Blackouts: a sociology of electrical power failure

Electricity fuels our existence. It powers water purification, waste, food, transportation and communication systems. Modern social life is impossible to imagine without it. This article looks at what happens when the power goes off. It scrutinises the causes and consequences of accidental electrical power cuts. It begins by identifying the reasons for power failure. In doing so, power generation systems are identified as critical infrastructures. They are more fragile than is commonly supposed, and the argument is made that they are getting frailer. Irrespective of cause, blackouts display similar effects. These social patterns are identified. They include measurable economic losses and less easily quantified social costs. Financial damage, food safety, crime, transport issues and problems caused by diesel generators are all discussed. This is more than a record of failures past. It is contended that blackouts are dress rehearsals for the future in which they will appear with greater frequency and greater severity. Increasing numbers of blackouts are anticipated due to growing uncertainties in supply and growing certainties in demand. Supply will become ever more precarious because of peak oil, political instability, infrastructural neglect, global warming and the shift to renewable energy resources. Demand will become stronger because of population growth, rising levels of affluence and the consumer ‘addictions’ which accompany this

Hydrocarbons as Recorders of Cosmic Environments

Hydrocarbons are ubiquitous in the Cosmos. Carbon stars jettison large amounts of hydrocarbons into interstellar space and these are incorporated into forming planetary systems alongside newly synthesized hydrocarbon material. The structure of a hydrocarbon reveals its origin with non-biological, biological, low temperature, high temperature, reduced, oxidised and aqueously altered hydrocarbons all having structural features that imply their provenance. These features are explored throughout this work, with a focus on the insoluble macromolecular organic carbon of meteorites and comparative terrestrial samples. Analytical pyrolysis of macromolecular material in meteorites is a well established technique. By subjecting samples to multiple heating steps, rather than the more usual single step, new insights into the structure and composition of the macromolecular material have been obtained. In addition, simple typing of chondrites and a reconstruction of the conditions experienced on their asteroid parent bodies is possible using the products of pyrolysis. It is the carbonaceous chondrites that have received the most attention for their organic content but some ordinary chondrites also contain appreciable quantities of organic materials. The organic inventory of both carbonaceous and ordinary chondrites has been explored in this study. Carbonaceous chondrites contain authentic abiotic organic material and are in great demand for scientific analysis and experimentation. Yet these objects are extremely rare and valuable and there is a need for analogue materials that are available in larger quantities and on which specific experiments can be carried out. Uses of effective meteorite organic analogues include the training of personnel, testing of analytical methods, contamination studies, and optimisation of space mission instruments. Most of the carbon in carbonaceous chondrites is a non-biological aromatic and intractable macromolecular material and previously unsatisfactory analogues have included coals and other so-called type III kerogens. Following a comparison of a number of candidate materials a new analogue has been identified in reworked fossil soils from the Jurassic of southern England. This type IV kerogen displays great similarities to the macromolecular material in meteorites and can be employed to lessen the burden on our curated collections of rare carbonaceous meteorites. The thermal and chemical stability of hydrocarbons ensures that they exhibit excellent preservation potential and can often be found when other molecular information carriers have long since perished. This feature is important when studying planetary environments for indicators of biogenicity. Yet there is a multitude of information to process and the organic signals can often be confusing owing to diagenesis, catagenesis, oxidation and weathering. In this study a wide range of terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials have been examined using statistical techniques to develop a method for the discrimination of abiotic from biotic macromolecular materials, based only upon the distributions of simple aromatic hydrocarbons and related compounds. This has important implications for life-detection missions destined for Mars, which are currently under development

Accidentology: Towards a Sociology of Accidents and Disasters

While the unintended consequences of social action have exercised the sociological imagination since the discipline’s inception, sociology is yet to fully develop a systematic study of accidents and disasters. Leading figures in the field criticise current work on accidents for being piecemeal and isolated from mainstream sociology, for lacking theoretical innovation, for being blind to differential suffering and for being largely silent on questions of power. This article advances a case for an accidentology which will rectify these perceived flaws. It also advocates accidentology on the basis that accidents are socially patterned, that they are understudied compared to other social problems, and that they are increasing in scale, frequency and severity. In making these arguments we also consider what the examination of accidents and disasters will reveal

‘Home Truths’: A socio-legal exploration of the private rental sector and the home experiences of Generation Rent

My thesis explores the legal concept of home and the experiences of private rental sector tenants in England. ‘Home’ is difficult to define, despite the extensive literature on the topic. My thesis analyses the cross-disciplinary approach to home and identifies its core themes. Legal scholarship on the topic is largely absent, especially in relation to private tenants. The term ‘home’ does feature in contemporary legislation, albeit undefined. Rather, the legal conceptualisation is an accumulation of decades of policy, legislation and case law. My thesis analyses its development and bridges some of the gaps in the scholarship. My examination of private rental sector legislation and case law from the last 100 years reveals a nuanced conceptualisation of home that is reflective of the broader scholarship. However, contemporary legislation acts as a disjoint. Assured shorthold tenancies and s.21 eviction notices under the Housing Act 1988 mean that tenants have little control and limited security of tenure. My empirical findings suggest that private tenants experience lesser versions of home. This is problematic as 19.5% of households in England privately rent, and the sector continues to grow. My empirical research focuses on a sub-set of Generation Rent, defined as private tenants aged 18-35 that aspire to homeownership but are financially unable to do so. In my thesis, this group is referred to as Generation Rent¹. Their aspirations of homeownership offer an interesting perspective on the tenant home. My analysis highlights a condition I have termed the ‘Janus Syndrome’, an original contribution to the scholarship. My participants’ aspirations for their future homes and nostalgia for their childhood home causes a lack of engagement with their current homes. My analysis of the three perspectives of home (cross-disciplinary, legal and individual) produces fresh insights into the meaning of home and the role of law in experiencing home

A vortex dynamics perspective on stratospheric sudden warmings

A vortex dynamics approach is used to study the underlying mechanisms leading to polar vortex breakdown during stratospheric sudden warmings (SSWs). Observational data are used in chapter 2 to construct climatologies of the Arctic polar vortex structure during vortex-splitting and vortex-displacement SSWs occurring between 1958 and 2002. During vortex-splitting SSWs, polar vortex breakdown is shown to be typically independent of height (barotropic), whereas breakdown during vortex-displacement SSWs is shown to be strongly height dependent (baroclinic). In the remainder of the thesis (chapters 3-7), a hierarchy of models approach is used to investigate a possible resonant excitation mechanism which is responsible for the vortex breakdown seen in our observational study. A single layer topographically forced vortex model is shown to exhibit vortex-splitting behaviour similar to that observed during SSWs. Two analytical reductions, the first a fully nonlinear analytical model of an elliptical vortex in strain and rotation velocity fields, the second a weakly nonlinear asymptotic theory applied to a topographically forced vortex, show that vortex-splitting in the model occurs due to a self-tuning resonance of the vortex with the underlying topography. Resonant excitation of an idealized polar vortex by topographic forcing is then investigated in a three-dimensional quasi-geostrophic model, with emphasis on the vertical structure of the vortex during breakdown. It is shown that vortex breakdown similar to that observed during displacement SSWs occurs due to a linear resonance of a baroclinic mode of the vortex, whereas breakdown similar to that observed during splitting SSWs occurs due to a resonance of the barotropic mode. The role of self-tuning in these resonant behaviours is then discussed in relation to the analytic reductions of the single layer model

Towards a New Paradigm for E-Discovery in Civil Litigation: A Judicial Perspective

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provide the basic framework for production of discovery that is relevant and proportional to litigants’ claims and defenses. In the past, litigants and attorneys far too often used these rules to obstruct the discovery process rather than to facilitate it. This Old Discovery Paradigm used overbroad discovery requests, boilerplate discovery responses, dilatory behavior, and a lack of cooperation among opposing counsel. However, with the emergence of ever-expanding technologies using email, texts, and other forms of electronic communication, the modern legal system requires a New E-Discovery Paradigm to govern how litigants, their counsel, and judges utilize the federal discovery rules when dealing with the vast amount of electronically stored information involved in most civil cases. A New E-Discovery Paradigm must emerge if our modern legal system is to leap into the twenty-first century and effectively and economically deal with ESI. This New E-Discovery Paradigm contains at least ten crucial core components that illuminate and ultimately execute the language and intent of the drafters of the most recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

Organic matter responses to radiation under lunar conditions

Large bodies, such as the Moon, which have remained relatively unaltered for long periods of time have the potential to preserve a record of organic chemical processes from early in the history of the solar system. A record of volatiles and impactors may be preserved in buried lunar regolith layers that have been capped by protective lava flows. Of particular interest is the possible preservation of prebiotic organic materials delivered by ejected fragments of other bodies, including those originating from the surface of the early Earth. Lava flow layers would shield the underlying regolith and any carbon-bearing materials within them from most of the effects of space weathering, but the encapsulated organic materials would still be subject to irradiation before they were buried by regolith formation and capped with lava. We have performed a study to simulate the effects of solar radiation on a variety of organic materials mixed with lunar and meteorite analogue substrates. A fluence of ~3 x 1013 protons cm-2 at 4-13 MeV, intended to be representative of solar energetic particles, has little detectable effect on low molecular weight (≤C30) hydrocarbon structures that can be used to indicate biological activity (biomarkers) or the high molecular weight hydrocarbon polymer poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene), and has little apparent effect on a selection of amino acids (≤C9). Inevitably, more lengthy durations of exposure to solar energetic particles may have more deleterious effects and rapid burial and encapsulation will always be more favourable to organic preservation. Our data indicate that biomarker compounds that may be used to infer biological activity on their parent planet can be relatively resistant to the effects of radiation, and may have a high preservation potential in paleoregolith layers on the Moon

Reciprocal peer coaching: A constructivist methodology for enhancing formative assessment strategy in tertiary education

Reciprocal peer coaching (RPC) as a form of peer-assisted learning has an important part to play in formative assessment strategy. The primary objective of this article is to evaluate the effective use of RPC as a formative assessment strategy. A multi-method phenomenological research design was employed using purposive sampling. Seventy students completed a qualitative focused questionnaire survey asking them to reflect on their experiences of reciprocal peer-coaching relationships. Content analysis of student perceptions resulted in the emergence of key themes including; RPC relationship process, the learning process and cognitive skills development. Powerful learning gains were reported by participants, and were characteristic of a successful RPC relationships. Overall the RPC relationship can greatly enhance deep level learning and aid the transfer of theory into practice to inform academic debate on the use of constructivist methodology for enhancing the use of formative assessment strategy within undergraduate business education

The effects of exercise on the lactational performance of cattle

The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of exercise (walking a specified distance for a fixed number of days) on the lactational performance of pregnant cows and to investigate the effect of diet on the lactational response to exercise. The results of the reseach are particularly applicable to the effects of exercise on the lactational performance of cows which are used as draught animals in tropical countries.A literature review was carried out of the role of cows as draught animals in tropical farming systems, of the metabolites used for muscular activity and lactation, factors which affect the supply of these metabolites and the effect of exercise on lactational performance, body weight change and food intake.Three experiments were done to investigate the effect of exercise on milk yield, milk constituent yield (g/d), milk constituent content <g/kg milk), body weight change, blood metabolite concentrations and the voluntary intake of barley straw. The effect of five different diets on the response of the above variables to exercise was also investigated.The experiments were carried out at the Easter Howgate Farm six miles south west of Edinburgh using in each instance twelve pregnant, lactating crossbred Hereford x Friesian cows in their second or subsequent lactations. The animals were exercised in the Peritland Hills for three five day periods each separated by two non-walking days. They walked approximately 8.8 kilometres each day and climbed a vertical distance of approximately 480 metres a day. This exercise was calculated to be equivalent to an energy expenditure of approximately 12MJ per day or a quarter of the maintenance energy requirement of the animals.It was found that the exercise carried out caused a milk yield reduction of between 7 and 14 percent depending on diet. Milk yields declined on walking days and recovered to almost non-walking levels on the intervening non-walking days. Milk fat content increased as milk yield declined, with the result that the daily yield of milk fat was not affected by exercise. Milk protein content and lactose content were not markedly affected by exercise, with the result that the daily yields of these two milk constituents declined approximately in proportion to the decline in milk yield.When animals walked, their rate of weight gain was not as great as when they were not walking. Animals on some diets lost body weight when they walked. After walking animals on all diets increased weight faster than prior to the walking period and in most cases achieved the expected weights (based on extrapolations from the first non-walking period weight gains) by the end of the experiment. It appeared that exercise may have caused changes in gut-fill which influenced body weight.Measurements of the concentrations of blood metabolites showed increases in the concentrations of (3-OH butyrate and free fatty acids and decreases in the concentrations of glucose, magnesium and inorganic phosphorus. The response of blood metabolites to exercise was influenced by diet and some adaptation to exercise was observed over the three week walking period. These changes were indicative of energy deficits when the animals exercised and in some cases were similar to the changes in blood metabolites observed by other authors in fasting animalsThe intake of barley straw offered ad libitum and supplemented with one of three diets was not affected by exercise. No measurements were made of the products of digestion, but it appeared that diets which might be expected to sustain high rates of fermentation and high levels of propionate production supported lactational performance during exercise better than diets which were designed to supply larger quantities of rumen undegradable protein and starch.It was calculated that cows offered some diets were in energy deficit when they walked and concurrent weight losses were observed. In other groups however, although cows were in negative energy balance, positive weight gains were measured. Gut-fill changes, increased weight of concepta and changes in fat to lean tissue ratio might explain these observations.No adverse effects of exercise were observed in the animals and all animals subsequently calved successfully.It was concluded that the levels of energy expenditure experienced by the cows in the present experiments would have no long-term adverse effects on the lactational performance of the animals and that while milk yields would suffer in the short term, if working periods were separated by two or more non-working days, milk yields would recover to near pre-work levels. The consequences of heavier work, greater daily levels of energy expenditure, work sustained for longer periods of time without intervening nonworking days, work carried out at different stages of lactation and work carried out by animals fed tropical diets is worthy of further investigation