A storage tube for the observation of faint images of low contrast

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Anion binding host systems based on calix[4]arenes and nanoparticles

A range of novel host molecules with various degrees of pre-organisation for the supramolecular complexation of anionic guest species have been synthesized. Both organic core and nanoparticle-based derivatives of the ligands have been prepared and the properties of the new host ligands studied with particular reference to their anion binding behaviour. Two types of calix[4]arene derived cationic hosts for anions with, respectively, 1,3-altemate and cone conformations have been prepared. The affinity of the tetrasubstituted calix[4]arene hosts for a variety of anions has been probed with Ή NMR spectroscopic titration. The ԼՅ-alternate system binds dicarboxylate anions in a ditopic manner while the cone compounds have the highest affinity for bromide anion and are deprotonated by carboxylates. The potentially fluorescent 1,3-altemate calix[4]arene that contains a pyridinium functionality coupled via a methylene spacer to a pyrene group undergoes selective chloride-induced conformational change which results in strong increase in both monomer and excimer emission. Gold nanoparticles protected with 5-[l ,2]dithiolan-3yl-pentanoic acid pyridin-3-ylamide remain stable as colloidal solution in methanol and the UV aborption spectra demonstrate the nanoparticles' response to exposure of a variety of anions by red shift with concomitant decrease in intensity. Titration of the colloidal solution with silver tetrafluoroborate results in an increase in absorption indicating possible interaction of silver cations with the pyridyl nitrogen atom

A Validation of the Parameterized Real-Time Ionospheric Specification Model (PRISM) Version 1.7B

The most current version of the Parameterized Real-time Ionospheric Specification Model (PRISM), version 1.7b, was validated using Digital Ionospheric Sounding System (DISS) measurements of F2 layer critical frequency (foF2) and F2 peak electron density height (hmF2) as the ground truth. PRISM was executed, first, with no real-time input parameter and, second, with Global Positioning System (GPS) Total Electron Content (TEC) measurements as the sole real-time parameter. Hourly values of hmF2 and foF2 over 123 days in 1994-1996 (solar minimum conditions) and covering three seasons (equinox, summer solstice, and winter solstice) were compared for Wallops Island, Virginia, and Point Arguello, California, which both have a GPS receiver and a nearby DISS station. Values of hmF2 and foF2 from the DISS data, the PRISM output with no real-time input parameters, and the PRISM output with the GPS TEC measurements are compared as a function of season and local time. Results indicate PRISM overestimates foF2 by 20-30% when ingesting GPS TEC. On a subsequent execution of PRISM, the GPS TEC measurements were decreased by four TEC units as an estimation of the topside light ion (He, H) and plasmaspheric electrons which are not considered in the physical models of PRISM. PRISM underestimates foF2 by 30-40% and underestimates hmF2 by as much as 40 km in the post-midnight timeframe when driven by the corrected TEC values

Regulating File Sharing: Open Regulation for an Open Internet

Regulators have a choice of approaches available to them in regulating digital copyright issues that lie on a scale between restrictiveness and openness. In a world in which the regulator seems to exclusively rely on entrenching a restrictive approach, this paper questions whether the long-forgotten open approach is worth reconsidering in the digital age. The ideal of cyber socialism is examined in the context of the roots and structure of cyberspace and its state of nature, and digital distribution models operating outside of the existing law are considered. The Creative Commons licenses are evaluated for their suitability in opening the current one-note regulatory regime

God and Mrs Thatcher : religion and politics in 1980s Britain

The core theme of this thesis explores the evolving position of religion in the British public realm in the 1980s. Recent scholarship on modern religious history has sought to relocate Britain's "secularization moment" from the industrialization of the nineteenth century to the social and cultural upheavals of the 1960s. My thesis seeks to add to this debate by examining the way in which the established Church and Christian doctrine continued to play a central role in the politics of the 1980s. More specifically it analyses the conflict between the Conservative party and the once labelled "Tory party at Prayer", the Church of England. Both Church and state during this period were at loggerheads, projecting contrasting visions of the Christian underpinnings of the nation's political values. The first part of this thesis addresses the established Church. It begins with an examination of how the Church defined its role as the "conscience of the nation" in a period of national fragmentation and political polarization. It then goes onto explore how the Anglican leadership, Church activists and associated pressure groups together subjected Thatcherite neo-liberal economics to moral scrutiny and upheld social democratic values as the essence of Christian doctrine. The next chapter analyses how the Church conceptualized Christian citizenship and the problems it encountered when it disseminated this message to its parishioners. The second half of this study focuses on the contribution of Christian thought to the New Right. Firstly, it explores the parallels between political and religious conservatism in this period and the widespread disaffection with liberal Anglicanism, revealing how Parliament became one of the central platforms for the traditionalist Anglican cause. Secondly, it demonstrates how those on the right argued for the Christian basis of economic liberalism and of the moral superiority of capitalism over socialism. The next chapter focuses on the public doctrine of Margaret Thatcher, detailing how she drew upon Christian doctrine, language and imagery to help shape and legitimise her political vision and reinforce her authority as leader. Finally, the epilogue traces the why this Christian-centric dialogue between the Church and Conservative government eventually dissipated and was superseded by a much more fundamental issue in the 1990s as both the ruling elite and the Church were forced to recognise the religious diversity within British society

Telling and Testimony

A central question in the epistemology of testimony concerns whether a speaker’s testimony should count as a reason for a hearer to believe the content of the speaker’s assertion. Proponents of the interpersonal view of testimony (IVTs) contend that it is the interpersonal relationship between speaker and hearer that provides the hearer with a reason to believe what the speaker says. In contrast, critics of IVTs argue that the interpersonal relationship between speaker and hearer is epistemically superfluous. Call this the superfluity objection to IVTs. In the following paper, I defend an IVT against the superfluity objection. I argue that the speech act of telling is both genuinely interpersonal and has epistemic import. As I present it, telling is an intersubjective, hence interpersonal, speech act: it constitutively requires more than one party for an act of telling to occur. Drawing from Grice (1989), I argue that the features which make telling constitutively intersubjective also contribute to making it genuinely epistemic. As such, the telling view of testimony avoids the superfluity objection, vindicating IVTs

Analysing organisational culture : a critical ethnography of public relations and personnel specialists in a state bureaucracy

Following an introductory chapter, I examine (i) typologies which have differentiated the literature on organisational culture and symbolism (Chapter 2), (ii) the contribution of organisation theory to organisation culture (Chapter 3), and (iii) recent literature on organisational culture and symbolism (Chapter 4). Within these chapters, I adopt Habermas' (1972) notion of knowledge-constitutive interests, assessing the contrubutions to understanding organisational culture made by literature guided by technical, practical and emancipatory cognitive interests. In doing so, I suggest that more critical studies on organisational culture and symbolism have been comparatively neglected. Lamenting this neglect, I suggest that Giddens' theory of structuration can be employed to advance the development of a critical, emancipatory conceptualisation of organisational culture. In particular, I argue that this Giddensian analysis, by penetrating the existential, poltical and material processes of cultural reproduction (Chapter 5), is able to disclose some of the more contradictory features of organisation culture. The remainder of the thesis comprises of a critical ethnography of the work cultures of public relations and personnel specialists located in a state bureaucracy. I begin the ethnography with a dicussion of my research methods (Chapter 6) and an overview of the departments studied (Chapter 7): I then examine (i) the work cultures of the specialists (Chapter 8), (ii) the specialists' management of the relationships with the hosts bureaucracy (Chapter 9); and, (iii) opportunities the specialists had for developing an emancipatory praxis (Chapter 10). Finally, in a concluding section, I offer some critical reflections on the contributions of the thesis and suggest areas for future research