Mapping New Jerusalem: Space, National Identity and Power in British Espionage Fiction 1945-79.

This thesis argues that the espionage fiction of Graham Greene, Ian Fleming and John le Carré published between 1945 and 1979 illustrates a number of discontinuities, disjunctions and paradoxes related to space, sovereignty and national identity in post-war Britain. To this effect, the thesis has three broad aims. Firstly, to approach the representations of space and sovereign power in the work of these authors published during the period 1945-1979, examining the way in which sovereign power produces space, and then how that power is distributed and maintained. Secondly, to analyse the effect that sovereign power has on a variety of social and cultural environments represented within spy fiction and how the exercise of power affects the response of individuals within them. Thirdly, to establish how the intervention of sovereign power within environments relates to the creation, propagation and exclusion of national identities within each author’s work. By mapping the application of sovereign power throughout various environments, the thesis demonstrates that the control of environment is inextricably linked to the sovereign control of British subjects in espionage fiction. Moreover, the role of the spy in the application of sovereign power reveals a paradox integral to the espionage genre, namely that the maintenance of sovereign power exists only through the undermining of its core principles. Sovereignty, in these texts, is maintained only by weakening the sovereign control of other nations

Spontaneous superrotation and the role of Kelvin waves in an idealized dry GCM

PublishedJournal ArticleThe nondimensional parameter space of an idealized dry primitive equation model is explored to find superrotating climate states. The model has no convective parameterization and is forced using a simple thermal relaxation to a prescribed radiative equilibrium temperature. It is demonstrated that, of four nondimensional parameters that determine the model's state, only the thermal Rossby number has a significant effect on superrotation. The mode that drives the transition to superrotation in an intermediate-thermal-Rossby-number atmosphere is shown to behave like a Kelvin wave in the tropics. © 2014 American Meteorological Society

Effects of the seasonal cycle on superrotation in planetary atmospheres

PublishedJournal ArticleThe dynamics of dry atmospheric general circulation model simulations forced by seasonally varying Newtonian relaxation are explored over a wide range of two control parameters and are compared with the large-scale circulation of Earth, Mars, and Titan in their relevant parameter regimes. Of the parameters that govern the behavior of the system, the thermal Rossby number (Ro) has previously been found to be important in governing the spontaneous transition from an Earth-like climatology of winds to a superrotating one with prograde equatorial winds, in the absence of a seasonal cycle. This case is somewhat unrealistic as it applies only if the planet has zero obliquity or if surface thermal inertia is very large. While Venus has nearly vanishing obliquity, Earth, Mars, and Titan (Saturn) all have obliquities of ̃25° and varying degrees of seasonality due to their differing thermal inertias and orbital periods. Motivated by this, we introduce a time-dependent Newtonian cooling to drive a seasonal cycle using idealized model forcing, and we define a second control parameter that mimics non-dimensional thermal inertia of planetary surfaces. We then perform and analyze simulations across the parameter range bracketed by Earth-like and Titan-like regimes, assess the impact on the spontaneous transition to superrotation, and compare Earth, Mars, and Titan to the model simulations in the relevant parameter regime. We find that a large seasonal cycle (small thermal inertia) prevents model atmospheres with large thermal Rossby numbers from developing superrotation by the influences of (1) cross-equatorial momentum advection by the Hadley circulation and (2) hemispherically asymmetric zonal-mean zonal winds that suppress instabilities leading to equatorial momentum convergence. We also demonstrate that baroclinic instabilities must be sufficiently weak to allow superrotation to develop. In the relevant parameter regimes, our seasonal model simulations compare favorably to large-scale, seasonal phenomena observed on Earth and Mars. In the Titan-like regime the seasonal cycle in our model acts to prevent superrotation from developing, and it is necessary to increase the value of a third parameter - the atmospheric Newtonian cooling time - to achieve a superrotating climatology. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved

Stratégie de protection à sélectivité totale pour réseaux MTDC

International audienceLa mise en place de réseaux à courant continu de grande taille en Europe est un objectif plausible dans un futur proche compte tenu de l'évolution du mix énergétique. En effet, de grands sites décentralisés de production d'énergies renouvelables vont progressivement apparaître (ex : fermes éoliennes offshores, centrales de production photovoltaïque, etc.). Avec les convertisseurs de type VSC, il est techniquement possible d'assembler plusieurs liaisons HVDC en une structure en réseau. Ainsi, un tel réseau permettra le transit d'une grande quantité de puissance, de l'ordre de plusieurs gigawatts, en courant continu, entre les différentes stations de conversion qui le composent. La protection d'un tel ouvrage est par conséquent un point critique et indispensable. En effet, en cas de défaut dans la partie à courant continu et au vue des puissances qui transitent, il est primordial de réduire au maximum les conséquences liées à l'apparition de ce défaut. Si plusieurs gigawatts sont échangés dans le réseau à courant continu, il est risqué pour la stabilité du (ou des) réseau(x) AC extérieur(s) de stopper l'ensemble de ce transit. C'est pour cela que des stratégies de protection rapides, efficaces et sélectives doivent être mises en œuvre. Cet article propose une revue des principales contraintes liées à la protection des réseaux à courant continu qui sont intrinsèques au courant continu, des différentes stratégies de protection qui peuvent être appliquées à un tel réseau et des principaux types de disjoncteurs à courant continu. Les différentes durées de fonctionnement de la détection et des disjoncteurs sont à comparer avec le temps critique d'élimination des défauts du réseau MTDC. Mots-clés—Disjoncteur à courant continu HVDC, Plan de protection, Réseau MTDC, Station de conversion, Sélectivité, Temps critique d'élimination des défauts.</p

Spatial encoding in primate hippocampus during free navigation.

The hippocampus comprises two neural signals-place cells and θ oscillations-that contribute to facets of spatial navigation. Although their complementary relationship has been well established in rodents, their respective contributions in the primate brain during free navigation remains unclear. Here, we recorded neural activity in the hippocampus of freely moving marmosets as they naturally explored a spatial environment to more explicitly investigate this issue. We report place cells in marmoset hippocampus during free navigation that exhibit remarkable parallels to analogous neurons in other mammalian species. Although θ oscillations were prevalent in the marmoset hippocampus, the patterns of activity were notably different than in other taxa. This local field potential oscillation occurred in short bouts (approximately .4 s)-rather than continuously-and was neither significantly modulated by locomotion nor consistently coupled to place-cell activity. These findings suggest that the relationship between place-cell activity and θ oscillations in primate hippocampus during free navigation differs substantially from rodents and paint an intriguing comparative picture regarding the neural basis of spatial navigation across mammals

Theoretical Analysis of Track Generation in 3d Method of Characteristics

Generating the tracks to use in a 3D Method of Characteristics (MOC) simulation is not a trivial task. The method used to generate tracks has significant implications on the memory and compute requirements for a problem and the current track generation methods have shortcomings. In this study, we provide a detailed description and analysis of the current state of the art method to generate tracks for direct 3D MOC, the Modular Ray Tracing (MRT) method. Additionally, a new global method for generating tracks is presented that is generalizable to many geometries, domain decomposition schemes, and quadrature sets. The main difference between the global and modular track generation approaches is that the global approach does not require any knowledge of the underlying geometry discretization and is therefore more flexible in domain decomposing the geometry. Some considerations with memory requirements and general applicability that we and others have found are discussedUnited States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Nuclear Energy (Nuclear Energy University Programs Fellowship)United States. Department of Energy (Center for Exascale Simulation of Advanced Reactors (CESAR). Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357

Reducing 3D MOC Storage Requirements with Axial On-the-fly Ray Tracing

The Method of Characteristics (MOC) is a popular method to solve the multi-group neutron transport equation. While this method is most widely used in two dimensions, extension to three dimensions allows for more accurate calculation of axial leakage and reaction rates. However, the 3D form of MOC can be computationally prohibitive. One concern is the massive memory requirements imposed by storing all segments of 3D tracks. In this study, an alternative approach is presented for axially extruded geometries that only saves segments in two dimensions. This is accomplished by first creating a 2D xy-plane that incorporates all radial detail at every axial level. Then, standard 2D ray tracing is applied to this plane. Axial extruded regions are constructed during segmentation, each containing an axial mesh. During transport sweeps the 3D segments are reconstructed on-the-fly using 2D segment lengths and 1D axial meshes. This strategy implicitly transforms geometries into an axially extruded representation. The resulting algorithm consumes far less memory with minimal computational overhead for common reactor physics problems.United States. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy (Nuclear Energy University Programs Fellowship)Center for Exascale Simulation of Advanced Reactors (U.S. Department of Energy Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357

Pilot Testing Behavior Therapy for Chronic Tic Disorders in Neurology and Developmental Pediatrics Clinics

Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) is an efficacious treatment with limited regional availability. As neurology and pediatric clinics are often the first point of therapeutic contact for individuals with tics, the present study assessed preliminary treatment response, acceptability, and feasibility of an abbreviated version, modified for child neurology and developmental pediatrics clinics. Fourteen youth (9-17) with Tourette disorder across 2 child neurology clinics and one developmental pediatrics clinic participated in a small case series. Clinician-rated tic severity (Yale Global Tic Severity Scale) decreased from pre- to posttreatment, z = –2.0, P \u3c .05, r = –.48, as did tic-related impairment, z = –2.4, P \u3c .05, r = –.57. Five of the 9 completers (56%) were classified as treatment responders. Satisfaction ratings were high, and therapeutic alliance ratings were moderately high. Results provide guidance for refinement of this modified CBIT protocol

Ceftriaxone-Resistant Salmonella enterica Serotype Typhimurium Sequence Type 313 from Kenyan Patients Is Associated with the blaCTX-M-15 Gene on a Novel IncHI2 Plasmid

Multidrug-resistant bacteria pose a major challenge to the clinical management of infections in resource-poor settings. Although nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS) bacteria cause predominantly enteric self-limiting illness in developed countries, NTS is responsible for a huge burden of life-threatening bloodstream infections in sub-Saharan Africa. Here, we characterized nine S. Typhimurium isolates from an outbreak involving patients who initially failed to respond to ceftriaxone treatment at a referral hospital in Kenya. These Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium isolates were resistant to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, cefuroxime, ceftriaxone, aztreonam, cefepime, sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, and cefpodoxime. Resistance to β-lactams, including to ceftriaxone, was associated with carriage of a combination of blaCTX-M-15, blaOXA-1, and blaTEM-1 genes. The genes encoding resistance to heavy-metal ions were borne on the novel IncHI2 plasmid pKST313, which also carried a pair of class 1 integrons. All nine isolates formed a single clade within S. Typhimurium ST313, the major clone of an ongoing invasive NTS epidemic in the region. This emerging ceftriaxone-resistant clone may pose a major challenge in the management of invasive NTS in sub-Saharan Africa