141,562 research outputs found
The Swift satellite and redshifts of long gamma-ray bursts
No full textUntil 6 October 2005 sixteen redshifts had been measured of long gamma-ray bursts discovered by the Swift satellite. Further 45 redshifts have been measured of the long gamma- ray bursts discovered by other satellites. Here we perform five statistical tests comparing the redshift distributions of these two samples assuming as the null hypothesis an identical distribution for the two samples. Three tests (Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) reject the null hypothesis at significance levels between 97.19 and 98.55%. Two different comparisons of the medians show extreme (99.78 - 99.99994)% significance levels of rejection. This means that the redshifts of the Swift sample and the redshifts of the non-Swift sample are distributed differently - in the Swift sample the redshifts are on average larger. This statistical result suggests that the long GRBs should on average be at the higher redshifts of the Swift sample
Fear of fiction: the authorial response to realism in selected works by Swift, Defoe, and Richardson
No full textIf Mrs. Whitehouse produced a pornographic play, it would arouse enormous interest, mainly because of Mrs. Whitehouse’s well known views on pornography. It is an ancient fact of English Literature that two of the best known pioneers of the English realistic novel, Daniel Defoe and Samuel Richardson, were Puritans. And there is an almost equally ancient critical tradition which traces the easy path of Puritan literature, in combination with other cultural forces, towards the production of realistic fiction. The central argument of this thesis is that there was no such easy path. Puritan autobiography was unrealistic in its very nature, while Puritan feeling towards fiction was hostile, with realistic, or verisimilar fiction provoking most hostility because the most deceitful. Thus the writing of a realistic novel was a radical departure for the Puritan, and one that was fraught with tension. It is this tension, or fear of fiction, and its effects on work of the two Puritan novelists, and that odd Anglican Jonathan Swift, that is the subject of this thesis. Swift joins Defoe and Richardson as an author with a special relationship with Defoe, and himself closer to a fearful anti- mimetic "tradition" than the comic tradition in which he is usually placed alongside Fielding and Sterne. Selected works of the three authors reveal their struggle with the intense problems that realism created for them, and their eventual 'solutions'. Hence by the time that Dr. Johnson made his famous critical statement against the fearful potential of realism in his fourth Rambler [31 March 1750), he was actually formalising material that had been well examined in the fiction under discussion, rather than beating an original critical path in response to Fielding's supposedly 'new' verisimilar form
Tom Swift and His Electric Regression Analysis Machine: 1973
No full textTom Swift, who began his career with factor analysis (1967) , is pleased to announce that the “1973 Tom Swift Award for Data Abuse” has been won by LeRoy Stone and James Brosseau. They originally (Stone, et al., 1973) used 115 variables in a stepwise regression analysis to explain differences among 19 observations. They then claimed (Stone & Brosseau, 197 3) to have tested the predictive validity of this model. This was done by regressing the 14 variables from the model on data from 18 new subjects. This “cross-validation” yielded a final model with six variables and an R2 of 0.76.Tom Swift, regression, statistics
The effect of proton damage on the X-ray spectral response of MOS CCDs for the swift X-ray telescope
No full textThe effect of non-ionising energy loss(NIEL) of protons in charge-coupled devices is to displace silicon atoms and any dopant materials present from their lattice positions to form lattice defects which in turn can trap electrons [1]. A CCD operating as a photon counter for x-ray spectroscopy relies on the efficient transfer of charge from one region to another. The number of defects produced will reduce the charge transfer efficiency (CTE) and hence degrade the spectral resolution of the energy distribution of interest [2]. The Swift X-ray Telescope will be equipped with a single EPIC MOS CCD22 as developed for the XMM project [3]. It is the aim of this study to determine the effect of the radiation environment on the performance of the CCD and its impact on the scientific objective of the x-ray telescope, to probe the x-ray afterglow of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs)
The Impact of the Diffusion of a Financial Innovation on Company Performance: An Analysis of SWIFT Adoption
No full textHow does a major financial network innovation influence firm performance? Despite much speculation we have little hard quantitative evidence about the impact of technology diffusion in financial services. In this paper we use the entire adoption history for SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication - standards provider and messaging carrier) matched to bank-level panel data for the US, Canada and 27 European countries. Our dataset covers almost 7,000 banks (including 1,689 SWIFT adopters) between 1998 and 2005. We find that adoption appears to have large effects on profitability, but it takes several years before any positive return is discernible, consistent with the idea of significant complementarities between new technologies and firm organization. The profitability effect operates by both raising sales and decreasing operating costs and is greater for smaller firms than larger firms. Although the long-run effects are similar, US and UK banks appear to reap the benefits from adoption more quickly than their Continental European counterparts. This is consistent with the idea that the impact of information and communication technologies is stronger in the US than Europe due to lower adjustment costs.Diffusion, profitability, banks, SWIFT
Reading Swift and Ireland, 1720-1729 : constituences, contexts and constructions of identity in Jonathan Swift's occasional writings of the 1720s
No full textThe 1720s was a decade of crisis in Ireland. Jonathan Swift's occasional writings from these years extend the country's political and economic crises into
dramas of personal and national identity. Part One of this thesis investigates the material conditions of the relationship between Swift, his Irish audience, and the
underlying problems of identity that such an audience simultaneously poses and occludes. Part Two is an anatomy of the literary modes through which that relationship is figured.
The first chapter offers the 1720 Declaratory Act as an important subtext for Swift's 'inaugural' work of the decade, the 1720 Proposalfor the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture. Challenging retrospective constructions of the author's textual and political authority, the chapter examines how Swift the 'Hibernian patriot' was largely an invention of the crisis surrounding the act. Chapter Two
argues that The Drapier's Letters reconfigure the language that had been used in the past to depict the Catholic threat to Protestant Ireland, and use it to depict the
threat emerging from England.
Part Two moves to the question of identity, which Chapter Three designates a kind of 'style', both a mode of expression and a trend in polite society. The writing of history and the social signification of language are the
main concerns of this chapter, which investigates how Irish historiography becomes the focus for a range of concerns in the 1720s. Chapter Four nominates the pastoral genre as an alternative vehicle for the reading and writing of history
in Swift's Ireland. It identifies a Virgilian dialectic of expropriation and protection by a patron as an important method of 'reading' oneself into history and identity. Looking at various manifestations of crisis in Ireland in 1729 - famine, fuel shortages and emigration, the final chapter argues that A Modest Proposal uses techniques of allegory to produce a crisis of interpretation. By
promoting and perpetuating misreading, it mirrors the pervasive climate of error that produced this text.
As a whole the thesis documents three transitions. It traces the emergence of a parodic method of literary and political representation which eventually overwhelms any claims Swift's writing might once have made to positive
advocacy. Once considered the dominant and definitive voice of 1720s Ireland, Swift is re-appraised as one writer among many, and his writing as a product of his society rather than an authoritative comment on it. Finally, the Presbyterians of Ireland are shown to emerge by the end of the decade as the primary focus for the anxieties and aggressions that animate Swift's occasional writings
Swift Wind Farm, Churchover, Warwickshire. Archaeological Evaluation (OASIS ID: cotswold2-260961)
No full textAn archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology in March 2014 at Swift Wind Farm, Churchover. Six trenches were excavated. The evaluation revealed a small number of features of possible archaeological origin on either side of the River Swift (within Areas B and C). However, the predominant archaeological features identified comprised evidence for ridge and furrow cultivation, with furrows being recorded in all trenches except Trench 1. A probable ditch or pit, 202 identified in Trench 2 (Area C) remains artefactually undated. However, this feature does correlate with geophysical anomaly 2 which may represent a curvilinear enclosure. To the east of the River Swift, two ditches identified at the northern limit of Trench 6 (Area B) are suggestive of ditches flanking a trackway. It remains undetermined they are associated with nearby geophysical anomalies that are interpreted as later prehistoric/Roman enclosures and field systems immediately to the west, or whether they form a trackway that is broadly contemporary with the ridge and furrow
Interview with Ernest H. Swift
No full textAn interview in four sessions, in April and May 1978, with Ernest H. Swift, professor of analytical chemistry, emeritus, in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Dr. Swift received his undergraduate education at Randolph-Macon College and the University of Virginia. He came to Caltech, then Throop College of Technology, as a teaching fellow in 1919 and received his PhD there in 1924. He joined the faculty in 1928, serving as chairman of the chemistry division from 1958 to1963, and became emeritus in 1967.
In this wide-ranging interview, he recalls his upbringing in Virginia, his undergraduate education, and his recruitment to Throop by Arthur Amos Noyes. He discusses Noyes’s influence on the development both of Caltech and its chemistry division and describes the early years of the institute, the establishment of the Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory at Corona del Mar, and the contributions of various colleagues, including Stuart Bates, Roscoe Dickinson, James Ellis, William Lacey, and Earnest Watson. Comments on the admission of women, and on playing tennis at Caltech. He discusses Linus Pauling’s chairmanship of the chemistry division, the reactions to Pauling’s political activities, and Pauling’s eventual departure from Caltech. Recalls John D. Roberts’s division chairmanship and his own stint as chairman. Comments on the presidencies of Robert A. Millikan, Lee A. DuBridge, and Harold Brown. The concluding session deals with his own work, including his work on chemical warfare in the run-up to World War II, and he ends with an overview and recap of the chemistry division’s history
Swift manuscript dataset
No full textThe common swift, Apus apus, is an obligate aerial, migratory, insectivorous bird, that has experienced significant declines in the UK since the 1990s. Reductions in the availability of prey during their summer breeding season in the UK are likely to be a key factor in this decline. This short communication aims to contribute new insights into the current foraging behaviours of adult swifts feeding their nestlings, as a means of provoking new conversation and stimulating further work. Food bolus samples are small ball-like structures containing the insect prey that is regurgitated to nestlings. Boluses from adult swifts provisioning their nestlings were collected incidentally at a breeding colony in Suffolk, UK. These were taxonomically identified and compared to corresponding daily insect catches from a nearby Rothamsted Insect Survey suction-trap operating within the foraging area of common swifts. There was a distinction between contents of the bolus samples and the suction-trap samples, whereby larger bodied aerial invertebrates appeared in greater numbers in bolus samples. This was evidenced by the relatively high numbers of agriculturally important species, pollen beetles and cabbage stem flea beetles, in bolus samples compared to low numbers in suction-traps. Smaller invertebrates such as aphids (Aphididae), parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera), and thrips (Thysanoptera) were not frequent in the bolus samples, relative to the high numbers identified from the suction-trap catch. These results are discussed in relation to swifts providing a pest suppression service, potential impacts of pesticides, and how selective foraging may both buffer and facilitate the challenges swifts face in a modern agricultural landscape
Monneoncideres Nearns and Swift 2011, gen. nov.
No full textMonneoncideres Nearns and Swift, gen. nov. (Figures 3 a-d) Type species. Monneoncideres cristata Nearns and Swift, sp. nov, here designated. Description. General form elongate-ovate, robust, moderate-sized. Head with frons flat, subquadrate or elongate. Eyes with lower lobes large, oblong, moderately separated. Antennae short, not distinctly longer than body; antennal tubercles prominent, moderately separated; scape clavate, antennomere III longest. Pronotum subcylindrical, wider at base, transverse, sides with acute protuberance each side behind middle; disk with three tubercles, median tubercle glabrous. Elytra with humeri prominent, anterior margin arcuate, angle with several round, shiny tubercles. Legs moderate to short in length; femora clavate apically; tibiae slightly expanded apically. Etymology. This distinctive genus is named for Miguel A. Monné with appreciation for his friendship, encouragement, and inspiration. The name is derived from the surname “Monné” and “ Oncideres;” the gender is feminine. Diagnosis and Remarks. This genus superficially resembles some species of Oncideres Lacordaire, 1830 and Psyllotoxoides Breuning, 1961 but can be distinguished by the combination of the following characters: eyes with lower lobes large; frons distinctly flat; pronotum with glabrous median tubercle; and base of elytra with arcuate, strongly elevated cristae.Published as part of Nearns, Eugenio H. & Swift, Ian P., 2011, New taxa and combinations in Onciderini Thomson, 1860 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae), pp. 1-27 in Insecta Mundi 2011 (192) on page 8, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.516122
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