Kinetic studies in the electrocrystallisation of metals

PhD thesisNone availabl

Application of steady state finite element and transient finite difference theory to sound propagation in a variable area duct: A comparison with experiment

Sound propagation without flow in a rectangular duct with a converging-diverging area variation was studied experimentally and theoretically. The area variation was of sufficient magnitude to produce large reflections and induce modal scattering. The rms (root-mean-squared) pressure and phase angle on both the flat and curved surface were measured and tabulated. The steady state finite element theory and the transient finite difference theory are in good agreement with the data. It is concluded that numerical finite difference and finite element theories appear ideally suited for handling duct propagation problems which encounter large area variations

A first estimate of blue carbon associated with oil and gas industry marine infrastructure.

Oil and gas industry manmade structures (OGIMMS) in the marine environment can support thriving and biodiverse ecosystems. "Clear seabed" policies require that all OGIMMS are removed once commercial activity has ceased, thereby removing a large proportion of the ecosystem and leaving the remaining community degraded beyond repair. The environmental impact of this method of decommissioning is huge and wide ranging, but no studies have to date looked at the possible impacts that removing these ecosystems has on climate change. This first-of-its-kind study modelled biomass associated with OGIMMS and the potential Blue Carbon (BC) that these ecosystems may represent. The study found that in the UK North Sea (UKNS) there is currently 1.75 MtC of BC adhered to OGIMMS and globally there is 64 MtC. The study investigated the consequences of removing this BC and found that if it is allowed to degrade in landfill, up to 96 MtCO2e of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will be released from UK BC and globally up to 2,730 MtCO2e of GHG emissions will be released. Furthermore, forward modelling techniques were uniquely employed to look at future potential growth of these ecosystem and found that in the UKNS if the ecosystem was allowed to remain in place by decommissioning in situ, at 100 years since installation, UKNS OGIMMS BC could grow to 27 MtC and global BC could grow to 264 MtC. The study demonstrates the vast potential of BC associated with OGIMMS in the marine environment to sequester carbon over the long term and that current clear seabed practises damage these important ecosystems beyond repair, destroying current BC stocks and the vast potential BC stocks that could develop over time, as well as releasing large volumes of GHG emissions from the degradation of the biomass

Science disproves the biblical account of creation : exploring the predictors of perceived conflict between science and religion among 13- to 15-year-old students in the UK

This study drew on data provided by 11,809 13- to 15-year-old students drawn from the four nations of the United Kingdom to explore the level of agreement with the view that science disproves the biblical account of creation, and to explore the power of five sets of variables to predict individual differences in responses to that opinion. The five sets of variables were personal factors, psychological factors, religious factors, attitudinal factors (including ‘scientific fundamentalism’, understood as an exaggerated, uncritical, and unqualified belief in the inerrancy of science), and theological factors (distinguishing between differing implied theologies of religion). Blockwise multiple regression demonstrated that personal, psychological, religious, and theological factors all held significant power, but that the greatest variance was explained by the attitudinal variables. When the five sets of variables were assessed within the model, 25% of the variance was accounted for. Greater incompatibility between science and religion was associated with scientific fundamentalism (ß = .37, p < .001), with anti-religious attitude (ß = .16, p < .001), and with atheism (ß = .07, p < .001). These findings suggest that young people who believe in science in an unqualified way are more distrustful of religion

Is OSPAR 98/3 science-based politics or politics-based science?

Peer reviewe

The Presence of the Diphtheria Bacillus on Healthy Surfaces.

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A cradle-to-customer life cycle assessment case study of UK vertical farming

The authors thank the vertical farming company for their kind co-operation and help with making this research possible.Peer reviewe

A method for exploratory repeated-measures analysis applied to a breast-cancer screening study

When a model may be fitted separately to each individual statistical unit, inspection of the point estimates may help the statistician to understand between-individual variability and to identify possible relationships. However, some information will be lost in such an approach because estimation uncertainty is disregarded. We present a comparative method for exploratory repeated-measures analysis to complement the point estimates that was motivated by and is demonstrated by analysis of data from the CADET II breast-cancer screening study. The approach helped to flag up some unusual reader behavior, to assess differences in performance, and to identify potential random-effects models for further analysis.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/11-AOAS481 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Hiring labourers for the vineyard and making sense of God’s grace at work : an empirical investigation in hermeneutical theory and ordinary theology

The Matthean parable of the labourers in the vineyard is open to multiple interpretations. For some, the parable may speak of God’s unlimited grace and generosity; for others the parable may speak of God’s unfairness. The present study is set within the context of an emerging interest in the concept of grace as a topic for empirical enquiry. The study draws on the theoretical framework provided by the notion of ordinary theology and employs the sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking (SIFT) approach to biblical hermeneutics, which is rooted in Jungian psychological type theory. Data were drawn from two one-day workshops with Church of England Readers (lay ministers). On each occasion the participants were divided into three separate groups according to their preferences for thinking or feeling (the two judging functions proposed by psychological type theory) and within these groups they were invited to explore the messages about grace in Matthew 20:1–15 (Jesus’ parable of the labourers in the vineyard). The rich data gathered from these workshops generated insights into contemporary theologies of grace and also confirmed the hypothesis that a biblical interpretation of grace is shaped by the reader’s psychological type preference for thinking or feeling. While feeling types tended to empathise, thinking types pondered motives and unfairness