Comparing the influence of structural funds programmes on regional development approaches in Western Scotland and Silesia : adaptation or assimilation?

The implementation of EU Structural Funds (SF) programmes is credited with influencing the focus and content of domestic regional development activities, enhancing coordination of national and sub-national levels tasked with regional development and strengthening partnerships between public, private and voluntary actors. However, the influence of programmes is uneven. Analyses, based on the Europeanization literature, present a complex relationship between EU and domestic factors. A range of variables has been identified to explain this differential influence. The paper contends that, when considering New Member States (NMS) from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), this approach requires reorientation. In the face of strategically weak and under-resourced domestic approaches, programmes are driving, rather than attempting to adjust, the domestic regional development agendas. To support this, the paper takes a comparative approach, assessing the influence of programmes in cases from opposite ends of the SF implementation spectrum: the UK (Western Scotland) and Poland (Silesia)

"Any lady can do this without much trouble ...": class and gender in The dining room (1878)

Macmillan's "Art at Home" series (1876–83) was a collection of domestic advice manuals. Mentioned in every study of the late-nineteenth-century domestic interior, they have often been interpreted, alongside contemporary publications such as Charles Eastlake's Hints on Household Taste (1868), as indicators of late 1870s home furnishing styles. Mrs Loftie's The Dining Room (1878) was the series' fifth book and it considers one of the home's principal (and traditionally masculine) domestic spaces. Recent research on middle-class cultural practices surrounding food has placed The Dining Room within the tradition of Mrs Beeton's Household Management (1861); however, it is not a cookery book and hardly mentions dinners. Drawing upon unpublished archival sources, this paper charts the production and reception of The Dining Room, aiming to unravel its relationships with other contemporary texts and to highlight the difficulties of using it as historical evidence. While it offers fascinating insights into contemporary taste, class and gender, this paper suggests that, as an example of domestic design advice literature, it reveals far more about the often expedient world of nineteenth-century publishing practices

Microstructure control during twin roll casting of an AZ31 magnesium alloy

The existing twin roll casting technique for magnesium alloys suffers heterogeneity in both microstructure and chemistry and downstream processing is required to improve the strip quality, resulting in cost rise. In the present work, twin roll casting was carried out using an AZ31 magnesium alloy, with the application of intensive shearing melt conditioning prior to casting. The effect of process parameters such as pouring temperature and casting speed on microstructure control during casting and subsequent downstream processing was studied. Experimental results showed that the melt conditioning treatment allowed the production of AZ31 strips with uniform and refined microstructure free of centreline segregations. It was also shown that an optimized combination of pouring temperature and casting speed, in conjunction with a strip thickness control operation, resulted in uniformly distributed stored energies due to enhanced plastic deformation, which promoted recrystallization during casting and subsequent heat treatment. Strips prepared by twin roll casting and homogenization developed similar microstructural features to those prepared by twin roll casting followed by lengthy downstream processing by homogenization, hot rolling and annealing and displayed a weaker basal texture, exhibiting a potentially better formability.The EPSRC (UK

Techno-economic Study of Aluminium Alloy and Steel as Materials for Deckhouses of Offshore Support Vessels

Aluminium alloy is a relatively more expensive material than steel although its weight is one-third of the steel. Thus the use of steel as a structure adds additional weight by 60%; and when used as deckhouses would raise the GM and scarifying the stability of the offshore support vessel. This paper reviews the merit and demerit of Aluminium alloy and steel focusing on fabrication and assembly, and maintainability cost typical of a 60.0m offshore support vessel operating between Kemaman port and offshore oil rigs in the South China Sea. Mathematical equation was used to calculate the weight of the materials used to construct the deckhouses. Also, net present value and payback period calculations were performed to indicate the economic benefit between the two materials. The initial construction cost for Aluminium and Steel are USD 45506 and USD 6808 respectively involving 23.5 metric ton for Aluminium and 67.0 metric tons for steel. In term of investment, offshore support vessels using Aluminium have shorter payback period of 7.9 years and 8.4 years for steel inclusive of the costs of maintenance and operation. This exercise indicates Aluminium alloy is more economical than steel as construction material for deckhouse of offshore support vessel due to its light weight, lower maintenance and increase earning capacity (more cargo)

Scattering of Dirac electrons by circular mass barriers: valley filter and resonant scattering

The scattering of two-dimensional (2D) massless Dirac electrons is investigated in the presence of a random array of circular mass barriers. The inverse momentum relaxation time and the Hall factor are calculated and used to obtain parallel and perpendicular resistivity components within linear transport theory. We found a non zero perpendicular resistivity component which has opposite sign for electrons in the different K and K' valleys. This property can be used for valley filter purposes. The total cross-section for scattering on penetrable barriers exhibit resonances due to the presence of quasi-bound states in the barriers that show up as sharp gaps in the cross-section while for Schr\"{o}dinger electrons they appear as peaks.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

Development of Library Codes for Programming the Humanoid Robot Based on CM-510 Module

Since twenty years ago, when the Indonesia robot contest firstly was held, the techniques and methods of mapping cruising as a aspect of the mobile robot ability undergone more progress. In the contest, the robot teams of Universitas Ahmad Dahlan (UAD) has been using the humanoid robot type or the boloid robot type. The robot programmed by the original software i.e. roboplus. This roboplus program had limitations, particularly in the task programs, because the functions and values was given by the manufacturer so that the programmers in difficult circumstances. This research will develop the library codes for programming the humanoid robots based on the CM-510 module. The library codes developed uses the programming language of Atmel Studio 6 based on C language that can ease for programmer. The methods used in this research are the design, implementation and testing. Firstly, the designing was done by exploring the functions that provided by the task roboplus. Exploration results used to develop the algorithm and flowchart of the developed library codes. Furthermore, the algorithm implemented by the programming using Atmel Studio 6 software. Testing was done by comparing the results of running the library codes to the default roboplus programs. The research done has produced five library codes for access: (1) LED (light emitting diode) on the CM-510 module, (2) ADC ports; (3) accelerometer sensor, (4) gyroscope sensor, and (5) LM-35 sensor. Functions produced from this research are two i.e.: (1) to make the robot motion, and (2) to access the switch on the CM-510 module. The developed library codes and functions are simpler and make programmers feel easier

A metodologia de ensino com analogias (meca) aplicada ao ensino de evolução: a árvore da vida de Charles Darwin

Analogias são muito usadas no ensino de Ciências sem metodologia adequada, provocando equívocos de assimilação. Buscamos contribuir para o ensino de Ciências verificando, por meio da Metodologia de Ensino Com Analogias – MECA –, que relações estudantes de Ensino Médio estabelecem entre o veículo árvore e o alvo Evolução, tendo como base o texto da Árvore da Vida, de Darwin. Apresentamos conceitos e significados de analogias e termos afins, importância e emprego na Ciência e no ensino, enfatizando metodologias específicas para o ensino com analogias, em especial a MECA. O estudo foi realizado com alunos do ensino médio de escolas públicas da cidade de Contagem, MG, Brasil, observando os passos propostos pela MECA. Os resultados apontam que estudantes estabelecem relações pertinentes entre os domínios, validando a metodologia empregada

Comparison of in situ aerosol measurements with SAGE 2 and SAM 2 aerosol measurements during the airborne Antarctic ozone experiment

Models indicate that stratospheric aerosols play a major role in the destruction of ozone during the Austral winter. Although many in situ measurements of stratospheric aerosols were made during the Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment, changes of aerosol concentration and size distributions across the polar vortex are important to understanding changes of chemical species taking place during this time. Therefore comparing the in situ measurements with measurements made by satellites scanning wider areas will give a clearer picture of the possible role played by aerosols during this period. The wire impactor size distributions are compared to those from the aerosol spectrometers and a best fit size distribution determined. Aerosol extinctions are calculated from the in situ measurements and compared to the extinctions measured by the satellites. Five comparisons are made with SAGE 2 and four with SAM 2. Extinctions agree as close as a factor of two

Searching for Earthquake Sources in the Lower Tagus Valley (Portugal): First Results from the ATESTA Project

The area of Lisbon has been struck by destructive earthquakes in the past and with very intense consequences. As of today, two main areas host active faults with concern for the region: offshore with the still unclear source of the famous and catastrophic 1755 earthquake and inland with the Lower Tagus Valley where unknown fault(s) have produced the 1909 and 1531 events with estimated magnitudes ranging from 6 to 7. Those latter events are of particular importance due to their location within an area that is now densely populated. The repetition of such a shock today would have a barely imaginable impact on the population and economy of Portugal. An apparent paradox is that in spite of the high stake and expected impact on the Greater Lisbon area, little is known about the source fault(s) of the 1531 and 1909 earthquakes in terms of location, dimensions, maximum magnitude, slip rate and recurrence period. The ATESTA Project aims at answering those questions by deploying an integrated paleoseismological approach to the Lower Tagus Valley. By combining detailed geomorphological mapping using high-resolution digital eleva- tion models with shallow geophysical imaging (reflection seismics, electrical tomography and ground-penetrating radar), our goal is to identify the continuation of crustal faults at the surface. Paleoseismic trenching is conse- quently used to characterize surface rupture in terms of large recent events. Preliminary results suggest the presence of several fault trace in the Lower Tagus Valley outlined by uplifted ter- races and offset streams and visible in satellite images and the national 10-m-resolution digital elevation model. Those fault traces correspond to structures at depth, as identified by geophysical imaging