Slow Strategies for Student (and staff) engagement.

The past two years have seen an explosion of interest in the Slow Movement as a response to stress and overwork in universities. Many staff are working less and giving themselves appropriate breaks from academic life. Yet the theoretical and practical tactics and ideas for slowing down have not been shared with students, even as students suffer from overwork and employability concerns. At the same time, many universities have sought to engage students through new research-led approaches to teaching. We suggest that student engagement can be defined as the extent to which a student feels they belong to a department and that a department cares about them. We offer two methods of increasing this type of engagement. First, introduce students to the slow movement and second, take seriously the issue of staff engagement. We evaluate our own efforts to foster slow student and staff engagement through a Shut Up and Write sessions adopted by the Geography Department at UCL

Late photography, military landscapes and the politics of memory

This essay considers the photographic genre of ‘late photography’ that has emerged roughly over the last two decades. Late photographs picture material remains left in the aftermath of events that often involve forms of violence. These photographs are usually high in detail, but formally simple, framing aftermath sites in ways that suggest the reservation of judgement and commentary upon the things they picture. This gives the impression that such photographs are intended to distance the spectator from the political meanings of the events or situations to which they refer. The discussion presented in the essay suggests that it is this apparent distancing from the political that opens up possibilities for the imaginative rethinking of how the past might function in relation to the politics of the present. The essay explores these concerns through the discussion of photographs by Simon Norfolk, Angus Boulton, Gilad Ophir and Roi Kuper, in relation to two historical and political contexts: the Cold War, considered briefly in relation to Boulton’s work and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, considered more extensively in relation to the work of Norfolk, Ophir, and Kuper

RELIABILITY OF A TRUNK MOUNTED ACCELEROMETER WHEN DETERMINING GAIT PARAMETERS IN PEOPLE WITH STROKE

Wearable sensors and accelerometers can objectively and reliably assess gait parameters in both healthy individuals and stroke patients. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a wireless tri-axial accelerometer is reliable when measuring spatio-temporal gait parameters in patients with stroke. Thirty-one chronic stroke patients (age: 59.5±13.6 years; time since stroke: 28.1±17.8 months) completed three repeated walks along a 10m flat walkway whilst wearing a trunk mounted accelerometer (BTS G-Walk) secured around the waist of the participant over the L5 vertebrae. Outcome measures included cadence, speed, stride length, %stride length/height, gait cycle duration, step length, stance and swing phase duration, single and double support duration for both symptomatic and asymptomatic lower limbs where relevant. Reliability was assessed via intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of the mean (SEM) and smallest detectable change (SDC) values. ICCs were \u3e 0.75 for all parameters, excluding step length on the asymptomatic side (ICC = 0.70). SEM and the SDC were marginally larger for the symptomatic limb than the asymptomatic limb for gait cycle duration and step length, but smaller for all other outcomes. The study showed that the BTS G-Walk is a reliable tool for measuring spatio-temporal parameters in patients with stroke. Physiotherapists and clinicians often prefer detailed information on gait ability. As advanced technologies could help with specific goals relating to gait performance, such devices could be reliably implemented as an alternative to the gold standard in clinical and community settings to monitor patients outside of a lab-based environment

High-temperature microstructural evolution and quantification for alloys IN740 and IN740H: comparative study

In ultra-supercritical power plants, Ni-base alloys are candidate materials for long-term, high-temperature applications, operating at temperatures and pressures as high as 750°C and 35 MPa. Alloy IN740 and its modification, alloy IN740H, are considered for such applications. Their microstructural evolution, at 750°C for times ranging between 3000 and 5000 hours, has been investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy, electron back-scattered diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray analysis and phase quantification. All phases were identified and quantified allowing comparison between the two microstructures, their evolution and stability. Particular attention was paid to γ′, η and G phases. The results are used within a broader investigation aimed at improving and further developing a predictive creep model based on continuous damage mechanics

The Relationship between Skinfold and Ultrasound Measures of Subcutaneous Fat in Untrained Healthy Males

Ultrasound measurement of adipose tissue offers an alternative measure of body composition with less technical skill requirement than skinfolds. However, the relationship between skinfold and ultrasound measurements of adipose tissue is uncertain. The aim of this study was to compare these measures in a healthy untrained male population. One hundred male participants (aged 18–40 years) of varying body compositions had skinfold measures taken at the biceps, triceps and front thigh sites. Ultrasound measures were also taken at the same sites using B-wave ultrasound with a linear probe in the transverse plane. Strong, significant (p < 0.01), positive correlations were observed between skinfold and ultrasound measures at the biceps (r = 0.828), triceps (r = 0.813), and front thigh (r = 0.888) sites. However, there was significant (p < 0.01) variance between the techniques at all measurement sites. Whilst skinfold and ultrasound measures of adipose tissue have good linear agreement, skinfolds are consistently higher at all sites indicating a difference in the nature of the tissue measured via each technique. The exact nature of the relationship should be established on a population-specific basis

External muscle heating during warm-up does not provide added performance benefit above external heating in the recovery period alone

Having previously shown the use of passive external heating between warm-up completion and sprint cycling to have had a positive effect on muscle temperature (T m) and maximal sprint performance, we sought to determine whether adding passive heating during active warm up was of further benefit

Modelling of creep and fracture properties of nickel based alloys

This paper reviews the differences between two nickel based alloys, Alloy 740 and Alloy 740H. Microstructural evolution models are used to forecast the changes in volume fraction and interparticle spacing of both grain boundary and intra-granular precipitates in the alloys. These data are then employed in continuum damage mechanics models to forecast creep curves, and in fracture mechanics models to forecast Charpy impact energies/energy. The results reveal the key microstructural features that control secondary and tertiary creep rate as well as the time dependence of Charpy impact energy after high temperature exposure