324 research outputs found
Villain, victim or prophet?: William Gregory and the Great Famine
No full textThe name of Sir William Gregory features in most modern accounts of Ireland in the nineteenth century. It is fair to say, however, that usually he is regarded as a ‘villain’. Gregory is very widely known as the author of a piece of legislation introduced as part of relief measures during the Famine which sought to limit aid to those with a quarter acre or under of land and which became known as the Gregory clause or the quarter acre clause. An article in the New York Times on 16 July 2002 about the dedication of an Irish famine memorial in New York described the 5 million-dollar monument as follows: ‘The quarter-acre size of the monument adheres to the infamous Gregory clause passed by the British parliament in 1847, which decreed that cottiers whose plots exceeded that size would not be eligible for relief. The cottage is roofless because many farmers tore the thatches off their homes to prove destitution and qualify for relief.’ Most modern academic accounts of the Famine have been very critical of Gregory. It is widely accepted that the purpose of the Gregory clause was to assist landlords to clear their estates of pauperised smallholders who were paying little or no rent. This measure has been seen by some as leading to mass evictions and causing the clearance of many small farmers and labourers throughout Ireland.</jats:p
Constructing Spiritual Landscapes: Aspects of Centrality and Peripherality in Anglo- Saxon England and Early Medieval Ireland
No full textAnglo-Saxon ecclesiastical identity is firmly rooted in the isolation of Britain from the Continent, but especially from Rome. In order to demonstrate this, many Anglo-Saxon texts will be examined, among these are Bede's writings, Stephen of Ripon's Life of Wilfrid, and several others. This perception was founded both in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons and factors directly stemming from the conversion. Because of the nature of the conversion, that is, a direct mission from Gregory the Great, the Anglo-Saxons naturally felt a connection to Rome, while at the same time they felt isolated and peripheral because the reason that they were being converted was that they were a peripheral people. The factors originating in the conversion include the importation of Latin as both the language of learning and as the language of culture among the learned. Having brought home Classical and Patristic texts from the Continent, especially histories, Anglo-Saxon authors became aware of the Mediterranean perspective of Britain. That is, the belief that Britain was a cold, frozen island in the far northwestern corner of the world. The Anglo-Saxons internalized this connection and isolation and it is demonstrable both through their writings and through their actions. For example, pilgrimage to Rome appears to have been an important aspect of Anglo-Saxon religious life for secular people, as well as those in the ecclesiastic world. One might consider that all peoples living on islands in the ocean would react to their conversion in this fashion, however, as will be demonstrated, the Irish provide a counter example to the Anglo-Saxons.
The Irish conception of their ecclesiastic identity was founded on Ireland itself. Rather than acknowledge isolation and peripherality as the Anglo-Saxons did, the Irish constructed their homeland to be holy and central in much the same way that the early Christians constructed the holiness of Jerusalem and its environs. That is, they created a landscape full of holy places and holy people. The method that these Irish authors used to create this landscape was to denote the specific location where each particular miracle was performed. This had several effects beyond the overall creation of Ireland as a holy and central place. One of these was that it connected the reader, who most likely would have been local to the miracle being described, more closely to these holy figures, as well as to the physical and spiritual landscape that they lived in. A second function, which was perhaps an unintended consequence, was to force those wishing to live the ascetic life into peregrinatio, that is, lifelong wandering outside of Ireland. Because Ireland itself had become holy in the minds of the early Irish monks, they were unable to effectively be ascetic in the same model as early Christian ascetics, that is, there was no spiritual desert in Ireland for them to retreat into. Thus, they had to leave and go to the Continent or go in search of a 'desert in the ocean'. In addition, an examination of the sources demonstrates that Irish authors used similar language when describing Jerusalem as they did Ireland, which, implies that they regarded the two as significant in holiness. Having constructed Ireland and Jerusalem in these terms, early medieval Irish authors made a strong statement of imagined centrality
A Study of B→cγK in the BaBar Experiment
No full textThe BABAR Collaboration is a high energy physics experiment located at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The primary goal of the experiment is to study charge and parity violation in the B-meson sector, however the copious production of B mesons decaying to other final states allows for a wide-ranging physics program. In particular, one can access the charmonium system via colour-suppressed b → c decays of the type B → cK. This thesis presents a study of B →cγK decays where c includes J/Ψ and Ψ(2S), and K includes K±, KS0 and K*(892). The particular emphasis is on a search for the radiative decays X(3872) → J/Ψγ and X(3872) → Ψ(2S)γ. The X(3872) state is a recently-discovered resonance of undetermined quark composition, speculatively a conventional charmonium state or exotic four-quark di-meson molecule. This research is also sensitive to the well-known radiative charmonium decays B → χc1,2K, which are used as verification for the analysis technique. This dissertation sets the best B → χc1K branching fraction measurements to date, and sees the first evidence for factorization-suppressed B0 → χc2}K*0 decay at a level of 3.6σ. It also provides evidence for X(3872) → J/Ψγ and X(3872) → Ψ(2S)γ with 3.6σ and 3.3σ significance, respectively. The product of branching fractions β(B± → X(3872)K±) • β(X(3872) → J/Ψγ) = (2.8 ± 0.8(stat.) ± 0.2(syst.)) x 10{sup -6} and β(B{± → X(3872)K±) → β(X(3872) → Ψ(2S)γ) = (9.5 ± 2.7(stat.) ± 0.9(syst.)) x 10-6 are measured. These results improve upon previous X(3872) → J/Ψγ measurements, and represent the first evidence for X(3872) → Ψ(2S)γ
The experimental realism of William Dean Howells
No full textThe “experimental” in my title refers to Howells’s self-conscious development of a literary form that could give the most complete, deepest account of a reality characterized by the ordinary and even the banal. For the middle class, Howells’s perennial subject, the norm is to aspire to transcend, and the ordinary can appear elusive, even nonexistent. Of course, in political terms, a middle class culture considers everyone basically the same, this resemblance defining the ordinary. It is assumed that everyone shares the same economic goals, and the same desire for familial and individual success. Being ordinary is therefore a moral quality. This means, paradoxically, that ordinariness can only prove itself in exceptional individuals. To strive is virtuous, to fail is shameful; either way one’s ordinariness is subsumed to a greater drama. The drama at the center of middle class art is the plight of the exceptional individual demonstrating a Platonic ordinariness. It is hard to think of characters in novels who are not exceptional financially or morally. In Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady and The Wings of the Dove finance and morality go together. The novels of Eliot, Dickens, even those of the French realists unfold stories in which ordinary characters, by some exceptional moral quality, try to transcend their economic and historical situations. Howells called this story romantic and insisted on writing about the most mundane aspects of ordinary life. His novels were not about the exceptional who rise above the crowd but about ordinary people who do not transcend but stay on the ground. Howells described this divide between moral ideals and actual economic circumstance as “the infernal juggle of the mind. ” This contradiction at the heart of everyday life was what he wanted to depict. His design of characters and plots, even his sentences, develop continuously into further complexity as they discover the tensions and self-betrayal inherent in middle class optimism. “Discover” is the key term: Howells wrote in order to find out the truth about ordinary life, and the more he discovered the more his novels tended toward disjunction. In resisting the urge to reaffirm middle class morals, he was having not only a political argument with the dominant ideology of late-nineteenth century America but a formal argument with the conventional novel. Down the critical years, Howells’s trust in the novel form to do its own work has been difficult to see because his way of demonstrating it was so unusual. To the extent that his form was un-transcendent, descriptive rather than theoretical, it has been unapparent. My dissertation is an attempt to make evident and describe the working of Howells’s unapparent form. I have used a method of analysis congruent with his practice. I proceed as he wrote, historically, by following the unfolding events of his style and form.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Brian Seto McGrat
A systems analysis of complex software product development dynamics and methods
No full textIncludes bibliographical references (p. 64-65).Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2007.Software development projects and products have long shouldered a reputation for missed deadlines, blown budgets, and low quality. Unfortunately, this negative reputation appears to be supported by more than just anecdotal evidence; quoting an industry study', respected software development expert and author Steve McConnell reports in his book Professional Software Development" that "Roughly 25 percent of all projects fail outright, and the typical project is 100 percent over budget at the point it's canceled." What's more, notes McConnell, "Fifty percent of projects are delivered late, over-budget, or with less functionality than desired." Exactly why software development projects and products have historically performed so poorly and with arguably little if any improvement over the past 40 years, however, is a subject on which there is less agreement. While blame often aligns along functional (product marketing and sales) versus technical (software development) lines, the increasing popularity of different and often contradictory software development methodologies seems to suggest that no real consensus exists within the software development community itself. The goal of this thesis is twofold: 1. To describe a set of key factors to consider when analyzing software processes 2. To outline an organizational framework that is optimized for implementing and managing software development practicesby Gregory B. Russell.S.M
A review of optical diagnostic techniques used to identify uranium spectral signatures
No full textSpectroscopic detection of signatures produced by Nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction (NWMD) is essential for maintaining national security and countering nuclear proliferation. Through non-invasive measurement techniques it is possible to remotely monitor an area and confirm or deny the use of nuclear materials in explosives. Given that all elements have a unique atomic and molecular emission signature, explosive compositions can be determined by making comparisons to known spectral emission data. Atomic and molecular signatures can only be detected at early times during an explosive event when high-energy plasmas are formed. Additionally, the chemical and physical properties, including temperatures and compositions, of these short lifetime plasmas rapidly evolve as the event moves forward in time. For these reasons it is of interest to develop a system capable of gathering and accurately tracking temporal spectral information at early times in an excitation event.
This research aims to implement an optical diagnostic system capable of performing time-resolved emission spectroscopy to accurately identify actinide core signatures in the UV-visible regime. Primary system components included two different material spark chambers, one dust cloud combustion chamber, spectrometer, and two different charge coupled device cameras capable of recording time-resolved spectra. Time-resolved spectra are also produced with a rotating mirror assembly capable of mechanically streaking the emitted light. Multiple methods of material excitation have been investigated including exploding brass bridgewires, graphite electrode sparks containing powders, uranium wire electrode sparks, and ignition of various metal powders to generate burning dust clouds. High-speed images of two out of the three excitation methods are reported. Additionally, the initial gas environments and pressures will be varied to influence the material excitation process.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2020-08-01The student, Brian Read, accepted the attached license on 2018-07-16 at 15:17.The student, Brian Read, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2018-07-16 at 15:26.This Thesis was approved for publication on 2018-07-16 at 16:38.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #12889 on 2018-09-27 at 11:37:23Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-27T16:47:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Bestia 4
No full textItems included in this issue were read at the Society's Fourth International Congress in Margarita Island and Caracas, Venezuela, in May and June, 1991. Items in this yearbook are: Pack Carnes, The Fable and the Anti-Fable: The Modern Faces of Aesop; Marc Shell, Pasiphäe, or On Vaccination and Vaccimulgence; Beth Barnes, John Oldham's Satiric Poetry and the Beast Fable; Thomas Tierney, Samuel Johnson: Beast Fabulist and Satirist on Mankind; David Spooner, From Apuleius to A.R. Wallace: Evolutionary Theory and Some Literary Animals and Insects; Susan Shell, Eating Crow: Rousseau on the Fable; Rev. Gregory I. Carlson, S.J., Horace's and Today's Town and Country Mice; Dennis Leavens, Sacramental Relationships in Kenneth Rexroth's A Bestiary; and Brian Altano, Moral Imperialism in the Ramayana.Editor Benjamin Bennan
Repertoire List
No full textThis project lists approximately 150 works that the author has performed or studied extensively. The repertoire spans Western music history and is sorted accordingly. Within each time period, the works have been organized by their country or geographical region of origin. Two specialties show focus in particular areas of choral repertoire. The first is vocal jazz and the second is nineteenth century German partsongs. All works are listed with the publication information.</p
Repertoire List
No full textThis project lists approximately 150 works that the author has performed or studied extensively. The repertoire spans Western music history and is sorted accordingly. Within each time period, the works have been organized by their country or geographical region of origin. Two specialties show focus in particular areas of choral repertoire. The first is vocal jazz and the second is nineteenth century German partsongs. All works are listed with the publication information.</p
An examination of selected works for percussion: Prelúdio No. 1 Mi Menor (E Minor), op. 11 by Ney Rosauro, Prelúdio No. 2 la maior (a minor) by Ney Rosauro, Rotation IV by Eric Sammut, Water Falls for a Desert by Greg Coffey, Strands of Time by Brian Blume, Surface Tension by Dave Hollinden, bitsmoke by Casey Farina
No full textMaster of MusicDepartment of MusicKurt R. GartnerThis is a report intended for musicians and scholars who seek to enhance their understanding of any number of the following compositions: Prelúdio No. 1 Mi Menor (E Minor), op. 11 by Ney Rosauro, Prelúdio No. 2 la maior (A minor) by Ney Rosauro, Rotation IV by Eric Sammut, Water Falls for a Desert by Greg Coffey, Strands of Time by Brian Blume, Surface Tension by Dave Hollinden, bitsmoke by Casey Farina.
Each work has been analyzed examined in accordance with Jan LaRue’s Guidelines For Style Analysis. For some compositions including only relative-pitch instruments, analysis of harmony has been omitted. For all compositions, the author has added notable performance considerations, essential technical and interpretive considerations in accord with LaRue’s guidelines. Therefore, the approach taken in analytical categories of this document can be exhibited as Sound, Harmony, Melody, Rhythm, Growth, and Performance
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