Improving the availability of biopesticides : an interdisciplinary research project

There is a need for new, biologically-based crop protection products to serve as alternatives to or to complement synthetic chemical pesticides. An interdisciplinary research team from the natural and social sciences considered whether regulatory barriers were preventing more biopesticides reaching the market. The research coincided with a realisation by policy makers that more needed to be done to facilitate biopesticide registration, exemplified by the UK's Biopesticides Scheme. However, important differences remain between the UK and other countries such as the USA. Changes in regulatory arrangements need careful handling. The scientific work undertaken in the project provided a better understanding of the population biology of microbial control agents. Interdisciplinary work permitted a contribution to the policy debate

Exploring whether the UK Localism Act (2011) and effective community engagement can empower communities and deliver place sensitive development

This paper illustrates the case of the historic market town of Malmesbury, England as an important example for neighbourhood planning, exploring whether localism can redress the balance of power between communities and developers, as well as facilitate community-supported development which respects and enhances a place’s character, function and identity. Given current planning and development proposals and years of substandard, inappropriate development, the town was at a crucial crossroads. Through strategic engagement led by the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, local stakeholders developed a clear and shared vision and identity, forming the basis of an effective campaign in support of sustainable growth based on the best of the town’s qualities and historic growth patterns. A design-led Neighbourhood Plan is currently being taken forward and aims to resist substandard proposals whilst constructively defining the town’s future growth and identity. The buy-in is very strong, and crucial, as will be documented

Protoplanetary Disk Masses from Stars to Brown Dwarfs

We present SCUBA-2 850um observations for 7 very low mass stars (VLMS) and brown dwarfs (BDs): 3 in Taurus, 4 in the TWA, and all classical T Tauri (cTT) analogs. We detect 2 of the 3 Taurus disks, but none of the TWA ones. Our 3sigma limits correspond to a dust mass of 1.2 MEarth in Taurus and a mere 0.2 MEarth in the TWA (3--10x deeper than previous work). We combine our data with other sub-mm/mm surveys of Taurus, rho Oph and the TWA to investigate trends in disk mass and grain growth during the cTT phase. We find : (1) The minimum disk outer radius required to explain the upper envelope of sub-mm/mm fluxes is 100 AU for intermediate-mass stars, solar-types and VLMS, and 20 AU for BDs. (2) While the upper envelope of disk masses increases with Mstar from BDs to VLMS to solar-types, no increase is seen from solar-type to intermediate-mass stars. We propose this is due to enhanced photoevaporation around intermediate masses. (3) Many disks around Taurus and rho Oph intermediate-mass and solar-type stars evince an opacity index beta of 0--1, indicating large grains. Of the only four VLMS/BDs in these regions with multi-wavelength data, three are consistent with large grains, though optically thick disks are not ruled out. (4) For the TWA VLMS (TWA 30A, B), combining our fluxes with Mdot and ages suggests substantial grain growth by 10 Myr. The degree of grain growth in the TWA BDs (2M1207A, SSPM1102) remains largely unknown. (5) A Bayesian analysis shows that mean(log[Mdisk/Mstar]) = -2.4, roughly constant all the way from intermediate-mass stars to VLMS/BDs, and (6) the disk mass in close solar-type Taurus binaries is significantly lower than in singles (by a factor of 10), while that in wide solar-type Taurus binaries is closer to that in singles (lower by a factor of 3). (7) We discuss the implications for planet formation, and for the dependence of Mdot on Mstar.Comment: ApJ, accepted (in press

Willingness to participate in travel surveys: A cross-country and cross- methods comparison

Travel surveys are the primary source of data that feed into the analysis and modeling of travel behaviour. Numerous studies have found that the survey method, be it pen and paper, online, interview, smartphone app, or GPS, impacts participation, diligence and accuracy of reporting. In turn, this can lead to bias both in terms of the socio-demographic mix of respondents, and under/mis-reporting of trip information. To date, there is limited understanding of if/how preferences for particular travel survey methods vary across countries. In 2014, a survey of 17,510 adults from 24 countries was undertaken by an internationally-renowned market research firm to assess preferences for different survey methods. The current paper focuses on responses from five of these countries with long-standing household travel surveys - Australia, USA, France, Germany, and Japan. Results suggest that for a given survey method, willingness to participate in travel surveys varies across countries and within each group of respondents (classified by their socio-demographic characteristics). Australians tend to have a higher willingness to participate across different survey methods compared to their counterparts, particularly from Japan. In terms of socio-demographic characteristics, younger respondents tend to engage in travel surveys regardless of the method, while females are more likely to prefer diary-based methods than mobile-based methods. Respondents also appear to trade-off effort in completing travel surveys using traditional methods against privacy issues surrounding mobile-based methods. Results suggest that that there is no ‘one size fits all’ methodology for travel surveys, with designers needing to carefully consider both socio-demographic and cultural differences

Urban Design and Quality of Life

This chapter deals with those aspects of the design of cities that have been shown to affect quality of life. Whilst direct causal relationships between physical space and well-being are often difficult to establish, physical space certainly does play a significant part in shaping the way we engage with it, informing the individual and collective sense of attachment to our own environment; this will become increasingly important, with the urbanization process predicted to grow, a significant part of which in conditions of informality. The aim of this chapter is to gather relevant and recent research that highlights advances in the study of the reciprocal effect between urban form and urban life and use this to compile an agenda for future thinking, research and practice in the field of socially sustainable urban design. The thrust of this agenda is centered on the concept of control. Since urbanization is an ongoing phenomenon and life in cities is now the norm for the vast majority of people, the traditional role of design needs to be reconsidered to give way to more collaborative and flexible forms of conceptualization, creation, occupation and management of space. This is important in order to relieve pressure on land and institutions, and instill an overall proactive and reciprocal attitude towards space itself, and space as a form of collective and social life. The chapter will highlight that urban quality of life rests on four core themes of: material well-being; emotional and personal development; interpersonal relationships; and physical well-being. These themes provide an organizational framework for exploration of how they are manifest at the metropolitan, neighbourhood and pedestrian levels of scale

New sub-millimeter limits on dust in the 55 Cancri planetary system

We present new, high-sensitivity sub-millimeter observations towards 55 Cancri, a nearby G8 star with one, or possibly two, known planetary companion(s). Our 850 $\mu$m map, obtained with the SCUBA instrument on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, shows three peaks of emission at the 2.5 mJy level in the vicinity of the star's position. However, the observed peaks are 25\arcsec--40\arcsec away from the star and a deep $R$-band optical image reveals faint point sources that coincide with two of the sub-millimeter peaks. Thus, we do not find evidence for dust emission spatially associated with 55 Cancri. The excess 60 $\mu$m emission detected with ISO may originate from one or more of the 850 $\mu$m peaks that we attribute to background sources. Our new results, together with the HST/NICMOS coronographic images in the near-infrared, place stringent limits on the amount of dust in this planetary system, and argue against the existence of a detectable circumstellar dust disk around 55 Cnc.Comment: 11 pages, 2 PostScript figures, to appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letter