Iona in the Kingdom of the Picts: a note

No abstract available

Persistence time of SIS infections in heterogeneous populations and networks

For a susceptible-infectious-susceptible (SIS) infection model in a heterogeneous population, we present simple formulae giving the leading-order asymptotic (large population) behaviour of the mean persistence time, from an endemic state to extinction of infection. Our model may be interpreted as describing an infection spreading through either (i) a population with heterogeneity in individuals' susceptibility and/or infectiousness; or (ii) a heterogeneous directed network. Using our asymptotic formulae, we show that such heterogeneity can only reduce (to leading order) the mean persistence time compared to a corresponding homogeneous population, and that the greater the degree of heterogeneity, the more quickly infection will die out

Dana Clancy: Intimate Distance

This is the catalogue of the exhibition "Dana Clancy" at Boston University Art Gallery

Household energy isn't all stoves

When people talk about 'household energy', most people automatically think of stoves. A lot of attention has been paid to improving stoves to make them more energy efficient and to reduce their pollution. This is one side of the 'stoves' approach, whilst others look at the 'supply' side of the problem by, for example, setting up woodlots. However, without wanting to take away from the very important work of trying to find solutions to meet this basic need, one should be asking 'Is this all there is to household energy? Once every household has an improved stove, will their energy problems be solved?' The answer is 'No'. This is because the energy needs of a household are more than what is needed to heat the cooking pot. There is the need for lighting, and in some places for heating. People are becoming more aware of the possibilities of electricity, for example, radios and sewing machines. Their needs are becoming more complex. This requires a change in approach about the way we consider household energy. We have to think more in terms of energy services to the household. Then we have to look beyond the walls of the household and see what goes on outside and how it relates the household and its energy needs

The computation of wave lengths of molecular hydrogen between 5415 and 5810.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University N.B.:Pages missing : 3, 15. Only one copy was available.This thesis presents the results of calculations undertaken to obtain the wavelengths of certain lines in the molecular spectrum of hydrogen. These lines lie in the range 5145 A to 5810 A. The spectrogram on which the lines are recorded was taken by Dr. Reginald G. Lacount, who exposed the plate in a Littrow-mount spectrograph at Boston University, using a hydrogen discharge tube as a source. [Truncated

Grandma Clancy\u27s Cootherman Box

As a child I was often fascinated by a small wooden box in which my grandmother kept her costume jewelry. She referred to it as her Cootherman box. It was not until recently that I decided to investigate the possible origin and meaning behind the word cootherman in an effort to understand its significance in relation to that mysterious box of jewelry

New Semester, New Stories...

Greetings, fellow Civil Warriors! As Managing Editor of the Civil War Institute’s student blog, The Gettysburg Compiler, I would like to welcome everyone to a new semester of exciting debate, original research, academic discourse, and on-site reporting on all things Civil War. This academic year, we look forward to expanding the range of both topics and perspectives explored on our blog as we welcome Matt LaRoche ’17, Megan McNish ‘16, Ryan Nadeau ‘16, Jacob Ross ’15, and Cassie Wells ‘16 to our team of fellows/writers. [excerpt

Cotton, Clemency, and Control: United States v. Klein and the Juridical Legacy of Executive Pardon

When the guns of war fell silent in 1865, Americans throughout the reunited states grappled with the logistics of peace. At virtually every turn lay nebulous but critical questions of race, class, allegiance, and identity. More pragmatic legal stumbling blocks could also be found strewn across the path to Reconstruction; some of them would ensnare the healing nation for decades to come. Among their number was notorious Supreme Court decision United States v. Klein (1872). Born on July 22, 1865 out of a small debate over the wartime seizure of Vicksburg cotton stores, Klein quickly evolved into a legal behemoth. In its tangles with the separation of powers, the presidential power of pardon, and the supremacy of the executive in judicial matters, United States v. Klein would ultimately amount to the very poster child of the snowball effect at work in Reconstruction law. Widely forgotten or overlooked today, the decision of United States v. Klein nonetheless stands as one of the most crucial battles of the American Civil War era

Approximating time to extinction for endemic infection models

Approximating the time to extinction of infection is an important problem in infection modelling. A variety of different approaches have been proposed in the literature. We study the performance of a number of such methods, and characterize their performance in terms of simplicity, accuracy, and generality. To this end, we consider first the classic stochastic susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) model, and then a multi-dimensional generalization of this which allows for Erlang distributed infectious periods. We find that (i) for a below-threshold infection initiated by a small number of infected individuals, approximation via a linear branching process works well; (ii) for an above-threshold infection initiated at endemic equilibrium, methods from Hamiltonian statistical mechanics yield correct asymptotic behaviour as population size becomes large; (iii) the widely-used Ornstein-Uhlenbeck diffusion approximation gives a very poor approximation, but may retain some value for qualitative comparisons in certain cases; (iv) a more detailed diffusion approximation can give good numerical approximation in certain circumstances, but does not provide correct large population asymptotic behaviour, and cannot be relied upon without some form of external validation (eg simulation studies)