Context, control and the spillover of energy use behaviours between office and home settings

This paper examines how office-based lighting and computer use behaviours relate to similar behaviours performed by the same individuals in a household setting. It contributes to the understanding of energy use behaviour in both household and organisational settings, and investigates the potential for the‘spillover’of behaviour from one context to another. A questionnaire survey was administered to office-based employees of two adjacent local government organisations (‘City Council’and‘County Council’)in the East Midlands region of the UK. The analysis demonstrates that the organisational or home setting is an important defining feature of the energy use behaviour. It also reveals that, while there were weak relationships across settings between behaviours sharing other taxonomic categories, such as equipment used and trigger for the behaviour, there was no evidence to support the existence of spillover effects across settings

Identity and Memory

For my Summer Fellows project, I researched personal identity in a philosophical way. The goal was to disambiguate the concept of self-identity, understand what the main notions of identity are, and look at how they apply in different circumstances. My philosophical approach is to treat films as philosophical thought experiments, imaginative situations that reveal the meaning and limits of concepts. Films are great for exploring the topic of identity because they present characters struggling with their self-identity as situations change around them. A major focus of my research is the role of memory in the formation of one’s identity and how the fragility of memory undermine one’s sense of self. Sci-fi films such as Memento, Ghost in the Shell, Total Recall, Blade Runner, and The Matrix are especially valuable philosophically since they challenge our everyday concepts and force us to think about them in a new way. I’ve come to believe that self-identity is best understood as an explanatory narrative that gives meaning and coherence to life. Memory is crucial to building that narrative. But there is no single right narrative. While everyone has their own narrative and generally expects it to be respected, others can choose to tell their own stories about us. They can flip the script

Quantitative Chemical Analysis Throughout the FC CVD Process as a Route to Reliable Fibre Production and Research

Carbon nanotube fibre production through the Floating Catalyst – Chemical Vapour Deposition (FC-CVD) process has been developed at Cambridge University for 14 years by the Macromolecular Materials Laboratory (MML) group. Since then research has focused on lab-scale processes and fibre property optimisation. Continued research has been stymied by unreliable reactor performance and repeatability. Investigations were therefore undertaken to expand instrumentation and process control capabilities on the reactor, and furthermore to investigate the reaction mechanics of the process in order to deepen our understanding and enable further improvement of fibre properties. Improved process control has been achieved through a Fourier-Transformed Infra-Red spectrometer integrated into the gas line to monitor the precursor feedstocks in real time. This has revealed the erratic and inaccurate behaviour of precursor delivery, held as responsible for the reactor’s poor performance up to this point. Precursor delivery reliability has now been greatly improved but can more importantly be corrected for live when making fibre, which has enabled the publication of a major study into predicting fibre properties [1]. Further work, sampling reactor furnace gases at four positions (the first time this has been reported), has produced novel insight into the gas chemistry of the FC-CVD process. While ferrocene and thiophene precursors decomposed too rapidly to study, contributing only small quantities of common gases, hydrocarbon and alcohol precursors produced a variety of chemical species that varied with reaction parameters of dispensing quantity and hydrogen flow rate. Furnace gases from toluene in particular showed significant quantities of benzene deep in the laminar flow zone, and reduced levels of methane, ethene and acetylene, which were further lowered when higher flow rates carried more intact benzene deeper into the furnace. This effect and other observations about gaseous precursor products have been related to MML publications with conclusions drawn about CNT reaction mechanisms

The Effects of Adding Motivational Interviewing to a Behavioral Coaching Intervention to Increase Physical Activity

Most people do not meet the physical activity guidelines set forth by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO). Sufficient physical activity plays an important role in preventing chronic illnesses, such as Type 2 diabetes, which are a burden on the health care system. Health coaching (a client-centered approach to improve health outcomes) holds promise as a preventive strategy to change health behavior and limit office visits, thereby reducing the burden of illnesses caused by physical inactivity. One component of health coaching that warrants more research is motivational interviewing. The current study used a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the effects of adding motivational interviewing to a client-led behavioral coaching intervention to increase physical activity. In the current study, each participant took more steps in intervention compared to baseline, but the role of MI was somewhat unclear

Effects of Feedback Templates on Student Performance

This study examined the differences in student performance following different types of feedback. These feedback templates demonstrated strong, weak, or control feedback. After statistical analysis, it was found that the strong feedback led to positive outcomes that were statistically significant for assignment resubmission compared to weak or control feedback templates. We provided feedback on failing assignments using templates of good/weak exemplars, or ‘control’ feedback that pointed out errors. Students could revise and resubmit for marks. Students who received the ‘good’ template were significantly more likely to resubmit a passing assignment, but that effect did not generalize to subsequent assignments. Discipline: Psychology (Honours) Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lynne Hone

Northern Integrated Disease Management

Diseases have considerable impact on field crops in the GRDC northern region. The outputs from this project have resulted in significant contributions to the profitability and sustainability of farming enterprises in the region. They have been achieved by conducting targeted research and development (R&D) on the integrated management of important diseases of field crops, by gathering crop disease intelligence through surveys, diagnostic services and adviser networks, by responding in a timely and appropriate manner to significant disease outbreaks and by the extension of information to clients through electronic and print media and presentations at training courses, meetings and seminars

Making Another World Possible

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Making Another World Possible identifies the British contribution to the genealogy of modern green and anti-capitalist thinking by examining left libertarian ideologies in the late 19th and early 20th century Britain and highlighting their influence on present day radical thought. As capitalism heralded the triumph of technology, greater production, and a new urban industrial society, some imagined alternatives to this notion of progress based on endless economic growth. The book examines the development of ideas from these dissidents who included communists, class warriors, free thinkers, secularists, and Christian communitarians. All shared the same beliefs that the benefits of industrialism could only be realized through equality and that urban culture depended on a healthy agriculture and harmony with the natural world - concerns that are still of great importance today. This distinctive history of anarchist ideas reappraises the work of thinkers and revises the historical picture of the radical milieu in 19th and 20th century Britain. It will be an essential resource to anyone researching the history of ideas and studying anarchism