Evaluation of a hybrid, anisotropic, multilayered, quadrilateral finite element

A multilayered finite element with bending-extensional coupling is evaluated for: (1) buckling of general laminated plates; (2) thermal stresses of laminated plates cured at elevated temperatures; (3) displacements of a bimetallic beam; and (4) displacement and stresses of a single-cell box beam with warped cover panels. Also, displacements and stresses for flat and spherical orthotropic and anisotropic segments are compared with results from higher order plate and shell finite-element analyses

Spatial frequency response of an optical heterodyne receiver

The principles of transfer function analysis are applied to a passive optical heterodyne receiver to obtain the modulation transfer function (MTF). MTF calculations are performed based on an optical platform which is imaging vertically varying profiles at worst case shuttle orbit altitudes. An analysis of the derogatory effects of sampling (aliasing) and central obscurations on both resolution and heterodyne efficiency is given. It is found that the cascading property of MTF analysis must be carefully applied since the coherent transfer function of the optical receiver and that due to the local oscillator-detector combination are not separable but are related by the convolution of their products. Application of these results to the specific case of a space-lab type optical heterodyne receiver shows that resolutions of the order of 1.5-2.0 Km are possible for worst-case type orbital scenarios. Further, comparison of obscured-type receivers (e.g., Cassegrains) with unobscured receivers shows that both resolution and efficiency are severely degraded in an obscured-type receiver and consequently should not be used for a passive heterodyne detection scheme

Collaboration on the front-line: To what extent do organisations work together to provide housing services for military veterans in Scotland?

ABSTRACT This study examines collaborative working in the provision of housing services, explored by focusing on military veterans as the client group. Military veterans are recognised as being over represented in the homeless population and they are one of the few employment groups who usually have to give up their homes when they give up their employment. Therefore, access to services that assist them into housing are likely to be an important resource for them. This study adopted a case study approach and an online survey to obtain empirical evidence to explore the extent of organisations working together to provide housing services for military veterans in Scotland. The work was underpinned by theoretical frameworks in governance, networks and partnership working. Governance theory provides an understanding of how state control impacts on organisational relationships and the fragmentation of public service delivery, with the associated drivers for collaborative working to provide cohesion into the system. Studying governance focuses attention on the blurring of organisational boundaries, which both enable and restrict partnership working. It requires actors to be prepared to take risks beyond their institutional boundaries to work with others; this is a barrier for some practitioners who do not have the remit to take such risks. The findings suggest veterans experience problems at the points of interaction with generic public service providers. Also, there is a perception that this group may have, or develop, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This perception may be over emphasised, however social housing providers are concerned about supporting this group in social housing tenancies. Three themes emerged from the study. Firstly, coherent, rational and strategic drivers for collaborative working exist and are clear. Secondly, the obstacles to this rational objective of collaborative working include differing organisational objectives and ethos and the effects of state control on different types of organisations. Actors have to overcome these barriers to work with others, in networks, in order to provide services resulting in messy and patchy delivery. Finally, service users are left to negotiate the resulting disjointed and chaotic service provision. The thesis concludes that organisational collaborations to house military veterans are relatively new, and the extent of this activity is likely to be low throughout Scotland. Whilst collaborative working does improve housing outcomes for some military veterans, as an overall strategy it fails to deliver for all

Variational data assimilation using targetted random walks

The variational approach to data assimilation is a widely used methodology for both online prediction and for reanalysis (offline hindcasting). In either of these scenarios it can be important to assess uncertainties in the assimilated state. Ideally it would be desirable to have complete information concerning the Bayesian posterior distribution for unknown state, given data. The purpose of this paper is to show that complete computational probing of this posterior distribution is now within reach in the offline situation. In this paper we will introduce an MCMC method which enables us to directly sample from the Bayesian\ud posterior distribution on the unknown functions of interest, given observations. Since we are aware that these\ud methods are currently too computationally expensive to consider using in an online filtering scenario, we frame this in the context of offline reanalysis. Using a simple random walk-type MCMC method, we are able to characterize the posterior distribution using only evaluations of the forward model of the problem, and of the model and data mismatch. No adjoint model is required for the method we use; however more sophisticated MCMC methods are available\ud which do exploit derivative information. For simplicity of exposition we consider the problem of assimilating data, either Eulerian or Lagrangian, into a low Reynolds number (Stokes flow) scenario in a two dimensional periodic geometry. We will show that in many cases it is possible to recover the initial condition and model error (which we describe as unknown forcing to the model) from data, and that with increasing amounts of informative data, the uncertainty in our estimations reduces

Gas Dynamics in the Barred Seyfert Galaxy NGC4151 - II. High Resolution HI Study

We present sensitive, high angular resolution (6" x 5") 21-cm observations of the neutral hydrogen in the nearby barred Seyfert galaxy, NGC4151. These HI observations, obtained using the VLA in B-configuration, are the highest resolution to date of this galaxy, and reveal hitherto unprecedented detail in the distribution and kinematics of the HI on sub-kiloparsec scales. A complete analysis and discussion of the HI data are presented and the global properties of the galaxy are related to the bar dynamics presented in Paper I.Comment: 13 pages including 9 figures and 3 tables; accepted for publication in MNRA

The living words of the living master: Sants, Sikhs, Sachkhand Nanak Dham and the academy

This article investigates a new religious movement, Sachkhand Nanak Dham, by comparing it with Sikhism. It argues that Sachkhand Nanak Dham has affinities with both Punjabi popular religiosity and Sikh sectarian movements. Further, it argues that Sachkhand Nanak Dham today is similar to an earlier stage in the development of Sikhism. It provides an account of the life and work of the founder of Sachkhand Nanak Dham, Mahraz Darshan Das Ji, and identifies significant continuities with the life and work of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, suggesting that these continuities may be explained by reference to the Sant tradition. Finally, the article speculates about the future development of Sachkhand Nanak Dham, specifically whether it can avoid the fate of becoming a ‘religion’, according to Mahraz Darshan Das Ji, an institutionalised orthodoxy antithetical to revelatory insight, and in so doing considers the possibility of a new lineage of living Masters

The Monty Hyams Archive: a new resource for the information history of the late 20th century

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report a new resource for the study of the history of the development of information science and information services in the late twentieth century. The Monty Hyams archives include documents relating to the career of Montagu Hyams (1918-2013), the Founder of Derwent Publications, and an innovator in patents information, chemical and pharmaceutical information, and online information access. The Archive is housed in the Department of Library and Information Science at City, University of London. Design/methodology/approach The origins and development of the Monty Hyams Archive are described, and its value examined by an initial analysis of the light it sheds on the development of Derwent’s World Patents Index. Findings The newly established Hyams Archive allows analysis of previously private and unseen documents, which reveal the fascinating and complex personalities, issues and negotiations which led to the establishment of some of the most significant information sources and access methods of the pre-internet information environment. Originality/value The Monty Hyams Archive is a new and unique resource for the study of the development of the scientific information environment in the last decades of the twentieth century

Ontological realism, concepts and classification in molecular biology: Development and application of the gene ontology

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to evaluate the development and use of the gene ontology (GO), a scientific vocabulary widely used in molecular biology databases, with particular reference to the relation between the theoretical basis of the GO, and the pragmatics of its application. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a combination of bibliometric analysis, content analysis and discourse analysis. These analyses focus on details of the ways in which the terms of the ontology are amended and deleted, and in which they are applied by users. Findings – Although the GO is explicitly based on an objective realist epistemology, a considerable extent of subjectivity and social factors are evident in its development and use. It is concluded that bio-ontologies could beneficially be extended to be pluralist, while remaining objective, taking a view of concepts closer to that of more traditional controlled vocabularies. Originality/value – This is one of very few studies which evaluate the development of a formal ontology in relation to its conceptual foundations, and the first to consider the GO in this way