Fourth Time’s a Charm

The sources I used to create my short story, Fourth Time’s A Charm, were essential for all aspects of its development. My story concerns the awkward first meeting of King Henry VIII and his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. As with all historical fiction stories, striving for period appropriate details and accurate representations of historical events was crucial. The resources that I was able to access through the UNLV University Libraries not only assisted me throughout my project by streamlining the research process, but proved indispensable for obtaining various primary sources that I may not have been unable to access otherwise. By compiling and utilizing sources that I discovered with the assistance of the UNLV University Libraries, I believe that I was able to conceive a story that is both entertaining and reasonably accurate

On the role of artistic freedoms in protecting fundamental human rights

This was a paper written to be spoken at the Human Rights Conference 2020: Lawyers without Borders Student Division Aberdeen University, March 2020. It was accompanied by 15 Power point slides, which cannot be reproduced in the hard copy paper for reasons of copyright. The paper responds to the question, 'Do artistic freedoms contribute to the protection of fundamental Human Rights'. With examples and with reference to cultural policy research discourse, I argue that the freedoms of 'art' are intimately connected to human rights, and that where human rights are contextualised by 'culture' (and cultural rights) we begin to understand the significance of the 'human' in human rights

Art, public authorship and the possibility of re-democratization

The subject of this study is a large public art project by German artist Jochen Gerz, which was part of the urban regeneration program The Phoenix Initiative in Coventry City, 1999-2004. The study presents a short historical backdrop to Gerz’s work by way of defining ‘public authorship’ of which the Coventry project is one example. It extends the literature on contemporary countermonument by assessing Gerz’s artistic strategy in using a monument to exploring the conditions of public culture and possible shape of a cultural public sphere in the contemporary city. The public art project lasted over five years and was a mechanism by which the political issues at stake in the public life of Coventry, particularly the socio-historic conflicts that are constitutive of its civic identity, were articulated. The study argues that public authorship succeeded in identifying some crucial coordinates in the political constitution of public culture in Coventry, but in the face of competing civic rhetoric and new urban policy initiatives, the project remains an open inquiry. This study concludes by identifying some critical lines of inquiry for future studies in art’s critical role in the public sphere

Monitoring Peatland Damage and Restoration Using Testate Amoebae as Indicator Organisms

Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/862 on 22.03.2017 by CS (TIS)This thesis has examined the response of testate amoebae communities to restoration at three peatland sites in the UK. It builds upon the use of testate amoebae analysis as a palaeoenvironmental tool by exploring the hypothesis that testate amoebae respond to hydrological conditions in restored mires. Previous research has found that testate amoebae act as good proxies for hydrological condition of intact mires and past conditions but little has been done on their reaction to conditions at damaged sites in the UK. The research aimed to further the understanding of testate amoebae ecology including seasonal variability of communities, a poorly understood area. The secondary aim was to assess the potential for using testate amoebae as biological indicators of peatland damage and restoration. These aims were achieved through studies at three sites covering a range of damage commonly affecting UK sites. The experiments entailed repeated monitoring of a ditch blocking experiment at Coom Rigg Moss which has been affected by peripheral forestry drains, a study of forest removal treatments at Flanders Moss and a study of rewetted cutover surfaces at Fenn's and Whixall Mosses. The results were analysed using a variety of statistical and multivariate methods. Data on water table and moisture conditions were also analysed and the results of the two were compared. The results showed that testate amoebae communities responded to hydrological conditions but depth to water table was not always the primary factor affecting community composition. The results of the research indicate that testate amoebae analysis does have potential as a tool for monitoring peatland restoration but further research is necessary to fully understand the factors affecting distributions

A geographical study of the New Zealand textile manufacturing industry, with particular reference to the Wellington region

This thesis is a study of the New Zealand textile manufacturing industry and its components. It investigates the nature of location patterns, the changes within the components of the industry and the changes in industrial organisation which have occurred since 1950. The location of factories engaged in manufacturing textiles is detailed, shifts in components of the industry are analysed and early location factors in the industry are discussed. It is argued that technological advances in various facets of the industry have been influential in determining the present day location of the factories in the industry. The impact of technology and its requirements within the industry are examined specifically in terms of process product and organisational adjustments. The resulting developments, particularly the form of intra- and inter- industry linkages are outlined. In addition the form of industry intra-urban linkages are explored with particular reference to the Wellington Region

Jetting and the origin of tektites

The scientific consensus is that tektites were produced by impacts on the Earth, but the exact mechanism by impacts might form tektites is still unclear. The most widely cited mechanism is jetting, which results from the extremely high pressures generated at the intersection of two bodies whose surfaces converge obliquely at high speed. Theory of jetting for thin plates is extended to the case of the impact of the sphere onto a half-space. The calculations are done for the impact of a silicate sphere onto a silicate target for impact speeds of 15, 20, and 25 km/sec, spanning the range of reasonable impact speeds for asteroids. The angle of impact is varied from 0 to 75 deg. The mass jetted, the jet velocity, projectile fraction in the jet, azimuthal distribution of the jet, and the phase of the jetted material are calculated as functions of time. The total mass jetted and the overall mass-averages of jet velocity, etc. are also calculated

Impacts and atmospheric erosion on the early Earth

It was suggested that heating and/or vaporization of accreting carbonaceous-chondrite-type planetestimals could result in the release of their volatile components. Modeling of this process strongly suggests that substantial atmospheres/hydrospheres could develop this way. During most of the accretionary process, impact velocities generally differed from the escape velocity of the growing proto-planet because most of the collisions were between bodies in nearly matching orbits. Toward the end of accretion, however, collisions were rarer but more energetic, involving large planetestimals and higher impact velocities. Such impacts result in a net loss of atmosphere from a planet, and the cumulative effect impacts during the period of heavy bombardment might have dramatically depleted the original atmospheres. Models developed to study atmospheric erosion by impacts on Mars and the interaction of the vapor plume produced by KT impactor on Earth are applied to the case of the evolution of Earth's atmosphere

An approach to high speed ship ride quality simulation

The high speeds attained by certain advanced surface ships result in a spectrum of motion which is higher in frequency than that of conventional ships. This fact along with the inclusion of advanced ride control features in the design of these ships resulted in an increased awareness of the need for ride criteria. Such criteria can be developed using data from actual ship operations in varied sea states or from clinical laboratory experiments. A third approach is to simulate ship conditions using measured or calculated ship motion data. Recent simulations have used data derived from a math model of Surface Effect Ship (SES) motion. The model in turn is based on equations of motion which have been refined with data from scale models and SES of up to 101 600-kg (100-ton) displacement. Employment of broad band motion emphasizes the use of the simulators as a design tool to evaluate a given ship configuration in several operational situations and also serves to provide data as to the overall effect of a given motion on crew performance and physiological status

Superantigen architecture: Functional decoration on a conserved scaffold

A defining and consistent feature of the bacterial superantigens from Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes is their strongly conserved three-dimensional structure. Structural studies to date show that the array of more than 280 amino acid sequences known for superantigens (SAgs) and staphylococcal superantigen-like (SSL) proteins all have the same fold-a structure in which the same three-dimensional arrangement of α-helices and β-sheets is traced by each amino acid sequence, with the same topology (for recent reviews, see references 29 and 43). A typical SAg structure comprises two domains-an N-terminal β -barrel domain called an OB-fold (4, 25) and a C-terminal β-grasp domain in which a long α-helix packs on to a mixed parallel and antiparallel β-sheet. These two domains are traversed by an α-helix that lies at the N terminus of the protein and packs against the β-grasp domain, thus linking the N- and C-terminal domains

Melt droplet formation in energetic impacts

Impacts between rocky bodies at velocities exceeding about 15 km/sec are capable of melting or vaporizing both the impacting object and a portion of the target. Geological materials initially shocked to high pressure approach the liquid-vapor phase boundary from the liquid side as they decompress, breaking up into an expanding spray of liquid droplets. A simple theory is presented for estimating the sizes of these droplets as a function of impactor size and velocity. It is shown that these sizes are consistent with observations of microtektites and spherules found in the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary layer, the Acraman impact structure, Archean beds in South Africa and lunar regolith. The model may also apply to the formation of chondrules