A Call to Action: The New Academy of Food Law & Policy

The food system is affected by unique and complex laws. These laws call for a new generation of legal practitioners and scholars. This essay announces the creation of the Academy of Food Law and Policy. The Academy creates a network of law professors researching, teaching, and mentoring in food law and policy

A Discrete Version of the Inverse Scattering Problem and the J-matrix Method

The problem of the Hamiltonian matrix in the oscillator and Laguerre basis construction from the S-matrix is treated in the context of the algebraic analogue of the Marchenko method.Comment: 11 pages. The Laguerre basis case is adde

Fitness for purpose? project-based, collaborative learning in engineering undergraduate education

In response to evolving work practices in engineering (Royal Academy of Engineering 2010) and the ever-changing nature of vocational and professional knowledge (Broad, 2016), attention has rightly turned to the development of innovative pedagogies to facilitate the entry of graduates to the employment market. Project-based Learning (PjBL) is an example of such an innovative pedagogy and has been developed in some HE contexts to provide students with authentic learning experiences which are designed to embed team working and collaboration; problem solving and solution-finding alongside the development of technical knowledge and skills (Mills and Treagust, 2003). Yet despite the introduction of collaborative inquiry-based curricula in engineering, comprehensive understanding of the pedagogical practices that these innovative practices require has not yet emerged (Damşa & Nerland, 2016). At UCL Engineering, PjBL has been an integral feature of the Integrated Engineering Programme (IEP) undergraduate curriculum since 2014. Drawing upon an on-going collaborative Institute of Education/UCL ‘seed corn’ funded project, this paper will present data collected through observation of project-based learning scenarios and discussion with engineering undergraduates in situ. It will identify and discuss the nature of student learning and engagement in project-based learning activities, with particular attention to disciplinary issues and the development of student disciplinary knowledge. In so doing, it will assess whether PjBL is, indeed, ‘fit for purpose’

Highlighting the learning in project-based undergraduate engineering education: pedagogical and methodological considerations

This paper presents a discussion of findings in relation to the pedagogy of Project Based Learning (PjBL) from a collaborative learning and teaching research project at UCL Engineering. It highlights the importance of adopting a) an understanding learning as a social practice in PjBL, and b) developing valid methodological approaches when capturing student learning experiences

Shuttle orbiter Ku-band radar/communications system design evaluation

Tasks performed in an examination and critique of a Ku-band radar communications system for the shuttle orbiter are reported. Topics cover: (1) Ku-band high gain antenna/widebeam horn design evaluation; (2) evaluation of the Ku-band SPA and EA-1 LRU software; (3) system test evaluation; (4) critical design review and development test evaluation; (5) Ku-band bent pipe channel performance evaluation; (6) Ku-band LRU interchangeability analysis; and (7) deliverable test equipment evaluation. Where discrepancies were found, modifications and improvements to the Ku-band system and the associated test procedures are suggested

THE INFLUENCE OF CLASSROOM PHYSICAL ACTIVITY BREAKS AT DIFFERENT TIMES OF DAY ON ON-TASK BEHAVIOUR AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY LEVELS IN PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Classroom physical activity breaks (CAB) are beneficial for increasing children’s physical activity (PA) levels as well as the amount of time spent being on-task within the classroom. This study examined the effect of CAB at different times within the school day on on-task behaviour and PA levels in primary school (grade 1-3) children. Thirty-five children participated in CAB in four different conditions (within-subject): morning (AM), afternoon (PM), both the morning and afternoon (BOTH), and no CAB (CTRL). PA levels were monitored via activPAL accelerometers for 24 h starting at the beginning of the school day. On-task behaviour was observed for 45-140 min following each CAB, with the amount of time students spent being on-task as well as 3 types of off-task (motor, verbal, and passive) being recorded. When compared to control, the AM condition and PM condition increased on-task behaviour (AM: Δ10.4%, p\u3c0.001, PM: Δ10.5%, p\u3c0.001), while performing BOTH CAB increased on-task behaviour even further (Δ14%, p\u3c0.001). The AM condition was most beneficial for reducing off-task motor (Δ-6.5%) and off-task verbal (Δ-3%) behaviour, while the PM condition was most beneficial for reducing off-task passive (Δ-9%) behaviour. These effects were greatest in those students demonstrating higher amounts off-task behaviour during CTRL (r\u3e0.67, p\u3c0.001). Students participated in an additional 8.4 min (p=0.07), 12.2 min (p\u3c0.001), and 6.3 min (p=0.09) of 24 h moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) following a CAB vs CTRL in the AM, PM, and BOTH conditions, respectively. Additionally, performing any of the CAB conditions increased the number of steps taken during the school day, by an average of 2007 steps (p\u3c0.009). Overall, these results demonstrate that CAB improve both on-task behaviour and PA levels, regardless of time of day. However, performing two CAB (BOTH) is recommended to derive the greatest improvements in on-task behaviour and all types of off-task behaviour across the school day

NN potentials from inverse scattering in the J-matrix approach

An approximate inverse scattering method [7,8] has been used to construct separable potentials with the Laguerre form factors. As an application, we invert the phase shifts of proton-proton in the $^1S_0$ and $^3P_2-^3F_2$ channels and neutron-proton in the $^3S_1-^3D_1$ channel elastic scattering. In the latter case the deuteron wave function of a realistic $np$ potential was used as input.Comment: LaTex2e, 17 pages, 3 Postscript figures; corrected typo

High-Resolution Vertical Habitat Mapping of a Deep-Sea Cliff offshore Greenland

Recent advances in deep-sea exploration with underwater vehicles have led to the discovery of vertical environments inhabited by a diverse sessile fauna. However, despite their ecological importance, vertical habitats remain poorly characterized by conventional downward-looking survey techniques. Here we present a high-resolution 3-dimensional habitat map of a vertical cliff hosting a suspension-feeding community at the flank of an underwater glacial trough in the Greenland waters of the Labrador Sea. Using a forward-looking set-up on a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), a high-resolution multibeam echosounder was used to map out the topography of the deep-sea terrain, including, for the first time, the backscatter intensity. Navigational accuracy was improved through a combination of the USBL and the DVL navigation of the ROV. Multi-scale terrain descriptors were derived and assigned to the 3D point cloud of the terrain. Following an unsupervised habitat mapping approach, the application of a K-means clustering revealed four potential habitat types, driven by geomorphology, backscatter and fine-scale features. Using groundtruthing seabed images, the ecological significance of the four habitat clusters was assessed in order to evaluate the benefit of unsupervised habitat mapping for further fine-scale ecological studies of vertical environments. This study demonstrates the importance of a priori knowledge of the terrain around habitats that are rarely explored for ecological investigations. It also emphasizes the importance of remote characterization of habitat distribution for assessing the representativeness of benthic faunal studies often constrained by time-limited sampling activities. This case study further identifies current limitations (e.g., navigation accuracy, irregular terrain acquisition difficulties) that can potentially limit the use of deep-sea terrain models for fine-scale investigations

Climate and fisheries: interacting paradigms, scales, and policy approaches ; the IRI-IPRC Pacific Climate-Fisheries Workshop, Honolulu, 14 - 17 November, 2001

An international workshop on research issues related to interactions between climate varia-tions and fisheries was held at the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu from November 14th to 17th, 2001. Forty-eight invited participants represented a sampling of top-tier international scientific expertise with respect to climatic effects on fishery resource populations, fishing operations, and fishery-related socioeconomic issues. An unusual aspect was the interaction of physical, biological, and social scientists at all levels of the discussions. No prepared papers were delivered. Rather, the intended focus was on interdisciplinary and interregional “cross-education” and cross-sharing of insights and ideas among scientists with experience ranging over a variety of species and industry types, intended to support a collaborative process of: • identifying alternative conceptual frameworks and ideas that may better support fruitful interdisciplinary collaborations (particularly between climate scientists and fishery scientists of both the “ecological/biological” and “social science” types); • exploring associated implications for innovative fisheries management approaches; • considering potential applications of the comparative method as a means for effective multilateral research on climate/ecosystems/fisheries issues in the Pacific basin; • exploring in this regard the potential utility of certain newly available technologies and methodologies. The discussions both in plenary sessions as wellas in various separate “focus group” sessions were wide ranging and animated. General consensus emerged on a variety of issues. It was widely agreed, for example, that: (1) as our available records of data and experience grow longer, the observations are not adding up to picture that conforms to conventional scenarios. Effects of environmental variability on fish stocks and fisheries can no longer be ignored, but we remain stuck in a paradigm that has existed for half a century and that is not solving the problem in any general way; (2) we need to move away from focusing so much of our available effort on identifying particular specific relationships and on producing empirical models fitted to specific sets of data, but rather to undertake efforts at more general synthesis that can generate testable general hypotheses (i.e., we need to search for mechanisms and processes, not correlations); (3) climate forecasts (e.g., ENSO forecasts, etc.) do have significant potential value for the fisheries sector, but the information content must be relevant, communicated properly, and compatible with available decision-support models; (4) downside risks related to reliance on a poor forecast might in many cases outweigh potential benefits; however, we should not abandon the search for means to produce good forecasts; (5) inter-decadal-scale “regime shifts”, along with associated large-scale synchronies in resource population variations and resultant socioeconomic issues, probably represent the “hottest” current set of climate-fisheries research topics. The apparent large-scale synchronies would seem to indicate a rather direct link of climatic events to resource population dynamics, which led to optimism among a significant portion of the workshop participants that major progress on the “climate to fish” portion of the problem might be possible on the near term. On the other hand, there were also areas where broad consensus seemed to be lacking. For example, some participants were quite excited about the potential role of rapidly-evolving adaptive response mechanisms, but there was a general level of concern over a lack of clear evidence for their actual operation and significance in real ocean ecosystems. Likewise,certain participants advocated the idea of a comprehensive collaborative global empirical (statistical) study of available time series of relevant data, but there were questions as to exactly how and by which groups such a grandiose multilateral “desk study” of historical data would be conducted