The art of innovation: How fine arts graduates contribute to innovation

This report gives insights into how fine arts graduates contribute to innovation in the creative industries and beyond, and what policymakers can do to support their contribution. In the 21st century, the UK's economic competitiveness and social wellbeing will increasingly depend on our ability to innovate. A significant part of the innovation process revolves around 'creativity' - the ability to generate new ideas, or to restructure and redeploy old ones. But how important really is creativity to UK innovation? The UK has long been a leader in many of the more obvious 'creative industries': music, design, fine art, architecture and so on. Indeed, such activities can be argued to be at the heart of what the United Kingdom is about. Champions of the arts and of economic development have recently developed an alliance: they have linked this type of creativity to the type required for global competitiveness. The question is: is this link true? Nesta has explored this question in a series of research reports. This time, we have been privileged to work with an outstanding team centred on the Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in surveying and interviewing a host of fine arts graduates of the University of Arts London from the past several decades

Linking Snake Behavior to Nest Predation in a Midwestern Bird Community

Nest predators can adversely affect the viability of songbird populations, and their impact is exacerbated in fragmented habitats. Despite substantial research on this predator-prey interaction, however, almost all of the focus has been on the birds rather than their nest predators, thereby limiting our understanding of the factors that bring predators and nests into contact. We used radiotelemetry to document the activity of two snake species (rat snakes, Elaphe obsoleta; racers, Coluber constrictor) known to prey on nests in Midwestern bird communities and simultaneously monitored 300 songbird nests and tested the hypothesis that predation risk should increase for nests when snakes were more active and in edge habitat preferred by both snake species. Predation risk increased when rat snakes were more active, for all nests combined and for two of the six bird species for which we had sufficient nests to allow separate analyses. This result is consistent with rat snakes being more important nest predators than racers. We found no evidence, however, that nests closer to forest edges were at greater risk. These results are generally consistent with the one previous study that investigated rat snakes and nest predation simultaneously. The seemingly paradoxical failure to find higher predation risk in the snakes\u27 preferred habitat (i.e., edge) might be explained by the snakes using edges at least in part for non-foraging activities. We propose that higher nest predation in fragmented habitats (at least that attributable to snakes) results indirectly from edges promoting larger snake populations, rather than from edges directly increasing the risk of nest predation by snakes. If so, the notion of edges per se functioning as ecological traps merits further study

Ligand Decomposition during Nanoparticle Synthesis: Influence of Ligand Structure and Precursor Selection

Aliphatic amine and carboxylic acid ligands are widely used as organic solvents during the bottom-up synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs). Although the ligands’ ability to alter final NP properties has been widely studied, side reactivity of these ligands is emerging as an important mechanism to consider. In this work, we study the thermal decomposition of common ligands with varying functional groups (amines and carboxylic acids) and bond saturations (from saturated to polyunsaturated). Here, we investigate how these ligand properties influence decomposition in the absence and presence of precursors used in NP synthesis. We show that during the synthesis of inorganic chalcogenide NPs (Cu2ZnSnS4, CuxS, and SnSx) with metal acetylacetonate precursors and elemental sulfur, the ligand pyrolyzes, producing alkylated graphitic species. Additionally, there was less to no ligand decomposition observed during the sulfur-free synthesis of ZnO and CuO with metal acetylacetonate precursors. These results will help guide ligand selection for NP syntheses and improve reaction purity, an important factor in many applications.journal articl

Conducting Polymer Ink

Disclosed are conductive polymer inks and methods for forming the inks. The disclosed inks include a dispersion of conductive core/shell nanoparticles. The core/shell nanoparticles include a polymeric core and a shell formed of a conducting polymer. The inks can include a dispersion of the core/shell nanoparticles in a liquid carrier, such as an alcohol. The disclosed inks can be formulated to high viscosities and can be utilized in high-speed printing processes including rotogravure and flexographic printing processes. Products encompassed by the disclosure include polymer devices such as sensors, OFETs, RFID tags, printed circuit board, electrochromic devices, non-volatile memory devices, photovoltaics, and the like

Irritable bowel syndrome

This issue of eMedRef provides information to clinicians on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapeutics of irritable bowel syndrome

Development of NMR and thermal shift assays for the evaluation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isocitrate lyase inhibitors.

The enzymes isocitrate lyase (ICL) isoforms 1 and 2 are essential for Mycobacterium tuberculosis survival within macrophages during latent tuberculosis (TB). As such, ICLs are attractive therapeutic targets for the treatment of tuberculosis. However, there are few biophysical assays that are available for accurate kinetic and inhibition studies of ICL in vitro. Herein we report the development of a combined NMR spectroscopy and thermal shift assay to study ICL inhibitors for both screening and inhibition constant (IC50) measurement. Operating this new assay in tandem with virtual high-throughput screening has led to the discovery of several new ICL1 inhibitors

Encouraging versatile thinking in algebra using the computer

In this article we formulate and analyse some of the obstacles to understanding the notion of a variable, and the use and meaning of algebraic notation, and report empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that an approach using the computer will be more successful in overcoming these obstacles. The computer approach is formulated within a wider framework ofversatile thinking in which global, holistic processing complements local, sequential processing. This is done through a combination of programming in BASIC, physical activities which simulate computer storage and manipulation of variables, and specific software which evaluates expressions in standard mathematical notation. The software is designed to enable the user to explore examples and non-examples of a concept, in this case equivalent and non-equivalent expressions. We call such a piece of software ageneric organizer because if offers examples and non-examples which may be seen not just in specific terms, but as typical, or generic, examples of the algebraic processes, assisting the pupil in the difficult task of abstracting the more general concept which they represent. Empirical evidence from several related studies shows that such an approach significantly improves the understanding of higher order concepts in algebra, and that any initial loss in manipulative facility through lack of practice is more than made up at a later stage