760 research outputs found
The GINGER Project and status of the ring-laser of LNGS
A ring-laser attached to the Earth measures the absolute angular velocity of the Earth summed
to the relativistic precessions, de Sitter and Lense-Thirring. GINGER (Gyroscopes IN GEneral
Relativity) is a project aiming at measuring the LenseThirring effect with a ground based detector;
it is based on an array of ring-lasers. Comparing the Earth angular velocity measured
by IERS and the measurement done with the GINGER array, the Lense-Thirring effect can be
evaluated. Compared to the existing space experiments, GINGER provides a local measurement,
not the averaged value and it is unnecessary to model the gravitational field. It is a proposal,
but it is not far from being a reality. In fact the GrossRing G of the Geodesy Observatory of
Wettzell has a sensitivity very close to the necessary one. G ofWettzell is part of the IERS system
which provides the measure of the Length Of the DAY (LOD); G provides information on the fast
component of LOD. In the last few years, a roadmap toward GINGER has been outlined. The
experiment G-GranSasso, financed by the INFN Commission II, is developing instrumentations
and tests along the roadmap of GINGER. In this short paper the main activities of G-GranSasso
and some results will be presented. The first results of GINGERino will be reported, GINGERino
is the large ring-laser installed inside LNGS and now in the commissioning phase. Ring-lasers
provide as well important informations for geophysics, in particular the rotational seismology,
which is an emerging field of science. GINGERino is one of the three experiments of common
interest between INFN and INGV
Scholar-activists in an expanding European food sovereignty movement
This article analyzes the roles, relations, and positions of scholar-activists in the European food sovereignty movement. In doing so, we document, make visible and question the political dimensions of researchers' participation in the movement. We argue that scholar-activists are part of the movement, but are distinct from the affected constituencies, put in place to ensure adequate representation of key movement actors. This is because scholar-activists lack a collective identity, have no processes to formulate collective demands, and no mechanisms for inter-researcher and researchers-movement communication. We reflect on whether and how scholar-activists could organize, and discuss possible pathways for a more cohesive and stronger researcher engagement in the movement.</p
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Time, risk and midwife practice: The vaginal examination
In this article, we examine the impact on midwifery practice of clinical governance in the UK with its shift from individual autonomous practice based on personal experience and intuition (embodied knowledge) to the collective control of work based on guidelines and protocols (encoded knowledge) associated with the scientific-bureaucratic approach to care. We focus on the ways in which midwives use partograms and associated vaginal examinations to monitor and manage the progress of labour. The partogram represents (among other things) a timetable for dilation of the cervix during labour. Women who fail to keep up with this timetable are shifted from a low-to-high risk category and subjected to additional surveillance and intervention. In this article, we draw on empirical evidence taken from two independent ethnographic studies of midwifery talk and practice in England undertaken in 2005-2007 and 2008-2010, to describe the ways in which midwives practice of vaginal examinations during labour both complies with, while at the same time creatively subverts, the scientific-bureaucratic approach to maternity care. We argue that although divergent in nature, each way of practicing is mutually dependent upon the other: the space afforded by midwifery creativity not only co-exists with the scientific-bureaucratic approach to care, but also sustains it. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis
The NuMI Neutrino Beam and Potential for an Off-Axis Experiment
The Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) facility at Fermilab is under
construction and due to begin operations in late 2004. NuMI will deliver an
intense beam of variable energy 2-20 GeV directed into the Earth at
58 mrad. Several aspects of the design are reviewed, and potential limitations
to the ultimate neutrino flux are described. In addition, potential
measurements of neutrino mixing properties are described.Comment: talk given at NuFact '02, Imperial College London, proceedings to
appear in J. Phys. G, revised to add a referenc
Chewing Through the Miocene: An Examination of the Feeding Musculature in the Ground Sloth Hapalops from South America (Mammalia: Pilosa)
Hapalops, a smaller-sized and early sloth of the Megatheroidea, appeared in the middle Miocene Santa Cruz formation of Argentina. This genus is part of the group from which later, larger megatheroids arose, i.e., Nothrotheriops and Megatherium. Many cranial characters support this idea; however Hapalops is not merely a smaller antecedent of the later forms. Specifically, Hapalops retains short anterior caniniform teeth, and a temporomandibular joint elevated above the cheek tooth row; a combination distinct among sloths. An elevated temporomandibular joint occurs in Bradypus, a tree sloth with anterior chisel-shaped teeth instead of caniniforms, and the tree sloth Choloepus, which is aligned with the megalonychids, has anterior caniniforms. Hapalops has an elongated zygomatic ascending process that is reminiscent of that in Bradypus; however, the Bradypus skull is extremely foreshortened while that of Hapalops is elongated, as in nothrotheres, but not deepened as in megatheres. Previous work identified many sloth cranial character complexes, and functional limitations on skull feature combinations. The unique Hapalops character patterns indicate a selective feeder with a mediolaterally oriented grinding stroke during mastication
VEP oscillation solutions to the solar neutrino problem
We study the solar neutrino problem within the framework of a parametrized
post-Newtonian formulation for the gravitational interaction of the neutrinos,
which incorporates a violation to the equivalence principle (VEP). Using the
current data on the rates and the energy spectrum we find two possible
oscillation solutions, both for a large mixing angle. One of them involves the
MSW effect in matter and the other corresponds to vacuum oscillations. An
interesting characteristic of this mechanism is that it predicts a semi-annual
variation of the neutrino flux. Our analysis provides new constraints for some
VEP parameters.Comment: revtex, 18 pages, 11 figure
Nebuliser therapy in the intensive care unit
The relationship between identity, lived experience, sexual practices and the language through which these are conveyed has been widely debated in sexuality literature. For example, ‘coming out’ has famously been conceptualised as a ‘speech act’ (Sedgwick 1990) and as a collective narrative (Plummer 1995), while a growing concern for individuals’ diverse identifications in relations to their sexual and gender practices has produced interesting research focusing on linguistic practices among LGBT-identified individuals (Leap 1995; Kulick 2000; Cameron and Kulick 2006; Farqhar 2000). While an explicit focus on language remains marginal to literature on sexualities (Kulick 2000), issue of language use and translation are seldom explicitly addressed in the growing literature on intersectionality. Yet intersectional perspectives ‘reject the separability of analytical and identity categories’ (McCall 2005:1771), and therefore have an implicit stake in the ‘vernacular’ language of the researched, in the ‘scientific’ language of the researcher and in the relationship of continuity between the two. Drawing on literature within gay and lesbian/queer studies and cross-cultural studies, this chapter revisits debates on sexuality, language and intersectionality. I argue for the importance of giving careful consideration to the language we choose to use as researchers to collectively define the people whose experiences we try to capture. I also propose that language itself can be investigated as a productive way to foreground how individual and collective identifications are discursively constructed, and to unpack the diversity of lived experience. I address intersectional complexity as a methodological issue, where methodology is understood not only as the methods and practicalities of doing research, but more broadly as ‘a coherent set of ideas about the philosophy, methods and data that underlie the research process and the production of knowledge’ (McCall 2005:1774). My points are illustrated with examples drawn from my ethnographic study on ‘lesbian’ identity in urban Russia, interspersed with insights from existing literature. In particular, I aim to show that an explicit focus on language can be a productive way to explore the intersections between the global, the national and the local in cross-cultural research on sexuality, while also addressing issues of positionality and accountability to the communities researched
Measurement of Total and Differential Cross Sections of Neutrino and Antineutrino Coherent Production on Carbon
Neutrino induced coherent charged pion production on nuclei,
, is a rare inelastic interaction in
which the four-momentum squared transfered to the nucleus is nearly zero,
leaving it intact. We identify such events in the scintillator of MINERvA by
reconstructing |t| from the final state pion and muon momenta and by removing
events with evidence of energetic nuclear recoil or production of other final
state particles. We measure the total neutrino and antineutrino cross sections
as a function of neutrino energy between 2 and 20 GeV and measure flux
integrated differential cross sections as a function of , and
. The dependence and equality of the neutrino and
anti-neutrino cross-sections at finite provide a confirmation of Adler's
PCAC hypothesis
A Precise Determination of Electroweak Parameters in Neutrino-Nucleon Scattering
The NuTeV collaboration has extracted sin^2theta_W from the ratios of neutral
current to charged current neutrino and anti-neutrino cross-sections. Our
value, sin^2theta_W(on-shell)=0.2277+/-0.0013(stat)+/-0.0009(syst), is three
standard deviations above the standard model prediction. We also present a
model independent analysis of the same data.Comment: ReVTeX, 5 pp, 1fig; v2. revised SM prediction; v3. more sig. digits
in Eqns 6-7, fix error in Eqn
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