Eight-band k⋅p calculations of the composition contrast effect on the linear polarization properties of columnar quantum dots

We present eight-band k . p calculations of the electronic and polarization properties of columnar InzGa1-zAs quantum dots (CQD) with high aspect ratio embedded in an InxGa1-xAs/GaAs quantum well. Our model accounts for the linear strain effects, linear piezoelectricity, and spin-orbit interaction. We calculate the relative intensities of transverse-magnetic (TM) and transverse-electric (TE) linear polarized light emitted from the edge of the semiconductor wafer as a function of the two main factors affecting the heavy hole-light hole valence band mixing and hence, the polarization dependent selection rules for the optical transitions, namely, (i) the composition contrast z/x between the dot material and the surrounding well and (ii) the dot aspect ratio. The numerical results show that the former is the main driving parameter for tuning the polarization properties. This is explained by analyzing the biaxial strain in the CQD, based on which it is possible to predict the TM to TE intensity ratio. The conclusions are supported by analytical considerations of the strain in the dots. Finally, we present the compositional and geometrical conditions to achieve polarization independent emission from InGaAs/GaAs CQDs. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3346552

The disappearance of the "revolving door" patient in Scottish general practice: successful policies

<b>Background</b> We describe the health of "revolving door" patients in general practice in Scotland, estimate changes in their number over the timescale of the study, and explore reasons for changes, particularly related to NHS and government policy.<p></p> <b>Methods</b> A mixed methods predominantly qualitative study, using a grounded theory approach, set in Scottish general practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with professional key informants, 6 Practitioner Services staff who administer the GP registration system and 6 GPs with managerial or clinical experience of working with "revolving door" patients. Descriptive statistical analysis and qualitative analysis of patient removal episodes linked with routine hospital admissions, outpatient appointments, drug misuse treatment episodes and deaths were carried out with cohorts of "revolving door" patients identified from 1999 to 2005 in Scotland.<p></p> <b>Results</b> A "revolving door" patient is removed 4 or more times from GP lists in 7 years. Patients had complex health issues including substance misuse, psychiatric and physical health problems and were at high risk of dying. There was a dramatic reduction in the number of "revolving door" patients during the course of the study.<p></p> <b>Conclusions</b> "Revolving door" patients in general practice had significant health problems. Their numbers have reduced dramatically since 2004 and this probably resulted from improved drug treatment services, pressure from professional bodies to reduce patient removals and the positive ethical regulatory and financial climate of the 2004 GMS GP contract. This is a positive development for the NHS

"All Those Years, I Kept Him Safe": Maternal Practice as Redemption and Resistance in Emma Donoghue's Room

Philosopher Sara Ruddick argues in Maternal Thinking that maternal practice is characterized by three demands: preservation, growth, and social acceptance. “To be a mother,” Ruddick argues, “is to be committed to meeting these demands by works of preservative love, nurturance, and training” (17). The first duty of mothers is to protect and preserve their children: “to keep safe whatever is vulnerable and valuable in a child” (80). The second demand requires mothers to nurture the child’s emotional and intellectual growth. The third demand of training and social acceptability of children, Ruddick emphasizes, “is made not by children’s needs but by the social groups of which a mother is a member. Social groups require that mothers shape their children’s growth in ‘acceptable’ ways. What counts as acceptable varies enormously within and among groups and cultures” (21). The article examines how the mother in the novel Room performs the three demands of maternal practice in both captivity and freedom. It considers how her strategies of preservation and care—in particular keeping her son with her in Room, her close bond with her son, and her act of extended breastfeeding—are reconstructed as bad mothering upon freedom as the first strategy is read as maternal selfishness and the second two are read as violations of social acceptability, particularly for a male child. The article argues that only when the mother reclaims the maternal authenticity of her maternal practice in Room can she and her son reclaim their connection and achieve healing

In Search of the Goddess: Creating a Feminist Motherline for Mother-Daughter Connection and Empowerment

The term “motherline,” as Sharon Abby explains, “is a term that was first used by Jungian psychologist Naomi Lowinsky to describe the process of reclaiming aspects of the feminine self that have become lost, forgotten or repressed” (844). Current literature on motherlines conveys and confirms the potential of the motherline to empower women to achieve a reclaimed and renewed feminine identity. However, what is not specifically examined in the literature on motherlines is how a woman may reclaim aspects of the feminine self when she is disconnected from her familial and ancestral motherline. Drawing upon the insights of African American and feminist writings on the motherline, this article explores how women may resurrect a lost motherline through a psychic and embodied remembering of, and reconnection to, their ancestral lineage. The article begins with a discussion of the motherline as theorized in womanist and feminist literature, and then visits my own struggle to create a motherline for me and my daughters from a place of psychic and familial dislocation. The article concludes with narrative reflections written by me and my youngest daughter, Casey, about our 2015 journey to Ireland that explores how, in our search for the Goddesses of our Celtic lineage, we created a motherline for connection and empowerment