Four Stokes parameter radio frequency polarimetry of a flare from AD Leonis

Observations of the four Stokes parameters of a 430 MHz flare from the UV Ceti-type star AD Leonis are presented. The maximum amplitude of the event was 0.52 flux units and the durations at one-half and one-tenth maximum were 12 and 40 seconds, respectively. The degree of circular polarization at maximum intensity was approximately 56 percent and was later observed to be as high as 92 percent. Linear polarization was also observed at a level of about 21 percent at flare maximum which allowed an upper limit of 440 radians - sq m to be placed on the rotation measure

Are Radio Pulsars Strange Stars ?

A remarkably precise observational relation for pulse core component widths of radio pulsars is used to derive stringent limits on pulsar radii, strongly indicating that pulsars are strange stars rather than neutron stars. This is achieved by inclusion of general relativistic effects due to the pulsar mass on the size of the emission region needed to explain the observed pulse widths, which constrain the pulsar masses to be less than 2.5 Solar masses and radii to be smaller than 10.5 km.Comment: v.2 : 12 pages including 3 figures and 2 tables, LaTex, uses epsfig. This version has one extra figure, few lines of new text and typos fixe

Anti-racist social work in a 'post-race society'? Interrogating the amorphous 'other'

Anti-racist social work is at a crossroads: while on the one hand, racial binaries such as black/white, us/other and slave/master can be useful political tools to understand institutional racism, current contexts of multiculturalism raise questions about the continued relevance of race as a category for analysis. 'Newer' forms of racialised identities are emerging that need to be incorporated into a broader conceptualisation of non-colour-based race theory. In this article, these contradictions are explicated through a phenomenological study of embodied reflections on race, ethnicity and self-identity among social work students. Frantz Fanon's 'fact of blackness' provides an epistemic guide to this phenomenological study, providing a multi-layered examination of social work students' experiential accounts of their embodied identities, their colour, race, blackness, whiteness and sexuality and what this means for self-identity. Tentative student discourses provide powerful insights into the urgent need for a radical turn in (re)locating culture and race studies in the social work curriculum

Self-identity, embodiment and the development of emotional resilience

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright @ The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Recent social work reforms in the UK have highlighted the need for social work practitioners to be empathetic, reflexive and resilient. Current literature defines resilience as the individual's adaptive response to adversity, stress-resistant personality traits and the ability to ‘bounce back’, yet the processes by which resilience is developed remain underexplored. The stressors associated with training to be a social worker particularly necessitate such an investigation. This study adopts a phenomenological approach to explore social work students' lived experiences of managing emotion and developing resilience. Emotion is constructed as a relational concept, developed within intersubjective space and as an embodied experience. Findings indicate tensions in student narratives around the expression of emotion and ‘being professional’. Critical incident narratives reveal often overwhelming difficulties experienced by students, prior to and during the social work programme. A variety of coping strategies were adopted including active resistance, spirituality, critical reflection and social support. Narratives as ‘discourses-in-the-making’ highlight embodiment as a valuable analytical lens by which emotional conflicts are experienced, deconstructed and resolved through the process of integrating the personal and professional self. Spaces to develop emotional resilience within the social work curriculum are discussed

Four rural cemeteries in central western NSW: Islands of Australiana in a European sea?

Vascular plants present in groundstoreys of variously–managed areas in four cemeteries in central western NSW – two on the Central Western Slopes (Garra and Toogong) and two on the Central Tablelands (Lyndhurst and Carcoar) – were recorded over periods of 6–10 years. It was hypothesised that (a) areas of the cemeteries with a history of nil or low disturbance would represent high quality remnant vegetation (i.e. contain a diversity of native species but few naturalised species), and (b) that clearing of woody vegetation, together with similar management (e.g. regular mowing) would result in homogenisation of the groundstoreys such that many species, native and naturalised, would be common to all sites. 344 species (176 native, 154 naturalised and 14 non–naturalised exotics) were recorded across the four cemeteries. Many native species that were rare in the surrounding agricultural lands were present in the cemeteries (enhancing their value as conservation areas) but no cemetery contained areas of groundstorey that would qualify as ‘pristine’. Across all management areas, the proportions of naturalised species in the native + naturalised floras of the cemeteries ranged from 46 to 55 %. Though never dominant, naturalised species also comprised high proportions (42 to 51 %) of the floras of the least disturbed (nil or infrequently mown) areas within each cemetery. Many (40 %) of the species recorded occurred at only one cemetery. This partly explained why the floras of similarly– managed parts of cemeteries on the Central Western Slopes were, contrary to expectations, markedly different to those on the Central Tablelands. However, within the same botanic subdivision, floras – particularly of naturalised species in regularly mown grasslands – were more similar (‘homogenised’) than those of nil or infrequently mown grasslands

Psychological consequences of childhood obesity: psychiatric comorbidity and prevention

Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century with far-reaching and enduring adverse consequences for health outcomes. Over 42 million children <5 years worldwide are estimated to be overweight (OW) or obese (OB), and if current trends continue, then an estimated 70 million children will be OW or OB by 2025. The purpose of this review was to focus on psychiatric, psychological, and psychosocial consequences of childhood obesity (OBy) to include a broad range of international studies. The aim was to establish what has recently changed in relation to the common psychological consequences associated with childhood OBy. A systematic search was conducted in MEDLINE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library for articles presenting information on the identification or prevention of psychiatric morbidity in childhood obesity. Relevant data were extracted and narratively reviewed. Findings established childhood OW/OBy was negatively associated with psychological comorbidities, such as depression, poorer perceived lower scores on health-related quality of life, emotional and behavioral disorders, and self-esteem during childhood. Evidence related to the association between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and OBy remains unconvincing because of various findings from studies. OW children were more likely to experience multiple associated psychosocial problems than their healthy-weight peers, which may be adversely influenced by OBy stigma, teasing, and bullying. OBy stigma, teasing, and bullying are pervasive and can have serious consequences for emotional and physical health and performance. It remains unclear as to whether psychiatric disorders and psychological problems are a cause or a consequence of childhood obesity or whether common factors promote both obesity and psychiatric disturbances in susceptible children and adolescents. A cohesive and strategic approach to tackle this current obesity epidemic is necessary to combat this increasing trend which is compromising the health and well-being of the young generation and seriously impinging on resources and economic costs