A geographical study of the united nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus, 1964 - 1984

The main aim of this study is to examine the role of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus in relation to fundamental changes to the human and political geography of the island. The political background to these changes is given some analysis but the major focus of the study is on the spatial aspects of intercommunal conflict, and the problems created for civilian life by artificial ethnic barriers, barbed wire- fences, sentry-posts, roadblocks, and other physical lines symbolizing the separation of the Greek and Turkish Cypriots, After a brief description of the situation prior to Independence, the centrifugal forces dividing the two communities and resulting in the formation of Turkish Cypriot enclaves are discussed. In the light of these major changes U.N.F.I.CYP. had to cope with many complicated practical difficulties on the ground relating to the separate de facto territorial control of certain parts of the Republic of Cyprus by the Turkish Cypriots. This study stresses the economic and humanitarian duties of what is basically a military peacekeeping force. In carrying out these duties there are many linkages between the non-military tasks of U.N.P.I.CYP. and the human geography of the island. Finally, the period since the forming of the de facto partition line between the two communities is considered in detail, and particular attention is given to U.N.F.I.CYP.'s activities between the two Forward Defence Lines of the National Guard and Turkish Array, i.e. in the U.N.- controlled Buffer Zone. The study then attempts to draw some conclusions regarding the likely future role of U.N.F.I.CYP., and to highlight the problems posed by the political deadlock between the two communities. There is also a short conclusion on the geography of peacekeeping, which is based entirely on this detailed case study

Combinatorial Games with a Pass: A dynamical systems approach

By treating combinatorial games as dynamical systems, we are able to address a longstanding open question in combinatorial game theory, namely, how the introduction of a "pass" move into a game affects its behavior. We consider two well known combinatorial games, 3-pile Nim and 3-row Chomp. In the case of Nim, we observe that the introduction of the pass dramatically alters the game's underlying structure, rendering it considerably more complex, while for Chomp, the pass move is found to have relatively minimal impact. We show how these results can be understood by recasting these games as dynamical systems describable by dynamical recursion relations. From these recursion relations we are able to identify underlying structural connections between these "games with passes" and a recently introduced class of "generic (perturbed) games." This connection, together with a (non-rigorous) numerical stability analysis, allows one to understand and predict the effect of a pass on a game.Comment: 39 pages, 13 figures, published versio

The ISO LWS high resolution spectral survey towards Sagittarius B2

A full spectral survey was carried out towards the Giant Molecular Cloud complex, Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2), using the ISO Long Wavelength Spectrometer Fabry-Perot mode. This provided complete wavelength coverage in the range 47-196 um (6.38-1.53 THz) with a spectral resolution of 30-40 km/s. This is an unique dataset covering wavelengths inaccessible from the ground. It is an extremely important region of the spectrum as it contains both the peak of the thermal emission from dust, and crucial spectral lines of key atomic (OI, CII, OIII, NII and NIII) and molecular species (NH3, NH2, NH, H2O, OH, H3O+, CH, CH2, C3, HF and H2D+). In total, 95 spectral lines have been identified and 11 features with absorption depth greater than 3 sigma remain unassigned. Most of the molecular lines are seen in absorption against the strong continuum, whereas the atomic and ionic lines appear in emission (except for absorption in the OI 63 um and CII 158 um lines). Sgr B2 is located close to the Galactic Centre and so many of the features also show a broad absorption profile due to material located along the line of sight. A full description of the survey dataset is given with an overview of each detected species and final line lists for both assigned and unassigned features.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

A Brief History of Trans-Neptunian Space

The Edgeworth-Kuiper belt encodes the dynamical history of the outer solar system. Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) bear witness to coagulation physics, the evolution of planetary orbits, and external perturbations from the solar neighborhood. We critically review the present-day belt's observed properties and the theories designed to explain them. Theories are organized according to a possible time-line of events. In chronological order, epochs described include (1) coagulation of KBOs in a dynamically cold disk, (2) formation of binary KBOs by fragmentary collisions and gravitational captures, (3) stirring of KBOs by Neptune-mass planets (``oligarchs''), (4) eviction of excess oligarchs, (5) continued stirring of KBOs by remaining planets whose orbits circularize by dynamical friction, (6) planetary migration and capture of Resonant KBOs, (7) creation of the inner Oort cloud by passing stars in an open stellar cluster, and (8) collisional comminution of the smallest KBOs. Recent work underscores how small, collisional, primordial planetesimals having low velocity dispersion permit the rapid assembly of ~5 Neptune-mass oligarchs at distances of 15-25 AU. We explore the consequences of such a picture. We propose that Neptune-mass planets whose orbits cross into the Kuiper belt for up to ~20 Myr help generate the high-perihelion members of the hot Classical disk and Scattered belt. By contrast, raising perihelia by sweeping secular resonances during Neptune's migration might fill these reservoirs too inefficiently when account is made of how little primordial mass might reside in bodies having sizes of order 100 km. These and other frontier issues in trans-Neptunian space are discussed quantitatively.Comment: Final proofed version for Protostars and Planets V; some numbers adjusted by factors of 2; references update

Assessing the number of users who are excluded by domestic heating controls

This is the pre-print version of the Article. This Article is also referred to as: "Assessing the 'Design Exclusion' of Heating Controls at a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Housing Development". - Copyright @ 2011 Taylor & FrancisSpace heating accounts for almost 60% of the energy delivered to housing which in turn accounts for nearly 27% of the total UK's carbon emissions. This study was conducted to investigate the influence of heating control design on the degree of ‘user exclusion’. This was calculated using the Design Exclusion Calculator, developed by the Engineering Design Centre at the University of Cambridge. To elucidate the capability requirements of the system, a detailed hierarchical task analysis was produced, due to the complexity of the overall task. The Exclusion Calculation found that the current design placed excessive demands upon the capabilities of at least 9.5% of the UK population over 16 years old, particularly in terms of ‘vision’, ‘thinking’ and ‘dexterity’ requirements. This increased to 20.7% for users over 60 years old. The method does not account for the level of numeracy and literacy and so the true exclusion may be higher. Usability testing was conducted to help validate the results which indicated that 66% of users at a low-carbon housing development could not programme their controls as desired. Therefore, more detailed analysis of the cognitive demands placed upon the users is required to understand where problems within the programming process occur. Further research focusing on this cognitive interaction will work towards a solution that may allow users to behave easily in a more sustainable manner

Spontaneous Polarisation Build up in a Room Temperature Polariton Laser

We observe the build up of strong (~50%) spontaneous vector polarisation in emission from a GaN-based polariton laser excited by short optical pulses at room temperature. The Stokes vector of emitted light changes its orientation randomly from one excitation pulse to another, so that the time-integrated polarisation remains zero. This behaviour is completely different to any previous laser. We interpret this observation in terms of the spontaneous symmetry breaking in a Bose-Einstein condensate of exciton-polaritons