Power without representation? The House of Lords and social policy

In the past the House of Lords has generally, and arguably for good reasons, been ignored in discussions of the making and scrutiny of welfare. However, it has always played some role in this field, particularly in the scrutiny and passage of legislation, and since the removal of hereditary Peers in 1999, some writers have argued that the House has become more assertive. This article examines the attitudes of Peers, including a comparison with the views of Members of Parliament, and draws a number of conclusions about the role of the upper House in relation to social policy

Geomorphological control on boulder transport and coastal erosion before, during and after an extreme extra-tropical cyclone

Extreme wave events in coastal zones are principal drivers of geomorphic change. Evidence of boulder entrainment and erosional impact during storms is increasing. However, there is currently poor time coupling between pre- and post-storm measurements of coastal boulder deposits. Importantly there are no data reporting shore platform erosion, boulder entrainment and/or boulder transport during storm events – rock coast dynamics during storm events are currently unexplored. Here, we use high-resolution (daily) field data to measure and characterise coastal boulder transport before, during and after the extreme Northeast Atlantic extra-tropical cyclone Johanna in March 2008. Forty-eight limestone fine-medium boulders (n = 46) and coarse cobbles (n = 2) were tracked daily over a 0.1 km2 intertidal area during this multi-day storm. Boulders were repeatedly entrained, transported and deposited, and in some cases broken down (n = 1) or quarried (n = 3), during the most intense days of the storm. Eighty-one percent (n = 39) of boulders were located at both the start and end of the storm. Of these, 92% were entrained where entrainment patterns were closely aligned to wave parameters. These data firmly demonstrate rock coasts are dynamic and vulnerable under storm conditions. No statistically significant relationship was found between boulder size (mass) and net transport distance. Graphical analyses suggest that boulder size limits the maximum longshore transport distance but that for the majority of boulders lying under this threshold, other factors influence transport distance. Paired analysis of 20 similar sized and shaped boulders in different morphogenic zones demonstrates that geomorphological control affects entrainment and transport distance – where net transport distances were up to 39 times less where geomorphological control was greatest. These results have important implications for understanding and for accurately measuring and modelling boulde

Developing Research Data Management Policy at Research Group Level: A Case Study with the Marine Renewable Energy Group

This case study looks at how the Marine Renewable Energy Group developed and implemented research data management policy and procedures. Recommendations for how other research groups could go about designing their own research data management policies are also put forward.JISCEPSRC's Bridging the Gaps initiativ

Expert voices: is it time to lower the voting age to 16?

The question of whether the UK should lower the minimum voting age from 18 to 16 has been on the agenda recently, with Ed Miliband making it explicit Labour policy, and the SNP enfranchising 16 and 17 year olds to good effect during the Scottish independence referendum. As part of the LSE’s ‘Expert Voices’ series, Public Policy Group Digital Editor Cheryl Brumley commissioned Sarah Birch, Richard Berry, Philip Cowley, and Andrew Mycock to record a short monologue about their thoughts on the issue, and to answer the question ‘is it time for the UK to lower the voting age to 16?

Evolved galaxies in high-density environments across 2.0≤z<4.22.0\leq z<4.2 using the ZFOURGE survey

To explore the role environment plays in influencing galaxy evolution at high redshifts, we study $2.0\leq z<4.2$ environments using the FourStar Galaxy Evolution (ZFOURGE) survey. Using galaxies from the COSMOS legacy field with ${\rm log(M_{*}/M_{\odot})}\geq9.5$, we use a seventh nearest neighbour density estimator to quantify galaxy environment, dividing this into bins of low, intermediate and high density. We discover new high density environment candidates across $2.0\leq z<2.4$ and $3.1\leq z<4.2$. We analyse the quiescent fraction, stellar mass and specific star formation rate (sSFR) of our galaxies to understand how these vary with redshift and environment. Our results reveal that, across $2.0\leq z<2.4$, the high density environments are the most significant regions, which consist of elevated quiescent fractions, ${\rm log(M_{*}/M_{\odot})}\geq10.2$ massive galaxies and suppressed star formation activity. At $3.1\leq z<4.2$, we find that high density regions consist of elevated stellar masses but require more complete samples of quiescent and sSFR data to study the effects of environment in more detail at these higher redshifts. Overall, our results suggest that well-evolved, passive galaxies are already in place in high density environments at $z\sim2.4$, and that the Butcher-Oemler effect and SFR-density relation may not reverse towards higher redshifts as previously thought.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, final version published in PAS

Swimming with ShARCS: Comparison of On-sky Sensitivity With Model Predictions for ShaneAO on the Lick Observatory 3-meter Telescope

The Lick Observatory's Shane 3-meter telescope has been upgraded with a new infrared instrument (ShARCS - Shane Adaptive optics infraRed Camera and Spectrograph) and dual-deformable mirror adaptive optics (AO) system (ShaneAO). We present first-light measurements of imaging sensitivity in the Ks band. We compare measured results to predicted signal-to-noise ratio and magnitude limits from modeling the emissivity and throughput of ShaneAO and ShARCS. The model was validated by comparing its results to the Keck telescope adaptive optics system model and then by estimating the sky background and limiting magnitudes for IRCAL, the previous infra-red detector on the Shane telescope, and comparing to measured, published results. We predict that the ShaneAO system will measure lower sky backgrounds and achieve 20\% higher throughput across the $JHK$ bands despite having more optical surfaces than the current system. It will enable imaging of fainter objects (by 1-2 magnitudes) and will be faster to reach a fiducial signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 10-13. We highlight the improvements in performance over the previous AO system and its camera, IRCAL.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, Montreal 201

Increasing seedstock production of domesticated giant tiger prawns

Given the rationale that pond systems are likely the most cost-effective system for large-scale production of P. monodon broodstock, this project aimed to determine whether pond-rearing poses a significant risk for broodstock production. The gross reproductive development of males reared in low-density broodstock ponds was found comparable to sibling males reared in controlled-environment tanks. Furthermore,none of the environmental ‘stressors’ and dietary manipulations examined impacted on male reproductive tract development. Thus, within the boundaries of the parameters tested, we can state that rearing of male broodstock in low-density ponds does not pose inherent risks of gross reproductive tract impairment. Given the typically lower costs of constructing and managing broodstock in large-scale pond systems, as compared to smaller raceway and tank systems, the incorporation of a pond-rearing phase in broodstock production could clearly increase cost-effectiveness of broodstock production at a commercial scale

Discrimination of Chiral Guests by Chiral Channels: Variable Temperature Studies by SXRD and Solid State 13C NMR of the Deoxycholic Acid Complexes of Camphorquinone and Endo-3-Bromocamphor

3a,12a-Dihydroxy-5b-cholan-24-oic acid (deoxycholic acid DCA) is able to discriminate between the R- and S-enantiomers of camphorquinone and endo-(1)-3-bromocamphor and select only the S-enantiomers from a racemic mixture. DCA forms novel well ordered 1:1 adducts with (1S)-(1)-camphorquinone and (1S)-endo-(-)-3-bromocamphor, both of which have been characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction SXRD). When DCA is cocrystallized with (RS)-camphorquinone and (RS)-endo-3-bromocamphor,1:1 adducts of the S-enantiomers are produced together with crystals of the free racemic guest. In contrast, in the absence of (1S)-(1)-camphorquinone, DCA forms a 2:1 adduct with (1R)-(2)-camphorquinone. In this 2:1 adduct the guest is disordered at ambient temperature and undergoes a phase change in the region 160–130 K similar to that observed for the ferrocene adduct, but with only partial ordering of the guest. The SXRD structure of the low temperature form and the variable temperature 13C CP/MAS NMR are reported. Cocrystallizing DCA with (1R)-endo-(1)-3-bromocamphor gives the free guest and a glassy solid