Finding frames: new ways to engage the UK public in global poverty

The aim of the study was to explore the potential for frames theory to be used as a practical tool to re-engage the UK public in global poverty. In exploring the uses of frames theory, we have built on work by Tom Crompton at WWF-UK, who began the task of linking values to frames and thereby suggesting new ways forward for engaging the public in environmental issues and actions. An important finding from his Common Cause paper is that there is a common set of values that can motivate people to tackle a range of ‘bigger than self’ problems, including the environment and global poverty. The implication is that large coalitions can – and must – be built across third- sector organisations to bring about a values change in society. This report responds to that call. The basic argument of this paper is that there is a problem in terms of the UK public’s levels of engagement with global poverty. Simply put, people in the UK understand and relate to global poverty no differently now than they did in the 1980s. This is the case despite massive campaigns such as the Jubilee 2000 debt initiative and Make Poverty History; the widespread adoption and mainstreaming of digital communication techniques and social networks; steady growth in NGO fundraising revenues; the entire Millennium Development Goal story; and the establishment of a Westminster consensus on core elements of development policy. By many measures we have made amazing strides forward in recent years, but the public have largely been left behind. The result is that we operate within social and, by extension, political conditions that are precarious in the immediate term and incommensurate to the challenges of poverty and climate change in the medium and long term. This study looks at what can be learned from values (the guiding principles that individuals use to judge situations and determine their courses of action) and frames (the chunks of factual and procedural knowledge in the mind with which we understand situations, ideas and discourses in everyday life). Values and frames offer ways to look at the problem of public engagement with global poverty and to identify possible solutions. If we apply values and frames theory to the question of how to re-engage the public, we come up with some compelling insights into the impact of our existing practices and some striking solutions to the problems that these reveal. They may not be perfect solutions, and they bring with them significant challenges. But we believe they offer something valuable and timely: a fresh perspective. The persistent problem of public engagement suggests it is time for the development sector to transform its practices radically. Values and frames offer pathways to potential solutions that should be debated across the sector, and no

The transportation depot: An orbiting vehicle support facility

This paper describes the details of an effort to produce conceptual designs for an orbiting platform, called a transportation depot, to handle assembly and processing of lunar, Martian, and related vehicles. High-level requirements for such a facility were established, and several concepts were developed to meet those requirements. By showing that the critical rigid-body momentum characteristics of each concept are similar to those of the dual-keel space station, some insight was gained about the controllability and utility of this type of facility. Finally, several general observations were made that highlight the advantages and disadvantages of particular design features

Surface disentanglement and slip in a polymer melt: a molecular dynamics study

We perform non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) shear-flow simulations of an entangled polymer melt consisting of flexible linear chains. A steady-state rectilinear shear-flow is developed by sliding explicit walls with permanently grafted chains in a simple planar Couette flow geometry. As the channel average shear-rate is increased, a rapid coil-stretch transition of the surface end-grafted chains is observed. The corresponding primitive path network properties are investigated, revealing a disentanglement between surface grafted and non-grafted chains during the coil-stretch transition. Changes in slip length and surface friction are also measured. Grafted chains develop a trumpet like conformation at high shear-rates, which correlates with an increased relative density of entanglements near the free ends, a phenomenon that has already been considered by scaling models. The same mechanisms leading to slip in the current system may remain relevant for polymer melts of much higher (and more experimentally relevant) molecular weights. Therefore we use the simulation results to examine the predictions and assumptions of some existing theoretical models. The conclusions drawn from the simulation may be used in the future to further develop theoretical models for the surface rheology of polymer melts

Cosmic-Ray Acceleration at Ultrarelativistic Shock Waves: Effects of Downstream Short-Wave Turbulence

The present paper is the last of a series studying the first-order Fermi acceleration processes at relativistic shock waves with the method of Monte Carlo simulations applied to shocks propagating in realistically modeled turbulent magnetic fields. The model of the background magnetic field structure of Niemiec & Ostrowski (2004, 2006) has been augmented here by a large-amplitude short-wave downstream component, imitating that generated by plasma instabilities at the shock front. Following Niemiec & Ostrowski (2006), we have considered ultrarelativistic shocks with the mean magnetic field oriented both oblique and parallel to the shock normal. For both cases simulations have been performed for different choices of magnetic field perturbations, represented by various wave power spectra within a wide wavevector range. The results show that the introduction of the short-wave component downstream of the shock is not sufficient to produce power-law particle spectra with the "universal" spectral index 4.2. On the contrary, concave spectra with cutoffs are preferentially formed, the curvature and cutoff energy being dependent on the properties of turbulence. Our results suggest that the electromagnetic emission observed from astrophysical sites with relativistic jets, e.g. AGN and GRBs, is likely generated by particles accelerated in processes other than the widely invoked first-order Fermi mechanism.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Ap

Rules of Engagement: design attributes for social interactions

We present a taxonomy for the design of workplace “break” spaces. The taxonomy can be used to identify aspects of current spaces that are either successful or problematic. From this analysis, we demonstrate how the taxonomy can be used to identify opportunities for computer mediated augmentation of spaces, and how such designs can be validated against this taxonomy

Distilling a Collection: Creating a Distilling, Fermenting, and Brewing Special Collection at the James E. Walker Library

This essay recounts the steps we took to launch the new Distilling, Fermenting, and Brewing Collection in our Special Collections department. It began with the routine task of weeding our general collection but quickly led to other activities which included a broader collection analysis; consideration of campus, local and state resources; consultation with development and fundraising staff; and research in the anti-quarian trade. Knowing what we had and what we could acquire in the book market, surmising the po-tential for private and industry support, and understanding the multiple scholarly possibilities embed-ded in our collection, we embarked on building a resource that can attract students, faculty, outside re-searchers, and private supporters