Subcritical reactivity measurements on fuel storage arrays in the DIMPLE reactor

Imperial Users onl

Are blood haemoglobin concentrations a reliable indicator of parasitism and individual condition in New Holland honeyeaters (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae)?

Across avian species, total blood haemoglobin concentration (BHC) is the most important determinant of oxygen-carrying capacity, and most accurately reflects the potential for the bird to satisfy its oxygen requirements. This creates a close association between high BHC and high aerobic capacity, and low BHC and states of regenerative or non-regenerative anaemia. As such, total BHC has been suggested to be a reliable indicator of avian health and condition. We mist netted 160 adult and 26 juvenile New Holland honeyeaters (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae) from ten sites across South Australia to assess the relationship between BHC and individual health and condition traits in this species. From each bird we collected samples for blood haemoglobin estimation, inspected for the presence of external parasites (ticks), and measured basic morphometric parameters (mass, tarsus length, and length of bilateral tail feathers). A relationship could not be demonstrated between BHC and tick intensity, body condition or tail feather asymmetry in adult or juvenile birds. While the measurement of BHC may provide a reliable insight into individual health and condition in some avian species, our results highlight the need to validate this relationship within species and populations prior to its use in avian health and condition assessments.Patrick L. Taggar

Fairness Versus Welfare: The Limits of Kaplow and Shavell’s Pareto Argument

In a series of articles and a book, Louis Kaplow and Steven Shavell (KS) articulated and defended the normative approach of standard law-and-economics. KS also argued that legal analysts should think in welfare-economic terms exclusively when advising on normative social issues of tremendous import. This thesis generated controversy within the legal academic community because it implied that numerous analysts were not doing an important part of their jobs the way that they should be doing it. One of KS’s main arguments featured a very plausible version of the Pareto principle. KS claimed that their Pareto argument demonstrated that any method of policy evaluation that gives any weight to principles independently of their effect on how well-off individuals become sometimes commits the evaluator to making everyone worse off. This Article argues that KS misstated what their Pareto argument demonstrated. It also argues that KS’s Pareto argument provides no independent reason to endorse any part of welfare economics and thus no independent reason to adhere exclusively to welfare-economic thinking. Additionally, the Article clarifies much of what is at stake in deciding whether to adopt an exclusively welfare-economic approach to normative legal scholarship. Finally, the Article suggests that KS’s central thesis is incorrect—there is an important place at the table for forms of normative analysis that diverge from a purely welfare-economic approach

Greenhouse gas emissions from soils under organic management

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. Land emissions of N2O, CO2 and NH3 have been subject to little study under organic systems, yet form important aspects of sustainability of such systems. We describe innovative methods developed at SAC to assess trace gas emission using both automatic closed chamber systems (intensive, short term monitoring) and manually-operated closed chamber systems (occasional, long term monitoring). Long-term data were collected from organic ley-arable rotation trials in North-east of Scotland. Short term data were collected to show the effect of timing and depth of ploughing-out of the ley phase on gas emissions. Ploughing gave a shortterm stimulation of CO2 and, more markedly, of N2O emission. Emissions of N2O from organic grass-clover leys were considerably lower than from conventional grass. However, some N2O emissions from organic arable are higher than from conventional systems, particularly in the first year after ploughing out ley. Ammonia emissions after spreading manure on grass were significant in the summer, though only short-lived

Final Report from the Primary phase: pre-school, school and family influences on children’s development during Key Stage 2 (7-11)

The Effective Pre-school and Primary Education project (EPPE 3-11) is Europe’s largest longitudinal study, which uses multi-level modelling to investigate the effects of pre-school and primary education on pupils’ developmental outcomes. This report explores individual, family and home learning environment (HLE) influences on pupils’ developmental outcomes at age 11. The educational influences of primary school are also investigated, showing how the academic effectiveness of each primary school is related to pupils’ outcomes. Also covered are the associations between pupils’ outcomes and their self-perceptions and views of school at age 10, as well as the impact of other factors such as pupil mobility, season of birth and out of school learning activities

Influences on children’s development and progress in Key Stage 2: social/behavioural outcomes in Year 6

These reports forms part of a set of two reports that examine key influences on children’s Maths, English and social behavioural outcomes (self-regulation, pro-social behaviour, hyperactivity and anti-social behaviour) in Year 6 and on their progress across Key Stage 2. The sister report describes the results of analyses on children’s social/behavioural outcomes (ref: DCSF-RR049). The report is from the effective pre-school and primary education 3 to 11 project (EPPE 3 to 11) which is longitudinal study using multi-level modelling investigating the effects of home background, pre-school and primary education on pupils’ attainment and social / behavioural development. Around 3,000 children were recruited from 141 pre-school settings in 6 English LEAs at the age of 3+ between 1996 and 1999. The study followed these children through pre-school and into more than 900 primary schools in 100 local authorities

Cardiac Response to Live Music Performance: Computing Techniques for Feature Extraction and Analysis

Strong emotions and mental stress have been linked to potentially deadly arrhythmias. Music evokes strong emotion through the regulation of tension and release and the modulation of changes and transitions. We exploit this in a novel study involving patients with implanted cardiac defibrillators to study the impact of live music performance on cardiac electrophysiology. The patients’ heart rates are artificially fixed with pacing at the higher of 80 beats per minute or 10 above the heart’s intrinsic rate. We make continuous recordings directly from the heart muscle whilst the patients are listening to a short classical music concert, which is concurrently recorded in a separate stream. The participants provide annotations of perceived boundaries/transitions and felt tension. The recorded cardiac and music information is further processed to extract relevant features. Here, we describe the experiment design, and the mathematical and computing techniques used to represent and abstract the features from the recorded data. Cardiac reaction is measured by the action potential duration (APD), approximated using the action recovery interval (ARI). The expressive parameters extracted from the music include the time varying loudness, tempo, and harmonic tension. The synchronized information layers allow for detailed analysis of immediate cardiac response to dynamically varying expressive nuances in performed music

Influences on pupils' self-perceptions in primary school: enjoyment of school,anxiety and isolation, and self-image in year 5

This report presents the results of analyses of pupils’ self-perceptions in primary school. It is part of the longitudinal Effective Pre-school and Primary Education 3-11 (EPPE 3-11) research project funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). The focus of this report is pupils’ self-perceptions in Year 5 (age 10) in four key areas: ‘Enjoyment of school’; ‘Academic self-image’; ‘Behavioural self-image’ and ‘Anxiety and Isolation’. Reports on pupils’ cognitive and social/behavioural development at this age have been published separately (Sammons et al., 2007a; 2007b). The original EPPE sample was recruited to the study at age 3 years plus and monitored to the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2) in primary school. An additional ‘home’ sample of children (who had not attended a pre-school setting) was recruited when the pre-school sample started primary school. The EPPE 3-11 extension is following up the sample to the end of primary school (age 11 years plus). In addition to exploring pre-school influences, EPPE 3-11 research identifies the influence of primary school on a range of pupils’ educational outcomes, as well as investigating any continuing pre-school effects. EPPE 3-11 involves the collection and analysis of a range of data about pupils’ development, child, family and home learning environment (HLE) characteristics and the characteristics of the schools attended. Additional value added measures of primary school academic effectiveness have been derived from independent statistical analyses of National data sets conducted for all primary schools in England (Melhuish et al., 2006) as part of the study. These have been incorporated into the EPPE 3-11 child database to provide indicators of the academic effectiveness of primary schools attended which complement the measures on pre-school settings. Thus, it is possible to explore both preschool and primary school influences on pupils’ outcomes in Year 5. Questionnaires were administered to children asking their views about school and classroom life. These provided measures of pupils’ self-perceptions in Year 2 and again in Year 5 in terms of ‘Enjoyment of school’, ‘Anxiety and Isolation’ and ‘Academic selfimage’ and ‘Behavioural self-image’. A range of statistical methods have been used to investigate results for 2520 pupils for whom at least one self-perception outcome measure was collected in Year 5

Pre-school experience and Key Stage 2 performance in English and Mathematics

This report considers children\u27s educational attainment in English and mathematics at the end of primary school (age 11). Children\u27s educational attainment in English and mathematics was derived from their national Key Stage 2 assessments. The analyses have considered the child\u27s level of Key Stage 2 attainment in terms of the effects of child, family, home environment and preschool experience variables as well as the child\u27s ability at the start of primary school

Influences on children’s attainment and progress in Key Stage 2: cognitive outcomes in Year 6

These reports forms part of a set of two reports that examine key influences on children’s Maths, English and social behavioural outcomes (self-regulation, pro-social behaviour, hyperactivity and anti-social behaviour) in Year 6 and on their progress across Key Stage 2. The sister report describes the results of analyses on children’s social/behavioural outcomes (ref: DCSF-RR049). The report is from the effective pre-school and primary education 3 to 11 project (EPPE 3 to 11) which is longitudinal study using multi-level modelling investigating the effects of home background, pre-school and primary education on pupils’ attainment and social / behavioural development. Around 3,000 children were recruited from 141 pre-school settings in 6 English LEAs at the age of 3+ between 1996 and 1999. The study followed these children through pre-school and into more than 900 primary schools in 100 local authorities