An Analysis of Factors Affecting the Royal Air Force Contribution to the Raid on Dieppe, 1942

This paper seeks to explain the limited options available to Air Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory when planning the Royal Air Force (RAF) portion of the combined operation raid on Dieppe in 1942. It proposes that a number of constraining influences, some self-imposed, reduced the air support options, so that only an air umbrella over the attacking forces could be provided. It argues that these influences were a consequence of the RAF’s cultural and conceptual environment, which perpetuated Trenchardian notions of offensive spirit in RAF doctrine, together with the refusal to consider options to extend the range of its fighter aircraft. The paper rejects claims that the RAF’s effort at Dieppe was the natural evolution of combined operations doctrine and demonstrates that preemptive bombing of Dieppe was politically unacceptable

Review of Flying to Victory: Raymond Collishaw and the Western Desert Campaign, 1940-1941 by Mike Bechthold

Review of Flying to Victory: Raymond Collishaw and the Western Desert Campaign, 1940-1941 by Mike Bechthold

“Monty’s Functional Doctrine: Combined Arms Doctrine in British 21st Army Group in Northwest Europe, 1944-45 (Book Review)” by Charles Forrester.

Review of Monty’s Functional Doctrine: Combined Arms Doctrine in British 21st Army Group in Northwest Europe, 1944-45 by Charles Forrester

Practices, Core Practices and the Work of the Holy Spirit

The recent interest in practices has created a multi-faceted discussion in theological circles that brings together insights from many disciplines such as ethics, philosophy, and cultural anthropology. However, there has been little extended analysis about how the many claims made about practices are related to quite similar claims traditionally made about the work of the Holy Spirit. In this paper, four distinctions are highlighted that can help us better conceptualize how the Holy Spirit might be related to different kinds of practices

A Quantitative Analysis of the Urban Morphology of Southwestern Ontario Census Metropolitan Areas

Patterns of urban development in North America have changed drastically over time: from dense urban cores to sprawling subdivisions. This study investigates changes in residential forms of Southwestern Ontario cities by characterizing numerous individual features which make up the built environment, and then evaluating spatial patterns and statistical relationships. Using high-quality data regarding the social and physical elements of Ontario cities within a geographic information system (GIS), this research provides improved methods to quantitatively characterize urban development forms at the micro level. Results show that the majority of morphological variables have systematic spatial patterns and are highly correlated. Most variables tend to either increase or decrease from the city centre outward, or have their extreme values in the oldest residential neighbourhoods. Results show that social and historical variables of a neighbourhood are highly correlated with morphology. This research has implications for planners, land developers, and other agents of urban change

Large-scale curriculum redesign where technology plays a central role

VIDEO RECORDINGS: http://goo.gl/bGTaF Materials from the conference held in Birmingham on 21 May 2012. The event was organised by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) and the Association of Colleges (AoC). Links to all recordings from the day are now available via http://goo.gl/bGTaF. Note that Donald Clarke's session does not contain video except slides

Sky Variability in the y Band at the LSST Site

We have measured spatial and temporal variability in the y band sky brightness over the course of four nights above Cerro Tololo near Cerro Pachon, Chile, the planned site for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). Our wide-angle camera lens provided a 41 deg field of view and a 145 arcsec pixel scale. We minimized potential system throughput differences by deploying a deep depletion CCD and a filter that matches the proposed LSST y_3 band (970 nm-1030 nm). Images of the sky exhibited coherent wave structure, attributable to atmospheric gravity waves at 90 km altitude, creating 3%-4% rms spatial sky flux variability on scales of about 2 degrees and larger. Over the course of a full night the y_3 band additionally showed highly coherent temporal variability of up to a factor of 2 in flux. We estimate the mean absolute sky level to be approximately y_3 = 17.8 mag (Vega), or y_3 = 18.3 mag (AB). While our observations were made through a y_3 filter, the relative sky brightness variability should hold for all proposed y bands, whereas the absolute levels should more strongly depend on spectral response. The spatial variability presents a challenge to wide-field cameras that require illumination correction strategies that make use of stacked sky flats. The temporal variability may warrant an adaptive y band imaging strategy for LSST, to take advantage of times when the sky is darkest.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted to PASP. Minor changes from referee report and editor's revisions

Earthshine as an Illumination Source at the Moon

Earthshine is the dominant source of natural illumination on the surface of the Moon during lunar night, and at locations within permanently shadowed regions that never receive direct sunlight. As such, earthshine may enable the exploration of areas of the Moon that are hidden from solar illumination. The heat flux from earthshine may also influence the transport and cold trapping of volatiles present in the very coldest areas. In this study, Earth's spectral radiance at the Moon is examined using a suite of Earth spectral models created using the Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) three dimensional modeling capability. At the Moon, the broadband, hemispherical irradiance from Earth near 0 phase is approximately 0.15 watts per square meter, with comparable contributions from solar reflectance and thermal emission. Over the simulation timeframe, spanning two lunations, Earth's thermal irradiance changes less than a few mW per square meter as a result of cloud variability and the south-to-north motion of sub-observer position. In solar band, Earth's diurnally averaged light curve at phase angles < 60 degrees is well fit using a Henyey Greenstein integral phase function. At wavelengths > 0.7 microns, near the well known vegetation "red edge", Earth's reflected solar radiance shows significant diurnal modulation as a result of the longitudinal asymmetry in projected landmass, as well as from the distribution of clouds. A simple formulation with adjustable coefficients is presented for estimating Earth's hemispherical irradiance at the Moon as a function of wavelength, phase angle and sub-observer coordinates. It is demonstrated that earthshine is sufficiently bright to serve as a natural illumination source for optical measurements from the lunar surface.Comment: 27 pages, 15 figures, 1 tabl

Service evaluation of weight outcomes as a function of initial BMI in 34,271 adults referred to a primary care/commercial weight management partnership scheme

Peer reviewedPublisher PD