Impure Thoughts on Inelastic Dark Matter

The inelastic dark matter scenario was proposed to reconcile the DAMA annual modulation with null results from other experiments. In this scenario, WIMPs scatter into an excited state, split from the ground state by an energy delta comparable to the available kinetic energy of a Galactic WIMP. We note that for large splittings delta, the dominant scattering at DAMA can occur off of thallium nuclei, with A~205, which are present as a dopant at the 10^-3 level in NaI(Tl) crystals. For a WIMP mass m~100GeV and delta~200keV, we find a region in delta-m-parameter space which is consistent with all experiments. These parameters in particular can be probed in experiments with thallium in their targets, such as KIMS, but are inaccessible to lighter target experiments. Depending on the tail of the WIMP velocity distribution, a highly modulated signal may or may not appear at CRESST-II.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Conflict in the Statutory Elicitation of Aboriginal Culture in Australia

In order for Aboriginal rights and interests to be recognised under the Native Title Act (1993), such rights and interests must arise from laws and customs that can be shown to have continuity with the particular set of laws and customs that existed at the time of sovereignty, or, at least, at the time of first European contact. This interpretation of continuity has been applied in Australian native title cases since the High Court’s Yorta Yorta decision (Yorta Yorta v the State of Victoria [2002] HCA 58). Yet today’s Aboriginal native title claim groups are also required to participate in other statutory ventures outside of the native title domain. For example, ‘tribal’ representatives in north Queensland are obliged to represent their interests on the Wet Tropics Management Authority, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. In native title terms, however, the activity and time spent participating in these ventures do not ‘count’ as instantiations of traditionally based rights and interests. Furthermore, the powers and rights granted to Aboriginal groups under these statutory ventures are often in conflict with the strictures of current native title interpretations of ‘traditional law and custom and rights and interests’. The effect is to elicit versions of Aboriginal action that may contradict each other legally. In this paper, I discuss some examples of these institutional conflicts engendered by the statutory actions of state and federal government, and comment on the implications for the contemporary Aboriginal articulations of identity and tradition

JASMYN and the Need for LGBTQ+ Specific Organizations in Jacksonville, Florida

Nonprofit organizations receive a substantial amount of their funding from the federal government. In 2017, the current administration proposed cuts in areas of the federal budget that would negatively affect nonprofits and without this essential funding, such organizations may be unable to provide vital resources and services. LGBTQ+ specific organizations in northeast Florida, such as JASMYN, play a role fulfilling the health and social needs of LGBTQ+ youth that would otherwise not be addressed by non-LGBTQ+ specific organizations

An examination of box office relationship quality and relationship selling in Division I college athletics.

College athletics departments have experienced unprecedented growth. However, expenses have risen even faster (Fulks, 2016), and university athletics departments have relied on increased subsidies from host institutions and donations to make ends meet (Fulks, 2016). The root cause behind much of the revenue increases have been credited to large multimedia and broadcast contracts, which guarantee substantial income for decade-long terms (Sherman, 2016). Such agreements leave little room for individual growth, leaving ticket sales as one of the few controllable revenues to which a school could manipulate their own bottom line and increase profitability. Further investigation into box office sales trends are concerning. Attendance has flatlined or decreased in many Division I conferences (Kahn, 2018), and literature has highlighted inefficient box office operations as a possible cause (Bouchet et al., 2011). Research has suggested improving relationship quality between the customer and the box office may yield positive outcomes (Smith & Roy, 2011). However, the degree to which relationship quality effects purchase behaviors is still unknown. Furthermore, business literature has highlighted the importance of relationship selling behaviors in services industries (Crosby et al., 1990; Avila & Inks, 2017) however relationship selling effectiveness has not yet been examined in a sport context. Thus, the purpose of this study was to measure relationship quality and relational selling from the university box office and determine the impact of relationship quality and relationship selling techniques on consumer behavior in Division I college football. The current study utilized a sample of 520 participants representing over 90 Division I FBS schools. Data were collected using Amazon Mechanical Turk and analyzed using a series of hierarchical linear regressions. Relationship quality was measured using the Sport Consumer Team Relationship Quality Scale developed by Kim et al., (2011) while relationship selling was measures using a modified version of Crosby et al.’s (1990) instrument, adapted to fit the sport context. Purchase behaviors of renewal sales, add-on sales, upselling and cross-selling were regressed against the variables. Results showed commitment and customer disclosure as the most predictive variables for football related behavior, while cross selling (to another sport) was predicted by trust, reciprocity, agent disclosure, and cooperative intentions. The findings suggest commitment resembles team identification in its ability to predict consumer behavior, and customer disclosure as an important variable in sales exchanges. Sales training should emphasize the fan’s commitment to increase the likelihood of “new” sales (add-on, upsell), and sales representatives should take care to find out as much about the customer as possible. Additionally, the findings suggest cross-sell pitches should vary from football-specific sales, as the consumers behave differently to different aspects of relationship-based sales pitches in these situations. By leveraging findings regarding increasing relationship quality and relationship selling, athletics departments may be able to increase ticket sales and become more self-sufficient

Transient behavior of surface plasmon polaritons scattered at a subwavelength groove

We present a numerical study and analytical model of the optical near-field diffracted in the vicinity of subwavelength grooves milled in silver surfaces. The Green's tensor approach permits computation of the phase and amplitude dependence of the diffracted wave as a function of the groove geometry. It is shown that the field diffracted along the interface by the groove is equivalent to replacing the groove by an oscillating dipolar line source. An analytic expression is derived from the Green's function formalism, that reproduces well the asymptotic surface plasmon polariton (SPP) wave as well as the transient surface wave in the near-zone close to the groove. The agreement between this model and the full simulation is very good, showing that the transient "near-zone" regime does not depend on the precise shape of the groove. Finally, it is shown that a composite diffractive evanescent wave model that includes the asymptotic SPP can describe the wavelength evolution in this transient near-zone. Such a semi-analytical model may be useful for the design and optimization of more elaborate photonic circuits whose behavior in large part will be controlled by surface waves.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

A mean field description of jamming in non-cohesive frictionless particulate systems

A theory for kinetic arrest in isotropic systems of repulsive, radially-interacting particles is presented that predicts exponents for the scaling of various macroscopic quantities near the rigidity transition that are in agreement with simulations, including the non-trivial shear exponent. Both statics and dynamics are treated in a simplified, one-particle level description, and coupled via the assumption that kinetic arrest occurs on the boundary between mechanically stable and unstable regions of the static parameter diagram. This suggests the arrested states observed in simulations are at (or near) an elastic buckling transition. Some additional numerical evidence to confirm the scaling of microscopic quantities is also provided.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figs; additional clarification of different elastic moduli exponents, plus typo fix. To appear in PR