Representations of France and the French in English satirical prints, c. 1740-1832

This thesis explores representations of France and the French in English satirical prints in the period c. 1740-1832. This was an era of rivalry and conflict between the two nations. It has been suggested that hostility towards France at this time contributed to the formation of English, or British, national identity. This coincided with England’s ‘golden age of caricature’. While much of the satirical art produced focussed on France, most studies of this material have dealt with how the English portrayed themselves and each other. Those which have discussed representations of the French have promoted the view that English perceptions of the French were principally hostile. While there is a temptation to employ such prints as evidence of English Francophobia, a closer investigation reveals greater satirical complexities at work which do not simply conceptualise and employ the French ‘Other’ as target of hatred. Informed by war and rivalry, as well as by trade, travel, and cultural exchange, the prints projected some positive characteristics onto the French ‘Other’, they contain varying degrees of sympathy and affinity with the French, and are demonstrative of a relationship more distinct and intimate than that shared with any other nation. At the same time, the prints expose many of the tensions and divisions that existed within Britain itself. French characters were employed to directly attack British political figures, while in other instances domestic anxieties were projected onto images of the French

Developing an open journals hosting service: a case study from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU)

The rise of the concept of ‘library as publisher’ has caused many university libraries to consider their role in the world of open access (OA) publishing and how that supports digital scholarship at their institutions. This paper outlines Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) Library Services’ first steps into that world through the offering of an open journals hosting service. It begins by explaining the background and justification for the library offering such a service and details the pilot undertaken to test the chosen system, Open Journal Systems (OJS). It considers what policies, procedures and support need to be in place in order to run a successful open journals hosting service. Lessons learned and observations gathered during the pilot are shared to help others considering setting up an open journals hosting service in their own institution. Finally it looks at the next steps for LJMU in taking this pilot forward to a full service offer

Palaeoenvironmental investigations of Holocene landscapes in the North Tyne basin, northern England

PhD ThesisThe vegetation history of the North Tyne basin, northern England, is presented for an extended Holocene period, dating back to ca. 8000 cal. BC. This study focuses upon vegetation histories from two types of site, which record changes at differing spatial scales. The regional vegetation of the area is recorded within three radiocarbon-dated pollen diagrams from upland sites at Drowning Flow, Bloody Moss and Sells Bum. These sites provide a different perspective of regional vegetation history in comparison to existing published accounts from the region. This work also fills a spatial gap in current knowledge, by providing records from the area between Hadrian's Wall in the south and the Cheviots to the north for which only one previous site exists (Steng Moss: Davies and Turner, 1979). These regional records are complemented by the reconstruction of local, valley floor vegetation derived from organic-rich palaeochannel fills at Brownchesters Farm, Redesdale and Snabdaugh Farm, North Tynedale. These sites demonstrate how patterns of vegetation at local scales can provide valuable additional insights into former landscapes, valley floor land-use and human activity. Perceived problems of the usage of alluvial sediments for palynological investigation are discussed, while methodologies to overcome these difficulties are developed and the potential benefits of these contexts for vegetation reconstruction outlined. The unusually long and readily dateable alluvial record has also facilitated a new perspective on the timing and controls of Holocene fluvial activity in the North Tyne basin. The close integration of archaeological evidence with the results from this study has contributed to a number of debates concerning former human activity in the area. Palynological results suggest that the impact of Mesolithic and Neolithic societies upon the landscape has been underestimated; that postulated alterations in upland / lowland settlement patterns during the Bronze Age are a consequence of a fragmentary archaeological record rather than a response to changing environmental conditions; that Iron Age (and earlier) agricultural activity has been underestimated and that forest clearance was a gradual phenomenon with its origins in the Late Mesolithic and not primarily a result of activity associated with invading Roman forces.Northumberland National Park The Bill Bishop Memorial Fun

Constraints on Mars Aphelion Cloud Belt Phase Function and Ice Crystal Geometries

This study constrains the lower bound of the scattering phase function of Martian water ice clouds (WICs) through the implementation of a new observation aboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). The Phase Function Sky Survey (PFSS) was a multiple pointing all-sky observation taken with the navigation cameras (Navcam) aboard MSL. The PFSS was executed 35 times during the Aphelion Cloud Belt (ACB) season of Mars Year 34 over a solar longitude range of L_s=61.4{\deg}-156.5{\deg}. Twenty observations occurred in the morning hours between 06:00 and 09:30 LTST, and 15 runs occurred in the evening hours between 14:30 and 18:00 LTST, with an operationally required 2.5 hour gap on either side of local noon due the sun being located near zenith. The resultant WIC phase function was derived over an observed scattering angle range of 18.3{\deg} to 152.61{\deg}, normalized, and compared with 9 modeled phase functions: seven ice crystal habits and two Martian WIC phase functions currently being implemented in models. Through statistical chi-squared probability tests, the five most probable ice crystal geometries observed in the ACB WICs were aggregates, hexagonal solid columns, hollow columns, plates, and bullet rosettes with p-values greater than or equal to 0.60, 0.57,0.56,0.56, and 0.55, respectively. Droxtals and spheres had p-values of 0.35, and 0.2, making them less probable components of Martian WICs, but still statistically possible ones. Having a better understanding of the ice crystal habit and phase function of Martian water ice clouds directly benefits Martian climate models which currently assume spherical and cylindrical particles.Comment: Accepted Manuscript by Planetary and Space Scienc

A Day in the Life of the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Project

This paper provides an overview of the planned concept of operations for the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Project (LCRD), a joint project among NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (JPL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL). LCRD will provide at least two years of bi-directional optical communications at user data rates of up to 1.244 Gbps in an operational environment. The project lays the groundwork for establishing communications architecture and protocols, and developing the communications hardware and support infrastructure, concluding in a demonstration of optical communications' potential to meet NASA's growing need for higher data rates for future science and exploration missions. A pair of flight optical communications terminals will reside on a single commercial communications satellite in geostationary orbit; the two ground optical communications terminals will be located in Southern California and Hawaii. This paper summarizes the current LCRD architecture and key systems for the demonstration, focusing on what it will take to operate an optical communications relay that can support space-to-space, space-to-air, and space-to-ground optical links

A Day in the Life of the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) Project.

This presentation provides an overview of the planned concept of operations for the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Project (LCRD), a joint project among NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (JPL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MITLL). LCRD will provide at least two years of bi-directional optical communications at user data rates of up to 1.244 Gbps in an operational environment. The project lays the ground work for establishing communications architecture and protocols, and developing the communications hardware and support infrastructure, concluding in a demonstration of optical communications potential to meet NASAs growing need for higher data rates for future science and exploration missions. A pair of flight optical communications terminals will reside on a single commercial communications satellite in geostationary orbit; the two ground optical communications terminals will be located in Southern California and Hawaii. This paper summarizes the current LCRD architecture and key systems for the demonstration, focusing on what it will take to operate an optical communications relay that can support space-to-space, space-to-air, and space-to-ground optical links