The meaning of place : a study of geographical imagery with particular reference to Kingston upon Hull

One of the fundamental themes in geography has been the exploration of urban and regional character: - a uniqueness of environments often expressed in terms of an ambience or a sense of place. However, this area of study has been neglected in recent years: there have not been sufficiently sensitive techniques available and the predominant philosophical orientation of the subject has not been receptive to the more subjective aspects of environmental experience. The development of environmental perception - an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the relationship of man and environment - has alleviated these problems to some extent. By focussing on the environmental experiences of individuals and the language they use to describe their impressions of places, this research project has taken up and extended the question of environmental character.The thesis is concerned with the meanings of places and work focusses upon the images of Kingston upon Hull in particular. The meaning of a place is defined as the associations of ideas and emotions it evokes in the individual both as a result of direct environmental stimulation and other secondary sources of information. The image represents the synthesis of these connotations: as they are communicated to other people an image or verbal picture will emerge which conveys not only information about it but also the emotive value placed upon it by the individual. The main proposition, therefore, is that people have cognitive representations of places which they are able to communicate. The underlying assumption is that the language people use is a true indication of these internal representations. The first two chapters of the thesis provide a review of the evidence to support the propositions: chapter one discusses various theoretical frameworks used in the study of environmental perception whilst chapter two seeks to establish that there has been a neglect of the phenomenological and linguistic aspects of urban imagery. The main body of the thesis is concerned with the development and substantiation of a model of urban imagery. On the basis of survey and experimental work reported in chapters three and four, a categorisation of images dependent upon the type of information available to the individual is proposed. As reported in succeeding chapters, partial support for this model is achieved by reference to two larger social surveys. The validity of this work is then assessed in relation to comparable projects completed recently. The final chapter provides a summary of the findings and considers their implications for further work in urban and regional perception.It must be stressed that this project has been subject to the usual constraints of time and finance. The lack of more extensive facilities is reflected in the size and organisations of the surveys undertaken. The possible biases inherent in these surveys have been recognised and the interpretation of results has erred on the side of caution rather than running the risk of making unjustified assertions. A more serious criticism of the study must also be conceded . An extensive monitoring of the media and other information sources was not made during the course of the study. This was not feasible and it was felt to be of more value to explore the verbal content of environmental images, illustrating these with media examples where appropriate. The importance of more extensive work into the relationship between image and information sources is recognised, however

Omega Production Resource: An Internship Report

This report documents the internship of Lydia Anne Burgess with Omega Production Resource from August 2014 to March 2015. Omega is one of several event lighting companies operating in Greater New Orleans. Omega’s administrative offices are located in the Alario Center situated just inside of Bayou Segnette Park in Westwego, Louisiana. During her internship, Ms. Burgess worked under the direction of the Operations Director and the company founder and CEO. Among her various responsibilities, Ms. Burgess primarily assisted the CEO and Operations Director with administrative duties such as form creation/modernization, file organization, and scheduling. She also undertook marketing analysis for the company. An overview of Omega and of the internship is provided within this report. Additionally, this report provides an analysis of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (S.W.O.T.), recommendations for the company based on Ms. Burgess’ observations, and an examination of best practices performed by similar companies

Fluctuations and Pinch-Offs Observed in Viscous Fingering

Our experiments on viscous (Saffman-Taylor) fingering in Hele-Shaw channels reveal several phenomena that were not observed in previous experiments. At low flow rates, growing fingers undergo width fluctuations that intermittently narrow the finger as they evolve. The magnitude of these fluctuations is proportional to Ca^{-0.64}, where Ca is the capillary number, which is proportional to the finger velocity. This relation holds for all aspect ratios studied up to the onset of tip instabilities. At higher flow rates, finger pinch-off and reconnection events are observed. These events appear to be caused by an interaction between the actively growing finger and suppressed fingers at the back of the channel. Both the fluctuation and pinch-off phenomena are robust but not explained by current theory.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; to appear in Proceedings of the Seventh Experimental Chaos Conferenc

JISC funded Kaptur project environmental assessment report

The overall objective of the JISC funded Kaptur project (October 2011 - March 2013) is to discover, create and pilot a sectoral model of best practice in the management of research data in the visual arts. This report outlines findings from the first workpackage, environmental assessment, based on the following research question: What is the nature of visual arts research data? Appendix A provides detail on the methodology; data was gathered from a literature review and 16 face-to-face interviews with visual arts researchers; four at each partner institution: Glasgow School of Art; Goldsmiths, University of London; University for the Creative Arts; and University of the Arts London

Fluctuations and Pinch-Offs Observed in Viscous Fingering

Our experiments on viscous (Saffman-Taylor) fingering in Hele-Shaw channels reveal several phenomena that were not observed in previous experiments. At low flow rates, growing fingers undergo width fluctuations that intermittently narrow the finger as they evolve. The magnitude of these fluctuations is proportional to Ca^{-0.64}, where Ca is the capillary number, which is proportional to the finger velocity. This relation holds for all aspect ratios studied up to the onset of tip instabilities. At higher flow rates, finger pinch-off and reconnection events are observed. These events appear to be caused by an interaction between the actively growing finger and suppressed fingers at the back of the channel. Both the fluctuation and pinch-off phenomena are robust but not explained by current theory.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; to appear in Proceedings of the Seventh Experimental Chaos Conferenc

Neighbourhoods, Households and Income Dynamics: A Semi-Parametric Investigation of Neighbourhood Effects

Using a unique dataset, we present evidence on income trajectories of people living in micro neighbourhoods. We place bounds on the influence of neighbourhood making as few parametric assumptions as possible. The paper offers a number of advances. We exploit a dataset that is large, representative, longitudinal with very local neighbourhoods. We analyse income growth over one, five- and ten-year windows. We analyse the whole distribution of income growth and track large gainers and losers as well as average outcomes. We consider the appropriate definition of neighbourhood. We find little evidence of a negative relationship between neighbourhood and subsequent income growth.neighbourhood effects, income dynamics, small scale neighbourhoods

Local Neighbourhood and Mental Health: Evidence from the UK

Using a very local definition of neighbourhood, and characterising that neighbourhood along five relatively orthogonal dimensions based on the socio-economic characteristics of the population of the neighbourhood, this paper examines the association between neighbourhood and levels and changes in mental health. We find that the extent of association between neighbourhood and both levels and changes in mental health is limited. While there are some individuals whose mental health is statistically associated with their neighbourhood composition, the importance of these differences is not large. What appears to be important for levels of mental health are the characteristics of individuals and their households, not place. Changes in mental health are not even associated with the characteristics that predict levels of health.mental health, neighbourhood, multilevel modelling

Letter from Anne Burgess, to Anne Whitney, Boston, Massachusetts, 1912 January 12

https://repository.wellesley.edu/whitney_correspondence/1534/thumbnail.jp

Exploring research data management in the visual arts

This workshop will enable participants to explore the nature of research data in the visual arts and the essential elements of its appropriate management. For researchers, the effective management of research data helps validate and contextualise the outputs of artistic research, while at the same time supports the research method by enabling researchers to work more effectively and to mitigate against the risk of data lost. In addition, many funders now require data management plans to be submitted as part of the funding process. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and led by the Centre for Digital Scholarship (formerly VADS), at the University for the Creative Arts, and working in partnership with Falmouth University and the Glasgow School of Art, the VADS4R project is developing a series of tailored skills development workshops and materials on research data management in the visual arts. These are focused on the needs of early careers researchers and postgraduate students in the visual arts and will be piloted over the course of the academic year 2013-14

Narratives of women music teachers in Northern Ireland: beyond identity

This study examined the narratives of three women music teachers’ professional practice, drawing on the research question: Through examining processes of subjectification: (a) How do mid-career women music teachers construct narratives of their professional and musical practice? (b) What are the implications for women music teachers’ professional and musical sustenance? Participants Hayley, Becky and Lynne, all with 12 years teaching experience, told stories of diverse musical participation within and beyond their schools and within a range of social groups and institutional settings. Taking a post-structural feminist theoretical perspective, these narratives were viewed as 'technologies of the female self' (Foucault, 1988; Tamboukou, 2008, 2010). The research question was shaped and answered through the concept of subjectifcation and considered how these women constructed a portrait of ‘self-in-practice.’ This questioned how they fashioned their personal pedagogical approach, how they created and projected a music departmental identity within the school, and how they conceptualised their musical and teaching selves. Data collection took place over a seven-month engagement with three participants and involved: a narrative/biographical interview; the compilation of a ‘memory box’ in which participants gathered artefacts related to the theme, ‘My music, my teaching’; and a follow-up conversational interview. In the final interview participants presented their artefacts and told stories related to their gendered experiences in music and teaching. Narratives showed the ‘woman music teacher’ is a site of struggle, where material roles within different discursive fields such as the home, the community as well as the school, pulled at other subjectivities. Through an analysis of processes of gendered subjectification, these women music teachers presented a complex narrative of their professional lives, within discursive fields of competing and complementary institutional discourses. While individually teachers conceptualised their musical and teaching subjectivities in personal, biographically-shaped ways, collectively they used similar discursive strategies to create a music subject department identity. They all told stories of their practice sustained by moments of ‘musical space’ and enabling others. Extra-curricular music provided valued moments of musical and aesthetic gratification and professional autonomy, functioning as a way to project the standing of the music subject department in the school and the local community, but this also added to an already burdensome workload. The education system in Northern Ireland is undergoing a prolonged yet stilted process of reform, and with the increase in the collaborative sharing of curriculum with other schools, it is likely that in the future secondary music teachers will be teaching in very different circumstances. This may be particularly challenging for established music teachers who have worked to create musical worlds in their subject departments drawing on personal and affective biographical resources. It is suggested that identity work with teachers’ narrative understandings of their self-in-practice, as a form of professional development, may allow space for teachers to imagine and negotiate alternative personal/professional identities, values and beliefs within new managerial and collaborative structures