Conversing with the nation: Consultations and referendums in Scotland and Wales under devolution

The creation of devolved institutions in Scotland and Wales in 1999 provided nationalist parties in both the opportunity to act within an institution solely within their nation’s territorial boundaries. In 2007, they entered government for the first time. In so doing, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru embarked upon public engagement strategies in office which were designed to build support for their constitutional ambitions – namely, independence for Scotland and (in the short-term) full legislative powers for the National Assembly for Wales, as outlined in the Government of Wales Act 2006. This thesis explores the public engagement strategy of both parties, focusing on the respective consultations of the parties in government – A National Conversation and the All Wales Convention¬ – and the following campaign for (in Scotland) and at (in Wales) a referendum intended to deliver their preferred outcome. The aim of this thesis is to consider why public engagement strategies were considered the best vehicle to take forward the respective parties’ constitutional goals and to evaluate the success each party achieved in relation to these objectives. This thesis argues that, while both the SNP and Plaid Cymru have achieved some success with regard to their constitutional objectives, this success can be measured differently depending whether short-term or long-term goals are the defining standard. In Wales, Plaid Cymru’s constitutional consultation found limited engagement with the wider Welsh population, and though the referendum succeeded in securing legislative powers for the National Assembly for Wales, public engagement with the constitutional debate in Wales continues to lack enthusiasm. By contrast, the SNP’s National Conversation saw more enthusiastic engagement, but without a referendum at the end of the process, a clear lack of a tangible short-term outcome. However, the SNP in government did succeed in moving the constitutional debate firmly onto the political agenda, and engagement in this debate is now widespread in Scottish society, particularly in the wake of an agreement to hold an independence referendum in autumn 2014

One year of monitoring the Vela pulsar using a Phased Array Feed

We have observed the Vela pulsar for one year using a Phased Array Feed (PAF) receiver on the 12-metre antenna of the Parkes Test-Bed Facility. These observations have allowed us to investigate the stability of the PAF beam-weights over time, to demonstrate that pulsars can be timed over long periods using PAF technology and to detect and study the most recent glitch event that occurred on 12 December 2016. The beam-weights are shown to be stable to 1% on time scales on the order of three weeks. We discuss the implications of this for monitoring pulsars using PAFs on single dish telescopes.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in PAS

Development of primary invasive pneumococcal disease caused by serotype 1 pneumococci is driven by early increased type I interferon response in the lung

The pneumococcus is the world's foremost respiratory pathogen, but the mechanisms allowing this pathogen to proceed from initial asymptomatic colonization to invasive disease are poorly understood. We have examined the early stages of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) by comparing host transcriptional responses to an invasive strain and a noninvasive strain of serotype 1 Streptococcus pneumoniae in the mouse lung. While the two strains were present in equal numbers in the lung 6 h after intranasal challenge, only the invasive strain (strain 1861) had invaded the pleural cavity at that time point; this correlated with subsequent development of bacteremia in mice challenged with strain 1861 but not the noninvasive strain (strain 1). Progression beyond the lung was associated with stronger induction of the type I interferon (IFN-I) response in the lung at 6 h. Suppression of the IFN-I response through administration of neutralizing antibody to IFNAR1 (the receptor for type I interferons) led to significantly reduced invasion of the pleural cavity by strain 1861 at 6 h postchallenge. Our data suggest that strong induction of the IFN-I response is a key factor in early progression of invasive serotype 1 strain 1861 beyond the lung during development of IPD

An analysis of internally funded learning and teaching project evaluation in higher education

© 2016, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose – In the higher education sector, the evaluation of learning and teaching projects is assuming a role as a quality and accountability indicator. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how learning and teaching project evaluation is approached and critiques alignment between evaluation theory and practice. Design/methodology/approach – The emergent realism paradigm provides the theoretical framework with a pragmatic approach to mixed-methods data collection. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the transcripts of interviews with 15 project leaders. Findings – Four key themes on project evaluation emerged: how evaluation is conceptualized, particularly the overlap, even conflation, between evaluation and research; capability building within the sector; resourcing in terms of time and money; and the role of an action-oriented approach to evaluation. The authors conclude that misalignment exists between evaluation theory and the practice of project evaluation and that this relationship can be further inhibited by a project leader’s perception of evaluation. Practical implications – A series of strategies for developing capacity across the higher education sector for project evaluation are presented. These include the development and provision of: a time allocation for evaluation in future and ongoing project plans with procedures to revisit the project and assess impact; models of how to incorporate evaluation into the research cycle; constructive feedback on evaluation reports from the university funding body; and networking opportunities to disseminate learnings from project evaluations. Originality/value – This study focusses on the under-researched area of evaluation of learning and teaching projects in higher education, providing research-based evidence for strategies to develop sector capacity

Explosive Events and the Evolution of the Photospheric Magnetic Field

Transition region explosive events have long been suggested as direct signatures of magnetic reconnection in the solar atmosphere. In seeking further observational evidence to support this interpretation, we study the relation between explosive events and the evolution of the solar magnetic field as seen in line-of-sight photospheric magnetograms. We find that about 38% of events show changes of the magnetic structure in the photosphere at the location of an explosive event over a time period of 1 h. We also discuss potential ambiguities in the analysis of high sensitivity magnetograms

Patterns of contribution to citizen science biodiversity projects increase understanding of volunteers’ recording behaviour

The often opportunistic nature of biological recording via citizen science leads to taxonomic, spatial and temporal biases which add uncertainty to biodiversity estimates. However, such biases may also give valuable insight into volunteers’ recording behaviour. Using Greater London as a case-study we examined the composition of three citizen science datasets – from Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC, iSpot and iRecord - with respect to recorder contribution and spatial and taxonomic biases, i.e. when, where and what volunteers record. We found most volunteers contributed few records and were active for just one day. Each dataset had its own taxonomic and spatial signature suggesting that volunteers’ personal recording preferences may attract them towards particular schemes. There were also patterns across datasets: species’ abundance and ease of identification were positively associated with number of records, as was plant height. We found clear hotspots of recording activity, the 10 most popular sites containing open water. We note that biases are accrued as part of the recording process (e.g. species’ detectability) as well as from volunteer preferences. An increased understanding of volunteer behaviour gained from analysing the composition of records could thus enhance the fit between volunteers’ interests and the needs of scientific projects

The Self-Dual String and Anomalies in the M5-brane

We study the anomalies of a charge $Q_2$ self-dual string solution in the Coulomb branch of $Q_5$ M5-branes. Cancellation of these anomalies allows us to determine the anomaly of the zero-modes on the self-dual string and their scaling with $Q_2$ and $Q_5$. The dimensional reduction of the five-brane anomalous couplings then lead to certain anomalous couplings for D-branes.Comment: 13 pages, Harvmac, refs adde

Baryon Number-Induced Chern-Simons Couplings of Vector and Axial-Vector Mesons in Holographic QCD

We show that holographic models of QCD predict the presence of a Chern-Simons coupling between vector and axial-vector mesons at finite baryon density. In the AdS/CFT dictionary, the coefficient of this coupling is proportional to the baryon number density, and is fixed uniquely in the five-dimensional holographic dual by anomalies in the flavor currents. For the lightest mesons, the coupling mixes transverse $\rho$ and $a_1$ polarization states. At sufficiently large baryon number densities, it produces an instability, which causes the $\rho$ and $a_1$ mesons to condense in a state breaking both rotational and translational invariance.Comment: 4 page