2,001 research outputs found
Gender Diversity in the UK Construction Industry
For many years, there has been an assumption that the UK construction industry is devoid of gender diversity. Part of this assumption was predicated on the representation of
workers in construction sites, who are predominantly male. However, there are many positions in the construction industry that are not public-facing, and the question is whether the assumption that males fill most of these roles is also true. This issue has existed in the construction industry for many years; it appears that placing the sole onus on construction companies to employ more women may not be producing the desired level of progress. This research aim to establish whether clients can influence gender diversity in the construction industry with an objective of determining the current position of inequality in the construction industry; and existing incentives and frameworks. The research adopted an exploratory approach, with data collected through existing literature and records of 20 major construction companies, followed by interviews with Six individuals working for UK construction companies and clients of varying sizes. The study will awaken the construction industry and how it can initiate new proposals or support schemes that have worked previously, to encourage more
women to join the construction industry. It reveals that clients have an important role to play if the construction industry is to improve on gender diversity through contractual commitments that could be monitored regularly throughout the duration of a project
Influence of the U(1)_A Anomaly on the QCD Phase Transition
The SU(3)_{r} \times SU(3)_{\ell} linear sigma model is used to study the
chiral symmetry restoring phase transition of QCD at nonzero temperature. The
line of second order phase transitions separating the first order and smooth
crossover regions is located in the plane of the strange and nonstrange quark
masses. It is found that if the U(1)_{A} symmetry is explicitly broken by the
U(1)_{A} anomaly then there is a smooth crossover to the chirally symmetric
phase for physical values of the quark masses. If the U(1)_{A} anomaly is
absent, then there is a phase transition provided that the \sigma meson mass is
at least 600 MeV. In both cases, the region of first order phase transitions in
the quark mass plane is enlarged as the mass of the \sigma meson is increased.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Revtex, discussion extended and references added.
To appear in PR
The electroclinic effect and modulated phases in smectic liquid crystals
We explore the possibility that the large electroclinic effect observed in
ferroelectric liquid crystals arises from the presence of an ordered array of
disclination lines and walls. If the spacing of these defects is in the
subvisible range, this modulated phase would be similar macroscopically to a
smectic A phase. The application of an electric field distorts the array,
producing a large polarization, and hence a large electroclinic effect. We show
that with suitable elastic parameters and sufficiently large chirality, the
modulated phase is favored over the smectic A and helically twisted smectic C*
phases. We propose various experimental tests of this scenario.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; new version includes dipolar interactions and
bend-twist couplin
Superluminal pions in a hadronic fluid
We study the propagation of pions at finite temperature and finite chemical
potential in the framework of the linear sigma model with 2 quark flavors and
colors. The velocity of massless pions in general differs from that of
light. One-loop calculations show that in the chiral symmetry broken phase
pions, under certain conditions, propagate faster than light.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures included. Considerably revised, discussions
expanded, one figure added, typos corrected, results unchanged. To be
published in Phys. Rev.
Ab initio study of ferroelectric domain walls in PbTiO3
We have investigated the atomistic structure of the 180-degree and 90-degree
domain boundaries in the ferroelectric perovskite compound PbTiO3 using a
first-principles ultrasoft-pseudopotential approach. For each case we have
computed the position, thickness and creation energy of the domain walls, and
an estimate of the barrier height for their motion has been obtained. We find
both kinds of domain walls to be very narrow with a similar width of the order
of one to two lattice constants. The energy of the 90-dergree domain wall is
calculated to be 35 mJ/m^2, about a factor of four lower than the energy of its
180-degree counterpart, and only a miniscule barrier for its motion is found.
As a surprising feature we detected a small offset of 0.15-0.2 eV in the
electrostatic potential across the 90-degree domain wall.Comment: 12 pages, with 9 postscript figures embedded. Uses REVTEX and epsf
macros. Also available at
http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/bm_dw/index.htm
Positive Pion Production from the Bombardment of 11-B, 12-C, and 40-Ca by 146-159 MeV Polarized Protons
Supported by the National Science Foundation and Indiana Universit
Measurement of Charged Pion Yields from Nuclei in (p,Pi+) Reactions Very Near Threshold
This work was supported by National Science Foundation Grants PHY 76-84033A01, PHY 78-22774, and Indiana Universit
Lice on helmeted guineafowls at five localities in South Africa
A total of 234 helmeted guineafowls, Numida meleagris coronata , were examined for lice at five localities
in South Africa. These were the Mountain Zebra National Park in the eastern Karoo, Cape Province; the
Andries Vosloo Kudu Reserve and the farm Bucklands, in Valley Bushveld, eastern Cape Province; the
Bontebok National Park, south-western Cape Province; and the southern part of the Kruger National Park,
eastern Transvaal Lowveld.
A total of eight louse species, comprising Amyrsidea desousai, Clayia theresae, Goniodes gigas, Goniodes
numidae, Lipeurus numidae, Numidicola antennatus, Numidilipeurus lawrensis and Somaphantus lusius
were recovered from the guineafowls. With the exception of A. desousai, which was not recovered from
the guineafowls in the Bontebok National Park, all eight species were present on the birds at each locality.
The prevalence of infestations on the birds at the various localities ranged from 99,2-100%, and the numbers
of lice present on individual birds, from 0-3619. Goniodes spp. and N. antennatus were the most abundant
and A. desousai the least.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi.
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.Foundation for Research Development. National Parks Board. South African Nature Foundation. Bayer Animal Health.mn201
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Why Are People's Decisions Sometimes Worse with Computer Support?
In many applications of computerised decision support, a recognised source of undesired outcomes is operators' apparent over-reliance on automation. For instance, an operator may fail to react to a potentially dangerous situation because a computer fails to generate an alarm. However, the very use of terms like "over-reliance" betrays possible misunderstandings of these phenomena and their causes, which may lead to ineffective corrective action (e.g. training or procedures that do not counteract all the causes of the apparently "over-reliant" behaviour). We review relevant literature in the area of "automation bias" and describe the diverse mechanisms that may be involved in human errors when using computer support. We discuss these mechanisms, with reference to errors of omission when using "alerting systems", with the help of examples of novel counterintuitive findings we obtained from a case study in a health care application, as well as other examples from the literature
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