Better community engagement: a framework for learning

Because different needs and priorities call for different approaches, the document does not present a single curriculum. Instead it provides a statement of the purpose, elements and competences for community engagement practice that should enable training providers to develop their own curricula to address the needs of practitioners operating in different settings. We hope that this approach can make a significant contribution to establishing a range of learning opportunities that will deliver the best practice needed to deliver on policy commitments and to put communities first

Quantum metrology and its application in biology

Quantum metrology provides a route to overcome practical limits in sensing devices. It holds particular relevance to biology, where sensitivity and resolution constraints restrict applications both in fundamental biophysics and in medicine. Here, we review quantum metrology from this biological context, focusing on optical techniques due to their particular relevance for biological imaging, sensing, and stimulation. Our understanding of quantum mechanics has already enabled important applications in biology, including positron emission tomography (PET) with entangled photons, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using nuclear magnetic resonance, and bio-magnetic imaging with superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). In quantum metrology an even greater range of applications arise from the ability to not just understand, but to engineer, coherence and correlations at the quantum level. In the past few years, quite dramatic progress has been seen in applying these ideas into biological systems. Capabilities that have been demonstrated include enhanced sensitivity and resolution, immunity to imaging artifacts and technical noise, and characterization of the biological response to light at the single-photon level. New quantum measurement techniques offer even greater promise, raising the prospect for improved multi-photon microscopy and magnetic imaging, among many other possible applications. Realization of this potential will require cross-disciplinary input from researchers in both biology and quantum physics. In this review we seek to communicate the developments of quantum metrology in a way that is accessible to biologists and biophysicists, while providing sufficient detail to allow the interested reader to obtain a solid understanding of the field. We further seek to introduce quantum physicists to some of the central challenges of optical measurements in biological science.Comment: Submitted review article, comments and suggestions welcom

The value relevance of disclosures of liabilities of equity-accounted investees: UK evidence

This study examines the value relevance of mandated disclosures by UK firms of the investor-firm share of liabilities of equity-accounted associate and joint venture investees. It does so for the six years following the introduction of FRS 9: Associates and Joint Ventures, which forced a substantial increase in such disclosures by UK firms. Since the increased disclosure requirements were partly motivated by concern that single-line equity accounting concealed the level of group gearing, and in light of previous US results, it is predicted that the mandated investee-liability disclosures have a negative coefficient in a value-relevance regression. The study also examines whether value-relevance regression coefficients on investee-liability disclosures are more negative for joint ventures than for associates and whether they are more negative in the presence of investor-firm guarantees of investee-firm obligations than in the absence of such guarantees. The study reports that the coefficient on all investee-liability disclosures taken together has the predicted negative sign, and is significantly different from zero. It finds little evidence that the negative valuation impact of liability disclosures is stronger for joint venture investees overall than for associate investees overall, or stronger for guarantee cases overall than for non-guarantee cases overall. There is, however, some evidence that the impact for joint venture guarantee cases is stronger than that for joint venture non-guarantee cases and stronger than that for associate guarantee cases

Robust Inference on Seasonal Unit Roots via a Bootstrap Applied to OECD Macroeconomic Series

Recent experimental results presented in Burridge and Taylor (2001a,b, and 2003) show that, as usually implemented, the Hylleberg et al. (1990) seasonal unit root tests can be rather liberal, with true level often substantially higher than nominal level. This effect is due to the presence of any of three things: data-based lag selection in the implementation of the tests, and either or both periodic heteroscedasticity and serial correlation in the driving shocks. Burridge and Taylor (2003) demonstrate that under experimental conditions a carefully implemented bootstrap substantially corrects test level without loss of power. The present study applies their technique to a large number of publicly available series, and demonstrates conclusively that the bootstrap produces less liberal, and, given the experimental results cited above, more reliable inference. We report results for Sweden, the UK and the US, which are typical of the fifteen countries in our panel. Other results, the GAUSS code, and raw data are all available at: www.staff.city.ac.uk/p.burridge

Community learning and development training for professionals engaged in community regeneration and community planning

The study was commissioned by the Scottish Executive Development Department to identify training needs and current provision of community learning and development (CLD) training for a range of professionals (other than those formally qualified in CLD) who are engaged in community regeneration and community planning (Local Government in Scotland Act 2003). It was one of a series of studies emanating from the Scottish Executive response to the review: „Empowered to Practice – the future of community learning and development training in Scotland‟. One of the themes of the report taken up by the Scottish Executive was the need for; „wider opportunities for joint training with other disciplines such as teachers, librarians, college lecturers, health workers and social workers‟

50 Years Later: Women, Work & the Work Ahead (Infographic)

How have things changed for women in the labor force over the last 50 years

Oblique hypervelocity impact response of dual-sheet structures

The results of a continuing investigation of the phenomena associated with the oblique hypervelocity impact of spherical projectiles onto multi-sheet aluminum structures are given. A series of equations that quantitatively describes these phenomena is obtained through a regression of experimental data. These equations characterize observed ricochet and penetration damage phenomena in a multi-sheet structure as functions of geometric parameters of the structure and the diameter, obliquity, and velocity of the impacting projectile. Crater damage observed on the ricochet witness plates is used to determine the sizes and speeds of the ricochet debris particles that caused the damage. It is observed that the diameter of the most damaging ricochet debris particle can be as large as 40 percent of the original particle diameter and can travel at speeds between 24 percent and 36 percent of the original projectile impact velocity. The equations necessary for the design of shielding panels that will protect external systems from such ricochet debris damage are also developed. The dimensions of these shielding panels are shown to be strongly dependent on their inclination and on their circumferential distribution around the spacecraft