Transnational families, care and wellbeing: The role of legal status and sibling relationships across borders

With transnational mobility on the rise, care is today increasingly carried out across borders, which profoundly impacts the wellbeing of migrants and their families. Drawing on two in-depth qualitative studies with Brazilian migrants in the United States, this article extends discussions on transnational care circulation by exploring two understudied dimensions in transnational care arrangements: legal status and sibling relationships. These two dimensions highlight the importance of legal (undocumented) status and larger family networks, besides the traditional aging parent-adult child dyad, in transnational care practices, family cohesion and wellbeing. The article’s findings are two-fold. First, it shows that undocumented siblings experience long-term psychosocial stress resulting from the legal impossibility of their return visits and to make up for that, they provide emotional forms of care from a distance. Second, it reveals a gendered and sexualized component to care provision within family and sibling relationships, wherein women and gay siblings are typically expected, almost as a ‘natural- ized’ role, to take on care responsibilities. This is the case regardless of being a migrant or non-migrant, docu- mented or undocumented sibling

Near-field interaction between domain walls in adjacent Permalloy nanowires

The magnetostatic interaction between two oppositely charged transverse domain walls (DWs)in adjacent Permalloy nanowires is experimentally demonstrated. The dependence of the pinning strength on wire separation is investigated for distances between 13 and 125 nm, and depinning fields up to 93 Oe are measured. The results can be described fully by considering the interaction between the full complex distribution of magnetic charge within rigid, isolated DWs. This suggests the DW internal structure is not appreciably disturbed by the pinning potential, and that they remain rigid although the pinning strength is significant. This work demonstrates the possibility of non-contact DW trapping without DW perturbation and full continuous flexibility of the pinning potential type and strength. The consequence of the interaction on DW based data storage schemes is evaluated.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 page supplimentary material (supporting.ps

Coupling and induced depinning of magnetic domain walls in adjacent spin valve nanotracks

The magnetostatic interaction between magnetic domain walls (DWs) in adjacent nanotracks has been shown to produce strong inter-DW coupling and mutual pinning. In this paper, we have used electrical measurements of adjacent spin-valve nanotracks to follow the positions of interacting DWs. We show that the magnetostatic interaction between DWs causes not only mutual pinning, as observed till now, but that a travelling DW can also induce the depinning of DWs in near-by tracks. These effects may have great implications for some proposed high density magnetic devices (e.g. racetrack memory, DW logic circuits, or DW-based MRAM).Comment: The following article has been accepted by the Journal of Applied Physic

Determinação da relação solo planta em pomar de citros com diferentes combinações copa/porta-enxerto.

A importância socioeconômica da citricultura no Nordeste brasileiro é incontestável. No entanto, problemas como a distribuição irregular de chuva na região onde se localizam os pomares - concentrada em seis a oito meses do ano - interferem de forma direta no crescimento e desenvolvimento das plantas. Em função disso, a busca de genótipos tolerantes a deficiência hídrica é crucial para a permanência da citricultura nesse território

Scalar Casimir Effect on a D-dimensional Einstein Static Universe

We compute the renormalised energy momentum tensor of a free scalar field coupled to gravity on an (n+1)-dimensional Einstein Static Universe (ESU), RxS^n, with arbitrary low energy effective operators (up to mass dimension n+1). A generic class of regulators is used, together with the Abel-Plana formula, leading to a manifestly regulator independent result. The general structure of the divergences is analysed to show that all the gravitational couplings (not just the cosmological constant) are renormalised for an arbitrary regulator. Various commonly used methods (damping function, point-splitting, momentum cut-off and zeta function) are shown to, effectively, belong to the given class. The final results depend strongly on the parity of n. A detailed analytical and numerical analysis is performed for the behaviours of the renormalised energy density and a quantity `sigma' which determines if the strong energy condition holds for the `quantum fluid'. We briefly discuss the quantum fluid back-reaction problem, via the higher dimensional Friedmann and Raychaudhuri equations, observe that equilibrium radii exist and unveil the possibility of a `Casimir stabilisation of Einstein Static Universes'.Comment: 37 pages, 15 figures, v2: minor changes in sections 1, 2.5, 3 and 4; version published in CQ

Incidence and Health Related Quality of Life of Opioid-Induced Constipation in Chronic Noncancer Pain Patients: A Prospective Multicentre Cohort Study

High rates of opioid use for chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) have been reported worldwide, despite its association with adverse events, inappropriate use, and limited analgesic effect. Opioid-induced constipation (OIC) is the most prevalent and disabling adverse effect associated with opioid therapy. Our aim was to assess the incidence, health related quality of life (HRQOL), and disability in OIC patients.This work was supported by intramural funds from the Chair on Pain Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, and by projects “Porto Neurosciences and Neurologic Disease Research Initiative at i3S” (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000008) and “NanoSTIMA” (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000016), which are financed by the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Space Shuttle program communication and tracking systems interface analysis

The Space Shuttle Program Communications and Tracking Systems Interface Analysis began April 18, 1983. During this time, the shuttle communication and tracking systems began flight testing. Two areas of analysis documented were a result of observations made during flight tests. These analyses involved the Ku-band communication system. First, there was a detailed analysis of the interface between the solar max data format and the Ku-band communication system including the TDRSS ground station. The second analysis involving the Ku-band communication system was an analysis of the frequency lock loop of the Gunn oscillator used to generate the transmit frequency. The stability of the frequency lock loop was investigated and changes to the design were reviewed to alleviate the potential loss of data due the loop losing lock and entering the reacquisition mode. Other areas of investigation were the S-band antenna analysis and RF coverage analysis

Basketball game-related statistics that discriminate between teams season-long success

The aim of the present study was to identify the game-related statistics that discriminate between season-long successful and unsuccessful basketball teams participating in the Spanish Basketball League (LEB1). The sample included all 145 average records per season from the 870 games played between the 2000-2001 and the 2005-2006 regular seasons. The following game-related statistics were gathered from the official box scores of the Spanish Basketball Federation: 2- and 3-point field-goal attempts (both successful and unsuccessful), free-throws (both successful and unsuccessful), defensive and offensive rebounds, assists, steals, turnovers, blocks (both made and received), and fouls (both committed and received). To control for season variability, all results were normalized to minutes played each season and then converted to z-scores. The results allowed discrimination between best and worst teams' performances through the following game-related statistics: assists (SC=0.47), steals (SC=0.34), and blocks (SC=0.30). The function obtained correctly classified 82.4% of the cases. In conclusion, season-long performance may be supported by players' and teams' passing skills and defensive preparation