A Geographically Weighted Regression Analysis of General Election Turnout in the Republic of Ireland

Turnout in the 2002 general election confirm e d a downwar d trend in Irish voter pa rticipation levels, that first becam e evident in the early 1980s and was to culm inate in th e lowest turnout fo r an Irish general election since the foundation of the st ate (Figure 1). Given this context, voter turnout is a topic that requires further analysis within the Irish con t ex t, and two ap proaches to address i ng this top i c ex ists, with each approach having its own distin ctive adv a ntages and dis a dvantages. The surveying approach draws on individual-level data, and has the ad vantage of being able to draw on a wide range of variables, including social-psychological variables, an d m a ke direct inferences about the behaviour, and sources of the behaviour, of individuals. However, questionnaire surveys generally te nd to overestim ate turnout levels, with poten tial bias in su rvey re spon se rates resu lting in the under-rep res e ntation of non-voters in survey sam p les. The second type of data – aggregate data – is subject to problem s arising from the lim ited range of variables that can be accessed in seeking explanations of low turnout (u sually lim ited to data that can be drawn from census analyses) and the cross-lev e l infere nce problem that arises in any attem p t to m a ke inferences about individual-leve l behaviour from aggregate-leve l data (Achen and Shively, 1995). However, the big advantage of aggregate data lies in th e accuracy of the estim a tion of the dependent variable (turnout) and in the potential it offers for spatial and censu s-based analysis of variations in the turnout variable. Lower levels of aggregation allow fo r a larger num ber of cases to be analysed and for more detailed pictures of spatial varia tions in turnout leve ls to be gleaned

Negotiated resource brokering for quality of service provision of grid applications

Grid Computing is a distributed computing paradigm where many computers often formed from different organisations work together so that their computing power may be aggregated. Grids are often heterogeneous and resources vary significantly in CPU power, available RAM, disk space, OS, architecture and installed software etc. Added to this lack of uniformity is that best effort services are usually offered, as opposed to services that offer guarantees upon completion time via the use of Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The lack of guarantees means the uptake of Grids is stifled. The challenge tackled here is to add such guarantees, thus ensuring users are more willing to use the Grid given an obvious reluctance to pay or contribute, if the quality of the services returned lacks any guarantees. Grids resources are also finite in nature, hence priorities need establishing in order to best meet any guarantees placed upon the limited resources available. An economic approach is hence adopted to ensure end users reveal their true priorities for jobs, whilst also adding incentive for provisioning services, via a service charge. An economically oriented model is therefore proposed that provides SLAs with bicriteria constraints upon time and cost. This model is tested via discrete event simulation and a simulator is presented that is capable of testing the model. An architecture is then established that was developed to utilise the economic model for negotiating SLAs. Finally experimentation is reported upon from the use of the software developed when it was deployed upon a testbed, including admission control and steering of jobs within the Grid. Results are presented that show the interactions and relationship between the time and cost constraints within the model, including transitions between the dominance of one constraint over the other and other things such as the effects of rescheduling upon the market

Ballycross RFC: Sectarianism, masculinity and racism in a Northern Irish rugby club

This thesis is a study of Ballycross RFC, a rugby club in Northern Ireland. With a history of violent conflict and a society that remains largely segregated by religion, politics, education and housing, Northern Ireland provided a dynamic and complex context to this season-long ethnography. As a British sport, rugby has traditionally been a Protestant domain and the Catholic minority population at the club were made very aware of this. Through the use of banter, sectarian statements that sought to maintain the status quo were justified with disclaimers of humour. A male-only environment, the rugby club provided members of Ballycross RFC with multiple discourses of masculinity. Problematic performances were frequent, but there was also evidence of more positive masculine identities. As an all-white club in a country with little ethnic diversity, I explore how discourses of whiteness function to highlight and ‘other’ those from different ethnic groups, and simultaneously strengthen in-group bonds. Playing, training and socialising as a full member of the club, I utilised participant observation, focus groups and semi-structured interviews to understand the experiences of Ballycross RFC members. Through the use of a novella, I attempt to represent my experiences at Ballycross RFC and the complex, fluid, and at times contradictory issues of politics and identity in a Northern Irish rugby club

TANGO: Transparent heterogeneous hardware Architecture deployment for eNergy Gain in Operation

The paper is concerned with the issue of how software systems actually use Heterogeneous Parallel Architectures (HPAs), with the goal of optimizing power consumption on these resources. It argues the need for novel methods and tools to support software developers aiming to optimise power consumption resulting from designing, developing, deploying and running software on HPAs, while maintaining other quality aspects of software to adequate and agreed levels. To do so, a reference architecture to support energy efficiency at application construction, deployment, and operation is discussed, as well as its implementation and evaluation plans.Comment: Part of the Program Transformation for Programmability in Heterogeneous Architectures (PROHA) workshop, Barcelona, Spain, 12th March 2016, 7 pages, LaTeX, 3 PNG figure

The Solar Neutrino Problem - An Update

The $^8$B solar neutrino flux as measured by Super-Kamiokande is consistent with the $^{37}$Ar production rate in $^{37}$Cl at Homestake. GALLEX and SAGE, continue to observe $^{71}$Ge production rates in $^{71}$Ga that are consistent with the minimal signal expected from the solar luminosity. The observed $^8$B solar neutrino flux is in good agreement with that predicted by the standard solar model of Dar and Shaviv with nuclear reaction rates that are supported by recent measurements of nuclear fusion cross sections at low energies. The measurements of Super-Kamiokande, SAGE and GALLEX suggest that the expected the pep, $^7$Be and NO solar neutrino fluxes are strongly suppressed. This can be explained by neutrino oscillations and the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect. Since neither a flavor change, nor a terrestrial variation, nor a spectral distortion of the $^8$B solar neutrino flux has been observed yet, the solar neutrino problem does not provide conclusive evidence for neutrino properties beyond the standard electroweak model. The deviations of the experimental results from those predicted by the standard solar models may reflect the approximate nature of of solar models and of our knowledge of nuclear reaction rates, radiation transport and particle diffusion in dense stellar plasmas. Only future observations of spectral distortions, or terrestrial modulation or flavor change of solar neutrinos in solar neutrino experiments, such as Super-Kamiokande, SNO, Borexino and HELLAZ will be able to establish that neutrino properties beyond the minimal standard electroweak model are responsible for the solar neutrino problem.Comment: To be published in Physics Reports, Proceedings of ``From Atomic Nuclei to Stars and Galaxies'' Haifa, January 12-16, 1998. No enclosed figure

Magnetically driven dielectric and structural behavior in Bi0.5La0.5FeO3

The authors would like to thank the Royal Society for a University Research Fellowship (FDM), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for a studentship (CMK), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council for access to neutron facilities.A detailed structural analysis of the antiferromagnetic (Gz-type) lanthanum doped bismuth ferrite - Bi0.5La0.5FeO3 (Pn′ma′) – using variable-temperature powder neutron diffraction is reported. The analysis highlights a structural link between changes in the relative dielectric permittivity and changes in the FeO6 octahedral tilt magnitudes, accompanied by a structural distortion of the octahedra with corresponding A-site displacement along the c-axis; this behavior is unusual due to an increasing in-phase tilt mode with increasing temperature. The anomalous orthorhombic distortion is driven by magnetostriction at the onset of antiferromagnetic ordering resulting in an Invar effect along the magnetic c-axis and anisotropic displacement of the A-site Bi3+ and La3+ along the a-axis.PostprintPeer reviewe