How a Blister Heals

We use experiments to study the dynamics of the healing of a blister, a localized bump in a thin elastic layer that is adhered to a soft substrate everywhere except at the bump. We create a blister by gently placing a glass cover slip on a PDMS substrate. The pressure jump across the elastic layer drives fluid flow through micro-channels that form at the interface between the layer and the substrate; these channels coalesce at discrete locations as the blister heals and eventually disappear at a lower critical radius. The spacing of the channel follows a simple scaling law that can be theoretically justified, and the kinetics of healing is rate limited by fluid flow, but with a non-trivial dependence on the substrate thickness that likely arises due to channelization. Our study is relevant to a variety of soft adhesion scenarios

Food and nutrition security in the Barotse floodplain system

The CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) is being implemented in ten communities in the Barotse floodplain of Zambia’s Western Province. With a focus on the rural poor and vulnerable, the AAS program aims to reduce poverty and improve food security by harnessing the development potential, productivity and diversity of aquatic and agricultural systems. The development challenge in the Barotse floodplain, as identified by relevant stakeholders, is to make effective use of seasonal flooding patterns and natural resources through more productive and diversified aquatic agricultural management practices that improve the lives and livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable. Food and nutrition are essential to support the overall AAS program objective and overcome the specific development challenge of the Barotse floodplain. Zambia has very high malnutrition rates, particularly for stunting in children under five. Poor nutritional status, especially of women and children, inhibits individual growth and development, and negatively impacts the overall health, productivity and economic potential of a community. The purpose of this report is to analyze the food and nutrition security situation within the Barotse floodplain. It explores multiple sectors, including nutrition, agriculture, health, and gender, at the national, provincial and community level to provide a comprehensive understanding of food and nutrition in the ten AAS communities in relation to the country as a whole. The analysis will provide informative inputs to the AAS Barotse hub design process to develop an appropriate food and nutrition research-in-development agenda

Sierra Leone fish value chain analysis with special emphasis on Tonkolili District

The USAID-funded Sierra Leone Feed the Future (FtF) Agriculture Project implemented by WorldFish has completed its initial pilot phase (July 2015 to September 2016). During this phase, the project identified and tested interventions to develop integrated agriculture-aquaculture (IAA) farming systems and associated value chains to enhance food, nutrition and livelihood outcomes for rural households in Tonkolili District. This project emphasizes rehabilitation and improvement of fish and rice farming systems combined with nutritious vegetable crops. The assessment of existing fish and rice value chains in Sierra Leone was a key component of this initial phase to improve understanding of current farming systems and identify opportunities for interventions to increase productivity and income and improve nutrition among rural households in Tonkolili District. This report presents the key findings of the fish value chain assessment, with an emphasis on the development of the aquaculture sector and recommendations for potential value chain interventions in marine and freshwater fisheries and aquaculture sectors

Regional Collective Action Wraps Up

After four years, the Regional Collective Action Programme has come to an end. In this final issue of Collective Action News, we report on how Regional Collective Action activities have supported the work of the Consortium and the CRPs. The Regional Collective Action Programme has been described by Carlos Seré, Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which has hosted the Programme since its inception in 2007, as ‘a bold experiment that achieved considerable success in promoting collaborative action in eastern and southern Africa that has now been overtaken by the process of CGIAR reform’. Many of the activities started under the Programme have now been incorporated into the CGIAR Consortium and the CGIAR Research Programmes (CRPs)

Towards a comprehensive temporal classification of footfall patterns in the cities of Great Britain

The temporal fluctuations of footfall in the urban areas have long been a neglected research problem, and this mainly has to do with the past technological limitations and inability to consistently collect large volumes of data at fine intra-day temporal resolutions. This paper makes use of the extensive set of footfall measurements acquired by the Wi-Fi sensors installed in the retail units across the British town centres, shopping centres and retail parks. We present the methodology for classifying the diurnal temporal signatures of human activity at the urban microsite locations and identify characteristic profiles which make them distinctive regarding when people visit them. We conclude that there exist significant differences regarding the time when different locations are the busiest during the day, and this undoubtedly has a substantial impact on how retailers should plan where and how their businesses operate

Accounting for Uncontrolled Variations in Low-Speed Turbine Experiments

It is common to assume that the performance of low-speed turbines depend only on the flow coefficient and Reynolds number. However, when the turbine has an atmospheric inlet and uses unconditioned air, variations in ambient pressure, temperature and humidity are introduced. Whilst it is still possible to maintain the required values for the flow coefficient and Reynolds number, the ambient variations affect additional non-dimensional quantities which are related to the blade speed and gas properties. Generally, these additional non-dimensional quantities are uncontrolled and affect the turbine performance. In addition, thermal effects, which are exacerbated by the use of plastic blades, can cause changes in the blade row seal clearance and these also affect the performance. Therefore to obtain measurements with greater accuracy and repeatability, the changes in the uncontrolled non-dimensional quantities must be accounted. This paper contains four parts. Firstly, it is described how suitable data acquisition parameters can be determined to eliminate short time scale facility unsteadiness within the measurements. Secondly, by the analysis of models, the most appropriate forms for the additional non-dimensional quantities are obtained. Since the variations in the uncontrolled non-dimensional quantities affect repeatability the size of the effect on the turbine performance is quantified. Thirdly, a best-fit accounting methodology is described which reduces the effects of the uncontrolled non-dimensional quantities on turbine performance provided sufficient directly related measurements are available. Finally, the observations are generalised to high-speed turbomachines.The authors are grateful to Rolls-Royce plc who supported this work through SAMULET Project 1, in collaboration with the TSB (Ref.: AB265C) and the EPSRC (Ref.: EP/H001395/1), and for their permission to publish

WA Play Charter

The WA Play Charter, drafted by the Play Matters Collective, is a declaration of the importance of play in children’s lives. By endorsing the WA Play Charter you are signalling your shared belief in the fundamental value of play to children’s health, happiness and development, and putting up your hand to support a more playful world for the children in your care and in your community

Discovery and Sanctions for Discovery Abuse.

Abstract Forthcoming

Discovery and Sanctions for Discovery Abuse.

Abstract Forthcoming