The characteristics of plutonic rocks in various climatic zones as shown on multiband satellite imagery

Imperial Users onl

Transport planning for health : explaining and evaluating barriers and opportunities to intersectoral collaboration

The establishment in the 1980s of a European Health for All strategy and set of targets has implications for transport planning policy across Europe. Potentially, Health for All provides a means by which transport planning can better promote public health. Key to this is the ability of local Health for All projects to develop effective intersectoral collaboration with transport planning professionals. The progress of Health for All in influencing priorities in transport planning is explored through a comparative study of Health for All collaborating cities in Denmark, the Netherlands and England between 1986 and 1996. Three cities are used as case studies: Copenhagen, Groningen, and Sheffield. The study examines the extent to which transport policies have been influenced by Health for All strategies and targets. Archival and interview data are used to explore the nature and degree of intersectoral collaboration between Health for All projects and transport planning departments. The research contributes to knowledge about how Health for All can influence transport planning in promoting health, an issue largely neglected in the literature. There are similarities and differences between Health for All projects studied in the way that they have sought to develop intersectoral collaboration on transport issues. The research highlights common barriers to effective collaboration, but also how Health for All projects could develop collaborative initiatives. It indicates that health needs to be translated into values such as quality of life, equity, and environmental protection, found to be policy drivers within transport planning. Quality of life and equity are identified in Health for All targets but were not drawn on sufficiently by health promoters. The study findings also underscore the importance of national policy frameworks on both health and transport which can provide common ground between the two sectors. The most successful city Health for All project was characterised by concerns for environmental protection and quality of life, with supportive national government frameworks for health promotion and transport planning

Smart Connected Homes: Integrating Sensor, Occupant and BIM data for Building Performance Analysis

Buildings produce huge volumes of data such as BIM, sensor, occupant and building maintenance data. Data is spread across multiple disconnected systems in numerous formats, making it difficult to identify performance gaps between building design and use. Better methods for gathering and analysing data can be used to support building managers with managing building performance. The knowledge can also be fed back to designers and contractors to help close the performance gaps. We have developed a platform to integrate BIM, sensor and occupant data for providing actionable advice for building managers. A social housing organisation is acting as a use case for the platform. A methodology for developing the information needs to support data capture across disconnected systems is proposed and the challenges of bringing data-sets together to provide meaningful information to building owners and managers are presented

Towards a unified understanding of event-related changes in the EEG:the Firefly model of synchronization through cross-frequency phase modulation

Although event-related potentials (ERPs) are widely used to study sensory, perceptual and cognitive processes, it remains unknown whether they are phase-locked signals superimposed upon the ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG) or result from phase-alignment of the EEG. Previous attempts to discriminate between these hypotheses have been unsuccessful but here a new test is presented based on the prediction that ERPs generated by phase-alignment will be associated with event-related changes in frequency whereas evoked-ERPs will not. Using empirical mode decomposition (EMD), which allows measurement of narrow-band changes in the EEG without predefining frequency bands, evidence was found for transient frequency slowing in recognition memory ERPs but not in simulated data derived from the evoked model. Furthermore, the timing of phase-alignment was frequency dependent with the earliest alignment occurring at high frequencies. Based on these findings, the Firefly model was developed, which proposes that both evoked and induced power changes derive from frequency-dependent phase-alignment of the ongoing EEG. Simulated data derived from the Firefly model provided a close match with empirical data and the model was able to account for i) the shape and timing of ERPs at different scalp sites, ii) the event-related desynchronization in alpha and synchronization in theta, and iii) changes in the power density spectrum from the pre-stimulus baseline to the post-stimulus period. The Firefly Model, therefore, provides not only a unifying account of event-related changes in the EEG but also a possible mechanism for cross-frequency information processing

Teacher Education Courses In Victoria: Perceptions Of Their Effectiveness And Factors Affecting Their Impact

Investment in teacher education is a major strategy to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in our schools. Agencies, such as the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT), with responsibility for the accreditation of teacher education, can use feedback about the effectiveness of different modes of teacher preparation to support providers. It is vital that data for this purpose be valid and reliable. The Future Teachers Project (FTP) was designed to collect such data. It was designed to address two major questions: What are the perceptions of stakeholders (beginning teachers and their employers) about the effectiveness of current teacher education models in Victoria? What changes do stakeholders believe should be made to teacher education programs to better prepare future teachers

A mechanistic study of the EC′ mechanism – the split wave in cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry

In this paper, a detailed investigation of electrochemical reactions coupled with homogenous chemical steps using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV) was carried out to study the electrocatalytic (EC’) mechanism. In CV, parameters including scan rate, electrode material and redox reactant were investigated while in SWV, parameters including substrate concentrations and frequencies were altered to demonstrate EC’ mechanism. Mechanistic studies focused on the EC’ mechanism using L-cysteine with ferrocenecarboxylic acid and 1,1 ′-ferrocenedicarboxylic acid respectively. Voltammetric responses were recorded and under conditions of high chemical rate constant and low substrate concentration, a split wave was observed in both CV and SWV studies

Mito y realidad de una crisis global de la polinización en la agricultura

Mounting evidence shows that pollinators are declining as a result of widespread environmental degradation. This loss raises concerns that a global pollination crisis could threaten the human food supply by decreasing crop yield and even promote famine under a hypothetical scenario of total pollinator extinction. This catastrophic possibility has prompted intense interest from scientists, politicians and the general public. However, three lines of evidence do not support such an apocalyptic scenario. First, even though the abundance and diversity of wild pollinators are declining worldwide, the global population of managed honey-bee hives has increased by ~80% since the early 1960s. Second, agricultural production would decrease by <10% in the total absence of bees because relatively few crops are completely pollinator dependent. Lastly, despite widespread pollination deficits, current evidence is inconsistent with deceleration in yield growth with increasing pollinator dependence at a global scale, probably due to improvements in crop breeding and external agricultural subsidies. Overall, this evidence refutes simplistic claims of human starvation caused by a hypothetical total pollinator extinction. Nevertheless, pollination problems may loom. Although pollinators are responsible for a minor fraction of global agriculture production, this fraction has increased ~600% since 1961, greatly outpacing human population growth and the growth of the global population of managed honey bees. This large production increase is explained to a considerable extent by the rapid expansion of pollinatordependent monocultures at the expense of natural and diverse agricultural habitats. By driving pollinator decline, this land-use transformation could worsen pollination deficits and promote further crop expansion given sustained market demands. Therefore, although the human food supply is not currently subject to a global pollination crisis, a spiralling positive-feedback between the impacts of agriculture expansion and pollinator decline on crop yield could accelerate precipitous biodiversity loss by promoting further habitat destruction and homogenization.Los polinizadores están disminuyendo como consecuencia de la degradación generalizada del medio ambiente. Esta pérdida ha suscitado la preocupación de que una crisis global de polinización pueda estar amenazando nuestro suministro de alimentos vía una reducción en el rendimiento agrícola. Sin embargo, tres líneas de evidencia no apoyan tal expectativa. Primero, aunque la abundancia y la diversidad de los polinizadores silvestres están disminuyendo en todo el mundo, la población mundial de colmenas de abejas melíferas manejadas ha aumentado en un ~80% desde principios de la década de 1960. Segundo, la producción agrícola disminuiría sólo <10% en ausencia total de abejas ya que relativamente pocos cultivos dependen completamente de los polinizadores. Por último, a nivel global no parece existir una desaceleración del crecimiento en el rendimiento con el incremento en la dependencia de los polinizadores. Sin embargo, la expansión de cultivos dependientes de polinizadores puede tener un alto costo ambiental. Aunque los polinizadores son responsables de una fracción menor de la producción agrícola mundial, esta fracción ha aumentado en un ~600% desde 1961, superando el crecimiento de la población mundial de abejas melíferas manejadas. El incremento de esta fracción de la agricultura se explica en gran medida por la rápida expansión de monocultivos dependientes de polinizadores. A través de incrementar la pérdida de polinizadores silvestres, esta transformación en el uso de la tierra puede causar un incremento en los déficits de polinización y promover la expansión de cultivos dependientes de polinizadores en respuesta a demandas sostenidas del mercado. Por lo tanto, una espiral de retroalimentación positiva entre la expansión de la agricultura y un declive de los polinizadores que afecte al rendimiento de los cultivos podría acelerar la enorme pérdida de biodiversidad en curso al promover la destrucción de los hábitats naturales remanentes y la homogeneización de los paisajes agrícolas.Fil: Aizen, Marcelo Adrian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Garibaldi, Lucas Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural. - Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural; ArgentinaFil: Harder, Lawrence. University of Calgary; Canad