Three medieval buildings in the port of Ardglass, Co Down

Three buildings in what is now a small port in Ardglass, Co. Down are connected by their location on the ridge overlooking the harbour and quay. Because of the Irish vernacular style related to tower houses they have all been called castles, but analysis shows that they were originally more commercial in their purpose. The largest of the buildings is identified as a line of shops. The building adjacent to that was possibly used as a warehouse or communal hall, while the third building appears to have been used as a watch tower for the port. As such they relate to other commercial buildings found in late medieval Irish towns, notably Kilmallock, Co. Limerick.

The IHS monogram as a symbol of Catholic resistance in 17th century Ireland

It has been suggested that the presence of religious images and scenes in secular buildings of sixteenth-century date can be viewed as an expression of resistance by the native Irish to English colonial activity in the aftermath of the Munster Plantation (J. A. Delle, 1999, International Journal of Historical Archaeology 3: 11–35). Such images, however, may merely represent a continuation into the early modern period of a Medieval tradition of adorning secular houses with devotional images. If a religious symbol of native Catholic resistance to English colonization and Protestantism in Munster is to be sought then perhaps a more appropriate image would be the I.H.S. monogram—a symbol associated with the Counter Reformation and the Jesuits. The paper presents an example of the monogram located within a tower house at Gortnetubbrid in County Limerick, Ireland.

Micro-environmental change as a trigger for granite decay in offshore Irish lighthouses: implications for the long-term preservation of operational historic buildings.

Following automation of lighthouses around the coastline of Ireland, reports of accelerated deterioration of interior granite stonework have increased significantly with an associated deterioration in the historic structure and rise in related maintenance costs. Decay of granite stone- work primarily occurs through granular disintegration with the effective grusification of granite surfaces. A decay gradient exists within the towers whereby the condition of granite in the lower levels is much worse than elsewhere. The lower tower levels are also regions with highest rela- tive humidity values and greatest salt concentrations. Data indicate that post-automation decay may have been trig- gered by a change in micro-environmental conditions within the towers associated with increased episodes of condensation on stone surfaces. This in turn appears to have facilitated deposition and accumulation of hygro- scopic salts (e.g. NaCl) giving rise to widespread evidence of deliquescence in the lower tower levels. Evidence indicates that the main factors contributing to accelerated deterioration of interior granite stonework are changes in micro-environmental conditions, salt weathering, chemical weathering through the corrosive effect of strongly alkaline conditions on alumino-silicate minerals within the granite and finally, the mica-rich characteristics of the granite itself which increases its structural and chemical susceptibility to subaerial weathering processes by creating points of weakness within the granite. This case study demonstrates how seemingly minor changes in micro-environmental conditions can unintentionally trigger the rapid and extensive deterioration of a previously stable rock type and threaten the long-term future of nationally iconic opera- tional historic structures.

Decomposing the mid-holocene Tsuga decline in eastern North America

The mid-Holocene decline of Tsuga canadensis (hereafter Tsuga) populations across eastern North America is widely perceived as a synchronous event, driven by pests/pathogens, rapid climate change, or both. Pattern identification and causal attribution are hampered by low stratigraphic density of pollen-sampling and radiometric dates at most sites, and by absence of highly resolved, paired pollen and paleoclimate records from single sediment cores, where chronological order of climatic and vegetational changes can be assessed. We present an intensely sampled (contiguous 1-cm intervals) record of pollen and water table depth (inferred from testate amoebae) from a single core spanning the Tsuga decline at Irwin Smith Bog in Lower Michigan, with high-precision chronology. We also present an intensively sampled pollen record from Tower Lake in Upper Michigan. Both sites show high-magnitude fluctuations in Tsuga pollen percentages during the pre-decline maximum. The terminal decline is dated at both sites ca. 5000 cal yr BP, some 400 years later than estimates from other sites and data compilations. The terminal Tsuga decline was evidently heterochronous across its range. A transient decline ca. 5350 cal yr BP at both sites may correspond to the terminal decline at other sites in eastern North America. At Irwin Smith Bog, the terminal Tsuga decline preceded an abrupt and persistent decline in water table depths by;200 years, suggesting the decline was not directly driven by abrupt climate change. The Tsuga decline may best be viewed as comprising at least three phases: a long-duration predecline maximum with high-magnitude and high-frequency fluctuations, followed by a terminal decline at individual sites, followed in turn by two millennia of persistently low Tsuga populations. These phases may not be causally linked, and may represent dynamics taking place at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Further progress toward understanding the phenomenon requires an expanded network of high-resolution pollen and paleoclimate chronologies.

PROBLEM-SOLVING IN SCHIZOPHRENIA - A SPECIFIC DEFICIT IN PLANNING ABILITY

The study investigated problem solving ability in schizophrenia. Thirty DSM-IIIR schizophrenic patients and 27 matched normal controls were tested on the Three-Dimensional Computerised Tower of London Test (3-D CTL Test) (Morris et al., 1993). The patients took significantly more moves to solve a series of problems and solved significantly fewer problems in the predetermined minimum number of moves. The patients response times, as measured using a control version of the task (the 3-D CTL Control), were longer than those of the controls. However, when latencies were adjusted to take into account the slower responses overall, the patients planning times were not significantly increased. Inaccurate planning, as defined by taking more moves, did not correlate with either positive or negative symptoms, but the response times tended to be longer in patients who had more negative symptoms. The findings suggest that there is a deficit in problem solving activity in schizophrenia that may be associated with translating 'willed intentions' into action, independent of slower motor speed.

Problem-solving and spatial working memory in patients with schizophrenia and with focal frontal and temporal lobe lesions

Problem-solving ability was investigated in 25 DSM-IIIR schizophrenic (SC) patients using the Tower of Hanoi (TOH) task. Their performance was compared to that of: (1) 22 patients with neurosurgical unilateral prefrontal lesions, 11 left (LF) and 10 right hemisphere (RF); (2) 38 patients with unilateral temporal lobectomies, 19 left (LT) and 19 right (RT); and (3) 44 matched control subjects. Like the RT and LF group, the schizophrenics were significantly impaired on the TOH. The deficit shown by the schizophrenic group was equivalent whether or not the problems to be solved included goal-subgoal conflicts, unlike the LF group who were impaired specifically on these problems. The nature of the SC deficit was also distinct from that of the RT group, in that the problem-solving deficit remained after controlling for the effects of spatial memory performance. This study indicates, therefore, that neither focal frontal nor temporal lobe damage sustained in adult life is a sufficient explanation for the problem-solving deficits found in patients with schizophrenia. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

The Impact of Wind Farm Power Oscillations on the Irish Power System

The impact of power fluctuations arising from fixed-speed wind turbines on the magnitude and frequency of inter-area oscillations has been investigated. The authors introduced data acquisition equipment to record the power flow on the interconnector between the Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland systems. Through monitoring the interconnector oscillation using a fast Fourier transform, it was possible to determine the magnitude and frequency of the inter-area oscillation between the two systems. The impact of tower shadow on the output power from a wind farm was analysed using data recorded on site. A case study investigates the effect on the system of the removal of a large fixed-speed wind farm. Conclusions are drawn on the impact that conventional generation and the output from fixed-speed wind farms have on the stability of the Irish power system.

ABODE EU performance tour

The Met, Bury; Morden Tower, Newcastle; Sowieso, Berlin; Wendel, Berlin; Black Box, Belfast Festival

Folly: Art after Architecture

FOLLY brings together Irish and international contemporary artists whose work has been inspired by iconic buildings of architectural modernism. From Eileen Gray’s seminal E1027 to Mies Van der Rohe’s restored Farnsworth House, Paul Rudolph’s demolished residences to Walter Gropius’s imagined Chicago Tribune Tower, the buildings referenced in FOLLY have had a mixed collection of fates.

Their presence in this exhibition affords them another afterlife. The qualities that make the architecture significant are played-with, exposed, re-canonised, made ambiguous, and eulogised. By creating fictional moments, questioning conventional documentation or excavating troubled histories of production, each artist invites you to think about how we experience and understand architecture today.

Lost in Transition? Emerging forms of residential architecture in Kathmandu

Kathmandu has been the last few cities in the world which retained its medieval urban culture up until twentieth century. Various Hindu and Buddhist religious practices shaped the arrangement of houses, roads and urban spaces giving the city a distinctive physical form, character and a unique oriental nativeness. In recent decades, the urban culture of the city has been changing with the forces of urbanisation and globalisation and the demand for new buildings and spaces. New residential design is increasingly dominated by distinctive patterns of Western suburban ideal comprising detached or semi-detached homes and high rise tower blocks. This architectural iconoclasm can be construed as a rather crude response to the indigenous spaces and builtform. The paper attempts to dismantle the current tension between traditional and contemporary 'culture' (and hence society) and housing (or builtform) in Kathmandu by engaging in a discussion that cuts across space, time and meaning of building. The paper concludes that residential architecture in Kathmandu today stands disoriented and lost in the transition.

Unsettling modernity: Shifting values and changing housing styles in the Kathmandu Valley

Abstract

Culture has always been important for the character of the cities, as have the civic and public institutions that sustain a lifestyle and provide an identity. Substantial evidence of the unique historical, urban civilisation remains within the traditional settlements in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal; manifested in houses, palaces, temples, rest houses, open spaces, festivals, rituals, customs and cultural institutions. Indigenous knowledge and practices prescribed the arrangement of houses, roads and urban spaces giving the city a distinctive physical form, character and a unique oriental nativeness. In technical sense, these societies did not have written rules for guiding development. In recent decades, the urban culture of the city has been changing with the forces of urbanisation and globalisation and the demand for new buildings and spaces. New residential design is increasingly dominated by distinctive patterns of Western suburban ideal comprising detached or semi-detached homes and high rise tower blocks. This architectural iconoclasm can be construed as a rather crude response to the indigenous culture and built form. The paper attempts to dismantle the current tension between traditional and contemporary ‘culture’ (and hence society) and housing (or built form) in the Kathmandu Valley by engaging in a discussion that cuts across space, time and meaning of architecture as we know it.

Comparing the orthogonal and homotopy functor calculi

Goodwillie’s homotopy functor calculus constructs a Taylor tower of approximations toF , often a functor from spaces to spaces. Weiss’s orthogonal calculus provides a Taylortower for functors from vector spaces to spaces. In particular, there is a Weiss towerassociated to the functor V ÞÑ FpSVq, where SVis the one-point compactification of V .In this paper, we give a comparison of these two towers and show that when F isanalytic the towers agree up to weak equivalence. We include two main applications, oneof which gives as a corollary the convergence of the Weiss Taylor tower of BO. We alsolift the homotopy level tower comparison to a commutative diagram of Quillen functors,relating model categories for Goodwillie calculus and model categories for the orthogonal calculus.