The Leeds Thunderbolt

When the English Electric Company's School Project Competition was announced in 1967 I had a small group of enthusiastic Sixth Formers who were taking 0 and A Level Engineering Drawing. This seemed one way of bringing in something of a workshop background to the course and I decided a model steam locomotive would be suitable as this would encompass most aspects of a workshop course. None of the group had any elementary workshop knowledge and due to timetable problems all the work had to be in spare time

Challenges to the integrity of a European migration program: Greece as the recalcitrant state

There have been dramatic transformations in the migration regulatory environment across Europe that has followed in the wake of a new wave of immigration that commenced in the late 1980s/early 1990s. The European Union has led initiatives, especially through the instrument of the and indirectly sought to coordinate policy formation across the European landscape. This has been particularly important in engendering policy formation in the Mediterranean member states of the EU which, formerly countries of emigration, are now significant destinations for migrants entering Europe. However, the regulatory frameworks within the respective Mediterranean nation-states are decidedly uneven. Nowhere is this unevenness more pronounced than in Greece. The legislative developments have tended to be ill-considered and inconsistent and lack the institutional force of the state to establish any meaningful measures for the regulation of the movement of people. The study seeks to unravel the dynamics of state formation by critically assessing the integrity of the efforts of the Greek government to establish the frameworks and institutions to regulate the movement of people. It will examine how the rhetoric of the political will of the state of coordination of policy across relevant state apparatuses. It will elaborate the implications of this for labour market formation by focusing on the effectiveness of policy in managing the entry of migrant workers into the Greek labour market. This provides the foundation for considering the effect of state intervention, and the different social and political forces that shape state interventions, in institutionalising the place of migrant workers within the labour market and, in the process, structuring labour market experience. Attention will concentrate particularly on the position of the different cohorts of migrant women workers to examine the differential impacts of state policy in underscoring labour market segmentation

On English Dental Fricatives

En este artículo, se lleva a cabo un análisis de las fricativas dentales inglesas. Nos llama la atención que estas consonantes no gozan de estabilidad en ciertos contextos, por ello los nativos de habla inglesa a veces seleccionan el fonema sordo y otras el sonoro. Además, se abordan los procesos fonológicos de elisión y variación y finalmente, se hacen algunos comentarios sobre la enseñanza y aprendizaje de estas fricativas

Researching direct action against carbon emissions: a digital ethnography of climate agency

Global warming poses very directly the question of human agency. In this video ethnography of climate agency we explore dimensions of subjectivity in climate activism. Through a longitudinal study we track activist strategising as a reflexive process of creating climate agency. Activist reflection is presented as a balance between involvement and detachment, and analysed drawing on videoed interviews and on our own participation in organisations and events. Visual artefacts are deployed to deepen insights into the interview process, and into the contexts for climate action. In terms of the analysis, there are three themes. First we look at trajectories how people come to identify with the climate movement and engage in its direct action wing. Second, we explore the hopes and fears of climate activists in the face of profound challenges. Third, we address political antidotes, and the role of direct action in precipitating large-scale systemic change. Across these themes there is much diversity and debate: what unifies is a common engagement in the broad field of direct climate action. This visual documentation helps us reflect on the conflicts and possibilities that thereby arise in contexts of climate activist praxis

Researching direct action against carbon emissions: a digital ethnography of climate agency

Global warming poses very directly the question of human agency. In this video ethnography of climate agency we explore dimensions of subjectivity in climate activism. Through a longitudinal study we track activist strategising as a reflexive process of creating climate agency. Activist reflection is presented as a balance between involvement and detachment, and analysed drawing on videoed interviews and on our own participation in organisations and events. Visual artefacts are deployed to deepen insights into the interview process, and into the contexts for climate action. In terms of the analysis, there are three themes. First we look at trajectories – how people come to identify with the climate movement and engage in its direct action wing. Second, we explore the hopes and fears of climate activists in the face of profound challenges. Third, we address political antidotes, and the role of direct action in precipitating large-scale systemic change. Across these themes there is much diversity and debate: what unifies is a common engagement in the broad field of direct climate action. This visual documentation helps us reflect on the conflicts and possibilities that thereby arise in contexts of climate activist praxis

Muddied waters: suspended sediment impacts on gill structure and aerobic scope in an endangered native and an invasive freshwater crayfish

Suspended sediment (SS) loadings in freshwater habitats have increased over the past century and SS is now a significant environmental stressor. Greater tolerance to environmental stressors has been proposed as a factor in the success of aquatic invasive species. Further, parasites may interact with environmental stressors to increase host susceptibility to loss of fitness and mortality. We compared the effects of SS exposure on the gill structure and aerobic scope of the endangered white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes), and the invasive signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus), and assessed impacts in relation to parasite burden. SS caused gill fouling and reduction in aerobic scope in both species, though A. pallipes was more susceptible than invasive P. leniusculus. The parasite Branchiobdella astaci, a crayfish worm that infests the gills, interacted with the sediment to affect gill structure whereas infection with the microsporidian parasite Thelohania contejeani had no effect on crayfish response to SS. Juvenile P. lenisuculus had a higher standard metabolic rate than A. pallipes, which may be linked to competitive advantages such as higher growth rate and behavioural dominance. Conservation of A. pallipes often involves relocation of threatened populations to isolated stillwaters; our findings suggest that SS levels should be assessed before relocation

Evaluations of nutrition policy and advocacy to improve the food environment in Australia

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death and disability globally. NCDs are largely preventable, with the majority attributable to four behavioural risk factors: physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol, tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke, and unhealthy diets. Dietary risks are a leading mortality risk factor: eight million deaths and 188 million disability-adjusted life years each year can be attributed to dietary risks worldwide. Intervention strategies to reduce dietary risks can be broadly grouped into environmental, behavioural, or multi-component strategies. Food environment policies focus on changing the physical, social, political, or economic environment that individuals and groups live in. Policies that directly impact the food environment include food reformulation targets and nutrition standards for publicly-funded institutions. Such interventions alter food access, availability, and affordability, and can create environments that support individuals to make healthier choices. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the design, implementation and impact of nutrition policies and advocacy strategies to improve the food environment in Australia and globally. Formative research included two secondary analyses of a global review of salt reduction programs to understand the extent and scope of national reformulation strategies and nutrition standards for publicly funded institutions, including whether these policies are designed in line with current evidence. This was followed by comprehensive policy analyses of the Australian Government’s Healthy Food Partnership reformulation strategy and state- and territory-based nutrition standards for publicly funded institutions to evaluate policy design, potential impact, and scope for strengthening policies. Finally, a five-study, mixed methods evaluation of the Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership’s (VSRP) advocacy program was undertaken to evaluate the program’s design and implementation, and the impact on the food environment. This work found that one-third of countries globally had sodium reformulation programs and a similar number had institutional nutrition standards. Most policies were in high-income countries, and Europe was the region with the highest number of policies. Policy design was highly variable and substantial opportunity to better align policies with best practice evidence and global guidance was highlighted. These opportunities include applying sodium reduction targets to a wider range of foods using the World Health Organization’s global sodium benchmarks and applying school nutrition standards to all types of publicly funded institutions. There is ample opportunity to increase the public health impact of Australian food environment policies through alignment with evidence of best practice globally. The majority of government-led reformulation targets were determined to be too conservative, and therefore likely to have limited impact on the food supply. For most food categories, more than 43% of products were already meeting the reformulation targets prior to implementation, a greater than 10% difference from the government-proposed criteria of one-third. There were also no plans for implementation, monitoring, or evaluation. The design of institutional nutrition policies may be a barrier to implementation and prevent the policies from having their intended impact: policy designs were complex, many lacked key components such as accountability mechanisms, and there were differences within and between institution types and jurisdictions. The five-study evaluation of the VSRP advocacy strategy demonstrated the multi-faceted sodium reduction program had no impact on reducing sodium levels in the food supply or government policy; however, short-term objectives (e.g., project outputs) were achieved and important lessons were generated that will be useful for future public health partnerships and interventions. The establishment of a Partnership or guiding coalition with diverse skills and experience facilitated collaborative action, capacity building and execution of the intervention. Continual monitoring and evaluation of implementation informed strategy adaptations that allowed optimisation of the Partnership strategy. The political advocacy strategy, which involved advocating for stringent government-led sodium reformulation targets, enabled the dissemination of VSRP resources to food manufacturers, although had little impact on strengthening the draft targets. The media advocacy strategy, which involved the dissemination of sodium-monitoring data through media releases, was a useful tool to gain access to the media and reach consumers with salt reduction messages, and to engage food manufacturers in discussions about salt reduction. However, in the absence of an established government reformulation policy, this food industry engagement did not translate into meaningful reductions in sodium in the packaged food supply. More effective communication between strategic and implementation partners could have improved program implementation and outcomes. Greater emphasis on developing and maintaining relationships with policymakers could have increased influence on government policy and public health impact. Existing institutional nutrition policies in Victoria also require strengthening through improvements to policy design, governance, and support services, and overcoming barriers within and external to implementing organisations, to propel state-wide progress. Overall, this thesis identified substantial scope to accelerate the local and global impact of food environment policies. In addition to improving the design of food environment policies in line with best practice evidence and global guidance, implementation of food environment policies could be strengthened through the provision of support services, step-by-step guidance, and additional tools/resources. Further, performance measurement methods need to be integrated into policy monitoring systems to enhance evaluation approaches and facilitate policy enforcement. Strong government leadership and regular monitoring of measurable goals are essential elements of successful policies. Three step-wise frameworks were developed from the evidence generated and lessons learnt in this thesis to support i) governments to design impactful food environment policies and monitor them, ii) end-users to effectively implement food environment policies and iii) public health professionals to persuasively advocate for food environment policies. Thus, this thesis will be useful for informing future public health partnerships, interventions, and government policies to reduce the global burden of diet-related NCDs