Sublime Lessons: Education and Ambivalence in War Exhibitions

This paper examines how experiences of the sublime are regulated in the war exhibitions of modern museums. Ambivalence is a key feature of the sublime because subjects are forced to negotiate simultaneous feelings of terror and awe in the face of something unrepresentable like war. This paper analyses how war exhibitions dispel ambivalence by resuscitating a Kantian sublime full of resolution, catharsis and transcendence. In this context, potentially destabilising encounters with horrific objects (e.g. guns, bombs, shrapnel) are neutralised by didactic 'Lessons of War' and celebratory narratives of victory. Using examples from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Imperial War Museum in London and the Smithsonian Institution, this paper illustrates how conventional war exhibitions reproduce a politics of consensus by carefully managing the experience of the sublime.

A novel approach to dynamic modelling of polymer extrusion for improved process control

Polymer extrusion is a complex process and the availability of good dynamic models is key for improved system operation. Previous modelling attempts have failed adequately to capture the non-linearities of the process or prove too complex for control applications. This work presents a novel approach to the problem by the modelling of extrusion viscosity and pressure, adopting a grey box modelling technique that combines mechanistic knowledge with empirical data using a genetic algorithm approach. The models are shown to outperform those of a much higher order generated by a conventional black box technique while providing insight into the underlying processes at work within the extruder.

High harmonic generation in the relativistic limit

The generation of extremely bright coherent X-ray pulses in the femtosecond and attosecond regime is currently one of the most exciting frontiers of physics - allowing, for the first time, measurements with unprecedented temporal resolution(1-6). Harmonics from laser - solid target interactions have been identified as a means of achieving fields as high as the Schwinger limit(2,7) (E = 1.3 x 10(16) V m(-1)) and as a highly promising route to high-efficiency attosecond (10(-18) s) pulses(8) owing to their intrinsically phase-locked nature. The key steps to attain these goals are achieving high conversion efficiencies and a slow decay of harmonic efficiency to high orders by driving harmonic production to the relativistic limit(1). Here we present the first experimental demonstration of high harmonic generation in the relativistic limit, obtained on the Vulcan Petawatt laser(9). High conversion efficiencies (eta> 10(-6) per harmonic) and bright emission (> 10(22) photons s(-1) mm(-2) mrad(-2) (0.1% bandwidth)) are observed at wavelengths <4 nm ( the 'water-window' region of particular interest for bio-microscopy).

Fast Heating scalable to laser fusion ignition

Rapid heating of a compressed fusion fuel by a short-duration laser pulse is a promising route to generating energy by nuclear fusion1, and has been demonstrated on an experimental scale using a novel fast-ignitor geometry2. Here we describe a refinement of this system in which a much more powerful, pulsed petawatt (1015 watts) laser creates a fastheated core plasma that is scalable to fullscale ignition, significantly increasing the number of fusion events while still maintaining high heating efficiency at these substantially higher laser energies. Our findings bring us a step closer to realizing the production of relatively inexpensive, full-scale fast-ignition laser facilities.

Proton Radiography of a Laser-Driven Implosion

Protons accelerated by a picosecond laser pulse have been used to radiograph a 500 mu m diameter capsule, imploded with 300 J of laser light in 6 symmetrically incident beams of wavelength 1.054 mu m and pulse length 1 ns. Point projection proton backlighting was used to characterize the density gradients at discrete times through the implosion. Asymmetries were diagnosed both during the early and stagnation stages of the implosion. Comparison with analytic scattering theory and simple Monte Carlo simulations were consistent with a 3 +/- 1 g/cm(3) core with diameter 85 +/- 10 mu m. Scaling simulations show that protons > 50 MeV are required to diagnose asymmetry in ignition scale conditions.

Tenant Right and Agrarian Society in Ulster 1600-1870

The book has been described by various Irish historians as "the definitive treatment of that most peculiar institution--the Ulster Custom--and its tangled relationship with irish land and politics" (Liam Kennedy), "a brilliantly reconceptualised sketch of the Irish land question" (David Miller). "All previous discussion," according to another reviewer, "must take second place to Dowling's exhaustive survey, which draws on the whole range of surviving estate records to examine the theory and practice of tenant right across three centuries" (Sean Connolly).

Optimising the use of virtual and conventional simulation: a clinical and economic analysis

Background and purpose: Currently, optimal use of virtual simulation for all treatment sites is not entirely clear. This study presents data to identify specific patient groups for whom conventional simulation may be completely eliminated and replaced by virtual simulation. Sampling and method: Two hundred and sixty patients were recruited from four treatment sites (head and neck, breast, pelvis, and thorax). Patients were randomly assigned to be treated using the usual treatment process involving conventional simulation, or a treatment process differing only in the replacement of conventional plan verification with virtual verification. Data were collected on set-up accuracy at verification, and the number of unsatisfactory verifications requiring a return to the conventional simulator. A micro-economic costing analysis was also undertaken, whereby data for each treatment process episode were also collected: number and grade of staff present, and the time for each treatment episode. Results: The study shows no statistically significant difference in the number of returns to the conventional simulator for each site and study arm. Image registration data show similar quality of verification for each study arm. The micro-costing data show no statistical difference between the virtual and conventional simulation processes. Conclusions: At our institution, virtual simulation including virtual verification for the sites investigated presents no disadvantage compared to conventional simulation.