'Building a community together': past and present meanings of manual work at Kilquhanity School (1940-1996) and Wennington School (1940-1975)

This PhD draws on text, testimonial and images to reveal staff and pupils’ lived experiences and attitudes towards manual work at two little-researched experimental schools, Kilquhanity (1940-96) and Wennington (1940-75). My focus on the often ignored or over-simplified practice of manual work reveals it as a significant and multi-faceted aspect of life at the two schools – which also casts light on the wider values and dynamics of the schools. By comparing this detailed, case-study research with accounts of manual work in other progressive, therapeutic, anarchist and radical schools and community experiments in this period, this work contributes new perspectives to the existing historiography on progressive and radical education. It questions the consensus that the better-known, libertarian Summerhill was ‘more radical’ and uncovers a neglected fault-line within the progressive movement relating to concepts of child-centred freedom and mixed-age community. This thesis also brings the past into conversation with the present, exploring whether and how young people experience forms of manual work in contemporary settings, including at the author’s own initiatives at Wilderness Wood in East Sussex. The experiences and ideas in this research challenge and offer alternatives to academic and popular debates about education, which are often dominated by narrow and polarised accounts of liberal versus progressive or vocational versus academic ideas and practices. This work also contributes to wider debates about childhood and society by exploring the potential value of manual work for young people as a ‘beyond voice’ form of participation in community

Pb3Te2O6Br2

Single crystals of the title compound, trilead(II) bis­[tellurate(IV)] dibromide, have been grown under hydro­thermal conditions. The structure is isotypic with that of the chloride analogue, Pb3Te2O6Cl2, and consists of three Pb, two Te, two Br and four O atoms in the asymmetric unit. Except for two of the O atoms, all atoms are located on mirror planes. The Pb3Te2O6Br2 structure can be described as being built up from ∞ 2[Pb3Te2O6]2+ layers extending parallel to (20) and Br− anions between the layers. Cohesion of the structure is accomplished through Pb—Br contacts of two of the three lead atoms, leading to highly asymmetric coordination polyhedra. The lone-pair electrons of both TeIV and PbII atoms are stereochemically active and point towards the anionic halide layers

Space-time dynamics of carbon stocks and environmental parameters related to carbon dioxide emissions in the Buor-Khaya Bay of the Laptev Sea

This study aims to improve understanding of carbon cycling in the Buor-Khaya Bay (BKB) by studying the inter-annual, seasonal, and meso-scale variability of carbon stocks and related hydrological and biogeochemical parameters in the water, as well as factors controlling carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. Here we present data sets obtained on summer cruises and winter expeditions during 12 yr of investigation. Based on data analysis, we suggest that in the heterotrophic BKB area, coastal erosion and river discharge serve as predominant drivers of the organic carbon (OC) cycle, determining OC input and transformation, dynamics of nutrients, carbon stocks in the water column, and atmospheric emissions of CO2

‘Waiting impulsivity’ in isolation-reared and socially-reared rats: effects of amphetamine

Background Rats reared in social isolation exhibit various cognitive and behavioural abnormalities in adulthood. However, impulsivity following this treatment still remains unclear, especially in response to medications used in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, such as amphetamine. Methods Using an isolation-rearing (IR) manipulation, the present study examined the effects of IR on impulsive action and impulsive choice when also treated with doses of d-amphetamine, by employing the five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) and a temporal discounting of reward task (TDRT), respectively. Results IR rats showed similar acquisition of the 5-CSRTT. Amphetamine increased premature responding in both groups; however, IR rats showed less responding overall. For the TDRT, IR rats revealed a greater preference for the large but delayed reward during task acquisition (i.e. were less impulsive) with a higher rate of nose poking during the delay, and exhibited a compressed dose-response function (i.e. reduced dose sensitivity) for amphetamine. Discussion Impulsive action and impulsive choice were reduced in IR rats under certain conditions, and a blunted response to d-amphetamine was found on these measures. These reductions in impulsivity contrast with locomotor hyperactivity normally shown in IR rats and the findings have implications for the utility of IR as a model of psychopathology

Siberian Arctic black carbon sources constrained by model and observation

Black carbon (BC) in haze and deposited on snow and ice can have strong effects on the radiative balance of the Arctic. There is a geographic bias in Arctic BC studies toward the Atlantic sector, with lack of observational constraints for the extensive Russian Siberian Arctic, spanning nearly half of the circum-Arctic. Here, 2 y of observations at Tiksi (East Siberian Arctic) establish a strong seasonality in both BC concentrations (8 ng⋅m−3 to 302 ng⋅m−3) and dual-isotope–constrained sources (19 to 73% contribution from biomass burning). Comparisons between observations and a dispersion model, coupled to an anthropogenic emissions inventory and a fire emissions inventory, give mixed results. In the European Arctic, this model has proven to simulate BC concentrations and source contributions well. However, the model is less successful in reproducing BC concentrations and sources for the Russian Arctic. Using a Bayesian approach, we show that, in contrast to earlier studies, contributions from gas flaring (6%), power plants (9%), and open fires (12%) are relatively small, with the major sources instead being domestic (35%) and transport (38%). The observation-based evaluation of reported emissions identifies errors in spatial allocation of BC sources in the inventory and highlights the importance of improving emission distribution and source attribution, to develop reliable mitigation strategies for efficient reduction of BC impact on the Russian Arctic, one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth

Cs7Sm11[TeO3]12Cl16 and Rb7Nd11[TeO3]12Br16, the new tellurite halides of the tetragonal Rb6LiNd11[SeO3]12Cl16 structure type

The authors thank the Russian Foundation for Basic Researches for the support of this work under Grants No. 14-03-00604_a and 12-03-92604-KO_a. The X-ray study of compound II was made possible due to M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University Programm of Development. PL thanks the University of St Andrews and EPSRC for DTA Studentships to CB and LJD.Two new rare-earth – alkali – tellurium oxide halides were synthesized by a salt flux technique and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The structures of the new compounds Cs7Sm11[TeO3]12Cl16 (I) and Rb7Nd11[TeO3]12Br16 (II) (both tetragonal, space group I4/mcm) correspond to the sequence of [MLn11(TeO3)12] and [M6×16] layers and bear very strong similarities to those of known selenite analogs. We discuss the trends in similarities and differences in compositions and structural details between the Se and Te compounds; more members of the family are predicted.PostprintPeer reviewe

Radium Isotopes Across the Arctic Ocean Show Time Scales of Water Mass Ventilation and Increasing Shelf Inputs

The first full transarctic section of 228Ra in surface waters measured during GEOTRACES cruises PS94 and HLY1502 (2015) shows a consistent distribution with maximum activities in the transpolar drift. Activities in the central Arctic have increased from 2007 through 2011 to 2015. The increased 228Ra input is attributed to stronger wave action on shelves resulting from a longer ice-free season. A concomitant decrease in the 228Th/228Ra ratio likely results from more rapid transit of surface waters depleted in 228Th by scavenging over the shelf. The 228Ra activities observed in intermediate waters

Dynamic and spectral mixing in nanosystems

In the framework of simple spin-boson Hamiltonian we study an interplay between dynamic and spectral roots to stochastic-like behavior. The Hamiltonian describes an initial vibrational state coupled to discrete dense spectrum reservoir. The reservoir states are formed by three sequences with rationally independent periodicities typical for vibrational states in many nanosize systems. We show that quantum evolution of the system is determined by a dimensionless parameter which is characteristic number of the reservoir states relevant for the initial vibrational level dynamics. Our semi-quantitative analytic results are confirmed by numerical solution of the equation of motion. We anticipate that predicted in the paper both kinds of stochastic-like behavior (namely, due to spectral mixing and recurrence cycle dynamic mixing) can be observed by femtosecond spectroscopy methods in nanosystems.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure