Oil in the Beaufort and Mediterranean Seas

Spillage of oil into the Beaufort Sea in the course of exploration and exploitation of offshore resources may occur at an estimated rate of 20 milligrams per square metre per year, or about one-fifth the rate of spillage into the Mediterranean Sea. Overall rates of degradation and dispersion of spilled oil under the conditions prevailing in the Beaufort Sea are however likely to be significantly slower than under the conditions in the Mediterranean. The various input, degradation and dispersion rates may be interrelated in the form of a simple algebraic equation. From current estimates of these rates it is suggested that standing concentrations of oil in the Beaufort Sea could in time become comparable to those in the Mediterranean

The English private school 1830-1914, with special reference to the private proprietary school

The English private preparatory school evolved from a complex patter of private education which developed in the nineteenth century and which differed in degree and kind from earlier private education. Nineteenth century pattern if provision were determined by the prevailing philosophy of laissez-faire; by increased wealth and expectations of beneficiaries of the industrial revolution; by the improvement in modes of travel; by the introduction of middle class and professional examinations and by the character of those prepared to meet the demand. Social factors as in the case of some proprietary schools and religious factors, as in the case of yet other proprietary schools and many private schools of pious owners, all contributed to the shape the character of the supply which met the demand. Underlying much of this supply, however, was the economic factor of the private profit motive, which also characterised the private preparatory school. In the early years of the century there were classical schools for the sons of gentlemen which intended to specialise in the education of young boys from about eight to fourteen. Other smaller schools, kept by middle class spinsters and married women alike, contributed the evolution of the late nineteenth century preparatory school which by the 1880’s had become an institutionalised phenomenon with close ties with the Royal Navy in providing a supply of young officer material but more especially with the public schools, whose characteristics they mirrored: the institutionalisation of these schools let to their political organisation in the 1890s. By 1914, these two forms of educational institution, with largely antithetical origins, had been closely linked to comprise the major part of secondary education in the independent sector of English education in the twentieth century

Ontological Problems of Pluralist Research Methodologies

An examination of the information systems (IS) and social philosophy literature reveals that much has been written on the relevance of different research methodologies. Within the information systems research community several authors have called for the combining of interpretive and positivist research methodologies. This is an issue which is central to research design. This paper reviews three such calls by IS researchers and argues that cross-paradigmatic research is ill-founded. An alternative, inclusive understanding of the relationships between different forms of IS research will be offered. This alternative view is based on an acceptance of different research methodologies as philosophical equals

Aging, Emotion, Attention, and Binding in the Taboo Stroop Task: Data and Theories.

How does aging impact relations between emotion, memory, and attention? To address this question, young and older adults named the font colors of taboo and neutral words, some of which recurred in the same font color or screen location throughout two color-naming experiments. The results indicated longer color-naming response times (RTs) for taboo than neutral base-words (taboo Stroop interference); better incidental recognition of colors and locations consistently associated with taboo versus neutral words (taboo context-memory enhancement); and greater speed-up in color-naming RTs with repetition of color-consistent than color-inconsistent taboo words, but no analogous speed-up with repetition of location-consistent or location-inconsistent taboo words (the consistency type by repetition interaction for taboo words). All three phenomena remained constant with aging, consistent with the transmission deficit hypothesis and binding theory, where familiar emotional words trigger age-invariant reactions for prioritizing the binding of contextual features to the source of emotion. Binding theory also accurately predicted the interaction between consistency type and repetition for taboo words. However, one or more aspects of these phenomena failed to support the inhibition deficit hypothesis, resource capacity theory, or socio-emotional selectivity theory. We conclude that binding theory warrants further test in a range of paradigms, and that relations between aging and emotion, memory, and attention may depend on whether the task and stimuli trigger fast-reaction, involuntary binding processes, as in the taboo Stroop paradigm

Ethics, Logs and Videotape: Ethics in Large Scale User Trials and User Generated Content. Workshop organized at CHI'11.

Mobile Life CentreMobile 2.

The Myth of Multiple Methods

This paper addresses issues surrounding the combining of quantitative and qualitative methods in a single research design. Reference is made to attempts by information systems researchers to combine research methods. It is argued that the four paradigm model of Burrell and Morgan has encouraged researchers to seek cross-paradigmatic research designs. Argument is offered that cross-paradigmatic research is unsound. A different paradigm framework is introduced and used to support a focus on the nature of the phenomenon to be investigated and the questions to be answered rather than the method to be used

Mass transfer studies on gas absorption columns

The mass transfer and hydraulic characteristics of the Kuhni Distillation Plate have been studied using aqueous systems. The Kuhni Plate which is of Swiss origin, patented in 1937, has annular tunnel bubble caps with radial liquid flow from the periphery inwards to a central outlet well, from which the liquid is distributed to the periphery of the plate below by radial distribution tubes, giving co-ordinated reflux. Two sizes of plate were studied, 30 end 12 inches in diameter. Mass transfer cheracteristics were studied using two gas absorption systems, the humidification of air as a gas phase resistant system and the desorption of oxygen from water by air as a liquid phase resistant system. Air rates ranged from 100 to 500 pounds per square foot of column area per hour and water rates from 100 to 1,000 pounds per square foot of column area per hour. The plate efficiency was found to be relatively high and the relationship between the gas phase mass transfer coefficient and the gas contact time was of the form predicted by the Penetration Theory rather than the Two Film Theory of Mass Transfer. The Penetration Theory was further substantiated by consideration of the ratios of gas and liquid phase mass transfer coefficients and molecular diffusivities. In general the efficiency of the 12 inch plate was lower than that of the 30 inch plate owing to the lower weir height and the shorter liquid residence time on the plate. The throughput of the Kuhni Plate was found to be low in comparison with other plates. The hydraulic characteristics studied included plate pressure drop, clear liquid height, froth height, liquid hold-up, liquid residence time end the degree of liquid mixing. Plate pressure drops were found to be relatively high owing to the high "dry plate" pressure drop. It was found that the pressure drop characteristics could be improved by increasing the slot area although there was a corresponding reduction in efficiency. The effect of increasing the weir height was also studied and it is suggested that the performance of the plate can be improved by increasing both the slot area and the weir height. Froth heights were found to be low in comparison with other plates and it is probable that relatively little discrete bubbling takes place owing to the low weir height. Liquid hold-up, residence time and mixing were studied by a tracer injection technique, and a steady state dye injection technique was used to give a qualitative indication of the degree of lateral mixing. A discrepancy was observed between the liquid hold-up calculated from the tracer injection method and from the clear liquid height measurements. The degree of liquid mixing was characterised by the Peclet Number and the "eddy diffusivity". The relationship between the liquid residence time distribution function and the Peclet Number was derived for radial flow plates and the Peclet Number used in the deduction of the liquid phase mess transfer data. The effects of increasing the liquid viscosity on the gas and liquid phase mass transfer rates end on the liquid residence time, hold-up and degree of mixing were studied. The viscosities ranged from one to sixteen centiPoise and it was observed that the effect of increasing viscosity was complex, giving rise to maximum efficiencies in the four to eight centiPoise range. The density, viscosity, vapour pressure, oxygen solubility and oxygen diffusivity of aqueous solutions of the viscosity increasing agent ("Cellofas B") were studied to enable a more complete evaluation to be made of the effects of liquid viscosity on mass transfer rates

US and EU antitrust policy objectives and the legal status of the hardcore vertical restrictions: absolute territorial protection and minimum resale price maintenance

This thesis is concerned with the identification and analysis of the policy objectives of US antitrust and EU competition law, with particular reference to the hardcore vertical restrictions, absolute territorial protection (ATP) and minimum resale price maintenance (RPM). It does not critique the identified policy objectives as such, but it does critique the underlying economic principles through which they are interpreted to assess whether the US and EU legal positions on the hardcore restrictions are logically justifiable. As such, two chapters are dedicated to the identification of the objectives of US antitrust policy and EU competition policy, respectively. This is done through analysis of their legal development, and political and historical context. They conclude that the promotion of consumer welfare has become the sole objective of US antitrust policy, but that EU competition policy has retained a multifaceted set of objectives, including the protection of market integration and the promotion of effective competition, as well as the welfare objectives the EU has adopted more recently. The final chapter assesses whether the US and EU legal positions on the hardcore vertical restrictions are logically justified by the policy objectives of each jurisdiction identified in the previous chapters. It considers the development of the legal positions in detail, and goes on to critique the economic analysis of vertical restraints under which the restrictions have been considered. It concludes that the EU justifies its absolute prohibition of both hardcore restrictions under its multifaceted set of competition policy objectives, but that the US can only logically justify its rule of reason for ATP under the sole objective of consumer welfare, while minimum RPM should have continued to be subject to per se illegality. The Leegin decision to permit minimum RPM subject to a rule of reason relied on flawed analysis of its economic effects