508 research outputs found
New Labour ambiguity, or Neo-liberal consistency? The debate about racial inequality in employment and the use of contract compliance
Many historical studies, some of them comparative, have explored the foundations of welfare states and the birth of unemployment policies in Europe in the late nineteenth century. Nearly all have focused on political debate at national level. This paper bases its analysis on labour market reforms initiated in Strasbourg and Liverpool in the decades preceding World War I. It explores how bona fide unemployed workers, the proper clients of official help, were distinguished from the mass of the poor and indigent. The labour market had to be defined and organized before policies for the unemployed could be put in place. The object is to demonstrate not only how this was done, but also how different perceptions of social justice and economic efficiency influenced both the process and the outcomes of public interventions, in this instance undermining attempts to transfer specific policies from one country to another
Observational confirmation of the Sun's CNO cycle
Gamma rays from a solar flare in Active Region 10039 on 23 July 2002 with the
RHESSI spacecraft spectrometer indicate that the CNO cycle occurs at the solar
surface, in electrical discharges along closed magnetic loops. At the two feet
of the loop, H ions are accelerated to energy levels that surpass Coulomb
barriers for the C-12[H-1, gamma]N-13 and N-14[H-1, gamma]O-15 reactions. First
x-rays appear along the discharge path. Next annihilation of positrons from
N-13 and O-15 [half-life = 10 m and 2 m] produce bright spots of 0.511 MeV
gammas at the loop feet. As C-13 increases from positron decay of N-13, the
C-13[He-4, n]O-16 reaction produces neutrons and then the 2.2 MeV emission line
appears from n-capture on H-1. These results suggest that the CNO cycle changed
the N-15/N-14 ratio in the solar wind and at the solar surface over geologic
time, and this ratio may contain an important historical record of climate
changes related to sunspot activity.Comment: 9 pages, 21 references, 2 figures show x-rays and gamma-rays from
nuclear reactions in a solar-flare-induced electrical discharge. Replaced to
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On the Cosmic Nuclear Cycle and the Similarity of Nuclei and Stars
Repulsive interactions between neutrons in compact stellar cores cause
luminosity and a steady outflow of hydrogen from stellar surfaces. Neutron
repulsion in more massive compact objects made by gravitational collapse
produces violent, energetic, cosmological events (quasars, gamma ray bursts,
and active galactic centers) that had been attributed to black holes before
neutron repulsion was recognized. Rather than evolving in one direction by
fusion, nuclear matter on the cosmological scale cycles between fusion,
gravitational collapse, and dissociation (including neutron-emission). This
cycle involves neither the production of matter in an initial Big Bang nor the
disappearance of matter into black holes. The similarity Bohr noted between
atomic and planetary structures extends to a similarity between nuclear and
stellar structures.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure
Cortisol reactivity to psychosocial stress is greater in sexual risk takers
Several studies have reported an association between deviant behaviour and cortisol reactivity to stress. However relatively few studies have investigated the relationship between psychobiological stress reactivity and sexual risk taking behaviours. In the present study, cortisol reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was measured in 26 healthy young adults prior to the administration of a sexual health and behaviour questionnaire. The cortisol response to the TSST was greater in those individuals who reported that at least one of their previous two sexual partners was someone whom they had just met. Results are discussed in context of a model which suggests that early life stress dysregulates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and increases the likelihood of later life risk taking behaviour. The findings have implications in terms of improving our understanding of psychobiological factors which predispose individuals to engage in adverse sexual health behaviours
Comparison of Intralaminar and Interlaminar Mode-I Fracture Toughness of Unidirectional IM7/8552 Graphite/Epoxy Composite
The intralaminar and interlaminar mode-I fracture-toughness of a unidirectional IM7/8552 graphite/epoxy composite were measured using compact tension (CT) and double cantilever beam (DCB) test specimens, respectively. Two starter crack geometries were considered for both the CT and DCB specimen configurations. In the first case, starter cracks were produced by 12.5 micron thick, Teflon film inserts. In the second case, considerably sharper starter cracks were produced by fatigue precracking. For each specimen configuration, use of the Teflon film starter cracks resulted in initially unstable crack growth and artificially high initiation fracture-toughness values. Conversely, specimens with fatigue precracks exhibited stable growth onset and lower initiation fracture toughness. For CT and DCB specimens with fatigue precracks, the intralaminar and interlaminar initiation fracture toughnesses were approximately equal. However, during propagation, the CT specimens exhibited more extensive fiber bridging, and rapidly increasing R-curve behavior as compared to the DCB specimens. Observations of initiation and propagation of intralaminar and interlaminar fracture, and the measurements of fracture toughness, were supported by fractographic analysis using scanning electron microscopy
User-Centred Design Innovation - Developing Smart Insole Solutions through 3D Printing and App Prototyping
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