Martin Navarro: Treasurer, Contador, Intendant, 1766-1788: Politics and Trade in Spanish Louisiana. (Volumes I and II).

This dissertation describes the career of Mart(\u27)in Navarro, Treasurer, Contador, and Intendant of Spanish Louisiana during the years 1766 through 1788. In doing so it sheds considerable light on the economic history of Spanish Louisiana and Spanish West Florida during the 1770\u27s and 1780\u27s. As treasurer, Navarro proposed a number of important fiscal reforms and was charged with a special commission to settle the estates of the Rebels of 1768. As Contador he planned and organized supplies for all of the Spanish expeditions against the English in the Mississippi Valley and along the Gulf Coast. However, his principal successes came as Intendant (1780-1788) when he introduced a series of fiscal and agricultural reforms to Spanish Louisiana. His ideas were expressed in a lengthy treatise, Political Reflections on the Actual State of Louisiana in 1780. In 1785 he prepared a reglamento which set the salary and expenses schedule for the colony for the remaining sixteen years of Spanish control. He encouraged European immigration to Louisiana, aided in the resettlement of these immigrants, encouraged the expansion of the tobacco industry and instituted the use of paper money when the colony\u27s situado (supplement) failed to arrive on time. Following his retirement to Spain he carried out a two-year royal commission for the Spanish Crown designed to improve Spanish industrial production of American goods. Research was carried out principally at the AGI in Seville, the AHN in Madrid, the Archivo Provincial de Galicia in La Coruna, the Judicial Records of French and Spanish Louisiana at the Louisiana State Museum, the Notarial Records of Orleans Parish and at the Department of Archives and Manuscripts at Louisiana State Univerisity

Radiation resistance and comparative performance of ITO/InP and n/p InP homojunction solar cells

The radiation resistance of ITO/InP cells processed by DC magnetron sputtering is compared to that of standard n/p InP and GaAs homojunction cells. After 20 MeV proton irradiations, it is found that the radiation resistance of the present ITO/InP cell is comparable to that of the n/p homojunction InP cell and that both InP cell types have radiation resistance significantly greater than GaAs. The relatively lower radiation resistance, observed at higher fluence, for the InP cell with the deepest junction depth, is attributed to losses in the cells emitter region. Diode parameters obtained from I sub sc - V sub oc plots, data from surface Raman spectroscopy, and determinations of surface conductivity types are used to investigate the configuration of the ITO/InP cells. It is concluded that thesee latter cells are n/p homojunctions, the n-region consisting of a disordered layer at the oxide semiconductor

Comparative population genetics of the German shepherd dog in South Africa

Modern breeding practices strive to achieve distinctive phenotypic uniformity in breeds of dogs, but these strategies are associated with the inevitable loss of genetic diversity. Thus, in parallel with the morphological variation displayed by breeds, purebred dogs commonly express genetic defects as a result of the inbreeding associated with artificial selection and the reduction of selection against disease phenotypes. Microsatellite marker analyses of 15 polymorphic canine loci were used to investigate measures of genetic diversity and population differentiation within and between German-bred and South African-bred German shepherd dogs. These data were quantified by comparison with typically outbred mongrel or crossbred dogs. Both the imported and locally-bred German shepherd dogs exhibited similar levels of genetic diversity. The breed is characterised by only a moderate loss of genetic diversity relative to outbred dogs, despite originating from a single founding sire and experiencing extensive levels of inbreeding throughout the history of the breed. Non-significant population differentiation between the ancestral German and derived South African populations indicates sufficient contemporary gene flow between these populations, suggesting that migration resulting from the importation of breeding stock has mitigated the effects of random genetic drift and a population bottleneck caused by the original founder event in South Africa. Significant differentiation between the combined German shepherd dog population and the outbred dogs illustrates the effects of selection and genetic drift on the breed since its establishment just over 100 years ago

You measure what you value: how a Middle Eastern Polytechnic developed a sustainable review and improvement framework

Bahrain Polytechnic (BP) was established in 2008 to fill a gap in the Kingdom’s labour market for work ready graduates. Around that time newspaper reports highlighted a lack of quality and consistency in some private universities in Bahrain. Bahrain’s Qualifications and Quality Assurance Authority was in development so, in the absence of national guidelines, BP developed its own Quality Assurance Model to gain stakeholder confidence in the quality of its education. This comprised a Quality Management System with policies and procedures, and a self-review loop. The government was quick to redress quality concerns threatening the reputation of Higher Education in the Kingdom and today there are many external auditing agencies, each with their own paradigms and criteria. However, evidence that accountability audits produce quality improvement where it matters most - in the classroom - is lacking. An essential element in this failure is the dissolution of trust. This case-study tells of BP’s journey towards a more efficient and effective Self-Review model that shifts the focus from accountability and control to improvement and sustainability by taking into account Bahrain’s cultural context and the Polytechnic’s unique curricula and building on existing relationships to engender trust and commitment

Curved Gratings as Plasmonic Lenses for Linearly Polarised Light

The ability of curved gratings as sectors of concentric circular gratings to couple linearly polarized light into focused surface plasmons is investigated by theory, simulation and experiment. Curved gratings, as sectors of concentric circular gratings with four different sector angles, are etched into a 30-nm thick gold layer on a glass coverslip and used to couple linearly-polarised free space light at nm into surface plasmons. The experimental and simulation results show that increasing the sector angle of the curved gratings decreases the lateral spotsize of the excited surface plasmons, resulting in focussing of surface plasmons which is analogous to the behaviour of classical optical lenses. We also show that two faced curved gratings, with their groove radius mismatched by half of the plasmon wavelength (asymmetric configuration), can couple linearly-polarised light into a single focal spot of concentrated surface plasmons with smaller depth of focus and higher intensity in comparison to single-sided curved gratings. The major advantage of these structures is the coupling of linearly-polarised light into focused surface plasmons with access to and control of the plasmon focal spot, which facilitates potential applications in sensing, detection and nonlinear plasmonics.Comment: 15 pages and 12 figure

Magnetically Mediated Transparent Conductors: In2_2O3_3 doped with Mo

First-principles band structure investigations of the electronic, optical and magnetic properties of Mo-doped In$_2$O$_3$ reveal the vital role of magnetic interactions in determining both the electrical conductivity and the Burstein-Moss shift which governs optical absorption. We demonstrate the advantages of the transition metal doping which results in smaller effective mass, larger fundamental band gap and better overall optical transmission in the visible -- as compared to commercial Sn-doped In$_2$O$_3$. Similar behavior is expected upon doping with other transition metals opening up an avenue for the family of efficient transparent conductors mediated by magnetic interactions

The Air-temperature Response to Green/blue-infrastructure Evaluation Tool (TARGET v1.0) : an efficient and user-friendly model of city cooling

The adverse impacts of urban heat and global climate change are leading policymakers to consider green and blue infrastructure (GBI) for heat mitigation benefits. Though many models exist to evaluate the cooling impacts of GBI, their complexity and computational demand leaves most of them largely inaccessible to those without specialist expertise and computing facilities. Here a new model called The Air-temperature Response to Green/blue-infrastructure Evaluation Tool (TARGET) is presented. TARGET is designed to be efficient and easy to use, with fewer user-defined parameters and less model input data required than other urban climate models. TARGET can be used to model average street-level air temperature at canyon-to-block scales (e.g. 100 m resolution), meaning it can be used to assess temperature impacts of suburb-to-city-scale GBI proposals. The model aims to balance realistic representation of physical processes and computation efficiency. An evaluation against two different datasets shows that TARGET can reproduce the magnitude and patterns of both air temperature and surface temperature within suburban environments. To demonstrate the utility of the model for planners and policymakers, the results from two precinct-scale heat mitigation scenarios are presented. TARGET is available to the public, and ongoing development, including a graphical user interface, is planned for future work

Visible-Light-Responsive Catalyst Development for Volatile Organic Carbon Remediation Project

Photocatalysis is a process in which light energy is used to 'activate' oxidation/reduction reactions. Unmodified titanium dioxide (TiO2), a common photocatalyst, requires high-energy UV light for activation due to its large band gap (3.2 eV). Modification of TiO2 can reduce this band gap, leading to visible-light-responsive (VLR) photocatalysts. These catalysts can utilize solar and/or visible wavelength LED lamps as an activation source, replacing mercury-containing UV lamps, to create a "greener," more energy-efficient means for air and water revitalization. Recently, KSC developed several VLR catalysts that, on preliminary evaluation, possessed high catalytic activity within the visible spectrum; these samples out-performed existing commercial VLR catalysts