The long road to unity

As Christianity grows ever more diverse, is unity an absurd hope – or even desirable? A recent international conference in Durham confirmed that although progress is slow, a new way of ‘doing’ecumenism is starting to bear fruit

The Probability of Failure of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells by the Integrated Modelling of Multiple Physical Processes

A three dimensional, coupled computational fluid dynamics and finite element model of a single, anode supported solid oxide fuel cell has been developed in order to predict the probability of failure of the ceramic components subjected to an idealised operating duty cycle. The duty cycle represents cooling from sintering, warming to a uniform temperature of 800◦C where anode chemical reduction takes place, operation at low, medium and high power and finally cooling to room temperature. The StarCDTM computational fluid dynamics code provided the platform to determine the temperature distribution throughout the operating fuel cell by solving the conservation equations for energy, mass and momentum, with additional subroutines written to account for species transport, electrochemical reactions and heat generation. An AbaqusTM finite element model used the temperature distribution predicted by the computational fluid dynamics model at low, medium and high power to solve for the thermal stress distribution for individual cases and throughout the duty cycle. The finite element model included the effects of thermal expansion, residual stress from manufacture, material properties changes due to chemical reduction of the anode and viscoplastic creep. The maximum principal stress in the anode support layer at 800◦C and low, medium and high power was found to be 5.0, 26.5, 33.2 and 39.8 MPa respectively. The stress analysis results were used to determine the time independent and time dependent (accounting for sub-critical crack growth) probability of failure, and showed that over the duty cycle sub-critical crack growth significantly increased the predicted probability of failure in the anode support layer from less than 1 ×10−12 to 0.54, and in the cathode layer from 1.28 × 10−5 to 1.24 × 10−3. The probability of failure of SOFC ceramic components is thus shown to be both time and history dependent

Unbundling is over-rated: On the value of contributing to an edited book

Terry Clague sheds reasonable doubt on the assertion that contributing to edited book chapters is a waste of time. The sole aim of publication isn’t necessarily to maximise citations. If citations are the only measure of academic value then there’s a danger that academic research becomes the X-Factor. Furthermore, edited collections can also aid discovery of new material where new voices and approaches can be heard

Degassing history of water, sulfur, and carbon in submarine lavas from Kilauea volcano, Hawaii

Major, minor, and dissolved volatile element concentrations were measured in tholeiitic glasses from the submarine portion (Puna Ridge) of the east rift zone of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii. Dissolved H_(2)O and S concentrations display a wide range relative to nonvolatile incompatible elements at all depths. This range cannot be readily explained by fractional crystallization, degassing of H20 and S during eruption on the seafloor, or source region heterogeneities. Dissolved C0_2 concentrations, in contrast, show a positive correlation with eruption depth and typically agree within error with the solubility at that depth. We propose that most magmas along the Puna Ridge result from (I) mixing of a relatively volatile-rich, undegassed component with magmas that experienced low pressure (perhaps subaerial) degassing during which substantial H_(2)O, S, and C0_2 were lost, followed by (2) fractional crystallization of olivine, clinopyroxene, and plagioclase from this mixture to generate a residual liquid; and (3) further degassing, principally of C0_2 for samples erupted deeper than 1000 m, during eruption on the seafloor. The degassed end member may form at upper levels of the summit magma chamber (assuming less than lithostatic pressure gradients), during residence at shallow levels in the crust, or during sustained summit eruptions. The final phase of degassing during eruption on the seafloor occurs slowly enough to achieve melt/vapor equilibrium during exsolution of the typically CO_(2)-rich vapor phase. We predict that average Kilauean primary magmas with 16% MgO contain ~0.47 wt% H_(2)O, ~900 ppm S, and have δD values of ~-30 to -40‰. Our model predicts that submarine lavas from wholly submarine volcanoes (i.e., Loihi), for which there is no opportunity to generate the degassed end member by low pressure degassing, will be enriched in volatiles relative to those from volcanoes whose summits have breached the sea surface (i.e., Kilauea and Mauna Loa)

Property and Contract Rights in Autocracies and Democracies

We present and test empirically a new theory of property and contract rights. Any incentive an autocrat has to respect such rights comes from his interest in future tax collections and national income and increases with his planning horizon. We find a compelling empirical relationship between property and contract rights and an autocrat's time in power. In lasting -- but not in new -- democracies, the same rule of law and individual rights that ensure continued free elections entail extensive property and contract rights. We show that the age of a democratic system is strongly correlated with property and contract rights.property rights, contract rights, autocracy, democracy

Contract Intensive Money

This paper makes two contributions to the literature. First, it introduces a new, easily accessed and objective measure of the enforceability of contracts and the security of property rights. Second, it uses this measure to provide additional and more direct evidence about the importance of secure property and contract rights for economic growth and investment. In the analysis below, we briefly review the arguments that link the quality of third-party contract enforcement to growth and investment. We then show how the new measure, which we call “contract-intensive money” or CIM, relates to the subjective measures employed in the literature. We test empirically the proposition that this variable, as a measure of the security of contract and property rights, is positively related to income, growth and investment.contract enforcement, property rights, governance, growth

Bounds on Bosonic Topcolor

We consider the phenomenology of models in which electroweak symmetry breaking is triggered by new strong dynamics affecting the third generation and is transmitted to the light fermions via a fundamental Higgs doublet. While similar in spirit to the old bosonic technicolor idea, such `bosonic topcolor' models are allowed by current phenomenological constraints, and may arise naturally in models with large extra dimensions. We study the parameter space of a minimal low-energy theory, including bounds from Higgs boson searches, precision electroweak parameters, and flavor changing neutral current processes. We show that the model can provide a contribution to D0-D0-bar mixing as large as the current experimental bound.Comment: 16 pages RevTeX, 3 Figure

Ubiquitin: Same Molecule, Different Degradation Pathways

Ubiquitin is a common demoninator in the targeting of substrates to all three major protein degradation pathways in mammalian cells: the proteasome, the lysosome, and the autophagosome. The factors that direct a substrate toward a particular route of degradation likely include ubiquitin chain length and linkage type, which may favor interaction with particular receptors or confer differential susceptibility to deubiquitinase activities associated with each pathway