Petitions, Parliament and Political Culture: Petitioning the House of Commons, 1780–1918*

This article analyses nearly one million petitions received by the House of Commons to reveal a culture of petitioning that recast the political culture of modern Britain and Ireland. It argues, first, that petitions provided a much more regular and continuous form of interaction between people and Parliament than elections. Second, petitioning–meaning the practices associated with the drafting, signing and presentation of petitions–enabled a vibrant, performative public politics. Third, petitions and petitioning were relatively open, inclusive forms of political participation since all British subjects enjoyed the formal right to petition. We examine the role of formidable campaigns of mass mobilisation, but also humble appeals of marginalised individuals. Our data has significant implications for our understanding of the nationalisation, organisation, and popularisation of politics in this period. We argue that attention to petitions helps us to decentre parliamentary elections as the principal connection between local and national politics. Indeed, petitioners responded to the shifting boundaries between the central and devolved state in deciding to which authorities they would direct petitions. Petitioning campaigns pioneered the mass, organised, national movements that would gradually emerge as the hallmark of stronger political parties. This did not undermine petitioning. However, the consequent growth of disciplined parties strengthened executive power, at the expense of parliamentary government, redirected petitions from the Commons. Furthermore, the continuing expansion of petitioning alongside extensions of the franchise suggests that petitions did not function as an ersatz ballot. Rather, petitions and debates between parliamentarians and petitioners over the meaning of growing lists of signatories suggest that petitioning catalysed a range of other forms of participation and hence forged an ever more popular politics.

The Notion of “Openness” in the Analytic System of Martin Heidegger’s Dasein: on the Question of Interpretation

A competent acquaintance with Martin Heidegger’s major works, such as “Being and Time”, is impossible without understanding the primeval methodological foundations of this German thinker, – or, in other words, without comprehending the principal connection between his existen­tial analysis and the destruction of the European metaphysical knowledge. The inevitable connec­tion of ontic and ontological levels of philosophical research reveals a hardly definable concept of Dasein, while the notion of “openness”, we are interested in, serves as a meaningful specification of Dasein. In this paper, the notion of “openness” is analyzed in two aspects: from the point of a new understanding of the traditional metaphysical problems (the problems of being and entity, in particular) and from the point of a completely new substantiation of these problems (which eventually determines the Heidegger’s existential analysis as a fundamentally-ontological). Thus, the notion of “openness” is understood in the context of the problem of Being (not only Dasein). The phenomenon of openness itself is analyzed as a primordial phenomenon. The existential, “un­derstanding”, is ontologically examined in relation with the phenomenon of openness. Observing Heideggerian existential-ontological analysis of this phenomenon (primarily, in the aspect of “tran­scendence” and “truth”) this paper defines Dasein as a way of existence of Being as such.

Higher U(1)-gerbe connections in geometric prequantization

We promote geometric prequantization to higher geometry (higher stacks), where a prequantization is given by a higher principal connection (a higher gerbe with connection). We show fairly generally how there is canonically a tower of higher gauge groupoids and Courant groupoids assigned to a higher prequantization, and establish the corresponding Atiyah sequence as an integrated Kostant–Souriau [Formula: see text]-group extension of higher Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms by higher quantomorphisms. We also exhibit the [Formula: see text]-group cocycle which classifies this extension and discuss how its restrictions along Hamiltonian [Formula: see text]-actions yield higher Heisenberg cocycles. In the special case of higher differential geometry over smooth manifolds, we find the [Formula: see text]-algebra extension of Hamiltonian vector fields — which is the higher Poisson bracket of local observables — and show that it is equivalent to the construction proposed by the second author in [Formula: see text]-plectic geometry. Finally, we indicate a list of examples of applications of higher prequantization in the extended geometric quantization of local quantum field theories and specifically in string geometry.

Magnetospheric magnetic field modelling for the 2011 and 2012 HST Saturn aurora campaigns – implications for auroral source regions

A unique set of images of Saturn's northern polar UV aurora was obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2011 and 2012 at times when the Cassini spacecraft was located in the solar wind just upstream of Saturn's bow shock. This rare situation provides an opportunity to use the Kronian paraboloid magnetic field model to examine source locations of the bright auroral features by mapping them along field lines into the magnetosphere, taking account of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) measured near simultaneously by Cassini. It is found that the persistent dawn arc maps to closed field lines in the dawn to noon sector, with an equatorward edge generally located in the inner part of the ring current, typically at ~ 7 Saturn radii (RS) near dawn, and a poleward edge that maps variously between the centre of the ring current and beyond its outer edge at ~ 15 RS, depending on the latitudinal width of the arc. This location, together with a lack of response in properties to the concurrent IMF, suggests a principal connection with ring-current and nightside processes. The higher-latitude patchy auroras observed intermittently near to noon and at later local times extending towards dusk are instead found to straddle the model open–closed field boundary, thus mapping along field lines to the dayside outer magnetosphere and magnetopause. These emissions, which occur preferentially for northward IMF directions, are thus likely associated with reconnection and open-flux production at the magnetopause. One image for southward IMF also exhibits a prominent patch of very high latitude emissions extending poleward of patchy dawn arc emissions in the pre-noon sector. This is found to lie centrally within the region of open model field lines, suggesting an origin in the current system associated with lobe reconnection, similar to that observed in the terrestrial magnetosphere for northward IMF.

Monotonic and cyclic nail connection tests

The results of monotonic and cyclic nail connection lateral tests are presented. The tests are part of an extensive experimental and analytical study to investigate the behaviour of timber shear walls subjected to earthquakes. The results from the nail connection tests were used in a larger study of timber shear walls. The nonlinear load–deflection curves were used for modelling the nail connection between the sheathing and the framing of the shear walls. The dependency of the nail connection on the grain orientation of the timber materials is investigated along with the evidence that the material properties of the nails are the primary parameters for the load–displacement characteristics of the connection made with hot-dipped, galvanized common nails. Both the monotonic and cyclic lateral behaviours of the connections are established. The premise that the hysteresis for the nail connection is contained within an envelope defined by the monotonic load–displacement curve is confirmed. These connection characteristics translate into similar behaviour in nailed timber shear walls. Therefore, an improved undertanding of the principal connection used in the construction of shear walls will also improve the understanding of the behaviour of shear walls. Key words: connections, nails, plywood, waferboard, monotonic, cyclic, shear wall.