Juries in fraud trials: a strong case for change

Editorial comment on press, public and professional discussion about the use of juries in fraud trials and the difficulty of presenting the prosecution’s case in matters involving complex financial and legal issues. Brief comment by George Staple QC published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Approximate deconvolution large eddy simulation of a stratified two-layer quasigeostrophic ocean model

We present an approximate deconvolution (AD) large eddy simulation (LES) model for the two-layer quasigeostrophic equations. We applied the AD-LES model to mid-latitude two-layer square oceanic basins, which are standard prototypes of more realistic stratified ocean dynamics models. Two spatial filters were investigated in the AD-LES model: a tridiagonal filter and an elliptic differential filter. A sensitivity analysis of the AD-LES results with respect to changes in modeling parameters was performed. The results demonstrate that the AD-LES model used in conjunction with the tridiagonal or differential filters provides additional dissipation to the system, allowing the use of a smaller eddy viscosity coefficient. Changing the spatial filter makes a significant difference in characterizing the effective dissipation in the model. It was found that the tridiagonal filter introduces the least amount of numerical dissipation into the AD-LES model. The differential filter, however, added a significant amount of numerical dissipation to the AD-LES model for large values of the filter width. All AD-LES models reproduced the DNS results at a fraction of the cost within a reasonable level of accuracy

Slow pyrolysis as a method for the destruction of Japanese wireweed, Sargassum muticum

Japanese wireweed, Sargassum muticum is an invasive species to Great Britain, which might be controlled by harvesting it for energy and chemicals. Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of the organic components of dry biomass by heating in the absence of air. The distribution of matter between solid, liquid and syngas depends on the biomass and the pyrolysis temperature and time. Slow pyrolysis with lower temperatures (~ 400 oC) tends to produce more solid char. Pyrolysis char can be an effective soil ameliorant, a sequestration agent due to its stability or burned as a fuel. The research attempts to answer the question: Could slow pyrolysis be an energy efficient means for the destruction of Japanese wireweed and produce a potential product, biochar? A simple test rig was developed to establish the yield of biochar, biocrude and syngas from the slow pyrolysis of Sargassum muticum. An energy balance was calculated using compositional data from the analysis of the seaweed feedstock, higher heating values (HHV) from bomb-calorimetry and literature values. The energy required to heat 1 kg of dry seaweed by 400 oC for slow pyrolysis was estimated at 0.5 MJ. The HHV of syngas and biocrude produced from the pyrolysis totalled 2.9 MJ. There is, therefore, sufficient energy in the biocrude and syngas fractions produced by the pyrolysis of seaweed to power the process and produce useful biochar, but insufficient energy for drying

Matrix Computations and Optimization in Apache Spark

We describe matrix computations available in the cluster programming framework, Apache Spark. Out of the box, Spark provides abstractions and implementations for distributed matrices and optimization routines using these matrices. When translating single-node algorithms to run on a distributed cluster, we observe that often a simple idea is enough: separating matrix operations from vector operations and shipping the matrix operations to be ran on the cluster, while keeping vector operations local to the driver. In the case of the Singular Value Decomposition, by taking this idea to an extreme, we are able to exploit the computational power of a cluster, while running code written decades ago for a single core. Another example is our Spark port of the popular TFOCS optimization package, originally built for MATLAB, which allows for solving Linear programs as well as a variety of other convex programs. We conclude with a comprehensive set of benchmarks for hardware accelerated matrix computations from the JVM, which is interesting in its own right, as many cluster programming frameworks use the JVM. The contributions described in this paper are already merged into Apache Spark and available on Spark installations by default, and commercially supported by a slew of companies which provide further services

Juries in fraud trials: a strong case for change

Editorial comment on press, public and professional discussion about the use of juries in fraud trials and the difficulty of presenting the prosecution’s case in matters involving complex financial and legal issues. Brief comment by George Staple QC published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

The labyrinth of major fraud

George Staple QC, a partner in Clifford Chance and a former Director of the Serious Fraud Office, addresses the issue of overlap between different investigations and proceedings in major fraud cases and offers some suggestions for harmonisation. Published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Review of Daniel Deardorff's the Other Within: The Genius of Deformity in Myth, Culture, and Psyche

Review of Daniel Deardorff's the Other Within: The Genius of Deformity in Myth, Culture, and  Psych