Reweaving urban water-community relations: Creative, participatory river “daylighting” and local hydrocitizenship

Framed by questions about ‘hydrocitizenship’ in the 21st century, this co-produced, interdisciplinary arts and humanities-centred research explores the (re)weaving of local knowledges, experiences, perceptions and values of water and place through the concept, process and practice of ‘daylighting hidden rivers’. Located at the nexus of three theoretical frames – ‘participation’, ‘hydrocitizenship’, and ‘daylighting’, it engages reflexively with strong and weak ‘hydrocitizenship’ and with paradigms of ‘daylighting’. Working with diverse communities and organisations in South Bristol (UK), this eco-social research project discovered community concerns and needs, and positioned itself in relation to these in co-production. This involved older people, children and professional stakeholders in a place-specific, ‘catchment’ setting, using novel arts-led, creative, narrative mapping processes. We critically examined the value, opportunities and tensions of this multi-method approach to people’s past, present and future connections and relationships with their local (water) environment, their senses of self and community. Our iterative processes of seeking out ‘lesser heard’ voices were conceived and played out around a braided cascade of ‘openings’: emerging, connecting, enacting, imagining and reflecting. Thinking critically about our oblique, emergent processes, we identify fifteen ‘top tips’ concerning the creative participatory daylighting of lay knowledges and values, and ‘River Visioning’. These can inform co-working with communities to enable and empower citizen engagement with places and local water issues for resilient futures. Our findings contribute new understandings of ‘hydrocitizenship’ and creative participatory ‘daylighting’ in combination, when urban spaces are construed as ‘Water Cities’, cascading both water and narratives. Importantly, our co-production processes with lesser heard groups also exemplify ‘higher-order participation’ in co-visioning resilient futures, with all the messiness, complexity and conflicts exposed

Strength in diversity: enhancing learning in vocationally-orientated, master's level courses

Postgraduate education in geography, especially at the Master’s level, is undergoing significant changes in the developed world. There is an expansion of vocationally-oriented degree programmes, increasing recruitment of international students, integration of work place skills, and the engagement of non-traditional postgraduate students as departments respond to policies for a more ‘inclusive’ higher education. This paper sets the context by outlining some programmatic changes in selected countries (Australia, the UK, and the USA). We briefly reflect on how postgraduate ‘bars’ or ‘levels’ are defined and explore in detail what ‘diversity’ or ‘heterogeneity’ means in these new postgraduate settings. The paper then explores some examples of practice drawn from our own experiences, whilst recognising that relevance will vary in other contexts. Finally we consider how diversity can be harnessed as a strength that has potential to enhance taught elements of contemporary postgraduate education in and beyond the discipline

Biodegradation as natural fibre pre-treatment in composite manufacturing

Bacterial and fungal degradation of wheat straw has become intensively scrutinised in recent years because of the growing interest in procuring useful feedstocks and chemicals from lignocellulosic sources. Typically, after the extraction of valuable sugars and phenolics, significant quantities of solid biomass remain as waste. In this work, it has been shown that the leftover fermented wheat straw can be successfully used to reinforce epoxy resins, providing better strength properties compared to non-degraded straw. A 12% and a 22% increase in Young’s modulus and ultimate tensile strength respectively were observed for degraded wheat straw/epoxy composites compared to composites containing non-degraded straw. The improvement in mechanical strength is explained in terms of the structural and morphological transformations that occurred in the fibres during the fermentation process. The opportunity to use degraded natural fibres in the manufacturing of composites, in addition to the production of chemicals from lignocellulosic feedstocks, looks promising for improving biorefinery economics further

Design & manufacture of a high-performance bicycle crank by additive manufacturing

A new practical workflow for the laser Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) process, incorporating topological design, mechanical simulation, manufacture, and validation by computed tomography is presented, uniquely applied to a consumer product (crank for a high-performance racing bicycle), an approach that is tangible and adoptable by industry. The lightweight crank design was realised using topology optimisation software, developing an optimal design iteratively from a simple primitive within a design space and with the addition of load boundary conditions (obtained from prior biomechanical crank force–angle models) and constraints. Parametric design modification was necessary to meet the Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM)considerations for PBF to reduce build time, material usage, and post-processing labour. Static testing proved performance close to current market leaders with the PBF manufactured crank found to be stiffer than the benchmark design (static load deflection of 7.0±0.5 mm c.f. 7.67mm for a Shimano crank at a competitive mass (155g vs. 175g). Dynamic mechanical performance proved inadequate, with failure at 2495±125cycles; the failure mechanism was consistent in both its form and location. This research is valuable and novel as it demonstrates a complete work flow from design, manufacture, post-treatment, and validation of a highly loaded PBF manufactured consumer component, offering practitioners a validated approach to the application of PBF for components with application outside of the accepted sectors (aerospace, biomedical, autosports, space, and power generation)

Allosteric Modulators of Steroid Hormone Receptors : Structural Dynamics and Gene Regulation

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

'A glorious time?' Some reflections on flooding in the somerset levels

© 2014 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). Severe floods on the Somerset Levels in winter 2014, and a series of other recent extreme floods across the UK, pose questions about the research needed to unravel the complex nature of flood risk and its implications for society. While much emphasis is placed on research in the natural and engineering sciences to better predict flood risk and develop solutions, this paper discusses what social science, and arts and humanities approaches can contribute to this challenging issue, alongside, and importantly integrated with, the natural sciences. Drawing upon a series of interconnected social science and arts and humanities research projects, in this paper we explore how different knowledges might contribute in dialogue around flood risk; water, senses of place and community in resilience building; the power dynamics in narratives about water; and the value of conceptualising flood heritage 'from below' in bringing community voices to the table. We argue that social science, and arts and humanities approaches are needed to explore creative solutions to changing or challenging flood risk. In interdisciplinary configurations in particular, they can generate much needed, creative, transformative narratives which can play key roles in the interplay and negotiation between science,policy and public understanding

The Investigation and Enhancements of the Strætó and Klappið Systems

The Strætó bus system is the sole form of public transportation in the greater Reykjavík area. The company recently transitioned away from paper ticketing and to the Klappið system. Our project was designed to investigate this transition, analyze ridership and the ridership experience on the bus system, and provide suggestions for potential improvements. After conducting interviews, surveys, and observational studies we analyzed this data to find the largest roadblocks to Strætó´s success. They include technology issues with the Klappið system, QR codes, barriers to entry for ridership, lack of awareness of the bus system, logistics, and confusion from riders. We then provided numerous suggestions to rectify these problems, including replacing QR codes with NFC and alternative payments, infographics, partnerships, increased frequency of buses, bus lanes, and renaming the KLAPP app. After providing these deliverables, our project made Strætó aware of the current problems and potential solutions for their bus system, and, if implemented will thereby increase ridership, increase accessibility, and improve the rider experience