The Neolithic pottery of the Isle of Man and its relationship to that of the surrounding area

This research project focuses on the Neolithic pottery of the Isle of Man and its relationship to that used in neighbouring parts of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales (the Irish Seaprovince). The Manx pottery has not been studied as a complete corpus since the early 1930s, since which time the quantity and diversity of material available has increased dramatically. This project therefore served the initial function of cataloguing, recording and illustrating the available material. In addition, since the Manx pottery was last studied, the aims and methodologies of ceramic analysis have changed significantly, with many more approaches to the data being available to the analyst. This study was therefore able to explore the Manx data from a variety of perspectives so as to produce a biographical view of the pottery used during the Middle, Late, and final phases of the Manx Neolithic from production through to discard. The stages in the life history of the vessels which were analysed were: choice of materials, resource procurement,vessel building, decoration,use and discard. At each of these stages the approach adopted to ceramics by Manx potters and pottery users were compared with practises current in other parts of the Irish Seaprovince. This comparison indicated that the nature of the relationship between Manx and non-Manx pottery altered throughout the Neolithic. In the Early Neolithic the Manx did not adopt pottery, despite it being a common place in the rest of the Irish Seaprovince. In the Middle Neolithic, Manx pottery compared closely with that of surrounding areas,albeit with evidence for an individual approach to decoration. This contrasts greatly with the situation in the Late Neolithic when the Isle of Man adopted a unique ceramic repertoire which differed greatly in terms of form, decoration, and the roles which it served,from that current elsewhere. By the end of the Neolithic, the Isle of Man had, however, abandoned these innovative practises and adopted instead the more widely accepted Beaker pottery style. Throughout this study the reasons behind these changing relationships were explored within a broader social context

Energy harvesting from vibrations with a nonlinear oscillator

In this paper we present a nonlinear electromagnetic energy harvesting device that has a broadly resonant response. The nonlinearity is generated by a particular arrangement of magnets in conjunction with an iron-cored stator. We show the resonant response of the system to both pure-tone excitation and narrow-band random excitation. In addition to the primary resonance, the super-harmonic resonances of the harvester are also investigated and we show that the corresponding mechanical up-conversion of the excitation frequency may be useful for energy harvesting. The harvester is modeled using a Duffing-type equation and the results compared to the experimental data.</jats:p

A review of techniques to mitigate jamming in electromechanical actuators for safety critical applications

This paper presents a review of techniques to mitigate jamming in Electromechanical Actuators (EMA) for safety critical applications in aerospace. Published progress to date is evaluated, with the remaining challenges highlighted. Through the use of Hierarchical Process Modelling (HPM), two key approaches to mitigate jamming were identified: (1) Fault Diagnostics (FD) and (2) Fault tolerant design. The development of a fault tolerant EMA system is currently at an early stage for implementation within safety critical systems due to the increased complexity of such systems (for example the anti-jamming system may require FD functionality itself). Challenges also exist for FD approaches particularly in achieving a robust means of fault detection. It is proposed that a hybrid FD approach, using a combination of model based and data-driven techniques to predict the onset of jamming, would be beneficial in capturing the discrepancies between the predicted and observed behaviour used to isolate and identify faults. Furthermore, several aspects of modelling and of data-driven methodologies for FD in the literature omit potentially important behaviours, and recommendations are made to improve upon this. For example, the simulation of faults in test stand analysis and the fidelity modelling of the motor and mechanical components are key areas to develop

TOEIC : The 100-hour recommendation and its implications

The TOEIC test is an increasingly important English test for university students and business people in Japan. Educational Testing Service (ETS), the organization that administers it, recommends that test-takers have received at least 100 hours of English training and/or practice before taking a test. This has implications for students and for instructors teaching any TOEIC or TOEIC-related course. This paper discusses those implications and offers some suggestions for TOEIC courses in universities

APPROACHING COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TESTING

This paper is concerned with communicative language testing (CLT), which has long been a goal of the language testing world. CLT began in the 1980s as a complement to communicative language teaching, and now it is fair to say that most language tests are made with the concept of CLT in mind. It is difficult to ascertain exactly what CLT is because there is disagreement as to what is good communication in a foreign language is, and what it means to know a language. Several features of CLT are defined, and the paper contains a discussion of the problems of making communicative language tests

An experimental and theoretical study of transient negative ions in Mg, Zn, Cd and Hg

A range of experimental and theoretical techniques have been applied to the study of transient negative ions (resonances) formed in electron scattering from the Group II metals Mg, Zn, Cd, and Hg at incident electron energies below the first ionization potential. A wealth of resonance structures have been observed and from the experimental observations and theoretical information, classifications are proposed for some of these negative ion states

Culture-adapted Plasmodium falciparum isolates from UK travellers: in vitro drug sensitivity, clonality and drug resistance markers.

BACKGROUND: The screening of lead compounds against in vitro parasite cultures is an essential step in the development of novel anti-malarial drugs, but currently relies on laboratory parasite lines established in vitro during the last century. This study sought to establish in continuous culture a series of recent Plasmodium falciparum isolates to represent the current parasite populations in Africa, all of which are now exposed to artemisinin combination therapy. METHODS: Pre-treatment P. falciparum isolates were obtained in EDTA, and placed into continuous culture after sampling of DNA. One post-treatment blood sample was also collected for each donor to monitor parasite clonality during clearance in vivo. IC₅₀ estimates were obtained for 11 anti-malarial compounds for each established parasite line, clonal multiplicity measured in vivo and in vitro, and polymorphic sites implicated in parasite sensitivity to drugs were investigated at the pfmdr1, pfcrt, pfdhfr, pfdhps and pfap2mu loci before and after treatment, and in the cultured lines. RESULTS: Plasmodium falciparum isolates from seven malaria patients with recent travel to three West African and two East African countries were successfully established in long-term culture. One of these, HL1211, was from a patient with recrudescent parasitaemia 14 days after a full course of artemether-lumefantrine. All established culture lines were shown to be polyclonal, reflecting the in vivo isolates from which they were derived, and at least two lines reliably produce gametocytes in vitro. Two lines displayed high chloroquine IC₅₀ estimates, and carried the CVIET haplotype at codons 72-76, whereas the remaining five lines carried the CVMNK haplotype and were sensitive in vitro. All were sensitive to the endoperoxides dihydroartemisinin and OZ277, but IC₅₀ estimates for lumefantrine varied, with the least sensitive parasites carrying pfmdr1 alleles encoding Asn at codon 86. CONCLUSIONS: This study describes the establishment in continuous culture, in vitro drug sensitivity testing and molecular characterization of a series of multiclonal P. falciparum isolates taken directly from UK malaria patients following recent travel to various malaria-endemic countries in Africa. These "HL" isolates are available as an open resource for studies of drug response, antigenic diversity and other aspects of parasite biology

E-tracers:development of a low cost wireless technique for exploring sub-surface hydrological systems

This briefing describes the first deployment of a new electronic tracer (E-tracer) for obtaining along-flowpath measurements in subsurface hydrological systems. These low-cost, wireless sensor platforms were deployed into moulins on the Greenland Ice Sheet. After descending into the moulin, the tracers travelled through the subglacial drainage system before emerging at the glacier portal. They are capable of collecting along-flowpath data from the point of injection until detection. The E-tracers emit a radio frequency signal, which enables sensor identification, location and recovery from the proglacial plain. The second generation of prototype E-tracers recorded water pressure, but the robust sensor design provides a versatile platform for measuring a range of parameters, including temperature and electrical conductivity, in hydrological environments that are challenging to monitor using tethered sensors

Cryoegg: development and field trials of a wireless subglacial probe for deep, fast-moving ice

nnovative technological solutions are required to access and observe subglacial hydrological systems beneath glaciers and ice sheets. Wireless sensing systems can be used to collect and return data without the risk of losing data from cable breakage, which is a major obstacle when studying fast flowing glaciers and other high-strain environments. However, the performance of wireless sensors in deep and fast-moving ice has yet to be evaluated formally. We report experimental results from Cryoegg: a spherical probe that can be deployed along an ice borehole and either remain fixed in place or potentially travel through the subglacial hydrological system. The probe makes measurements in-situ and sends them back to the surface via a wireless link. Cryoegg uses very high frequency (VHF) radio to transmit data through up to 1.3 km of cold ice to a surface receiving array. It measures temperature, pressure and electrical conductivity, returning all data in real time. This transmission uses Wireless M-Bus on 169 MHz; we present a simple “radio link budget” model for its performance in cold ice and confirm its validity experimentally. Power is supplied by an internal battery with sufficient capacity for two measurements per day for up to a year, although higher reporting rates are available at the expense of battery life. Field trials were conducted in 2019 at two locations in Greenland (the EastGRIP borehole and the RESPONDER project site on Sermeq Kujalleq/Store Glacier) and on the Rhone Glacier in Switzerland. Our results from the field demonstrate Cryoegg’s utility in studying englacial channels and moulins, including estimating moulin discharge through salt dilution gauging with the instrument deployed deep within the moulin. Future iterations of the radio system will allow Cryoegg to transmit through up to 2.5 km of ice