Perspective: a New England approach to preserving open space

New England is known for the beauty of its natural landscape and the political independence of its cities and towns. Can we devise policies to preserve both?Land use ; New England

What’s Wrong with McCloskey on the Earth Charter

This note responds to Deirdre McCloskey's 2002 critique of the Earth Charter by arguing that the concepts of sustainability, intergenerational equity and political democracy are essential to an understanding of that international manifesto.

Megalithic mandalas of the Middle Sea - the neolithic builders of Malta and their builders

When Picasso visited the caves of Lascaux and viewed the remarkable works of the Paleolithic artists of Western Europe, he is said to have remarked "we have invented nothing!" Any latter day modern architect visiting the megalithic temple sites of the Maltese Islands would have to arrive at a similar conclusion. For too many years, modern man has refused to credit our ancient ancestors with intellectual qualities and artistic properties over and above the accepted magical and sacred ones, which as evidence demonstrates, these people amply possessed. Too much time has perhaps been spent by archaeologists sampling and studying miniature particles and remnants and not applying enough attention to the sophisticated architectural spatial concepts of the buildings themselves and also to their specific site locations together with the complex engineering techniques utilized in these unique ritual centres of the Neolithic period.peer-reviewe

Capitalism and the Military-Industrial Complex: a Comment

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69085/2/10.1177_048661347200400107.pd

Changing children? A case study approach in Christian education

The subject of this thesis is the changing world of childhood within the context of the church’s ministry to children. The connections between models of children's ministry, approaches to Christian education and changing trends in childhood are examined through the concrete situation of the case study, a local church. Much current research in Christian education focuses on those already present within the church, so a substantial analysis of the wider experience of children outside the church is offered through analysis of cultural change and the experience of the case study. The thesis begins with an exploration of the effects of consumerism and technological development upon the experience of childhood. The changing place of children within the church is then examined, with an analysis of new trends in children's ministry. An overview of approaches to Christian education is followed by the case study. The final chapter contains reflections on the case study within a Christian education context. The aim of this thesis is to connect the theory of Christian education with theories of cultural change in the light of the experience of the case study. The reflections on the case study contain the dialogue between the approaches to Christian education and the concrete experience of those involved in children’s ministry, particularly to children from outside the church community

Plato among the Plagiarists: The Plagiarist as Perpetrator and Victim

When the Roman poet Martial applied the Latin term for the kidnapping of slaves and children (“plagiario”) to those who stole his literary work (Epigrams I, 52), he became the first victim of plagiarism in its modern sense. Words are the author’s children, and one can understand how the author might suffer when another claims (or kidnaps) them. But plagiarism has further victims: the reader is tricked into thinking the plagiarist clever; the words themselves are cheapened by unauthorized replication; the scholarly enterprise, the community of authorship, and the process of writing all bear the marks of injury. But the other and indeed the main victim is the plagiarist. As teachers our reactions to plagiarism should be shaped by this understanding that the perpetrator is the principal victim of the crime

The ascent and emplacement of granitic magma: The northern Arran granite

This thesis is a study of the mechanisms by which granitic magmas rise through the crust to be empiaced at a level above their source, with particular reference to diapirisni. and how these mechanisms may be analysed by combined structural and petrological studies. The Northern Arran granite is used as an example of how this problem may be approached. The Northern Arran granite is a two component granite of Tertiary age intruded into structurally heterogeneous upper crustal rocks under regional tension. A synform concentric to the granite, synchronous with the development of a narrow thermal aureole, records the vertical ascent of a single body of magma with a hemispherical upper surface. Post ascent, radial expansion of this body, indicated by flattening strains parallel to its surface and superimposed on the concentric synform records a change in shape of the pluton. This was permitted by the reactivation of an existing fault which the pluton intersected during its ascent. Petrological studies of the outer coarse unit of the northern granite indicate that it is a single body of magma derived by differentiation of a crustally contaminated basaltic source. Theoretical modelling of the crystallisation of the coarse granite shows that textural and chemical variations, are consistent with solidification by sidewall crystallisation (liquid fractionation) but not fractional crystallisation. The inner (younger) fine granite is also a single body of magma derived from the same or a similar source as the coarse granite. The sharp undeformed contacts between the coarse and fine granites and the presence of internal sheets in the fine granite parallel to its contacts with the coarse granite are consistent with emplacement of the fine granite as a series of pulses which filled a propagating ring dyke fracture within the coarse granite. Theoretical modelling of the ascent of the coarse granite using the Hot Stokes equation indicates that bouyancy driven ascent aided by a reduction in wall rock viscosity controlled by the rate of heat loss of from the granite is a viable ascent mechanism. The patterns of strain in the aureole of the Northern Arran granite result from the ascent and emplacement of a single diapiric body. They provide examples of the types of structure which may be used to recognise and distinguish between diapiric ascent and radial expansion. This has important implications for the study of ballooning diapirs. The reactivation of an existing fault system during emplacement suggests that existing crustal structure can influence the final geometry of an intrusive body. It is shown that the complete evolution of the Northern Arran granite can be determined using a combination of structural and petrological data. Structural data provides constraints on the later stages of ascent and the emplacement of granitic plutons. Petrological data can be used to constrain the origin, early stages of ascent and the crystallisation of a magma body

A Bootstrap Estimate of the Predictive Distribution of Outstanding Claims for the Schnieper Model

This paper considers the bootstrapping approach for measuring reserve uncertainty when applying the model of Schnieper for reserves which separate Incurred But Not Reported (IBNR) and Incurred But Not Enough Reserved (IBNER) claims. The Schnieper method has been explored in Liu and Verrall (2009), and the Mean Square Errors of Prediction (MSEP) derived. This paper takes this further by deriving the full predictive distribution, using bootstrapping. Numerical examples are provided and the MSEP from the bootstrapping approach are compared with those obtained analytically

Design, development and test of shuttle/Centaur G-prime cryogenic tankage thermal protection systems

The thermal protection systems for the shuttle/Centaur would have had to provide fail-safe thermal protection during prelaunch, launch ascent, and on-orbit operations as well as during potential abort. The thermal protection systems selected used a helium-purged polyimide foam beneath three rediation shields for the liquid-hydrogen tank and radiation shields only for the liquid-oxygen tank (three shields on the tank sidewall and four on the aft bulkhead). A double-walled vacuum bulkhead separated the two tanks. The liquid-hydrogen tank had one 0.75-in-thick layer of foam on the forward bulkhead and two layers on the larger area sidewall. Full scale tests of the flight vehicle in a simulated shuttle cargo bay that was purged with gaseous nitrogen gave total prelaunch heating rates of 88,500 Btu/hr and 44,000 Btu/hr for the liquid-hydrogen and -oxygen tanks, respectively. Calorimeter tests on a representative sample of the liquid-hydrogen tank sidewall thermal protection system indicated that the measured unit heating rate would rapidly decrease from the prelaunch rate of approx 100 Btu/hr/sq ft to a desired rate of less than 1.3 Btu/hr/sq ft once on orbit

A Visual Library for the Geosciences

This project developed a digital library of annotated photographs of geological specimens which has been integrated with the Department of Geology's existing Blackboard resources. The library is available 24/7 enabling students to use it for enhanced learning, reference and revision. Images are downloadable to mobile devices (e.g. phones and mp3 players) and can be used for reference by students in the field. Difficulties were experienced with colour balancing in the photographs (which in some cases made the material difficult to recognize) and representing 3D patterns on 2D images. However, the students found the material a useful addition to the online materials and the library could be packaged for distribution outside Blackboard. This will require further, ongoing work