Women Warriors: Supporting She 'Who Has Borne the Battle'

While new positionsw and doors of opportunity have been opened for women in the services, they still face significant, unique challenges. Career progression is often slower for women and they are underrepresented in the military's senior ranks. Challenges for women with young children and a perceived lack of opportunity for advancement have led many women to leave the service early in their careers. Inadequate military health care for women and staggering rates of sexual assault and harassment are also hindering some female troops from continuing their military careers. These challenges are not only bad for servicemembers' well-being and reflect the military's failure to properly protect its own, but they have a substantial impact on the mission readiness of the overall force. When they come home, female veterans are confronted with new challenges. While it has made strides in recent years, the VA is still underprepared to provide adequate care to the surge of female veterans coming to its hospitals and clinics. In addition, women veterans face significant barreiers when entering the civilian workforce, and homeless rsates among female veterans are on the rise. Given the lack of support services for our women veterans, this comes as no surprise. Female troops and veterans deserve the same access to high-quality health care, transitional resources, and benefits as their male counterparts. After honorably fighting abroad, they should not have to wage new battles here at home. In order to fully honor their outstanding contributions to the military and service to the country, much more must be done to support our women veterans

Open quantum systems and Random Matrix Theory

A simple model for open quantum systems is analyzed with Random Matrix Theory. The system is coupled to the continuum in a minimal way. In this paper we see the effect of opening the system on the level statistics, in particular the $\Delta_3(L)$ statistic, width distribution and level spacing are examined as a function of the strength of this coupling. A super-radiant transition is observed, and it is seen that as it is formed, the level spacing and $\Delta_3(L)$ statistic exhibit the signatures of missed levels.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

A maximum likelihood method to correct for missed levels based on the Δ3(L)\Delta_3(L) statistic

The $\Delta_3(L)$ statistic of Random Matrix Theory is defined as the average of a set of random numbers $\{\delta\}$, derived from a spectrum. The distribution $p(\delta)$ of these random numbers is used as the basis of a maximum likelihood method to gauge the fraction $x$ of levels missed in an experimental spectrum. The method is tested on an ensemble of depleted spectra from the gaussian orthogonal ensemble (GOE), and accurately returned the correct fraction of missed levels. Neutron resonance data and acoustic spectra of an aluminum block were analyzed. All results were compared with an analysis based on an established expression for $\Delta_3(L)$ for a depleted GOE spectrum. The effects of intruder levels is examined, and seen to be very similar to that of missed levels. Shell model spectra were seen to give the same $p(\delta)$ as the GOE.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl

Invisible Wounds: Psychological and Neurological Injuries Confront a New Generation of Veterans

As early as 1919, doctors began to track a psychological condition among combat veterans of World War I known as "shell shock." Veterans were suffering from symptoms such as fatigue and anxiety, but science could offer little in the way of effective treatment. Although there remains much more to learn, our understanding of war's invisible wounds has dramatically improved. Thanks to modern screening and treatment, we have an unprecedented opportunity to respond immediately and effectively to the veterans' mental health crisis. Among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, rates of psychological and neurological injuries are high and rising. According to a landmark 2008 RAND study, nearly 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans screen positive for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or depression. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are also facing neurological damage,. Traumatic Brain Injury, or TBI, has become the signature wound of the Iraq War. The Department of Defense is tracking about 5,500 troops with TBIs, but many veterans are not being diagnosed. No one comes home from war unchanged, but with early screening and adequate access to counseling, the psychological and neurological effects of combat are treatable. In the military and in the veterans' community, however, those suffering from the invisible wounds of war are still falling through the cracks. We must take action now to protect this generation of combat veterans from the struggles faced by those returning from the Vietnam War

Contextualising Teaching and Learning in Rural Primary Schools: Using Agricultural Experience - Volume 1

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Using the Δ3\Delta_3 statistic to test for missed levels in mixed sequence neutron resonance data

The $\Delta_3(L)$ statistic is studied as a tool to detect missing levels in the neutron resonance data where 2 sequences are present. These systems are problematic because there is no level repulsion, and the resonances can be too close to resolve. $\Delta_3(L)$ is a measure of the fluctuations in the number of levels in an interval of length $L$ on the energy axis. The method used is tested on ensembles of mixed Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE) spectra, with a known fraction of levels ($x$) randomly depleted, and can accurately return $x$. The accuracy of the method as a function of spectrum size is established. The method is used on neutron resonance data for 11 isotopes with either s-wave neutrons on odd-A, or p-wave neutrons on even-A. The method compares favorably with a maximum likelihood method applied to the level spacing distribution. Nuclear Data Ensembles were made from 20 isotopes in total, and their $\Delta_3(L)$ statistic are discussed in the context of Random Matrix Theory.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, 4 table

Daniel Mulhall, Irish Ambassador: why I hope the UK will remain in the European Union

If Britain chose to leave the European Union, it would not only have an effect inside the UK, but also on the rest of Europe. In the final month of the referendum campaign, we will be featuring comments from some of Europe’s Ambassadors to the UK on how they view a potential Brexit. Daniel Mulhall, Ireland’s Ambassador, writes on why he hopes Britain will remain in the European Union

Protection of the water environment using balancing facilities.

A monitoring programme of water quality was carried out during wet and dry weather conditions in two balancing ponds adjacent to the A34 Newbury By-pass. The ponds were constructed to treat and store stormwater runoff. Pond B was a vegetated pond planted with Phragmites australis and Pond F/G was a constructed wetland with a sub-surface flow system and P. australis at the inlet and, initially, Typha latifolia at the outlet although this was later replaced by Phragmites. There was little difference between the pollutant removal performances of both ponds although Pond F/G was sometimes more efficient in removing nickel and nitrate and zinc during the summer. Recommendations are made for the design, construction, operation and maintenance and future monitoring of wetlands for highway runoff treatment

Celtic Tiger, Hidden Tales: Living Stories of Career Success for Community Employment Scheme Participants: a Critical Interpretive Analysis

This dissertation explores how Community Employment scheme participants (former non-employed individuals on active labour market programmes) construct and interpret their career experiences in changing micro-individual and macro-social contexts.It finds that the former non-employed are largely excluded from career success research. My qualitative study argues that this omission has resulted in a gap in the career and career success literature and research, as there is a dearth of inquiries on the former non-employed. This in-depth analysis addresses this limitation. I contribute to the careers field by demonstrating the complexity and variability of an underrepresented group‟s career (re)constructions through providing a more holistic analysis than previous inquiries by integrating micro and macro positions to appreciate how the participants (re)construct their career identity in an ever-evolving environment.The study adopts a criticalist and constructivist ontology and a critical hermeneutic and critical interpretive epistemology. It employs a narrative research strategy (understands experience in a person‟s life through their stories), collecting the data through episodic interviews to explore the career success stories of 27 participants.Using the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space (an approach for restorying field texts) allows me to work through the narratives interpretivistically. It permits me to identify a critical moment in each of the participants‟ lives, a moment over which they had varying degrees of control, represented by a choice/fate continuum, e.g., bereavement, illness or altering family responsibilities. I chart their critical moments onto the cornerstones of the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space, and then plot their reactions to these moments, including their evaluation of the outcome of their career experiences (objective and/or subjective factors), and their perception of their agency, or otherwise, over these experiences (fateful or fatalistic responses). Four different strategies of career (re)construction are distinguished. I also describe the impact of one primary structural influence on their career (re)construction strategies, respectively. To understand the participants‟ change process, Giddens‟ fateful moment is operationalised by cross-referencing each person‟s critical moment, career (re)construction strategy and primary structural influence, with the eight principal elements of the fateful moment. The participants‟ interpretations of their career experiences during periods of discontinuity are also revealed.The research makes three contributions: (1) fusing career theory with narrative inquiry within a systems framework to develop the Three-Dimensional Career Success Inquiry Systems Framework; (2) proposing seven categories of career success for the sample; and (3) recommending that a career should be synonymous with life career development, entailing one‟s whole life, not just that which is occupationally orientated.The necessity to incorporate the multifaceted, micro-dynamics of career and identity to comprehend career (re)construction for individuals, in addition to the requirement to take account of structural influences in narrative inquiry in the field of career research, is underlined from the findings