Living in the Milky Way

It’s finally here. Today, June 20 at 6:34 p.m., is the the summer solstice, also known as the first day of summer and, confusingly enough, midsummer’s eve. From a scientific perspective, it marks the moment the sun reaches its northernmost point in our sky. As a result of that position, it’s the shortest night and longest day if you live north of the equator. [excerpt

Back Half of the Year

Here we are in the back half of 2016, and the days are getting shorter. We have, as of today, lost 18 minutes since the solstice on June 20, and the speed of that change is quickening. You may wonder why it is that we have our hottest weather after our longest day is behind us. The simple answer is that it takes time for land and water masses to warm up. That’s the reason that Sept. 21 is likely to be a lot warmer than March 21, even though they have the same amount of daylight. [excerpt

Using a maturity model to move student engagement practices beyond the generational approach

This paper proposes that the generational approach to conceptualising first year student learning behaviour, while it has made a very useful contribution to understanding that behaviour, can be expanded upon. The generational approach has an explicit focus on student behaviour and it is suggested that a capability maturity model interpretation may provide a complementary extension of that as it allows an assessment of institutional capability to initiate, plan, manage and evaluate institutional student engagement practices. The development of a Student Engagement, Success and Retention Maturity Model (SESR-MM) is discussed along with Australasian FYE generational data and Australian SESR-MM data

Learning in developing economy clusters: The role of intermediary organisations

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel UniversityIntermediary organisations play a distinctive, yet underestimated, role in the learning processes of developing economy clusters. This study situates itself in a new way of thinking about knowledge and innovation; one that emphasises learning as a social process, within communities that emerge through the development of shared practice. It finds that, while previous formulations of intermediaries have emphasised linking and accessing, in some contexts their roles are more fundamental and include community-building and coordinating common strategies. For many agricultural clusters, reflecting a move in developing economies from „import-substitution‟ towards a focus on exports, learning and innovation has become central. Facing challenges in knowledge generation and transfer (Bessant et al, 2003), clustering aids knowledge diffusion amongst producers and stimulates the learning necessary to penetrate international markets (Schmitz and Nadvi, 1999; Humphrey and Schmitz, 2000). While opportunities sometimes exist for learning from global buyers, however, it is more common in natural-resource based clusters for the onus to be on producers to develop their own capabilities (Gomes, 2006). This study examines the contribution a diverse group of actors, categorised as intermediary organisations, make to this process. The practice-based perspective (Amin and Cohendet, 2004) provides a framework through which the intermediary role is conceptualised, alongside insights from the innovation and network literatures (Howells, 2006; Burt, 2005). While these literatures predominantly focus on linking and accessing, however, intermediaries‟ roles are found, in certain developing economy contexts, to stretch wider. Through a case study of a Peruvian agricultural cluster, they are identified as performing a cluster-building role, by providing a platform for inter-firm cooperation. They also, through their ability to coordinate firm actions, facilitate opportunities for value chain learning. In addition, they provide new knowledge inputs to cluster actors, either through their own knowledge creation capabilities or their ability to translate and adapt existing knowledge

Excavations and survey at Coats Hill, near Moffat, 1990-1

This report describes the results of the survey and sample excavations of small cairns, annular structures and other remains on Coats Hill, near Moffat. The difficulties of assessing the dates and functions of certain of the structures are discussed. The project formed part of the archaeological studies for the North Western Ethylene Pipeline (NWEP) Project for Shell Chemicals UK Ltd, which wholly funded the archaeological work and the publication of this report

Edwardian drama : a critical study

'The plays are very interesting, but again, formless,' was Violet Hunt's criticism of Lawrence's plays in 1912. This sort of comment is fairly predictable when the formal structure of drama in England, whether from the pen of Ibsen or Pinero, was expected to conform to the tenets of the well-made play. It arises from a basic misunderstanding of the nature of Lawrence's drama which has persisted until quite recently. Just as Lawrence's inclusion of the domestic details and rituals of the miner's home has been seen not as an ordering and defining principle but as a documentary, a transcript of unordered reality, so Lawrence's plays have been viewed as formless. To hold such an attitude is to fail to appreciate the form which inheres in the plays through such an ordering principle.The sense of form in Edwardian drama tended to emanate from two different but linked sources: formal construction, plays with a beginning, a middle and an end; and a structure of received ideas, an overt ideology which informs the plays with a cohesive intellectual order. Lawrence deliberately avoided both the rigidity of construction of the well-made play and the tendency of the social thesis. Lawrence was unable to find an appropriate form in the drama of his contemporaries. and found that their form was false to the drama be wanted to write.The aesthetic and morality of the well-made play in the hands of the society dramatists is inescapably interlinked, a part and parcel of the experience they convey. The experience mediated by the colliery plays is very different from the experience mediated by the society drama and therefore demands a different aesthetic, that is a different way of defining the drama. Lawrence deliberately constructed and gave form to his colliery plays by investing them with the sense of definition which I have analysed. Lawrence disguised the treatment of his material in order to achieve an effect which has greater congruity with our experience of the unordered reality of life. Similarly he disguised the construction of his plays so that we should be unaware of an externally imposed sense of form, either the theatricality of the well-made play or the intellectuality of the social thesis. Lawrence's plays are not more real that the plays of his contemporaries, he merely utilised a different convention, a different technique.He avoided the formal exposition by making the creation of the social and cultural context its own exposition, its own explanation and definition. He avoided the conclusive ending which allowed the audience to go home feeling contented and satisfied at having witnessed Edwardian middle-class morality triumphant, or feeling smug and complacent in feeling that it had performed some social duty in having its own view of the unfairness of the social and economic system confirmed by a Galsworthy. And in so doing he created a drama which mediated a different experience.It is only when the technique of Lawrence's plays is appreciated, when they are seen as carefully controlled and consciously dramatic works, that they can be hailed as they have been as 'the only really satisfying Naturalist drama in English’ (Lilian R. Furst and Peter N. Skrine, Naturalism, p. 68)

Seamless Online Distribution of Amundsen Multibeam Data

Since 2003, all underway multibeam and sub-bottom data from the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Amundsen has been posted online within approximately six months of the end of each cruise. A custom interface allowing the user to access 15\u27 latitude by 30\u27 longitude mapsheets was implemented in 2006, allowing the user to download the bathymetric and backscatter data at 10 metre resolution. While this interface matched the underlying data management scheme implemented at the University of New Brunswick, the zoom and pan capability was at a fixed scale with limited contextual data. In the past few years, with the introduction of web-based geographic information systems (GIS) (e.g. Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, Bing Maps), there have been thousands of maps published online. These online GIS programs are a suitable platform to display the seven years of Amundsen coverage within the context of the GIS-served satellite imagery and allow the user to freely browse all data in a familiar interface. The challenge, however, for serving up third party data through these map engines is to efficiently cope with the multiple zoom levels and changing resolutions. Custom tiling software was developed to take all the raw data from the seven years of Amundsen (and others\u27) multibeam coverage and convert it into multiple scale resolution images suitable for interpretation by Google Maps. The images were stored in a pyramid structure utilizing Google\u27s map projection and uniquely named to reflect their georeferencing and resolution. This image pyramid is then accessed by Google Maps according to the user\u27s current zoom level to optimize visualization. This multi-resolution data is served up on demand from the University of New Brunswick for dynamic overlay on Google\u27s satellite data. This web interface allows any interested parties to easily view multibeam and sub-bottom data from the Pacific Ocean through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and into the Atlantic Ocean. The broad overview helps to understand regional trends and then focus on areas of interest at high resolutions to see particular features. The web interface also provides a link to the 15\u27 by 30\u27 mapsheet model with full source traceability

The economic and social role of small stores: A review of UK evidence

There is considerable concern in the United Kingdom regarding the growing power of supermarkets, a concern that culminated recently in a UK Competition Commission enquiry into the grocery sector. Against this backdrop, some suppliers, independent retailers and societal groups have been critical of the investigation, implying that it did not do justice to the role of small stores in society, and that this issue is insufficiently understood by policy-makers. To address this need, this article reviews and assesses the available UK evidence on the social and economic role of small independent stores and the values that are attached to them by the communities they serve. This is achieved using the Systematic Literature Review methodology. The purpose of the article is to gauge the evidence as a platform for wider debate on how the role of small stores can be maintained and enhanced. The article identifies key themes and gaps in the literature as a basis for identifying research priorities and highlights implications for public policy and planning The economic and social role of small stores: A review of UK evidence | Request PDF. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233067357_The_economic_and_social_role_of_small_stores_A_review_of_UK_evidence [accessed Sep 04 2018]

An investigation into the feasibility of constructing a mathematical model of ship safety : a thesis in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Science in Mathematics at Massey University

This thesis investigates the feasibility of developing a mathematical model to provide quantitative measures of total ship safety. Safety is an intuitive concept and is a subset of economic utility. There is economic pressure to transport goods at minimum cost and, without regulation, the frequency of shipping casualties could be unacceptably high. Mathematical methods associated with elements that influence ship safety are reviewed. Techniques for analysing ships' structures, stability, motions and engineering reliability are well established, but those for assessing the effect of human involvement, and operational and organisational influences on safety are less developed Data are available for winds, waves, currents and tidal movements, and their variability suggests that probabilistic models are appropriate Given the complexity of the international shipping industry, a simple computer model is developed in which 50 ships serve four ports. This allows safety to be assessed when input variables are adjusted. Obstacles to developing a mathematical model of ship safety are identified, and it is concluded that the feasibility of such a model depends on its required inclusiveness and utility