Minding the expectation gap: Student expectations pre-study abroad in China

Study Abroad (SA) can be expected to promote personal growth, future employability, greater intercultural awareness, adaptability, and efficacy, alongside language improvement. However, students can encounter high thresholds to meeting their own expectations, and may struggle with personal and academic transition into and on return from SA. This study reports on the initial stage of a longitudinal survey-based study of the whole SA experience for a group of UK-based students of Chinese – presenting here students’ pre-departure expectations and goals. Participants had high positive expectations of linguistic gains, adaptability, and knowledge about life in China, but were less aware of broader personal gains in employability, while cultural gains for some suggested a focus on individualised ‘cultural consumption’. We discuss implications for support offered pre-SA to better shape student expectations of realistic benefits and probable challenges, particularly for less familiar SA contexts such as for anglophone students in China

Suppressed silicide formation in FePt thin films by nitrogen addition

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Vol. 331 (2013), DOI: 10.1016/j.jmmm.2012.11.045FePt and FePtN thin films have been prepared on silicon substrates by the relatively new deposition technique known as High Target Utilization Sputtering. Films were annealed post-deposition at temperatures up to 800 °C in order to induce the high-anisotropy L10 phase. The FePt films initially showed an improvement in magnetic properties with annealing temperature, but for annealing above around 400 °C the magnetic properties deteriorated markedly. The magnetic properties of the FePtN films, however, continued to improve with increasing annealing temperature, right up to the maximum temperature applied of 800 °C. Analysis by X-ray diffraction revealed the formation of iron and platinum silicides in FePt films above 400 °C, but that such silicides are absent from the FePtN at all annealing temperatures except 800 °C. This behavior is attributed to the nitrogen in FePtN films reacting preferentially with the silicon in the substrate to form silicon nitride, thus suppressing the formation of platinum and iron silicides. Thus, by introducing nitrogen during the deposition of FePt films on Si substrates the formation of deleterious silicides appears to be suppressed during thermal treatment, thereby offering protection against silicon pollution.Plasma Quest Lt

Izazov eksperimenata virtualnog Comptonovog raspršenja iznad 8 GeV

We discuss the experimental issues confronting measurements of the virtualCompton-scattering (VCS) reaction ep→epγ with electron beams of energy 6 – 30 GeV. We specifically address the kinematics of deeply-virtual-Comptonscattering (deep inelastic scattering, with coincident detection of the exclusive real photon nearly parallel to the virtual photon direction) and large transverse momentum VCS (high energy VCS of arbitrary Q2, and the recoil proton emitted with high-momentum transverse to the virtual photon direction). We discuss the experimental equipment necessary for these measurements. For the deeply virtual Compton scattering, we emphasize the importance of the Bethe-Heitler – Compton interference terms that can be measured with the electron-positron (beam charge) asymmetry, and the electron beam helicity asymmetryRaspravljamo teško´ce s kojima se sučeljavaju mjerenja reakcija virtualnog Comptonovog raspršenja (VCS) ep→epγ pri energijama elektrona od 6 do 30 GeV. Posebno se razmatra kinematika duboko virtualnog Comptonovog raspršenja i VCS s velikim prijenosom impulsa. Raspravljamo mjerne uređaje koji su potrebni za takva mjerenja. Za duboko virtualno Comptonovo raspršenje, naglašavamo važnost Bethe-Heitlerovih interferentnih članova koji se mogu mjeriti asimetrijom elektronpozitron (naboj snopa) i asimetrijom heliciteta elektronskog snopa

Modal Ω-Logic: Automata, Neo-Logicism, and Set-Theoretic Realism

This essay examines the philosophical significance of $\Omega$-logic in Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with choice (ZFC). The duality between coalgebra and algebra permits Boolean-valued algebraic models of ZFC to be interpreted as coalgebras. The modal profile of $\Omega$-logical validity can then be countenanced within a coalgebraic logic, and $\Omega$-logical validity can be defined via deterministic automata. I argue that the philosophical significance of the foregoing is two-fold. First, because the epistemic and modal profiles of $\Omega$-logical validity correspond to those of second-order logical consequence, $\Omega$-logical validity is genuinely logical, and thus vindicates a neo-logicist conception of mathematical truth in the set-theoretic multiverse. Second, the foregoing provides a modal-computational account of the interpretation of mathematical vocabulary, adducing in favor of a realist conception of the cumulative hierarchy of sets

Full-time dynamics of modulational instability in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We describe the full-time dynamics of modulational instability in F=1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensates for the case of the integrable three-component model associated with the matrix nonlinear Schroedinger equation. We obtain an exact homoclinic solution of this model by employing the dressing method which we generalize to the case of the higher-rank projectors. This homoclinic solution describes the development of modulational instability beyond the linear regime, and we show that the modulational instability demonstrates the reversal property when the growth of the modulation amplitude is changed by its exponential decay.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, text slightly extended, a reference adde