120 research outputs found
‘Suburban Ideals on England’s Interwar Council Estates’
This paper looks at how the suburban ideals that were articulated and promoted by interwar politicians and the popular press were interpreted and played out on England’s council estates. Focusing upon the domestic garden, it looks at how tenants tried to overcome material and cultural obstacles in their efforts to live up to these standards. Evidence is taken from a range of written, visual, and oral sources related to life on the Wythenshawe Estate, Manchester, and the Downham Estate, South-East London. Ultimately, this paper shows that, despite their best efforts, the residents of England’s interwar council estates were unable to achieve the much- publicised ‘suburban ideal.
Another step up the ladder or another foot in the grave? Re-evaluating the role of formal and informal training in the career development process within Barclays Bank, 1945–80
This paper uses a combination of archival sources and oral testimonies to evaluate the role that training (both internal and external) played in determining the promotion prospects of those employed by Barclays Bank during the post-World War II era. In addition to this, it also looks at the extent to which less formal training and learning practices continued to play a role in the career development process within Barclays. Ultimately,
what it suggests is that, whilst moves certainly we
re made to modernize and formalize the Bank’s staff development program during this period, there continued to be a strong attachment to many of the conservative and
paternalist assumptions that had been dominant in the years prior to World War II
A Review of High School Level Astronomy Student Research Projects over the last two decades
Since the early 1990s with the arrival of a variety of new technologies, the
capacity for authentic astronomical research at the high school level has
skyrocketed. This potential, however, has not realized the bright-eyed hopes
and dreams of the early pioneers who expected to revolutionise science
education through the use of telescopes and other astronomical instrumentation
in the classroom. In this paper, a general history and analysis of these
attempts is presented. We define what we classify as an Astronomy Research in
the Classroom (ARiC) project and note the major dimensions on which these
projects differ before describing the 22 major student research projects active
since the early 1990s. This is followed by a discussion of the major issues
identified that affected the success of these projects and provide suggestions
for similar attempts in the future.Comment: Accepted for Publication in PASA. 26 page
Radio observations of two intermittent pulsars: PSRs J1832+0029 and J1841-0500
We present long-term observations of two intermittent pulsars,
PSRs~J1832+0029 and J18410500 using the Parkes 64\,m radio telescope. The
radio emission for these pulsars switches "off" for year-long durations. Our
new observations have enabled us to improve the determination of the on-off
timescales and the spin down rates during those emission states. In general our
results agree with previous studies of these pulsars, but we now have
significantly longer data spans. We have identified two unexpected signatures
in the data. Weak emission was detected in a single observation of
PSR~J18320029 during an "off" emission state. For PSR~J18410500, we
identified a quasi-periodic fluctuation in the intensities of the detectable
single pulses, with a modulation period between 21 and 36 pulse periods.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
The PULSE@Parkes project: A new observing technique for long-term pulsar monitoring
The PULSE@Parkes project has been designed to monitor the rotation of radio
pulsars over time spans of days to years. The observations are obtained using
the Parkes 64-m and 12-m radio telescopes by Australian and international high
school students. These students learn the basis of radio astronomy and
undertake small projects with their observations. The data are fully calibrated
and obtained with the state-of-the-art pulsar hardware available at Parkes. The
final data sets are archived and are currently being used to carry out studies
of 1) pulsar glitches, 2) timing noise, 3) pulse profile stability over long
time scales and 4) the extreme nulling phenomenon. The data are also included
in other projects such as gamma-ray observatory support and for the Parkes
Pulsar Timing Array project. In this paper we describe the current status of
the project and present the first scientific results from the Parkes 12-m radio
telescope. We emphasise that this project offers a straightforward means to
enthuse high school students and the general public about radio astronomy while
obtaining scientifically valuable data sets.Comment: accepted for publication by PAS
Social tipping points and Earth systems dynamics
Recently, Early Warning Signals (EWS) have been developed to predict tipping points in Earth Systems. This discussion highlights the potential to apply EWS to human social and economic systems, which may also undergo similar critical transitions. Social tipping points are particularly difficult to predict, however, and the current formulation of EWS, based on a physical system analogy, may be insufficient. As an alternative set of EWS for social systems, we join with other authors encouraging a focus on heterogeneity, connectivity through social networks and individual thresholds to change
The Parkes Observatory Pulsar Data Archive
The Parkes pulsar data archive currently provides access to 144044 data files
obtained from observations carried out at the Parkes observatory since the year
1991. Around 10^5 files are from surveys of the sky, the remainder are
observations of 775 individual pulsars and their corresponding calibration
signals. Survey observations are included from the Parkes 70cm and the
Swinburne Intermediate Latitude surveys. Individual pulsar observations are
included from young pulsar timing projects, the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array and
from the PULSE@Parkes outreach program. The data files and access methods are
compatible with Virtual Observatory protocols. This paper describes the data
currently stored in the archive and presents ways in which these data can be
searched and downloaded.Comment: Accepted by PAS
Civic crowdfunding research: challenges, opportunities, and future agenda
Civic crowdfunding is a sub-type of crowdfunding through which citizens, in collaboration with government, fund projects providing a community service. Although in the early stages of development, civic crowdfunding is a promising area for both research and application due to its potential impact on citizen engagement, as well as its influence on the success of a wide range of civic projects ranging from physical structures to amenities and local services. However, the field remains under-addressed in academic research and underdeveloped in terms of the number of civic projects posted to crowdfunding platforms. Acknowledging these issues, we outline the history of civic crowdfunding and describe the current landscape, focusing on online crowdfunding platforms established specifically for the funding of civic projects (Citizinvestor, ioby, Neighbor.ly, Spacehive). The challenges and the opportunities of civic crowdfunding are examined, and its distinguishing characteristics are outlined, including a consideration of the impact of social media and platform features. We then propose a research agenda to help shape the future of this emergent field
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