Is social media bad for learning? The view from a Chinese village

Tom McDonald is a Research Associate at the UCL Department of Anthropology. He recently completed 15 months of fieldwork in rural China for the Global Social Media Impact Study, examining the use and consequences of social media in everyday life. He found that social media plays an important role in young people’s learning and argues that we need to look beyond formal definitions of education. Tom is currently preparing a book presenting the findings from his research, which is due to be published in February 2016

Social Media in Rural China

China’s distinctive social media platforms have gained notable popularity among the nation’s vast number of internet users, but has China’s countryside been ‘left behind’ in this communication revolution? Tom McDonald spent 15 months living in a small rural Chinese community researching how the residents use social media in their daily lives. His ethnographic findings suggest that, far from being left behind, social media is already deeply integrated into the everyday experience of many rural Chinese people

A low molecular weight hydrogel with unusual gel aging

We describe a dipeptide hydrogel with unusual aging characteristics. Over time, a transformation from a turbid gel to a transparent gel occurs which is initiated from the air–water interface. Here, we investigate this transition and discuss the implications of this aging on the bulk properties of the gel

Social Media in Rural China

China’s distinctive social media platforms have gained notable popularity among the nation’s vast number of internet users, but has China’s countryside been ‘left behind’ in this communication revolution? Tom McDonald spent 15 months living in a small rural Chinese community researching how the residents use social media in their daily lives. His ethnographic findings suggest that, far from being left behind, social media is already deeply integrated into the everyday experience of many rural Chinese people

Interannual variability in North American grassland biomass/productivity detected by SeaWinds scatterometer backscatter

We analyzed 2000–2004 growing-season SeaWinds Ku-band microwave backscatter and MODIS leaf area index (LAI) data over North America. Large anomalies in mid-growing-season mean backscatter and LAI, relative to 5-year mean values, occurred primarily in the western Great Plains; backscatter and LAI anomalies had similar spatial patterns across this region. Backscatter and LAI time series data for three ∼103 km2 regions in the western Great Plains were strongly correlated (r2 ∼ 0.6–0.8), and variability in mid-growing season values was well-correlated with annual precipitation (October through September). The results indicate that SeaWinds backscatter is sensitive to interannual variability in grassland biomass/productivity, and can provide an assessment that is completely independent of optical/near-infrared remote sensing instruments

Traffic Composition during the Morning Peak Period

Using registration plate analysis, this paper investigates 1) the proportions of ‘unique’ vehicles, 2) the proportions of vehicles re-appearing from day-to-day and their individual arrival variances and 3) the numbers of locally registered vehicles among those seen during the morning commute period on three roads in Southampton. During incidents, a traffic controller would hope to divert the more familiar drivers onto less congested parts of the network using VMS and other media. Knowing the proportions of regular and unique drivers which make up the peak commuting periods would help in the timely dissemination of this traffic information. The proportions of unique vehicles varied significantly with road and time. Vehicles appearing on more than one day formed 80% of the traffic before 08:15 but only 60% between the 08:45 and 09:00 peak period during the 1996 Bassett Avenue survey. Although the proportions of vehicles re-appearing from day to day varied significantly with road, their arrival variances were found to be very similar. On average, 65% of the returning vehicles re-appeared within +/- 5 minutes of their previous day’s time implying that this frequency of arrival could be part of an habitual behaviour pattern. The results suggest that for occasions where congestion can be anticipated in advance, such as prior to emergency roadworks or special events, warning messages would be most effective before 08:30 a.m. when the largest proportion of regular vehicles would be using the roads. If regular users are more familiar with the local road network than one-off ‘unique’ vehicles, and would be more likely to divert on receiving incident information relevant to their route, then later in the morning, the proportion of knowledgeable local drivers falls substantially. (Some mathematical expressions are not shown, please refer to the paper

The role of physiotherapy in Enhanced Recovery after Surgery in the intensive care unit

Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) is an evidence-based, multimodal approach to optimising patient outcomes following surgery. The role of physiotherapy within ERAS and intensive care units (ICU) is important. Patients admitted to an ICU following elective major surgery may suffer from physical, psychological and cognitive problems, which can impact their return to function and quality of life. ICU physiotherapists can enable patients to achieve ERAS programme aims throughout their stay in an ICU and this may accelerate the achievement of discharge criteria and subsequent return to function. Functional limitations and persistent weakness may exist long after discharge, and therefore there is a need to increase the awareness and involvement of physiotherapists within the outpatient setting. Establishing a standardised rehabilitation programme, informed by key ERAS principles and delivered by specialist physiotherapists supported by a well-informed ICU team can have long term benefits to patients post-discharge

Bioaccumulation kinetics of cadmium and zinc in the freshwater decapod crustacean Paratya australiensis following multiple pulse exposures

Stormwater runoff has been identified as a major source of metal contaminants in urban waterways, where during storm events organisms tend to be exposed to short-term pulses, rather than a constant exposure of contaminants. Current water quality guidelines (WQGs) are generally derived using data from continuous exposure toxicity tests, where there is an assumption that chronic exposures provide a meaningful way of assessing the impacts and effects in organisms as a result of these pulsed storm events. In this current study the radioisotopes 109Cd and 65Zn were used to explore uptake, depuration and organ distribution in the decapod crustacean Paratya australiensis, over three short-term (<10 h) exposures. Exposures to radiolabelled cadmium only, zinc only or a mixture of cadmium and zinc were followed by depuration in metal- and isotope-free water for 7 days. Whole-body metal concentrations were determined by live-animal gamma-spectrometry and an anatomical distribution of the radioisotopes was visualised using autoradiography post-mortem. Both metals were significantly accumulated over the pulsed exposure period. In both treatments cadmium and zinc body burden increased at the same rate over the three pulses. Final metal body burden did not markedly differ when shrimp were exposed to metals individually compared to a binary mixture. Over the course of the depuration period, cadmium efflux was minimal, whereas zinc efflux was significant. Autoradiography indicated the presence of both metals in the gills and hepatopancreas throughout the depuration period. These results demonstrate how short-term repeated exposures result in the accumulation of contaminants by shrimp. This study highlights the importance of considering the inclusion of pulsed toxicity tests in frameworks when deriving WQGs