3,241 research outputs found
Urban Food Sharing
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This book explores the history and current practice of food sharing. Illustrated by rich case studies from around the world, the book uses new empirical data to set an agenda for research and action. The book will be an important resource for researchers, policy makers and sharing innovators to explore the impacts and sustainability potential of such sharing for cities
Just Adapt: Engaging Disadvantaged Young People in Planning for Climate Adaptation
The visibility of young people in climate change debates has risen significantly since the inception of the Fridays for Future movement, but little is known about the diversity of positions, perspectives and experiences of young people in Ireland, especially with respect to climate change adaptation planning. To close this knowledge gap, this article first interrogates key emergent spaces of public participation within the arena of climate action in Ireland in order to identify the extent of young people’s participation and whether any specific consideration is given to disadvantaged groups. It then tests the impacts of workshops specifically designed to support disadvantaged young people’s engagement with climate change adaptation which were rolled out with a designated Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools school in inner-city Dublin, Ireland. We found limited attention to public participation in climate change adaptation planning generally, with even less consideration given to engaging young people from disadvantaged communities. However, positive impacts with respect to enhanced knowledge of climate change science and policy processes emerged following participation in the workshops, providing the bedrock for a greater sense of self-efficacy around future engagement with climate action amongst the young people involved. We conclude that what is needed to help ensure procedural justice around climate action in Ireland are specific, relevant and interactive educational interventions on the issue of climate change adaptation; interventions which are sensitive to matters of place and difference
What Role for Citizens? Evolving Engagement in Quadruple Helix Smart District Initiatives
Globally, smart city initiatives are becoming increasingly ubiquitous elements of complex, sociotechnical urban systems. While there is general agreement that cities cannot be smart without citizen involvement, the motivations, means, and mechanisms for engaging citizens remain contested. In response, this article asks what the role of citizens is in two recently established smart districts within the wider Smart Dublin programme: Smart Sandyford, a business district, and Smart Balbriggan, a town north of Dublin with Ireland's most ethnically diverse and youthful population. Using multiple methods (online and in-person interviews, site visits, a focus group, and participant observation), this article specifically examines how the "quadruple helix," a popular concept within innovation studies and one that is adopted in promotional materials by Dublin's emerging smart districts, is used by key actors as an overarching framing device for activities. It finds that, to date, the quadruple helix concept is being applied simplistically and uncritically, without attention to pre-existing and persistent patterns of uneven power and influence between the different actors involved. As such it risks inhibiting rather than supporting meaningful citizen engagement for smart and sustainable places that both smart districts articulate as a key driver of their activities
Food Sharing Initiatives and Food Democracy: Practice and Policy in Three European Cities
Calls for greater food democracy in Europe have emerged as the limitations of urban food systems dominated by commercial organisations are documented, but little attention has been paid to how policy arrangements affect attempts to transition to more democratic food futures. This article examines food sharing initiatives - increasingly facilitated by the use of information and communication technologies - as a potential means to enhance urban food democracy, and explores the role of policy in shaping those practices in three European capital cities: Berlin, London, and Dublin. We pose two related questions: To what extent are diverse food sharing initiatives exemplars of food democracy, and to what extent do policy arrangements affect food sharing practices and the nature of any food democracy they might embody? Our empirical evidence demonstrates where the goals and impacts of food sharing initiatives align with key dimensions of food democracy. We also consider how food sharing initiatives - and any food democracy dimensions that they support - are affected by the policy environment in which they operate. The food sharing initiatives examined revealed to be agents of pro-democratic change, at least within the boundaries of their spheres of influence, despite policies rarely having their activities and aspirations in mind
Algorithm to estimate the Hurst exponent of high-dimensional fractals
We propose an algorithm to estimate the Hurst exponent of high-dimensional
fractals, based on a generalized high-dimensional variance around a moving
average low-pass filter. As working examples, we consider rough surfaces
generated by the Random Midpoint Displacement and by the Cholesky-Levinson
Factorization algorithms. The surrogate surfaces have Hurst exponents ranging
from 0.1 to 0.9 with step 0.1, and different sizes. The computational
efficiency and the accuracy of the algorithm are also discussed
Pre-clinical imaging of invasive candidiasis using ImmunoPET/MR
This is the final version of the article. Available from Frontiers Media via the DOI in this record.The human commensal yeast Candida is the 4th most common cause of hospital-acquired bloodstream infections, with C. albicans accounting for the majority of the >400,000 life-threatening infections annually. Diagnosis of invasive candidiasis (IC), a disease encompassing candidemia (blood-borne yeast infection) and deep-seated organ infections, is a major challenge since clinical manifestations of the disease are indistinguishable from viral, bacterial and other fungal diseases, and diagnostic tests for biomarkers in the bloodstream such as PCR, ELISA and pan-fungal β-D-glucan lack either standardisation, sensitivity or specificity. Blood culture remains the gold standard for diagnosis, but test sensitivity is poor and turn-around time slow. Furthermore, cultures can only be obtained when the yeast resides in the bloodstream, with samples recovered from hematogenous infections often yielding negative results. Consequently, there is a pressing need for a diagnostic test that allows the identification of metastatic foci in deep-seated Candida infections, without the need for invasive biopsy. Here, we report the development of a highly specific mouse IgG3 monoclonal antibody (MC3) that binds to a putative β-1,2-mannan epitope present in high molecular weight mannoproteins and phospholipomannans on the surface of yeast and hyphal morphotypes of C. albicans, and its use as a [64Cu]NODAGA-labeled tracer for whole-body pre-clinical imaging of deep-seated C. albicans infections using antibody-guided positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (immunoPET/MRI). When used in a mouse intravenous (i.v.) challenge model that faithfully mimics disseminated C. albicans infections in humans, the [64Cu]NODAGA-MC3 tracer accurately detects infections of the kidney, the principal site of blood-borne candidiasis. Using a strain of the emerging human pathogen Candida auris that reacts with MC3 in vitro, but which is non-infective in i.v. challenged mice, we demonstrate the accuracy of the tracer in diagnosing invasive infections in vivo. This pre-clinical study demonstrates the principle of antibody-guided molecular imaging for detection of deep organ infections in IC, without the need for invasive tissue biopsy.This work was supported, in part, by the European Union Seventh Framework Program FP7/2007-2013 under grant 602820
Non-equilibrium states of a photon cavity pumped by an atomic beam
We consider a beam of two-level randomly excited atoms that pass one-by-one
through a one-mode cavity. We show that in the case of an ideal cavity, i.e. no
leaking of photons from the cavity, the pumping by the beam leads to an
unlimited increase in the photon number in the cavity. We derive an expression
for the mean photon number for all times. Taking into account leaking of the
cavity, we prove that the mean photon number in the cavity stabilizes in time.
The limiting state of the cavity in this case exists and it is independent of
the initial state. We calculate the characteristic functional of this
non-quasi-free non-equilibrium state. We also calculate the energy flux in both
the ideal and open cavity and the entropy production for the ideal cavity.Comment: Corrected energy production calculations and made some changes to
ease the readin
From cook to chef: Facilitating the transition from recipe-driven to open-ended research-based undergraduate chemistry lab activities
This paper describes the development of mini-research projects in the third year practical chemistry course at the University of Nottingham for the MSci(Hons) Chemistry degree. The aim of these developments is to bridge the gap between ‘recipe-style’ experiments in the first and second year courses and research projects undertaken in the fourth year or in industry. There is much evidence that, having been given this opportunity to plan and design their own experiment, students exhibit higher-order cognitive skills, which can lead to a more valuable learning experience
Predictions for the X-ray circumgalactic medium of edge-on discs and spheroids
We investigate how the X-ray circumgalactic medium (CGM) of present-day
galaxies depends on galaxy morphology and azimuthal angle using mock
observations generated from the EAGLE cosmological hydrodynamic simulation. By
creating mock stacks of {\it eROSITA}-observed galaxies oriented to be edge-on,
we make several observationally-testable predictions for galaxies in the
stellar mass range M. The soft X-ray CGM of
disc galaxies is between 60 and 100\% brighter along the semi-major axis
compared to the semi-minor axis, between 10-30 kpc. This azimuthal dependence
is a consequence of the hot ( K) CGM being non-spherical: specifically
it is flattened along the minor axis such that denser and more luminous gas
resides in the disc plane and co-rotates with the galaxy. Outflows enrich and
heat the CGM preferentially perpendicular to the disc, but we do not find an
observationally-detectable signature along the semi-minor axis. Spheroidal
galaxies have hotter CGMs than disc galaxies related to spheroids residing at
higher halos masses, which may be measurable through hardness ratios spanning
the keV band. While spheroids appear to have brighter CGMs than discs
for the selected fixed bin, this owes to spheroids having higher
stellar and halo masses within that bin, and obscures the fact that
both simulated populations have similar total CGM luminosities at the exact
same . Discs have brighter emission inside 20 kpc and more steeply
declining profiles with radius than spheroids. We predict that the {\it
eROSITA} 4-year all-sky survey should detect many of the signatures we predict
here, although targeted follow-up observations of highly inclined nearby discs
after the survey may be necessary to observe some of our azimuthally-dependent
predictions.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, 1 table. Submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcom
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