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

Caradon Hill area heritage project final evaluation and completion report

A report on the Heritage Lottery Funded Caradon Hill Area Heritage Project (CHAHP). The evaluation has been designed to provide an independent assessment of what CHAHP projects have delivered (their outputs), what the benefits (outcomes) have been for heritage and people and what lasting impact CHAHP will have made (its legacy). This Report identifies what CHAHP has achieved, celebrates its successes and considers what difference it has made to the area. It also considers what may not have worked so well and the lessons that may be drawn for the future

Determinants of satisfaction with information and additional information-seeking behaviour for the pertussis vaccination given during pregnancy

Objectives: Information search and processing is critical to the vaccine decision-making process. However, the role of drivers of information satisfaction and search is not fully understood. Here, we investigated the predictive potential of psychosocial characteristics related to satisfaction with information and additional information-seeking about the pertussis vaccine currently recommended during pregnancy. Design: Cross-sectional online questionnaire study. Methods: A UK based sample of 314 women who had given birth during the previous six months was recruited to participate. The questionnaire included measures of the psycho-social predictors: trust, coping strategies, attitude towards vaccine information-seeking behaviour and risk perception of vaccination during pregnancy, and measures of two outcome variables: satisfaction with information received from a health care professional and whether participants engaged in vaccine information-seeking behaviour. Results: Trust in health care professionals, a perceived behavioural control of own vaccine information-seeking behaviour, and an engaged problem-focused strategy for coping with stress were significant predictors of satisfaction with official information given by a health care professional. 40% of women sought out additional information about vaccination however, none of the psychosocial factors measured significantly predicted the behaviour. Conclusions: We found that high trust in health care professionals, a perceived ability to seek out accurate information about vaccines and actively focusing on problems as a means of coping with stress, drives satisfaction in official vaccine information. We also developed measures of these variables that could be used in further research

Entrainment enhances theta oscillations and improves episodic memory.

Neural oscillations in the theta band have been linked to episodic memory, but it is unclear whether activity patterns that give rise to theta play a causal role in episodic retrieval. Here, we used rhythmic auditory and visual stimulation to entrain neural oscillations to assess whether theta activity contributes to successful memory retrieval. In two separate experiments, human subjects studied words and were subsequently tested on memory for the words ('item recognition') and the context in which each had been previously studied ('source memory'). Between study and test, subjects in the entrainment groups were exposed to audiovisual stimuli designed to enhance activity at 5.5 Hz, whereas subjects in the control groups were exposed to white noise (Expt. 1) or 14 Hz entrainment (Expt. 2). Theta entrainment selectively increased source memory performance in both studies. Electroencephalography (EEG) data in Expt. 2 revealed that theta entrainment resulted in band-specific enhancement of theta power during the entrainment period and during post-entrainment memory retrieval. These results demonstrate a direct link between theta activity and episodic memory retrieval. Targeted manipulation of theta activity could be a promising new approach to enhance theta activity and memory performance in healthy individuals and in patients with memory disorders

Windermere reflections landscape partnership final evaluation

A report on the Heritage Lottery Funded Windermere Reflections Landscape Partnership. The evaluation provides an independent assessment of what Windermere Reflections (WR) has delivered (its outputs), what the benefits (outcomes) have been for heritage and people and what lasting impact WR will have made (its legacy). This Report identifies what WR has achieved, celebrates its successes and considers what difference it has made to the area. It also considers what may not have worked so well and the lessons that may be drawn for the future

Tooting Common Heritage Project: Final evaluation & completion report

Tooting Common Heritage Project is a £1.908m multi-element scheme which commenced delivery in early 2016, supported by a National Lottery Heritage Fund (HF) grant of £1.372m (as 72% of total approved costs). HF funding ended in December 2019. This Final Evaluation Report is intended to take stock of (and celebrate) what has been achieved, identify weaknesses, draw tentative conclusions about lessons learnt and contribute to legacy planning and activities following the end of HF funding. It focuses primarily on outcomes and legacy and includes brief case studies, graphics and other illustrative material which should help serve as a permanent public record of what has been achieved, of lessons that have been learnt and what remains to be done

The drag on a microcantilever oscillating near a wall

Motivated by devices such as the atomic force microscope, we compute the drag experienced by a cylindrical body of circular or rectangular cross-section oscillating at small amplitude near a plane wall. The body lies parallel to the wall and oscillates normally to it; the body is assumed to be long enough for the dominant flow to be two-dimensional. The flow is parameterized by a frequency parameter γ² (a Strouhal number) and the wall–body separation Δ (scaled on body radius). Numerical solutions of the unsteady Stokes equations obtained using finite-difference computations in bipolar coordinates (for circular cross-sections) and boundary-element computations (for rectangular cross-sections) are used to determine the drag on the body. Numerical results are validated and extended using asymptotic predictions (for circular cylinders) obtained at all extremes of (γ, Δ)-parameter space. Regions in parameter space for which the wall has a significant effect on drag are identified.R. J. Clarke, S. M. Cox, P. M. Williams and O. E. Jense

Dust accretion in binary systems: implications for planets and transition discs

The presence of planets in binary systems poses interesting problems for planet formation theories, both in cases where planets must have formed in very compact discs around the individual stars and where they are located near the edge of the stable circumbinary region, where in situ formation is challenging. Dust dynamics is expected to play an important role in such systems, since dust trapping at the inner edge of circumbinary discs could aid in situ formation, but would simultaneously starve the circumstellar discs of the solid material needed to form planets. Here we investigate the dynamics of dust in binary systems using smoothed particle hydrodynamics. We find that all our simulations tend towards dust trapping in the circumbinary disc, but the time-scale on which trapping begins depends on binary mass ratio (q) and eccentricity as well as the angular momentum of the infalling material. For q ≳ 0.1, we find that dust can initially accrete on to the circumstellar discs, but as the circumbinary cavity grows in radius, dust eventually becomes trapped in the circumbinary disc. For q = 0.01, we find that increasing the binary eccentricity increases the time required for dust trapping to begin. However, even this longer time-scale is likely to be shorter than the planet formation time-scale in the inner disc and is insufficient to explain the observed pre-transitional discs. This indicates that increase in companion eccentricity alone is not enough to allow significant transfer of solids from the outer to the inner disc

Are Psychology Journals Anti-replication? A Snapshot of Editorial Practices.

Recent research in psychology has highlighted a number of replication problems in the discipline, with publication bias - the preference for publishing original and positive results, and a resistance to publishing negative results and replications- identified as one reason for replication failure. However, little empirical research exists to demonstrate that journals explicitly refuse to publish replications. We reviewed the instructions to authors and the published aims of 1151 psychology journals and examined whether they indicated that replications were permitted and accepted. We also examined whether journal practices differed across branches of the discipline, and whether editorial practices differed between low and high impact journals. Thirty three journals (3%) stated in their aims or instructions to authors that they accepted replications. There was no difference between high and low impact journals. The implications of these findings for psychology are discussed