QAA subject benchmark statement architecture : version for consultation December 2019

The Statement is intended to guide lecturers and course leaders in the design of academic courses leading to qualifications in architecture, it will also be useful to those developing other related courses. Higher education providers may need to consider other reference points in addition to this Statement in designing, delivering and reviewing courses. These may include requirements set out by the Architects Registration Board (ARB), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE). Providers may also need to consider industry or employer expectations. Individual higher education providers will decide how they use this information. The broad subject of architecture is both academic and vocational. The bachelor's award for architecture is the first stage of the typical education of an architect. This is typically either a BSc or a BA degree. The second stage of academic qualification is a master's level degree, typically in the form of a two-year MArch, which is defined as an undergraduate master's award. Architecture qualifications typically require a total of 360 (Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme, or CATS) credits at bachelor's level and 240 (CATS) credits within a master's level degree. While this may equate to five years of 120 (CATS) credits each, higher education providers may construct alternatives to enable flexibility in student learning. This Statement seeks to encapsulate the nature of a rich and diverse academic discipline. It is not intended to prescribe a curriculum, but rather describes the broad intellectual territory within which individual higher education providers will locate their courses of study in architecture

Low temperature magnetization and the excitation spectrum of antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin rings

Accurate results are obtained for the low temperature magnetization versus magnetic field of Heisenberg spin rings consisting of an even number N of intrinsic spins s = 1/2, 1, 3/2, 2, 5/2, 3, 7/2 with nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic (AF) exchange by employing a numerically exact quantum Monte Carlo method. A straightforward analysis of this data, in particular the values of the level-crossing fields, provides accurate results for the lowest energy eigenvalue E(N,S,s) for each value of the total spin quantum number S. In particular, the results are substantially more accurate than those provided by the rotational band approximation. For s <= 5/2, data are presented for all even N <= 20, which are particularly relevant for experiments on finite magnetic rings. Furthermore, we find that for s > 1 the dependence of E(N,S,s) on s can be described by a scaling relation, and this relation is shown to hold well for ring sizes up to N = 80 for all intrinsic spins in the range 3/2 <= s <= 7/2. Considering ring sizes in the interval 8 <= N <= 50, we find that the energy gap between the ground state and the first excited state approaches zero proportional to 1/N^a, where a = 0.76 for s = 3/2 and a = 0.84 for s = 5/2. Finally, we demonstrate the usefulness of our present results for E(N,S,s) by examining the Fe12 ring-type magnetic molecule, leading to a new, more accurate estimate of the exchange constant for this system than has been obtained heretofore.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review B, 10 pages, 10 figure

Four-point bending evaluation of dentin-composite interfaces with various stresses

Fracture properties of composite-dentin beams bonded with a self?etching adhesive were tested following short term pretreatments to simulate potential degradation mechanisms (thermal cycling, immersion in 5% NaOCl, or fatigue cycling). Beams of rectangular cross-section were shaped to a size of ~0.87 x 0.87 x 10 mm and placed in a four-point bending apparatus, with the loading points 1.8 and 7.2 mm apart, with the interface centered between the inner rollers. Testing was performed in Hanks? Balanced Salt Solution at 25 ?C . Solid dentin and solid composite beams [n = 6] had bending strengths of 164.4 and 164.6 MPa, respectively, under monotonically increasing loads. Bonded beams [n = 6] had strengths of 56.3 MPa. Thermo-cycling (5? to 55?C), NaOCl solution immersion, or 105 of pre-fatigue cycles did not decrease the strength. Conclusion: Thermal stress, exposure to NaOCL, or 105 cycles of mechanical stress does not decrease bond strength of composite bonded to dentin as tested in four-point bending

Four-point bending evaluation of dentin-composite interfaces with various stresses

Fracture properties of composite-dentin beams bonded with a self?etching adhesive were tested following short term pretreatments to simulate potential degradation mechanisms (thermal cycling, immersion in 5% NaOCl, or fatigue cycling). Beams of rectangular cross-section were shaped to a size of ~0.87 x 0.87 x 10 mm and placed in a four-point bending apparatus, with the loading points 1.8 and 7.2 mm apart, with the interface centered between the inner rollers. Testing was performed in Hanks? Balanced Salt Solution at 25 ?C . Solid dentin and solid composite beams [n = 6] had bending strengths of 164.4 and 164.6 MPa, respectively, under monotonically increasing loads. Bonded beams [n = 6] had strengths of 56.3 MPa. Thermo-cycling (5? to 55?C), NaOCl solution immersion, or 105 of pre-fatigue cycles did not decrease the strength. Conclusion: Thermal stress, exposure to NaOCL, or 105 cycles of mechanical stress does not decrease bond strength of composite bonded to dentin as tested in four-point bending

The Dwarf Irregular Galaxy UGC 7636 Exposed: Stripping At Work In The Virgo Cluster

We present the results of optical spectroscopy of a newly discovered H II region residing in the H I gas cloud located between the dwarf irregular galaxy UGC 7636 and the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4472 in the Virgo Cluster. By comparing UGC 7636 with dwarf irregular galaxies in the field, we show that the H I cloud must have originated from UGC 7636 because (1) the oxygen abundance of the cloud agrees with that expected for a galaxy with the blue luminosity of UGC 7636, and (2) M_{H I}/L_B for UGC 7636 becomes consistent with the measured oxygen abundance of the cloud if the H I mass of the cloud is added back into UGC 7636. It is likely that tides from NGC 4472 first loosened the H I gas, after which ram-pressure stripping removed the gas from UGC 7636.Comment: 12 pages, 2 eps figures (AASTeX 5.0); accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Revisiting the proposed planetary system orbiting the eclipsing polar HU Aquarii

It has recently been proposed, on the basis of eclipse-timing data, that the eclipsing polar cataclysmic variable HU Aquarii is host to at least two giant planets. However, that result has been called into question based upon the dynamical stability of the proposed planets. In this work, we present a detailed re-analysis of all eclipse timing data available for the HU Aquarii system, making use of standard techniques used to fit orbits to radial-velocity data. We find that the eclipse timings can be used to obtain a two-planet solution that does not require the presence of additional bodies within the system. We then perform a highly detailed dynamical analysis of the proposed planetary system. We show that the improved orbital parameters we have derived correspond to planets that are dynamically unstable on unfeasibly short timescales (of order 10^4 years or less). Given these results, we discuss briefly how the observed signal might in fact be the result of the intrinsic properties of the eclipsing polar, rather than being evidence of dynamically improbable planets. Taken in concert, our results highlight the need for caution in interpreting such timing variations as being planetary in nature.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

The Lagrange and Markov spectra from the dynamical point of view

This text grew out of my lecture notes for a 4-hours minicourse delivered on October 17 \& 19, 2016 during the research school "Applications of Ergodic Theory in Number Theory" -- an activity related to the Jean-Molet Chair project of Mariusz Lema\'nczyk and S\'ebastien Ferenczi -- realized at CIRM, Marseille, France. The subject of this text is the same of my minicourse, namely, the structure of the so-called Lagrange and Markov spectra (with an special emphasis on a recent theorem of C. G. Moreira).Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures. Survey articl

Simultaneous EUVE/ASCA/RXTE Observations of NGC 5548

We present simultaneous observations by EUVE, ASCA, and RXTE of the type~1 Seyfert galaxy NGC 5548. These data indicate that variations in the EUV emission (at $\sim 0.2$keV) appear to lead similar modulations in higher energy (\ga 1 keV) X-rays by $\sim$10--30 ks. This is contrary to popular models which attribute the correlated variability of the EUV, UV and optical emission in type~1 Seyferts to reprocessing of higher energy radiation. This behavior instead suggests that the variability of the optical through EUV emission is an important driver for the variability of the harder X-rays which are likely produced by thermal Comptonization. We also investigate the spectral characteristics of the fluorescent iron K$\alpha$ line and Compton reflection emission. In contrast to prior measurements of these spectral features, we find that the iron K$\alpha$ line has a relatively small equivalent width ($W_{K\alpha} \sim 100$eV) and that the reflection component is consistent with a covering factor which is significantly less than unity ($\Omega/2\pi \sim 0.4$--0.5). Notably, although the 2--10 keV X-ray flux varies by $\sim \pm 25$% and the derived reflection fraction appears to be constant throughout our observations, the flux in the Fe~K$\alpha$ line is also constant. This behavior is difficult to reconcile in the context of standard Compton reflection models.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX, uses emulateapj.sty and apjfonts.sty, submitted to Ap

The Swift-UVOT ultraviolet and visible grism calibration

We present the calibration of the Swift UVOT grisms, of which there are two, providing low-resolution field spectroscopy in the ultraviolet and optical bands respectively. The UV grism covers the range 1700-5000 Angstrom with a spectral resolution of 75 at 2600 Angstrom for source magnitudes of u=10-16 mag, while the visible grism covers the range 2850-6600 Angstrom with a spectral resolution of 100 at 4000 Angstrom for source magnitudes of b=12-17 mag. This calibration extends over all detector positions, for all modes used during operations. The wavelength accuracy (1-sigma) is 9 Angstrom in the UV grism clocked mode, 17 Angstrom in the UV grism nominal mode and 22 Angstrom in the visible grism. The range below 2740 Angstrom in the UV grism and 5200 Angstrom in the visible grism never suffers from overlapping by higher spectral orders. The flux calibration of the grisms includes a correction we developed for coincidence loss in the detector. The error in the coincidence loss correction is less than 20%. The position of the spectrum on the detector only affects the effective area (sensitivity) by a few percent in the nominal modes, but varies substantially in the clocked modes. The error in the effective area is from 9% in the UV grism clocked mode to 15% in the visible grism clocked mode .Comment: 27 pages, 31 figures; MNRAS accepted 23 February 201