Rats, cockroaches and people like us : views of humanity and human right

Many people appear to believe that there are a growing number of religious conflicts in the world, particularly since the end of the Cold War. On closer examination, however, it seems that the number of conflicts of the type which are today often labelled 'ethnic' or' 'religious' has in fact been growing since the 1950s'. Many such conflicts were already detectable in the period of the Cold War, but at that time, they were usually interpreted within a framework of East-West relations

The Invisible Worlds of Religion and Economy

Twelve years ago I accepted my Chair at ISS with an inaugural lecture entitled Rats, Cockroaches and People Like Us, in which I discussed the relation between people’s views of humanity and actual human rights. In it I made a plea for an intelligent use of the wide range of religious and spiritual resources available to people all over the world for the sake of human rights. In subsequent years I have expanded this argument by advocating the inclusion of religious resources for development in the broadest sense. Twelve years later it seems that, at least in the Netherlands, this remains a controversial proposal, especially in view of the great changes in the political climate at home and abroad since the dramatic events in 2001

Gaussian noise and time-reversal symmetry in non-equilibrium Langevin models

We show that in driven systems the Gaussian nature of the fluctuating force and time-reversibility are equivalent properties. This result together with the potential condition of the external force drastically restricts the form of the probability distribution function, which can be shown to satisfy time-independent relations. We have corroborated this feature by explicitly analyzing a model for the stretching of a polymer and a model for a suspension of non-interacting Brownian particles in steady flow.Comment: 6 pages, submitted to PR

Relation between the High Density Phase and the Very-High Density Phase of Amorphous Solid Water

It has been suggested that high-density amorphous (HDA) ice is a structurally arrested form of high-density liquid (HDL) water, while low-density amorphous (LDA) ice is a structurally arrested form of low-density liquid (LDL) water. Recent experiments and simulations have been interpreted to support the possibility of a second "distinct" high-density structural state, named very high-density amorphous (VHDA) ice, questioning the LDL-HDL hypothesis. We test this interpretation using extensive computer simulations, and find that VHDA is a more stable form of HDA and that in fact VHDA should be considered as the amorphous ice of the quenched HDL.Comment: 5 pages, 4 fig

Equipment, measurement and dose—a survey for therapeutic ultrasound

Background Dosimetry for Ultrasound Therapy (DUTy) is a large international project which addresses the development of a metrological infrastructure for the determination of ultrasound exposure and dose to tissue. Methods In order to seek the views of the wider therapy ultrasound community and to review dose and in situ exposure quantities that have been suggested or used previously, a web-based questionnaire containing a range of questions covering the type of ultrasound equipment that is used and the range of applications for which it has been developed was created at www.​surveymonkey.​com. This questionnaire was intended to cover any contemporary therapeutic ultrasound application (including physiotherapy, lithotripsy and drug delivery) and asked specific questions about quantification of in situ exposure and dose, especially as relevant to treatment planning, standardisation and/or regulation. Results This paper summarises the 123 responses submitted between February and September 2014 to the questions on clinical applications, equipment, quality assurance (QA) and measurement and standards, as well as to those relating to an understanding of “dose” in the context of ultrasound. The full set of anonymous responses is available in an additional Excel file. Conclusions The results clearly demonstrate the need not only for further improvements in measuring devices and for measurement guidelines but also for a wider dissemination and higher awareness of existing standards. Whilst it is unlikely that a single definition of dose can be sufficient for all ultrasound treatment modalities, the answers clearly indicate that many aspects would benefit from clear definitions of relevant dose quantities and shed light on the preferred form of such definitions

Eu-Eu exchange interaction and Eu distribution in Pb_(1-x)Eu_(x)Te from magnetization steps

The magnetization of Pb_{1-x}Eu_{x}Te samples with x = 1.9, 2.6 and 6.0% was measured at 20 mK in fields up to 50 kOe, and at 0.6 K in fields up to 180 kOe. The 20 mK data show the magnetization steps (MSTs) arising from pairs and from triplets. The pair MSTs are used to obtain the dominant Eu-Eu antiferromagnetic exchange constant, J/k_{B} = -0.264 \pm 0.018 K. The exchange constant for triplets is the same. Comparison of the magnetization curves with theoretical simulations indicates that the Eu ions are not randomly distributed over all the cation sites. The deviation from a random distribution is much smaller if J is assumed to be the nearest-neighbor exchange constant J_{1} rather than the next-nearest-neighbor exchange constant J_{2}. On this basis, J is tentatively identified as J_{1}. To obtain agreement with the data, it must be assumed that the Eu ions tend to bunch together. Comparision with microprobe data indicates that the length scale for these concentration variations is smaller than a few micrometer. The theoretical simulations in the present work improve on those performed earlier by including clusters larger than three spins.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figs, Revtex, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Spectroscopy on two coupled flux qubits

We have performed spectroscopy measurements on two coupled flux qubits. The qubits are coupled inductively, which results in a $\sigma_1^z\sigma_2^z$ interaction. By applying microwave radiation, we observe resonances due to transitions from the ground state to the first two excited states. From the position of these resonances as a function of the magnetic field applied we observe the coupling of the qubits. The coupling strength agrees well with calculations of the mutual inductance

Microscopic Calculation of in-Medium Proton-Proton Cross Sections

We derive in-medium PROTON-PROTON cross sections in a microscopic model based upon the Bonn nucleon-nucleon potential and the Dirac-Brueckner approach for nuclear matter. We demonstrate the difference between proton-proton and neutron-proton cross sections and point out the need to distinguish carefully between the two cases. We also find substantial differences between our in-medium cross sections and phenomenological parametrizations that are commonly used in heavy-ion reactions.Comment: 9 pages of RevTex and 4 figures (postscript in separate uuencoded file), UI-NTH-930