Book review of Upson, M., Hall, C.M. and Cannon, K. 2015. Information now: a graphic guide to student research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

This is the accepted manuscript. It is currently under embargo pending publication

TeachMeet - librarians learning from each other

Teaching and training skills are a core requirement for many librarians (1)- whether the teaching is delivered to library users or to colleagues. Formal training in education, while included in some librarianship courses, is not yet available in all librarianship curriculums. Gaining teaching qualifications can be a costly and time consuming process, which might be low on the list of priorities for the employing organisation. Learning from colleagues and sharing experiences is a valuable way of improving practice (2). TeachMeet is an informal event in which like-minded practitioners share tools, techniques and tips they have tried themselves (3)Librarians at University of Cambridge have adapted TeachMeet for their own professional setting, sharing experiences and encouraging creative approaches to user education and continuing professional development. This paper will give a brief history of TeachMeet, how librarians adapted the concept, and how one TeachMeet event was evaluated by participants and organisers

Fungi at the scene of the crime: innocent bystanders or accomplices in oral infections?

Purpose of Review: Over the last decade, microbiome studies have enhanced our knowledge and understanding of the polymicrobial nature of oral infections. Recently, profiling of the fungal microbiome has expanded our conventional understanding of oral ecology, revealing the critical importance of yeasts within this complex microbiome. This review aims to explore our current appreciation of interkingdom interactions in oral disease. Recent Findings: There is a growing evidence base of interactions and pathogenic synergy and antagonism with bacterial species within oral disease. Recent studies have helped to develop our knowledge of how Candida albicans, alongside bacteria such as Porphyromonas gingivalis, Streptococcus mutans, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, and Lactobacillus species, influence overall pathogenicity. Summary: Clinical and experimental evidence makes a compelling case for a role for C. albicans in a number of oral infections, though whether its role is an active accomplice or passive bystander remains to be determined

TeachMeet: Librarians learning from each other.

In this case study, we present the TeachMeet concept, discuss how we adapted it for use by librarians and consider how this model is spreading beyond Cambridge. In particular, we consider the role social media had in the inspiration for and organisation of these informal peer support events, and in the dissemination of information about the events once they had taken place

Towards Convectons in the Supercritical Regime: Homoclinic Snaking in Natural Doubly Diffusive Convection

Fluids subject to both thermal and compositional variations can undergo doubly diffusive convection when these properties both affect the fluid density and diffuse at different rates. A variety of patterns can arise from these buoyancy-driven flows, including spatially localised states known as convectons, which consist of convective fluid motion localised within a background of quiescent fluid. We consider these states in a vertical slot with the horizontal temperature and solutal gradients providing competing effects to the fluid density while allowing the existence of a conduction state. In this configuration, convectons have been studied with specific parameter values where the onset of convection is subcritical, and the states have been found to lie on a pair of secondary branches that undergo homoclinic snaking in a parameter regime below the onset of linear instability. In this paper, we show that convectons persist into parameter regimes in which the primary bifurcation is supercritical and there is no bistability, despite coexistence between the stable conduction state and large-amplitude convection. We detail this transition by considering spatial dynamics and observe how the structure of the secondary branches becomes increasingly complex owing to the increased role of inertia at low Prandtl numbers

Localised states in natural doubly diffusive convection

Fluids subject to both thermal and compositional variations can undergo doubly diffusive convection when these properties both affect the fluid density and diffuse at different rates. This phenomenon can lead to the formation of a variety of patterns, including salt fingers and thermohaline staircases, which have been identified throughout the world’s oceans. In this thesis, we consider natural doubly diffusive convection driven by opposing thermal and solutal gradients in the horizontal direction and aim to determine how states in this system are affected by the physical parameters that characterise the strength of the thermal gradients, the balance between thermal and solutal gradients, and ratios between thermal, solutal and viscous diffusivities. In the particular case when the imposed thermal and solutal gradients balance, a motionless conduction state exists but destabilises when the gradients are sufficiently large. We determine the nature of the associated primary bifurcation using a weakly nonlinear analysis and extend the resulting primary convection branches using numerical continuation to find that large-amplitude steady convection states can coexist with the stable conduction state for both sub- and supercritical bifurcations. We proceed by considering vertically extended domains where spatially localised states, known as convectons, have been found to lie on a pair of secondary branches that intertwine when the onset of convection is subcritical. This process is known as homoclinic snaking and is usually associated with bistability. Here, we show that convectons persist into parameter regimes where the primary bifurcation is supercritical and there is no bistability. We finally consider how the system changes when the imposed thermal and solutal gradients do not balance and the motionless conduction state does not exist. We focus on how the form of convectons change with increasing imbalance and how these localised states cease to exist in sufficiently thermally dominated flows

Near-onset dynamics in natural doubly diffusive convection

Doubly diffusive convection is considered in a vertical slot where horizontal temperature and solutal variations provide competing effects to the fluid density while allowing the existence of a conduction state. In this configuration, the linear stability of the conductive state is known, but the convection patterns arising from the primary instability have only been studied for specific parameter values. We have extended this by determining the nature of the primary bifurcation for all values of the Lewis and Prandtl numbers using a weakly nonlinear analysis. The resulting convection branches are extended using numerical continuation and we find large-amplitude steady convection states can coexist with the stable conduction state for sub- and supercritical primary bifurcations. The stability of the convection states is investigated and attracting travelling waves and periodic orbits are identified using time-stepping when these steady states are unstable