254 research outputs found

    Back to the Future? Presenting archaeology at the Green Man Festival

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    In the summer of 2011, Cardiff Osteoarchaeology Research Group was invited to present a number of archaeological engagement activities at the Green Man music festival as part of the Einstein’s Garden science learning area. The project, called Back to the Future?: Animals and archaeology in Einstein’s Garden comprised a number of activities, designed to cater for a wide range of ages as the festival audience typically includes young people and families. Over four days more than 2000 people visited the stall. This paper will briefly outline the activities presented, and will reflect on the challenges posed by outreach at a music festival, in particular how to hook the main festival demographic, and how to evaluate success

    Low-frequency electronic noise in superlattice and random-packed thin films of colloidal quantum dots

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    We report measurements of low-frequency electronic noise in ordered superlattice, weakly-ordered and random-packed thin films of 6.5 nm PbSe quantum dots prepared using several different ligand chemistries. For all samples, the normalized noise spectral density of the dark current revealed a Lorentzian component, reminiscent of the generation-recombination noise, superimposed on the 1/f background (f is the frequency). An activation energy of 0.3 eV was extracted from the temperature dependence of the noise spectra. The noise level in the ordered films was lower than that in the weakly-ordered and random-packed films. A large variation in the magnitude of the noise spectral density was also observed in samples with different ligand treatments. The obtained results are important for application of colloidal quantum dot films in photodetectors.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures and supplemental inf

    Towards an economic valuation of biodiversity: freshwater ecosystems

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    The valuation of environmental resources and biodiversity as a whole has become an increasingly necessary topic of research as our understanding of the importance and benefits of the healthy functioning of the environment develops. A major shortcoming of current research is that there has been very little advance in the valuation of freshwater biodiversity. The paper examines the socioeconomic importance of biodiversity and outlines the fundamentals of economic valuation thereof. The difficulties associated with the valuation of freshwater ecosystems are outlined and the results of a study presented to the South African Water Research Commission incorporating resource economics into freshwater quality objectives is described. The valuation of freshwater biodiversity is an important and complicated task that needs close attention in future research
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