What is Colorism?

Analyze any advertising campaign colorism, dark-skinned, skin lightening, skin bleaching or notice the types of people represented in the media and on television and one major conclusion will be made clear -- Colorism is a prevalent issue worldwide. When the complexity of colorism transpires within a race it causes an even greater societal struggle, making it almost impossible to eliminate

Receiving, or ‘Adopting’, Donated Embryos to Have Children: Parents Narrate and Draw Kinship Boundaries

Existing research suggests that embryo donation (ED) may be seen as similar to adoption by those who donate or receive embryos, or it may not. Our qualitative study explored whether having a child via embryo donation initiated kinship connections between embryo donor and recipient families as interpreted by recipient parents. Interviews were conducted with five parents from four families whose child(ren) had been born via embryo donation. All four families had an open-contact relationship set up with the couples who donated their embryos through an agency in the USA. Narrative thematic analysis of interview data and visual family map drawings were used to explore kinship conceptualizations. We conclude that the dilemma experienced by parents who have a child via embryo donation is to decide how to reconcile their child’s different genetic heritage, when gestation and upbringing both clearly boundary family membership solely within the recipient family. While some families were still struggling with this dilemma, one solution embarked upon by some parents when drawing their family map was to expand family membership, not only on the basis of genetics, but also via an appreciation of shared family and community values too

Formation of an embryonic supermassive star in the first galaxy

We studied the gravitational collapse of a warm (~8000 K) primordial-gas cloud as a candidate progenitor for a supermassive star (SMS; >10^5 Msun) using a three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulation, including all the relevant cooling processes of both H_2 and H, which can potentially induce cloud fragmentation. This is the first simulation of this kind to resolve protostar formation. We find that the cloud undergoes runaway collapse without a major episode of fragmentation. Although the H_2 fraction jumps by a large factor via the three-body reaction at ~10^-13 g/cm^3, its cooling remains inefficient due to the optical thickness, and the temperature remains >3000 K. When the central core of the cloud becomes opaque to continuum radiation at ~10^-8 g/cm^3, a hydrostatic protostar with ~0.2 Msun is formed. The protostar grows to the mass ~1 Msun and the radius ~2 AU within ~1 yr via rapid accretion of dense filamentary flows. With high accretion rate ~2 Msun/yr, the protostar is expected to turn into a SMS within its lifetime, eventually collapsing to a seed for the supermassive black hole observed in the early Universe at z~7.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

QUENCHING OF LUMINESCENCE IN SEMICONDUCTORS BY CHARGED DEFECTS

Charged point defects and dislocations create internal electric fields that can prevent the binding of carriers to luminescent centres such as N in GaP. The authors calculate the distribution of fields present in a semiconductor and its effect on the lifetime of an electron trapped at a localised impurity. The results show a decrease in the fraction of effective luminescent centres with increasing concentration of ionised donors and acceptors. Both unscreened dislocations and those with a compensating atmosphere of oppositely charged point defects are considered and the calculations show dark regions around them, as observed

Do Giant Molecular Clouds Care About the Galactic Structure?

We investigate the impact of galactic environment on the properties of simulated giant molecular clouds formed in a M83-type barred spiral galaxy. Our simulation uses a rotating stellar potential to create the grand design features and resolves down to 1.5 pc. From the comparison of clouds found in the bar, spiral and disc regions, we find that the typical GMC is environment independent, with a mass of 5e+5 Msun and radius 11 pc. However, the fraction of clouds in the property distribution tails varies between regions, with larger, more massive clouds with a higher velocity dispersion being found in greatest proportions in the bar, spiral and then disc. The bar clouds also show a bimodality that is not reflected in the spiral and disc clouds except in the surface density, where all three regions show two distinct peaks. We identify these features as being due to the relative proportion of three cloud types, classified via the mass-radius scaling relation, which we label A, B and C. Type A clouds have the typical values listed above and form the largest fraction in each region. Type B clouds are massive giant molecular associations while Type C clouds are unbound, transient clouds that form in dense filaments and tidal tails. The fraction of each clouds type depends on the cloud-cloud interactions, which cause mergers to build up the GMA Type Bs and tidal features in which the Type C clouds are formed. The number of cloud interactions is greatest in the bar, followed by the spiral, causing a higher fraction of both cloud types compared to the disc. While the cloud types also exist in lower resolution simulations, their identification becomes more challenging as they are not well separated populations on the mass-radius relation or distribution plots. Finally, we compare the results for three star formation models to estimate the star formation rate and efficiency in each region.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA