Rethinking the Origins of Transnational Humanitarian Organizations: The Curious Case of the International Shipwreck Society

By exploring the evolution of the International Shipwreck Society (ISS) – a previously neglected transnational humanitarian organization encompassing branches in every continent by the late 1830s – this article sheds new light on three key aspects of the development of global humanitarianism. First, through revealing how a secular humanitarian association with a global organizational structure was developed in the 1830s, the article challenges conventional assumptions with respect to when internationally organized humanitarian action became possible. Second, through exploring the influence of Chinese precedents in the ISS, the article reveals the importance in the development of transnational humanitarianism of previously neglected Eastern origins. Third, through evaluating the role of individuals in the evolution of the ISS, the article provides a more balanced perspective on the role of individual leadership in early transnational humanitarian organizations than has traditionally been put forward. In each of these aspects, the article provides a new perspective on the origins of global networks

New Cosmological Structures on Medium Angular Scales Detected with the Tenerife Experiments

We present observations at 10 and 15 GHz taken with the Tenerife experiments in a band of the sky at Dec.=+35 degrees. These experiments are sensitive to multipoles in the range l=10-30. The sensitivity per beam is 56 and 20 microK for the 10 and the 15 GHz data, respectively. After subtraction of the prediction of known radio-sources, the analysis of the data at 15 GHz at high Galactic latitude shows the presence of a signal with amplitude Delta Trms ~ 32 microK. In the case of a Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum for the primordial fluctuations, a likelihood analysis shows that this signal corresponds to a quadrupole amplitude Q_rms-ps=20.1+7.1-5.4 microK, in agreement with our previous results at Dec.+=40 degrees and with the results of the COBE DMR. There is clear evidence for the presence of individual features in the RA range 190 degrees to 250 degrees with a peak to peak amplitude of ~110 microK. A preliminary comparison between our results and COBE DMR predictions for the Tenerife experiments clearly indicates the presence of individual features common to both. The constancy in amplitude over such a large range in frequency (10-90 GHz) is strongly indicative of an intrinsic cosmological origin for these structures.Comment: ApJ Letters accepted, 13 pages Latex (uses AASTEX) and 4 encapsulated postscript figures

Creating innovation in lymphoedema nursing through collaboration

Against a background of fiscal and regulatory pressure to rationalize and justify health-care interventions, there is an underlying political message that greater cooperation and collaboration would improve health-care for all. This article uses the specialism of lymphoedema to illustrate the developments and improvements in care which can be achieved by harnessing the knowledge and skills of the multi-disciplinary team, and those people with vision, who are prepared to innovate to improve patient care. The article argues that it is the experienced specialist who advances care both by innovation and by working to achieve consensus, which can then guide the less experienced generalist. Using specific examples of published research drawn from other specialities - leg ulcer management, varicose vein treatment and dermatology - the article shows how this supports the practice of lymphoedema practitioners

Calibrating the parameters: changing hearts and minds about open access monographs

The advent of open access (OA) publishing presents welcome new opportunities for reducing the barriers of cost and time to the dissemination of research work in UK universities. However, it does present some challenges to the traditional model of monograph publication in the humanities and social sciences. In common with many other academic institutions, the University of Sussex is developing policies that will permit it to embrace OA publication. This paper describes how, in doing this, Sussex is addressing the challenges associated with OA to ensure that the careers of doctoral students, academics and researchers are not affected adversely by the change in the publishing landscape for monographs both in the UK and internationall

On the duration of the subsonic propeller state of neutron stars in wind-fed mass-exchange close binary systems

The condition for the subsonic propeller - accretor state transition of neutron stars in wind-fed mass-exchange binary systems is discussed. I show that the value of the break period, at which the neutron star change its state to accretor, presented by Davies & Pringle (1981) is underestimated by a factor of 7.5. The correct value is P_{\rm br} = 450 \mu_{30}^{16/21} \dot{M}_{15}^{-5/7} (M/M_{\sun})^{-4/21} s. This result forced us to reconsider some basic conclusions on the efficiency of the propeller spindown mechanism.Comment: 3 pages, published in A&A 368, L