47 research outputs found
The English Mother's Catechism
No full textA page from "The English mother's catechism for her children : containing those things most necessary to be known at an early age..." with questions and answers about the uses of silk and other materials. An illustration on the second side shows a balloon next to a description of the building and functioning of silk balloons.For more information about this item, visit https://archivesspace.mit.edu/repositories/2/digital_objects/61
Detecting student copying in a corpus of science laboratory reports
Get PDFThis case study is an evaluation of generic, general-purpose plagiarism detection systems applied to a specific domain and task: detecting intra-class student copying in a corpus of Biomedical Science laboratory reports. From the outset, our project had the practical, pragmatic aim to find a workable solution to a specific problem. Biomedical Science undergraduates learn experimental methods by working through a series of laboratory experiments and reporting on their results. These laboratory reports are “peer-reviewed” in large classes, following a prescribed marking scheme; as the reports are effectively marked by other students rather than by a single lecturer, there is an opportunity for an unscrupulous student to avoid having to carry out and report on an experiment, by simply copying another student’s report. To reduce this temptation, the Biomedical Science director of teaching, Paul Gent, approached Eric Atwell of the School of Computing and Clive Souter of the Centre for Joint Honours in Science, to look at ways to compare laboratory reports automatically, and flag candidates with signs of copying. We were joined by Julia Medori, forensic linguist from Trinity College Dublin, who developed and evaluated a range of possible solutions
Multi-chronometer dating of the Souter Head Complex: rapid exhumation terminates the Grampian Event of the Caledonian Orogeny
Get PDFThe Souter Head sub-volcanic complex (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) intruded the high-grade metamorphic core of the Grampian Orogen at 469.1 ± 0.6 Ma (uranium-238–lead-206 (238U–206Pb) zircon). It follows closely peak metamorphism and deformation in the Grampian Terrane and tightly constrains the end of the Grampian Event of the Caledonian Orogeny. Temporally coincident U–Pb and argon/argon (40Ar/39Ar) data show the complex cooled quickly with temperatures decreasing from ca.800 °C to less than 200 °C within 1 Ma. Younger rhenium–osmium (Re–Os) ages are due to post-emplacement alteration of molybdenite to powellite. The U–Pb and Ar/Ar data combined with existing geochronological data show that D2/D3 deformation, peak metamorphism (Barrovian and Buchan style) and basic magmatism in NE Scotland were synchronous at ca.470 Ma and are associated with rapid uplift (5–10 km Ma−1) of the orogen, which, by ca.469 Ma, had removed the cover to the metamorphic pile. Rapid uplift resulted in decompressional melting and the generation of mafic and felsic magmatism. Shallow slab break-off (50–100 km) is invoked to explain the synchroneity of these events. This interpretation implies that peak metamorphism and D2/D3 ductile deformation were associated with extension. Similarities in the nature and timing of orogenic events in Connemara, western Ireland, with NE Scotland suggest that shallow slab break-off occurred in both localities
Defending Marshall's 'masterpiece': Ralph Souter's critique of Robbins' Essay
No full textWe examine Ralph W. Souter's defence, in the 1930s, of Marshall's Principles against Robbins' attempt to recast economics as a 'purely formal science of implications'. Souter elaborated on Marshall's invocations progressively to increase the realism of economic science and contrasted this perspective on Marshall with Robbins' atomistic bias, neglect of historical time and irreversibilities, arbitrary restrictions on the scope of economic science and emphasis on logical and mathematical form over content. Souter demonstrates that Robbins takes a Walrasian-inspired perspective on Marshall's equilibrium concept whereas the 'authentically Marshallian' equilibrium notion generally incorporates potential for endogenous change. On this and other matters Souter has doctrinal priority in drawing attention to Marshall's incipient 'evolutionary economics'. Copyright The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.
FracPaQ : A MATLAB™ toolbox for the quantification of fracture patterns
Get PDFWe thank Graham Leslie (BGS Edinburgh) for arranging access to the Spireslack open cast pit, and the Scottish Mines Restoration Trust for permission to work there. Thanks to Clive Rice for showing us Souter Head. This work forms part of a NERC New Investigator award for DH (NE/I001743/1), which is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank Peter Chung at Glasgow for acquiring the SEM BSE images, and Mike Heap at EOST Strasbourg for deforming the Hopeman Sandstone sample. We acknowledge the use and incorporation of lineSegmentIntersect.m by U. Murat Erdem and readtext.m by Peder Axensten, both freely available on the Mathworks FileExchange. We acknowledge detailed and constructive reviews by Paul Gillespie and Mark Fischer, which, together with careful and detailed editorial comments by Bill Dunne, have greatly improved our manuscript.Peer reviewe
Reasons for Regarding Hilarius (Ambrosiaster) as the Author of the Mercatiturner Anecdoton
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Status of coral reefs in tsunami-affected countries: 2005
Get PDFThe major findings of the 60 authors and contributors of this Status of Coral Reefs in Tsunami Affected Countries: 2005 were that:
On 26 December 2004, a major earthquake off Sumatra and a series of secondary earthquakes throughout the Andaman and Nicobar Islands caused many simultaneous tsunamis that radiated around the Indian Ocean;
The tsunamis arrived as huge surges of water that powered over the coral reefs to smash on the land, resulting in enormous loss of life and destruction of property;
Damage to the coral reefs in the Indian Ocean was patchy, site dependent and heavily influenced by local environmental conditions such as coastal bathymetry and damage on land and;
Most of the damage to coral reefs resulted from sediment and coral rubble thrown about by the waves, and smothering by debris washed off the land;
Coral reef damage was greatest in Indonesia, Thailand, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Sri Lanka, whereas there was little damage in countries further away
from the source of the tsunamis because much of the wave energy had dissipated;
Most of the coral reefs of the region, however, escaped serious damage and will naturally recover within 5 to 10 years providing that effective management is implemented to reduce damage from human activities;
A small number of coral reefs were significantly damaged and may take 20 or more years to recover; and they may not return to the previous structure;
The major threats to the coral reefs of the Indian Ocean continue to be from human activities, such as over-fishing, deforestation and climate change. These were far more damaging to coral reefs than the tsunami;
Immediately following the tsunami, many in the local community and volunteers organised beach and reef clean up activities to minimise damage to the coral reefs from debris;
The coral reefs absorbed some of the tsunami energy, thereby possibly providing some protection to the adjacent land, however, mangroves and coastal forests afforded the most protection to infrastructure on the land and probably reduced the loss of life in these areas;
Damage to mangroves was highly variable, ranging from little damage in many areas, to the destruction of entire forests in some areas, such as Aceh province;
Seagrass beds were largely unaffected, although some areas were either eroded or smothered by sediments; and
The major recommendations call for: the establishment of an early warning system; capacity building in integrated coastal management; improved fisheries management and coral reef monitoring; the establishment of more marine protected areas; careful reparation and rehabilitation of tsunami damage; and the development of stronger national oceans policies
