The Historical Manuscripts Commission: An Archival Evolution

The creation of the Royal Historical Manuscripts Commission formed part of a wider movement of institutional renewal and reform in mid-Victorian Britain, including growing professionalisation of both public administration and the academic study of history, particularly from the 1850s. Two features of the commission’s work continued to influence its development and The National Archives’ engagement with the archives sector today: first, the need to respect the legitimate rights and interests of both individuals and organisations, and second, the relationships by necessity based on collaboration with many partners. This has led to the evolution of a distinctive British mixed economy embracing public and private archives. This article considers the Commission’s evolution from surveying and publishing reports on the contents and locations of private collections to becoming the central advisory body on all issues related to archives and manuscripts not covered by the 1958 Public Records Act. The social and technological changes over this time have had a profound influence on the commission’s professional practices. In addition, the range and rights of stakeholders have evolved, presenting new challenges. Meeting all the demands and possibilities of the commission’s delivery needs to be seen in the context of frequently operating with significant resource constraints

Coupled simulations for hygrothermal investigation of subterranean car parks and similar spaces

To investigate the hygrothermal conditions in subterranean car parks a twodimensional simulation procedure has been used, based on coupling the transient heat transfer programme HEAT with the dynamic thermal building simulation program TRNSYS. The likelihood of condensation and the rate of water deposition on surfaces were calculated with a new moisture model KOND. To estimate the consequence of moisture adsorption in materials in the hygroscopic range below saturation, the TRNSYS moisture capacitance model (buffer storage model) was used. A parametric study of the internal temperatures and the annual hours of condensation risk in underground car parks were conducted using German and UK climate data. The simulations indicate the relative risk of condensation occurring for different earth conditions, levels of insulation and air change rates, in spaces covered by earth and spaces covered by a heated building. It is shown that increased ventilation rates in summer can reduce condensation risk in underground car parks below heated buildings

Enhancing Perception of Complex Sculptural Forms using Interactive Real-time Ray tracing

This paper looks at experiments into using real-time ray tracing to significantly enhance shape perception of complex three-dimensional digitally created structures. The author is a computational artist whose artistic practice explores the creation of intricate organic three-dimensional forms using simulation of morphogenesis. The generated forms are often extremely detailed, comprising tens of millions of cellular primitives. This often makes depth perception of the resulting structures difficult. His practice has explored various techniques to create presentable artefacts from the data, including high resolution prints, animated videos, stereoscopic installations, 3D printing and virtual reality. The author uses ray tracing techniques to turn the 3D data created from his morphogenetic simulations into visible artefacts. This is typically a time-consuming process, taking from seconds to minutes to create a single frame. The latest generation of graphics processing units offer dedicated hardware to accelerate ray tracing calculations. This potentially allows the generation of ray traced images, including self-shadowed complex structures and multiple levels of transparency, from new viewpoints at frame rates capable of real-time interaction. The author presents the results of his experiments using this technology with the aim of providing significantly enhanced perception of his generated three-dimensional structures by allowing user-initiated interaction to generate novel views, and utilizing depth cues such as stereopsis, depth from motion and defocus blurring. The intention is for these techniques to be usable to present new exhibitable works in a gallery context

Imagined places of the past: the interplay of time and memory in the maintenance of place attachment

Place attachment describes the emotional connection that people hold with a physical space, and such bonds have been shown to be associated with higher levels of life satisfaction, as well as physical and mental well-being. Although a temporal element of place attachment is acknowledged, the exact nature of time’s role in such relationships is yet to be fully understood. The current study addressed this using qualitative interviews with nine long-term residents of an urban centre in Northwest England. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was applied to explore the underlying mechanisms through which time asserts its influence on place attachment. Analysis developed three interrelated super-ordinate themes: what time brings, accumulated attachment, and time as a dialectic. As time passes, life events, cultural changes, and physical transformation to the environment affect individuals’ interactions with place, and thus their relationship with it. Continued inhabitation leads to an accumulation of emotional salience. Ultimately, time interacts with human memory, offering individuals multiple perspectives through which to make sense of their present environment. Issues may then arise, as memory is heavily influenced by the passing of time. Consequently, present-day perceptions of the place’s past are often viewed through a prism of nostalgia, with implications for the person-place bond

Estimates of Micro-, Nano-, and Picoplankton Contributions to Particle Export in the Northeast Pacific

The contributions of micro-, nano-, and picoplankton to particle export were estimated from measurements of size-fractionated particulate 234Th, organic carbon, and phytoplankton indicator pigments obtained during five cruises between 2010 and 2012 along Line P in the subarctic northeast Pacific Ocean. Sinking fluxes of particulate organic carbon (POC) and indicator pigments were calculated from 234Th–238U disequilibria and, during two cruises, measured by sediment trap at Ocean Station Papa. POC fluxes at 100 m ranged from 0.65–7.95 mmol m−2 d−1, similar in magnitude to previous results at Line P. Microplankton pigments dominate indicator pigment fluxes (averaging 69 ± 19% of total pigment flux), while nanoplankton pigments comprised the majority of pigment standing stocks (averaging 64 ± 23% of total pigment standing stock). Indicator pigment loss rates (the ratio of pigment export flux to pigment standing stock) point to preferential export of larger microplankton relative to smaller nano- and picoplankton. However, indicator pigments do not quantitatively trace particle export resulting from zooplankton grazing, which may be an important pathway for the export of small phytoplankton. These results have important implications for understanding the magnitude and mechanisms controlling the biological pump at Line P in particular, and more generally in oligotrophic gyres and high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll regions where small phytoplankton represent a major component of the autotrophic community

Observation of confined current ribbon in JET plasmas

we report the identification of a localised current structure inside the JET plasma. It is a field aligned closed helical ribbon, carrying current in the same direction as the background current profile (co-current), rotating toroidally with the ion velocity (co-rotating). It appears to be located at a flat spot in the plasma pressure profile, at the top of the pedestal. The structure appears spontaneously in low density, high rotation plasmas, and can last up to 1.4 s, a time comparable to a local resistive time. It considerably delays the appearance of the first ELM.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Population Size, Sex and Purifying Selection: Comparative Genomics of Two Sister Taxa of the Wild Yeast Saccharomyces paradoxus

This study uses population genomic data to estimate demographic and selection parameters in two sister lineages of the wild yeast Saccharomyces paradoxus and compare their evolution. We first estimate nucleotide and recombinational diversities in each of the two lineages to infer their population size and frequency of sex and then analyze the rate of mutation accumulation since divergence from their inferred common ancestor to estimate the generation time and efficacy of selection. We find that one of the lineages has significantly higher silent nucleotide diversity and lower linkage disequilibrium, indicating a larger population with more frequent sexual generations. The same lineage also shows shorter generation time and higher efficacy of purifying selection, the latter consistent with the finding of larger population size and more frequent sex. Similar analyses are also performed on the ancestries of individual strains within lineages and we find significant differences between strains implying variation in rates of mitotic cell divisions. Our sample includes some strains originating in the Chernobyl nuclear-accident exclusion zone, which has been subjected to high levels of radiation for nearly 30 years now. We find no evidence, however, for increased rates of mutation. Finally, there is a positive correlation between rates of mutation accumulation and length of growing period, as measured by latitude of the place of origin of strains. Our study illustrates the power of genomic analyses in estimating population and life history parameters and testing predictions based on population genetic theory

Brief Home-Based Data Collection of Low Frequency Behaviors

Data-based decision making, an important component of positive behavior support, can be difficult in brief in-home therapy due to the limited amount of time a therapist has to directly observe the child. This difficulty is exacerbated when problem behavior occurs infrequently. When a therapist cannot reliably observe problem behavior, it is often necessary to rely on parental report. The current study evaluated three approaches for parental report of low frequency problem behavior: antecedent-behavior-consequence records, incident data, and interview. Each method was analyzed with clients in home-based therapy with 2-hour weekly appointments. All clients exhibited low-frequency (i.e., less than daily) and high-intensity (i.e., causes physical harm to self/others, damage to the environment, or severe decrement to family’s quality of life) problem behavior. The treatment goal for all clients was to reduce problem behavior (most commonly aggression, disruption, or self-injury). The number of instances of problem behavior captured by each method of data-collection, quality of the data (i.e., ability to detect treatment effects using the data), and therapist and parent acceptability of each measure were analyzed. Results are discussed in terms of the relative advantages and disadvantages of each measure, clinical application of the methods, and avenues for future research