Leeds Edible Schools Sustainability Network

There is a growing interest in both urban agriculture and the issue of sustainability, as framed in terms of climate change, landscape, economic uncertainty and resource shortages, while issues around child health and wellbeing are increasingly causing concern. Education, especially in terms of sustainability teaching and the production of food by schools on school premises is key. The Leeds Edible Schools Sustainability Network is, at this date, an un-constituted, informal group of organisations and academics, all based or active within the Leeds district, who share core values around the wellbeing and sustainability agenda and who are all, in various ways, involved in supporting educational establishments and related organisations in the growing (often on school premises) and consumption of local food, the promotion of resilient and healthy practices, including outdoor work and teaching about healthy school food, and the development of effective education around the topic of sustainability

Surface interactions relevant to space station contamination problems

The physical and chemical processes at solid surfaces which can contribute to Space Station contamination problems are reviewed. Suggested areas for experimental studies to provide data to improve contamination modeling efforts are presented

The Raman Spectrum of Gypsum

In an investigation of the Raman spectra of some ionized substances in aqueous solution, it was found [1] that the frequency shift given by a solution of potassium carbonate was in fairly close agreement with the strongest shift given by calcite. Data for such a comparison in other cases do not appear to exist, for change of frequency on scattering has been measured for only a few crystalline substances. In addition to calcite [2,3,5], these are quartz [2,3,4,5], ice [5], and topaz [6]. No modified frequencies were found in the light scattered by halite [2], NaCl, fluorite [5], CaF2, or by the salts [7] LiF and NaF. In the present paper are described the results of measurements on gypsum, CaSO4•2H20, and a comparison of these with data on ammonium sulfate solution

Genome editing in non-model organisms opens new horizons for comparative physiology

For almost 100 years, biologists have made fundamental discoveries using a handful of model organisms that are not representative of the rich diversity found in nature. The advent of CRISPR genome editing now opens up a wide range of new organisms to mechanistic investigation. This increases not only the taxonomic breadth of current research but also the scope of biological problems that are now amenable to study, such as population control of invasive species, management of disease vectors such as mosquitoes, the creation of chimeric animal hosts to grow human organs and even the possibility of resurrecting extinct species such as passenger pigeons and mammoths. Beyond these practical applications, work on non-model organisms enriches our basic understanding of the natural world. This special issue addresses a broad spectrum of biological problems in non-model organisms and highlights the utility of genome editing across levels of complexity from development and physiology to behaviour and evolution

The Far-Infrared Luminosity Function from GOODS-N: Constraining the Evolution of Infrared Galaxies for z \leq 1

We present the IR luminosity function derived from ultra-deep 70 micron imaging of the GOODS-North field. The 70 micron observations are longward of the PAH and silicate features which complicate work in the MIR. We derive far-infrared luminosities for the 143 sources with S_{70} > 2 mJy (S/N > 3 \sigma). The majority (81%) of the sources have spectroscopic redshifts, and photometric redshifts are calculated for the remainder. The IR luminosity function at four redshifts (z ~ 0.28, 0.48, 0.78, and 0.97) is derived and compared to the local one. There is considerable degeneracy between luminosity and density evolution. If the evolving luminosity function is described as \rho(L, z) = (1 + z)^q \rho(L/(1 + z)^p, 0), we find q = -2.19p + 6.09. In the case of pure luminosity evolution, we find a best fit of p = 2.78^{+0.34}_{-0.32}. This is consistent with the results from 24 micron and 1.4 GHz studies. Our results confirm the emerging picture of strong evolution in LIRGs and ULIRGs at 0.4 < z < 1.1, but we find no evidence of significant evolution in the sub-LIRG (L < 10^{11} L_{\odot}) population for z < 0.4.Comment: accepted by ApJL, 5 page

Public Law Values in a Privatized World

Although domestic administrative law scholars have long debated privatization within the US, this debate has not confronted the growing phenomenon of privatization in the international realm or its impact on the values embodied in public international law. Yet, with both nation-states and international organizations increasingly privatizing foreign affairs functions, privatization is now as significant a phenomenon internationally as it is domestically. For example, states are turning to private actors to perform core military, foreign aid, and diplomatic functions. Military privatization entered the popular consciousness in 2004, when private contractors working for the US government abused detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. The US is increasingly using private actors for logistical support to combat troops and to provide strategic planning and tactical advice. Other states, such as Sierra Leone, have used private contractors to engage in direct combat, and international organizations have weighed the possibilities of using private contractors to perform peacekeeping. In the foreign aid context, states and international organizations are entering into agreements with private non-profit and for-profit entities to deliver all forms of aid, including humanitarian relief, development assistance, and post-conflict reconstruction. Even diplomatic tasks such as peacekeeping negotiations are being undertaken by private actors. In this Essay I suggest that the domestic U.S. administrative law literature may provide a useful set of responses to privatization that has been largely overlooked by international law scholars, policy-makers, and activists. In particular, I argue that possibilities for extending public law values inhere in the privatized relationship itself, particularly in the government contracts that are the very engine of privatization. Thus, the contracts governments enter into with non-state actors can include many provisions that would help to create both standards of behavior, performance benchmarks, and a means of providing some measure of public accountability. In this Essay, I outline nine such contractual provisions. Specifically, I suggest that contracts be drafted to: (1) explicitly extend relevant norms of public international law to private contractors, (2) specify training requirements, (3) provide for enhanced monitoring both within the government and by independent third-party monitors, (4) require accreditation, (5) establish clear performance benchmarks, (6) mandate self-evaluation by the contractors, (7) provide for governmental takeovers of failing contracts, (8) include opportunities for public participation in the contract negotiation process, and (9) enhance whistleblower protections and rights of third-party beneficiaries to enforce contractual terms. And while these provisions are not a panacea, they may be at least as effective as the relatively weak enforcement regime of public international law. At the same time, by considering the field of international privatization, I seek to open what I believe could be a fruitful dialogue between domestic administrative law scholars and international law scholars about possible responses

Using Legal Process to Fight Terrorism: Detentions, Military Commissions, International Tribunals, and the Rule of Law

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, those arguing that international law cannot serve as an effective tool in the fight against terrorism have grown. The ranks of international relations realists, who view international law primarily as a cover for strategic interests and thereby as lacking any independent bite, has swelled. In November 2001, President Bush issued an executive order asserting the authority to use military commissions to try individual terrorism suspects captured by the United States. Such commissions would be conducted unilaterally and would not be required to include procedural safeguards to protect the rights of the accused. This crisis has forced us to revisit the question of what the rule of law gets us as a nation and as a people. This article argues that the Administration\u27s treatment of detainees and the military commissions run counter to the rule of law - both domestically, by violating American constitutional protections, and internationally, by flouting established principles of international law. Far from being a straight-jacket that threatens our security, respect for legal process values and international law, will actually best serve our long-term strategic interests in containing terrorism. This article also considers how an international tribunal process could be initiated expeditiously and two alternative quasi-international models that have received insufficient consideration thus far. The law skeptics\u27 perspective is also addressed at a more theoretical level, offering some tentative observations about the importance of fair adjudicatory processes despite the fact that societies are always to some degree riven by conflict