1,667 research outputs found
Scottish theme towns: have new identities enhanced development?
Three small towns in southwest Scotland have recently been branded as distinct theme towns, based on books, artists and food. This is an attempt to make them more attractive to visitors and thereby improve their economy. The objective of this research is to establish whether the new identities possessed by the towns have enhanced their development. It is argued, using data reviewing the past decade, that they have all developed, albeit at different rates, in terms of the economy and culture. Moreover, it is maintained that social capital has been enhanced and is a factor whose importance has been under-appreciated by planners and observers of this type of process. The relevance of the new identity to the pre-branding identity is also seen as a factor in successful development and ideas of authenticity and heritage are brought to bear on the relationship
Applications of p-deficiency and p-largeness
We use Schlage-Puchta's concept of p-deficiency and Lackenby's property of
p-largeness to show that a group having a finite presentation with p-deficiency
greater than 1 is large, which implies that Schlage-Puchta's infinite finitely
generated p-groups are not finitely presented. We also show that for all primes
p at least 7, any group having a presentation of p-deficiency greater than 1 is
Golod-Shafarevich, and has a finite index subgroup which is Golod-Shafarevich
for the remaining primes. We also generalise a result of Grigorchuk on Coxeter
groups to odd primes.Comment: 23 page
Covers of acts over monoids II
In 1981 Edgar Enochs conjectured that every module has a flat cover and
finally proved this in 2001. Since then a great deal of effort has been spent
on studying different types of covers, for example injective and torsion free
covers. In 2008, Mahmoudi and Renshaw initiated the study of flat covers of
acts over monoids but their definition of cover was slightly different from
that of Enochs. Recently, Bailey and Renshaw produced some preliminary results
on the `other' type of cover and it is this work that is extended in this
paper. We consider free, divisible, torsion free and injective covers and
demonstrate that in some cases the results are quite different from the module
case
Chemical Characterization and Source Apportionment of Household Fine Particulate Matter in Rural, Peri-urban, and Urban West Africa
Household air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions is an important cause of disease burden. Little is known about the chemical composition and sources of household air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa, and how they differ between rural and urban homes. We analyzed the chemical composition and sources of fine particles (PM2.5) in household cooking areas of multiple neighborhoods in Accra, Ghana, and in peri-urban (Banjul) and rural (Basse) areas in The Gambia. In Accra, biomass burning accounted for 39–62% of total PM2.5 mass in the cooking area in different neighborhoods; the absolute contributions were 10–45 μg/m3. Road dust and vehicle emissions comprised 12–33% of PM2.5 mass. Solid waste burning was also a significant contributor to household PM2.5 in a low-income neighborhood but not for those living in better-off areas. In Banjul and Basse, biomass burning was the single dominant source of cooking-area PM2.5, accounting for 74–87% of its total mass; the relative and absolute contributions of biomass smoke to PM2.5 mass were larger in households that used firewood than in those using charcoal, reaching as high as 463 μg/m3 in Basse homes that used firewood for cooking. Our findings demonstrate the need for policies that enhance access to cleaner fuels in both rural and urban areas, and for controlling traffic emissions in cities in sub-Saharan Africa
Acoustic cues to tonal contrasts in Mandarin: Implications for cochlear implants
The present study systematically manipulated three acoustic cues-fundamental frequency (f0), amplitude envelope, and duration-to investigate their contributions to tonal contrasts in Mandarin. Simplified stimuli with all possible combinations of these three cues were presented for identification to eight normal-hearing listeners, all native speakers of Mandarin from Taiwan. The f0 information was conveyed either by an f0-controlled sawtooth carrier or a modulated noise so as to compare the performance achievable by a clear indication of voice f0 and what is possible with purely temporal coding of f0. Tone recognition performance with explicit f0 was much better than that with any combination of other acoustic cues (consistently greater than 90% correct compared to 33%-65%; chance is 25%). In the absence of explicit f0, the temporal coding of f0 and amplitude envelope both contributed somewhat to tone recognition, while duration had only a marginal effect. Performance based on these secondary cues varied greatly across listeners. These results explain the relatively poor perception of tone in cochlear implant users, given that cochlear implants currently provide only weak cues to f0, so that users must rely upon the purely temporal (and secondary) features for the perception of tone. (c) 2008 Acoustical Society of America
Type IIb Supernova SN 2011dh: Spectra and Photometry from the Ultraviolet to the Near-Infrared
We report spectroscopic and photometric observations of the Type IIb SN
2011dh obtained between 4 and 34 days after the estimated date of explosion
(May 31.5 UT). The data cover a wide wavelength range from 2,000 Angstroms in
the UV to 2.4 microns in the NIR. Optical spectra provide line profiles and
velocity measurements of HI, HeI, CaII and FeII that trace the composition and
kinematics of the SN. NIR spectra show that helium is present in the atmosphere
as early as 11 days after the explosion. A UV spectrum obtained with the STIS
reveals that the UV flux for SN 2011dh is low compared to other SN IIb. The HI
and HeI velocities in SN 2011dh are separated by about 4,000 km/s at all
phases. We estimate that the H-shell of SN 2011dh is about 8 times less massive
than the shell of SN 1993J and about 3 times more massive than the shell of SN
2008ax. Light curves (LC) for twelve passbands are presented. The maximum
bolometric luminosity of erg s occurred
about 22 days after the explosion. NIR emission provides more than 30% of the
total bolometric flux at the beginning of our observations and increases to
nearly 50% of the total by day 34. The UV produces 16% of the total flux on day
4, 5% on day 9 and 1% on day 34. We compare the bolometric light curves of SN
2011dh, SN 2008ax and SN 1993J. The LC are very different for the first twelve
days after the explosions but all three SN IIb display similar peak
luminosities, times of peak, decline rates and colors after maximum. This
suggests that the progenitors of these SN IIb may have had similar compositions
and masses but they exploded inside hydrogen shells that that have a wide range
of masses. The detailed observations presented here will help evaluate
theoretical models for this supernova and lead to a better understanding of SN
IIb.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, 9 tables, accepted by Ap
The Very Young Type Ia Supernova 2013dy: Discovery, and Strong Carbon Absorption in Early-Time Spectra
The Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) 2013dy in NGC 7250 (d ~ 13.7 Mpc) was
discovered by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search. Combined with a
prediscovery detection by the Italian Supernova Search Project, we are able to
constrain the first-light time of SN 2013dy to be only 0.10 +/- 0.05 d (2.4 +/-
1.2 hr) before the first detection. This makes SN 2013dy the earliest known
detection of an SN Ia. We infer an upper limit on the radius of the progenitor
star of R_0 < 0.25 R_sun, consistent with that of a white dwarf. The light
curve exhibits a broken power law with exponents of 0.88 and then 1.80. A
spectrum taken 1.63 d after first light reveals a C II absorption line
comparable in strength to Si II. This is the strongest C II feature ever
detected in a normal SN Ia, suggesting that the progenitor star had significant
unburned material. The C II line in SN 2013dy weakens rapidly and is undetected
in a spectrum 7 days later, indicating that C II is detectable for only a very
short time in some SNe Ia. SN 2013dy reached a B-band maximum of M_B = -18.72
+/- 0.03 mag ~17.7 d after first light.Comment: Accepted for Publication in ApJ Letter
Poverty moderates the association between gender and school dropout in South African adolescents
This study examined prospective associations between poverty, gender, and school dropout in a large community sample of South African adolescents (baseline: n = 3515, follow-up: n = 3401, 57% female, age range at baseline: 10–17 years, mean age at baseline = 13.45). School dropout was defined as being enrolled in school at baseline assessment but no longer enrolled in school at follow-up assessment. Poverty was measured at baseline assessment using an index of access to the eight highest socially perceived necessities for South African children and adolescents. Demographic characteristics including child gender and age, province, and urban versus rural location were recorded at baseline assessment and controlled for in the analysis. As predicted, higher poverty scores (AOR = 2.01, p < .001) were associated with increased odds of school dropout 1 year later. Gender was not a significant predictor of school dropout (AOR = 1.56, p = .07) but did interact with poverty (AOR = 0.66, p = .04) in predicting school dropout. However, our initial hypothesis that the impact of poverty on school dropout would be stronger for girls than boys was not supported. Instead, results indicated that while girls were at elevated risk of school dropout at low and mean levels of poverty, at high levels of poverty this gender difference was no longer evident. Findings suggest that vulnerable boys should not be neglected in policies to improve retention in education in contexts of extreme poverty
1,3-Bis(4-bromophenyl)imidazolium chloride dihydrate
In the title hydrated salt, C15H11Br2N2
+·Cl−·2H2O, the complete imidazolium cation is generated by a crystallographic twofold axis, with one C atom lying on the axis. The chloride ion and both water molecules of crystallization also lie on a crystallographic twofold axis of symmetry. The cation is non-planar, the dihedral angle formed between the central imidazolium and benzene rings being 12.9 (3)°; the dihedral angle between the symmetry-related benzene rings is 25.60 (13)°. In the crystal, O—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds result in supramolecular chains along c mediated by eight-membered {⋯HOH⋯Cl}2 synthons. These are consolidated by C—H⋯O and π–π [centroid–centroid distance = 3.687 (3) Å] interactions
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