The politics of Troubles memories in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, 1998 to 2018

This article explores the reasons for persistent memory wars surrounding the Northern Ireland conflict in Irish and Northern Irish politics between the leading political groups including Sinn Féin, political unionism, the Irish and British governments. I expand on existing literature on commemoration and memory in Northern Ireland to explain how constitutional, political, communal, personal, moral and generational factors together encourage conflicting memories surrounding the past to continue in Northern Irish and Irish politics. Politically, what is remembered about the conflict is used to challenge contemporary political opponents. Selective conflict memories also seek to support ongoing constitutional objectives regarding Irish unification in the present. In addition, individual leaders’ and communal experiences of the conflict are recalled to assist the pursuit of justice and commemorate communal suffering. Each political group seeks to morally justify their past actions based on their conflict experience too. The emergence of a post-conflict generation of voters also means that political leaders draw comparisons between the past and present to encourage the youth to support their ongoing constitutional objectives, political strategies and leadership. The conclusion suggests that contested memories and commemorations in Irish and Northern Irish politics are particularly persistent because the constitutional question has not been resolved

Color in computing

Color in the computing environment, once considered a luxury, is becoming more available compared to being just the occasional exception. As the number of users exploring the uses of color through displayed and printed images increases, the problems associated with its use are becoming widely known. What worked in black and white is not easily translated into color. The use of color needs to begin with the basic understanding of what is color, its terminology and its utilization as an enhancement to communications tool. Only after the basic terminology and effective means of communication are understood will color flourish as a successful means of communication in the computing environment. Currently, a number of products are seen as solutions in the realm of color usage in the computing environment. Four different contributions, PostScript Level 2 (Adobe), PhotoYCC(Eastman Kodak), Pantone Matching System (Pantone), and TekHVC (Tektronix), each deliver a component of electronic color reproduction. PostScript Level 2 delivers consistent color from monitor to printer, with variations based on printer manufacture and the printing technology utilized. PhotoYCC defines a format for image capture and retrieval with a wealth of possibilities for image sources. Pantone Matching System expands the accessibility of simulated prepress work, coupled with ink formulation and quality control. Tektronix attempted to define TekHVC as an industry standard based on a more uniform color space than that which is defined by previous industry standards. Because of the lack of acceptance, Tektronix has limited this solution to their printers. Solutions are abundant, but as costs continue to fall, the expectation of consistent color will rise. The adoption of standards across operating environments and software packages is critical to continued increase of the use of color in the computing environment

Four factors affecting how the Republic of Ireland deals with the legacy of the Troubles

The Northern Ireland conflict is usually analysed from the British and Northern Irish perspectives. But the Republic of Ireland was a participant too, and how the state now deals with that past is shaped by four key factors, writes Thomas Leahy

A unified approach to statistical estimation and model parameterisation in mass calibration

This thesis presents a unified and homogenous system of data analysis and parameter estimation. The process is applied to mass determination but the underlying principles are general and the philosophy applies to any data reduction process. Two main areas are covered: uncertainty analysis via the recommendations of the ISO Guide and secondly parameter estimation of over-determined measurement systems. Application to mass determination of the ISO-recommended procedures and also parameter estimation in mass calibration have'been treated previously. What is done here is an innovative attempt to link these two areas together by focusing on the measurement philosophy underlying each and producing a Unified Approach to parameter estimation in mass determination. A unique feature is the application of the ideas of classical probability theory to uncertainty analysis and mass metrology, particular emphasis being placed on employing a consistent and logically coherent analysis. Criteria of consistency from classical probability theory are used as a basis for much of the work, and some useful definitions with respect to subjective information and unbiased analysis are presented which form a useful contribution to the metrology of uncertainty theory. With respect to parameter estimation techniques novel methods recently proposed in the literature are investigated on a mathematical level and it is shown that the minimum variance estimator used is in fact an application of Bayesian techniques to parameter estimation. This provides a useful link to the ISO Guide on uncertainty analysis, which is mathematically based on a Bayesian view of probability. The traditional least squares method of parameter estimation which has been previously shown to be internally inconsistent in its view of the reference information, is shown in this work to be incompatible with the ISO Guidelines and the consistency criteria mentioned above. The benefits of applying the Unified Approach are amply seen in the improved estimates and lower covariances achievable with the Bayesian estimators. The capabilities of Bayesian estimators are explored in some detail with experimental data. This provides some new insight into the estimation technique and discusses how robustly it can deal with inaccurate data and also attempts to quantify the maximum improvement in uncertainty that is achievable through recalibration and sequential estimation with this method. The conclusion reached is that a Bayesian view of probability, without the restriction of maintaining a separation between random and systematic uncertainties leads to a much improved system of data analysis

Mixed-Morphology Supernova Remnants in X-rays: Isothermal Plasma in HB21 and Probable Oxygen-Rich Ejecta in CTB 1

(Abridged) We present an analysis of X-ray observations made of the Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs) HB21 (G89.0+4.7) and CTB 1 (G116.9+0.2), two well-known mixed-morphology (MM) SNRs. We find a marked contrast between the X-ray properties of these SNRs: for HB21, the extracted ASCA spectra of the northwest and southeast regions of the X-ray emitting plasma can be fit with a single thermal model with marginally enhanced silicon and sulfur abundances. For both of these regions, the derived column density and temperature are N_H~0.3x10^22 cm^-2 and kT~0.7 keV, respectively. No significant spatial differences in temperature or elemental abundances between the two regions are detected and the X-ray-emitting plasma in both regions is close to ionization equilibrium. Our Chandra spectral analysis of CTB 1 reveals that this source is likely an oxygen-rich SNR with enhanced abundances of oxygen and neon. The extracted ASCA spectra for the southwestern and northeastern regions of CTB 1 cannot be fit with a single thermal component. Based on our fits to these spectra, we derive a column density N_H~0.6x10^22 cm^-2 and a temperature for the soft thermal component of kT_soft~0.28 keV. The hard emission from the southwest may be modeled with either a thermal component (kT_hard~3 keV) or by a power law component (Gamma~2-3) while the hard emission from the northeast may be modeled with a power law component (Gamma~1.4). We have also extracted ASCA GIS spectra of the discrete X-ray source 1WGA J0001.4+6229 which is seen in projection toward CTB 1. These spectra are best fit using a power-law model with a photon index Gamma=2.2^{+0.5}_{-1.2} which is typical for featureless power-law continua produced by rotation-powered pulsars. This source may be a neutron star associated with CTB 1.Comment: 46 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa