“Past Master”: Czeslaw Milosz and his Impact on Seamus Heaney's Poetry

The essay examines the influence of Czeslaw Milosz on Seamus Heaney's writing, focusing primarily on the early 1980s, which was a period of major transition in Heaney's literary and academic career, following the success of Field Work (1979) in the USA and his appointment as a Visiting Lecturer at Harvard. It establishes the political and biographical contexts for Heaney's reception of Milosz's prose and poetry, and discusses the importance of Milosz's Nobel Lecture and his memoir, Native Realm, in fostering Heaney's feelings of affinity and sense of difference. Composed in the wake of Solidarity's challenge to the post-war status quo, Milosz's reflections in the Nobel Lecture on history, art, and the artist's responsibilities had a profound resonance for his fellow exile, uncertain as he was how to address the Hunger Strikes in the collection he was working on, Station Island. The essay thus explores the range of factors which resulted in Milosz becoming The Master to Heaney, and ends offering an analysis of his poem of that title. It draws on a range of literary and historical sources, including the Heaney archives at Emory, Atlanta. Since it is the centenary of Milosz's birth, it offers a timely reminder of his importance in world literature. (Since it may not be familiar to many readers, I have included an outline of Milosz's biography at the start of the essay.) © 2013 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

On quasi-heredity and cell module homomorphisms in the symplectic blob algebra

This paper reports key advances in the study of the representation theory of the symplectic blob algebra. For suitable specialisations of the parameters we construct four large families of homomorphisms between cell modules. We hence find a large family of non-semisimple specialisations. We find a minimal poset (i.e. least number of relations) for the symplectic blob as a quasi-hereditary algebra.Comment: 45 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0807.410

On the frequency of planetary systems around G-dwarfs

We determine the fraction of G-dwarf stars that could host stable planetary systems based on the observed properties of binaries in the Galactic field, and in various postulated primordial binary populations, which assume that the primordial binary fraction is higher than that in the field. We first consider the frequency of Solar System analogues - planetary systems that form either around a single G-dwarf star, or a binary containing a G-dwarf where the binary separation exceeds 100-300au. If the primordial binary fraction and period distribution is similar to that in the field, then up to 63 per cent of G-dwarf systems could potentially host a Solar System analogue. However, if the primordial binary fraction is higher, the fraction of G-dwarf systems that could host a planetary system like our own is lowered to 38 per cent. We extend our analysis to consider the fraction of G-dwarf systems (both single and binary) that can host either circumprimary planets (orbiting the primary star of the binary) or circumbinary planets (orbiting both stars in the binary) for fiducial planetary separations between 1 - 100au. Depending on the assumed binary population, in the circumprimary case between 65 and 95 per cent of systems can host a planet at 1au, decreasing to between 20 and 65 per cent of systems that can host a planet at 100au. In the circumbinary case, between 5 and 59 per cent of systems can host a planet at 1au, increasing to between 34 and 75 per cent of systems that can host a planet at 100au. Our results suggest that the assumed binary fraction is the key parameter in determining the fraction of potentially stable planetary systems in G-dwarf systems and that using the present-day value may lead to significant overestimates if the binary fraction was initially higher.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

The importance of wildlife rabies control

Rabies in animals has been known In North America for over two centuries, and whether the disease was initially present in wild species or was introduced by dogs, it has been known in skunks for almost a century and a half. Today more rabies cases in wild animals are reported than in domestic animals, and a considerable proportion of both human and domestic animal exposures to the disease are the result of wild-animal contact. The most useful techniques for controlling wild animal rabies today are methods that reduce contact between infected individuals and susceptible individuals; these involve the manipulation of populations, most often by direct reduction methods. Such techniques have proved effective in controlling or eliminating the disease; they are most effective when the area involved is small and/or isolated by barriers. The effectiveness of animal reduction programs on rabies is limited by the range of the animals involved, of ingress from surrounding areas for animals incubating the disease, and the continuity of the program; at least two maximum incubation periods of the disease must have elapsed as insurance that incubating animals are not left to serve as a new nucleus of infection. Rabies control programs for wild species have not yet threatened any species with extinction, nor are they likely to in the future

Extragalactic Planetary Nebulae: Observational Challenges & Future Prospects

The study of extragalactic planetary nebulae (EPN) is a rapidly expanding field. The advent of powerful new instrumentation such as the PN spectrograph has led to an avalanche of new EPN discoveries both within and between galaxies. We now have thousands of EPN detections in a heterogeneous selection of nearby galaxies and their local environments, dwarfing the combined galactic detection efforts of the last century. Key scientific motivations driving this rapid growth in EPN research and discovery have been the use of the PNLF as a standard candle, as dynamical tracers of their host galaxies and dark matter and as probes of Galactic evolution. This is coupled with the basic utility of PN as laboratories of nebula physics and the consequent comparison with theory where population differences, abundance variations and star formation history within and between stellar systems informs both stellar and galactic evolution. Here we pose some of the burning questions, discuss some of the observational challenges and outline some of the future prospects of this exciting, relatively new, research area as we strive to go fainter, image finer, see further and survey faster than ever before and over a wider wavelength regimeComment: 4 pages, no figures, LaTeX, to be published in Proceedings of the ESO workshop on Planetary Nebulae beyond the Milky Way held at ESO, Garching, May 19-21, 200

Ethical Issues Arising When a Lawyer Leaves a Firm: Restrictions on Practice

Restriction on covenants not to compete have been a long-time feature of legal practice. Rules prohibiting law firms from restricting lawyers\u27 ability to practice or imposing penalties on lawyers that leave a firm attempt to balance the law firm\u27s interest in survival in a competitive market with the countervailing interests of attorney mobility, and protecting clients\u27 choice of counsel. Restrictions on covenants not to compete should be vigorously enforced, and the exception that allows for the forfeiture of retirement benefits by attorneys that choose to leave a firm should be narrowly applied to only those funds to which the departing attorney is not already entitled