Expanding the parameters of academia

This paper draws on qualitative data gathered from two studies funded by the UK Leadership Foundation for Higher Education to examine the expansion of academic identities in higher education. It builds on Whitchurch’s earlier work, which focused primarily on professional staff, to suggest that the emergence of broadly based projects such as widening participation, learning support and community partnership is also impacting on academic identities. Thus, academic as well as professional staff are increasingly likely to work in multi-professional teams across a variety of constituencies, as well as with external partners, and the binary distinction between ‘academic’ and ‘non-academic’ roles and activities is no longer clear-cut. Moreover, there is evidence from the studies of an intentionality about deviations from mainstream academic career routes among respondents who could have gone either way. Consideration is therefore given to factors that influence individuals to work in more project-oriented areas, as well as to variables that affect ways in which these roles and identities develop. Finally, three models of academically oriented project activity are identified, and the implications of an expansion of academic identities are reviewed

Collective Modes of Tri-Nuclear Molecules

A geometrical model for tri-nuclear molecules is presented. An analytical solution is obtained provided the nuclei, which are taken to be prolately deformed, are connected in line to each other. Furthermore, the tri-nuclear molecule is composed of two heavy and one light cluster, the later sandwiched between the two heavy clusters. A basis is constructed in which Hamiltonians of more general configurations can be diagonalized. In the calculation of the interaction between the clusters higher multipole deformations are taken into account, including the hexadecupole one. A repulsive nuclear core is introduced in the potential in order to insure a quasi-stable configuration of the system. The model is applied to three nuclear molecules, namely $^{96}$Sr + $^{10}$Be + $^{146}$Ba, $^{108}$Mo + $^{10}$Be + $^{134}$Te and $^{112}$Ru + $^{10}$Be + $^{130}$Sn.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

On several families of elliptic curves with arbitrary large Selmer groups

In this paper, we calculate the $\phi (\hat{\phi})-$Selmer groups S^{(\phi)} (E / \Q) and S^{(\hat{\varphi})} (E^{\prime} / \Q) of elliptic curves $y^{2} = x (x + \epsilon p D) (x + \epsilon q D)$ via descent theory (see [S, Chapter X]), in particular, we obtain that the Selmer groups of several families of such elliptic curves can be arbitrary large.Comment: 22 page

Asymptotic normalization coefficients for 8B->7Be+p from a study of 8Li->7Li+n

Asymptotic normalization coefficients (ANCs) for 8Li->7Li+n have been extracted from the neutron transfer reaction 13C(7Li,8Li)12C at 63 MeV. These are related to the ANCs in 8B->7Be+p using charge symmetry. We extract ANCs for 8B that are in very good agreement with those inferred from proton transfer and breakup experiments. We have also separated the contributions from the p_1/2 and p_3/2 components in the transfer. We find the astrophysical factor for the 7Be(p,gamma)8B reaction to be S_17(0)=17.6+/-1.7 eVb. This is the first time that the rate of a direct capture reaction of astrophysical interest has been determined through a measurement of the ANCs in the mirror system.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

Singularities of nn-fold integrals of the Ising class and the theory of elliptic curves

We introduce some multiple integrals that are expected to have the same singularities as the singularities of the $n$-particle contributions $\chi^{(n)}$ to the susceptibility of the square lattice Ising model. We find the Fuchsian linear differential equation satisfied by these multiple integrals for $n=1, 2, 3, 4$ and only modulo some primes for $n=5$ and $6$, thus providing a large set of (possible) new singularities of the $\chi^{(n)}$. We discuss the singularity structure for these multiple integrals by solving the Landau conditions. We find that the singularities of the associated ODEs identify (up to $n= 6$) with the leading pinch Landau singularities. The second remarkable obtained feature is that the singularities of the ODEs associated with the multiple integrals reduce to the singularities of the ODEs associated with a {\em finite number of one dimensional integrals}. Among the singularities found, we underline the fact that the quadratic polynomial condition $1+3 w +4 w^2 = 0$, that occurs in the linear differential equation of $\chi^{(3)}$, actually corresponds to a remarkable property of selected elliptic curves, namely the occurrence of complex multiplication. The interpretation of complex multiplication for elliptic curves as complex fixed points of the selected generators of the renormalization group, namely isogenies of elliptic curves, is sketched. Most of the other singularities occurring in our multiple integrals are not related to complex multiplication situations, suggesting an interpretation in terms of (motivic) mathematical structures beyond the theory of elliptic curves.Comment: 39 pages, 7 figure

A light-fronts approach to electron-positron pair production in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

We perform a gauge-transformation on the time-dependent Dirac equation describing the evolution of an electron in a heavy-ion collision to remove the explicit dependence on the long-range part of the interaction. We solve, in an ultra-relativistic limit, the gauged-transformed Dirac equation using light-front variables and a light-fronts representation, obtaining non-perturbative results for the free pair-creation amplitudes in the collider frame. Our result reproduces the result of second-order perturbation theory in the small charge limit while non-perturbative effects arise for realistic charges of the ions.Comment: 39 pages, Revtex, 7 figures, submitted to PR

Core handling and processing for the WAIS Divide ice-core project

On 1 December 2011 the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide ice-core project reached its final depth of 3405 m. The WAIS Divide ice core is not only the longest US ice core to date, but is also the highest-quality deep ice core, including ice from the brittle ice zone, that the US has ever recovered. The methods used at WAIS Divide to handle and log the drilled ice, the procedures used to safely retrograde the ice back to the US National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) and the methods used to process and sample the ice at the NICL are described and discussed

Core handling and processing for the WAIS Divide ice-core project

On 1 December 2011 the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide ice-core project reached its final depth of 3405 m. The WAIS Divide ice core is not only the longest US ice core to date, but is also the highest-quality deep ice core, including ice from the brittle ice zone, that the US has ever recovered. The methods used at WAIS Divide to handle and log the drilled ice, the procedures used to safely retrograde the ice back to the US National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) and the methods used to process and sample the ice at the NICL are described and discussed

Conformational changes of calmodulin upon Ca2+ binding studied with a microfluidic mixer

A microfluidic mixer is applied to study the kinetics of calmodulin conformational changes upon Ca2+ binding. The device facilitates rapid, uniform mixing by decoupling hydrodynamic focusing from diffusive mixing and accesses time scales of tens of microseconds. The mixer is used in conjunction with multiphoton microscopy to examine the fast Ca2+-induced transitions of acrylodan-labeled calmodulin. We find that the kinetic rates of the conformational changes in two homologous globular domains differ by more than an order of magnitude. The characteristic time constants are ≈490 μs for the transitions in the C-terminal domain and ≈20 ms for those in the N-terminal domain of the protein. We discuss possible mechanisms for the two distinct events and the biological role of the stable intermediate, half-saturated calmodulin

Revenue allocation in Formula One: a pairwise comparison approach

A model is proposed to allocate Formula One World Championship prize money among the constructors. The methodology is based on pairwise comparison matrices, allows for the use of any weighting method, and makes possible to tune the level of inequality. We introduce an axiom called scale invariance, which requires the ranking of the teams to be independent of the parameter controlling inequality. The eigenvector method is revealed to violate this condition in our dataset, while the row geometric mean method always satisfies it. The revenue allocation is not influenced by the arbitrary valuation given to the race prizes in the official points scoring system of Formula One and takes the intensity of pairwise preferences into account, contrary to the standard Condorcet method. Our approach can be used to share revenues among groups when group members are ranked several times.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, 6 table