The applied ethics aid political philosophy of world poverty and famine

In essence, this thesis is concerned with whether manifest gross inequalities in wealth and evidence of 15,000 deaths each day attributable to poverty are consistent with the concept of a morally just world, and, if not, whether the affluent and those in a position of power are morally obliged to challenge the status quo and provide food and security for all. At the centre of the debate lies an examination of the nature of justice. A survey of utilitarian and Kantian theory lead to the conclusion that neither provide a satisfactory basis upon which to base one's moral principles and thus properly address the problem of poverty and famine. Despite a failure to discuss the specific problem of world poverty in any detail, John Rawls' doctrine of "justice as fairness" is found to provide a more adequate description of justice, reconciling liberal and egalitarian traditions, and forming the theoretical basis from which is derived an overriding obligation to bring about global redistribution to end poverty and guarantee basic standards of liberty and material wealth for the whole of humanity. The debate about world poverty and famine not surprisingly centres around redistributive justice and this raises many questions within the sphere of political philosophy. Significantly, given the important influence which the basic structure of society plays in determining the outcome of our lives, Rawlsian justice is shown to have considerable implications for the reform of contemporary social, political and economic institutions. While a blueprint for the eradication of poverty is beyond the scope of this work, it is clear that a solution is at hand given the necessary political and moral will. In conclusion global government, Itself under an obligation to strive for justice, far from being a humanistic pipedream, is seen to be an end that humanity is under an obligation to achiev

High-pressure annealing of a prestructured nanocrystalline precursor to obtain tetragonal and orthorhombic polymorphs of Hf3N4

Transition metal nitrides containing metal ions in high oxidation states are a significant goal for the discovery of new families of semiconducting materials. Most metal nitride compounds prepared at high temperature and high pressure from the elements have metallic bonding. However amorphous or nanocrystalline compounds can be prepared via metal-organic chemistry routes giving rise to precursors with a high nitrogen:metal ratio. Using X-ray diffraction in parallel with high pressure laser heating in the diamond anvil cell this work highlights the possibility of retaining the composition and structure of a metastable nanocrystalline precursor under high pressure-temperature conditions. Specifically, a nanocrystalline Hf3N4 with a tetragonal defect-fluorite structure can be crystallized under high-P,T conditions. Increasing the pressure and temperature of crystallization leads to the formation of a fully recoverable orthorhombic (defect cottunite-structured) polymorph. This approach identifies a novel class of pathways to the synthesis of new crystalline nitrogen-rich transition metal nitrides

Asymptotically Free Yang-Mills Classical Mechanics with Self-Linked Orbits

We construct a classical mechanics Hamiltonian which exhibits spontaneous symmetry breaking akin the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism, dimensional transmutation, and asymptotically free self-similarity congruent with the beta-function of four dimensional Yang-Mills theory. Its classical equations of motion support stable periodic orbits and in a three dimensional projection these orbits are self-linked into topologically nontrivial, toroidal knots.Comment: 9 pages incl. 5 fig

Sonographically detected costo-chondral dislocation in an abused child - A new sonographic sign to the radiological spectrum of child abuse

A case of an abused child with fractures of the skull, ribs and long bones is presented. Sonographically a costochondral dislocation of the left lower ribs was detected, which has not been reported in the literature

The curious nonexistence of Gaussian 2-designs

2-designs -- ensembles of quantum pure states whose 2nd moments equal those of the uniform Haar ensemble -- are optimal solutions for several tasks in quantum information science, especially state and process tomography. We show that Gaussian states cannot form a 2-design for the continuous-variable (quantum optical) Hilbert space L2(R). This is surprising because the affine symplectic group HWSp (the natural symmetry group of Gaussian states) is irreducible on the symmetric subspace of two copies. In finite dimensional Hilbert spaces, irreducibility guarantees that HWSp-covariant ensembles (such as mutually unbiased bases in prime dimensions) are always 2-designs. This property is violated by continuous variables, for a subtle reason: the (well-defined) HWSp-invariant ensemble of Gaussian states does not have an average state because the averaging integral does not converge. In fact, no Gaussian ensemble is even close (in a precise sense) to being a 2-design. This surprising difference between discrete and continuous quantum mechanics has important implications for optical state and process tomography.Comment: 9 pages, no pretty figures (sorry!

Does d-cycloserine facilitate the effects of homework compliance on social anxiety symptom reduction?

BACKGROUND: Prior studies examining the effect of d-cycloserine (DCS) on homework compliance and outcome in cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) have yielded mixed results. The aim of this study was to investigate whether DCS facilitates the effects of homework compliance on symptom reduction in a large-scale study for social anxiety disorder (SAD). METHODS: 169 participants with generalized SAD received DCS or pill placebo during 12-session exposure-based group CBT. Improvements in social anxiety were assessed by independent raters at each session using the Liebowitz social anxiety scale (LSAS). RESULTS: Controlling for LSAS at the previous session, and irrespective of treatment condition, greater homework compliance in the week prior related to lower LSAS at the next session. However, DCS did not moderate the effect of homework compliance and LSAS, LSAS on homework compliance, or the overall augmenting effect of DCS on homework compliance. Furthermore, LSAS levels were not predictive of homework compliance in the following week. CONCLUSION: The findings support the general benefits of homework compliance on outcome, but not a DCS-augmenting effect. The comparably small number of DCS-enhanced sessions in this study could be one reason for the failure to find a facilitating effect of DCS

Lattice isomorphisms of bisimple monogenic orthodox semigroups

Using the classification and description of the structure of bisimple monogenic orthodox semigroups obtained in \cite{key10}, we prove that every bisimple orthodox semigroup generated by a pair of mutually inverse elements of infinite order is strongly determined by the lattice of its subsemigroups in the class of all semigroups. This theorem substantially extends an earlier result of \cite{key25} stating that the bicyclic semigroup is strongly lattice determined.Comment: Semigroup Forum (published online: 15 April 2011

Intrinsic Moment of Inertia of Membranes as bounds for the mass gap of Yang-Mills Theories

We obtain the precise condition on the potentials of Yang-Mills theories in 0+1 dimensions and D0 brane quantum mechanics ensuring the discretness of the spectrum. It is given in terms of a moment of inertia of the membrane. From it we obtain a bound for the mass gap of any D+1 Yang-Mills theory in the slow-mode regime. In particular we analyze the physical case D=3. The quantum mechanical behavior of the theories, concerning its spectrum, is determined by harmonic oscillators with frequencies given by the inertial tensor of the membrane. We find a class of quantum mechanic potential polynomials of any degree, with classical instabilities that at quantum level have purely discrete spectrum.Comment: 12pages, Latex, minor changes, more explanatory comment