The climate emergency in higher education: working together to meet the challenge of student activism

This conference reflection explores the themes raised by participants in the authors’ interactive workshop at the SHIFT 2021 conference. The workshop focused on how universities are responding to the climate emergency through innovative teaching practices

Reduced Reaction Mechanism for Rocket Nozzle Ablation Simulations

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143107/1/6.2017-3682.pd

Conjugate Analysis of Rocket Nozzle Ablation

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143106/1/6.2017-3351.pd

‘Changing behaviour, changing investment, changing operations’: Using citizen science to inform the management of an urban river

Significant quantities of data are being collected by citizen scientists concerning environmental challenges. Networks of volunteers can collect data on spatial and temporal scales that may be beyond the resource and logistical capacities of the governmental bodies and other organisations that monitor and protect the environment. However, citizen science may be viewed with scepticism by decision makers and excluded from decision‐making because it is perceived as being of poor quality and lacking scientific credibility. This paper explores how citizen science has been used to inform the management of an urban river. It uses the example of the River Crane, a small urban river in London, U.K., to demonstrate how data gathered through a volunteer project, Citizen Crane, supported decision‐making about the river. Through analysis of interviews with the project's leadership group, the paper examines how the project leadership team developed a high degree of credibility with stakeholders in the river management. This included drawing on the expertise of stakeholders to design the project and align the monitoring approaches with technical and scientific standards. Other factors of importance included open and professional communication between the Citizen Crane leadership team with regulators and businesses, and the development of shared understandings and expectations about the river's management. The leadership team drew on their professional experience to inform the design and management of the project, and to provide a conduit for data gathered by volunteer scientists to be embedded in decision‐making. The paper unpicks the ways in which citizen science challenges traditional notions of expertise in environmental decision‐making, and contributes to understanding how citizen science can support more legitimate and effective strategies for tackling complex socio‐environmental challenges

The effects of nutrients and hydrology on shallow lake plankton at Attenborough Nature Reserve, Nottinghamshire

Eutrophication results in the loss of conservation and amenity value from shallow lakes. Efforts have been made to restore shallow lakes by reducing the external nutrient loading. Removing nutrient-rich inflows can reduce nutrient loading but may alter lake hydrology. This thesis is primarily aimed at investigating the effects of a nutrient-rich river on water chemistry and plankton by comparing six shallow (<3.5 m) lakes that are connected to and isolated from the River Erewash, in the Attenborough Nature Reserve, Nottinghamshire, U.K. Lakes that received River Erewash discharge had higher nutrient concentrations and higher phytoplankton biomass than those that were isolated from it. Turbid water was also found in a lake isolated from the River Erewash but with a nutrient-rich inflow stream. Lakes isolated from the inflows had abundant submerged macrophytes and clear water but other lakes were turbid and devoid of macrophytes. In lakes without inflows, cyanobacteria were proportionally more abundant. Lakes receiving nutrient-rich water were generally dominated by small chlorophytes and centric diatoms. Phosphorus concentrations had little effect on the phytoplankton. N and Si in the connected lakes, and zooplankton grazing and N in the isolated lakes, probably limited phytoplankton. A mesocosm experiment found chlorophyll-a concentrations were reduced by the addition of silica, and that the biovolume of dinophytes increased in the mesocosms without nitrate addition. Total zooplankton biomass did not change significantly between treatments. Summer floods reduced P concentrations in the connected lakes, suggesting that internal P loading was diluted and flushed out. Phytoplankton biomass was also lower during floods. Cryptophytes and diatoms dominated the phytoplankton and cyanobacteria were rare during flooding. A simulation of lake restoration by river diversion using mesocosms confirmed the importance of lake flushing for reducing internal loading. Diverting the River Erewash in order to reduce the nutrient loading to Attenborough Nature Reserve may be problematic in the short-term, because the lack of flushing may increase the effect of internal P loading and favour cyanobacterial growth. Reducing the external supply of N may further stimulate the dominance of cyanobacteria while P concentrations remain high

Innovative approaches to sustainability skills development: a crowd-sourcing workshop

The aim of this interactive workshop was for the learning developers participating to be empowered to engage with these changes in their own institutions. Much of the facilitated discussion looked at new approaches to learning development that support education for sustainability. It comprised a series of mini-presentations of case-studies derived from original research into teaching climate change including 35 in-depth interviews. The workshop drew on the presenters’ research to crowdsource solutions from the learning developer community to key challenges. How can we foster creativity, innovation and systemic thinking in graduates? How can advanced skills for sustainability be scaffolded in the university curriculum? The workshop is designed to be of interest to learning developers with experience in supporting education for sustainability, and those new to the topic

A Psychometric Investigation into the Structure of Deception Strategy Use

This paper uses a data-driven approach to identify the psychological factors that underlie the array of strategies that people use to hide their deceit. Two hundred and nine participants told two lies and two truths and then completed a self-report scale that elicited their experiences when deceiving. A factor analysis of responses produced four factors, three of which were strategic in nature: Nonverbal behaviour control, which relates to attempts to monitor and control nonverbal behaviour when lying; Detail, which relates to attempts to produce detailed, engaging lies; Cognitive difficulty, which relates to the cognitive difficulties experienced when lying and their strategic consequences; and Anxiety, which relates to the negative emotions experienced when deceiving. The results further our understanding of the psychological processes that underpin deception and suggest several potentially fruitful avenues for future research

The role of natural gas in setting electricity prices in Europe

The EU energy and climate policy revolves around enhancing energy security and affordability, while reducing the environmental impacts of energy use. The European energy transition has been at the centre of debate following the post-pandemic surge in power prices in 2021 and the energy crisis following the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war. Understanding the extent to which electricity prices depend on fossil fuel prices (specifically natural gas) is key to guiding the future of energy policy in Europe. To this end, we quantify the role of fossil-fuelled vs. low-carbon electricity generation in setting wholesale electricity prices in each EU-27 country plus Great Britain (GB) and Norway during 2015-2021. We apply econometric analysis and use sub/hourly power system data to estimate the marginal share of each electricity generation type. The results show that fossil fuel-based power plants set electricity prices in Europe at approximately 58% of the time (natural gas 39%) while generating only 34% of electricity (natural gas 18%) a year. The energy transition has made natural gas the main electricity price setter in Europe, with gas determining electricity prices for more than 80% of the hours in 2021 in several countries such as Belgium, GB, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands. Hence, Europe’s electricity markets are highly exposed to the geopolitical risk of gas supply and natural gas price volatility, and the economic risk of currency exchange

An output coupler for a W-band high power wideband gyro-amplifier

This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) U.K. under Research Grant EP/K029746/1, and Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) U.K. under Research Grants ST/K006673/1 & ST/K006703/1, ST/N002326/1 & ST/N002318/1.An output coupler for a W-band high power wideband gyro-amplifier has been designed, manufactured and experimentally measured. It consists of a high performance sin2-parallel corrugated horn integrated with a broadband multi-layer window. The major design requirements are that the horn/window combination must have an input return loss lower than -30 dB over a 10 GHz bandwidth, provide a high quality output beam pattern, and operate under ultra-high vacuum conditions. The coupler converts a circular wave guide TE11 mode into the free space Laguerre Gaussian LG00 mode over the frequency band of 90–100 GHz with a measured return loss of between -30 and -40 dB and a simulated Gaussian coupling efficiency of over 99% at 94 GHz.PostprintPeer reviewe