558 research outputs found
Researching trust in the police and trust in justice: a UK perspective
This paper describes the immediate and more distant origins of a programme of comparative research that is examining cross-national variations in public trust in justice and in the police. The programme is built around a module of the fifth European Social Survey, and evolved from a study funded by the European Commission. The paper describes the conceptual framework within which we are operating – developed in large measure from theories of procedural justice. It reviews some of the methodological issues raised by the use of sample surveys to research issues of public trust in the police, public perceptions of institutional legitimacy and compliance with the law. Finally it gives a flavour of some of the early findings emerging from the programme
Structure of self-organized Fe clusters grown on Au(111) analyzed by Grazing Incidence X-Ray Diffraction
We report a detailed investigation of the first stages of the growth of
self-organized Fe clusters on the reconstructed Au(111) surface by grazing
incidence X-ray diffraction. Below one monolayer coverage, the Fe clusters are
in "local epitaxy" whereas the subsequent layers adopt first a strained fcc
lattice and then a partly relaxed bcc(110) phase in a Kurdjumov-Sachs epitaxial
relationship. The structural evolution is discussed in relation with the
magnetic properties of the Fe clusters.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Physical Review B September 200
Shear free solutions in General Relativity Theory
The Goldberg-Sachs theorem is an exact result on shear-free null geodesics in
a vacuum spacetime. It is compared and contrasted with an exact result for
pressure-free matter: shear-free flows cannot both expand and rotate. In both
cases, the shear-free condition restricts the way distant matter can influence
the local gravitational field. This leads to intriguing discontinuities in the
relation of the General Relativity solutions to Newtonian solutions in the
timelike case, and of the full theory to the linearised theory in the null
case.
It is a pleasure to dedicate this paper to Josh Goldberg.Comment: 17 pages, no figures. For GRG special issue in honor of Josh Goldber
The Middle Way: East Asian masters students’ perceptions of critical argumentation in U.K. universities.
The paper explores the learning experiences of East Asian masters students in dealing with Western academic norms of critical thinking in classroom debate and assignment writing. The research takes a cultural approach, and employs grounded theory and case study methodology, the aims being for students to explain their perceptions of their personal learning journeys. The data suggest that the majority of students interviewed rejected full academic acculturation into Western norms of argumentation. They instead opted for a ‘Middle Way’ that synergizes the traditional cultural academic values held by many East Asian students with those elements of Western academic norms that are perceived to be aligned with these. This is a relatively new area of research which represents a challenge for British lecturers and students
Atmospheric Heating and Wind Acceleration: Results for Cool Evolved Stars based on Proposed Processes
A chromosphere is a universal attribute of stars of spectral type later than
~F5. Evolved (K and M) giants and supergiants (including the zeta Aurigae
binaries) show extended and highly turbulent chromospheres, which develop into
slow massive winds. The associated continuous mass loss has a significant
impact on stellar evolution, and thence on the chemical evolution of galaxies.
Yet despite the fundamental importance of those winds in astrophysics, the
question of their origin(s) remains unsolved. What sources heat a chromosphere?
What is the role of the chromosphere in the formation of stellar winds? This
chapter provides a review of the observational requirements and theoretical
approaches for modeling chromospheric heating and the acceleration of winds in
single cool, evolved stars and in eclipsing binary stars, including physical
models that have recently been proposed. It describes the successes that have
been achieved so far by invoking acoustic and MHD waves to provide a physical
description of plasma heating and wind acceleration, and discusses the
challenges that still remain.Comment: 46 pages, 9 figures, 1 table; modified and unedited manuscript;
accepted version to appear in: Giants of Eclipse, eds. E. Griffin and T. Ake
(Berlin: Springer
MTDATA and the prediction of phase equilibria in oxide systems : 30 years of industrial collaboration
This paper gives an introduction to MTDATA, Phase Equilibrium Software from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), and describes the latest advances in the development of a comprehensive database of thermodynamic parameters to underpin calculations of phase equilibria in large oxide, sulfide, and fluoride systems of industrial interest. The database, MTOX, has been developed over a period of thirty years based upon modeling work at NPL and funded by industrial partners in a project co-ordinated by Mineral Industry Research Organisation. Applications drawn from the fields of modern copper scrap smelting, high-temperature behavior of basic oxygen steelmaking slags, flash smelting of nickel, electric furnace smelting of ilmenite, and production of pure TiO2via a low-temperature molten salt route are discussed along with calculations to assess the impact of impurities on the uncertainty of fixed points used to realize the SI unit of temperature, the kelvin
Generalized Bose-Einstein Condensation
Generalized Bose-Einstein condensation (GBEC) involves condensates appearing
simultaneously in multiple states. We review examples of the three types in an
ideal Bose gas with different geometries. In Type I there is a discrete number
of quantum states each having macroscopic occupation; Type II has condensation
into a continuous band of states, with each state having macroscopic
occupation; in Type III each state is microscopically occupied while the entire
condensate band is macroscopically occupied. We begin by discussing Type I or
"normal" BEC into a single state for an isotropic harmonic oscillator
potential. Other geometries and external potentials are then considered: the
{}"channel" potential (harmonic in one dimension and hard-wall in the other),
which displays Type II, the {}"cigar trap" (anisotropic harmonic potential),
and the "Casimir prism" (an elongated box), the latter two having Type III
condensations. General box geometries are considered in an appendix. We
particularly focus on the cigar trap, which Van Druten and Ketterle first
showed had a two-step condensation: a GBEC into a band of states at a
temperature and another "one-dimensional" transition at a lower
temperature into the ground state. In a thermodynamic limit in which
the ratio of the dimensions of the anisotropic harmonic trap is kept fixed,
merges with the upper transition, which then becomes a normal BEC.
However, in the thermodynamic limit of Beau and Zagrebnov, in which the ratio
of the boundary lengths increases exponentially, becomes fixed at the
temperature of a true Type I phase transition. The effects of interactions on
GBEC are discussed and we show that there is evidence that Type III
condensation may have been observed in the cigar trap.Comment: 17 pages; 6 figures. Intended for American Journal of Physic
An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics
For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types
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An integrated mid-range theory of postpartum family development: a guide for research and practice.
AIM: This paper is a report of a study to identify parents' perceptions of postpartum family experiences. BACKGROUND: There is a growing worldwide emphasis on family support. Government policy in the United Kingdom advocates a family-centred approach in which a core universal postbirth service is offered to all families with additional support for parents of children with complex needs. Health visitors provide family postpartum care without an agreed theory directing or standardizing practice. There is a need to identify parental experiences to define family-centred care. METHOD: A qualitative, exploratory approach was undertaken using a purposive sample of 17 postpartum families. Data were collected in one region of Northern Ireland in 2001-2002. Participants' experiences and views were accessed during two focus groups with a total of seven participants, and six in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was conducted. FINDINGS: One core theme, 'thriving and surviving', and three main themes, 'baby nurture', 'life changes', 'coping and adapting resources', were identified to describe how parents developed during the first 8-week postpartum. These were influenced by the physical, the psychosocial and the environmental factors. The identified themes were mapped together to form an Integrated Mid-Range Theory of Postpartum Parent Development. CONCLUSION: As parents need to negotiate successfully both present coping and future development during the postpartum period, there is a need for professionals to offer services that are orientated to holistic short- and long-term well-being. The findings, further to additional research, may be used by health visitors and other professionals to direct universal postpartum care
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