Effects of plastic coating on K-alpha yield from ultra-short pulse

A study of the K-alpha radiation emitted from Ti foils irradiated with intense, similar to0.2 J, 67 fs, 800 nm laser pulses, scanning a range of intensities (similar to10(15)-10(18) W cm(-2)), is reported. The brightness of single-shot K-alpha line emission from the front of the targets is recorded. The yield from bare titanium (Ti) is compared to that from plastic (parylene-E) coated Ti. It is demonstrated that, for a defocused beam, a thin layer of plastic increases the yield.

Fiddling for Outcomes: Traditional Music, Social Capital, and Arts Policy in Northern Ireland

Arts development policies increasingly tie funding to the potential of arts organisations to effectively deliver an array of extra-artistic social outcomes. This paper reports on the difficulties of this work in Northern Ireland, where the arts sector, and in particular the so-called 'traditional arts', have been drawn into a politically ambiguous discourse centered on the concepts of 'mutual understanding' and, more recently, 'social capital.' The paper traces the recent history of these policies and the difficulties in evaluating the social outcomes of arts programs. The use of the term 'social capital' in the work of Putnam and Bourdieu is considered. The paper argues, through a rereading of Bourdieu's articulation of the 'forms' of capital and Eagleton's 'ideology of the aesthetic,' the concept of social capital can be released from its current neoliberal trappings by imagining a reconnection of the concepts of 'capital' and 'the aesthetic.'