Anglo-Japanese Alliance

Nish dealt with the diplomacy of Britain and Japan in the five months before the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, arguing that it was not a 'natural alliance' but that there were pockets of opposition to it which had to be overcome. In the case of Japan, this was associated with the activities of Marquis Ito in Europe on which much new material was presented. In the case of Britain, the naval and military arguments in favour of closer relations with Japan eventually overcame those against any change in policy.Steeds argued that all three of the alliance treaties could be numbered among the successful alliances of history. The 1905 treaty was about deterring any kind of Russian revenge in East Asia (for Japan) and Central Asia (for British India) and was successful; but because of a diplomatic revolution which took place after 1907 it became increasingly irrelevant.Hotta-Lister started with an account of the Japan-British Exhibition of 1910 which was a means of educating Britons about their ally. The 1911 alliance was the weakest of the three treaties. From Britain's standpoint a major purpose was to ensure the security of her dominions in the Pacific, possibly against Japan, while from the Japanese standpoint it was to protect her against her fear of isolation in the Pacific vis-à-vis the United States.Lord Landsdowne, Sir Edward Grey, Hirobumi Ito, Tadasu Hayashi, Jutaro Komura, Taro Katsura, Anglo-Japanese Alliance, Russo-Japanese War, Iswolsky, Japan-British Exhibition.

Version 4 of the CRU TS monthly high-resolution gridded multivariate climate dataset

CRU TS (Climatic Research Unit gridded Time Series) is a widely used climate dataset on a 0.5 degrees latitude by 0.5 degrees longitude grid over all land domains of the world except Antarctica. It is derived by the interpolation of monthly climate anomalies from extensive networks of weather station observations. Here we describe the construction of a major new version, CRU TS v4. It is updated to span 1901-2018 by the inclusion of additional station observations, and it will be updated annually. The interpolation process has been changed to use angular-distance weighting (ADW), and the production of secondary variables has been revised to better suit this approach. This implementation of ADW provides improved traceability between each gridded value and the input observations, and allows more informative diagnostics that dataset users can utilise to assess how dataset quality might vary geographically

Microwave Spectral Studies on Aniline and Some Other Molecules

This thesis contains an account of microwave spectral studies aniline, propiolic acid, 2,1,3-benzoxadiazole and 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole, and glycollonitrile. All of the spectra were observed at room temperature using a conventional Stark modulation spectrometer. A brief description of the spectrometer, the method used to calculate rigid asymmetric top energy levels and the location of atoms in a molecule are given in Chapter 1. Chapters 2-5 devoted to the spectral studies on the molecules mentioned above and Chapter 6 contains details of the preparation of a number of these compounds. The microwave spectra of ten isotopic species of aniline have been observed and transitions due to molecules in the ground and a very low first excited vibrational state have been assigned. A low first excited vibrational state is characteristic of a pyrimidal configuration about the nitrogen atom and an inverting amine group. The inertial defects, and substitution co-ordinates of the amino-hydrogen atoms confirm that aniline is non-planar and an rs structure has been derived for the C-NH2 group. The co-ordinates of the ring hydrogen atoms in aniline indicate that the phenyl group is somewhat narrower and elongated compared to benzene. Three species of propiolic acid have been studied and the planar nature and cis conformation of the hydroxyl relative to the carbonyl group in this molecule are confirmed. Allowance has been made for centrifugal distortion in deriving the rotational constants, but it is impossible to derive accurate values for the centrifugal distortion constants from the measured line frequencies. The dipole moment of propiolic acid has been obtained from Stark effect measurements and lies almost parallel to the direction of the C = O bond. The spectra of the normal isotopic species of 2,1,3-benzoxadiazole and 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole have been assigned and the inertial defects indicate that these molecules are planar. Structures with considerable double bond fixation in the six membered rings are proposed for these molecules. Some preliminary conclusions about the structure of glycollonitrile are given in chapter 5. Spectra of the normal and one deuterated species (DOCH2CN) have been assigned. The inertial defects of these molecules and the substitution co-ordinates of the hydroxyl hydrogen atom show that glycollonitrile exists in the gauche form

Machine dependence and reproducibility for coupled climate simulations: the HadGEM3-GC3.1 CMIP Preindustrial simulation

When the same weather or climate simulation is run on different high-performance computing (HPC) platforms, model outputs may not be identical for a given initial condition. While the role of HPC platforms in delivering better climate projections is to some extent discussed in the literature, attention is mainly focused on scalability and performance rather than on the impact of machine-dependent processes on the numerical solution. Here we investigate the behaviour of the Preindustrial (PI) simulation prepared by the UK Met Office for the forthcoming CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6) under different computing environments. Discrepancies between the means of key climate variables were analysed at different timescales, from decadal to centennial. We found that for the two simulations to be statistically indistinguishable, a 200-year averaging period must be used for the analysis of the results. Thus, constant-forcing climate simulations using the HadGEM3-GC3.1 model are reproducible on different HPC platforms provided that a sufficiently long duration of simulation is used. In regions where El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) teleconnection patterns were detected, we found large sea surface temperature and sea ice concentration differences on centennial timescales. This indicates that a 100-year constant-forcing climate simulation may not be long enough to adequately capture the internal variability of the HadGEM3-GC3.1 model, despite this being the minimum simulation length recommended by CMIP6 protocols for many MIP (Model Intercomparison Project) experiments. On the basis of our findings, we recommend a minimum simulation length of 200 years whenever possible

What do loose groups tell us about galaxy formation?

We present the results of a Parkes Multibeam HI survey of six loose groups of galaxies analogous to the Local Group. This survey was sensitive to HI-rich objects in these groups to below 10^7 M(sun) of HI, and was designed to search for low mass, gas-rich satellite galaxies and potential analogs to the high-velocity clouds seen around the Milky Way. This survey detected a total of 79 HI-rich objects associated with the six groups, half of which were new detections. While the survey identified a small number of dwarf galaxies, no star-free HI clouds were discovered. The HI mass function of the six groups appears to be roughly flat as is that of the Local Group. The cumulative velocity distribution function (CVDF) of the HI-rich halos in the six groups is identical to that of the Local Group. Both of these facts imply that these groups are true analogs to the Local Group and that the Local Group is not unique in its lack of low-mass dwarf galaxies as compared to the predictions of cold dark matter models of galaxy formation. This survey also constrains the distance to and HI masses of the compact high-velocity clouds (CHVCs) around the Milky Way. The lack of CHVC analog detections implies that they are distributed within <160 kpc of the Milky Way and have average HI masses of <4x10^5 M(sun). The spatial distribution of CHVCs is consistent with the predictions of simulations for dark matter halos. Furthermore the CVDF of Local Group galaxies plus CHVCs matches the predicted CVDF of cold dark matter simulations of galaxy formation. This provides circumstantial evidence that CHVCs may be associated with low-mass dark matter halos.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in the proceedings of "Baryons in Dark Matter Halos" Eds R-J., Dettmar, U. Klein, P. Salucci, PoS, SISSA, http://pos.sissa.i

An HI census of Loose Groups of Galaxies

We present results from our Parkes Multibeam HI survey of 3 loose groups of galaxies that are analogous to the Local Group. This is a survey of groups containing only spiral galaxies with mean separations of a few hundred kpc, and total areas of approximately 1 sq. Mpc; groups similar to our own Local Group. We present a census of the HI-rich objects in these groups down to an M(HI), 1-sigma sensitivity ~7x10^5 M(sun), as well as the detailed properties of these detections from follow-up Compact Array observations. We found 7 new HI-rich members in the 3 groups, all of which have stellar counterparts and are, therefore, typical dwarf galaxies. The ratio of low-mass to high-mass gas-rich galaxies in these groups is less than in the Local Group meaning that the ``missing satellite'' problem is not unique. No high-velocity cloud analogs were found in any of the groups. If HVCs in these groups are the same as in the Local Group, this implies that HVCs must be located within ~300-400 kpc of the Milky Way.Comment: 6 pages, to appear in the ASP proceedings of IAU Symposium 217, "Recycling intergalactic and interstellar matter", eds. Pierre-Alain Duc, Jonathan Braine, Elias Brink

Privatised and Unprepared: The NHS Supply Chain

Months after the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, huge numbers of UK health and care workers still lack adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). The aim of this report is to expose the role that the privatisation of health and social care has played in this preventable catastrophe. Privatisation has created a system which is both chaotic and bureaucratic – both fragmented and sclerotic. There has been an outcry over PPE shortages in media coverage of the pandemic, but little has been said about privatisation. This is a serious oversight, which this report will address