565 research outputs found
The Civil Provisions of the Harassment Act 1997 A Worrying Area of Legislation
This article presents a critical analysis of the civil provisions of the Harassment Act 1997 and the leading cases interpreting and applying it. In it, the author suggests that, as currently interpreted by the courts, the Act is a potentially oppressive infringement on normal social relations and individual rights in New Zealand. Noting that the purpose of the Act was to remedy a perceived gap in the law relating to stalking, the author questions whether the more innocuous acts of harassment currently being caught by the Act were intended to be so. The article then considers an alternate interpretation of the Act that would require applicants to show a reasonable fear for safety, and other reform options
Anne Mountfort Correspondence
Entries include a letter of introduction from the Maine State Library concerning the Maine Author Collection and introducing Mudge\u27s book as relative to the State of Maine, several incorrect spellings of Mudge\u27s middle initial, a typed letter from Jones on Northeast stationery from Logan International Airport, Boston, concerning a (missing) biography of Mudge, and a photocopied book review newspaper clipping with the historical detail of the beginnings of Northeast Airlines in 1933, as the Boston and Maine Airways
Optical fiber fabrication using novel gas-phase deposition technique
We report a highly versatile chemical-in-crucible preform fabrication technique suitable for gas-phase deposition of doped optical fibers. Aluminosilicate and ytterbium-doped phosphosilicate fibers are presented demonstrating the technique and its potential for realizing complex fiber designs that are suitable for the next generation of high-power fiber devices. The results show aluminum-doped fiber with numerical aperture of 0.28 and ytterbium-doped fiber with a measured slope efficiency of 84% with respect to pump launch power
An Analysis of the Aid Effectiveness Agenda in Tonga
Over the past decade, the rhetoric of international aid has significantly changed. Increased emphasis has been placed on the full participation of aid recipient countries, which are now being urged to own and drive their development planning and policy. The 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness sits at the core of this international consensus that calls for alignment of donor policies and harmonisation of donor procedures. This study was undertaken to investigate the influence of the aid effectiveness agenda on Tongan development policy and practice. Using both primary and secondary sources, an analysis of the Paris Declaration Principles and their application in practice was explored. A case study of the Tonga Energy Road Map was carried out in order to illustrate a more detailed unfolding of the aid effectiveness agenda at a sector and project level. The key findings of this research suggest that there has been substantial improvement to development policy and practice in Tonga. It is unclear, however, if this improvement was the outcome of commitments made to the Paris Declaration or the result of strong relationships and leadership exerted by the Government of Tonga. However, in spite of the commitment to increase aid effectiveness made by some development agencies, many still operate with their own systems and procedures which Tonga is required to meet. Although Tonga has readily adopted the Paris Declaration Principles, the aid effectiveness challenge remains at the project implementation level
The observation of extended sources with the Hartebeesthoek radio telescope
The Hartebeesthoek Radio Telescope is well suited to mapping large areas of sky at 2.3 GHz because of the stability and sensitivity of the noise-adding radiometer (Nicolson, 1970) and cryogenic amplifier used at this frequency, the relatively large 20' beam of the 26 m dish antenna, and its high-speed drive capability. Telescope control programs were written for the Observatory's online computer for automated mapping. Effort centred on removing the curved baseline or 'background' from each Declination (Dec) scan, due to atmospheric and ground radiation contributions varying as the antenna is scanned. Initially these backgrounds were measured over a wide range of Hour Angle (HA) for the Dec range of a map, and an interpolated curve subtracted from each on-source scan for its HA. A common base level was established by comparison with drift scans (observed with the antenna stationary). These different observations (on- and off-source Dec scans and drift scans) were combined into one in the Skymap system by performing Dec scans at a fixed starting HA for a period long enough to permit 'cold sky' and the source to drift through. A background formed by fitting a smooth curve through the lowest sample at each Dec provides a consistent relative base level for all the scans in an observation. A high scanning speed is used so that observations may fruitfully be repeated three times and interleaved to build a reliable, fully sampled map. As each observation has its own background removed, it may be made at any HA. For comparison, maps of Upper Scorpio produced by the earlier method (Baart et al., 1980) and the Magellanic Cloud region produced by Skymap (Mountfort et al., 1987) are shown. Skymap provides a simple and flexible mapping method which relies on the stability of the noise-adding radiometer and high-speed repeated scans to produce good maps of large or small extent with little computation. Correction for drift is more difficult than with systems which use intersecting scans, such as the 'nodding' scans used by Haslam et al. (1981) or the Azimuth scans of Reich (1982)
Moisture Transfer in Porous Elastic Solids
A theory is developed to cover the simultaneous moisture transfer and stress development in porous elastic solids. It is shown that this theory, small-strain, is analogous to that governing coupled heat transfer. As an example of the general solution method, the case of a porous elastic beam under simple load is examined
Modelling nematode infections in sheep and parasite control strategies
Gastrointestinal parasitism in grazing lambs adversely affects animal performance
and welfare, causing significant production losses for the sheep industry. Control of
gastrointestinal parasitism using chemotherapeutic treatment is under threat due to
the emergence of anthelmintic resistance, thus stimulating research into alternative
control strategies. Whilst investigating control strategies experimentally can be
costly and time consuming, using a mathematical modelling approach can reduce
such constraints. A previously developed model which describes the impact of host
nutrition, genotype and gastrointestinal parasitism in a growing lamb, provided an
appropriate starting point to explore control strategies and their impact on host-parasite
interactions.
Two contrasting mechanisms have previously been proposed to account for
the occurrence of anorexia during parasitism. These were reductions in either
intrinsic growth rate or relative food intake. Thus, the existing individual lamb model
was modified to evaluate these mechanisms by exploring the relationship between
anorexia and food composition (Chapter 2). For foods that did not constrain food
intake, published data was found to be consistent with the predictions that arose from
anorexia being modelled as a reduction in relative food intake.
Reported genetic parameter estimates for resistance and performance traits
appear to vary under differing production environments. In order to explore the
impact of epidemiological effects and anthelmintic input on genetic parameter
estimates the model was extended to simulate a population of lambs in a grazing
scenario (Chapter 3). Whilst estimates of heritabilities and genetic correlations for
drenched lambs remained constant, for lambs given no anthelmintic treatment, the
heritability of empty body weight (EBW) reduced and the genetic correlation
between faecal egg count (FEC) and EBW became increasingly negative with
increasing exposure to infective larvae. Thus differences in anthelmintic input and
pasture larval contamination (PC) may provide plausible causes for the variation in
genetic parameter estimates previously reported.
To investigate the interactions between host resistance and epidemiology
(Chapter 4) a population of 10,000 lambs were simulated and FEC predictions used
to assign the 1,000 lambs with the highest and lowest predicted FEC to âsusceptibleâ
(S) and âresistantâ (R) groups, respectively. R and S groups were then simulated to
graze separate pastures over 3 grazing seasons. The average FEC and PC predictions
of these groups diverged during the first 2 grazing seasons and stabilised during the
third, such that the difference in FEC predictions between R and S groups were
double those predicted when grazed with the population. This was found to be
consistent with experimental data. Further, anthelmintic treatment and grazing
strategies were predicted to have no impact on the EBW of resistant lambs,
suggesting that control strategies should be targeted towards susceptible animals.
Targeted selective anthelmintic treatment (TST) has been proposed to reduce
risks of anthelmintic resistance with minimal impacts on performance. To describe
the short- and long-term impacts of TST and drenching frequency on sheep
production and the emergence of anthelmintic resistance, the model was extended to
include a description of anthelmintic resistance genotypes within the nematode
population (Chapter 5). Reducing the proportion of treated animals was predicted to
increase the duration of anthelmintic efficacy, whilst reducing the drenching
frequency increased the long-term benefits of anthelmintic on sheep production.
Various determinant criteria for use in TST regimes were compared (Chapter 5)
including performance traits such as live weight and growth rate, and parasitological
traits such as FEC. Using FEC as the TST criterion was predicted to allow the
greatest reduction in the number of anthelmintic treatments administered whilst
maintaining the highest average EBW, whilst live weight and growth rate were
predicted to give little to no improvement in comparison to selecting animals at
random for TST. Using estimated breeding values (EBVs) for FEC as the
determinant criterion for TST regimes was compared to using measured FEC
(Chapter 6). The EBV for true FEC across the entire growth period, akin to perfect
genomic selection, was predicted to be a better criterion than measured time-specific
FEC (including a sampling error) for a TST regime. EBVs calculated using measured
time-specific FEC showed little benefit compared to measured FEC.
The information gained from these simulation studies increases our
understanding of control strategies and their impact on host-parasite interactions
under various scenarios that may not have been possible using experimental
methods. It is important to remember that the aim of alternative or complimentary
control strategies is to maintain the sustainability of sheep production systems, and as
such the production gain of any control strategy needs to be weighed against the
financial, labour and time costs involved in implementation
The voice of experienced Elective Home Educating (EHE) parents: The risk of missing home-educated children in the education policy response to school closure and lessons for adapting home learning
Written evidence submitted by the Centre for Social Mobility, University of Exeter regarding: The effect of cancelling formal exams, including the fairness of qualifications awarded and pupilsâ progression to the next stage of education or employment. Written evidence submitted by Joanna Merrett, Malcolm Richards and Anna Mountford-Zimdars (The Centre for Social Mobility). The Centre for Social Mobility at the University of Exeter is a joint practitioner-academic centre set up to advance social mobility through robust research and evidence-based policy and practic
Characterizing Cosmic-Ray Propagation in Massive Star-forming Regions: The Case of 30 Doradus and the Large Magellanic Cloud
Using infrared, radio, and Îł-ray data, we investigate the propagation characteristics of cosmic-ray (CR) electrons and nuclei in the 30 Doradus (30 Dor) star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) using a phenomenological model based on the radio-far-infrared correlation within galaxies. Employing a correlation analysis, we derive an average propagation length of ~100-140 pc for ~3 GeV CR electrons resident in 30 Dor from consideration of the radio and infrared data. Assuming that the observed Îł-ray emission toward 30 Dor is associated with the star-forming region, and applying the same methodology to the infrared and Îł-ray data, we estimate a ~20 GeV propagation length of 200-320 pc for the CR nuclei. This is approximately twice as large as for ~3 GeV CR electrons, corresponding to a spatial diffusion coefficient that is ~4 times higher, scaling as (R/GV)δ with δ â 0.7-0.8 depending on the smearing kernel used in the correlation analysis. This value is in agreement with the results found by extending the correlation analysis to include ~70 GeV CR nuclei traced by the 3-10 GeV Îł-ray data (δ â 0.66 Âą 0.23). Using the mean age of the stellar populations in 30 Dor and the results from our correlation analysis, we estimate a diffusion coefficient D_R â (0.9-1.0) Ă 10^(27)(R/GV)0.7 cm^(2) s^(â1). We compare the values of the CR electron propagation length and surface brightness for 30 Dor and the LMC as a whole with those of entire disk galaxies. We find that the trend of decreasing average CR propagation distance with increasing disk-averaged star formation activity holds for the LMC, and extends down to single star-forming regions, at least for the case of 30 Dor
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