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.

Correlating Additives to Deterioration and Assessing the Effectiveness of Acrylic Coatings for the Protection of Rubber

Conservators have long been aware of the problems associated with the preservation of rubber objects due to inherent instability that can be attributed, in part, to the presence of additives. Inorganic additives, such as fillers, accelerators, stabilizers, and special ingredients are necessary in manufacturing to alter the properties of natural rubber. These materials all have different interactions with the rubber, and each other, and differing effects on the ageing process. To date, the most effective and accepted methods to preserve rubber are cold, dark storage of objects, or the use of low oxygen environments. While these methods are effective, they greatly limit access. The application of coatings to the surface of rubber objects can slow deterioration and greatly increase the ability of an institution to handle and display rubber objects. While numerous coatings for preventive and interventive treatment have been tested, none have been so successful to warrant routine use. The first section of this research highlighted the relationship between the inclusion of certain additives in natural rubber objects and the accelerated or slowed down overall degradation. In the second part of this research, the acrylic varnishes Golden Polymer Varnish with UVLS, Lascaux Acrylic Transparent Varnish-UV, Sennelier Matte Lacquer with UV Protection, and Liquitex Soluvar Varnish containing ultraviolet light absorbers or stabilizers were tested as a preventative coating for rubber. Through testing the visual and physical properties of the samples, as well as compound analysis the results of this research suggest that acrylic varnishes do provide protection, each to varying degrees. The results also provided insight into the behavior of rubber and these varnishes with continuing light exposure.

Molecular Computational Elements Encode Large Populations of Small Objects

Since the introduction of molecular computation1, 2, experimental molecular computational elements have grown3, 4, 5 to encompass small-scale integration6, arithmetic7 and games8, among others. However, the need for a practical application has been pressing. Here we present molecular computational identification (MCID), a demonstration that molecular logic and computation can be applied to a widely relevant issue. Examples of populations that need encoding in the microscopic world are cells in diagnostics or beads in combinatorial chemistry (tags). Taking advantage of the small size9 (about 1 nm) and large 'on/off' output ratios of molecular logic gates and using the great variety of logic types, input chemical combinations, switching thresholds and even gate arrays in addition to colours, we produce unique identifiers for members of populations of small polymer beads (about 100 m) used for synthesis of combinatorial libraries10, 11. Many millions of distinguishable tags become available. This method should be extensible to far smaller objects, with the only requirement being a 'wash and watch' protocol12. Our focus on converting molecular science into technology concerning analog sensors13, 14, turns to digital logic devices in the present work.

Benevolent Patriotism: Art, Dissent and the American Effect

This article examines the role of contemporary art in a post-9/11 context through The American Effect exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 2003. This exhibition displayed a range of artworks from around the world that specifically engaged with, commented upon and interrogated the USA's pre-eminent position as a global superpower. In the politically charged climate after 9/11, the exhibition offered itself as a critical voice amid the more obvious patriotic clamour: it was one of the places where Americans could ask (and answer) the question, `Why do they hate us so much?' Although The American Effect claimed to be a space of dissent, it ultimately failed to question, let alone challenge, US global hegemony. Instead, the exhibition articulated a benevolent patriotism that forced artwork from other nations into supplicating and abject positions, and it obscured the complex discursive networks that connect artists, curators, critics, audiences and art museums.

Cities of God? Medieval urban forms and their Christian Symbolism

Situated in the context of recent geographical engagements with 'landscape', this paper combines 'morphological' and 'iconographic' landscape interpretations to examine how urban forms were perceived in late medieval Europe. To date, morphological studies have mapped the medieval city either by classifying urban layouts according to particular types, or by analysing plan forms of particular towns and cities to reveal their spatial evolution. This paper outlines a third way, an 'iconographic' approach, which shows how urban forms in the Middle Ages conveyed Christian symbolism. Three such 'mappings' explore this thesis: the first uses textual and visual representations which show that the city was understood as a scaled-down world â?? a microcosm â?? linking city and cosmos in the medieval mind; the second 'mapping' develops this theme further and suggests that urban landscapes were inscribed with symbolic form through their layout on the ground; while the third looks at how Christian symbolism of urban forms was performed through the urban landscape in perennial religious processions. Each of these 'mappings' points to the symbolic, mystical significance urban form had in the Middle Ages, based on religious faith, and they thus offer a deepened appreciation of how urban landscapes were represented, constructed and experienced at the time.

Mapping cosmopolis: moral topographies of the medieval city

Cosmopolis is a concept that has a long history in many cultures around the globe. It is a mirroring of the 'social' and 'natural' worlds, such that in one is seen the order and the structures of the other -- a mutual 'mapping'. In this paper I examine how the presence of cosmopolis -- a Christianised cosmopolis of the European Middle Ages -- was made evident in the representation and formation of cities at that time. I reveal a dualism between the social and spatial ordering of both city and cosmos which defined and reinforced social and spatial boundaries in urban landscapes, evident for example in the 11th and 12th centuries. Recently, Toulmin (1992) has taken the idea of cosmopolis to argue that it has been a persistent presence in Western - Enlightenment science, philosophy, and religion -- a 'hidden agenda of modernity'. I contend that, as an idea, cosmopolis has a much earlier circulation in European thinking, not least in the Middle Ages. Locating cosmopolis in the medieval and the modern periods then begs a question of what is it that really makes the two distinct and separate? All too often human geographers have emphasised discontinuities between the 'medieval' and 'modern' age, locating the 'rise of modernity' some time in the Enlightenment period. However, what 'mapping' cosmopolis reveals are continuities, binding time and space together, which when looked at begin to help query the modernity concept itself.

Rethinking the early medieval settlement of woodlands: evidence from the western Sussex Weald

The assumptions underlying the interpretation of the early medieval settlement of woodland are challenged through a detailed study of the Weald in western Sussex. The patterns of usage of woodland in England were very varied, and each area needs to be looked at individually. Systems of woodland exploitation did not simply develop from extensive to intensive, but may have taken a number of different forms during the early medieval period. In one area of the Weald, near to Horsham, the woodland appears to have been systematically divided up between different estates. This implies that woodland settlement may not always have developed organically, but this type of landscape could have been planned. It is argued that the historical complexity of woodland landscapes has not been recognised because the evidence has been aggregated. Instead, each strand of evidence needs to be evaluated separately.

Optical colors of 56 near-Earth objects: trends with size and orbit

We present the results of BVRIZ photometry of 56 near-Earth objects (NEOs) obtained with the 1-m Jacobus Kapteyn telescope on La Palma during 2000 and 2001. Our sample includes many NEOs with particularly deep 1 - mum pyroxene/olivine absorption bands, similar to Q-type asteroids. We also classify three NEOs with particularly blue colors. No D-type asteroids were found, placing an upper limit of similar to2% on the fraction of the NEO population originating in the outer main belt or the Trojan clouds. The ratio of dark to bright objects in our sample was found to be 0.40, significantly higher than current theoretical predictions. As well as classifying the NEOs, we have investigated color trends with size and orbit. We see a general trend for larger silicate objects to have shallower absorption bands but find no significant difference in the distribution of taxonomic classes at small and large sizes. Our data clearly show that different taxonomic classes tend to occupy different regions of (a, e) space. By comparing our data with current model predictions for NEO dynamical evolution we see that Q- R-, and V-type NEOs tend to have orbits associated with "fast track" delivery from the main belt, whereas S-type NEOs tend to have orbits associated with "slow track" delivery. This outcome would be expected if space weathering occurs on time scales of >10(6) years. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

Photometry of cometary nuclei: Rotation rates, colours and a comparison with Kuiper Belt Objects

We present time-series data on Jupiter Family Comets (JFCs) 17P/Holmes, 47P/Ashbrook-Jackson and 137P/Shoemaker-Levy 2. In addition we also present results from `snap-shot' observations of comets 43P/Wolf-Harrington, 44P/Reinmuth 2, 103P/Hartley 2 and 104P/Kowal 2 taken during the same run. The comets were at heliocentric distances of between 3 and 7 au at this time. We present measurements of size and activity levels for the snap-shot targets. The time-series data allow us to constrain rotation periods and shapes, and thus bulk densities. We also measure colour indices (V - R) and (R - I) and reliable radii for these comets. We compare all of our findings to date with similar results for other comets and Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). We find that the rotational properties of nuclei and KBOs are very similar, that there is evidence for a cut-off in bulk densities at ~0.6 g cm-3 in both populations, and the colours of the two populations show similar correlations. For JFCs, there is no observational evidence for the optical colours being dependent on either position in the orbit or orbital parameters.