Environmental Dimensions of the RMS Leinster Sinking

The Irish Sea which separates Great Britain and Ireland has often been written about in terms of divisions, threats, and hazards. Facing each other across that sea, the coast of Wales and Ireland’s eastern seaboard have a more complex story to tell, one characterised by intimate if troubled lines of connection. A place of passage for centuries, the Irish Sea has a distinct identity, its memory longer and more capacious than borders or polities. The region ties together port communities that differ in their stories, cultures, and worldviews. This article explores themes of division and connection across coasts through the story of the Royal Mail Ship (RMS) Leinster, a British mail steamer that was torpedoed just off the coast of Ireland as World War I neared its end and the Irish War of Independence began to stir

Public Humanities EcoGothic at the Coast in Ireland and Wales

The Gothic clings to Irish and Welsh coasts and finds voice through strange stories. Centuries of accumulated death and tragedy forms a dense web of sorrow with particularly prolific roots in the literature, songs, and stories of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These traditions resonate within the longer history of lives and vessels lost in the Irish Sea, becoming part of what Gillian O’Brien has described as the ‘ring of sorrow’ encircling Ireland, and the wider archipelago, ‘binding together communities who have suffered maritime tragedies like beads on a rosary’. This paper explores the Gothic resonances that cross the Irish Sea and some of the conundrums of expressing this material through digital and stakeholder-based public history activities. These manifestations are a form of blue knowledge, sense-making in the face of danger mediated by a sense of ecological anxiety mixed with human feats of bravery. The case studies of this essay originate from the collection of the Ports, Past and Present project, an initiative funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Cooperation programme

A bin-microphysics parcel model investigation of secondary ice formation in an idealised shallow convective cloud

We provide the first systematic study of ice formation in idealised shallow clouds from collisions of supercooled water drops with ice particles (&lsquo;mode 2&rsquo;). Using the University of Manchester bin-microphysics parcel model, we investigated the sensitivity of ice formation due to mode 2 for a wide range of parameters: aerosol particle size distribution, updraft speed, cloud base temperature, cloud depth, ice-nucleating particle concentration and freezing fraction of mode 2. We provide context to our results with other secondary ice production mechanisms as single mechanisms and combinations (rime-splintering, spherical freezing fragmentation of drops [&lsquo;mode 1&rsquo;] and ice-ice collisions). There was a significant sensitivity to aerosol particle size distribution when updraft speeds were low (0.5 m s&minus;1); secondary ice formation did not occur when the aerosol particle size distribution mimicked polluted environments. Where secondary ice formation did occur in simulated clouds, significant ice formation in the shallower clouds (1.3 km deep) was due to mode 2 or a combination which included mode 2. The deeper clouds (2.4 km deep) also had significant contributions from rime-splintering or ice-ice collisions SIP mechanisms. While simulations with cloud base temperatures of 7 &deg;C were relatively insensitive to ice-nucleating particle concentrations, there was a sensitivity in simulations cloud base temperatures of 0 &deg;C. Increasing the ice-nucleating particle concentration delayed ice formation. Our results suggest that collisions of supercooled water drops with ice particles may be a significant ice formation mechanism within shallow convective clouds where rime-splintering is not active.</p

The modifier effect and property mutability

The modifier effect is the reduction in perceived likelihood of a generic property sentence, when the head noun is modified. We investigated the prediction that the modifier effect would be stronger for mutable than for central properties, without finding evidence for this predicted interaction over the course of five experiments. However Experiment 6, which provided a brief context for the modified concepts to lend them greater credibility, did reveal the predicted interaction. It is argued that the modifier effect arises primarily from a general lack of confidence in generic statements about the typical properties of unfamiliar concepts. Neither prototype nor classical models of concept combination receive support from the phenomenon

Direct comparison between confocal and multiphoton microscopy for rapid histopathological evaluation of unfixed human breast tissue

Rapid histopathological examination of surgical specimen margins using fluorescence microscopy during breast conservation therapy has the potential to reduce the rate of positive margins on postoperative histopathology and the need for repeat surgeries. To assess the suitability of imaging modalities, we perform a direct comparison between confocal fluorescence microscopy and multiphoton microscopy for imaging unfixed tissue and compare to paraffin-embedded histology. An imaging protocol including dual channel detection of two contrast agents to implement virtual hematoxylin and eosin images is introduced that provides high quality imaging under both one and two photon excitation. Corresponding images of unfixed human breast tissue show that both confocal and multiphoton microscopy can reproduce the appearance of conventional histology without the need for physical sectioning. We further compare normal breast tissue and invasive cancer specimens imaged at multiple magnifications, and assess the effects of photobleaching for both modalities using the staining protocol. The results demonstrate that confocal fluorescence microscopy is a promising and cost-effective alternative to multiphoton microscopy for rapid histopathological evaluation of ex vivo breast tissue.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01-CA178636-02)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01-CA075289-18)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant F32-CA183400-03)United States. Air Force. Office of Scientific Research (Grant FA9550-12-1-0551)United States. Air Force. Office of Scientific Research (Grant FA9550-15-1-0473