Affine Sessions

Session types describe the structure of communications implemented by channels. In particular, they prescribe the sequence of communications, whether they are input or output actions, and the type of value exchanged. Crucial to any language with session types is the notion of linearity, which is essential to ensure that channels exhibit the behaviour prescribed by their type without interference in the presence of concurrency. In this work we relax the condition of linearity to that of affinity, by which channels exhibit at most the behaviour prescribed by their types. This more liberal setting allows us to incorporate an elegant error handling mechanism which simplifies and improves related works on exceptions. Moreover, our treatment does not affect the progress properties of the language: sessions never get stuck

Pinning quantum phase transition of photons in a hollow-core fiber

We show that a pinning quantum phase transition for photons could be observed in a hollow-core one-dimensional fiber loaded with a cold atomic gas. Utilizing the strong light confinement in the fiber, a range of different strongly correlated polaritonic and photonic states, corresponding to both strong and weak interactions can be created and probed. The key ingredient is the creation of a tunable effective lattice potential acting on the interacting polaritonic gas which is possible by slightly modulating the atomic density. We analyze the relevant phase diagram corresponding to the realizable Bose-Hubbard (weak) and sine-Gordon (strong) interacting regimes and conclude by describing the measurement process. The latter consists of mapping the stationary excitations to propagating light pulses whose correlations can be efficiently probed once they exit the fiber using available optical technologiesComment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Comments welcome

Minority Education in Greece: Thrace Muslim Teachers’ Approaches and Views

In this paper, our focus is on the education of children from the Muslim Minority in Western Thrace, an administrative region of Greece. Education in Thrace is a sensitive issue that affects and is influenced by the bilateral relations between Greece and Turkey. More specifically, our research aimed to explore teachers of Muslim origins’ approaches, views and beliefs regarding Muslim students’ schooling. To this end, our research explored these issues in a Case Study using semi-structured interviews of Muslim teachers in Thrace. Our findings show that the policy of positive discrimination that had been applied to members of the Muslim Minority of Western Thrace for more than twenty years, has had positive results, but has now reached its limits. We believe that the findings of our research can inform policy makers, colleges and schools of education, as well as teachers by providing a better understanding of Muslim teachers’ prospects and needs

Minority Education in Greece: Thrace Muslim Teachers’ Approaches and Views

In this paper, our focus is on the education of children from the Muslim Minority in Western Thrace, an administrative region of Greece. Education in Thrace is a sensitive issue that affects and is influenced by the bilateral relations between Greece and Turkey. More specifically, our research aimed to explore teachers of Muslim origins’ approaches, views and beliefs regarding Muslim students’ schooling. To this end, our research explored these issues in a Case Study using semi-structured interviews of Muslim teachers in Thrace. Our findings show that the policy of positive discrimination that had been applied to members of the Muslim Minority of Western Thrace for more than twenty years, has had positive results, but has now reached its limits. We believe that the findings of our research can inform policy makers, colleges and schools of education, as well as teachers by providing a better understanding of Muslim teachers’ prospects and needs

The binding constraint on firms'growth in developing countries

Firms in developing countries face numerous and serious constraints on their growth, ranging from corruption to lack of infrastructure to inability to access finance. Countries lack the resources to remove all the constraints at once and so would be better off removing the most binding one first. This paper uses data from World Bank Enterprise Surveys in 2006-10 to identify the most binding constraints on firm operations in developing countries. While each country faces a different set of constraints, these constraints also vary by firm characteristics, especially firm size. Across all countries, access to finance is among the most binding constraints; other obstacles appear to matter much less. This result is robust for all regions. Smaller firms must rely more on their own funds to invest and would grow significantly faster if they had greater access to external funds. As a result, a low level of financial development skews the firm size distribution by increasing the relative share of small firms. The results suggest that financing constraints play a significant part in explaining the"missing middle"-- the failure of small firms in developing countries to grow into medium-size or large firms.Access to Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Microfinance,Debt Markets,Banks&Banking Reform

Simulating spin-charge separation with light

In this work we show that stationary light-matter excitations generated inside a hollow one-dimensional waveguide filled with atoms, can be made to generate a photonic two-component Lieb Liniger model. We explain how to prepare and drive the atomic system to a strongly interacting regime where spin-charge separation could be possible. We then proceed by explaining how to measure the corresponding effective spin and charge densities and velocities through standard optical methods based in measuring dynamically the emitted photon intensities or by analyzing the photon spectrum. The relevant interactions exhibit the necessary tunability both to generate and efficiently observe spin charge separation with current technology.Comment: 4 pages. Comments welcom

Using Superconducting Qubit Circuits to Engineer Exotic Lattice Systems

We propose an architecture based on superconducting qubits and resonators for the implementation of a variety of exotic lattice systems, such as spin and Hubbard models in higher or fractal dimensions and higher-genus topologies. Spin systems are realized naturally using qubits, while superconducting resonators can be used for the realization of Bose-Hubbard models. Fundamental requirements for these designs, such as controllable interactions between arbitrary qubit pairs, have recently been implemented in the laboratory, rendering our proposals feasible with current technology.Comment: 7 pages (two-column), 3 figure