776 research outputs found
Development of an autonomous dissolved inorganic carbon sensor for oceanic measurements
No full textSince the industrial revolution the CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere have increased from280 ppm to over 400 ppm, and each year the oceans take up approximately 25% of the annually emitted anthropogenic CO2. This increase in CO2 in the oceans has had a measure able impact on the marine carbonate system, and the resultant increase in the acidity of the ocean is a potential stressor for a range of ecosystems. In order to fully quantify the marine carbonate system there are four variables that can be measured, these are dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), pH, total alkalinity and partial pressure of CO2. By measuring two of the four variables the others can be determined. Of these variables DIC is the only one without either an underway or in situ sensor, despite being one half of the preferred pairs for observing the carbonate system. To address this technological gap and increase the measurement coverage there is a clear need for an autonomous sensor capable of making quality measurements while having a robust, small physical size, and low power requirements. Presented here are the results of developmental work that has led to a full ocean depth rated autonomous DIC sensor, based on a microfluidic “Lab On Chip” (LOC) design. The final version of the DIC LOC sensor operates by acidifying < 1 ml of seawater, converting the DIC to CO2, which is diffused across a gas permeable membrane into an acceptor solution. The CO2 reacts with the acceptor resulting in a conductivity drop that is measured using a Capacitively Coupled Contactless Conductivity Detector (C4D). Each measurement takes ~15 minutes and the sensor can be set up to perform calibrations in situ. Laboratory testing demonstrated this system has a precision of < 1 µmol kg-1. The sensor was deployed as part of a large EU project aiming to detect a simulated sub-seabed leak of CO2. Over multiple deployments in the North Sea the sensor collected data used to locate the leak. A number of field tests have established the sensor has a precision of < 10 µmol kg-1. This work has demonstrated that this sensor offers potential to fill the current technological gap and collect data that will enhance understanding of the marine carbonate system
Richardson, Barbauld, and the construction of an early modern fan club
No full textMPhilMuch has been written about the life and long works of the eighteenth century epistolary novelist, Samuel Richardson, but the prospect of his position as the first celebrity novelist – responsible for courting his own fame as well as initiating his own fan club – has largely been ignored. The body of manuscripts housed at the National Art Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London provides the modern scholar with evidence of the skeletal beginnings of an early fan club. This thesis aims to show how these manuscripts were turned into a saleable commodity by the publisher and entrepreneur Richard Phillips, while under the guiding hand of another, slightly later, literary celebrity, Anna Laetitia Barbauld. In order to restore Richardson’s reputation amongst a new nineteenth century audience, Barbauld was required to construct her own idea of him as an eighteenth century celebrity author, and in doing so the insecurities of a self-professed, apparently diffident man, are revealed. Barbauld’s capacious, but heavily edited selection of letters is analyzed in this thesis, providing ample evidence that Richardson’s correspondents were more than just eager letter writers. By using Barbauld’s biography of Richardson this thesis aims to show how she manipulates the genre of life writing in her construction of him.
This thesis offers an alternative reading of how the Richardson manuscripts are viewed, redefining them as not simply a collection of letters, but as a collective entity, deliberately selected and archived as evidence of an early modern fan club, and its celebrity managing director
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The Nature and Function of the Samuel Conclusion: 2 Samuel 21–24 as Mise en Abyme
No full textIn this study, I undertake an analysis of the final four chapters of the book of Samuel (i.e., 2 Sam 21–24). I propose that the six sections that comprise 2 Samuel 21–24 serve as a mise en abyme, a miniature replica of the book of Samuel, which reflects the major themes of the book. This reflection offers, at the same time, both a theological distillation of the work as a whole and an interpretative lens through which to understand the preceding narrative. It is established through strategic use of inner-Biblical allusion and analogical correspondence whereby the various episodes of the conclusion are designed to resemble specific sections of the book while their sequence mirrors the story’s progression. After analyzing its function as the conclusion to the work, I make the case that the addition of 2 Samuel 21–24 occurred at a single point in time at a final stage of the composition of the book (during the post-exilic period). I argue that the author/editor used available literary and historical sources to fashion his six-part conclusion, but that the narratives on the outer boundaries were likely composed, or (at least) heavily reworked, by the author himself.
I begin the study with an introduction that provides an overview of issues relating to 2 Samuel 21–24 and my proposal. The first main chapter offers a survey of the history of interpretation of 2 Samuel 21–24 from the 1800’s to the present. This is followed by a chapter which discusses the theory behind particular literary devices which are relevant to my thesis. These devices include allusion, intertextuality, narrative analogy, and mise en abyme. This discussion forms the foundation for the next chapter, which offers an analysis of how 2 Samuel 21–24 serves as a mise en abyme of the book of Samuel as a whole. In the final chapter (before the conclusion), I engage with this material from a diachronic perspective, offering some suggestions with regard to the date and situation of its composition
Are failproof banking systems feasible? Desirable?
No full textIn recent years, instability of the banking system has returned as a major problem in many countries, particularly in the developing world. In many cases, this instability has been so threatening to financial intermediation and the functioning of the payments system that governments have felt compelled to intervene and restructure banks, often at considerable cost to the public budget. One response to these problems has been a proposal to create failproof banking systems - to radically transform the structure, priorities, and operation of the banking and financial system. Banks would be limited to issuing deposits, holding essentially riskless portfolios, and operating the payments system. To minimize the resulting disruptions to the financial system, banks would be authorized (and encouraged) to set up holding companies and then transfer to holding company affiliates all the functions - including lending - that banks would no longer be permitted to perform. So while the failproof banking proposal would severely restrict the activity of banks, it would not restrict the activities of banking organizations that convert to a holding company form of organization. This proposal would produce major public benefits. It would assure a nation of a smoothly functioning banking and payments system, would substantially reduce the resources committed to banking supervision, would prevent bank-type regulation from expanding to the rest of the financial system, and would place banking and nonbanking organizations on a level playing field for the financial activities in which they compete. There are two major problems with the proposal. First, it might be difficult to implement because of too few riskless assets in a nation's financial system. (The author suggests several modifications that would alleviate this problem in some countries.) Second, the proposal might hurt the financial market by: (a) increasing interest rates for higher-risk borrowers, forcing them out of the market; and (b) transfering greater risk to the nonbank sector of the financial system, making it more susceptible to crisis. Although the proposal would benefit developing countries (more prone to banking instability) more than industrial countries, it would also be more difficult to implement in developing countries. And the adverse effects of the proposal would be felt more severely in the financial markets of developing countries than in industrial countries, which have deeper, more responsive financial markets.Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Banking Law,Settlement of Investment Disputes
Challenging homophobic bullying in schools: the politics of progress
No full textIn recent years homophobic bullying has received increased attention from NGOs, academics and government sources and concern about the issue crosses traditional moral and political divisions. This article examines this ‘progressive’ development and identifies the ‘conditions of possibility’ that have enabled the issue to become a harm that can be spoken of. In doing so it questions whether the
readiness to speak about the issue represents the opposite to prohibitions on speech (such as the notorious Section 28) or whether it is based on more subtle forms of governance. It argues that homophobic bullying is heard through three key discourses (‘child abuse’, ‘the child victim’ and ‘the tragic gay’) and that, while enabling an acknowledgement of certain harms, they simultaneously
silence other needs and experiences. It then moves to explore the aspirational and ‘liberatory’ political investments that underlie these seemingly ‘common-sense’ descriptive discourses and concludes with a critique of the quasi-criminal responses that the dominant political agenda of homophobic bullying gives rise to. The article draws on, and endeavours to develop a conversation between, critical engagements with the contemporary politics of both childhood and sexuality
Dopo il divorzio by Grazia Deledda: reception, rewriting, retranslation
No full textThis paper focuses on the case study of Grazia Deledda’s Dopo il divorzio (1902) through the prism, on the one hand, of the rewriting of the text in Italian (Naufraghi in porto, 1920), its paratextual Italian rewriting in 1955 (when the author had already passed away), on the other hand, of its Spanish translation in 1914 and retranslation in 1955. This case study raises a number of questions that may be of interest for the theoretical debate on retranslation and reception: if changes to social context trigger the rewriting of a novel, can this rewriting be considered a form of translation? Should the proposal of a new paratext be regarded as a form of rewriting or retranslation? Can revision and plagiarism be considered a form of retranslation once the socio-political and cultural landscapes have significantly changed
Data for: A Review of Literature Published in EMIP from 2005-2019
No full textWithin any scientific field, there is an occasional need to summarize existing research—to not only reflect on current thinking, but to also indicate where the field may be headed. This holds particularly true in the field of educational measurement, where, to date, there has not been a review of general measurement practices in the published literature. To fill this gap, this study conducted a review investigating the author, keyword, methodological, and citation characteristics of empirical studies published in Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice from 2005-2019.
Included are the data for the study, keyword, and citation analysis, as well as the code used to conduct these analyses.Rios, Joseph A; Rohloff, Corissa T; Ihlenfeldt, Samuel D; Riegelman, Amy; Zieffler, Andrew. (2020). Data for: A Review of Literature Published in EMIP from 2005-2019. Retrieved from the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM), https://doi.org/10.13020/kxm7-vp82
His Majesty's advocate : Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees (1635-1713) and Covenanter resistance theory under the Restoration monarchy
No full textThis thesis is the first to explore the life and political thought of Sir James
Stewart of Goodtrees (1635-1713). The first part reviews the life of his father, Sir
James Stewart of Kirk field (1608-1681) to 1661, and Goodtrees' own life from birth
to his admission to the Scots bar in 1661. This provides the backdrop of history
necessary to appreciate his contributions as both writer and radical activist.
Particular attention focuses on the conflict between Charles I and Charles II, on the
one hand, and the Church of Scotland, on the other; the National Covenant (1638)
and the Solemn League and Covenant of(1643); the British wars of religion; and
the upheavals following the Restoration in the 1660s, culminating in the Pentland
Rising of 1666.
The next part develops Goodtrees' political philosophy from his two most
important writings. Chapter 3 reviews and interprets Naphtali (1667), a defence of
those who rose at Pentland. Chapter 4 reviews Andrew Honyman's Survey of
Naphtali (1668, 1669), a rebuttal of Naphtali and standard Anglican case for royal
absolutism. Chapter 5 reviews and interprets Goodtrees' Jus Populi Vindicatum, or
The People's Right, to defend themselves and their Covenanted Religion, vindicated
(1669), his rejoinder to Honyman. His Calvinist, covenantal constitutionalism is
shown to be an important link between earlier resistance theorists like John Knox
and Samuel Rutherford and the later Whigs, represented preeminently by John
Locke.
The third part (chapters 6-7) reviews Goodtrees' life and minor writings as radical critic of the Restoration monarchy; a participant in plots among British
exiles in Holland to overthrow it; a member briefly of James's Scottish government
before the Revolution; and lord advocate and churchman pursuing political, legal,
and ecclesiastical reforms afterwards
The molecular diagnosis of Pneumocystis pneumonia in children using nasopharyngeal aspirate samples
No full textPneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) is an important opportunistic infection caused by thefungus Pneumocystis jirovecii. The incidence of PCP in sub-Saharan Africa is on theincrease. This is due to the progression of the HIV-pandemic and limited access to healthcare facilities, specific highly active anti-retroviral therapy and chemoprophylaxis. It is a major cause of hospitalization and mortality in HIV-infected children with in-hospital case-fatality rates ranging from 20-63%
Michal, contradicting values : understanding the moral dilemma faced by Saul's daughter
No full textValue conflicts due to cultural differences are an increasingly pressing issue in many societies. Because Old Testament texts hail from a very different milieu to our own they may provide new perspectives upon contemporary conflicts and, in this context, the present dissertation investigates one particular value clash in 1 Samuel.
Studies of Old Testament ethics have attended to narrative only relatively recently. Although social-scientific interpretation has a longer pedigree, there are important debates about how to employ the fruits of anthropology in biblical studies. The first part of this thesis, therefore, attends to methodological issues, advancing four main propositions. First, attention should be paid to the moral goods that feature in the text. Second, the family, a central feature of Old Testament morality, should be understood as a set of practices rather than an institution. Third, 'models' of social action that purport to comprehend the social world of the Bible should be used only cautiously. Finally, a modified version of Bakhtin's theory of heteroglossic voices can help readers appreciate how authors present a moral vision by approving some characters' actions whilst undermining others.
The second part of the thesis employs this methodology to examine 1 Samuel 19.10-18a. The discussion of the moral dilemma facing Michal adduces anthropological theories and ethnographic data concerning violence, lying, and the relationship between fathers and daughters. Given that the conflicts of moral goods are 'resolved' by characters choosing to act in a certain way, the dissertation enquires after the author's assessment of each character's moral choices, and hence their theological import. The dissertation argues that Michal's loyalty to David and deception of Saul was counter-cultural, and by approving of her choice the author affirms the importance of loyalty to the Davidic dynasty
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