Environments of strong/ultrastrong, ultraviolet Fe II emitting quasars

We have investigated the strength of ultraviolet (UV) Fe ii emission from quasars within the environments of large quasar groups (LQGs) in comparison with quasars elsewhere, for 1.1 ≤ z̅LQG ≤ 1.7, using the DR7QSO catalogue of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We use the Weymann et al. W2400 equivalent width, defined between the rest-frame continuum windows 2240–2255 and 2665–2695 Å, as the measure of the UV Fe ii emission. We find a significant shift of the W2400 distribution to higher values for quasars within LQGs, predominantly for those LQGs with 1.1 ≤ z̅LQG ≤ 1.5. There is a tentative indication that the shift to higher values increases with the quasar i magnitude. We find evidence that within LQGs the ultrastrong emitters with W2400 ≥ 45 Å (more precisely, ultrastrong plus with W2400 ≥ 44 Å) have preferred nearest-neighbour separations of ∼30–50 Mpc to the adjacent quasar of any W2400 strength. No such effect is seen for the ultrastrong emitters that are not in LQGs. The possibilities for increasing the strength of the Fe ii emission appear to be iron abundance, Lyα fluorescence and microturbulence, and probably all of these operate. The dense environment of the LQGs may have led to an increased rate of star formation and an enhanced abundance of iron in the nuclei of galaxies. Similarly, the dense environment may have led to more active blackholes and increased Lyα fluorescence. The preferred nearest-neighbour separation for the stronger emitters would appear to suggest a dynamical component, such as microturbulence. In one particular LQG, the Huge-LQG (the largest structure known in the early Universe), six of the seven strongest emitters very obviously form three pairings within the total of 73 members

Health, Safety and Environmental Issues and Reporting also know as: Management Accounting and How We Measure and Report Occupational Health and Safety Information

Over the past 250 years occupational health and safety (OH&S) has become more important because the industrial revolution and mechanisation that accompanied it are very effective at damaging and killing workers. Whilst there are many calls for more attention and investment to be given towards the issues surrounding OH&S it is often not beneficial or cost effective to invest in OH&S. A priori reasoning would indicate that if it truly was cost effective this attention would have occurred. It is possible that people are just a bunch of sissies looking for any excuse to complain about work. The obvious conclusion then is that whilst OH&S does create certain costs and other problems, these are still less than the resources required to address them effectively. On a global level, it is estimated that over 5,000 people die every day due to accidents, injury or sickness contracted at work. For each fatality there is another 1,000 injuries which lead to incapacitation (Else, 2003). At a local level, in 2001 in Victoria 31 people were killed in workplaces in the Australian state of Victoria, and another 3711 were seriously injured (Victorian WorkCover Authority 2002). Putting on your Six Sigma Blackbelt Hat for a moment, in “quality speak” (i.e. defective parts per million) the results appear unacceptable and quite likely avoidable. With these figures it is important to answer the question of whether this is a necessary side-effect of present day society, or the result of failure to address key issues. If these costs and issues are avoidable, then a key question that must be examined is why firms are pursuing a sub-optimal strategy. This paper examines this question by looking at the role of Management Accounting and how it measures and reports OH&S information within organisations. As the role of management accounting is to support managers with relevant information it is important to examine whether OH&S costs are accurately collected, collated, and communicated to ensure that appropriate strategies are pursued. By evaluating this we are able to better evaluate the claims regarding OH&S.

Scaffolding Cognition with Words

We describe a set of experiments investigating the role of natural language symbols in scaffolding situated action. Agents are evolved to respond appropriately to commands in order to perform simple tasks. We explore three different conditions, which show a significant advantage to the re-use of a public symbol system, through self-cueing leading to qualitative changes in performance. This is modelled by looping spoken output via environment back to heard input. We argue this work can be linked to, and sheds new light on, the account of self-directed speech advanced by the developmental psychologist Vygotsky in his model of the development of higher cognitive function

Minds Online: The Interface between Web Science, Cognitive Science, and the Philosophy of Mind

Alongside existing research into the social, political and economic impacts of the Web, there is a need to study the Web from a cognitive and epistemic perspective. This is particularly so as new and emerging technologies alter the nature of our interactive engagements with the Web, transforming the extent to which our thoughts and actions are shaped by the online environment. Situated and ecological approaches to cognition are relevant to understanding the cognitive significance of the Web because of the emphasis they place on forces and factors that reside at the level of agent–world interactions. In particular, by adopting a situated or ecological approach to cognition, we are able to assess the significance of the Web from the perspective of research into embodied, extended, embedded, social and collective cognition. The results of this analysis help to reshape the interdisciplinary configuration of Web Science, expanding its theoretical and empirical remit to include the disciplines of both cognitive science and the philosophy of mind

An optical investigation into the lubrication of cylindrical roller bearings

Imperial Users onl

Compact 85 fs frequency doubled 810 nm fiber system with 60 mW of average power

We demonstrate a sub-100 fs frequency doubled fiber laser operating at 810 nm. The laser produces 60 mW of average power at a repetition rate of 50 MHz. Extremely low amplitude noise (below 0.1%) and compact size makes this source ideal replacement for low power ultrafast Ti:Spphire lasers

Effects of high temperature and pressure on silica optical fibre sensors

We report on the effects of liquids at high temperature and pressure on silica optical fibres, sensors and gratings. We propose that the diffusion of molecules into the silica and the resultant expansion of the network are responsible for observed fibre expansions of up to 0.2% and Bragg wavelength increases of 2nm at 1525nm. Amorphous carbon hermetic coating has shown a reduction of these effects by an order of magnitude at 300°C. These results have strong implications for the deployment of fibre sensors in oil wells

Teaching Masculinities in a South African Classroom

In terms of gender equity the first two decades of South African democracy have seen substantial change - at least where legislation is concerned. In terms of daily lived realities however, such change seems to have had little or no impact. South African women continue to take primary responsibility for reproductive work and continue to dominate the ranks of the poor. Levels of gender based violence remain amongst the highest in the world. The last decade or so has seen scholars offer a range of overlapping and intersecting explanations for the slow pace of change, with some pointing to the lack of significant political commitment and the roles of 'custom' and 'tradition'. Others have suggested that change requires working more directly with boys and men. Despite these observations - and concomitant interventions - movement towards gender equity remains slow. In this paper I hope to contribute to the debate around resistance to change by drawing on student engagement with, and understandings of, an introduction to gender studies course between 2013 and 2014 at the University of the Western Cape. In the paper I reflect on ways in which teaching gender through a focus on men and masculinities offers insights into resistance to gender equity as well as possibilities for challenging such resistance