Building a compliance audit for BS7988 “Code of practice for the use of information technology (IT) in the delivery of assessments”

The BS7988 standard is now formally published, and is broadly in line with the provisional specification presented by John Kleeman, David Keech and Stephen Wright to this conference last year. Compliance with the standard requires quality assurance across a wide range of areas - hardware, software, network, data storage and human issues are all covered. It requires consideration of security, reliability and accessibility. In this session we will work collectively to build a provisional framework for a QA system to cover those areas of the Standard that fall within the remit of conference delegates, principally those relating to software development. The output of the session will be a draft of a quality audit that can be published as part of the conference proceedings. While clearly this will be very much a first-stage document, we hope that it will provide pointers for further work in this area

Libbie & Grove Urban Design Plan

This plan was created for the City of Richmond Department of Planning and Development Review to serve as a recommendation for urban design improvements and suggested changes to zoning ordinances for the Libbie and Grove commercial area located in the Westhampton neighborhood. To begin, an in-depth demographic analysis was conducted for the Westhampton neighborhood. Special attention was paid to socioeconomic factors and trends in census tracts directly surrounding the Libbie and Grove commercial corridor. Based on these analyses and new development occurring in the Libbie and Grove commercial corridor, we were able to allocate six sites or “study areas” as candidates for redevelopment. All of these sites represent valuable areas within the Libbie and Grove commercial corridor. The sites were selected and designed with different intentions, but aim to create a complete streetscape for the commercial area. Based on this analysis and study, it is our recommendation that a new zoning code be implemented for the Libbie and Grove commercial area in order to codify form based design requirements in order to preserve and enhance a village feel at Grove and Libbie and promote compatible future development

Super-Resolution Microscopy: A Virus’ Eye View of the Cell

It is difficult to observe the molecular choreography between viruses and host cell components, as they exist on a spatial scale beyond the reach of conventional microscopy. However, novel super-resolution microscopy techniques have cast aside technical limitations to reveal a nanoscale view of virus replication and cell biology. This article provides an introduction to super-resolution imaging; in particular, localisation microscopy, and explores the application of such technologies to the study of viruses and tetraspanins, the topic of this special issue

Evidence for coal forest refugia in the seasonally dry Pennsylvanian tropical lowlands of the Illinois Basin, USA

The Moscovian plant macroflora at Cottage Grove southeastern Illinois, USA, is a key example of Pennsylvanian (323–299 Million years ago) dryland vegetation. There is currently no palynological data from the same stratigraphic horizons as the plant macrofossils, leaves and other vegetative and reproductive structures, at this locality. Consequently, reconstructions of the standing vegetation at Cottage Grove from these sediments lack the complementary information and a more regional perspective that can be provided by sporomorphs (prepollen, pollen, megaspores and spores). In order to provide this, we have analysed the composition of fossil sporomorph assemblages in two rock samples taken from macrofossil-bearing inter-coal shale at Cottage Grove. Our palynological data differ considerably in composition and in the dominance-diversity profile from the macrofossil vegetation at this locality. Walchian conifers and pteridosperms are common elements in the macroflora, but are absent in the sporomorph assemblages. Reversely, the sporomorph assemblages at Cottage Grove comprise 17 spore taxa (∼16% and ∼63% of the total assemblages) that are known from the lycopsid orders Isoetales, Lepidodendrales and Selaginallales, while Cottage Grove’s macrofloral record fails to capture evidence of a considerable population of coal forest lycopsids. We interpret our results as evidence that the Pennsylvanian dryland glacial landscape at Cottage Grove included fragmented populations of wetland plants living in refugia

Charlie Hebdo is nothing new

Since January’s tragic events in Paris, Charlie Hebdo is undoubtedly the planet’s best-known journal of satirical cartooning, as well as now being the one with by far the highest sales. Yet its trademark features—scatology, vivid sexual humour, and the breaking of taboos, above with respect to, but showing no respect for, religious beliefs—are nothing new in France

Pleasant Grove City v. Summum: Identifying Government Speech & Classifying Speech Forums

In Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, the Supreme Court must decide whether a privately-donated Ten Commandments monument currently on display in a city park is the private speech of the donor or the government speech of Pleasant Grove City. Summum, a religious organization, sued Pleasant Grove City in federal court claiming that because the city had displayed in a city park a donated Ten Commandments monument, the First Amendment compelled the city to also accept and display Summum\u27s proposed Seven Aphorisms of Summum monument. If the Court decides it is the private speech of the donor, it will have to characterize the type of speech forum that exists in permanent monuments at a city park. These determinations will resolve whether Pleasant Grove City could constitutionally decline to erect Summum\u27s monument and clarify First Amendment jurisprudence regarding government speech and forum classification