Some studies on the consequences of internal symmetry and supergauge invariance in particle physics

The object of this thesis is twofold. The first part concerns the improvement of the unitary operator of Buccella et al. This operator is an example of a Melosh transformation connecting the algebras of the constituent and current quarks. The second part of this thesis examines the structure of the multiplets and the corresponding Lagrangians arising from the enlarged supersymmetry algebra incorporating isospin. Chapter One is a general introduction to the Melosh transformation and the work done by Buccella et al. The second chapter examines the difficulties involved with the Buccella transformation and contains a discussion on its possible improvement. In the third and final chapter on the Buccella transformation these improvements are implemented successfully, giving a unitary transformation which is correct to the second order of a perturbation expansion. Using this transformation we are able to obtain mass equations which are in good agreement with experiment in addition to the usual successful predictions for axial couplings typical of Melosh transformations in general. Chapter Four gives a general introduction to the concept of supersymmetry, describing the successes of the original model and also its special points of interest. The fifth chapter looks in detail at the structure of the multiplets arising from the larger super-algebra incorporating isospin, suggested by Salam and Strathdee. In the sixth chapter we try to form "super-invariant" Lagrangian densities from these multiplets which are physically applicable. Finally there is a discussion of our conclusions

For ‘Physitians of the Soule’: The roles of ‘flight’ and ‘hatred of abomination’ in Thomas Wright’s The Passions of the Minde in Generall

This article attempts to understand how Thomas Wright’s 1604 work, The Passions of the Minde in Generall, might have fitted into his overall mission as an English Catholic preacher, particularly when read via Wright’s understanding of Thomas Aquinas’s passion of fuga seu abominatio. Some historians claim that Wright was a controversialist, previously describing The Passions as either a radical departure from Wright’s mission, or the work of a different Thomas Wright. Earlier attempts to find a missionary element within The Passions have been inadequate. Through a close reading of The Passions, specifically analysing Wright'ʹs interpretation of fuga seu abominatio within the context of Wright’s intended readership, the main message of The Passions, and his background, this article suggests a possible reading of the text as a work aimed specifically at fellow English Catholics. To Wright, the passions of hatred of abomination and flight or detestation, derived primarily from Aquinas’s fuga seu abominatio, were not simply a form of disgust, as often assumed, but the potential worldly or otherworldly harm that someone we love, such as a neighbour, might face from the abominable evil of sin and damnation. By linking hatred of abomination, flight or detestation, and Wright’s particular view of sin together, Wright was teaching English Catholics how these passions might be used to cure diseased souls, turning the work into a guide for preaching.

Ballads of the North, Medieval to Modern: Essays Inspired by Larry Syndergaard

This volume is intended as a belated but heartfelt thank-you and Gedenkschrift to the late Larry Syndergaard (1936-2015), long-time professor of English at Western Michigan University and Fellow of the Kommission für Volksdichtung (International Ballad Commission). Larry’s contributions down the decades to ballad studies--particularly Scandinavian and Anglophone--included dozens of papers and articles, as well as his supremely useful book, English Translations of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballads. As David Atkinson and Thomas A. McKean of the Kommission have written (May 2015): “Larry... was a sound scholar with a penetrating mind which he used to support, encourage and befriend others, rather than show off his own knowledge. He will be remembered for his contributions to international balladry, especially for providing a bridge between the English- and Scandinavian-language ballads.” Larry’s particular fascination with the vernacular ballads of the northern medieval world are reflected in this collection; topics here range from plot elements such as demonic whales, otherworldly antagonists, and merpeople to thematic issues of genre, religion and sexual mores. As a tribute to the global influence of Larry’s scholarship and the broad academic interest in medieval ballads, the essays in this volume were contributed by twelve international scholars of narrative song based in Europe, North America and Australia.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/mip_fopl/1002/thumbnail.jp

Methodist worship: with reference to historic practice, the Methodist worship book, and current patterns in the Newcastle Methodist district

Methodism, as a hybrid denomination, being neither Anglican nor Free Church, was endowed by the Wesley brothers, John and Charles, with worship characterised by a twofold practice, the liturgy of The Book of Common Prayer on the one hand and the free form preaching service on the other. The thesis traces the history and the development of this pattern on through the use of the different service books, the latest of which is The Methodist Worship Book published in 1999. How this book came about is explored and the response to its publication by Methodist ministers, churches and members is researched by the use of questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Developments in the shape of the preaching service are also considered. Greater variety in Methodist worship in general is then reviewed. Some pointers for the future are explored, as indeed whether or not today’s alternative patterns of worship may be regarded as essentially Methodist

Identifying the time profile of everyday activities in the home using smart meter data

Activities are a descriptive term for the common ways households spend their time. Examples include cooking, doing laundry, or socialising. Smart meter data can be used to generate time profiles of activities that are meaningful to households’ own lived experience. Activities are therefore a lens through which energy feedback to households can be made salient and understandable. This paper demonstrates a multi-step methodology for inferring hourly time profiles of ten household activities using smart meter data, supplemented by individual appliance plug monitors and environmental sensors. First, household interviews, video ethnography, and technology surveys are used to identify appliances and devices in the home, and their roles in specific activities. Second, ‘ontologies’ are developed to map out the relationships between activities and technologies in the home. One or more technologies may indicate the occurrence of certain activities. Third, data from smart meters, plug monitors and sensor data are collected. Smart meter data measuring aggregate electricity use are disaggregated and processed together with the plug monitor and sensor data to identify when and for how long different activities are occurring. Sensor data are particularly useful for activities that are not always associated with an energy-using device. Fourth, the ontologies are applied to the disaggregated data to make inferences on hourly time profiles of ten everyday activities. These include washing, doing laundry, watching TV (reliably inferred), and cleaning, socialising, working (inferred with uncertainties). Fifth, activity time diaries and structured interviews are used to validate both the ontologies and the inferred activity time profiles. Two case study homes are used to illustrate the methodology using data collected as part of a UK trial of smart home technologies. The methodology is demonstrated to produce reliable time profiles of a range of domestic activities that are meaningful to households. The methodology also emphasises the value of integrating coded interview and video ethnography data into both the development of the activity inference process

A simple model of domestic PV systems and their integration with building loads

Photovoltaic systems can reduce the CO2 emissions associated with the consumption of electricity in dwellings. One key issue that affects both the economic case for home installation and the integration with the mains electricity grid is the match between the instantaneous production and demand for power. This initial study considers a sample of 10 dwellings which were monitored under the UK Government’s Photovoltaic Domestic Field Trial. A simple PV system model is introduced and used to examine the variations in the balance between the imported and exported electricity of the monitored households. There are cases where a large proportion of the electricity generated by a PV system is be used directly by the household and instead is exported to the mains electricity grid. The possibility of using the model explore the effects of PV system size on the import and export balance, and the benefits of sharing production and consumption between nearby dwellings, is discussed

Clustering of Very Red Galaxies in the Las Campanas IR Survey

We report results from the first 1000 square arc-minutes of the Las Campanas IR survey. We have imaged 1 square degree of high latitude sky in six distinct fields to a 5-sigma H-band depth of 20.5 (Vega). Optical imaging in the V,R,I,and z' bands allow us to select color subsets and photometric-redshift-defined shells. We show that the angular clustering of faint red galaxies (18 3) is an order of magnitude stronger than that of the complete H-selected field sample. We employ three approaches to estimate $n(z)$ in order to invert w(theta) to derive r_0. We find that our n(z) is well described by a Gaussian with = 1.2, sigma(z) = 0.15. From this we derive a value for r_0 of 7 (+2,-1) co-moving H^{-1} Mpc at = 1.2. This is a factor of ~ 2 larger than the clustering length for Lyman break galaxies and is similar to the expectation for early type galaxies at this epoch.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. To appear in proceedings of the ESO/ECF/STScI workshop "Deep Fields" held in Garching, Germany, 9-12 October 200

Naming and Understanding the Opposites of Desire: A Prehistory of Disgust 1598-1755.

PhDIn the early 17th century, Aristotelian ideas about the passions came under scrutiny. The dominant, if not only, understanding of the passions before that time came from Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas split most of his main passions into opposing pairs – love/hate, joy/sorrow, fear/bravery etc. Aquinas described the opposite of desire as ‘fuga seu abominatio (flight or abomination).’ Although grappled with by earlier philosophers such as Duns Scotus and Thomas Cajetan, it was not until the 17th century that thinkers attempted to challenge Aquinas’s opposite of desire. This thesis looks at five writers who used a variety of terms, often taken to be near-synonyms of disgust in the historiography – Thomas Wright, Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth, Thomas Hobbes, Henry More and Isaac Watts – and challenges that view. Each of these men wrote works that, at least in part, attempted to understand the passions and each had a different understanding of Aquinas’s opposite of desire. The thesis uses a corpus analysis to investigate uses of the words each thinker chose as an opposite of desire and then examines each writers’ influences, experiences, and intentions, to analyse their understanding of the opposite of desire. Secondly, these various opposites of desire appear to bare a family resemblance to modern disgust. All are based upon the action of moving away from something thought of as harmful or evil, and all have an element of revulsion alongside the repulsion. This has led to much of the historiography of these sorts of passions making the assumption that these words simply referred to disgust. This thesis argues that these opposites of desire are not the same as disgust; the differences outweigh the similarities.Wellcome Trus

Infrared constraints on the dark mass concentration observed in the cluster Abell 1942

We present a deep H-band image of the region in the vicinity of the cluster Abell 1942 containing the puzzling dark matter concentration detected in an optical weak lensing study by Erben et al. (2000). We demonstrate that our limiting magnitude, H=22, would be sufficient to detect clusters of appropriate mass out to redshifts comparable with the mean redshift of the background sources. Despite this, our infrared image reveals no obvious overdensity of sources at the location of the lensing mass peak, nor an excess of sources in the I-H vs. H colour-magnitude diagram. We use this to further constrain the luminosity and mass-to-light ratio of the putative dark clump as a function of its redshift. We find that for spatially-flat cosmologies, background lensing clusters with reasonable mass-to-light ratios lying in the redshift range 0<z<1 are strongly excluded, leaving open the possibility that the mass concentration is a new type of truly dark object.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. MNRAS submitted (after referee revision