Mysterious and Suspicious Deaths: Missing Homicides in North-West England (1850-1900)

By examining what Victorian newspapers headlined ‘mysterious’ or ‘suspicious’ deaths, this article argues that some of these deaths in the north west of England escaped the official statistics for homicide and, in particular, murder. In addition it is possible to identify cases which were downgraded to either manslaughter or assault, and these too may, as a result, throw light on cultural attitudes towards violence, not least the toleration and acceptance of certain forms of violence. Such ‘smoking-guns’ may partly explain why the official national statistics for murder remained low. This article also examines the victims of this unprosecuted violence and puts forward explanations as to why such cases were either downgraded or else ignored entirely by the policing authorities and the judicial system. It is argued here that certain groups within society, namely infants, foreigners and female partners, made up a substantial number of the victims whose deaths were ignored by the authorities. When issues of age, nationality, gender and the social status of the deceased are taken into consideration, it becomes clear that murder is not an unequivocal legal absolute. Rather it was a complex social construct.Cet article analyse ce que la presse victorienne qualifiait de mort « mystérieuse » ou « suspecte » et soutient que, dans le nord-ouest de l’Angleterre, certains de ces décès échappaient à la statistique officielle des homicides, et en particulier des meurtres. En outre, on peut détecter des affaires qui ont été requalifiées en homicide involontaire ou en coups et blessures. Tous ces cas éclairent les différences d’attitudes à l’égard de la violence, et en particulier la tolérance ou l’acceptation de certaines de ses formes. Ils expliquent peut-être aussi le niveau peu élevé des meurtres dans les statistiques nationales. L’auteur examine également les victimes de ces violences non poursuivies et propose une explication à la minoration ou à l’ignorance de ces affaires par les autorités policières et judiciaires. Lorsqu’on prend en considération l’âge, la nationalité, le sexe et le statut social des défunts, il est clair que la notion de meurtre n’a pas un caractère absolu et sans équivoque au plan juridique, mais constitue plutôt une construction sociale complexe

Physicochemical Properties and Catalytic Behavior of the Molecular Sieve SSZ-70

SSZ-70 is synthesized using 1,3-bis(isobutyl)imidazolium, 1,3-bis(cyclohexyl)imidazolium, and 1,3-bis(cycloheptyl)imidazolium structure directing agents (SDAs), and the solids obtained are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), ^(29)Si magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR), electron microscopy, nitrogen and hydrocarbon adsorption, and thermogravimetric analyses. The physicochemical properties of SSZ-70 show that it is a new molecular sieve that has similarities to MWW-type materials. The catalytic behavior of SSZ-70 is evaluated through the use of the constraint index (CI) test. Distinct differences in the reactivity between Al-SSZ-70 and SSZ-25 (MWW) are observed and are the consequences of the structural differences between these two molecular sieves

Development and validation of a spectro-temporal processing test for cochlear-implant listeners.

Psychophysical tests of spectro-temporal resolution may aid the evaluation of methods for improving hearing by cochlear implant (CI) listeners. Here the STRIPES (Spectro-Temporal Ripple for Investigating Processor EffectivenesS) test is described and validated. Like speech, the test requires both spectral and temporal processing to perform well. Listeners discriminate between complexes of sine sweeps which increase or decrease in frequency; difficulty is controlled by changing the stimulus spectro-temporal density. Care was taken to minimize extraneous cues, forcing listeners to perform the task only on the direction of the sweeps. Vocoder simulations with normal hearing listeners showed that the STRIPES test was sensitive to the number of channels and temporal information fidelity. An evaluation with CI listeners compared a standard processing strategy with one having very wide filters, thereby spectrally blurring the stimulus. Psychometric functions were monotonic for both strategies and five of six participants performed better with the standard strategy. An adaptive procedure revealed significant differences, all in favour of the standard strategy, at the individual listener level for six of eight CI listeners. Subsequent measures validated a faster version of the test, and showed that STRIPES could be performed by recently implanted listeners having no experience of psychophysical testing

Reviving Northern Ireland’s Textile Heritage

This Ulster University (UU) research project was performed in partnership with the Northern Ireland Advanced Composites and Engineering (NIACE) Centre. It complements previous works performed in conjunction with, the National Composites Centre (NCC), Bristol, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), University of Sheffield and the NIACE Centre, Belfast, to establish an Advanced Preforming Centre of Excellence in Northern Ireland. The authors are fully engaged in ongoing projects such as, the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre (AMIC) Belfast Region City Deal and ‘HyTech NI’ a joint project between UU, Queen’s University Belfast, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council (MEABC) and industry underpinned by £15million in funding from the Northern Ireland Complementary Funding to support investment in the Hydrogen Economy. The economic, societal and environmental benefits of these projects and those proposed within this report, align with the Northern Ireland Executive’s Programme for Government (PfG) 2021 (1), have the required level of innovation and ambition along with scope to offer economic sustainability and inclusivity, to meet the tiered metrics for the Department for the Economy’s (DfE’s) Economic Vision of a ‘10X Economy’ (2), in addition, to aiding Northern Ireland on its trajectory to ‘Net Zero by 2050’ as part of The Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 (3), with the latter aligning with the Northern Ireland Executive’s Energy Strategy – The Path to Net Zero Energy (4).A case for reviving Northern Ireland’s textile heritage was established by the authors following their assessment of the textiles and textile composites markets. The authors are confident in their assessment and understanding of the current market presence, along with present-day market challenges, derived from (i) the public domain such as, research articles and press releases, (ii) purchased sources such as, market research reports, (iii) focused market networking they partake in and the industry/stakeholder input they receive from primary interviews, workshops, conferencing, including industry visits and secondments to relevant organisations and, (iv) maintaining an active presence in the textiles and textile composites research and commercial spaces. <br/

Energy Absorption Mechanisms in Layer-to-Layer 3D Woven Composites

3D woven composites provide improved out-of-plane performance over their two-dimensional counterparts. This sort of reinforced through thickness behaviour is desirable in crashworthiness applications where energy absorption can be increased by the composite material's resistance to delamination. The behaviour of these 3D materials in not well understood and fundamental data that can be used to validate and improve material models is not yet sufficiently comprehensive. Here we demonstrate that a modified layer-to-layer type 3D woven architecture can be effectively used in energy absorbing elements to produce repeatable and predictable progressive failure under axial crush conditions. Specific energy absorption (SEA) values in glass and carbon coupons of up to 62J/g and 95J/g respectively are achieved in the quasi-static regime; values up 93J/g to were achieved in the dynamic regime when carbon coupons are tested. Carbon specimens displayed uncharacteristic mixed mode failure with elements of ductile and brittle failure. The addition of a toughening agent showed mixed results in this study, providing quasi-static improvements (+8%) in SEA but significant diminishment in dynamic SEA (-22%). The failure modes present in all cases are explored in depth and the suitability of this material for industry crash applications is investigated