Possibilites for the use of Low Emissivity Glass by Surface Coating Manipulation Within a Creative Context

Artists in many areas of creative glass have used float glass due to its low cost, physical reliability and extensive sheet size. To date, the creative use of the coated insulating glass known as ‘low emissivity’ has not been explored. Pilkington K Glass is one of several coated low emissivity glasses developed in response to increasing energy conservation demands from the construction industry. The accidental use of a piece of Pilkington K Glass during studio artwork firing revealed an unexpected iridescent surface effect with unusual interferential colouration. To explore this creative potential, a full investigative programme was necessary. The research was undertaken from the perspective of a studio artist using a series of small scale tests leading to the making of artwork. This was an experimental approach driven by creative goals but also influenced and verified by procedures such as systematic analysis to determine repeatable criteria and microscopic examination to gain knowledge of the structure of the fired coating. Unusual effects of strong reflective colouration and iridescence were achieved through surface manipulation of K Glass by abrasion and subsequent firing at temperatures above 750ºC. Manipulation by sandblasting and fusing with traditional float glass has enabled the development of an original method named the ‘Mirror Gap Technique’ which exhibited inter-layer interferential colouration from gold to purple. These methods and the adaptation of standard float glass procedures at temperatures above 750ºC were then expanded into the creation of artworks to further develop innovative effects and applications. This project has developed and documented new possibilities that can be applied to several areas of creative glass. Exhibition and sale of the artwork as well as commissions involving multiple productions of conference gifts and company awards have indicated that low emissivity glass can be used creatively and that this research may have a commercial application. The research has been extended to examine other low emissivity coatings and provides the glass artist with an alternative palette of techniques and effects

Seasonal changes in serum testosterone, 11-ketotestosterone, and 1713-estradiol levels in the brown bullhead, Ictalurus nebuIosus Lesueur

The seasonal changes in gonadosomatic index (GSI) and strum testosterone, I I-ketotestosterone, and 17&estmdiol levels were measured in adult feral brown bullheads, Ictalurus nebulosus Lzsueur. The maximum GSI of both male and femalz brown bullheads was consjderably lower than that of most other teleostean species investigated. lo males, the GSI began to increase in April concomitant with an increase in water temperature from 3 to 6°C. The maximum GSI levels were evident throu_ghout May and June (during the prespawning and spawning periods). Peaks of serum testosterone and serum 11-ketotesrosterone leveb were evident in mid-April and late May to June, and in mid-April and mid-May, respxtively. In females here was a rapid increase in GSI during May, when the ambient water temperamre reached 16°C. The peak GSI was evident in mid- to late-May and had declined by early June. Peak serum testosterone and I 1-ketotestosterone levels were evident .in mid-April and again in late May. wbereas peak 17P-estradiol levels were fou.nd in mid-May and mid-June. The peak serum teswsterone levels in females were 4.5-fold higher than in the males, whereas che I I-ketotestosterone levels were similar in males and females

The potential impact of the SEN Green Paper ‘Support and Aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability’ on the educational inclusion of autistic children in mainstream education

Since every child with a diagnosis of autism is assumed to have special educational needs (SEN), any new SEN policy and legislation will impact on their education. I consider why children with autism are more difficult to include in mainstream schools than those with other SEN and what, if anything, is being proposed to address this difficulty in the SEN Green Paper ‘Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability’. I position the Green Paper in relation to current good autism practice guidelines and international SEN inclusion policy; and evaluate other recent developments in UK SEN policy and autism-specific teacher training. I highlight why mainstream teachers need a thorough understanding of autism to successfully include autistic children in their classrooms and conclude that, in order to achieve a positive impact, the aspirations of the Green Paper must be enshrined in law and appropriately funded

Letter to the editor

No abstract (letter to the editor

Deconstructing Anthropomorphism: The "Humanimal" Narratives of Kenneth Grahame, Beatrix Potter, and Richard Adams

This thesis proposes that popular narratives categorized as children’s animal stories – Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (1908), Beatrix Potter’s tales (1902-30), and Richard Adams’ Watership Down (1972) – feature characters which are rendered anthropomorphic in a diversity of overlapping and contradictory ways. Each of these narratives draws on a complex and varied tradition of anthropomorphic animals in literature. Due to their popularity, they have received various critical responses which pose different meanings implied by the author’s use of anthropomorphic tropes. My study aims to amalgamate these readings into a meta-critical analysis of the anthropomorphisms in the work of the three authors. Beginning with a historical overview of anthropomorphism across the disciplines and the key debates surrounding this supposedly fixed concept, this study questions the implications made about the human condition which are inherent in assumptions that a text is representing a character in an anthropomorphic way. To be anthropomorphic, such modes of representation must necessarily attribute features which are exclusively human, but even when we deconstruct previously held assumptions of anthropomorphism in the work of popular writers of animal stories, we find that what does or does not constitute anthropomorphism is a multifarious and complex issue. While at times the anthropomorphisms in these narratives are explicit and draw on popular elements of fable and fantasy, at other times they merge with more naturalistic representations. The figure of the “humanimal”, which constitutes a neither/both structure of relation between the human and the animal, emerges as the most relevant figure as we follow the trajectories of anthropomorphic tropes in the narratives of Grahame, Potter and Adams. While the humanimal figure is often identified in the animal narratives of authors such as Franz Kafka, I propose that by deconstructing anthropomorphic tropes, popular “children’s” animal stories may also be considered humanimal narratives

Introducing FAMe™: Can improved teacher access to individualised classroom support information impact positively on levels of anxiety in autistic pupils?

There is much research evidence to suggest that the successful inclusion of autistic pupils in mainstream secondary schools is difficult to achieve and that these pupils remain particularly vulnerable to a wide range of negative academic and psychosocial outcomes. With a focus on anxiety, this article reports the initial findings of a participatory-styled system-impact evaluation study. Quantitative evidence of decreased pupil anxiety is demonstrated and validated with qualitative data. Implications for future education policy and practice are discussed. Key Words: autism, Asperger Syndrome, anxiety, inclusion, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), education, equality, FAMe

Pilot-scale continuous pyrolysis of Pinus Radiatta sawdust

Lakeland Steel Limited developed a pilot plant for pyrolysing sawdust which proved successful in recent trials with sawdust and organic waste processing. Lakeland Steel was approached by a client to perform a preliminary economic assessment of a mobile sawdust pyrolysis unit. Feedstock properties such as proximate composition, elemental composition, calorific content, thermal decomposition reaction kinetics, and drying properties were determined. Pilot plant trials investigated the effects of processing parameters on product yields and properties. The parameters were feedstock moisture content at 15, 30 and 60%, reaction temperature at 400, 450 and 500°C and reactor auger speeds at 15, 20 and 25 rpm. Experiments at 60% moisture could not be performed to completion as the auger blocked repeatedly. The other two moisture contents showed that moisture content enhanced heat exchange properties of the feedstock and this generally increased the amount of volatile organic matter released. It was observed that for 15% moisture sawdust increase of temperature did not consistently exhibit an increase in degree of devolatilisation of organic matter. However, the 30% moisture sawdust showed an increase in devolatilisation with increase in temperature. The effects of increasing reactor auger speed had the most consistent trend with which an increase in speed showed a decrease in degree of devolatilisation thus increasing char yield. A preliminary economic feasibility assessment was performed for the base case scenario which processed 29,000 tonnes/per year of green sawdust pre-dried to 15% moisture content at 400°C. The facility produced 5,250 tons biochar, 2,140 tons oil and 6,290 tons syngas per year. The syngas was recycled for heating and excess heat was also recovered from product cooling operations. However an additional 170 kg/hr. of natural gas was required to produce the required processing temperatures during start-up. The base case assessment was uneconomic, operating costs, including labour, were $1,200,000 per year and sales were$780,000 per year, assuming biochar could be sold for $150 per tonne. A sensitivity analysis showed that the process economics could be favourable assuming lower capital costs by eliminating the need for a rotary dryer and 50$150 per ton a payback period of four years can be achieved

Possibilites for the use of low emissivity glass by surface coating manipulation within a creative context

Artists in many areas of creative glass have used float glass due to its low cost, physical reliability and extensive sheet size. To date, the creative use of the coated insulating glass known as ‘low emissivity’ has not been explored. Pilkington K Glass is one of several coated low emissivity glasses developed in response to increasing energy conservation demands from the construction industry. The accidental use of a piece of Pilkington K Glass during studio artwork firing revealed an unexpected iridescent surface effect with unusual interferential colouration. To explore this creative potential, a full investigative programme was necessary. The research was undertaken from the perspective of a studio artist using a series of small scale tests leading to the making of artwork. This was an experimental approach driven by creative goals but also influenced and verified by procedures such as systematic analysis to determine repeatable criteria and microscopic examination to gain knowledge of the structure of the fired coating. Unusual effects of strong reflective colouration and iridescence were achieved through surface manipulation of K Glass by abrasion and subsequent firing at temperatures above 750ºC. Manipulation by sandblasting and fusing with traditional float glass has enabled the development of an original method named the ‘Mirror Gap Technique’ which exhibited inter-layer interferential colouration from gold to purple. These methods and the adaptation of standard float glass procedures at temperatures above 750ºC were then expanded into the creation of artworks to further develop innovative effects and applications. This project has developed and documented new possibilities that can be applied to several areas of creative glass. Exhibition and sale of the artwork as well as commissions involving multiple productions of conference gifts and company awards have indicated that low emissivity glass can be used creatively and that this research may have a commercial application. The research has been extended to examine other low emissivity coatings and provides the glass artist with an alternative palette of techniques and effects.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Bisphenol A in oocytes leads to growth suppression and altered stress performance in juvenile rainbow trout

© The Authors, 2010. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PLoS ONE 5 (2010): e10741, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010741.Bisphenol A (BPA), used in the manufacture of plastics, is ubiquitously distributed in the aquatic environment. However, the effect of maternal transfer of these xenobiotics on embryonic development and growth is poorly understood in fish. We tested the hypothesis that BPA in eggs, mimicking maternal transfer, impact development, growth and stress performance in juveniles of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Trout oocytes were exposed to 0, 30 and 100 µg.mL−1 BPA for 3 h in ovarian fluid, followed by fertilization. The embryos were maintained in clean water and sampled temporally over 156-days post-fertilization (dpf), and juveniles were sampled at 400-dpf. The egg BPA levels declined steadily after exposure and were undetectable after 21- dpf. Oocyte exposure to BPA led to a delay in hatching and yolk absorption and a consistently lower body mass over 152-dpf. The growth impairment, especially in the high BPA group, correlated with higher growth hormone (GH) content and lower GH receptors gene expression. Also, mRNA abundances of insulin-like growth factors (IGF-1 and IGF-2) and their receptors were suppressed in the BPA treated groups. The juvenile fish grown from the BPA-enriched eggs had lower body mass and showed perturbations in plasma cortisol and glucose response to an acute stressor. BPA accumulation in eggs, prior to fertilization, leads to hatching delays, growth suppression and altered stress response in juvenile trout. The somatotropic axis appears to be a key target for BPA impact during early embryogenesis, leading to long term growth and stress performance defects in fish.This work was supported by funds from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada Discovery grant and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food