“Black, White and Grey”: Wartime Arguments for and against the Strategic Bomber Offensive

The strategic bomber offensive against Nazi Germany has attracted more than its fair share of attention, most of which has been highly critical, both on moral as well as pragmatic grounds. Scholarly articles and books, in addition to a much larger number of sensationalized popular accounts, have appeared at a steady rate since the end of the war.1 More recently, journalists and television producers—capitalising on the fiftieth anniversary commemorations of the Second World War—have taken an interest in this controversial yet highly marketable and therefore profitable subject. Partly revisionist, and deliberately emotive, their “factions” (part fact and part dramatic recreation or fiction) all too often have focused narrowly on a single, spurious theme; the Anglo-American bomber offensive was orchestrated and conducted by a group of “bloodthirsty bone-heads and blimps,” whose policy of saturation bombing was a grievous crime against humanity.

Psychological type and attitude towards Celtic Christianity among committed Churchgoers in the United Kingdom: an empirical study

This article takes the burgeoning interest in Celtic Christianity as a key example of the way in which churches may be responding to the changing spiritual and religious landscape in the United Kingdom today and examines the power of psychological type theory to account for variation in the attitude of committed churchgoers to this innovation. Data provided by a sample of 248 Anglican clergy and lay church officers (who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales together with the Attitude toward Celtic Christianity Scale) demonstrated that intuitive types, feeling types, and perceiving types reported a more positive attitude towards Celtic Christianity than sensing types, thinking types, and judging types. These findings are interpreted to analyse the appeal of Celtic Christianity and to suggest why some committed churchgoers may find this innovation less attractive

An integrated carbon and oxygen isotope approach to reconstructing past environmental variability in the northeast Atlantic Ocean

The combined influence of temperature and the isotopic composition of the seawater (δ18Ow) often precludes the use of oxygen isotope (δ18O) records, derived from marine carbonates, to reconstruct absolute seawater temperatures, without the application of an independent δ18Ow proxy. Here we investigate the application of carbon isotope records (δ13Cshell), derived from the long-lived marine bivalve Glycymeris glycymeris, as a proxy for δ18Ow variability. Our analyses indicate G. glycymeris δ13Cshell data derived from growth increments >20 years of age contain strong ontogenetic trends (−0.013‰ yr−1, R = 0.98, P < 0.001, N = 51). These analyses demonstrate that, coupled with the ontogenetic trends, 54% of the variability in G. glycymeris δ13Cshell records can be explained by a combination of the marine Suess effect and physical (salinity and riverine input) and biological processes (primary production). The application of these δ13Cshell data in conjunction with co-registered δ18Oshell and growth increment width series, each of which have been shown to be sensitive to seawater temperature and primary productivity respectively, can therefore provide new insights into past environmental variability and help constrain uncertainties on reconstructions of past seawater temperature variability

Eddy current loss estimation of edge burr-affected magnetic laminations based on equivalent electrical network - Part I: Fundamental concepts and FEM modeling

Cutting and punching of the electrical steel can cause edge burrs which lead to interlaminar short circuits between the laminations. In this paper, based on an equivalent electric circuit of the eddy current path, an analytical method has been developed to estimate the eddy current power loss of the magnetic cores, caused by the interlaminar faults, in a wide range of flux density and magnetizing frequency. Important factors, such as skin effect, nonuniform flux density distribution, complex relative permeability, and the nonlinear relation of $B (H)$ , which are often neglected in the literature, are highlighted. Fundamental concepts of the interlaminar fault and its consequences, the effect of interlaminar faults on the configuration of magnetic cores, and finite-element method verification are presented in this Part I paper. Modeling of eddy current, together with experimental results of eddy current measurements of packs of shorted laminations, are reported in Part II

Analysis of ontogenetic growth trends in two marine Antarctic bivalves Yoldia eightsi and Laternula elliptica: Implications for sclerochronology

There is an increasing use of marine species as paleoclimate recorders for the marine realm. These archives provide novel baseline records of past oceanographic variability in regions devoid of instrumental observations. Here we report results of a study of the ontogenetic growth pattern of two Antarctic marine bivalve molluscs: Yoldia eightsi and Laternula elliptica from West Antarctic Peninsula populations using negative exponential detrending technique and multi-taper method spectral analysis. Our data show the growth of both Y. eightsi and L. elliptica follow a general negative exponential trend over their longevity. However, our analyses also identified an innate 9.06 year periodic endogenous growth rhythm in the growth increment pattern of Y. eightsi and two innate periodic growth rhythms, 5 and 6.6 year period, were found in L. elliptica. We hypothesize that the Y. eightsi endogenous growth rhythm may be related to the reallocation of energetic resources between somatic growth and gametogenesis although more biological data are required to test this hypothesis. Further work into L. elliptica biology is required to understand the possible meaning of the innate growth rhythms found for this species. The identification growth rhythms is important not only for their biological significance but also in sclerochronological analysis because of their importance in developing paleoenvironmental reconstructions

Structure of Tagatose-1,6-bisphosphate Aldolase. Insight into chiral discrimination, mechanism, and specificity of class II aldolases

Tagatose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase (TBPA) is a tetrameric class II aldolase that catalyzes the reversible condensation of dihydroxyacetone phosphate with glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate to produce tagatose 1,6-bisphosphate. The high resolution (1.45 Å) crystal structure of the Escherichia coli enzyme, encoded by the agaY gene, complexed with phosphoglycolohydroxamate (PGH) has been determined. Two subunits comprise the asymmetric unit, and a crystallographic 2-fold axis generates the functional tetramer. A complex network of hydrogen bonds position side chains in the active site that is occupied by two cations. An unusual Na(+) binding site is created using a interaction with Tyr(183) in addition to five oxygen ligands. The catalytic Zn(2+) is five-coordinate using three histidine nitrogens and two PGH oxygens. Comparisons of TBPA with the related fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase (FBPA) identifies common features with implications for the mechanism. Because the major product of the condensation catalyzed by the enzymes differs in the chirality at a single position, models of FBPA and TBPA with their cognate bisphosphate products provide insight into chiral discrimination by these aldolases. The TBPA active site is more open on one side than FBPA, and this contributes to a less specific enzyme. The availability of more space and a wider range of aldehyde partners used by TBPA together with the highly specific nature of FBPA suggest that TBPA might be a preferred enzyme to modify for use in biotransformation chemistry

Implementation of blinded outcome assessment in the Effective Verruca Treatments trial (EverT) – lessons learned

Trials using inadequate levels of blinding may report larger effect sizes than blinded studies. It has been suggested that blinded outcome assessment in open trials may in some cases be undertaken by assessments of photographs. The aim of this paper is to explore the effect of using different methods to assess the primary outcome in the EVerT (Effective Verruca Treatments) trial. It also aims to give an overview of the experiences of using digital photographs within the trial. Methods We undertook a secondary analysis to explore the effect of using three different methods to assess the primary outcome in the EVerT trial: assessment of digital photographs by blinded healthcare professionals; blinded healthcare professional assessment at the recruiting site and patient self-report. The verruca clearance rates were calculated using the three different methods of assessment. A Cohen’s kappa measure of inter-rater agreement was used to assess the agreement between the methods. We also investigated the experiences of healthcare professionals using digital photographs within the trial. Results Digital photographs for 189 out of 240 (79 %) patients in the trial were received for outcome assessment. Of the 189 photographs, 30 (16 %) were uninterpretable. The overall verruca clearance rates were 21 % (43/202,) using the unblinded patient self-reported outcome, 6 % (9/159,) using blinded assessment of digital photographs and 14 % (30/210,) using blinded outcome assessment at the site. Conclusions Despite differences in the clearance rates found using different methods of outcome assessment, this did not change the original conclusion of the trial, that there is no evidence of a difference in effectiveness between cryotherapy and salicylic acid. Future trials using digital photographs should consider individual training needs at sites and have a backup method of assessment agreed a priori

Algorithm to Diagnose Leaks or Blockages Downstream of the Secondary Air Injection Reaction (SAIR) Pressure Sensor

A control module and method for an exhaust system of an engine can include a secondary air intake (SAI) pressure module that monitors SAI pressure. An accumulation module can accumulate an SAI string length based on the monitored SAI pressure. A calculation module can determine an average SAI string length based on the accumulated SAI string length. A determination module can determine an operating characteristic of the vehicle exhaust based on the average SAI string length