The Family of Love in English Society, 1550-1630

A detailed investigation of an outlawed mystical religious fellowship in early modern England.

The Church of Scotland and the English apocalyptic imagination, 1630-1650

This article explores the evolution of the eschatological identity of the Church of Scotland within the framework of English puritan apocalyptic thought in the period 1630–50. From the beginnings of reformation, English protestant theologians constructed an elaborate series of readings of Biblical apocalyptic texts through which they attempted to understand contemporary events. By the 1630s, English puritan exegetes had begun to identify within the Biblical text a distinctive role for Scottish Presbyterianism. The Scottish church, which, in the opinion of many English puritans, moved towards a more rigorously reformed ecclesiology as the 1630s progressed, was identified as a harbinger of the millennial glory that English puritans would shortly share. But as the relationship between Parliament and Presbytery turned sour, English puritans increasingly identified the Scottish church as the apocalyptic menace that stood in the way of their millennial fulfilment – a feeling made vivid in the rhetoric of the Cromwellian invasion.

Software Products for Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science

Models and software products have been developed for modelling, simulation and prediction of different correlations in materials science, including 1. the correlation between processing parameters and properties in titanium alloys and ?-titanium aluminides; 2. time–temperature–transformation (TTT) diagrams for titanium alloys; 3. corrosion resistance of titanium alloys; 4. surface hardness and microhardness profile of nitrocarburised layers; 5. fatigue stress life (S–N) diagrams for Ti–6Al–4V alloys. The programs are based on trained artificial neural networks. For each particular case appropriate combination of inputs and outputs is chosen. Very good performances of the models are achieved. Graphical user interfaces (GUI) are created for easy use of the models. In addition interactive text versions are developed. The models designed are combined and integrated in software package that is built up on a modular fashion. The software products are available in versions for different platforms including Windows 95/98/2000/NT, UNIX and Apple Macintosh. Description of the software products is given, to demonstrate that they are convenient and powerful tools for practical applications in solving various problems in materials science. Examples for optimisation of the alloy compositions, processing parameters and working conditions are illustrated. An option for use of the software in materials selection procedure is described.

Probing quantum communication rules by addition and subtraction of single photons to/from a light field

The possibility of arbitrarily "adding" and "subtracting" single photons to and from a light field may give access to a complete engineering of quantum states and to fundamental quantum phenomena. We experimentally implemented simple alternated sequences of photon creation and annihilation on a thermal field and used quantum tomography to verify the peculiar character of the resulting light states. In particular, as the final states depend on the order in which the two actions are performed, we directly observed the noncommutativity of the creation and annihilation operators, one of the cardinal concepts of quantum mechanics, at the basis of the quantum behavior of light. These results represent a step toward the full quantum control of a field and may provide new resources for quantum information protocols