The hunt for submarines in classical art: mappings between scientific invention and artistic interpretation

This is a report to the AHRC's ICT in Arts and Humanities Research Programme. This report stems from a project which aimed to produce a series of mappings between advanced imaging information and communications technologies (ICT) and needs within visual arts research. A secondary aim was to demonstrate the feasibility of a structured approach to establishing such mappings. The project was carried out over 2006, from January to December, by the visual arts centre of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS Visual Arts).1 It was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as one of the Strategy Projects run under the aegis of its ICT in Arts and Humanities Research programme. The programme, which runs from October 2003 until September 2008, aims ‘to develop, promote and monitor the AHRC’s ICT strategy, and to build capacity nation-wide in the use of ICT for arts and humanities research’.2 As part of this, the Strategy Projects were intended to contribute to the programme in two ways: knowledge-gathering projects would inform the programme’s Fundamental Strategic Review of ICT, conducted for the AHRC in the second half of 2006, focusing ‘on critical strategic issues such as e-science and peer-review of digital resources’. Resource-development projects would ‘build tools and resources of broad relevance across the range of the AHRC’s academic subject disciplines’.3 This project fell into the knowledge-gathering strand. The project ran under the leadership of Dr Mike Pringle, Director, AHDS Visual Arts, and the day-to-day management of Polly Christie, Projects Manager, AHDS Visual Arts. The research was carried out by Dr Rupert Shepherd

The Digital Picture: a future for digital images in UK arts education

This report presents the results that emerged from the Digital Picture project. Proposed and run by VADS / AHDS Visual Arts (the visual arts centre for the Arts and Humanities Data Service), the project was commissioned by the Images Working Group of Jisc to establish a national overview of issues, and potential solutions, relating to the use and impact of digital images within visual arts, higher education institutes and associated organisations

Modeling the Corporate Real Estate Decision

The corporate real estate decision has been viewed traditionally in a capital budgeting context. Due to recent capital market innovations, it is now more useful to view this decision from a combined capital budgeting/corporate financing framework. With the new combined perspective, all corporate real estate decisions should be reviewed on a regular basis. Given this need for frequent review, and the large number of variables involved, a formal model is helpful. The individual techniques needed for a model with this joint perspective are well known. The interactions between real estate valuation, accrual accounting and corporate valuation methodologies are quite complex, however, as demonstrated in this paper. Moreover, the application of the theoretical model to real life situations is a challenging task as shown in the analysis of recent corporate restructurings. Detailed information on a corporation's real estate holdings, and subjective estimates on the impact of changes in real estate holdings on the firm's cost of capital, debt capacity, systematic risk, and operating revenues and expenses is required.

The use of geoscience methods for aquatic forensic searches

There have been few publications on the forensic search of water and fewer still on the use of geoforensic techniques when exploring aqueous environments. Here we consider what the nature of the aqueous environment is, what the forensic target(s) may be, update the geoforensic search assets we may use in light of these, and provide a search strategy that includes multiple exploration assets. Some of the good practice involved in terrestrial searches has not been applied to water to-date, water being seen as homogenous and without the complexity of solid ground: this is incorrect and a full desktop study prior to searching, with prioritized areas, is recommended. Much experimental work on the decay of human remains is focused on terrestrial surface deposition or burial, with less known about the nature of this target in water, something which is expanded upon here, in order to deploy the most appropriate geoforensic method in water-based detection. We include case studies where detecting other forensic targets have been searched for; from metal (guns, knives) to those of a nonmetallic nature, such as submerged barrels/packages of explosives, drugs, contraband and items that cause environmental pollution. A combination of the consideration of the environment, the target(s), and both modern and traditional search devices, leads to a preliminary aqueous search strategy for forensic targets. With further experimental research and criminal/humanitarian casework, this strategy will continue to evolve and improve our detection of forensic targets

Skill mix in Primary Care: a study of the interface between the general practitioner and other members of the Primary Health Care Team

The Medical Manpower Standing Advisory Committee made its first report, “Planning the Medical Workforce”, to the Secretary of State in December 1992; recommending that research should be undertaken to quantify the manpower effects of skill mix initiatives. These issues are being raised against a background of changing roles under the GP Contract, manpower shortages and boundary definitions and enhanced roles for nursing staff as well as shifts at the primary/secondary interface and by other initiatives such as the growth in day surgery and early discharge from hospital. Given the acknowledged complexity, this initial research has focused on the interface between the general practitioner (GP) and other members of the Primary Health Care Team (PHCT). Detailed data are needed on the work patterns of the doctors and nurses in the PHCT, on the extent of referral between members of the team, and on the acceptability and appropriateness of delegation from the GP to other members of the PHCT. Hence the broad aim of this enquiry; to propose ways of examining the constraints upon, and the opportunities for, spreading workload more effectively and efficiently amongst members of the PHCT. The objectives of this study were: • To document the current pattern of activities and interactions between the GP and other members of the PHCT. • To assess the potential for some of the GP’s activities to be performed by other members of staff in terms of the mix of skills required. • To examine the attitude of GPs towards delegation, of the practice managers and nurses to taking on other responsibilities, and of everyone’s attitude towards team management. • To document the outcomes for patients and their views of the different working arrangements of the PHCT. • To estimate the costs of delegation in practices of varying size and configuration in order to make a preliminary assessment of cost-effectiveness.GPs, PHCTs, skill mix, workload

Skill mix in Primary Care: a Final Report on the interface between general practitioners and other members of the Primary Health Care Team

The concept of skill mix is widely recognised in the vocabulary of the National Health Service (NHS) workforce but because of its complexity is understood, elusive to define and therefore difficult to measure. Many issues surround the concept of skill mix, some of which are concepts in their own right, but which also need to be recognised as an integral part of skill mix – such as delegation and teamwork. Despite the lack of definition and difficulty of measurement, these elements are central to the research project here. Thus this project is also about developing and testing methodological approaches to measurement of skill mix in addition to fulfilling the aims and objectives set out in Section 1.2.skill mix, fundholding, burses

The Periodic Spectroscopic Variability of FU Orionis

FU Orionis systems are young stars undergoing outbursts of disc accretion and where the optical spectrum contains lines associated with both the disc photosphere and a wind component. Previous observations of the prototype FU Orionis have suggested that the wind lines and the photospheric lines are modulated with periods of 14.54 and 3.54 days respectively (Herbig et al. 2003). We have re-observed the system at higher spectral resolution, by monitoring variations of optical line profiles over 21 nights in 2007 and have found periods of 13.48 and 3.6 days in the wind and disc components consistent with the above: this implies variability mechanisms that are stable over at least a decade. In addition we have found: i) that the variations in the photospheric absorption lines are confined to the blue wing of the line (around -9km/s): we tentatively ascribe this to an orbiting hotspot in the disc which is obscured by a disc warp during its receding phase. ii) The wind period is manifested not only in blue-shifted Halpha absorption, but also in red-shifted emission of Halpha and Hbeta, as well as in blue-shifted absorption of Na I D, Li I and Fe II. iii) We find that the periodic modulation of blue-shifted Halpha absorption at around -100km/s, is phase lagged with respect to variations in the other lines by ~1.8days. This is consistent with a picture in which variations at the wind base first affect chromospheric emission and then low velocity blue-shifted absorption, followed - after a lag equal to the propagation time of disturbances across the wind's acceleration region - by a response in high velocity blue-shifted absorption. Such arguments constrain the size of the acceleration region to ~10^12cm. We discuss possible mechanisms for periodic variations within the innermost 0.1AU of the disc, including the possibility that these variations indicate the presence of an embedded hot Jupiter.Comment: 20 pages, 23 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. See http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~slp65/FUOripaperHRes.pdf for a pdf version of the paper with high-resolution images; footnote added to the titl

Bacterial Deposition of Gold on Hair: Archeological, Forensic and Toxicological Implications

Trace metal analyses in hair are used in archeological, forensic and toxicological investigations as proxies for metabolic processes. We show metallophilic bacteria mediating the deposition of gold (Au), used as tracer for microbial activity in hair post mortem after burial, affecting results of such analyses. Methodology/Principal Findings Human hair was incubated for up to six months in auriferous soils, in natural soil columns (Experiment 1), soils amended with mobile Au(III)-complexes (Experiment 2) and the Au-precipitating bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans (Experiment 3), in peptone-meat-extract (PME) medium in a culture of C. metallidurans amended with Au(III)-complexes (Experiment 4), and in non-auriferous soil (Experiment 5). Hair samples were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy, confocal microscopy and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. In Experiments 1–4 the Au content increased with time (P = 0.038). The largest increase was observed in Experiment 4 vs. Experiment 1 (mean = 1188 vs. 161 µg Kg−1, Fisher's least significance 0.001). The sulfur content, a proxy for hair metabolism, remained unchanged. Notably, the ratios of Au-to-S increased with time (linear trend P = 0.02) and with added Au and bacteria (linear trend, P = 0.005), demonstrating that larger populations of Au-precipitating bacteria and increased availability of Au increased the deposition of Au on the hair. Conclusion/Significance Interactions of soil biota with hair post mortem may distort results of hair analyses, implying that metal content, microbial activities and the duration of burial must be considered in the interpretation of results of archeological, forensic and toxicological hair analyses, which have hitherto been proxies for pre-mortem metabolic processesGenevieve Phillips, Frank Reith, Clifford Qualls, Abdul-Mehdi Ali, Mike Spilde and Otto Appenzelle