We present a theoretical study of two- and three-dimensional massless Dirac one-component plasmas embedded in a constant uniform magnetic field. We determine the wavefunctions and Landau energy levels of a massless Dirac fermion in a constant magnetic field. On this basis we consider magnetism of Fermi fluids of massless charged particles. We show that such a three-dimensional Dirac plasma consisting of fermions with the same helicity has its own magnetic moment. We also consider the limit of strong magnetic fields and investigate the De Haas–van Alphen effect. We derive the Kubo formula for the electrical conductivity tensor of massless Dirac plasmas and consider the Shubnikov–de Haas effect. In addition, we propose a model of the static conductivity tensor and employ the matrix version of the classical method of moments to derive a Drude-like formula for the dynamic conductivity tensor for massless Dirac plasmas. We find that the electrical conductivity tensor for Dirac fermions with the right helicity is not isotropic in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field.

The ESA/KU Leuven CubeSpec mission is specifically designed to provide low-cost space-based high-resolution optical spectroscopy. Here we highlight the science requirements and capabilities of CubeSpec. The primary science goal is to perform pulsation mode identification from spectroscopic line profile variability and empower asteroseismology of massive stars.

Many authors have described early signs of abnormal sexuality as predictors of endogenous psychotic disorders, or their premonitory, initial or manifest symptoms. Differences in clinical presentation of abnormal sexual behaviour (ASB) in different nosologic forms have been discussed.

103 persons that committed sexual crimes were examined during a complex forensic sexologic and psychiatric evaluation to compare a clinic presentation of sexual disorders in different mental disorders (MD). Clinical psychopathological and sexological methods were used. MD was diagnosed primarily during the psychiatric evaluation in 82 cases (79.1%). 26 persons had schizophrenia and schizotypal disorders (F20-F21 in ICD-10, group 1), 35 had MD due to brain damage and dysfunction (F06-F07, group 2), 21 had disorders of adult personality and behaviour (F60-F61, group 3). Diagnostic criteria of ICD-10 (F65) and The Scale of Sexual Dysontogenesis were used to assess the elements of ASB.

Statistic analysis showed that the chance for ASB to precede the clinical presentation of MD is higher in the group 1 (26.9%). ASB emerged later or simultaneously with MD in groups 2 (88.6%, 5.7%) and 3 (80.9%, 14.3%).

Modern schizophrenia pathogenesis theories relate emerging of primary negative alterations to pathology of brain systems that modulate functions of the frontal cortex. Early ASB may be attributed to involving limbic and prefrontal structures into the primary pathologic neurofunctional process. These structures participate in forming of sexual behaviour and primary gender identification. Thus, ASB is a marker of increased risk of endogenous MD and can be used for early diagnostics of the disorders.

Schizophrenia patients exhibit inhibitory gating deficit in the prepulse inhibition (PPI) of acoustic startle response (ASR) and in the P50 auditory evoked potential suppression.

Deviant sexual behavior (DSB) often complicates early clinical identifying of schizophrenic disorder. In this study we assessed the inhibitory gating measures in schizophrenic patients with DSB.

Participants (males) were 12 schizophrenic patients with DSB, 14 schizophrenic controls (SC) and 26 healthy controls (HC). DSB was mainly related to disorders of sexual preference. P50 suppression was measured during two runs of 50 click pairs with 500-msec interval. PPI was measured using a series of prepulse-pulse pairs with lead intervals (LI) 60 ms and 120 ms.

SC group showed reduced PPI compared to HC. PPI deficit was the most prominent at 60 ms LI, and was right-sided only at 120-ms LI. DSB group demonstrated left-sided reduced PPI at 60 ms LI and left eye ASR latency reduction at 120 ms LI. SC exhibited the highest (0,87), and HC the lowest (0,39) S2/S1 ratio in P50 paradigm; the intermediate value (0,67) was found in DSB patients. In both patient groups S2/S1 ratio significantly (p < 0,001) differed from that in HC. No significant differences were revealed in P50 and PPI measures between patient groups that may be related to high variability in SC group.

Left-side PPI deficit in DSB patients is possibly related to right hemisphere disturbances that are inherent to patients with sexual disorders. P50 and PPI measures may be useful to identify schizophrenic disorder in patients with DSB.

We study the following problem: For which Tychonoff spaces $X$ do the free topological group $F(X)$ and the free abelian topological group $A(X)$ admit a quotient homomorphism onto a separable and nontrivial (i.e., not finitely generated) group? The existence of the required quotient homomorphisms is established for several important classes of spaces $X$, which include the class of pseudocompact spaces, the class of locally compact spaces, the class of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$-compact spaces, the class of connected locally connected spaces, and some others.

We also show that there exists an infinite separable precompact topological abelian group $G$ such that every quotient of $G$ is either the one-point group or contains a dense non-separable subgroup and, hence, does not have a countable network.

Modern free-electron lasers (FEL) operating in XUV (extreme ultraviolet) or X-ray range allow an access to novel research areas. An example is the ultrafast ionization of a solid by an intense femtosecond FEL pulse in XUV which consequently leads to a change of the complex index of refraction on an ultrashort timescale. The photoionization and subsequent impact ionization resulting in electronic and atomic dynamics are modeled with our hybrid code XTANT(X-ray thermal and non-thermal transitions) and a Monte Carlo code XCASCADE(X-ray-induced electron cascades). The simulations predict the temporal kinetics of FEL-induced electron cascades and thus yield temporally and spatially resolved information on the induced changes of the optical properties. In a series of experiments at FERMI and LCLS, single shot measurements with spatio-temporal encoding of the ionization process have been performed by a correlation of the FEL pump pulse with an optical femtosecond probe pulse. An excellent agreement between the experiment and the simulation has been found. We also show that such kind of experiments forms the basis for pulse duration and arrival time jitter monitoring as currently under development for XUV-FELs.

Grounded on the premise that dust particles are charged hard balls, the analysis in Davletov et al. (Contrib. Plasma Phys., vol. 56, 2016, 308) provides an original pseudopotential model of intergrain interaction in complex (dusty) plasmas. This accurate model is engaged herein to consistently treat the finite-size effects from the process of dust particle charging to determination of the thermodynamic quantities and the dust-acoustic wave dispersion in the strongly coupled regime. The orbital motion limited approximation is adopted to evaluate an electric charge of dust grains immersed in a neutralizing background of the buffer plasma. To account for finite dimensions of dust particles, the radial distribution function is calculated within the reference hypernetted-chain (RHNC) approximation to demonstrate a well-pronounced short-range order formation at rather large values of the coupling parameter and the packing fraction. The evaluated excess pressure of the dust component is compared to the available theoretical approaches and the simulation data and is then used to predict the dust-acoustic wave (DAW) dispersion in the strongly coupled regime under the assumption that the dust particles charge varies in the course of propagation. In contrast to many previous investigations, it is demonstrated for the first time ever that for DAWs the charge variation of dust particles should necessarily be taken into account while evaluating the dust isothermal compressibility.

This study examines the relationship between behavioral courage and job performance, and explores the possible effects of organizational level and gender on this relationship. With a sample of managers from mid- to large-sized for-profit organizations in the United States, we found that behavioral courage was positively associated with job performance. Our results also revealed significant differences in supervisors’ ratings of behavioral courage between employees at low and high organizational levels. The effects of behavioral courage on job performance did not vary by organizational level. In turn, the moderating effect of gender on the association between behavioral courage and job performance was supported. The study results provide important theoretical and practical implications in the fields of organizational behavior, leadership studies, and human resource development. Recommendations for future research are discussed.

Hematite films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of iron pentacarbonyl [Fe(CO)5] in an oxygen plasma were modified by postdeposition (i) oxygen plasma treatment and (ii) short annealing treatments to reduce the defects and to modify the (sub)surface states and consequently the photoelectrochemical properties. The oxygen plasma treatment resulted in the increase of particle size and augmented surface roughening by densification of grains. Moreover, it induced saturated surface states with reactive oxygen species (O−, OH−), evident in the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Under standard illumination (1.5 AM; 100 mW/cm2; 150 W xenon lamp), when compared to the pristine hematite coating (0.696 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V versus RHE and 0.74 Vonset) the oxygen plasma-treated films showed severe deterioration in photocurrent density of 0.035 mA/cm2 and an anodic shift in the onset potential (1.10 Vonset) due to oxygen rich surface. In a second set of experiments, the oxygen plasma-treated hematite films were briefly annealed (10 min at 750 °C) and the signals of Fe 2p and O 1s recovered to higher binding energies, indicating the formation of oxygen vacancies. In addition, a superior photocurrent density value of max. 1.306 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V versus RHE to that of the pristine hematite photoanode with 0.74 Vonset was obtained. Transient absorption spectroscopy further elucidated that the oxygen plasma-induced electron trap states acting as recombination centers that are unfavorable for photoelectrochemical activity. The alteration in Fe:O stoichiometry and thus photocurrent density are corroborated by determination of water oxidation rates in annealed (7.1 s−1) and oxygen plasma treated (2.5 s−1) samples.

Nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as new functional blocks for optical, energy, and biomedical applications, opening a new frontier of rational self-assembly of materials. One of the most controllable assembly strategies relies on programming interparticle interactions using the complementarity of DNA strands, providing selective and reversible interactions between particles of different sizes and shapes. Much progress has been achieved in DNA-guided assembly of particle superlattices. By tuning the interactions, sizes, and shapes of NPs, a wide variety of structures have been assembled. This article discusses the most significant achievements and challenges in assembly of DNA-programmable particle superlattices.

It is now well established that a fraction of the massive (M > 8 M⊙) star population hosts strong, organised magnetic fields, most likely of fossil origin. The details of the generation and evolution of these fields are still poorly understood. The BinaMIcS project takes an important step towards the understanding of the interplay between binarity and magnetism during the stellar formation and evolution, and in particular the genesis of fossil fields, by studying the magnetic properties of close binary systems. The components of such systems are most likely formed together, at the same time and in the same environment, and can therefore help us to disentangle the role of initial conditions on the magnetic properties of the massive stars from other competing effects such as age or rotation. We present here the main scientific objectives of the BinaMIcS project, as well as preliminary results from the first year of observations from the associated ESPaDOnS and Narval spectropolarimetric surveys.