Linear stability and numerical analysis of dipolar vortices and topographic flows

The linear stability and numerical analysis of geophysical flow patterns is carried out on the beta-plane in a quasigeostrophic approximation. We consider initial steady state dipoles in a one-and-a-half-layer model that are capable of zonal drift in either direction. Despite previous numerical works suggesting that eastward propagating dipoles are stable, our high resolution simulations identify the spontaneous symmetry breaking of weak dipoles over time. The evolution is associated with a growing critical mode with even symmetry about the zonal axis. On carrying out a linear stability analysis, the critical modes obtained share consistency with the numerical fields. In addition, both methods of analysis show that the linear growth rate is inversely proportional to the dipole intensity. Furthermore, the partner separation becomes more pronounced after the linear growth stage, suggesting that nonlinear effects play a pivotal role in the underlying dynamics. Beyond this, the dynamics of initially tilted dipoles and dipole-rider solutions are considered, while stronger dipoles are further analysed using the method of distillation. Flows over sinusoidal bottom relief are considered in a two-layer model on the quasigeostrophic beta-plane. Fourier mode solutions are assumed for the layer-wise perturbation field in order to carry out a linear stability analysis, from which a coupled eigenproblem is derived between fluid columns for both zonal and meridional bottom irregularities. The presence of zonally oriented multiple ridges stabilises an otherwise unstable homogeneous zonal current with respect to increases in the number of ridges and ridge amplitude. Moreover, a bifurcation occurs in the unstable mode spectra and is dependent on the number of ridges. The critical eigenmodes in this case are found to be eddy chains of alternating sign, and these share remarkable resemblance with those obtained numerically. Meridionally oriented multiple ridges are also considered, but are found not to affect the maximum growth rate directly.Open Acces

Victim blaming; a disparity between the law and justice

'She is in the true sense asking for it'/ 'If she doesn't want it she only has to keep her legs shut'/ 'Judge brands rape victim "extremely foolish" for drinking too much

Time Decay: Assets, Authoritarianism, and Anxiety about the Future

This article identifies a basic formula in the Freudo-Marxist take on twentieth-century authoritarianism. This is the incommensurability of inherited past development with the pace and demands of industrial social life, damming up a tremendous excess that seeks reactionary outlet. Authoritarianism, here, breeds in the contradiction between the symptoms of the Oedipal drama and the commodity form. The implicit “repressive hypothesis” for sexuality and developmentalist teleology make this theorization of authoritarian formations untenable today. This article, however, identifies moments of promise in this literature, and turns to materials available to these thinkers—specifically interwar psychoanalytic theory on anxiety and economic theory on capital assets—to develop the rudiments of a different psycho-social theory of authoritarianism. I conclude by considering the specific and novel implications of financialization as an initial gesture towards bringing this forward to the present. If twentieth-century authoritarianism was a crisis of authority, today we witness authority’s decay

A Very Haven of Peace: The Role of the Stately Home Hospital in First World War Britain

This thesis examines the role of the stately home hospital during the First World War. It assesses the social and cultural importance of these institutions, as well as the place that they, and their patients, held within wartime society. It argues that the establishment of a hospital in a stately home communicated a high level of patient care, reminding people all over the Empire how much Britain valued the sacrifices of its wounded. However, some members of the soldiery misinterpreted the value bestowed upon them by their status as war heroes. Consequently, the stately home hospital became a site of physical and emotional clashes between the wounded and the medical authorities. By placing these medical establishments in their social, cultural, political, and imperial contexts, this thesis delineates the myriad of ways that the space of the stately home hospital affected the experience of wounding and how a number of different people interacted with the institution and utilised it for many different purposes. The domestic nature of these private residences meant that they straddled the military and civilian spheres, which convoluted the position of the wounded soldier, the medical staff, and ancillary workers within. In addition, the space was home to a variety of non-military personnel who presented the wounded with a variety of different opportunities that transcended normal military spaces. This thesis explores these opportunities to discuss the important position stately home hospitals held within First World War Britain. Due to the historic role of the stately home in British social, cultural and political life, the experience of recovering within these walls was socially loaded. This thesis argues that the establishment of hospitals in these buildings was an important statement to the wounded and their families