Percolation with constant freezing

We introduce and study a model of percolation with constant freezing (PCF) where edges open at constant rate 1, and clusters freeze at rate \alpha independently of their size. Our main result is that the infinite volume process can be constructed on any amenable vertex transitive graph. This is in sharp contrast to models of percolation with freezing previously introduced, where the limit is known not to exist. Our interest is in the study of the percolative properties of the final configuration as a function of \alpha. We also obtain more precise results in the case of trees. Surprisingly the algebraic exponent for the cluster size depends on the degree, suggesting that there is no lower critical dimension for the model. Moreover, even for \alpha<\alpha_c, it is shown that finite clusters have algebraic tail decay, which is a signature of self organised criticality. Partial results are obtained on Z^d, and many open questions are discussed.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figure

A universal exponent for Brownian entropic repulsion

We investigate the extent to which the phenomenon of Brownian entropic repulsion is universal. Consider a Brownian motion conditioned on the event $\mathcal{E}$ -- that its local time is bounded everywhere by 1. This event has probability zero and so must be approximated by events of positive probability. We prove that several natural quantities, in particular the speed of the process, are highly sensitive to the approximation procedure, and hence are not universal. However, we also propose an exponent $\kappa$ -- which measures the strength of the entropic repulsion by evaluating the probability that a particular point comes close to violating the condition $\mathcal{E}$. We show that $\kappa=3$ for several natural approximations of $\mathcal{E}$, and conjecture that $\kappa=3$ is universal in a sense that we make precise.Comment: 37 pages, 5 figure

Behaviour of pultruded beam-to-column joints using steel web cleats

Response of pultruded Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) beam-to-column joints with steel bolted web cleats is studied through physical testing. Two joint configurations are considered with either three or two bolts per cleat leg, as per drawings in a pultruder’s Design Manual. Moment-rotation curves, failure modes and potential performance gains from semi-rigid action are determined from two batches, each having six nominally identical joints. Results show that initial joint properties for stiffness and moment can possess, at 19 to 62%, an extremely high coefficient of variation. All joints failed by fracturing within the FRP column’s flange outstands. Because this failure mode has not been reported previously there is a need to establish how its existence influences joint design. As joint properties for the three- and two-bolted configurations are not significantly different, the middle (third) bolt is found to be redundant. Damage is shown to initiate within the column flange outstands when the mid-span deflection of a 5.08 m span beam, subjected to a uniformly distributed load, is span/500. This is half the serviceability vertical deflection limit recommended in the EUROCOMP Design Code and Handbook. The mean joint moment resistance for design is established to be 2.9 kNm and this is 1.5 times the moment for damage onset

Patients' experiences of day surgery: A parsonian analysis

Aim: the aim of the study was to explore patients’ experiences of day surgery using a sociological framework of analysis. Background: although day surgery has increased globally in the last 20 years, little applied sociological research has been undertaken in this area. Method: the Glaserian methodology of Grounded Theory was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 145 patients and 100 carers on three occasions from 2004 to 2006. Analysis of the data involved line-by-line analysis, compilation of key words and phrases (codes) and constant comparison of the codes until core categories were identified. Findings: a major category to emerge from the data was the ambiguity presented to patients in relation to the sick role. Of concern to patients was society’s attitudes, which seem to deny to day surgery patients full entitlement to the privileges associated with the sick role. Day surgery patients wanted to feel comfortable in a role that was socially acceptable – the sick role. However, many patients actively resisted this role, and this could have implications for recovery. A large number of patients wished for a limited ascription of the sick role, whilst a minority actively sought to acquire this role. Conclusion: the importance of nurses in providing supportive, psychological care, and ensuring patient and carer understanding of what day surgery entails cannot be overstated. Day surgery personnel should teach that day surgery is not minor surgery and that recovery times may be protracted, during which patients will need support

The effect of elastic anisotropy on nematic disclination lines

No abstract available

Spenser’s Dutch uncles: The family of love and the four translations of a theatre for worldlings

© José María Pérez Fernández and Edward Wilson-Lee 2014. A Theatre for Worldlings is a milestone work in more ways than one. Commonly regarded as the first English emblem book, it is “always to be remembered as containing the first printed verse of Edmund Spenser.” Yet Spenser’s contribution to A Theatre has overshadowed critical interest in the remainder of the volume, with its seemingly eclectic collection of poems, prose commentary, and woodcut illustrations. This chapter responds by restoring Spenser’s verse translations to the commentary they were originally intended to illustrate, reading poems and prose together within the broader context of the community by whom, and for whom, A Theatre was first produced. A Theatre announces itself as a product of London’s Flemish community, and it is to Flemish exiles that Jan van der Noot addresses his lengthy prose commentary on Spenser’s translations, as his references to “our natiue cou[n]trey of low Germanie” make clear (sig. H2v). In this case study of a text produced by a collaborative community of poets, printers, illustrators, and translators, I explore a particularly fruitful instance of how the sixteenth-century book trade helped “translate” ideologies across texts and translations. A Theatre for Worldlings, printed in London by Henry Bynneman in 1569, was an English translation of a volume that had originally appeared in Dutch and French formats from the London press of John Day the previous year, and the volume would go on to appear in German translation in a Cologne edition of 1572. By reading the English Theatre alongside its companion translations, this chapter undertakes a comparative exploration of the four Theatre translations in relation to their investment in the mystical tea chings of the Family of Love, focusing on the emblematic language of the poems and illustrations, the theological content of the commentary, and the context of each volume’s production in the printing houses of London and Cologne. I then move in conclusion to suggest some of the ways these Familist resonances may have influenced Spenser’s later poetry, focusing on The Ruines of Time (1591), and exploring how far its treatment of ruin was shaped by van der Noot’s own response to this theme in the four Theatre volumes

A finite element modelling methodology for the non-linear stiffness evaluation of adhesively bonded single lap-joints. Part 2, Novel shell mesh to minimise analysis time

A new modelling methodology is presented that enables the stiffness of adhesively bonded single lap-joints to be included in the finite element analysis of whole vehicle bodies. This work was driven by the need to significantly reduce computing resources for vehicle analysis. To achieve this goal the adhesive bond line and adherends are modelled by a relatively ‘small’ number of shell elements to replace the usual solid element mesh for a reliable analysis. Previous work in Part 1 has provided the necessary background information to develop and verify the new finite element analysis that reduces the solution runtime by a factor of 1000. Although a joint’s non-linear stiffness is reliably simulated to failure load, it is recognised by the authors that the coarse shell mesh cannot provide accurate peak stresses or peak strains for the successful application of a numerical failure criterion. Given that the new modelling methodology is very quick to apply to existing shell models of vehicle bodies, it is recommended for use by the stress analyst who requires, say at the preliminary design stage, whole vehicle stiffness performance in a significantly reduced timeframe