Open-boundary Ehrenfest molecular dynamics: towards a model of current unduced heating in nanowires

We present a time-dependent method based on the single-particle electron density matrix that allows the electronic and ionic degrees of freedom to be modelled within the Ehrenfest approximation in the presence of open boundaries. We describe a practical implementation using tight binding, and use it to investigate steady-state conduction through a single-atom device and to perform molecular dynamics. We find that in the Ehrenfest approximation an electric current allows both ionic heating and cooling to take place, depending on the bias

EcoBot-II: An artificial agent with a natural metabolism

In this paper we report the development of the robot EcoBot-II, which exhibits a primitive form of artificial symbiosis. Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) were used as the onboard energy supply, which consisted of bacterial cultures from sewage sludge and employed oxygen from free air for oxidation at the cathode. EcoBot-II was able to perform sensing, information processing, communication and actuation when fed (amongst other substrates) with flies. This is the first robot in the world, to utilise unrefined substrate, oxygen from free air and exhibit four different types of behaviour

Forgiving abuse - an ethical critique

This article argues that most Christian understandings and practices of forgiveness have lost the ethical framework that gives forgiveness meaning and makes forgiveness effective as a means of resolving the effects of abuse on individuals, communities and the abuser. From the context of a number of practical cases, it explores common Christian misconceptions about forgiveness, deconstructs common Christian practices, and offers a number of conditions that need to be present if forgiveness is to be recovered as an ethical action. The traditional Samoan practice of Ifonga is explored as an example of a communal and ethical means of redressing wrong within which forgiveness is embodied

Liberalism's loyal opposition : contemporary attitudes to Russia in the wake of the cold war

The thesis explores the continuities that underpin public debate about Russia in the post-Soviet era. It approaches the question using the conceptual framework of new Cold War warriors and re-invented fellow travellers for two reasons. The first is that debates that seek to re-conjure spectres of Marxism or socialism in contemporary Russia are not a notable feature of the work of today's academic scholarship. Instead most of the analysis is centred on evaluating either civilizational or sociological perspectives on the country. Much of it is focused too on the governance of Vladimir Putin, an approach which includes a singular amount of psychologising about his alleged personal failings, both as a leader and as a foreign policy strategist. The second reason is that, though radically opposed, these two concepts anchor the dissertation in the spectrum of liberal thought from classical Liberalism, to economic Liberalism, to neo-liberal utopianism and, more recently, liberal pluralism. The implication is that, in one way or another, for most commentators, both within Russia and internationally, Western liberal norms provide a benchmark with which to appraise Russia's response to the demands of modernity and modernisation, the vagaries of global capitalism and the institutionalisation of democratic freedoms. Within these contentious arenas, the dissertation falls broadly into two camps. On one side are those who are still welded to either a Cold War skepticism or an ideological rigidity that invites a ready condemnation of the new Russia; and those who are more hopeful that the country's future can be more humane than its past. The approach is not aimed at adjudicating about which side will carry the day. Rather it constitutes an inevitably selective, innovative and ambitious commentary about commentaries. Its intention is to foster in both writer and reader a more reflective understanding of the assumptions and presumptions, as well as the areas of uncertainty, in interpretations of today's governance. Admittedly, given the breadth of historical and ongoing research, as well as the myriad ways real existing social worlds defy easy categorisation, the result is more likely to veer towards an impressionistic effect. Admittedly too, it is also an effect which veers towards an antipathy about many of the claims of the new Cold War warriors

The ecology of writing and the shaping of early Christianity

Abstract not availabl

Children with cerebral palsy and early intervention services

The purpose of this literature and research review is to understand early home intervention services for children with Cerebral Palsy. The review focuses on children between birth and five years old and their families. Studies were reviewed worldwide including the United States, Sweden, Netherlands, and Australia. These studies include information about service providers, different programs for children with Cerebral Palsy and their families, frequency of visits that occur for the children and their families, and the disadvantages and advantages of early intervention services for children with cerebral palsy. The conclusion of this literature and research review also includes recommendations based upon the literature and my personal work in home intervention. The paper concludes with a description of future research needed in the area of early intervention services and children between the ages of birth and five years old diagnosed with cerebral palsy

Rievaulx Abbey: update on a long-term landscape conversation

As the countdown begins to the ioo" anniversary of national guardianship be,ginning at Rievaulx Abbey in 1917, collaborations are now underway to examine the surprisingly understudied archaeology of this heritage icon. Rievaulx Abbey has been a part of the North Yorkshire landscape for nearly 900 years. The name conjures images of the evocatively ruinous buildings at the heart of the former Cistercian monastery north of Helmsley. The abbey's history is more complex than that of its monastic phase, however, although it is this phase which is most well-known

Editorial: Replacing religion

No abstract available

Permittivity measurement of thermoplastic composites at elevated temperature

[Abstract]: The material properties of greatest importance in microwave processing of a dielectric are the complex relative permittivity Epsilon = Epsilon' - jEpsilon'', and the loss tangent, tan Delta = Epsilon'/Epsilon''. This paper describes two convenient laboratory based methods to obtain Epsilon', Epsilon'' and hence tan Delta of fibre-reinforced thermoplastic (FRTP) composites. One method employs a microwave network analyser in conjunction with a waveguide transmission technique, chosen because it provides the widest possible frequency range with high accuracy. The values of the dielectric constant and dielectric loss of glass fibre reinforced (33%) low density polyethylene, LDPE/GF (33%), polystyrene, PS/GF (33%), and Nylon 66/GF (33%), were obtained. Results are compared with those obtained by another method using a high-temperature dielectric probe

Robust non-adiabatic molecular dynamics for metals and insulators

We present a new formulation of the correlated electron-ion dynamics (CEID) scheme, which systematically improves Ehrenfest dynamics by including quantum fluctuations around the mean-field atomic trajectories. We show that the method can simulate models of non-adiabatic electronic transitions, and test it against exact integration of the time-dependent Schroedinger equation. Unlike previous formulations of CEID, the accuracy of this scheme depends on a single tunable parameter which sets the level of atomic fluctuations included. The convergence to the exact dynamics by increasing the tunable parameter is demonstrated for a model two level system. This algorithm provides a smooth description of the non-adiabatic electronic transitions which satisfies the kinematic constraints (energy and momentum conservation) and preserves quantum coherence. The applicability of this algorithm to more complex atomic systems is discussed.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Journal of Chemical Physic