Students, Volunteering and Social Action in the UK: History and Policies

A brief history of over a century of student social action, and policy lessons drawn from historical and contemporary research. The report was produced to accompany the launch of A Social History of Student Volunteering: Britain and Beyond, 1880-1980. The report offers key findings and recommendations from both historical and contemporary research. First national support is a vital element and must be strong and sustainable. Second support for student social action should not be beholden to boom and bust. We need to hold a cross-sector review of how national support can be sustainable and reliable long into the future. Students must shape and lead their social action for this work to be both effective and popular amongst students in the long term. Third, students do their best work in the community when it is relevant to their academic skills and interests, following the service learning model in the US. Fourth, a desire to make a difference continues to be the primary motivation for student volunteers. Fifth, a plurality of routes into student volunteering and social action exists, depending on the culture and needs of individual institutions, and many students engage in activities without formal support from their institution

Optical and structural properties of d0 ion-doped silicate glasses for photovoltaic applications

Optical and structural properties of float-type soda lime silicate (SLS) glasses doped with 0.2 mol % TiO2, ZrO2, HfO2, Nb2O5, Ta2O5, MoO3 or WO3 have been studied. Under UV excitation all d0 doped glasses exhibit broadband visible emission centred between 19,000 cm-1 and 25,000 cm-1 (400nm – 525nm) due to a transition from the 2p orbital of O2- to the metal d0 orbital. Dopant additions lead to shifts in the UV absorption edge to lower energies, with doped glasses having an absorption edge 2,000 cm-1 (~20nm), and in the case of MoO3, 4,000 cm-1 (~40nm), lower than the corresponding undoped glass. Combined UV-Vis absorption and X-band EPR spectroscopy analyses confirm that dopant cations occur in the studied glasses in the expected oxidation states of Ti4+, Zr4+, Hf4+, Nb5+, Ta5+, Mo6+ and W6+, although very low levels of Mo5+ are also observed, as demonstrated by the EPR resonance at g=1.92 (3.7T). The incorporation of the studied dopants into SLS glasses may find applications as cover glasses in photovoltaic (PV) applications, providing UV protection of polymers and solar cell materials in PV units whilst enhancing solar cell efficiency through downconversion / fluorescence of absorbed UV photons with re-emission as visible photons, available for absorption and conversion by the solar cell material

Multilocus sequence typing of Cronobacter sakazakii and Cronobacter malonaticus reveals stable clonal structures with clinical significance which do not correlate with biotypes

Background: The Cronobacter genus (Enterobacter sakazakii) has come to prominence due to its association with infant infections, and the ingestion of contaminated reconstituted infant formula. C. sakazakii and C. malonaticus are closely related, and are defined according their biotype. Due to the ubiquitous nature of the organism, and the high severity of infection for the immunocompromised, a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme has been developed for the fast and reliable identification and discrimination of C. sakazakii and C. malonaticus strains. It was applied to 60 strains of C. sakazakii and 16 strains of C. malonaticus, including the index strains used to define the biotypes. The strains were from clinical and non-clinical sources between 1951 and 2008 in USA, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the Far East. Results: This scheme uses 7 loci; atpD, fusA, glnS, gltB, gyrB, infB, and pps. There were 12 sequence types (ST) identified in C. sakazakii, and 3 in C. malonaticus. A third (22/60) of C. sakazakii strains were in ST4, which had almost equal numbers of clinical and infant formula isolates from 1951 to 2008. ST8 may represent a particularly virulent grouping of C. sakazakii as 7/8 strains were clinical in origin which had been isolated between 1977 - 2006, from four countries. C. malonaticus divided into three STs. The previous Cronobacter biotyping scheme did not clearly correspond with STs nor with species. Conclusion: In conclusion, MLST is a more robust means of identifying and discriminating between C. sakazakii and C. malonaticus than biotyping. The MLST database for these organisms is available online at http://pubmlst.org/cronobacter

A2_2 Why So Blue?

We determine that the probable source of Dr Manhattan’s blue glow is the ionisation and excitation of nitrogen in the air around him. Through comparison with a filament lighbulb his minimum power output from photon production is estimated. Taking into account the dissociation and ionisation energies of each of the fluorescing molecules provides an upper limit on his power output. These limits are ≈ 470 W and ≈ 3300 W, respectively. Little to no information is given about Dr Manhattan’s physical properties in the source material, and these calculations require many assumptions and approximations

A2_9 Raindrops keep falling on my head

In this paper we attempt to find the density need for an object of raindrop size to kill a human if it were to land on their head. We conclude that the density of titanium, 4500 kg m−3, is the lower limit for what it would take to fracture the skull

A2_7 Rise (and Fall) of the Planet of the Apes

We determine the basic physical properties of a new astronomical body created by collecting the entire primate population of the Earth in orbit. We calculate the orbital distance at which the new satellite would exert a tidal force equal in magnitude to that of the moon on the Earth. At 7.2×10^4 m this is found to be three orders of magnitude smaller than the 2.7×10^7 m Roche limit and well within the body of the Earth, suggesting that there is no way such a primate satellite could significantly perturb the Earth

A2_6 Don't Weight For Me, Lois

This paper details the calculation of time dilation observers would perceive of the fictional comic book character, Superman, were he to fly to the star closest to Earth, Proxima Centauri. The Lorentz factor was calculated to be 5.025, assuming Superman was flying at 0.98 times the speed of light. In addition, we calculated that observers on Earth would perceive Superman flying overhead, to be 0.38m long, given a rest length of 1.905 m. The time Lois Lane would experience, stationary on Earth, if Superman were to fly to Proxima Centauri, at this top speed, would be 43.72 years. Superman, however would experience just 8.7 years to have passed. The relativistic mass of Superman, flying at this speed was also calculated to be 522.6 kg from a rest mass of 104 kg

A2_1 Zeus' Lightning Bolt

In this paper we calculate the heat capacity that would be required for the mythological Greek god Zeus to be able to comfortably hold a, hypothetical, `stationary lightning bolt'. Known properties of lightning and the human pain threshold were used to model the specic heat capacity required to elevate Zeus' hand temperature, from ambient to the upper limit of pain. In order for Zeus to be able to hold the lightning bolt, the calculated specic heat capacity that his hand must have was 3:33 * 10^10 J Kg-1 K-

A2_5 Black hole Sun

This paper investigates what would happen if a planet’s host star was instantaneously replaced by a black hole of equal radius. It was found that the mass of a black hole needed to ensure near enough instantaneous absorption of the original host star is 2.3×108 M. Latterly some other consequences of the new Black hole Sun have also been explored

Systolic orthostatic hypotension is related to lowered cognitive function: Findings from the Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study

The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between orthostatic changes in blood pressure (BP) and cognition, with consideration given to cardiovascular risk factors and lifestyle variables. The cross-sectional analysis included 961 community-dwelling participants of the Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study, for whom BP clinic measures (five sitting, five recumbent, and five standing) were obtained. Eighteen percent of participants had orthostatic hypotension (fall in systolic BP ≥20 mm Hg or diastolic BP ≥10 mm Hg upon standing) and 6% had orthostatic hypertension (rise in systolic BP ≥20 mm Hg). Orthostatic hypotension and hypertension defined using traditional criteria were unrelated to cognition with covariate adjustment. However, an examination of systolic and diastolic BP change independently revealed that participants with systolic orthostatic hypotension had poorer global cognition, verbal memory, and scanning and tracking scores than those with normal systolic BP change. The authors conclude that systolic orthostatic hypotension is significantly associated with reduced cognitive function