Evaluation of Biodiversity 2020. Evaluation report [Final report]

In the 25 Year Environment Plan, published in 2018, the Government committed to publishing a new strategy for nature to take forward international commitments on biodiversity and build upon the current Strategy, ‘Biodiversity 2020: a Strategy for England’s wildlife and ecosystem services’. This report provides an evaluation of the outcomes and actions under Biodiversity 2020 to provide an evidence base for ensuring any new strategy is targeted and effective. The evaluation aimed to: 1. assess progress towards the Outcomes set out in Biodiversity 2020 (relating to land and freshwater only); 2. evaluate what worked well and why, and the factors that have influenced progress; 3. identify lessons and opportunities to improve delivery in the future (i.e. under a new strategy). The evaluation was carried out at a Theme level. Evaluation was based on: (i) a synthesis of existing quantitative indicators, (ii) evidence from evaluations and reports of activities undertaken since 2011, and (iii) expert opinions drawn from questionnaires, interviews, and four workshops with stakeholders. The workshops were a key component of the evaluation, and comprised participants from the project team, Defra, other government agencies (usually involved in delivery of activities directly supporting the Strategy), NGOs, businesses (Theme 2) and research and academia. Facilitated discussions amongst workshop participants provided further insight into progress and the factors that have influenced progress, drawing on participants’ experiences and knowledge

Real-time RFI Mitigation in Radio Astronomy

As the use of wireless technology has increased around the world, Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) has become more and more of a problem for radio astronomers. Preventative measures exist to limit the presence of RFI, and programs exist to remove it from saved data, but the use of algorithms to detect and remove RFI as an observation is occurring is much less common. Such a method would be incredibly useful for observations in which the data must undergo several rounds of processing before being saved, as in pulsar timing studies. Strategies for real-time mitigation have been discussed and tested with simulated data, but ideally the results of any approach would be validated by a detailed comparison of the final data products with and without mitigation applied. The goal of this project is to develop an RFI mitigation approach based on strategies suggested by Buch et al.(2016) and to test this program on real data from the observation of pulsar J1713+0747 at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. We use a Median Absolute Deviation (MAD) filter to identify interference in the observation and replace the compromised data with random Gaussian noise to match a characteristic radio signal from space. In order to verify our results, we analyze the pulsar’s timing residuals obtained both from the mitigated data and from data processed through offline RFI removal software. Comparing the two, our preliminary findings indicate that our program is able to significantly improve the quality of timing results from the observation

The Nottingham Fatigue After Stroke (NotFAST) Study: results from follow-up six months after stroke

Background: Post-stroke fatigue is common and disabling. Objectives: The aim of NotFAST was to examine factors associated with fatigue in stroke 3 survivors without depression, six months after stroke. Methods: Participants were recruited from four UK stroke units. Those with high levels of 5 depressive symptoms (score ≥7 on Brief Assessment Schedule Depression Cards) or aphasia were excluded. Follow-up assessment was conducted at six months after stroke. They were assessed on the Fatigue Severity Scale, Rivermead Mobility Index, Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living scale, Barthel Index, Beck Anxiety Index, Brief Assessment Schedule Depression Cards, Impact of Event Scale-Revised, and Sleep Hygiene Index. Results: Of the 371 participants recruited, 263 (71%) were contacted at six months after stroke and 213 (57%) returned questionnaires. Approximately half (n=109, 51%) reported fatigue at six months. Of those reporting fatigue initially (n=88), 61 (69%) continued to report fatigue. ‘De novo’ (new) fatigue was reported by 48 (38%) of those not fatigued initially. Lower Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living scores and higher Beck Anxiety Index scores were independently associated with fatigue at six months. Conclusions: Half the stroke survivors reported fatigue at six months post-stroke. Reduced independence in activities of daily living and higher anxiety levels were associated with the level of fatigue. Persistent and delayed onset fatigue may affect independence and participation in rehabilitation, and these findings should be used to inform the development of appropriate interventions

Managing the transition to work: the role of the planning network in British town planning education

The development of town planning education in the United Kingdom can be traced back over at least sixty years and has always enjoyed a close relationship with practitioners, employers and the professional body, the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). In order to ensure an intake of sufficient quality to a growing profession, the Institute offered its own exams until the 1980s and then initiated the current system of accrediting both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes of study. This system of accreditation emphasises the importance of relevant knowledge, skills and values as well as core and specialised studies. The vocational nature of town planning requires that graduates have the breadth of understanding as well as the practical skills in order to practice effectively. Thus accredited courses have over time developed strong links with employers and practitioners. Rapid developments in the scope and range of planning, and the skills needed to work in it, have reflected changes in public policy and growing number of agencies concerned with the built environment. The system of regular quinquennial visits to accredit courses has helped ensure that this acceptance of change has become part of the culture of planning schools

Dynamically Driven Evolution of the Interstellar Medium in M51

Massive star formation occurs in giant molecular clouds (GMCs); an understanding of the evolution of GMCs is a prerequisite to develop theories of star formation and galaxy evolution. We report the highest-fidelity observations of the grand-design spiral galaxy M51 in carbon monoxide (CO) emission, revealing the evolution of GMCs vis-a-vis the large-scale galactic structure and dynamics. The most massive GMCs (giant molecular associations (GMAs)) are first assembled and then broken up as the gas flow through the spiral arms. The GMAs and their H_2 molecules are not fully dissociated into atomic gas as predicted in stellar feedback scenarios, but are fragmented into smaller GMCs upon leaving the spiral arms. The remnants of GMAs are detected as the chains of GMCs that emerge from the spiral arms into interarm regions. The kinematic shear within the spiral arms is sufficient to unbind the GMAs against self-gravity. We conclude that the evolution of GMCs is driven by large-scale galactic dynamics—their coagulation into GMAs is due to spiral arm streaming motions upon entering the arms, followed by fragmentation due to shear as they leave the arms on the downstream side. In M51, the majority of the gas remains molecular from arm entry through the interarm region and into the next spiral arm passage

Dynamically Driven Evolution of the Interstellar Medium in M51

We report the highest-fidelity observations of the spiral galaxy M51 in CO emission, revealing the evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) vis-a-vis the large-scale galactic structure and dynamics. The most massive GMCs (so-called GMAs) are first assembled and then broken up as the gas flow through the spiral arms. The GMAs and their H2 molecules are not fully dissociated into atomic gas as predicted in stellar feedback scenarios, but are fragmented into smaller GMCs upon leaving the spiral arms. The remnants of GMAs are detected as the chains of GMCs that emerge from the spiral arms into interarm regions. The kinematic shear within the spiral arms is sufficient to unbind the GMAs against self-gravity. We conclude that the evolution of GMCs is driven by large-scale galactic dynamics --their coagulation into GMAs is due to spiral arm streaming motions upon entering the arms, followed by fragmentation due to shear as they leave the arms on the downstream side. In M51, the majority of the gas remains molecular from arm entry through the inter-arm region and into the next spiral arm passage.Comment: 6 pages, including 3 figures. Accepted, ApJ

Use of Antiviral Drugs to Reduce Household Transmission of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, United Kingdom1

TOC Summary: Early treatment of primary case-patients and prophylaxis of household contacts provides effective protection

Incorporating prior knowledge improves detection of differences in bacterial growth rate

BACKGROUND: Robust statistical detection of differences in the bacterial growth rate can be challenging, particularly when dealing with small differences or noisy data. The Bayesian approach provides a consistent framework for inferring model parameters and comparing hypotheses. The method captures the full uncertainty of parameter values, whilst making effective use of prior knowledge about a given system to improve estimation. RESULTS: We demonstrated the application of Bayesian analysis to bacterial growth curve comparison. Following extensive testing of the method, the analysis was applied to the large dataset of bacterial responses which are freely available at the web-resource, ComBase. Detection was found to be improved by using prior knowledge from clusters of previously analysed experimental results at similar environmental conditions. A comparison was also made to a more traditional statistical testing method, the F-test, and Bayesian analysis was found to perform more conclusively and to be capable of attributing significance to more subtle differences in growth rate. CONCLUSIONS: We have demonstrated that by making use of existing experimental knowledge, it is possible to significantly improve detection of differences in bacterial growth rate