The process of assessing and reporting sustainability at universities: preparing the report of the University of Leeds

An increasing number of higher educational institutions have engaged in assessing and reporting their sustainability efforts. This paper presents the process undertaken to prepare the first draft of the University of Leeds sustainability report. The objective of the exercise was to provide a base and complement other sustainability initiatives taken at the University of Leeds. The process of developing the report was done in three stages: (1) collecting data; (2) populating the indicators; and (3) assessing the performance values from the information collected using the Graphical Assessment of Sustainability in Universities (GASU) tool. Although there were limited time and resources for the process, the results in indicator coverage and performance were higher than other the analysis of other HEIs that have published Global Reporting Initiative based reports. When preparing a sustainability report it is important to have a holistic perspective, addressing the different inter-relations between indicators, categories, and dimensions, as well as stakeholders throughout the university system.Peer Reviewe

Nonparametric multivariate survival analysis of activated lymphocyte cell fates.

Upon challenge, lymphocytes multiply and diversify to combat the infection, however, the mechanisms that drive this process are not well understood. A theoretical model has been proposed to explain how a diverse selection of cell fates is achieved, the Cyton model [Hawkins et al, 2007, PNAS]. In that model the censorship caused by competing drives for lymphocytes to undergo certain fates results in complex correlations and impacts the observed distribution of times to cellular events. In [Duffy et al, 2012, Science] the competition hypothesis is tested for consistency with data collected using a novel experimental procedure. Through the implementation and development of a collection of multivariate nonparametric statistical techniques, we create a set of tools that can aid the study of competition hypotheses in biological systems. As a worked example these tools are used to study data collected for the experiments in [Duffy et al, 2012, Science] to challenge some of the underlying assumptions of their parametric analysis. As an additional illustration further unpublished data collected during the experiments is used to study the time at which B cells divide, die and differentiate when they have already undergone class switching, allowing us to address the question of a cell type dependent change

The process of assessing and reporting sustainability at universities: preparing the report of the University of Leeds

An increasing number of higher educational institutions have engaged in assessing and reporting their sustainability efforts. This paper presents the process undertaken to prepare the first draft of the University of Leeds sustainability report. The objective of the exercise was to provide a base and complement other sustainability initiatives taken at the University of Leeds. The process of developing the report was done in three stages: (1) collecting data; (2) populating the indicators; and (3) assessing the performance values from the information collected using the Graphical Assessment of Sustainability in Universities (GASU) tool. Although there were limited time and resources for the process, the results in indicator coverage and performance were higher than other the analysis of other HEIs that have published Global Reporting Initiative based reports. When preparing a sustainability report it is important to have a holistic perspective, addressing the different inter-relations between indicators, categories, and dimensions, as well as stakeholders throughout the university system

Community event sustainability: why don’t people volunteer?

Every Saturday, thousands of runners worldwide participate in parkrun – a free five-kilometre run/walk event. Delivery relies on volunteers, and parkrunners are encouraged to volunteer regularly. However, volunteer recruitment is often difficult, and this study aimed to investigate the underpinning reasons for this. Data were collected from 6,749 parkrunners using an online survey, including 860 who had never volunteered. In addition to demographic information and views on incentives, non-volunteers were asked to rate agreement level for 18 statements about not volunteering. Main reasons were preferring to run or walk and not having got round to it. Principal component analysis indicated four underlying factors: inertia, self-interest, lack of knowledge and anxiety. Non-volunteers were younger, slower runners and walkers, less frequent parkrun attendees and had become involved more recently than volunteers. Ease of signing up to volunteer and being unsure of the commitment required were barriers. It is recommended that these two issues are addressed to help volunteer recruitment

The abundance of HNCO and its use as a diagnostic of environment

We aim to investigate the chemistry and gas phase abundance of HNCO and the variation of the HNCO/CS abundance ratio as a diagnostic of the physics and chemistry in regions of massive star formation. A numerical-chemical model has been developed which self-consistently follows the chemical evolution of a hot core. The model comprises of two distinct stages. An initial collapse phase is immediately followed by an increase in temperature which represents the switch on of a central massive star and the subsequent evolution of the chemistry in a hot, dense gas cloud (the hot core). During the collapse phase, gas species are allowed to accrete on to grain surfaces where they can participate in further reactions. During the hot core phase surface species thermally desorb back in to the ambient gas and further chemical evolution takes place. For comparison, the chemical network was also used to model a simple dark cloud and photodissociation regions. Our investigation reveals that HNCO is inefficiently formed when only gas-phase formation pathways are considered in the chemical network with reaction rates consistent with existing laboratory data. Using currently measured gas phase reaction rates, obtaining the observed HNCO abundances requires its formation on grain surfaces. However our model shows that the gas phase HNCO in hot cores is not a simple direct product of the evaporation of grain mantles. We also show that the HNCO/CS abundance ratio varies as a function of time in hot cores and can match the range of values observed. This ratio is not unambiguously related to the ambient UV field as been suggested - our results are inconsistent with the hypothesis of Martin et al (2008). In addition, our results show that this ratio is extremely sensitive to the initial sulphur abundance.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Mapping photodissociation and shocks in the vicinity of Sgr A*

We have obtained maps of the molecular emission within the central five arcminutes (12 pc) of the Galactic center (GC) in selected molecular tracers: SiO(2-1), HNCO(5_{0,5}-4_{0,4}), and the J=1-->0 transition of H^{13}CO+, HN^{13}C, and C^{18}O at an angular resolution of 30" (1.2 pc). The mapped region includes the circumnuclear disk (CND) and the two surrounding giant molecular clouds (GMCs) of the Sgr A complex, known as the 20 and 50 km s^{-1} molecular clouds.Additionally, we simultaneously observed the J=2-1 and 3-2 transitions of SiO toward selected positions to estimate the physical conditions of the molecular gas. The SiO(2-1) and H^{13}CO+(1-0) emission covers the same velocity range and presents a similar distribution. In contrast, HNCO(5-4) emission appears in a narrow velocity range mostly concentrated in the 20 and 50 km s^{-1} GMCs. The HNCO column densities and fractional abundances present the highest contrast, with difference factors of $\geq$60 and 28, respectively. Their highest values are found toward the cores of the GMCs, whereas the lowest ones are measured at the CND. SiO abundances do not follow this trend, with high values found toward the CND, as well as the GMCs. By comparing our abundances with those of prototypical Galactic sources we conclude that HNCO, similar to SiO, is ejected from grain mantles into gas-phase by nondissociative C-shocks. This results in the high abundances measured toward the CND and the GMCs. However, the strong UV radiation from the Central cluster utterly photodissociates HNCO as we get closer to the center, whereas SiO seems to be more resistant against UV-photons or it is produced more efficiently by the strong shocks in the CND. Finally, we discuss the possible connections between the molecular gas at the CND and the GMCs using the HNCO/SiO, SiO/CS, and HNCO/CS intensity ratios as probes of distance to the Central cluster.Comment: 26 pages plus 2 appendixes with additional figures. 17 figures in total. Accepted for publication in A&

Nonparametric multivariate survival analysis of activated lymphocyte cell fates.

Upon challenge, lymphocytes multiply and diversify to combat the infection, however, the mechanisms that drive this process are not well understood. A theoretical model has been proposed to explain how a diverse selection of cell fates is achieved, the Cyton model [Hawkins et al, 2007, PNAS]. In that model the censorship caused by competing drives for lymphocytes to undergo certain fates results in complex correlations and impacts the observed distribution of times to cellular events. In [Duffy et al, 2012, Science] the competition hypothesis is tested for consistency with data collected using a novel experimental procedure. Through the implementation and development of a collection of multivariate nonparametric statistical techniques, we create a set of tools that can aid the study of competition hypotheses in biological systems. As a worked example these tools are used to study data collected for the experiments in [Duffy et al, 2012, Science] to challenge some of the underlying assumptions of their parametric analysis. As an additional illustration further unpublished data collected during the experiments is used to study the time at which B cells divide, die and differentiate when they have already undergone class switching, allowing us to address the question of a cell type dependent change

Chemical modelling of extragalactic star forming regions

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