Plant connectivity underlies plant-pollinator-exploiter distributions in Ficus petiolaris and associated pollinating and non-pollinating fig wasps

Peer reviewedPostprin

Effects of wheat and oat-based whole grain foods on serum lipoprotein size and distribution in overweight middle aged people : a randomised controlled trial

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

When does female multiple mating evolve to adjust inbreeding? : Effects of inbreeding depression, direct costs, mating constraints, and polyandry as a threshold trait

Ackowledgements: This work was funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant to JMR. All simulations were performed using the Maxwell computing cluster at the University of AberdeenPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Do music and art influence one another? Measuring cross-modal similarities in music and art

The visual arts and music interact with one another on both an individual scale (e.g., music-inspired synesthetes and artist-musician duos) and on a grand scale (e.g., the art movement Baroque, wherein abstract qualities such as “ornamentation” permeate both media). We develop a means to measure one of the many cross-modal similarities between music and visual art to both reveal any direct influences between the media, and to apply them to determine whether these connections became stronger or weaker throughout time. We examined the cross-modally linked continuums of lightness of color and height of pitch within comparable paintings and music of a time-determined art movement. The model of comparison extracted, measured, and contrasted the attributes of lightness of color in art and height of pitch in music in works from Russia and France created between 1870 and 1920. Although Russian visual art was measurably darker in value than French visual art of the same time, no significant differences were found between Russian and French music. While our results do not suggest direct influences manifesting differently in each medium, they demonstrate the use of the lightness-pitch model, applicable to other eras to measure potential cross-modal convergence and divergence through time

The British Museum: An Imperial Museum in a Post-Imperial World

This article examines the British Museum’s imperialist attitudes towards classical heritage. Despite considerable pressure from foreign governments, the museum has consistently refused to return art and antiquities that it acquired under the aegis of empire. It is the contention of this article that the British Museum remains an imperialist institution. The current debates over the British Museum’s collections raise profound questions about the relationship between museums and modern nation states and their nationalist claims to ancient heritage. The museum’s inflexible response to repatriation claims also encapsulates the challenges inherent in presenting empire and its legacy to contemporary, post-imperial audiences

BAFTAs 2017 BBC Sweeps the Board as Netflix Challenge Fails to Materialise

Round up report of the BAFTAs 2017. Whilst Netflix was nominated across the board - they failed to win any. http://theconversation.com/baftas-2017-bbc-sweeps-the-board-as-netflix-challenge-fails-to-materialise-7764

Beyond the rhetoric: a theoretical analysis of the effects of neopatrimonialism and intergovernmentalism on the integration process in Africa

The Organization of African Unity marked its 50th anniversary in 2013 and, despite the shift to the African Union and continued rhetoric from African leaders about the need for further integration, the progress towards the goal of economic and political integration has been ineffective. This thesis shows that integration has been ineffective in Africa namely because of the lack of political will to push integration further. The reason for this is the prevalence of neopatrimonialism on the continent, which creates a situation where leaders need access to a nation?s resources to remain in power. Economic and political integration will, inevitably, result in a loss of financial or political capital, which will then result in a lack of resources available for the client, who has used these resources to maintain their patronage base. Thus, integration in Africa has progressed slowly, as leaders do what they can to undermine the process while maintaining the appearance of progress. The major option chosen to weaken integration has been to control the institutions of integration run intergovernmentally, rather than transfer some power towards a supranational organisation. Without a transfer of power to a supranational institution, the Regional Economic Communities and African states cannot proceed towards economic, let alone political, integration. The reason for this is that decisions taken in a purely intergovernmental body, such as the African Union, will be of the lowest common denominator, resulting in a slow and ineffective integration. For integration to progress effectively, some powers will first have to be transferred to a supranational institution, which will create more actors that are actively involved in the integration process and make it more difficult for leaders to slow down or stop the move towards African unity

Physiotherapy student practice education: Students’ perspectives through Cultural-Historical Activity Theory

Physiotherapy student practice education, the focus of this thesis, is a highly valued, yet scarcely researched component of pre-registration physiotherapy education. Moreover, the student voice is largely absent from existing research. In this study, 14 physiotherapy students’ perspectives of practice education were gained through email communications (n=13) and face-to-face interviews (n=12). To provide an in-depth and provocative view, physiotherapy student practice education was analysed as a type of activity system, employing concepts borrowed from cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). Interacting activity systems, objects, players, rules, norms, divisions of labour, mediating artefacts, intra- and inter-systemic contradictions were explored and identified. The findings show that assessment skewed students’ object motives. Practice educators were positioned as powerful gatekeeper/assessor gift-holders. Physiotherapy students enacted ‘learning practice’ norms, such as extensive reading, and adopted the position of practice educator-pleaser. Students sometimes refrained from speaking when they wanted to, for example, to challenge unprofessional staff behaviour. Students were reluctant to show themselves as learners, feeling instead that they needed to present themselves as knowledgeable, able practitioners. However, students did not easily recognise themselves as able contributors to practice. For students, knowledge for practice was focussed on patient assessment and treatment, but the level, depth and volume of knowledge required was perceived differently across distinctive practice areas. Intra- and inter-systemic contradictions, such as the skewing of student object motives towards assessment, and away from whole-patient-centred care, are highlighted. The study findings therefore have implications for patient care as well as for the object of physiotherapy student practice education, student learning and assessment and workplace learning. A cross-profession review of the object of physiotherapy student practice education, to include the voice of service users, students, practice educators, HEIs and service providers, is recommended. A review of physiotherapy student practice-placement assessment, which seemed to be at the core of PSPE dynamics and conditions, is recommended, to take account of the extent to which assessment can influence students’ PSPE object motives, PE/student dynamics and student/patient interactions. Developmental Work Research is proposed as a way forward for future research in this area

The Constitutionality of Eliminating or Restricting U.S. Senate Primaries Under the Seventeenth Amendment

A century ago, Tennessee lent her signature to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment, which altered how a United States senator was chosen from legislative appointment to popular choice.\u27 Today, some political factions are calling for a complete repeal of the amendment, while others are taking smaller steps toward entrenching more power within state legislatures at the expense of the power granted to the voting public under the Seventeenth Amendment. Tennessee is one state that has taken steps toward diminishing the role of the Seventeenth Amendment in the selection of United States senators. As introduced earlier this year, Senate Bill 0471/House Bill 0475 would remove the primary election as the method for determining the candidates for the general election and would replace it with legislative nomination. Under the bill, the members of the state legislature belonging to each party would choose the candidate for their respective parties. Although there is little discernible case law directly addressing the constitutional protection of primary elections, it is likely that, by leaving the general election and the ultimate choice of United States senator in the hands of the public, the proposed Tennessee legislation will be valid under the Constitution. There is a chance, however, that the law will be struck down if submitted to judicial scrutiny, as it is in direct opposition to the underlying objectives of the Seventeenth Amendment and would remove a considerable amount of choice from the people by placing it in the hands of the state legislatures. While this would be considered desirable under the original text and intent of the Constitution, it would not uphold the spirit of the Seventeenth Amendment