Waleran II, Count of Meulan and Worcester, 1104-1166

Waleran was born in 1104 as the elder of the twin sons of Count Robert I of Meulan and Leicester (died 1118) and his wife Isabel of Vermandois (died c. 1139). On his father’s death Waleran and his younger twin, Robert, were each alloted a share of their paternal inheritance by his testament, a division which came into effect on their sixteenth birthday in 1120. Waleran took the county of Meulan in the Vexin Français and the Norman lands (with some Dorset estates to give him an English base and revenue). Waleran was given the marriage of the infant Matilda, daughter of King Stephen of England in 1136, though she died within a couple of years of their betrothal. He married at the end of 1141 Agnes, daughter of Amaury I de Montfort, count of Evreux, and around 1145 secured the lordship of Gournay-sur-Marne in the Parisis as her marriage-portion. In 1138 Waleran was made earl of Worcester in England by King Stephen, a grant which was eventually rescinded by King Henry II. Waleran died on 9/10 April 1166 and was buried in the chapter house of the family abbey of St Peter of Préaux in Normandy. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Count Robert II of Meulan

Quantum wideband traveling-wave analysis of a degenerate parametric amplifier

We develop a wideband traveling-wave formalism for analyzing quantum mechanically a degenerate parametric amplifier. The formalism is based on spatial differential equations-spatial Langevin equations-that propagate temporal Fourier components of the field operators through the nonlinear medium. In addition to the parametric nonlinearity, the Langevin equations include absorption and associated fluctuations, dispersion (phase mismatching), and pump quantum fluctuations. We analyze the dominant effects of phase mismatching and pump quantum fluctuations on the squeezing produced by a degenerate parametric amplifier

We have a long history of getting it wrong on Russia – Interview with David Crouch

Euro Crisis in the Press talks to David Crouch about media coverage of EU-Russia relations and the recent search for Russian submarines off the Swedish coast

Polyterthiophenes incorporating 3,4-difluorothiophene units : application in organic field-effect transistors

Two terthiophenes bearing core fluorinated thienyl units have been synthesised as potential semiconductor materials for organic field-effect transistors. Polymerisation of these compounds has been achieved using conventional iron(III) chloride oxidative coupling methods and by electrochemical oxidation. Characterisation of the fluorinated materials has been achieved by absorption spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. A soluble hexyl-functionalised polymer (poly8b) was used in an OFET device; hole mobilities were measured up to 3 × 10−3 cm2 · V−1 · s−1, and the device had an on/off ratio of 105 and a turn-on voltage of +4 V

Gallium arsenide field effect transistors microstrip integrated circuit dielectric resonator oscillators

Bibliography: leaves 175-177.This thesis is concerned with Gallium Arsenide Metal Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor Microstrip Integrated Circuit Dielectric Resonator Oscillators (GaAs MESFET MIC DROs) - the different types, their design and their performance compared to other high Q factor (ie narrowband) microwave oscillators. The thesis has three major objectives. The first is to collate the information required to build microwave DROs. The second is to present the practical results obtained from Dielectric Resonator Bandreject and Bandpass filters (DR BRFs and DR BPFs). The last is to present and compare results from a DR stabilised microstrip oscillator and three types of series feedback DROs. Narrowband oscillators are usually evaluated in terms of their frequency stability, reliability, size, cost, efficiency and output power characteristics. In terms of these parameters DROs outperform Gunn cavity oscillators and are only bettered by crystal locked sources in terms of frequency temperature stability and long-term stability. The components of a GaAs MESFET MIC DRO possess ideal properties for the construction of a narrowband source with the exception of the long term stability of the GaAs MESFET. GaAs MESFET•DROs have the best published DRO results for efficiency, output power, power temperature stability and external Q factor. Basic oscillator theory derived by Kurokawa can be applied to both negative resistance and feedback oscillators. Impedance locus, device-line and operating point concepts provide a convenient framework for understanding hysteresis in microwave oscillators. The work by Kurokawa can also be translated into the S-parameter domain which has proved convenient for the design of microwave oscillators

Turf wars : conflict and cooperation in the management of Wallingfen (East Yorkshire), 1281-1781

This paper explores the origins and management of Wallingfen, a large tract of waterlogged marshes and carrs near Howden in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Subject to annual flooding throughout much of its history, the area was utilized by the surrounding parishes and townships throughout the medieval and early modern period, providing a range of important resources to the neighbouring communities including fish, fowl, turves and summer grazing. In this it had much in common with wetland commons elsewhere in England and on the Continent. Yet while the East Anglian Fens and the Lancashire mosses were being drained and enclosed in the seventeenth century – as too were the wetlands around the southern shore of the North Sea Basin in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands – Wallingfen remained wet, marshy and entirely unsuitable for arable agriculture long into the eighteenth century. In other ways too, Wallingfen was highly unusual. Not only was a true form of intercommoning practiced here until parliamentary enclosure under an act of 1777, but there is evidence too of a cooperative system of wetland management which fell outside the direct authority of the neighbouring manors or any higher form of overlordship. The survival of precedent rolls and notebooks preserving extracts from the annual court rolls of Wallingfen from as early as 1425 gives a fortuitous and rare picture of the governance of a large wetland common and its resources over a period of several centuries

Knock-in of Human BACE1 Cleaves Murine APP and Reiterates Alzheimer-like PhenoTypes

Footnotes We thank Roemex and the College for Life Science and Medicine at the University of Aberdeen for their generous support. The authors declare no competing financial interests.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Teaching the Grid: Learning Distributed Computing with the M-grid Framework

A classic challenge within Computer Science is to distribute data and processes so as to take advantage of multiple computers tackling a single problem in a simultaneous and coordinated way. This situation arises in a number of different scenarios, including Grid computing which is a secure, service-based architecture for tackling massively parallel problems and creating virtual organizations. Although the Grid seems destined to be an important part of the future computing landscape, it is very difficult to learn how to use as real Grid software requires extensive setting up and complex security processes. M-grid mimics the core features of the Grid, in a much simpler way, enabling the rapid prototyping of distributed applications. We describe m-grid and explore how it may be used to teach foundation Grid computing skills at the Higher Education level and report some of our experiences of deploying it as an exercise within a programming course

Insane Lane: Crowds, Contamination and Violence in Australia

Insane Lane: Crowds, Contamination and Violence in Australi