Russell Square: a lifelong resource for teaching and learning

A quarter of a century ago, in 1978, Birkbeck College’s Faculty of Continuing Education (FCE, then the Department for Extra-Mural Studies of the federal University) moved to the offices that it now occupies in numbers 26 and 25 Russell Square. Then, as now, FCE was the one of the largest and most active extra-mural departments of any British university, with an enormous range of courses covering virtually every subject taught in ‘internal’ university departments and many more besides 1. Some of these courses have, from time to time, used Russell Square as a learning resource. Many more staff and students alike have (along with thousands of local workers, tourists and residents) used the square’s gardens for relaxation and recovery, without reflecting on its origins or present significance. This Occasional Paper examines the past and present fabric of Russell Square (‘the Square’) as a resource for teaching and learning. It is a composite narrative assembled by FCE staff whose disciplines range from nature conservation through garden history and architectural history to social policy. It deconstructs the Square as an entity and attempts to decipher some of its ‘meanings’ that provide links between subjects taught within FCE. We hope that it will stimulate discussion about the way this single ‘place’ – our Square - can be ‘seen’ or interpreted in different ways for diverse purposes, and about the way that it can be used as a resource for teaching and learning across disciplines

Ageing of Natural Rubber under Stress

We report a dynamical-mechanical study of stress relaxation at small deformation in a natural (polyisoprene) rubber well above its glass transition temperature Tg. We find that an almost complete relaxation of stress takes place over very long periods of time, even though the elastic network integrity is fully retained. The relaxation rate and the long-time equilibrium modulus are sensitive functions of temperature which do not follow time-temperature superposition. Many characteristic features of non-ergodic ageing response are apparent at both short and very long times. We interpret the observed behaviour in terms of the properties of rubber crosslinks, capable of isomerisation under stress, and relate the results to recent models of soft glassy rheology.Comment: Latex 2e (EPJ style), 5 EPS figure

The identification and production of varieties that increase the value of oats as a profitable component of organic production

Two experiments, one comprising husked, and the other naked, oats were established at Wakelyns Agroforestry, Suffolk in October 2004 to determine traits and varieties of oats suited to organic systems, and whether growing variety mixtures conferred any advantage. Unselected F2 breeding lines were also included for selection. Husked varieties had relatively higher yields; this may have been partly the result of poor establishment in the naked varieties. Variety height was found to be an important characteristic; tall oat varieties out-yielded the dwarfs. Two of the three variety mixtures containing the naked oat variety Expression yielded 8 and 9 % higher than the average of the component varieties. The data will be verified in the second year of replicated trials (2005/06), which will include the best performing husked and naked varieties, and a mixture of superior IGER-bred F2 breeding lines

Fish Habitat Utilization Patterns and Evaluation of the Efficacy of Marine Protected Areas in Hawaii: Integration of NOAA Digital Benthic Habitat Mapping and Coral Reef Ecological Studies

Over the past four decades, the state of Hawaii has developed a system of eleven Marine Life Conservation Districts (MLCDs) to conserve and replenish marine resources around the state. Initially established to provide opportunities for public interaction with the marine environment, these MLCDs vary in size, habitat quality, and management regimes, providing an excellent opportunity to test hypotheses concerning marine protected area (MPA) design and function using multiple discreet sampling units. NOAA/NOS/NCCOS/Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment’s Biogeography Team developed digital benthic habitat maps for all MLCD and adjacent habitats. These maps were used to evaluate the efficacy of existing MLCDs for biodiversity conservation and fisheries replenishment, using a spatially explicit stratified random sampling design. Coupling the distribution of habitats and species habitat affinities using GIS technology elucidates species habitat utilization patterns at scales that are commensurate with ecosystem processes and is useful in defining essential fish habitat and biologically relevant boundaries for MPAs. Analysis of benthic cover validated the a priori classification of habitat types and provided justification for using these habitat strata to conduct stratified random sampling and analyses of fish habitat utilization patterns. Results showed that the abundance and distribution of species and assemblages exhibited strong correlations with habitat types. Fish assemblages in the colonized and uncolonized hardbottom habitats were found to be most similar among all of the habitat types. Much of the macroalgae habitat sampled was macroalgae growing on hard substrate, and as a result showed similarities with the other hardbottom assemblages. The fish assemblages in the sand habitats were highly variable but distinct from the other habitat types. Management regime also played an important role in the abundance and distribution of fish assemblages. MLCDs had higher values for most fish assemblage characteristics (e.g. biomass, size, diversity) compared with adjacent fished areas and Fisheries Management Areas (FMAs) across all habitat types. In addition, apex predators and other targeted resources species were more abundant and larger in the MLCDs, illustrating the effectiveness of these closures in conserving fish populations. Habitat complexity, quality, size and level of protection from fishing were important determinates of MLCD effectiveness with respect to their associated fish assemblages. (PDF contains 217 pages

A note on bounds for the cop number using tree decompositions

In this short note, we supply a new upper bound on the cop number in terms of tree decompositions. Our results in some cases extend a previously derived bound on the cop number using treewidth

Group study of an 'undercover' test for visuospatial neglect: Invisible cancellation can reveal more neglect than standard cancellation

Visual neglect is a relatively common deficit after brain damage, particularly strokes. Cancellation tests provide standard clinical measures of neglect severity and deficits in daily life. A recent single-case study introduced a new variation on standard cancellation. Instead of making a visible mark on each target found, the patient made invisible marks (recorded with carbon paper underneath, for later scoring). Such invisible cancellation was found to reveal more neglect than cancellation with visible marks. Here we test the generality of this. Twenty three successive cases with suspected neglect each performed cancellation with visible or invisible marks. Neglect of contralesional targets was more pronounced with invisible marks. Indeed, about half of the patients only showed neglect in this version. For cases showing more neglect with invisible marks, stronger neglect of contralesional targets correlated with more revisits to ipsilesional targets for making additional invisible marks upon them. These results indicate that cancellation with invisible marks can reveal more neglect than standard cancellation with visible marks, while still providing a practical bedside test. Our observations may be consistent with recent proposals that demands on spatial working memory (required to keep track of previously found items only when marked invisibly) can exacerbate spatial neglect

When images work faster than words: The integration of content-based image retrieval with the Northumbria Watermark Archive

Information on the manufacture, history, provenance, identification, care and conservation of paper-based artwork/objects is disparate and not always readily available. The Northumbria Watermark Archive will incorporate such material into a database, which will be made freely available on the Internet providing an invaluable resource for conservation, research and education. The efficiency of a database is highly dependant on its search mechanism. Text based mechanisms are frequently ineffective when a range of descriptive terminologies might be used i.e. when describing images or translating from foreign languages. In such cases a Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) system can be more effective. Watermarks provide paper with unique visual identification characteristics and have been used to provide a point of entry to the archive that is more efficient and effective than a text based search mechanism. The research carried out has the potential to be applied to any numerically large collection of images with distinctive features of colour, shape or texture i.e. coins, architectural features, picture frame profiles, hallmarks, Japanese artists stamps etc. Although the establishment of an electronic archive incorporating a CBIR system can undoubtedly improve access to large collections of images and related data, the development is rarely trouble free. This paper discusses some of the issues that must be considered i.e. collaboration between disciplines; project management; copying and digitising objects; content based image retrieval; the Northumbria Watermark Archive; the use of standardised terminology within a database as well as copyright issues

Evolutionary breeding of healthy wheat: from plot to farm

Genetically diverse Composite Cross Populations (CCPs) may be useful in environmentally variable low-input systems as an alternative to pure line varieties. They are formed by hybridising lines with diverse evolutionary origins, bulking the F1 progeny, and allowing natural selection of the progeny in successive crop environments. CCPs derived from 10 high yielding parents (YCCPs), 12 high quality parents (QCCPs), or all 22 parents (YQCCPs), were grown at four sites (2 organic, 2 conventional) in the UK; they are currently (2006) in F5. The YCCPs out yielded the QCCPs, which had better quality characteristics. Although the CCPs performed within the range of the parents, the values obtained were often better than the mean of the parents. Some population samples are now being grown on farms and other sites in England, France, Germany and Hungary