Andrew Melville, sacred chronology and world history: the Carmina Danielis 9 and the Antichristus

The accepted view of the ecclesiastical reformer Andrew Melville (1545–1622) as the dynamic leader of the Presbyterian movement in Jacobean Scotland has been severely eroded in recent years, with particular criticism of the actual importance of his contribution to the Kirk and to Scottish higher education. While this reductionism has been necessary, it has resulted in an inversion of the overwhelmingly positive traditional image of Melville, and does not give us a rounded assessment of his life and works. This article attempts to partially redress this balance by looking at a neglected aspect of Melville's Latin writings, which showcase his talents as a humanist intellectual and biblical commentator. It focuses on two long poems that are both commentaries and paraphrases of Daniel and Revelation: the Carmina Danielis and the Antichristus. Through these poems, we see how Melville engaged with two problems exercising reformed theologians across Europe: the dating of key biblical events and the historicised meaning of prophecies within these texts. We also find evidence that Melville read widely among both contemporary and ancient commentators on both these issues

Economic Aspects of the Irish Exchange Control Regime. Quarterly Economic Commentary Special Article, April 1980

From the foundation of the State until March 1979, the Irish currency was maintained in a fixed one-to-one parity with the pound sterling. Aside from the 50% deposit requirement on capital inflows through the banking system imposed by the Central Bank in recent years, there were no significant restrictions on the movement of funds between Ireland and the sterling area. Capital movements between Ireland and non-sterling countries were subject to exchange control regulations broadly similar to the UK's own, although in practice they were administered in a somewhat more liberal fashion. The Irish controls could be seen as, in effect, part of the price of our membership of the sterling zone, since the UK's own controls would have been circumvented very readily if Ireland had presented an uncontrolled "window" to the rest of the world. So purchases of financial assets in non-sterling countries had to be financed through the dollar premium pool or through foreign currency loans

The Consumer Price Index and Different Household Expenditure Patterns. Quarterly Economic Commentary Special Article, October 1975

The Consumer Price Index ( CPI) is now used increasingly as the major reference point in adjusting pay and social benefits to "compensate" for inflation. This raises many interesting questions about the precise meaning of compensation, its feasibility and its effects as well as the suitability of the CPI for the purpose. This paper, which is part of work in progress on these issues, examines how price changes affect different types of household by virtue of differences in their expenditure patterns

Metric perturbations of Kerr spacetime in Lorenz gauge: Circular equatorial orbits

We construct the metric perturbation in Lorenz gauge for a compact body on a circular equatorial orbit of a rotating black hole (Kerr) spacetime, using a newly-developed method of separation of variables. The metric perturbation is formed from a linear sum of differential operators acting on Teukolsky mode functions, and certain auxiliary scalars, which are solutions to ordinary differential equations in the frequency domain. For radiative modes, the solution is uniquely determined by the $s=\pm2$ Weyl scalars, the $s=0$ trace, and $s=0,1$ gauge scalars whose amplitudes are determined by imposing continuity conditions on the metric perturbation at the orbital radius. The static (zero-frequency) part of the metric perturbation, which is handled separately, also includes mass and angular momentum completion pieces. The metric perturbation is validated against the independent results of a 2+1D time domain code, and we demonstrate agreement at the expected level in all components, and the absence of gauge discontinuities. In principle, the new method can be used to determine the Lorenz-gauge metric perturbation at a sufficiently high precision to enable accurate second-order self-force calculations on Kerr spacetime in future. We conclude with a discussion of extensions of the method to eccentric and non-equatorial orbits.Comment: 88 pages, 14 figure

Correlation between the microstructure and the deformation behaviour of metallic nanowires

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. The dominance of microstructure on the deformation behavior of a nanowire is a fundamental issue in the application of nanodevices. Through the use of molecular dynamics simulations, the deformation and breaking behavior of convex and concave copper nanowires under uniaxial tension has been studied. Statistical analysis of a large number of independent samples with different microstructure has been carried out and compared to the single-crystal copper nanowire. Without neither the convex nor the concave nanostructure, failure tends to occur at three preferred locations within the wire, although it can occur anywhere. The dislocations that form initially are found to emerge randomly at the edge of the nanowire. For convex nanowires, the initial dislocations are generated randomly outside the convex region with a breaking position distribution otherwise similar to that of single-crystal nanowires. The results indicate that the convex structure may strengthen the nanowire and reduce the breaking possibility. An axial stress analysis shows a stress valley on the profile, revealing the reason for the breaking position distribution. On the contrary, the concave nanowire displays a different character in the mechanical property. From the atomic configuration, it is observed that the edge is the main source of the dislocations, which significantly increase the probability of the breaking position occurring there. The axial stress analysis proves that a stress hump is generated by the concave microstructure, highlighting the influence of the microstructure. The results are in line with what one would expect intuitively and what is seen in macroscopic structures – failure is more likely within thinner sections as stresses are higher there due to the reduced cross-sectional area. These results point towards a quantitative estimation of the microstructure effect on the breaking distribution of a nanowire

BUDGET PERSPECTIVES 2011. RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 18 October 2010

The Budget Perspectives Conference, co‐hosted annually by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the Foundation for Fiscal Studies provides a forum for discussing key public policy issues of both immediate concern (in upcoming budgets) and longer term concern. In the context of the current fiscal and economic crisis, research insights aimed at making more efficient use of scarce resources are needed now more than ever. Furthermore, research on the allocation of benefits and tax burdens is critical not only for intrinsic reasons but also to ensure that policies are publicly acceptable. It is not enough for policy to promote efficiency and fairness – it must be seen to do so. The research papers presented at this year’s annual Budget Perspectives conference continue in this tradition, providing an opportunity for policymakers, social partners and researchers to engage on some of the major issues that we face today

Spectrum of qubit oscillations from Bloch equations

We have developed a formalism suitable for calculation of the output spectrum of a detector continuously measuring quantum coherent oscillations in a solid-state qubit, starting from microscopic Bloch equations. The results coincide with that obtained using Bayesian and master equation approaches. The previous results are generalized to the cases of arbitrary detector response and finite detector temperature.Comment: 8 page

Joule-assisted silicidation for short-channel silicon nanowire devices

We report on a technique enabling electrical control of the contact silicidation process in silicon nanowire devices. Undoped silicon nanowires were contacted by pairs of nickel electrodes and each contact was selectively silicided by means of the Joule effect. By a realtime monitoring of the nanowire electrical resistance during the contact silicidation process we were able to fabricate nickel-silicide/silicon/nickel- silicide devices with controlled silicon channel length down to 8 nm.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Josephson Current in the Presence of a Precessing Spin

The Josephson current in the presence of a precessing spin between various types of superconductors is studied. It is shown that the Josephson current flowing between two spin-singlet pairing superconductors is not modulated by the precession of the spin. When both superconductors have equal-spin-triplet pairing state, the flowing Josephson current is modulated with twice of the Larmor frequency by the precessing spin. It was also found that up to the second tunneling matrix elements, no Josephson current can occur with only a direct exchange interaction between the localized spin and the conduction electrons, if the two superconductors have different spin-parity pairing states.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur