1,380 research outputs found
Investigating the New Landscapes of Welfare: Housing Policy, Politics and the Emerging Research Agenda
As debates about housing form an increasingly important arena of political controversy, much has been written about the new fissures that have appeared as governments not only struggle to reduce public expenditure deficits but also attempt to address problems such as affordability and homelessness. It is widely anticipated that new conflicts will be played out in the private rental market as access to homeownership becomes unrealistic and the supply of social housing diminishes. However, what other tensions might surface; that hitherto have not been subject to the critical gaze of housing research? In this paper, we provide some thoughts on the nascent policy issues as well as the ideological schisms that are likely to develop in coming years, offering suggestions as to how the focus of housing policy research might be reoriented towards a “politics” framework to capture and better understand the conflicts that are likely to arise
Time evolution, cyclic solutions and geometric phases for general spin in an arbitrarily varying magnetic field
A neutral particle with general spin and magnetic moment moving in an
arbitrarily varying magnetic field is studied. The time evolution operator for
the Schr\"odinger equation can be obtained if one can find a unit vector that
satisfies the equation obeyed by the mean of the spin operator. There exist at
least cyclic solutions in any time interval. Some particular time
interval may exist in which all solutions are cyclic. The nonadiabatic
geometric phase for cyclic solutions generally contains extra terms in addition
to the familiar one that is proportional to the solid angle subtended by the
closed trace of the spin vector.Comment: revtex4, 8 pages, no figur
Assessing carbon storage capacity and saturation across six central US grasslands using data–model integration
Future global changes will impact carbon (C) fluxes and
pools in most terrestrial ecosystems and the feedback of terrestrial carbon
cycling to atmospheric CO2. Determining the vulnerability of C in ecosystems to future environmental change is thus vital for targeted land management and policy. The C capacity of an ecosystem is a function of its C inputs
(e.g., net primary productivity – NPP) and how long C remains in the system
before being respired back to the atmosphere. The proportion of C capacity
currently stored by an ecosystem (i.e., its C saturation) provides information
about the potential for long-term C pools to be altered by environmental and
land management regimes. We estimated C capacity, C saturation, NPP, and
ecosystem C residence time in six US grasslands spanning temperature and
precipitation gradients by integrating high temporal resolution C pool and
flux data with a process-based C model. As expected, NPP across grasslands
was strongly correlated with mean annual precipitation (MAP), yet C
residence time was not related to MAP or mean annual temperature (MAT). We link
soil temperature, soil moisture, and inherent C turnover rates (potentially
due to microbial function and tissue quality) as determinants of carbon residence time. Overall, we found that intermediates between extremes in moisture and
temperature had low C saturation, indicating that C in these grasslands may
trend upwards and be buffered against global change impacts. Hot and dry
grasslands had greatest C saturation due to both small C inputs through NPP
and high C turnover rates during soil moisture conditions favorable for
microbial activity. Additionally, leaching of soil C during monsoon events
may lead to C loss. C saturation was also high in tallgrass prairie due to
frequent fire that reduced inputs of aboveground plant material.
Accordingly, we suggest that both hot, dry ecosystems and those frequently
disturbed should be subject to careful land management and policy decisions
to prevent losses of C stored in these systems.</p
Overcoming cross-cultural group work tensions: mixed student perspectives on the role of social relationships
As universities worldwide rapidly internationalise, higher education classrooms have become unique spaces for collaboration between students from different countries. One common way to encourage collaboration between diverse peers is through group work. However, previous research has highlighted that cross-cultural group work can be challenging and has hinted at potential social tensions. To understand this notion better, we have used robust quantitative tools in this study to select 20 participants from a larger classroom of 860 students to take part in an in-depth qualitative interview about cross-cultural group work experiences. Participant views on social tensions in cross-cultural group work were elicited using a unique mediating artefact method to encourage reflection and in-depth discussion. In our analysis of emergent interview themes, we compared student perspectives on the role of social relationships in group work by their academic performance level. Our findings indicated that all students interviewed desired the opportunity to form social relationships with their group work members, but their motivations for doing so varied widely by academic performance level
The Kentucky Noisy Monte Carlo Algorithm for Wilson Dynamical Fermions
We develop an implementation for a recently proposed Noisy Monte Carlo
approach to the simulation of lattice QCD with dynamical fermions by
incorporating the full fermion determinant directly. Our algorithm uses a
quenched gauge field update with a shifted gauge coupling to minimize
fluctuations in the trace log of the Wilson Dirac matrix. The details of tuning
the gauge coupling shift as well as results for the distribution of noisy
estimators in our implementation are given. We present data for some basic
observables from the noisy method, as well as acceptance rate information and
discuss potential autocorrelation and sign violation effects. Both the results
and the efficiency of the algorithm are compared against those of Hybrid Monte
Carlo.
PACS Numbers: 12.38.Gc, 11.15.Ha, 02.70.Uu Keywords: Noisy Monte Carlo,
Lattice QCD, Determinant, Finite Density, QCDSPComment: 30 pages, 6 figure
Search for low lying dipole strength in the neutron rich nucleus Ne
Coulomb excitation of the exotic neutron-rich nucleus Ne on a
Pb target was measured at 58 A.MeV in order to search for low-lying E1
strength above the neutron emission threshold. Data were also taken on an
Al target to estimate the nuclear contribution. The radioactive beam
was produced by fragmentation of a 95 A.MeV Ar beam delivered by the
RIKEN Research Facility. The set-up included a NaI gamma-ray array, a charged
fragment hodoscope and a neutron wall. Using the invariant mass method in the
Ne+n channel, we observe a sizable amount of E1 strength between 6 and
10 MeV. The reconstructed Ne angular distribution confirms its E1
nature. A reduced dipole transition probability of B(E1)=0.490.16
is deduced. For the first time, the decay pattern of low-lying
strength in a neutron-rich nucleus is obtained. The results are discussed in
terms of a pygmy resonance centered around 9 MeV
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The influence of anthropogenic aerosol on multi-decadal variations of historical global climate
Analysis of single forcing runs from CMIP5 (the fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project) simulations shows that the mid-twentieth century temperature hiatus, and the coincident decrease in precipitation, is likely to have been influenced strongly by anthropogenic aerosol forcing. Models that include a representation of the indirect effect of aerosol better reproduce inter-decadal variability in historical global-mean near-surface temperatures, particularly the cooling in the 1950s and 1960s, compared to models with representation of the aerosol direct effect only. Models with the indirect effect also show a more pronounced decrease in precipitation during this period, which is in better agreement with observations, and greater inter-decadal variability in the inter-hemispheric temperature difference. This study demonstrates the importance of representing aerosols, and their indirect effects, in general circulation models, and suggests that inter-model diversity in aerosol burden and representation of aerosol–cloud interaction can produce substantial variation in simulations of climate variability on multi decadal timescales
Dynamical models for sand ripples beneath surface waves
We introduce order parameter models for describing the dynamics of sand
ripple patterns under oscillatory flow. A crucial ingredient of these models is
the mass transport between adjacent ripples, which we obtain from detailed
numerical simulations for a range of ripple sizes. Using this mass transport
function, our models predict the existence of a stable band of wavenumbers
limited by secondary instabilities. Small ripples coarsen in our models and
this process leads to a sharply selected final wavenumber, in agreement with
experimental observations.Comment: 9 pages. Shortened version of previous submissio
Species Difference of CD137 Ligand Signaling in Human and Murine Monocytes
BACKGROUND: Stimulation of CD137 ligand on human monocytes has been shown to induce DC differentiation, and these CD137L-DCs are more potent than classical DCs, in stimulating T cell responses in vitro. To allow an in vivo evaluation of the potency of CD137L-DCs in murine models we aimed at generating murine CD137L-DCs. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: When stimulated through CD137 ligand murine monocytes responded just as human monocytes with an increased adherence, morphological changes, proliferation and an increase in viable cell numbers. But CD137 ligand signaling did not induce expression of inflammatory cytokines and costimulatory molecules in murine monocytes and these cells had no T cell stimulatory activity. Murine monocytes did not differentiate to inflammatory DCs upon CD137 ligand signaling. Furthermore, while CD137 ligand signaling induces maturation of human immature classical DCs it failed to do so with murine immature classical DCs. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These data demonstrate that both human and murine monocytes become activated by CD137 ligand signaling but only human and not murine monocytes differentiate to inflammatory DCs
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