Guest Artist Recital, Blakemore Trio

Guest Artist RecitalBlakemore TrioMonday, October 1, 2018 at 7pmSonia Vlahcevic Concert HallW.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts922 Park AvenueRichmond, Va

The Making of a MOOC: Reflections from the Journey!

The Making of a MOOC': Any relevance to "normal" learning and teaching? MOOCs (massive open online courses) are a hugely topical area of educational policy and practice. The University of Glasgow is developing two new courses in partnership with FutureLearn, a free, open, online platform for courses from multiple UK and international universities. The university will initially offer two courses, one from the School of Medicine and one from the School of Law, beginning in May/June 2014.'Cancer in the 21st Century: The Genomic Revolution' has been developed by the School of Medicine in collaboration with the Institute of Cancer Sciences. In this presentation we will provide an introduction to MOOCs and reflect on our own experiences in the development of the cancer genetics MOOC over the past year. Specific areas of potential relevance to traditional course design such as student retention, student engagement, peer-assisted learning and peer review will be considered. We will review our approach to course design and discuss how factors such as online accessibility, the size of the student cohort, and the varying levels of background knowledge amongst students have influenced our decision making process. The design of the student surveys for the course and how the data generated will impact our model of sustainability for the MOOC in future academic sessions will also be discussed

Contralateral manual compensation for velocity-dependent force perturbations

It is not yet clear how the temporal structure of a voluntary action is coded allowing coordinated bimanual responses. This study focuses on the adaptation to and compensation for a force profile presented to one stationary arm which is proportional to the velocity of the other moving arm. We hypothesised that subjects would exhibit predictive coordinative responses which would co-vary with the state of the moving arm. Our null hypothesis is that they develop a time-dependent template of forces appropriate to compensate for the imposed perturbation. Subjects were trained to make 500 ms duration reaching movements with their dominant right arm to a visual target. A force generated with a robotic arm that was proportional to the velocity of the moving arm and perpendicular to movement direction acted on their stationary left hand, either at the same time as the movement or delayed by 250 or 500 ms. Subjects rapidly learnt to minimise the final end-point error. In the delay conditions, the left hand moved in advance of the onset of the perturbing force. In test conditions with faster or slower movement of the right hand, the predictive actions of the left hand co-varied with movement speed. Compensation for movement-related forces appeared to be predictive but not based on an accurate force profile that was equal and opposite to the imposed perturbatio

A few new Western Australian earthworms (Oligochaeta: Megadrilacea: Megascolecidae sensu Blakemore, 2000)

Earthworm samples, apparently collected in the 1980’s from the northern Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forests of Western Australian and deposited in the London Natural History Museum, were studied. Due to limited time and budget only a few of the hundred samples were inspected. Description of just five new taxa are reported here

Veni, Vidi, Vermi... II. EARTHWORMS IN ORGANIC FIELDS RESTORE SOM & H2O AND FIX CO2

Earthworm proliferations of 57–122% (mean +78.5%) under adjacent (i.e., same soil/climate) organic vs. conventional fields related to improved soil quality and higher yields of 16–80% (mean +39.1%) in winter wheat, tropical paddy rice and sugarcane. Soil moisture differences ranged -11–41% (mean +12.0%) while soil carbon in SOM humus ranged 26–128% (mean +64.9%). Correlation (r >0.835) of earthworms is with crop yield and both soil H2O & C storage hence atmospheric CO2 reduction via photosynthesis / humification. A 1,000 yr-old pasture at Haughley had highest earthworms (424 m-2), stored 222 t ha-1 carbon in its soil organic matter (SOM), plus moisture capacity was 90.9% above an adjacent arable field. Relating to global climate change, extrapolation to areas given over to each of the three crops if all organically converted gives CO2 equivalents (CO2e) of 49.2, 2.8 and 1.1 Gt (total 53.1 Gt) C storage for wheat, rice and sugarcane, respectively. Wheat alone, albeit projected, exceeds global emission (~40 Gt CO2); rice matches Eurozone’s (2.5 Gt); and sugarcane either Japan (1.2 Gt) or UK + Australia combined (0.5 + 0.4 Gt). Extra carbon stored (53.1 Gt CO2e) would equal ~7.3 ppm atmospheric CO2 reduction. Pasture management offers yet greater potential remedy, here calculated as optimal 222 t ha-1 x 3.6 Gha total grass = 800 Gt C (x 3.667 conversion factor = 2,934 Gt CO2e) about equal to present atmospheric values of 3,000 Gt CO2 and 400 ppm. Even at same human emission/consumption rates, humus solves carbon sequestration whilst also providing food

Veni, Vidi, Vermi... I. On the contribution of Darwin’s ‘humble earthworm’ to soil health, pollution-free primary production, organic ‘waste’ management & atmospheric carbon capture for a safe and sustainable global climate.

Organic farming supplies more food with less ecological cost than chemical agriculture. Earthworm aspects of organic farming are twofold: ‘waste’ recycling through compost worms and soil enhancement from endemic field worms. Bio-physico-chemical benefits from sustained earthworm activity accrue for biodiversity, soil organic matter (SOM = worm-worked humus) derived from carbon sequestration of atmospheric CO2 via photosynthesis/humification and nitrogen N2 fixation from microbes rather than synthetic Haber-Bosch urea, plus greatly improved infiltration and soil-water-storage. Just as earthworm burrows filter all rainwater, all atmospheric carbon from leaf litter/roots is processed through their intestines in 12 yr cycles as they build topsoil. Earth’s total soil data are not readily available, but flat-surface estimates with ranges of 2,400-6,020 Gt of topsoil humus are newly recalculated herein as 10,800-27,090 Gt containing 6,264-15,712 Gt SOC with a median value >10,000 Gt global soil carbon. Carbon restoration in this humus resource alone has potential for rapid reduction of Mauna Loa’s 400 ppm atmospheric CO2 by ~100 ppm, i.e., to pre-industrial levels. This review highlights that organic husbandry – with earthworms at its core – offsets CO2 emissions (remediation) while moisture, pH, and soil temperatures simultaneously improve, increasing crop resilience and biodiversity (mitigation & adaptation). Earthworms naturally monitor & maintain healthy soils thereby solving human-generated climate & critical species extinction problems at both local & global scale. Such important considerations support 2015 Paris COP21 ‘Climate Change Policy’ agenda & international “4/1000 Initiative: Soils for Food Security & Climate”

Big data for monitoring educational systems

This report considers “how advances in big data are likely to transform the context and methodology of monitoring educational systems within a long-term perspective (10-30 years) and impact the evidence based policy development in the sector”, big data are “large amounts of different types of data produced with high velocity from a high number of various types of sources.” Five independent experts were commissioned by Ecorys, responding to themes of: students' privacy, educational equity and efficiency, student tracking, assessment and skills. The experts were asked to consider the “macro perspective on governance on educational systems at all levels from primary, secondary education and tertiary – the latter covering all aspects of tertiary from further, to higher, and to VET”, prioritising primary and secondary levels of education

British imperial expansion and the transformation of violence at sea, 1600-1850: introduction

Published version. Copyright © 2013 by International Maritime Economic History AssociationAbstract not available