Local authorities should be at the forefront of going green. This will see economic returns as well as environmental benefits

Paul O’Brien argues that councils should be leading the way with renewable energy schemes. They can reap important economic and social rewards as well as environmental benefits

Synthesis of CdS and CdSe nanoparticles by thermolysis of diethyldithio- or diethyldiseleno-carbamates of cadmium

Cadmium sulfide and cadmium selenide nanoparticles have been synthesised by a novel route involving the thermal decomposition of the bisdiethyldithio- or bisdiethyldiseleno-carbamates of cadmium in refluxing 4-ethylpyridine solutions. The nanodispersed materials were studied by electronic spectroscopy and bandgaps were blue shifted. Transmission electron microscopy of the samples showed material to be in the nanosize range and crystalline

Lattice supersymmetry and order-disorder coexistence in the tricritical Ising model

We introduce and analyze a quantum spin/Majorana chain with a tricritical Ising point separating a critical phase from a gapped phase with order-disorder coexistence. We show that supersymmetry is not only an emergent property of the scaling limit, but manifests itself on the lattice. Namely, we find explicit lattice expressions for the supersymmetry generators and currents. Writing the Hamiltonian in terms of these generators allows us to find the ground states exactly at a frustration-free coupling. These confirm the coexistence between two (topologically) ordered ground states and a disordered one in the gapped phase. Deforming the model by including explicit chiral symmetry breaking, we find the phases persist up to an unusual chiral phase transition where the supersymmetry becomes exact even on the lattice.Comment: 5+3 pages. v2: added three short appendices, including numerics comparing various four-fermi perturbation

Drivers of Choice: Parents, Transportation, and School Choice

Based on surveys of two districts, explores the extent to which distance, transportation time, and mode prevent low- and moderate-income families from choosing private, charter, or non-neighborhood schools. Calls for decentralized transportation policies

Surface Free Energies, Interfacial Tensions and Correlation Lengths of the ABF Models

The surface free energies, interfacial tensions and correlation lengths of the Andrews-Baxter-Forrester models in regimes III and IV are calculated with fixed boundary conditions. The interfacial tensions are calculated between arbitrary phases and are shown to be additive. The associated critical exponents are given by $2-\alpha_s=\mu=\nu$ with $\nu=(L+1)/4$ in regime III and $4-2\alpha_s=\mu=\nu$ with $\nu=(L+1)/2$ in regime IV. Our results are obtained using general commuting transfer matrix and inversion relation methods that may be applied to other solvable lattice models.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX 2e, requires the amsmath packag

Developing a coordination chemistry of intact quantum dots: the preparation of novel nanocomposites of PbS with CdS or CdSe

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Deposit insurance, bank incentives, and the design of regulatory policy

This paper was presented at the conference "Financial services at the crossroads: capital regulation in the twenty-first century" as part of session 6, "The role of capital regulation in bank supervision." The conference, held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on February 26-27, 1998, was designed to encourage a consensus between the public and private sectors on an agenda for capital regulation in the new century.Deposit insurance ; Bank investments ; Bank supervision ; Bank capital

The Efficiency and the Conduct of European Banks: Developments after 1992

European Central Bank; economic integration; economic performance; EMU; Euro; financial markets

Introduction: Peasants, Pastoralists and Proletarians: Joining the Debates on Trajectories of Agrarian Change, Livelihoods and Land Use

Recent changes in the agrarian studies and geography literatures present differing views on the pace and trajectory of change in rural developing areas. In this special section of Human Geography, we contrast the theoretical and practice implications of these differing approaches, namely depeasantization, accumulation by dispossession and deproletarianization. Depeasantization refers to change in livelihood activities out of agriculture, long theorized as necessary for an area’s transition into capitalism. Accumulation by dispossession is a process of on-going capital accumulation where a give resource is privatized, seized, or in some other manner alienated from common ownership in order to provide a basis for continued capital accumulation. Deproletarianization occurs when workers are no longer able to freely commodify and recommodify their only commodity, their own labour. In this section, we explore these three theses with case studies that draw upon empirical data. The papers in this collection all speak to one aspect or another of these debates. We do not intend to try to determine a “best approach”, rather we explore strengths and weaknesses of each argument. The production of nature, change in the mode of production and the political economy of nature are discussed in the first article by Brent McCusker. Phil O’Keefe and Geoff O’Brien examine the evolution of worked landscape under pre-capitalist modes of production in riverine ecologies. Through further case studies, Paul O’Keefe explores links between livelihoods and climate change in Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, while Franklin Graham explores the persistence of pastoralism in the Sahel. Finally, Naomi Shanguhyia and Brent McCusker examine the process of governance in dry land Kenya through the study of chronic food shortages

Can magnetar spin-down power extended emission in some short GRBs?

Extended emission gamma-ray bursts are a subset of the `short' class of burst which exhibit an early time rebrightening of gamma emission in their light curves. This extended emission arises just after the initial emission spike, and can persist for up to hundreds of seconds after trigger. When their light curves are overlaid, our sample of 14 extended emission bursts show a remarkable uniformity in their evolution, strongly suggesting a common central engine powering the emission. One potential central engine capable of this is a highly magnetized, rapidly rotating neutron star, known as a magnetar. Magnetars can be formed by two compact objects coallescing, a scenario which is one of the leading progenitor models for short bursts in general. Assuming a magnetar is formed, we gain a value for the magnetic field and late time spin period for 9 of the extended emission bursts by fitting the magnetic dipole spin-down model of Zhang & Meszaros (2001). Assuming the magnetic field is constant, and the observed energy release during extended emission is entirely due to the spin-down of this magnetar, we then derive the spin period at birth for the sample. We find all birth spin periods are in good agreement with those predicted for a newly born magnetar.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA