Modular Frobenius manifolds and their invariant flows

The space of Frobenius manifolds has a natural involutive symmetry on it: there exists a map $I$ which send a Frobenius manifold to another Frobenius manifold. Also, from a Frobenius manifold one may construct a so-called almost dual Frobenius manifold which satisfies almost all of the axioms of a Frobenius manifold. The action of $I$ on the almost dual manifolds is studied, and the action of $I$ on objects such as periods, twisted periods and flows is studied. A distinguished class of Frobenius manifolds sit at the fixed point of this involutive symmetry, and this is made manifest in certain modular properties of the various structures. In particular, up to a simple reciprocal transformation, for this class of modular Frobenius manifolds, the flows are invariant under the action of $I\,.

Couplings and spectra in modular inflation

We analyze how the spectrum of perturbations produced in a multi-component modular inflation model proposed by Kadota and Stewart depends on couplings between the two moduli. Although some simple direct couplings give essentially the same results as the original model, $dn/d\ln k \propto n-1$, simple indirect couplings produce a power law spectrum, $n-1 = \textrm{constant}$, which can naturally be close to scale invariant.Comment: 11 pages, format changed, some corrections of formula

Transgender Healthcare Teaching in the Undergraduate Medical School Curriculum

With increasing recognition of the diverse and specific needs of transgender individuals in a health care setting, lack of knowledge, poor attitudes and prejudice towards transgender patients can result in this population being afraid to access medical care. Educating medical students early in their career in a sensitive and inclusive manner could help change these attitudes. It has been shown that medical undergraduates and post-graduates often feel unprepared or uncomfortable in caring for transgender patients due to lack of training and experience2-4. The aim of this study was to address this through introduction of basic transgender healthcare education into the University of Glasgow undergraduate medical curriculum, with the goal of implementing further interactive and fully inclusive teaching

Assessing the potential for reopening a building stone quarry : Newbigging Sandstone Quarry, Fife

Newbigging Sandstone Quarry in Fife is one of a number of former quarries in the Burntisland- Aberdour district which exploited the pale-coloured Grange Sandstone from Lower Carboniferous rocks. The quarry supplied building stone from the late 19th century, working intermittently from 1914 until closure in 1937, and again when reopened in the 1970s to the 1990s. The stone was primarily used locally and to supply the nearby markets in the Scottish Central Belt. Historical evidence indicates that prior to sandstone extraction, the area was dominated by largescale quarrying and mining of limestone, and substantial sandstone quarrying is likely to have begun after the arrival of the main railway line in 1890. It is probable that removal of the sandstone was directly associated with limestone exploitation, and that the quarried sandstone was effectively a by-product of limestone production. Sandstone extraction was probably viable due to the existing limestone quarry infrastructure (workforce, equipment, transportation) and the high demand for building stone in Central Scotland in the late 19th century. The geology within Newbigging Sandstone Quarry is dominated by thick-bedded uniform sandstone with a wide joint spacing, well-suited for obtaining large blocks. However, a mudstone (shale) band is likely to be present within a few metres of the principal (north) face of the quarry, around which the sandstone bed thickness and quality is likely to decrease. The mudstone bed forms a plane sloping at a shallow angle to the north, so that expansion of the quarry in this direction is likely to encounter a considerable volume of poor quality stone. Additionally, an east-west trending fault is present approximately 100 metres north of the quarry face, which is also likely to be associated with poor quality (fractured) stone

Debt and credit in early modern Scotland: the Grandtully Estates 1650-1765

This thesis examines the significance and function of debt and credit in the Scottish economy during the latter half of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenthcentury. Part I discusses the nature of debt/credit transactions and relationships and introduces the classification model formulated as the basis for analysis of the data. There follows a consideration of several aspects of the development of credit facilities in the Scottish economy. This section is intended to provide a backdrop for the detailed local analysis which follows. A broad division of the various components of the subject into procedural and structural elements - Instruments of Exchange and Indebtedness in Society enabled a picture of the Scottish approach to debt to be constructed. The role of credit in the lives of the peasantry and the landowning classes is discussed with emphasis being given to its significance amongst the rural population. Three spheres of exchange are identified, questions are posed and hypotheses formulated: the most fundamental being the proposition that the need for credit was not merely a reflection of liquidity crises, but that Scotland's rural economy had developed an overlay of sophistication which enabled credit facilities to function as a means of increasing capital. Finally, with particular reference to the function of Sanctuary, this section examines the unique approach of the legislature, and people of Scotland, to the whole subject of debt and indebtedness thereby completing an overview of debt in early modern Scotland. Part II begins with a description of the Grandtully Estates as a source base and outlines their geographical and economic characteristics. This in turn provides a backdrop for the last section of the thesis which is a case-study of the peasant credit market on these estates. There follows an examination of the source material Small Claims Commissary Court Processes, Testamentary material and Estate Records. The function, effects and limitations of the various legal institutions, particularly the Dunkeld Commissary Court, in which the data were recorded are considered. Then the data themselves are analysed using the classification model and by dividing them on the basis of their social and geographical structures. Various hypotheses which were set out in the foregoing sections are tested and the function, necessity and ubiquity of small debts in that society are described and, at least in part, explained

Sharp-edged geometric obstacles in microfluidics promote deformability-based sorting of cells

Sorting cells based on their intrinsic properties is a highly desirable objective, since changes in cell deformability are often associated with various stress conditions and diseases. Deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) devices offer high precision for rigid spherical particles, while their success in sorting deformable particles remains limited due to the complexity of cell traversal in DLDs. We employ mesoscopic hydrodynamics simulations and demonstrate prominent advantages of sharp-edged DLD obstacles for probing deformability properties of red blood cells (RBCs). By consecutive sharpening of the pillar shape from circular to diamond to triangular geometry, a pronounced cell bending around an edge is achieved, serving as a deformability sensor. Bending around the edge is the primary mechanism, which governs the traversal of RBCs through such DLD device. This strategy requires an appropriate degree of cell bending by fluid stresses, which can be controlled by the flow rate, and exhibits good sensitivity to moderate changes in cell deformability. We expect that similar mechanisms should be applicable for the development of novel DLD devices that target intrinsic properties of many other cells.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure

Draft genome sequence of the Streptococcus pneumoniae Avery strain A66

We have used HiSeq 2000 technology to generate a draft genome sequence of Streptococcus pneumoniae strain A66. This is a common study strain used in investigations of pneumococcal bacterium-host interactions and was used in the seminal genetic studies of Avery et al