Ludic literacies at the intersections of cultures: an interview with James Paul Gee

Professor James Gee addresses issues of linguistics, literacies and cultures. Gee emphasises the importance of Discourses, and argues that the future of literacy studies lies in the interrogation of new media and the globalisation of culture

Shaping educational attitudes and aspirations: the influence of parents, place and poverty: stage 1 report

An interim report of a study which aims to better understand the relationship between children’s aspirations in relation to education and employment, and the context in which they are formed. In particular, the study seeks to explore how parental circumstances and attitudes, the school as an institution, and the opportunity structures of the neighbourhood come together to shape aspirations in deprived urban areas. This report examines: • The assumptions of current policy that aspirations are a key ingredient of educational and labour market outcomes; • What aspirations are and how they can be understood; • What young people’s aspirations are for further and higher education and for future occupations in three secondary schools; • The main influences on those aspirations, including the roles of parents, schools and the neighbourhood context • Messages for the second stage of the research and emerging lessons for policy. The report provides some evidence to question the assumption among policy makers that there is a ‘poverty of aspirations’ among young people from disadvantaged backgrounds or living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods

Urban agriculture in shared spaces : the difficulties with collaboration in an age of austerity

The expanding critical literature on Urban Agriculture (UA) makes links between the withdrawal of state services and the institutionalisation of volunteering, while observing that challenging funding landscapes can foster competitive environments between third sector organisations. Where these organisations are forced to compete for survival at the expense of collaboration, their ability to collectively upscale and expand beneficial activities can be compromised. This paper focuses on a lottery-funded UA project and draws predominantly on observations and interviews held with project staff and growing group volunteers. Research conducted in Wythenshawe, Manchester (UK), highlights difficulties experienced by organisations attempting to function in an environment disfigured by depletion, illustrating conflicts that can arise between community groups and charitable organisations competing for space and resources. Inter-organisational dynamics are considered at two scales; at the grassroots level between growing groups, and at a structural level between project partners. In a landscape scarred by local authority cutbacks and restructures, a dearth of funding opportunities and increasingly precarious employment, external initiatives can be met with suspicion or hostility, particularly when viewed as superfluous interventions. The resulting “siege mentality” reflects the need for organisational self-preservation but perhaps paradoxically results in groups with similar goals and complementary ideologies working against each other rather than in cooperation. Keywords: Urban Agriculture; critical geography; neoliberalism; community growing; urban farmin

Facilitation Differentially Affects Competitive Responses of Aspen and Subalpine Fir Through Stages of Stand Development

Spatial interactions between trees influence forest community succession. The objective of this study was to investigate how shifts in forest composition and proximity between tree species affect stand development over time in mixed forest systems. At six locations across the Fishlake National Forest, Utah, USA, in stands where facilitation has been documented previously, tree-ring samples were collected from aspen and subalpine fir trees. Basal area increment was calculated to characterize the effects of the proximity of overstory trees on multidecadal growth responses of aspen and subalpine fir in aspen-dominant and mixed aspen–conifer stands. Subalpine fir seedlings were established next to aspen (within 10 cm) when aspen was between 15 and 120 years old with a mean age of 60 years. Aspen and subalpine fir growth rates were reduced with increasing conifer abundance. Aspen trees growing next to a proximate subalpine fir tree had slower growth rates over time than aspen trees growing independently. Growth rates of subalpine fir in aspen-dominated stands were similar when growing independently or near aspen trees. However, subalpine fir in conifer-dominated stands maintained higher growth rates when growing next to an aspen tree than when growing independently. The data suggest that as stand competition increases with conifer abundance, the proximity of overstory trees increases competitive exclusion of aspen while having a beneficial growth effect on subalpine fir. These results underscore the importance of maintaining natural fire regimes in forest systems that keep competitive interactions in balance

An analysis of fast photochemistry over high northern latitudes during spring and summer using in-situ observations from ARCTAS and TOPSE

Observations of chemical constituents and meteorological quantities obtained during the two Arctic phases of the airborne campaign ARCTAS (Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites) are analyzed using an observationally constrained steady state box model. Measurements of OH and HO_2 from the Penn State ATHOS instrument are compared to model predictions. Forty percent of OH measurements below 2 km are at the limit of detection during the spring phase (ARCTAS-A). While the median observed-to-calculated ratio is near one, both the scatter of observations and the model uncertainty for OH are at the magnitude of ambient values. During the summer phase (ARCTAS-B), model predictions of OH are biased low relative to observations and demonstrate a high sensitivity to the level of uncertainty in NO observations. Predictions of HO_2 using observed CH_2O and H_2O_2 as model constraints are up to a factor of two larger than observed. A temperature-dependent terminal loss rate of HO_2 to aerosol recently proposed in the literature is shown to be insufficient to reconcile these differences. A comparison of ARCTAS-A to the high latitude springtime portion of the 2000 TOPSE campaign (Tropospheric Ozone Production about the Spring Equinox) shows similar meteorological and chemical environments with the exception of peroxides; observations of H_2O_2 during ARCTAS-A were 2.5 to 3 times larger than those during TOPSE. The cause of this difference in peroxides remains unresolved and has important implications for the Arctic HO_x budget. Unconstrained model predictions for both phases indicate photochemistry alone is unable to simultaneously sustain observed levels of CH_2O and H_2O_2; however when the model is constrained with observed CH_2O, H_2O_2 predictions from a range of rainout parameterizations bracket its observations. A mechanism suitable to explain observed concentrations of CH_2O is uncertain. Free tropospheric observations of acetaldehyde (CH_3CHO) are 2–3 times larger than its predictions, though constraint of the model to those observations is sufficient to account for less than half of the deficit in predicted CH_2O. The box model calculates gross O_3 formation during spring to maximize from 1–4 km at 0.8 ppbv d^(−1), in agreement with estimates from TOPSE, and a gross production of 2–4 ppbv d^(−1) in the boundary layer and upper troposphere during summer. Use of the lower observed levels of HO_2 in place of model predictions decreases the gross production by 25–50%. Net O_3 production is near zero throughout the ARCTAS-A troposphere, and is 1–2 ppbv in the boundary layer and upper altitudes during ARCTAS-B

Using Remote Sensing and Detection of Early Season Invasives (DESI) to Analyze the Temporal Dynamics of Invasive Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum)

The invasion of exotic annual grasses during the last century has transformed plant habitats and communities worldwide. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is a winter annual grass that has invaded over 100 million acres of the western United States (Pellant and Hall, 1994. Pellant, 1996). Cheatgrass quickly utilizes available resources especially after a disturbance to the landscape. A major impact of invasion is the increased frequency in fires (D’Antonio and Vitousek, 1992). As cheatgrass is highly successful at invading open and disturbed landscapes at a rapid pace it increases the frequency and severity of fires in arid landscapes (Brooks, 2005). Cheatgrass’ prolific seed production and flammability allows it to competitively exclude native plant species (Seabloom et al., 2003). The successful life strategy of cheatgrass gives a unique spectral image reflectance that can allow the use of remote sensing platforms to track and locate invasions

Sustainable regeneration : everyday landscapes of food acquisition, Pendleton

The report is structured as follows. Chapter two provides the context to the research, outlining why a study of food acquisition and digital inclusion is necessary in Pendleton at this time, and why both issues are linked to the current regeneration programme. Chapter three sets out the methodology employed along with details of the recruitment of participants. Chapter four provides a detailed analysis of the findings from the digital skills side of the research including: digital usage, confidence and competence, and digital skills and shopping, and chapter five focuses on findings related to the food landscape. Chapter six summarises the key findings by identifying what is going well, making recommendations for changes at a variety of scale, as well as specific recommendations for the on-going regeneration programme, and recommendations for further research

Reproduction and Dispersal of Biological Soil Crust Organisms

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) consist of a diverse and highly integrated community of organisms that effectively colonize and collectively stabilize soil surfaces. BSCs vary in terms of soil chemistry and texture as well as the environmental parameters that combine to support unique combinations of organisms—including cyanobacteria dominated, lichen-dominated, and bryophyte-dominated crusts. The list of organismal groups that make up BSC communities in various and unique combinations include—free living, lichenized, and mycorrhizal fungi, chemoheterotrophic bacteria, cyanobacteria, diazotrophic bacteria and archaea, eukaryotic algae, and bryophytes. The various BSC organismal groups demonstrate several common characteristics including—desiccation and extreme temperature tolerance, production of various soil binding chemistries, a near exclusive dependency on asexual reproduction, a pattern of aerial dispersal over impressive distances, and a universal vulnerability to a wide range of human-related perturbations. With this publication, we provide literature-based insights as to how each organismal group contributes to the formation and maintenance of the structural and functional attributes of BSCs, how they reproduce, and how they are dispersed. We also emphasize the importance of effective application of molecular and microenvironment sampling and assessment tools in order to provide cogent and essential answers that will allow scientists and land managers to better understand and manage the biodiversity and functional relationships of soil crust communities

Flexibility in Animal Signals Facilitates Adaptation to Rapidly Changing Environments

Charles Darwin posited that secondary sexual characteristics result from competition to attract mates. In male songbirds, specialized vocalizations represent secondary sexual characteristics of particular importance because females prefer songs at specific frequencies, amplitudes, and duration. For birds living in human-dominated landscapes, historic selection for song characteristics that convey fitness may compete with novel selective pressures from anthropogenic noise. Here we show that black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) use shorter, higher-frequency songs when traffic noise is high, and longer, lower-frequency songs when noise abates. We suggest that chickadees balance opposing selective pressures by use low-frequency songs to preserve vocal characteristics of dominance that repel competitors and attract females, and high frequency songs to increase song transmission when their environment is noisy. The remarkable vocal flexibility exhibited by chickadees may be one reason that they thrive in urban environments, and such flexibility may also support subsequent genetic adaptation to an increasingly urbanized world