A Granulation Effect Implemented in MATLAB

This report details the implementation in MATLAB of an audio granulation effect intended for application in electronic and electroacoustic music composition.Architecture & Allied Art

The emergence of the theory of the firm: from Adam Smith to Alfred Marshall

The theory of the firm's production and selling decisions is traced from the eighteenth century until the death of Marshall. Some tentative judgments are proposed as to the goodness and badness of the principal strands in this development. Apart from the first chapter (devoted to method) and the final chapter (devoted to post-Marshallian developments and empirical evidence), the thesis consists of three studies based on Adam Smith, J.S.MiU, and Alfred Marshall respectively. Each of these writers is considered in relation to preceding and contemporaneous work. Adam Smith outlines a model in which the long-run equilibrium of resource allocation between industries requires that the rate of return on capital be equal among industries (making allowance for differences in agreeableness and risk). Monopoly is defined as an impediment to the resource flow which would otherwise bring the equilibrium about. Following The Wealth of Nations, writers increase the empirical content of this model by elaborations with respect to observed phenomena (J .S.Mill) end with respect to the time path by which equilibrium is approached (Marshall). An alternative approach to the theory of price is to classify markets according to certain structural characteristics and to derive equilibrium and stability conditions for each market structure. The multiplication of these models since the time of Cournot has robbed them, of empirical content. Further, the structural assumptions of the models seem to limit the outcomes of modelled behaviour to actions which do not: alter that structure

Framing Fracking: Public responses to potential unconventional fossil fuel exploitation in the North of England

The emerging prospect of the exploitation of onshore unconventional fossil fuels (unconventionals) across the UK has been accompanied by a significant degree of public unease. Institutional actors have regularly claimed that the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing (fracking), the controversial technique often involved in the extraction of unconventionals, are safely manageable. Public concern over both the technique of fracking and the prospect of the exploitation of unconventionals has regularly been categorised by these institutional actors as being ostensibly about these risks. As a result sceptical public positions have often been represented as lacking (technical) understanding and as in need of being informed of “the facts”. This account of the controversy, regularly evident in media, expert, and political discourse, makes a series of questionable assumptions about public responses and is showing signs of a failure to learn lessons from previous instances of controversy surrounding emerging technological innovation. This research is an attempt to articulate the currently scarcely acknowledged factors underlying public concerns and a series of conditions upon which the ‘acceptability’ of fracking and unconventionals may rest. In order to do so a deliberative focus group methodology is employed, with an explicit focus on the framing of the issue, including institutional treatment of questions from beyond established scientific risk knowledge and often unquestioned normativities involved in nominally expert accounts

Perspectives on subnational carbon and climate footprints: A case study of Southampton, UK

Sub-national governments are increasingly interested in local-level climate change management. Carbon- (CO2 and CH4) and climate-footprints—(Kyoto Basket GHGs) (effectively single impact category LCA metrics, for global warming potential) provide an opportunity to develop models to facilitate effective mitigation. Three approaches are available for the footprinting of sub-national communities. Territorial-based approaches, which focus on production emissions within the geo-political boundaries, are useful for highlighting local emission sources but do not reflect the transboundary nature of sub-national community infrastructures. Transboundary approaches, which extend territorial footprints through the inclusion of key cross boundary flows of materials and energy, are more representative of community structures and processes but there are concerns regarding comparability between studies. The third option, consumption-based, considers global GHG emissions that result from final consumption (households, governments, and investment). Using a case study of Southampton, UK, this chapter develops the data and methods required for a sub-national territorial, transboundary, and consumption-based carbon and climate footprints. The results and implication of each footprinting perspective are discussed in the context of emerging international standards. The study clearly shows that the carbon footprint (CO2 and CH4 only) offers a low-cost, low-data, universal metric of anthropogenic GHG emission and subsequent management

Energy democracy, dissent and discourse in the party politics of shale gas in the United Kingdom

Drawing from an extensive content analysis of the UK parliamentary debate over shale gas, we use the UK shale gas case to explore how energy democracy themes are used and countered in the framing strategies of discourse coalitions in national political sites. Furthermore, we explore the extent to which these national political sites and discursive strategies are effective as institutions and practices through which to achieve energy democracy. We achieve this through an analysis of the success of the UK anti- and pro-shale gas development discourse coalitions in recruiting national political figures and influencing thinking and decision-making in parliament. In doing so, we bring together the literatures on discourse coalitions and energy democracy. We conclude with implications for both national policy as well as critical inquiry into environmental politics

Working with Traditional Knowledge: Information for Botanical Fieldwork

Botanical research can often involve access to traditional knowledge, as well as to botanical material held or managed by Indigenous and Local Communities (ILCs). There is a large and growing body of local, national and international laws, declarations and codes of conduct to guide best practice in this area. Researchers and students must be aware of this changing framework before collecting material and information in areas inhabited by ILCs

Channelling sensitivity: the production of justification for shale gas development through the English planning system

This thesis analyses the participation of the environmental NGO Friends of the Earth (FoE) in a planning inquiry into the company Cuadrilla’s appeal against Lancashire County Council’s decision to refuse planning permission to their proposed shale gas exploration sites at Roseacre Wood and Preston New Road. Participant observation, document analysis and video analysis were employed to chart the treatment of FoE’s arguments at the inquiry. Conceptually, the thesis is interested in the notion of justification, and in particular Stirling’s insight that appraisal processes can, through their design and conduct, be conditioned toward providing justification for particular options (Stirling 1994; Stirling 2008). Four such conditioning influences – termed ‘forms of closure’ here - are found to be operating through the design and conduct of this inquiry and channelling it toward the production of justification for the appeals in question and shale development more broadly. These forms of closure each render the inquiry insensitive to certain arguments and matters of concern raised by FoE by either blunt procedural exclusion or by displaying insensitivity in the conduct of appraisal itself. This thesis builds on existing work on the necessity of and capacity for planning appraisal processes on fracking in the UK to accommodate sceptical public views. In particular, this study contributes fine-grain detail on how participating publics and experts are treated in practice within planning, and makes clear the key influence of prior commitments at the broader level of Government policy. This study also extends the concept of justification by focusing on the ‘downstream’ location of planning appraisal and by considering the relationship between framings of fracking and planning decision-making

Lessons on public participation from the UK shale gas controversy

The tensions that emerged between delivering energy infrastructure and giving the public and local communities a say in decision-making during the UK shale gas controversy offer a number of important lessons both for any renewed attempt to develop a domestic shale gas industry and as the UK looks toward the infrastructure required for Net Zero. University of Sussex researchers investigated formal public participation in UK shale gas decision-making in order to understand the nature and extent of the participatory opportunity on offer and learn what participants thought about these exercises. This policy brief summarises the findings of this work and makes four recommendations to institutions that oversee formal participatory processes on energy infrastructure

Gauging the brownfield land supply in England

This paper reports on the findings of a study that aimed to help fill the information gap left by the loss of the National Land Use Database – and asked ‘Is there enough brownfield land in England to meet housing needs?

The arrestin-domain containing protein AdcA is a response element to stress.

International audienceBACKGROUND: Cell behaviour is tightly determined by sensing and integration of extracellular changes through membrane detectors such as receptors and transporters and activation of downstream signalling cascades. Arrestin proteins act as scaffolds at the plasma membrane and along the endocytic pathway, where they regulate the activity and the fate of some of these detectors. Members of the arrestin clan are widely present from unicellular to metazoa, with roles in signal transduction and metabolism. As a soil amoeba, Dictyostelium is frequently confronted with environmental changes likely to compromise survival. Here, we investigated whether the recently described arrestin-related protein AdcA is part of the cell response to stresses. RESULTS: Our data provide evidence that AdcA responds to a variety of stresses including hyperosmolarity by a transient phosphorylation. Analysis in different mutant backgrounds revealed that AdcA phosphorylation involves pathways other than the DokA and cGMP-dependent osmostress pathways, respectively known to regulate PKA and STATc, key actors in the cellular response to conditions of hyperosmolarity. Interestingly, however, both AdcA and STATc are sensitive to changes in the F-actin polymerization status, suggesting a common primary sensor/trigger and linking the stress-sensitive kinase responsive for AdcA phosphorylation to the actin cytoskeleton. We also show that STATc-dependent transcriptional activity is involved for the timely dephosphorylation of AdcA in cells under stress. CONCLUSION: Under osmotic stress, AdcA undergoes a phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycle involving a stress-sensitive kinase and the transcription regulator STATc. This transient post-transcriptional modification may allow a regulation of AdcA function possibly to optimize the cellular stress response