Supporting regional growth from the higher education community: the Energy Coast Campus Programme in West Cumbria

West Cumbria is a predominantly rural, but post-industrial region undergoing a transition from one that has been dominated by heavy industry over a 200 year period. The regional economy has latterly been dominated by one of the world’s largest nuclear technology hubs, which continues to influence the structure of the economy. The region has aspirations to evolve a high technology manufacturing base, with a continued strong role for nuclear, but with a more diversified economy, including an expanded focus on low carbon and renewable energy generation. The region has aspirations to evolve a high technology manufacturing base, with a continued strong role for nuclear, but with a more diversified economy. As part of this strategy, a large investment has been made to build a higher education community in this largely rural area, to support its strategic objectives to promote innovation through applied research, research demonstration, enterprise, business support, skills and training and other transformational actions. Three case studies are described in detail: the Cumbrian Centre for Health Technologies (CaCHeT), the Sustainable Energy Technology Group and the Knowledge Action Network (KAN). The lessons learned are evaluated and presented, with details of future plans

Why don't I just throw it in the bin? - evaluation and self-esteem

Work in design and technology can provide a unique insight into quality through the process of evaluation. However, this is a two-edged sword in that evaluation can expose children's work to the perceived cold, hard light of public scrutiny. For many children at Key Stages 1 and 2, evaluation can be a daunting, high-risk enterprise due to a lack of self-esteem. Drawing upon case study evidence from work with children in schools, a number of strategies are proposed for children to develop a critical awareness of products and through this, a more confident approach to evaluating their designing and making. These include a graduation from evaluating familiar products made or produced by others, with a key emphasis on food, to evaluation of their own designing and making through the support of 'critical friends' within a group context. It is proposed that product evaluation should be a key feature of primary teaching, based upon regular, simple and brief whole class and group teaching sessions

Insights into the biochemical and biophysical mechanisms mediating the longevity of the transparent optics of the eye lens

In the human eye, a transparent cornea and lens combine to form the “refracton” to focus images on the retina. This requires the refracton to have a high refractive index “n,” mediated largely by extracellular collagen fibrils in the corneal stroma and the highly concentrated crystallin proteins in the cytoplasm of the lens fiber cells. Transparency is a result of short-range order in the spatial arrangement of corneal collagen fibrils and lens crystallins, generated in part by post-translational modifications (PTMs). However, while corneal collagen is remodeled continuously and replaced, lens crystallins are very long-lived and are not replaced and so accumulate PTMs over a lifetime. Eventually, a tipping point is reached when protein aggregation results in increased light scatter, inevitably leading to the iconic protein condensation–based disease, age-related cataract (ARC). Cataracts account for 50% of vision impairment worldwide, affecting far more people than other well-known protein aggregation–based diseases. However, because accumulation of crystallin PTMs begins before birth and long before ARC presents, we postulate that the lens protein PTMs contribute to a “cataractogenic load” that not only increases with age but also has protective effects on optical function by stabilizing lens crystallins until a tipping point is reached. In this review, we highlight decades of experimental findings that support the potential for PTMs to be protective during normal development. We hypothesize that ARC is preventable by protecting the biochemical and biophysical properties of lens proteins needed to maintain transparency, refraction, and optical function

Suppression of residual single-photon absorption relative to two-photon absorption in high finesse planar microcavities

Suppression of residual single-photon absorption (SPA) relative to two-photon absorption (TPA) in a high finesse GaAs planar microcavity is explored. The TPA photocurrent becomes larger than the SPA photocurrent as long as the incident continuous-wave optical power exceeds 0.09 mW. An optical power of 5 mW would be required if the relative SPA suppression did not exist

Further observations on the scrotal skin temperature of the bull, with some remarks on the intra-testicular temperature

1. The temperature of the scrotal surface has been recorded at various air-temperatures within the range 10°C. to 40°C. (50°F. to 104°F.). 2. At low air-temperatures (10°C. to 25°C.) the temperature on areas I, II, and III gave a mean value of 32.0°C., 31.0°C., and 33.0°C.; at high air-temperatures (25°C. to 40°C.) the same areas were 33.9°C., 33.8°C., and 36.7°C. 3. Readings (28) of the skin-temperature underneath the hairy coat, taken simultaneously, gave mean values of 33.6°C. at low air-temperatures and 36.5°C. at high air-temperatures. 4. The mean body-temperature at which the high temperature group readings (15) were taken was 38.6°C. 5. Scrotal temperatures at areas I and II increased almost similarly with increasing air-temperature, i .e. slow increase at low air-temperatures (0.06°C. and 0.09°C. per 1° air-temperature increase) and more rapid increase at high air-temperatures (0.29°C. and 0.26°C. per 1° air-temperature increase). Scrotal temperatures of area III and skin-temperatures increased similarly with increasing air-temperature over the whole range of 10°C. to 40°C. air-temperature. The rate of increase for scrotal area III was 0.43°C. at 10°C. air-temperature, and 0.11°C. at 40°C. air-temperature. The rate of increase in the skin was 0.56°C. at 10°C. air-temperature, and 0.14°C. at 40°C. air-temperature. 6. The degree of contraction and relaxation of the scrotum, as indicated by its length from the dorsal to the ventral extremity, gave a mean value of 24.2 cm. at low air-temperatures and 29.0 cm. at high air-temperatures, a difference of 4.8 cm. 7. From limited observations on the body-temperature, at high air-temperatures only, there appears to be a highly significant relationship between the body-temperature and that o£ the air and scrotal areas I, II, and III. There was no significant relationship between body and skin-temperature. 8. An observation was carried out at artificially created low air-temperatures. The bull was exposed to a temperature of 4°C. to 6°C. for six hours. 9. Under these conditions scrotal area I increased immediately from 30°C. to 33°C. It then decreased and fluctuated between 31°C. and 32°C. During the following 4 hours, scrotal area II always showed lower temperatures than area I (up to 3°C.) . Scrotal area III increased markedly at the beginning and then showed a slight tendency to decrease, but after one-and-a-half hours remained 2°C. to 4°C. lower than skin-temperature. 10. There was marked shivering, which began one-and-a-half hours after exposure, and continued until one-and-a-half hours after the bull was removed from the cooling chamber. 11. The pulse rate per minute varied from 66 to 62 in the cooling chamber and dropped from 64 to 58 within an hour after removal. 12. The respiration count was 16 per minute after six hours exposure and 13 per minute one hour after removal. · 13. The skin-temperature showed steady increase, up to 35°C. (air-temperature 4°C.). It then decreased continually to 32.6°C. at the end of the experiment, but a constant level had apparently not been reached. After removal from the cooling chamber, there was an increase of 3°C. within an hour. 14. The length of the scrotum decreased with a fall of scrotal and skin-temperature during exposure. There was marked relaxation upon removal to higher air-temperature. 15. The body-temperature increased by 1°C. at the commencement of exposure, and remained remarkably constant at about 39°C. throughout the exposure and after removal from the cooling chamber. 16. The intra-testicular temperature, measured with a thermo-needle, at an air temperature range of 15·2° C. to 37·8° C. remained within a narrow range, between 34.8°C. to 37°C. for the left testicle and 34.7°C. to 36.6°C. for the right testicle. 17. Artificial displacement of the testicle to close contact with the body resulted in an increased intra-testicular temperature of 2.5°C. and a decrease in the temperature of the scrotal area not overlying the testicle, of 6.0°C. and 3.2°C. The scrotal surface over the displaced testicle also increased considerably to 37.0°C. 18. The heat regulating mechanism of the scrotum is extraordinarily efficient in maintaining the testicular and scrotal surface-temperatures within a very narrow range at air-temperatures between 10°C. and 40°C. It is suggested that this efficiency is not purely physical, due to the action of air temperature on the contracted or relaxed scrotum. This suggestion is strengthened by the fact that scrotal areas I and II, in close contact with the testicle, behaved similarly but differently -to scrotal area III and the skin. It appears probable that vascular reaction accompanies scrotal contraction and relaxation. 19. The scrotal temperature reaction over that portion of the scrotum removed from close testicular contact, is extraordinary in that there was a very marked decrease in temperature to 28.2°C., i.e. 3.8°C. lower than air-temperature, and 8.8°C. lower than intra-testicular temperature (average for points 1 and 2). It is suggested that this reaction was an attempt by the temperature regulating mechanism of the scrotum to maintain the testicular temperature, which was raised by contact with the body , at the normal temperature for prevailing air-temperature.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 300dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.ab201