Co-Design and Conservation: A Case-Study from RSPB Biosecurity for LIFE in Coastal and Island Primary Schools and Youth Groups Across Scotland

Here, we reflect on the process and outcomes of co-designing seabird conservation resources with upper-primary-aged pupils. We focused on biosecurity (protecting wildlife from potential invasive species), an intellectually and emotionally complex topic which includes many social issues alongside ecology. Public awareness and understanding are vital to biosecurity, and we aimed to engage schools and pupils as key stakeholders in their local biodiversity and its protection. Using a youth work approach, we facilitated pupils’ direction of their own learning practices and the development of creative, reflective, and evaluative skills. Through co-design, we developed more relevant, desired, and empowering resources than conventional methods could produce. From April to June 2021, we worked with 106 young people across Scotland as part of the Biosecurity for LIFE project, raising local awareness of biosecurity as part of the project’s wider conservation aims. Teachers and pupils flourished within the six-week programme and its co-design framework, developing outstanding work and quickly adapting to a novel topic. Teachers saw positive outcomes throughout the Curriculum for Excellence and Learning for Sustainability, much of which came from pupils’ generative and collaborative working. The resources produced met the needs of staff and students, including local specificity, flexibility, and Gaelic translation, with pupils’ outputs emphasising creative and active ways of learning. We see co-design as a useful and empowering model for conservation education, helping teachers to navigate demanding curricula and pupils to direct their own learning, find their voice, and cover issues relevant to their own experiences

WHOI silhouette DIGITIZER version 1.0 user’s guide

WHOI Silhouette DIGITIZER is a MATLAB-based computer program for measuring the lengths of marine organisms in the macrozooplankton size range. DIGITIZER displays a scanned photographic image of a seawater slurry containing large numbers of marine organisms, upon which is superimposed a reference grid. DIGITIZER then allows you to measure the organisms' lengths using the cursor on the computer screen. DIGITIZER automatically calculates each organism’s biomass and generates spreadsheet compatible output listings of basic statistics derived from the data. DIGITIZER also produces text files of lengths, weights, and size-frequency histograms.Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. OCE-9806381, OCE-9940880, and OCE-0095069

Active faulting in apparently stable peninsular India: Rift inversion and a Holocene-age great earthquake on the Tapti Fault

We present observations of active faulting within peninsular India, far from the surrounding plate boundaries. Offset alluvial fan surfaces indicate one or more magnitude 7.6–8.4 thrust-faulting earthquakes on the Tapti Fault (Maharashtra, western India) during the Holocene. The high ratio of fault displacement to length on the alluvial fan offsets implies high stress-drop faulting, as has been observed elsewhere in the peninsula. The along-strike extent of the fan offsets is similar to the thickness of the seismogenic layer, suggesting a roughly equidimensional fault rupture. The subsiding footwall of the fault is likely to have been responsible for altering the continental-scale drainage pattern in central India, and creating the large west-flowing catchment of the Tapti river. A pre-existing sedimentary basin in the uplifting hangingwall implies the Tapti Fault was active as a normal fault during the Mesozoic and has been reactivated as a thrust, highlighting the role of pre-existing structures in determining the rheology and deformation of the lithosphere. The slip sense of faults and earthquakes in India suggests that deformation south of the Ganges foreland basin is driven by the compressive force transmitted between India and the Tibetan Plateau. The along-strike continuation of faulting to the east of the Holocene ruptures we have studied represents a significant seismic hazard in central India.RCUKDOI: 10.1002/2014JB011294This is the final version of the following article: A. Copley, S. Mitra, R.A. Sloan, S. Gaonkar, and K. Reynolds, Active faulting in apparently stable peninsular India: rift inversion and a Holocene-age great earthquake on the Tapti Fault, Journal of Geophysical Research, which is also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2014JB011294

Neutron scattering study of a quasi-2D spin-1/2 dimer system Piperazinium Hexachlorodicuprate under hydrostatic pressure

We report inelastic neutron scattering study of a quasi-two-dimensional S=1/2 dimer system Piperazinium Hexachlorodicuprate under hydrostatic pressure. The spin gap {\Delta} becomes softened with the increase of the hydrostatic pressure up to P= 9.0 kbar. The observed threefold degenerate triplet excitation at P= 6.0 kbar is consistent with the theoretical prediction and the bandwidth of the dispersion relation is unaffected within the experimental uncertainty. At P= 9.0 kbar the spin gap is reduced to 0.55 meV from 1.0 meV at ambient pressure.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

A Signal-To-Noise Ratio Comparison fo Ultrasonic Transducers for C-Scan Imaging in Titanium

Digital data acquisition and the C-scan imaging of ultrasonic data offer improvements over analog recording techniques, such as strip-chart recording. As a result, peak-detected C-scan imaging is becoming the preferred method for the inspection of large titanium parts such as those found in the aircraft engine industry. The effectiveness of the inspection, however, still depends on the transducer. For this reason, a study of the effect of different transducer parameters on the sensitivity for detection of simulated defects in titanium specimens was conducted. Due to the increased emphasis on C-scan imaging, sensitivity is measured as an image-based signal-to-noise ratio

Rotational Dynamics of Organic Cations in CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskite

Methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) based solar cells have shown impressive power conversion efficiencies of above 20%. However, the microscopic mechanism of the high photovoltaic performance is yet to be fully understood. Particularly, the dynamics of CH3NH3+ cations and their impact on relevant processes such as charge recombination and exciton dissociation are still poorly understood. Here, using elastic and quasi-elastic neutron scattering techniques and group theoretical analysis, we studied rotational modes of the CH3NH3+ cation in CH3NH3PbI3. Our results show that, in the cubic (T > 327K) and tetragonal (165K < T < 327K) phases, the CH3NH3+ ions exhibit four-fold rotational symmetry of the C-N axis (C4) along with three-fold rotation around the C-N axis (C3), while in orthorhombic phase (T < 165K) only C3 rotation is present. Around room temperature, the characteristic relaxation times for the C4 rotation is found to be ps while for the C3 rotation ps. The -dependent rotational relaxation times were fitted with Arrhenius equations to obtain activation energies. Our data show a close correlation between the C4 rotational mode and the temperature dependent dielectric permittivity. Our findings on the rotational dynamics of CH3NH3+ and the associated dipole have important implications on understanding the low exciton binding energy and slow charge recombination rate in CH3NH3PbI3 which are directly relevant for the high solar cell performance

A Neutron Elastic Diffuse Scattering Study of PMN

We have performed elastic diffuse neutron scattering studies on the relaxor Pb(Mg$_{1/3}$Nb$_{2/3}$)O$_3$ (PMN). The measured intensity distribution near a (100) Bragg peak in the (hk0) scattering plane assumes the shape of a butterfly with extended intensity in the (110) and (1$\bar{1}$0) directions. The temperature dependence of the diffuse scattering shows that both the size of the polar nanoregions (PNR) and the integrated diffuse intensity increase with cooling even for temperatures below the Curie temperature $T_C \sim 213$ K.Comment: Submitted to PR

High Resolution Study of Spin Excitations in the Shastry-Sutherland Singlet Ground State of SrCu2(BO3)2

High resolution, inelastic neutron scattering measurements on SrCu2(BO3)2 reveal the dispersion of the three single triplet excitations continuously across the (H,0) direction within its tetragonal basal plane. These measurements also show distinct Q dependencies for the single and multiple triplet excitations, and that these excitations are largely dispersionless perpendicular to this plane. The temperature dependence of the intensities of these excitations is well described as the complement of the dc-susceptibility of SrCu2(BO3)2.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to PR