CLIP/CETL Professional Report 2006/7 : Thinking Tools for Creative Learning; Connecting the Units

The aim is to enable students to investigate and acquire transferable thinking and reasoning tools to facilitate independent learning, reflective practice and to improve articulation and synchronisation across all course units

Halo Mass Function and the Free Streaming Scale

The nature of structure formation around the particle free streaming scale is still far from understood. Many attempts to simulate hot, warm, and cold dark matter cosmologies with a free streaming cutoff have been performed with cosmological particle-based simulations, but they all suffer from spurious structure formation at scales below their respective free streaming scales -- i.e. where the physics of halo formation is most affected by free streaming. We perform a series of high resolution numerical simulations of different WDM models, and develop an approximate method to subtract artificial structures in the measured halo mass function. The corrected measurements are then used to construct and calibrate an extended Press-Schechter (EPS) model with sharp-$k$ window function and adequate mass assignment. The EPS model gives accurate predictions for the low redshift halo mass function of CDM and WDM models, but it significantly under-predicts the halo abundance at high redshifts. By taking into account the ellipticity of the initial patches and connecting the characteristic filter scale to the smallest ellipsoidal axis, we are able to eliminate this inconsistency and obtain an accurate mass function over all redshifts and all dark matter particle masses covered by the simulations. As an additional application we use our model to predict the microhalo abundance of the standard neutralino-CDM scenario and we give the first quantitative prediction of the mass function over the full range of scales of CDM structure formation.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, published in MNRA

The ATM Reforms - New Evidence from Survey and Market Data

Following the introduction of direct charging in March 2009, ATM pricing has become more transparent and flexible. Cardholders continue to respond to the clearer price signals by changing their cash withdrawal behaviour to avoid paying direct charges, and newly available data indicate that behaviour varies across age groups and geographic locations. For the small proportion of transactions that do incur a direct charge, flexibility in ATM pricing has led to a distinct pattern in these charges across different types of ATM locations. Variations in business models between ATM owners mean that most consumers have access to a large number of ATMs on which they pay no direct charge, while it remains possible for ATMs to be profitably deployed in high-cost or low-volume locations.ATMs; ATM reforms; ATM fees; foreign fees; foreign ATMs; direct charging; ATM surcharging; interchange fees; ATM Access Regime; ATM Deployment; payments reform; consumer use study; payment patterns; consumer behaviour

Interpreting recent movements in sterling

The sterling effective exchange rate has depreciated significantly since the start of the financial market crisis in August 2007. Movements in sterling affect UK monetary policy via their potential impacts on CPI inflation prospects, where it is important to consider the reasons behind the change in the exchange rate. Sterling’s movements potentially reflect a wide range of factors in the United Kingdom and overseas, in both the real economy and in financial markets. Indicative evidence suggests that sterling’s depreciation reflected a combination of perceived changes to UK relative cyclical prospects, the perceived riskiness of UK assets and the apparent need for the UK economy to rebalance, the effects of which may have been amplified by financial market factors. But there is substantial uncertainty about the precise role of each factor.

Fifteenth-Century Burgundy and the Islamic East

In 1433, Burgundian traveller Bertrandon de la Broquière returned from a journey to the Orient, dressed as a Turk and presenting duke Philip the Good with a copy of the Qur’an. Using this encounter as a starting point, this thesis investigates Burgundy’s engagement with the Islamic East during the fifteenth century, bringing together sources that include travel accounts, interfaith polemic, visual arts, and the Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies. The Burgundian perspective has been neglected by scholarship, which this study attempts to address by repositioning these sources in the academic field of Christian views of Islam in the Middle Ages

Synthesis and characterization of poly(ionic liquids) derived from 1-ethyl-3-methyl-4- vinylimidazolium triflate

In the present research, 1-ethyl-3-methyl-4-vinylimidazolium trifluoromethane sulfonate (triflate) was synthesized and polymerized. For comparative purposes, 1-ethyl-3-vinylimidazolium triflate and its polymer was also prepared. Zwitterionic propane sulfonate derivatives of 1-methyl-5-vinylimidazole and 1-vinylimidazole were also synthesized and polymerized. Poly(1-ethyl-3-methyl-4-vinylimidazolium triflate) and poly(3-ethyl-1-vinylimidazolium triflate) were characterized by means of TGA, GPC, and DSC. The TGA showed that poly(1-ethyl-3-methyl-4-vinylimidazolium triflate) had a higher decomposition temperature range, 467-527oC, than poly(3-ethyl-1-vinylimidazolium triflate), 400-448oC. Poly(styrene) equivalent molecular weights were evaluated by GPC in DMF. Poly(1-ethyl-3-methyl-4-vinylimidazolium triflate) had a Mn = 13,000 g/mol (Mw = 14,500 g/mol, PD = 1.11) and poly(3-ethyl-1-vinylimidazolium triflate) had a Mn = 15,700 g/mol (Mw = 19,000 g/mol, PD = 1.21). Glass transition characteristics were evaluated by DSC. Poly(3-ethyl-1-vinylimidazolium triflate) exhibited an onset Tg of 127-129oC; that for poly(1-ethyl-3-methyl-4-vinylimidazolium triflate) was 115oC. The 1-vinylimidazolium triflate polymer was anion exchanged to create a family of polymers with anions consisting of (CN)2N-, (CF3SO2)2N-, BF4-, PF6-, AsF6-, CF3SO3-. This family of polymer salts was characterized by DSC and the lowest onset Tg 84oC, was exhibited by the (CF3SO2)2N- salt. In the salts with fluorinated anions of similar geometry, the larger the anion, AsF6-, exhibited an onset Tg of 119oC. The polymer with the smaller PF6- anion exhibited an onset Tg, of 172oC. A copolymer of 1-ethyl-3-methyl-4-vinylimidazolium triflate and 1-methyl-5-vinylimidazole was synthesized. This copolymer was also anion-exchanged to create a family of polymers with (CN)2N-, (CF3SO2)2N-, BF4-, PF6-, AsF6-, CF3SO3 anions. DSC analysis of this family of copolymers revealed a similar trend in onset glass transition temperatures to that observed with the poly(1-ethyl-3-vinylimidazolium) salts

Population geography I: Human trafficking

This first report explores how understandings of human trafficking have progressed within population geography. Exemplified by studies of exploitative labour migration, population geography has made implicit contributions by stressing the value of a geographic perspec-tive of the webs of inter-connections and links between different places and trafficking. In addition, dominant ideas of linear trafficking processes have been disrupted, via evidenc-ing the informal involvement of families in the phases of recruitment, transportation, and control. I argue that a more encompassing, inter-disciplinary tenet could be woven into population studies of trafficking, by more explicitly engaging with social science debates. Embedding the legal, global definition of trafficking into wider studies of migration is para-mount for this direction of travel. There is also merit in population geography advancing understandings by adopting holistic lenses of enquiry, connecting-up with (sub-)disciplinary geographic studies of migration and trafficking in the Global South and Global North. Studies of trafficking provide a potentially fruitful terrain for population geography to deliver multi-disciplinary, impactful research of a key global challenge, to inform policies to prevent and mitigate the ills of trafficking, and progress conceptual and theoretical under-standings of trafficking