schools from across all of the main regions of England; discussions with special interest groups of teachers. Not surprisingly, the answer to the above question was complex. Nonetheless, the paper's conclusion highlights some of the noteworthy themes across this broad sample of teachers from primary, secondary and special schools

Aharonov-Casher effect for spin one particles in a noncommutative space

In this work the Aharonov-Casher (AC) phase is calculated for spin one particles in a noncommutative space. The AC phase has previously been calculated from the Dirac equation in a noncommutative space using a gauge-like technique [17]. In the spin-one, we use kemmer equation to calculate the phase in a similar manner. It is shown that the holonomy receives non-trivial kinematical corrections. By comparing the new result with the already known spin 1/2 case, one may conjecture a generalized formula for the corrections to holonomy for higher spins.Comment: 9 page

High-power laser testing of calcium-phosphate-based bioresorbable optical fibers

Silica optical fibers are employed in endoscopy and related minimally invasive medical methods thanks to their good transparency and flexibility. Although silicon oxide is a biocompatible material, its use involves a serious health risk due to its fragility and the fact that potential fiber fragments can freely move inside the body without the possibility of being detected by conventional methods such as X-ray imaging. A possible solution to this issue can be the development of optical fibers based on bioresorbable (i.e., biodegradable and biocompatible) materials, which exhibit the important benefit of not having to be explanted after their functionality has expired. The optical power transmission tests of recently developed single-mode (SM) and multi-mode (MM) bioresorbable optical fibers based on calcium-phosphate glasses (CPGs) are here reported. A continuous-wave (CW) fiber laser at 1080 nm with output power up to 13 W and picosecond laser sources at 515 and 1030 nm with MW pulse peak power were used to test the transmission capabilities of the CPG fibers. No degradation of the CPG fibers transmission under long-term illumination by CW laser was observed. A laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) at a fluence higher than 0.17 J/cm2 was assessed with the picosecond laser sources

Modeling of Vertical Greenery System As Passive Design Strategy for Mitigating Indoor Temperature

The rapid development in developing countries causes decreasing in the green area which leads to the environmental problem. Increasing heat transfer in the building envelope push more energy, especially for air conditioning. Although vertical greenery system is not a new concept, however, the building planners do not use it as one of an alternative design for energy saving yet. This paper will present a study on the office building with vertical greenery system as a building envelope in the tropical area, Indonesia. Data collection was done during summer time, in October 2013. There is two data analysis, based on the field measurement and Ecotect simulation. The result indicates that during data measurement at 05.00 a.m – 06.00 p.m. chamber with vertical greenery system has cooler surface temperatures and smaller in heat transfer. The peak temperatures of the exterior and interior facade with vertical greenery system are 29.13∘C and 25.41∘C, respectively. While for bare wall facade are 32.30∘C for exterior facade and 30.79∘C for the interior facade. The results from the study proved that applying vertical greenery system on the building facade can reduce the heat transfer from the exterior facade to the interior facade

Tales from the playing field: black and minority ethnic students' experiences of physical education teacher education

This article presents findings from recent research exploring black and minority ethnic (BME) students’ experiences of Physical Education teacher education (PETE) in England (Flintoff, 2008). Despite policy initiatives to increase the ethnic diversity of teacher education cohorts, BME students are under-represented in PETE, making up just 2.94% of the 2007/8 national cohort, the year in which this research was conducted. Drawing on in-depth interviews and questionnaires with 25 BME students in PETE, the study sought to contribute to our limited knowledge and understanding of racial and ethnic difference in PE, and to show how ‘race,’ ethnicity and gender are interwoven in individuals’ embodied, everyday experiences of learning how to teach. In the article, two narratives in the form of fictional stories are used to present the findings. I suggest that narratives can be useful for engaging with the experiences of those previously silenced or ignored within Physical Education (PE); they are also designed to provoke an emotional as well as an intellectual response in the reader. Given that teacher education is a place where we should be engaging students, emotionally and politically, to think deeply about teaching, education and social justice and their place within these, I suggest that such stories of difference might have a useful place within a critical PETE pedagogy

A Multiplicity Census of Young Stars in Chamaeleon I

We present the results of a multiplicity survey of 126 stars spanning ~0.1-3 solar masses in the ~2-Myr-old Chamaeleon I star-forming region, based on adaptive optics imaging with the ESO Very Large Telescope. Our observations have revealed 30 binaries and 6 triples, of which 19 and 4, respectively, are new discoveries. The overall multiplicity fraction we find for Cha I (~30%) is similar to those reported for other dispersed young associations, but significantly higher than seen in denser clusters and the field, for comparable samples. Both the frequency and the maximum separation of Cha I binaries decline with decreasing mass, while the mass ratios approach unity; conversely, tighter pairs are more likely to be equal mass. We confirm that brown dwarf companions to stars are rare, even at young ages at wide separations. Based on follow-up spectroscopy of two low-mass substellar companion candidates, we conclude that both are likely background stars. The overall multiplicity fraction in Cha I is in rough agreement with numerical simulations of cloud collapse and fragmentation, but its observed mass dependence is less steep than predicted. The paucity of higher-order multiples, in particular, provides a stringent constraint on the simulations, and seems to indicate a low level of turbulence in the prestellar cores in Cha I.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Determining the electronic performance limitations in top-down fabricated Si nanowires with mean widths down to 4 nm

Silicon nanowires have been patterned with mean widths down to 4 nm using top-down lithography and dry etching. Performance-limiting scattering processes have been measured directly which provide new insight into the electronic conduction mechanisms within the nanowires. Results demonstrate a transition from 3-dimensional (3D) to 2D and then 1D as the nanowire mean widths are reduced from 12 to 4 nm. The importance of high quality surface passivation is demonstrated by a lack of significant donor deactivation, resulting in neutral impurity scattering ultimately limiting the electronic performance. The results indicate the important parameters requiring optimization when fabricating nanowires with atomic dimensions