Waleran II, Count of Meulan and Worcester, 1104-1166

Waleran was born in 1104 as the elder of the twin sons of Count Robert I of Meulan and Leicester (died 1118) and his wife Isabel of Vermandois (died c. 1139). On his father’s death Waleran and his younger twin, Robert, were each alloted a share of their paternal inheritance by his testament, a division which came into effect on their sixteenth birthday in 1120. Waleran took the county of Meulan in the Vexin Français and the Norman lands (with some Dorset estates to give him an English base and revenue). Waleran was given the marriage of the infant Matilda, daughter of King Stephen of England in 1136, though she died within a couple of years of their betrothal. He married at the end of 1141 Agnes, daughter of Amaury I de Montfort, count of Evreux, and around 1145 secured the lordship of Gournay-sur-Marne in the Parisis as her marriage-portion. In 1138 Waleran was made earl of Worcester in England by King Stephen, a grant which was eventually rescinded by King Henry II. Waleran died on 9/10 April 1166 and was buried in the chapter house of the family abbey of St Peter of Préaux in Normandy. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Count Robert II of Meulan

Quantum wideband traveling-wave analysis of a degenerate parametric amplifier

We develop a wideband traveling-wave formalism for analyzing quantum mechanically a degenerate parametric amplifier. The formalism is based on spatial differential equations-spatial Langevin equations-that propagate temporal Fourier components of the field operators through the nonlinear medium. In addition to the parametric nonlinearity, the Langevin equations include absorption and associated fluctuations, dispersion (phase mismatching), and pump quantum fluctuations. We analyze the dominant effects of phase mismatching and pump quantum fluctuations on the squeezing produced by a degenerate parametric amplifier

We have a long history of getting it wrong on Russia – Interview with David Crouch

Euro Crisis in the Press talks to David Crouch about media coverage of EU-Russia relations and the recent search for Russian submarines off the Swedish coast

Polyterthiophenes incorporating 3,4-difluorothiophene units : application in organic field-effect transistors

Two terthiophenes bearing core fluorinated thienyl units have been synthesised as potential semiconductor materials for organic field-effect transistors. Polymerisation of these compounds has been achieved using conventional iron(III) chloride oxidative coupling methods and by electrochemical oxidation. Characterisation of the fluorinated materials has been achieved by absorption spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. A soluble hexyl-functionalised polymer (poly8b) was used in an OFET device; hole mobilities were measured up to 3 × 10−3 cm2 · V−1 · s−1, and the device had an on/off ratio of 105 and a turn-on voltage of +4 V

Teaching the Grid: Learning Distributed Computing with the M-grid Framework

A classic challenge within Computer Science is to distribute data and processes so as to take advantage of multiple computers tackling a single problem in a simultaneous and coordinated way. This situation arises in a number of different scenarios, including Grid computing which is a secure, service-based architecture for tackling massively parallel problems and creating virtual organizations. Although the Grid seems destined to be an important part of the future computing landscape, it is very difficult to learn how to use as real Grid software requires extensive setting up and complex security processes. M-grid mimics the core features of the Grid, in a much simpler way, enabling the rapid prototyping of distributed applications. We describe m-grid and explore how it may be used to teach foundation Grid computing skills at the Higher Education level and report some of our experiences of deploying it as an exercise within a programming course

Knock-in of Human BACE1 Cleaves Murine APP and Reiterates Alzheimer-like PhenoTypes

Footnotes We thank Roemex and the College for Life Science and Medicine at the University of Aberdeen for their generous support. The authors declare no competing financial interests.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Stochastic Streams: Sample Complexity vs. Space Complexity

We address the trade-off between the computational resources needed to process a large data set and the number of samples available from the data set. Specifically, we consider the following abstraction: we receive a potentially infinite stream of IID samples from some unknown distribution D, and are tasked with computing some function f(D). If the stream is observed for time t, how much memory, s, is required to estimate f(D)? We refer to t as the sample complexity and s as the space complexity. The main focus of this paper is investigating the trade-offs between the space and sample complexity. We study these trade-offs for several canonical problems studied in the data stream model: estimating the collision probability, i.e., the second moment of a distribution, deciding if a graph is connected, and approximating the dimension of an unknown subspace. Our results are based on techniques for simulating different classical sampling procedures in this model, emulating random walks given a sequence of IID samples, as well as leveraging a characterization between communication bounded protocols and statistical query algorithms

Riding against the wind: a review of competition cycling aerodynamics

Aerodynamics has such a profound impact on cycling performance at the elite level that it has infiltrated almost every aspect of the sport from riding position and styles, equipment design and selection, race tactics and training regimes, governing rules and regulations to even the design of new velodromes. This paper presents a review of the aspects of aerodynamics that are critical to understanding flows around cyclists under racing conditions, and the methods used to evaluate and improve aerodynamic performance at the elite level. The fundamental flow physics of bluff body aerodynamics and the mechanisms by which the aerodynamic forces are imparted on cyclists are described. Both experimental and numerical techniques used to investigate cycling aerodynamic performance and the constraints on implementing aerodynamic saving measures at the elite level are also discussed. The review reveals that the nature of cycling flow fields are complex and multi-faceted as a result of the highly three-dimensional and variable geometry of the human form, the unsteady racing environment flow field, and the non-linear interactions that are inherent to all cycling flows. Current findings in this field have and will continue to evolve the sport of elite cycling while also posing a multitude of potentially fruitful areas of research for further gains in cycling performance

Practising Place – Vocal landscapes: bodies, language and place

Practising Place is a programme of public conversations, designed to examine the relationship between art practice and place. Each event is hosted at a different venue in the North of England and explores a specific aspect of place by bringing artists together with people from different backgrounds, who share a common area of interest. Vocal Landscapes examined the role of language within experiences of place. Referencing locations such as the Lake District and the West Yorkshire estate of Whitley Beaumont, Amelia Crouch, in conversation with David Cooper, discussed how forms of language are used to govern, frame and re-inscribe particular places. Drawing on their individual research, the speakers also considered how place writing and visual art can expose the inherent tensions and hidden voices of landscapes, by attending to the intertextuality of place

The OMII Software Distribution

This paper describes the work carried out at the Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute (OMII) and the key elements of the OMII software distribution that have been developed in collaboration with members of the Managed Programme Initiative. The main objective of the OMII is to preserve and consolidate the achievements of the UK e-Science Programme by collecting, maintaining and improving the software modules that form the key components of a generic Grid middleware. Recently, the activity at Southampton has been extended beyond 2009 through a new project, OMII-UK, that forms a partnership that now includes the OGSA-DAI activities at Edinburgh and the myGrid project at Manchester