Speech at the Nuneaton Wreath-laying

Almost twenty years ago, for the first time, I joined the small group of admirers who annually pay tribute to the memory of Nuneaton\u27s famous daughter. It is perhaps fitting that my last public duty, albeit as ex-Curator, should be connected with George Eliot. Over the years I have listened with interest to the various speakers, each with their own particular reason for being honoured with the responsibility for laying the Fellowship tribute. I have heard Lewes and Evans descendants recount family memories handed down with pride. Last year we heard John Letts tell us of the close bond which developed between Sculptor and Authoress as his wonderful interpretation of George Eliot was being created. With John last year you had the sublime; this year, with me, you have the ridiculous, or, at least, the mundane. For, over the years, with that part of my work connected with George Eliot, I developed the feeling that I was her housekeeper. I kept her \u27home\u27 in good order, I polished her piano and cleaned her shoes. I received her visitors and showed them the Mistress\u27s needlework, her father\u27s wood carving and the art work of her friends

Optical high voltage breakdown prediction using thermal lensing effect in transformer oil

We describe an optical system to monitor microscopic pre-breakdown events in liquid insulation. The system has successfully demonstrated its ability to predict high voltage breakdown in transformer oil. A simple theory based on a thermal lens build up between electrodes as a result of applied voltage is presented to explain the system operation and obtained measured results

Michel Butor: The Mytho-Fantastic Function of Naming

Michel Butor, a contemporary writer of the French New Novel, now the New New Novel, makes extensive use of naming, repetition of epithet -like phrases, distortions of q notations, sight -sound similarities of words and phrases, to create stories within stories and from other stories, and to evoke an oneiric level which allows times and locations to blend while still remaining separated. Carrying to the extreme the practice of immersion of text within text and meaning within meaning in Boomerang, the novel of 1978, the author combines eight different story lines, printed in four different colors, skillfully interweaving with his own narrative the elliptic citation of twenty-three sources ranging from the accounts of adventurers and explorers such as Cook and Bougainville to fantasy voyage writers like Jules Verne, and even aborigine story-tellers. In this study, the method and purpose of this type of creation is analyzed to show relationship between new literary production and new society, and the role that naming, as a creative technique, plays in that relationship. But or himself in Repertoire II has indicated that because the world only appears to us for the most part through what we are told about it, in conversations, classrooms, news media, a vital role of the literary text is to restructure information in such a way as to reveal hitherto unsuspected relationships, thereby enriching us with new perspectives and transforming our submission to the media into positive use of them (89-90). Butor\u27s statement introduces indirectly his method of restructuring or re-using information from a myriad of sources to create his own literature, and sets this study in motion. To discuss mytho-fantastic function in Michel Butor\u27s work, we must begin with a retrospective glance at this creativity, and we must define mythic function both globally .and as it performs in this author\u27s texts. By extending this definition of mythic function in a literary text to encompass the introduction of fantastic levels in writing we can observe the growth not only of Michel Butor as a writer, but of new writings and their reason for being

Higgs, di-Higgs and tri-Higgs production via SUSY processes at the LHC with 14 TeV

We have systematically investigated the production of a Higgs boson with a mass of about $125$ GeV in the decays of supersymmetric particles within the phenomenological MSSM (pMSSM). We find regions of parameter space that are consistent with all world data and that predict a sizeable rate of anomalous Higgs, di-Higgs and even tri-Higgs events at the 14 TeV LHC. All relevant SUSY production processes are investigated. We find that Higgs bosons can be produced in a large variety of SUSY processes, resulting in a large range of different detector signatures containing missing transverse momentum. Such Higgs events are outstanding signatures for new physics already for the early 14 TeV LHC data. SUSY processes are also important to interprete deviations found in upcoming Standard Model Higgs and di-Higgs production measurements.Comment: Version submitted to JHE

Improved timber harvest techniques maintain biodiversity in tropical forests

Tropical forests are selectively logged at 20 times the rate at which they are cleared, and at least a fifth have already been disturbed in this way. In a recent pan-tropical assessment, Burivalova et al. demonstrate the importance of logging intensity as a driver of biodiversity decline in timber estates. Their analyses reveal that species richness of some taxa could decline by 50% at harvest intensities of 38 m3 ha-1. However, they did not consider the extraction techniques that lead to these intensities. Here, we conduct a complementary meta-analysis of assemblage responses to differing logging practices: conventional logging and reduced-impact logging. We show that biodiversity impacts are markedly less severe in forests that utilise reduced-impact logging, compared to those using conventional methods. While supporting the initial findings of Burivalova et al., we go on to demonstrate that best practice forestry techniques curtail the effects of timber extraction regardless of intensity. Therefore, harvest intensities are not always indicative of actual disturbance levels resulting from logging. Accordingly, forest managers and conservationists should advocate practices that offer reduced collateral damage through best practice extraction methods, such as those used in reduced-impact logging. Large-scale implementation of this approach would lead to improved conservation values in the 4 million km2 of tropical forests that are earmarked for timber extraction

Repetitive DNA Restructuring Across Multiple Nicotiana Allopolyploidisation Events Shows a Lack of Strong Cytoplasmic Bias in Influencing Repeat Turnover.

Allopolyploidy is acknowledged as an important force in plant evolution. Frequent allopolyploidy in Nicotiana across different timescales permits the evaluation of genome restructuring and repeat dynamics through time. Here we use a clustering approach on high-throughput sequence reads to identify the main classes of repetitive elements following three allotetraploid events, and how these are inherited from the closest extant relatives of the maternal and paternal subgenome donors. In all three cases, there was a lack of clear maternal, cytoplasmic bias in repeat evolution, i.e., lack of a predicted bias towards maternal subgenome-derived repeats, with roughly equal contributions from both parental subgenomes. Different overall repeat dynamics were found across timescales of <0.5 (N. rustica L.), 4 (N. repanda Willd.) and 6 (N. benthamiana Domin) Ma, with nearly additive, genome upsizing, and genome downsizing, respectively. Lower copy repeats were inherited in similar abundance to the parental subgenomes, whereas higher copy repeats contributed the most to genome size change in N. repanda and N. benthamiana. Genome downsizing post-polyploidisation may be a general long-term trend across angiosperms, but at more recent timescales there is species-specific variance as found in Nicotiana

Usefulness and limitations of pollen characters in environmental studies based on Viola L. species (sect. Melanium Ging.)

The aim of these studies was to determine the effect of environmental pollution on pollen development. Pollen heteromorphism (the presence of pollen morphs differing in aperture number in one flower of a plant), pollen viability (stainability) and pollen grain size in European metallophytes from sect. Melanium Ging. (Viola L., Violaceae) were analyzed by SEM and histochemical staining.Plants’ tolerance to heavy metals is positively correlated with their pollen viability, which should be termed stainability as it depends on the staining method applied and is not correlated with pollen germination. Abortive pollen can be produced as an effect of heavy metals but also may result from hybridization, a very common phenomenon in pansies. Pollen stainability in hybrids can be high (even exceeding 70%) or low (barely above 20%), and stainable pollen grains can differ greatly in size (from very small to giant), indicating a cytological imbalance resulting from disturbed meiosis. The number of pollen apertures is an adaptive character in facultative metallophytes. Plants from a metallicolous population produced a wider range of aperture number (3, 4, 5) than plants from a non-metallicolous population, which developed only 4- and 5-aperturate pollen. Three-aperturate longer-lived pollen are favored in the harsh conditions of a metal-polluted environment

Using geographic profiling to locate elusive nocturnal animals: A case study with spectral tarsiers

© 2015 The Zoological Society of London. Estimates of biodiversity, population size, population density and habitat use have important implications for management of both species and habitats, yet are based on census data that can be extremely difficult to collect. Traditional assessment techniques are often limited by time and money and by the difficulties of working in certain habitats, and species become more difficult to find as population size decreases. Particular difficulties arise when studying elusive species with cryptic behaviours. Here, we show how geographic profiling (GP) - a statistical tool originally developed in criminology to prioritize large lists of suspects in cases of serial crime - can be used to address these problems. We ask whether GP can be used to locate sleeping sites of spectral tarsiers Tarsius tarsier in Sulawesi, Southeast Asia, using as input the positions at which tarsier vocalizations were recorded in the field. This novel application of GP is potentially of value as tarsiers are cryptic and nocturnal and can easily be overlooked in habitat assessments (e.g. in dense rainforest). Our results show that GP provides a useful tool for locating sleeping sites of this species, and indeed analysis of a preliminary dataset during field work strongly suggested the presence of a sleeping tree at a previously unknown location; two sleeping trees were subsequently found within 5m of the predicted site. We believe that GP can be successfully applied to locating the nests, dens or roosts of elusive animals such as tarsiers, potentially improving estimates of population size with important implications for management of both species and habitats.We thank Operation Wallacea for supporting S.C.F. in thisproject and for providing logistical support for the fieldwork,and Aidan Kelsey for invaluable assistance in the field. Wethank the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) andKementerian Riset dan Teknologi Republik Indonesia(RISTEK) for providing permission to undertake the work(RISTEK permit no. 211/SIP/FRP/SM/VI/2013, and BalaiKonservasi Sumber Daya Alam (BKSDA) for theirassistance