Factory records and the situationist influence on urban space

There has been a substantial amount of literature on Factory Records and Manchester, with some exploring the urban influence on music and its associated local identities. Writing on post-punk has also considered regional and local influences. This article proposes a new approach with a detailed consideration of the Situationist influence and wider European radical theory on Factory Records. In particular it shows that this influence enabled Factory to create new ways of shaping and interacting with urban space. The investigation incorporates a historical discourse of Factory and the role Situationist theory played in the music, design, artwork and creation of spaces. The investigation is supported by the integration of urban theory and geographical theory. Like other punk and post-punk independent labels, Factory had European connections. For Factory though, the article explains, it is the combination of these links with the incorporation of a European radical tradition, in particular the use of the Situationist approach to the urban environment, that makes it distinctive. By incorporating this wider European influence on the development of punk and post-punk it is possible to highlight previously unacknowledged aspects of post-punk’s regional voice and connections to a wider sense of European identity

A domain-specific language based approach to component composition, error-detection, and fault prediction

Current methods of software production are resource-intensive and often require a number of highly skilled professionals. To develop a well-designed and effectively implemented system requires a large investment of resources, often numbering into millions of pounds. The time required may also prove to be prohibitive. However, many parts of the new systems being currently developed already exist, either in the form of whole or parts of existing systems. It is therefore attractive to reuseexisting code when developing new software, in order to reduce the time andresources required. This thesis proposes the application of a domain-specific language (DSL) to automatic component composition, testing and fault-prediction. The DSL ISinherently based on a domain-model which should aid users of the system m knowing how the system is structured and what responsibilities the system fulfils. The DSL structure proposed in this thesis uses a type system and grammar hence enabling the early detection of syntactically incorrect system usage. Each DSL construct's behaviour can also be defined in a testing DSL, described here as DSL-test. This can take the form of input and output parameters, which should suffice for specifying stateless components, or may necessitate the use of a special method call, described here as a White-Box Test (WBT), which allows the external observer to view the abstract state of a component. Each DSL-construct can be mapped to its implementing components i.e. the component, or amalgamation of components, that implement(s) the behaviour as prescribed by the DSL-construct. User-requirements are described using the DS Land appropriate implementing components (if sufficient exist) are automatically located and integrated. That is to say, given a requirement described in terms of the DSL and sufficient components, the architecture (which was named Hydra) will be able to generate an executable which should behave as desired. The DSL-construct behaviour description language (DSL-test) is designed in such a way that it can be translated into a computer programming language, and so code can be inserted between the system automatically to verify that the implementing component is acting in a way consistent with the model of its expected behaviour. Upon detection of an error, the system examines available data (i.e. where the error occurred, what sort of error was it, and what was the structure of the executable), to attempt to predict the location of the fault and, where possible, make remedialaction. A number of case studies have been investigated and it was found that, if applied to the appropriate problem domain, the approach proposed in this thesis shows promise in terms of full automation and integration of black-box or grey-box software. However, further work is required before it can be claimed that this approach should be used in real scale systems

Technological enhancements in freeze drying.

The aims of this thesis are to tackle some of the newer areas of lyophilisation protection including enhancing technology to better determine the primary drying length of a freeze drying cycle. An attempt has been made to focus research from the perspective of a research freeze-dryer when used for scale up studies. It is hoped that the data gathered due to this approach can be applied across a broad range of formulations. Control of the freeze drying cycle is examined, relating a formulation's physical change induced during a freeze-drying cycle to both the freezing and drying stages. Changes occuring to the size of a liposome population with narrow polydispersity using laser light scattering are used to examine the effects of freezing rate, low temperature processing and rehydration; aggregation during both conventional and non-conventional freeze- drying cycles is also investigated. The relationship between protein protection and sucrose recrystalisation was determined with a combination of modelling and sequence analysis. Sucrose recrystalisation in the dry state was examined with a variety of enzymes, unifying existing research by allowing the prediction of losses in enzyme activity by examination of the amino acid sequence. Enzymes studied included: catalase, lactate dehydrogenase, lysozyme, asparaginase, adenosine deaminase, β-galactosidase, fructose-6-phosphate kinase (phosphofructokinase), β-amylase, glucose oxidase, ascorbate oxidase and ribonuclease

An examination of knowledge acquisition (KA) requirements and practices within the gas turbine energy industry - does effective KA impact reliability and availability?

In order to manage a modern day gas turbine plant, an operator must collect and disseminate a wide range of knowledge, for decision making and for reporting to high level management. Often, an operator must also justify its decisions to a parent company. A key element of power plant management is the use of maintenance strategy, in order to maintain its equipment in an adequate condition so as to reliably produce power when required. This thesis seeks to explore and define the links between effective knowledge management and effective power plant management, which are explored to produce a replicable best practice methodology for a human capital and technology driven KM system in order to enhance operator profitability.Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPSRC)Organisational Knowledg

Landings: The moor and the ecological therapeutic practice of Richard Skelton

Richard Skelton's 2009 recording, Landings, is recognised as being intimately connected with landscape and the experience of place. This paper explores the use of therapeutic practice within the creation of the recording of Landings. Building on the work of cultural geographers who have emphasised the cultural and symbolic significance of landscape, as well as incorporating the work of geographers who have studied sound and music, the paper develops a non‐representational analysis, emphasising the interplay of human experiences and therapeutic practice. The paper explores how Skelton's music transcends a simple representation of the moorland landscape. It shows how the music, created through Skelton's therapeutic practice, channels the essence of the landscape. Skelton acknowledges the healing nature of this creative process. It offers catharsis and solace while, at the same time, connecting to living systems and exhibiting an ecological principle. By exploring the music created by Skelton's therapeutic practice and its profound alignment with nature, Landings offers valuable insights for geographers and beyond

The Deeply Vale Music Festival: The North West Free Music Festival, Its Demise, Its Influence, and Its Legacy

Deeply Vale Festival, held near Rochdale, England from 1976 to 1979, started with an audience of 300 and grew to 20,000 attendees in 1979. It played a significant role in introducing punk music to the festival scene and was initially larger and better organized than the Glastonbury Festival. While Glastonbury became the largest greenfield festival in the world, Deeply Vale did not achieve the same financial success. However Deeply Vale's impact and legacy can be considered as significant as Glastonbury's. This article explores the factors that enabled Glastonbury's success and prevented Deeply Vale from achieving the same level of recognition

Magnetic properties of electroless nickel-phosphorus coated multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

Nickel-phosphorus (EN) deposited multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were prepared using an electroless platingtechnique. The D.C and A.C magnetic behavior of the composites showed that pre-acid treatment of the MWCNTs prior toelectroless deposition greatly enhanced the magnetic susceptibility at 5 K producing a composite with antiferromagneticcorrelations and a superparamagnetic transition at 65.5 K. Raman scattering analysis suggests that there is no directinteraction of the nickel-phosphorus deposit and the MWCNTs

New Measurements of the Motion of the Zodiacal Dust

Using the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM), we have measured at high spectral resolution and high signal-to-noise the profile of the scattered solar Mg I 5184 absorption line in the zodiacal light. The observations were carried out toward 49 directions that sampled the ecliptic equator from solar elongations of 48\dg (evening sky) to 334\dg (morning sky) plus observations near +47\dg and +90\dg ecliptic latitude. The spectra show a clear prograde kinematic signature that is inconsistent with dust confined to the ecliptic plane and in circular orbits influenced only by the sun's gravity. In particular, the broadened widths of the profiles, together with large amplitude variations in the centroid velocity with elongation angle, indicate that a significant population of dust is on eccentric orbits. In addition, the wide, flat-bottomed line profile toward the ecliptic pole indicates a broad distribution of orbital inclinations extending up to about 30\dg - 40\dg with respect to the ecliptic plane. The absence of pronounced asymmetries in the shape of the profiles limits the retrograde population to less than 10% of the prograde population and also places constraints on the scattering phase function of the particles. These results do not show the radial outflow or evening--morning velocity amplitude asymmetry reported in some earlier investigations. The reduction of the spectra included the discovery and removal of extremely faint, unidentified terrestrial emission lines that contaminate and distort the underlying Mg I profile. This atmospheric emission is too weak to have been seen in earlier, lower signal-to-noise observations, but it probably affected the line centroid measurements of previous investigations.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, to appear in ApJ v612; figures appear low-res only on scree

Finite-Element Analysis of the Eaves Joint of Cold-Formed Steel Portal Frames having Single Channel-Sections

A finite element model is described for the eaves joint of a cold-formed steel portal frame that comprises a single channel section for the column and rafters eaves connections. The members are connected to the brackets through both screws and bolts. Such a joint detail is commonly used in practice in New Zealand and Australia, where the function of the screws is to prevent slip of the joint during frame erection since the bolt holes are detailed for nominal clearance. The results of the finite element model are compared against two experimental test results. In both, the critical mode of failure is a combination of torsion of the eaves joint and shear failure of screws. It is found that at ultimate load, the bolts have not engaged i.e. they have slipped. It is shown that the stiffness of the joints can be accurately predicted from the equations of bolt and screw stiffness of Zaharia and Dubina (2000). It is also shown that the finite element model can be used to determine both an upper and lower bound to the failure load