Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation contains two related chapters and an introduction. The common themes they explore are the unresolved questions surrounding the English Industrial Revolution (EIR). The questions include what happened, why did "it" happen first in England, why did it happen then in history, and what are the consequences? The story is a history of economic growth from a specific point of view -- energy consumption for an economy; the framework can be used to illuminate our economic present and possible economic futures. Economic and other historians have been grappling with these puzzles for a long time; their answers fall along a continuum from New Institutional Economics (some mix of institutions and perhaps culture) to almost pure chance. Institutional explanations are at least a plurality; this work makes the case that these explanations are not sufficient in the sense of not being primarily causal or sufficiently explanatory in the EIR's history. The work further explores that at least the major institutional changes are endogenous to the revolutionary economic changes. The major claim is that the EIR was primarily an energy consumption revolution, the English having had the correct economic incentives and historical path to learn how to use steam power to replace muscle power. The contribution is the attempt to apply economic principles to the data and history and measure their explanatory power. The work identifies two energy revolutions explaining the EIR. The first, converting from wood to coal for industrial and domestic heating purposes, probably happened several times in history at other places in addition to England. In addition to this first-phase energy revolution in England, Chapter 2 documents an added noteworthy instance, that of the iron and steel industry in Sung China (960-1126 CE). The second revolution, converting from muscle power to steam power, happened first in England before engulfing the world. To support the claims the work employs several methods including empirical analyses, microeconomic theory, macroeconomic theory, and descriptive narratives from many sources. The general method is to apply basic economic principles to the available data and narratives. Among the insights, the work proposes a hypothesis of industrial revolutions that can be tested beyond the cases included in this work. This work uses basic microeconomics, macroeconomics, and relevant empirical data (as the data permit) to test the cases of China and England. To support the revolutionary growth on the supply side, the work makes the case that there was sufficient consumer demand to drive the efforts of the entrepreneurs and inventors. Once the theoretical framework for industrial revolutions is explored, then the work turns to the question of how did these momentous economic events affect the growth of industrial capitalism since it is one of the more important institutions that is associated with the EIR

Sex, Gutenberg, and the steam engine: the English industrial revolution

poste

A back-translational study of descending interactions with the induction of hyperalgesia by high-frequency electrical stimulation in rat and human

In humans and animals, high-frequency electrocutaneous stimulation (HFS) induces an “early long-term potentiation-like” sensitisation, where synaptic plasticity is underpinned by an ill-defined interaction between peripheral input and central modulatory processes. The relative contributions of these processes to the initial pain or nociceptive response likely differ from those that underpin development of the heightened response. To investigate the impact of HFS-induced hyperalgesia on pain and nociception in perception and neural terms, respectively, and to explore the impact of descending inhibitory pathway activation on the development of HFS-induced hyperalgesia, we performed parallel studies utilising identical stimuli to apply HFS concurrent to (1) a conditioned pain modulation paradigm during psychophysical testing in healthy humans or (2) a diffuse noxious inhibitory controls paradigm during in vivo electrophysiological recording of spinal neurones in healthy anaesthetised rats. High-frequency electrocutaneous stimulation alone induced enhanced perceptual responses to pinprick stimuli in cutaneous areas secondary to the area of electrical stimulation in humans and increased the excitability of spinal neurones which exhibited stimulus intensity–dependent coded responses to pinprick stimulation in a manner that tracked with human psychophysics, supporting their translational validity. Application of a distant noxious conditioning stimulus during HFS did not alter perceived primary or secondary hyperalgesia in humans or the development of primary or secondary neuronal hyperexcitability in rats compared with HFS alone, suggesting that, upon HFS-response initiation in a healthy nervous system, excitatory signalling escapes inhibitory control. Therefore, in this model, dampening facilitatory mechanisms rather than augmenting top-down inhibitions could prevent pain development

Using geo-demographic analysis to calculate patronage figures for rural buses. Final report

This paper reports on the results of an EPSRC Future of Integrated Transport feasibility study – Using geodemographic analysis to calculate patronage figures for rural buses (FITBUS). The project aimed to develop a geodemographic analysis -based tool for those involved in planning and operating public transport, and then test the feasibility of using the technique to determine the levels of bus patronage and thus economic viability of new and altered bus routes

OSSOS VI. Striking Biases in the detection of large semimajor axis Trans-Neptunian Objects

The accumulating, but small, set of large semi-major axis trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) shows an apparent clustering in the orientations of their orbits. This clustering must either be representative of the intrinsic distribution of these TNOs, or else arise as a result of observation biases and/or statistically expected variations for such a small set of detected objects. The clustered TNOs were detected across different and independent surveys, which has led to claims that the detections are therefore free of observational bias. This apparent clustering has led to the so-called "Planet 9" hypothesis that a super-Earth currently resides in the distant solar system and causes this clustering. The Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS) is a large program that ran on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope from 2013--2017, discovering more than 800 new TNOs. One of the primary design goals of OSSOS was the careful determination of observational biases that would manifest within the detected sample. We demonstrate the striking and non-intuitive biases that exist for the detection of TNOs with large semi-major axes. The eight large semi-major axis OSSOS detections are an independent dataset, of comparable size to the conglomerate samples used in previous studies. We conclude that the orbital distribution of the OSSOS sample is consistent with being detected from a uniform underlying angular distribution.Comment: Accepted for publicatio

Interleukin-17 Expression in the Barrett’s Metaplasia-Dysplasia-Adenocarcinoma Sequence

Original Research ArticleIntroduction. This pilot study evaluated the expression of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-17 along the Barrett’s metaplasia-dysplasia-adenocarcinoma sequence by establishing the expression levels of IL-17 in columnar epithelium, intestinal metaplastic cells, and dysplastic/glandular neoplastic cells. Immunohistochemical techniques were used to examine the accumulation of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-17 in forty () formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded oesophageal archived specimens across a range of endoscopic diagnostic categories, and a highly significant difference was found, where , in IL-17 expression (Kruskall Wallis and Mann-Whitney ) between all the cell types examined. There was also a strong positive correlation (Spearman's rank correlation) between disease progression and IL-17 expression (, , ), IL-17 expression was absent or absent/weak in columnar epithelium, weak to moderate in columnar metaplastic cells, and moderate to strong in dysplastic/neoplastic cells, which demonstrated that the elevation of IL-17 expression occurs in the progression of the disease. Understanding the differential expression of IL-17 between benign and malignant tissue potentially has a significant diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic value. Ultimately, this selective biomarker may be employed in routine clinical practice for the screening of oesophageal adenocarcinoma.The authors thankfully acknowledge the University of Chester for their financial support

OSSOS III - Resonant Trans-Neptunian Populations: Constraints from the first quarter of the Outer Solar System Origins Survey

The first two observational sky "blocks" of the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS) have significantly increased the number of well-characterized observed trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) in Neptune's mean motion resonances. We describe the 31 securely resonant TNOs detected by OSSOS so far, and we use them to independently verify the resonant population models from the Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey (CFEPS; Gladman et al. 2012), with which we find broad agreement. We confirm that the 5:2 resonance is more populated than models of the outer Solar System's dynamical history predict; our minimum population estimate shows that the high eccentricity (e>0.35) portion of the resonance is at least as populous as the 2:1 and possibly as populated as the 3:2 resonance. One OSSOS block was well-suited to detecting objects trapped at low libration amplitudes in Neptune's 3:2 resonance, a population of interest in testing the origins of resonant TNOs. We detected three 3:2 objects with libration amplitudes below the cutoff modeled by CFEPS; OSSOS thus offers new constraints on this distribution. The OSSOS detections confirm that the 2:1 resonance has a dynamically colder inclination distribution than either the 3:2 or 5:2 resonances. Using the combined OSSOS and CFEPS 2:1 detections, we constrain the fraction of 2:1 objects in the symmetric mode of libration to be 0.2-0.85; we also constrain the fraction of leading vs. trailing asymmetric librators, which has been theoretically predicted to vary depending on Neptune's migration history, to be 0.05-0.8. Future OSSOS blocks will improve these constraints.Comment: Accepted for publication in A

Learning lessons from evaluating eGovernment: Reflective case experiences that support transformational government

Central Government strategy of e-inclusion is being manifested in the form of eGovernment. Given that it is the public purse that funds such investments, there is increasingly attention being paid to the evaluation of these investments, such that value for money and organisation learning can be realised. In this paper the authors report the findings from three interpretive in-depth organisational case studies that explore eGovernment evaluation within a UK public sector setting. The paper elicits insights to organisational and managerial aspects with the purpose of improving knowledge and understanding of eGovernment evaluation. The findings that are extrapolated from the case study analysis are presented in terms of lessons that gravitate around social factors, evaluation, adoption, ownership, prioritisation sponsorship and, responsibility. These lessons are extrapolated from the empirical enquiry to improve eGovernment evaluation practice. The paper concludes that eGovernment evaluation is an under developed area, with most work being developmental in nature and as a result calls for decision makers to engage with the eGovernment agenda and commission eGovernment evaluation exercises to improve evaluation practice such that transformational Government can realise its full potential. The paper ends by highlighting political, economic, technical and social issues as the drivers of the evaluation cycle

The splitting of double-component active asteroid P/2016 J1 (PANSTARRS)

We present deep imaging observations, orbital dynamics, and dust tail model analyses of the double-component asteroid P/2016 J1 (J1-A and J1-B). The observations were acquired at the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) from mid March to late July, 2016. A statistical analysis of backward-in-time integrations of the orbits of a large sample of clone objects of P/2016 J1-A and J1-B shows that the minimum separation between them occurred most likely $\sim$2300 days prior to the current perihelion passage, i.e., during the previous orbit near perihelion. This closest approach was probably linked to a fragmentation event of their parent body. Monte Carlo dust tail models show that those two components became active simultaneously $\sim$250 days before the current perihelion, with comparable maximum loss rates of $\sim$0.7 kg s$^{-1}$ and $\sim$0.5 kg s$^{-1}$, and total ejected masses of 8$\times$10$^{6}$ kg and 6$\times$10$^{6}$ kg for fragments J1-A and J1-B, respectively. In consequence, the fragmentation event and the present dust activity are unrelated. The simultaneous activation times of the two components and the fact that the activity lasted 6 to 9 months or longer, strongly indicate ice sublimation as the most likely mechanism involved in the dust emission process.Comment: Accepted by ApJ Letters, Feb. 17, 201