7,485 research outputs found
Setting the interdisciplinary scene
Interdisciplinarity, working across specialities, is something that has been
shaping higher education increasingly since the 1990s. It is a mode of
working that cuts across the usual habits of a single discipline, focusing on
solving a particular problem or situation by drawing on a range of expertise.
There are times when grand claims are made for interdisciplinary work,
and times when it is seen as a buzzword that needs to be put somewhere
because it sounds good in grant applications.
Interdisciplinary research is difficult partly because it goes against the
grain of specialization, and going into details deeply is inevitable when
one is doing research. Interdisciplinary education is even harder because
there is often less consensus about what understanding we are trying to
impart: subject specialists are themselves often not sure how to agree
on these and have to collaborate to find their way to an appropriate
understanding in each new collaboration. In this overview, Davies argues
that one consequence of this is to emphasize the open-endedness of
collaborative research, and that students can be a part of it – indeed they
make a vital contribution to judgements about what kinds of knowledge
and collaborations are of value
Sources of shore sediment on the north coast of Tasmania
Following a conclusion that beach sands on the north coast of Tasmania have been subjected to little longshore translocation, an attempt is made to establish their immediate provenance by examining a range of sedimentological characters. It is concluded that most of the sand body was immediately derived from the shelf at and after the postglacial marine transgression. Almost all of the remainder was supplied in the last 6000 years by erosion of coastal bedrock or accession of biogenic carbonate, with little or no contribution from the rivers
The context of the Connected Curriculum
This opening chapter sets a broad perspective on some of the issues facing
higher education in general: what kinds of pedagogical problems are we
trying to solve, and why? After introducing the key UCL strategy of the
Connected Curriculum and research-based education, it touches on a
number of overarching themes about learning. These include the ways
that educators construct environments for students to learn in, how their
engagement is critical (and can be squandered) and the way that in recent
years, higher education has rethought the curriculum in an attempt to
move its focus from the teacher to the learner. As soon as we start to think
along these lines, other questions emerge that might loosely be called
‘identity-related’ as we realize that one way or another, we are shaping
our graduates’ whole perspectives in far more ways than might initially
have been expected. The chapter gives an overview of some of the key
approaches that characterize modern university education, and sets the
scene for the chapters that follow. In particular, it seeks to show how we
have reached a point where research-based education is not just plausible
and achievable, but in fact desirable, as a way of bringing a set of strands
together that have hitherto rarely been coherently woven
Experimental techniques for ductile damage characterisation
Ductile damage in metallic materials is caused by the nucleation, growth and coalesce of voids and micro-cracks in the metal matrix when it is subjected to plastic strain. A considerable number of models have been proposed to represent ductile failure focusing on the ultimate failure conditions; however, only some of them study in detail the whole damage accumulation process. The aim of this work is to review experimental techniques developed by various authors to measure the accumulation of ductile damage under tensile loads. The measurement methods reviewed include: stiffness degradation, indentation, microstructure analysis, ultrasonic waves propagation, X-ray tomography and electrical potential drop. Stiffness degradation and indentation techniques have been tested on stainless steel 304L hourglass-shaped samples. A special interest is placed in the Continuum Damage Mechanics approach (CDM) as its equations incorporate macroscopic parameters that can represent directly the damage accumulation measured in the experiments. The other main objective lies in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each technique for the assessment of materials subjected to different strain-rate and temperature conditions
Premature ovarian insufficiency: the need for evidence on the effectiveness of hormonal therapy
Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) – the loss of ovarian function before the age of 40 years, a decade before natural menopause – is a life-changing diagnosis for women. POI causes significant short-term and long-term morbidity related to estrogen deficiency. The condition is managed by providing exogenous estrogen replacement, usually as the oral contraceptive pill or hormone therapy. These preparations have different estrogen formulations and may have differing benefits and risks. At present, there are no robust data to inform clinical recommendations and women’s decision-making about treatment that they may be taking for many years. The POISE study (Premature Ovarian Insufficiency Study of Effectiveness of hormonal therapy) has been designed to determine whether hormone therapy is superior to combined oral contraceptives on important clinical outcomes and patient-reported symptoms, based on the hypothesis that hormone therapy provides more physiological continuous hormone supplementation with natural estrogens. The study is an open and pragmatic, parallel, randomized controlled trial. The primary outcome is absolute bone mineral density assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry of the lumbar spine after 2 years of treatment. The study will also investigate cardiovascular markers, symptom relief and acceptability of treatment, and will continue to collect long-term data on fractures and cardiovascular events. Results will inform future guidance on management of POI
The nature, extent, and ecological implications of marine light pollution
This is the final version of the article. Available from Ecological Society of America via the DOI in this record.Despite centuries of use, artificial light at night has only recently been recognized as a cause for environmental concern. Its global extent and ongoing encroachment into naturally lit ecosystems has sparked scientific interest into the many ways in which it may negatively affect human health, societal attitudes, scientific endeavors, and biological processes. Yet, perhaps because sources of artificial light are largely land based, the potential for artificial light pollution to interfere with the biology of the ocean has not been explored in any detail. There is little information on how light pollution affects those species, behaviors, and interactions that are informed by the intensity, spectra, and periodicity of natural nighttime light in marine ecosystems. Here, we provide an overview of the extent of marine light pollution, discuss how it changes the physical environment, and explore its potential role in shaping marine ecosystems. © The Ecological Society of America.The research leading to this paper has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the EU's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2013)/ ERC grant agreement No 268504 to KJG
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