Biological fieldwork provision in higher education

Fieldwork is regarded as an important component of many bioscience degree programmes. QAA benchmarks statements refer explicitly to the importance of fieldwork, although give no indication of amounts of field provision expected. Previous research has highlighted the importance of fieldwork to the learning of both subject-specific and transferable skills. However, it is unclear how the amount and type of fieldwork currently offered is being affected by the recent expansion in student numbers and current funding constraints. Here we review contemporary literature and report on the results of a questionnaire completed by bioscience tutors across 33 UK institutions. The results suggest, perhaps contrary to anecdotal evidence, that the amount of fieldwork being undertaken by students is not in decline and that on the whole, programmes contain reasonable amounts of fieldwork. The majority of programmes involved UK-based fieldwork, but a number of programmes also offered ‘exotic’ overseas fieldwork which was considered important in terms of student recruitment as well as exposing students to a diversity of field learning environments. Tutors were very clear about the benefits of fieldwork and the need to be proactive to maintain its provision

The economic sustainability of cropping systems in Indian Punjab: A farmers' perspective

Food for all continues to be a key issue, especially in the developing world where every fifth person is chronically undernourished. India, a fast growing developing country has also experienced serious food shortages for example in the mid 1960s. Punjab, a small northern Indian state has developed, particularly since the Green Revolution in the mid 1960s, to be a key agricultural area producing 13% of the food grains of India. Increased productivity brought economic benefits to farmers and led to the establishment of Wheat-Rice Cropping Pattern (WRCP) as the main agricultural system of Punjab which more recently has become reliant on underground water resources, agricultural machinery, chemical fertilisers and pesticides. More recently stagnating yields and increased cost of cultivation of WRCP have squeezed the net farm profitability. However, the WRCP has been, and remains the first choice of farmers, because of its comparative economic advantage, assured marketing and stable productivity level. This paper compares the economic sustainability of WRCP to that of other alternative cropping patterns in Punjab and answers the question “Why farmers continue with the WRCP despite various crop diversification efforts in the past”. Interviews with 120 farmers across Punjab illustrated the economic and risk advantages of WRCP over other potential cropping patterns and concludes that if cropping systems in Punjab are to become more environmentally sustainable then policy makers will need to put mechanisms in place which either encourage a more sustainable WRCP or provide the basis for the growth of alternative, less environmentally damaging cropping systems.agriculture, cropping systems, Punjab, sustainability, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management,

The Role of Environmental Payments in Sustaining Farm Incomes: A Four Year Study of Farm Businesses in an Upland Area of the UK

A representative sample of both participant and non-participant case study farms was examined over a three-year period in the Shropshire Hills Environmentally Sensitive Area of the UK from 1997 to 2000. The effects on farm business viability were monitored and results compared with two relevant sub samples of Farm Business Survey recorded farms. The study showed that farming profitability declined sharply over the study period but that participant case study farm profitability exceeded that of non-participants by an average of £4024 per year. This was attributable to a combination of factors which included larger average farm size, the ESA premium and more intensive farming operations. Subsidies received by both types of farms were almost totally on the "per head" basis and averaged £270 per hectare. Without these both classes of farms would have been highly unprofitable. The status of the ESA premium compared with these figures was an average of 4.5 percent of business turnover or £2358 per farm, well below that of headage based subsidies. Return on capital invested in land was consistently low, suggesting that even with these levels of subsidies the long-term future of these farms could be uncertain. The results achieved were consistent with those obtained from the Farm Business Survey data provided for the two relevant sub-samples.Farm Management,

Assessing the potential economic benefits to farmers from various GM crops becoming available in the European Union by 2025: results from an expert survey

This paper reports on a study that identified a range of crop-trait combinations that are: agronomically suited to the EU; provide advantages to arable farmers and consumers; and are either already available in international markets, or advancing along the development pipeline and likely to become available by 2025. An expert stakeholder panel was recruited and asked for their views, using the Delphi approach, on the impact of these crop-traits on enterprise competitiveness, through changes to yields, production costs and product prices. In terms of input traits, there was consensus that traits such as herbicide tolerant/insect resistant (HT/IR) maize, HT sugar beet and HT soya bean would provide positive benefits for farmers. Output-side traits such as winter-sown rape with reduced saturated fats, were seen as offering benefits to consumers, but were either likely to be restricted to niche markets, or offer relatively modest price premia to farmers growing them. Our analysis of the financial impact of the adoption of GM crops more widely in the EU, showed that the competitiveness of the agricultural sector could well be improved by this. However, such improvements would be relatively small-scale in that large-scale national natural advantages from either economic or environmental conditions is unlikely to be overturned

Identifying GM crops for future cultivation in the EU through a Delphi forecasting exercise

This paper reports on a Delphi forecasting exercise carried out to identify crop traits that could feasibly be introduced to the advantage of arable farmers, and for the general benefit of the public, in EU member states. An expert stakeholder panel was recruited and asked for opinions on scenarios concerning the availability of GM events, and also scenarios that envisage novel crops developed using advanced technology not classified as GM. In a second round of consultation, panel members commented anonymously on opinions elicited in the first phase. Results indicate that crops with input traits most likely to become available in the EU before 2025 are HTIR maize, HT sugarbeet and HT soybean; these are already widely adopted outside Europe. The crops with output traits most likely to become available and offering benefits to consumers are winter-sown varieties of rape with reduced saturated fats, spring varieties of which are already available outside EU (notably Canadian Canola)

iPad use in Fieldwork: Formal and informal use to enhance pedagogic practice in a Bring Your Own Technology world.

We report on use of iPads (and other IOS devices) for student fieldwork use and as electronic field notebooks. We have used questionnaires and interviews of tutors and students to elicit their views on technology and iPad use for fieldwork. There is some reluctance for academic staff to relinquish paper notebooks for iPad use, whether in the classroom or on fieldwork. Students too are largely unaware of the potential of iPads for enhancing fieldwork. Apps can be configured for a wide variety of specific uses that make iPads useful for educational as well as social uses. Such abilities should be used to enhance existing practice as well as make new functionality. For example, for disabled students who find it difficult to use conventional note taking iPads can be used to develop student self-directed learning and for group contributions. The technology becomes part of the students’ personal learning environments as well as at the heart of their knowledge spaces – academic and social. This blurring of boundaries is due to iPads’ usability to cultivate field use, instruction, assessment and feedback processes. iPads can become field microscopes and entries to citizen science, and we see the iPad as the main ‘computing’ device for students in the near future. As part of Bring Your Own Technology/Device the iPad has much to offer, although both staff and students need to be guided in the most effective use for self-directed education via development of personal learning Environments

Identification and characterization of small-molecule inhibitors of hepsin.

Hepsin is a type II transmembrane serine protease overexpressed in the majority of human prostate cancers. We recently demonstrated that hepsin promotes prostate cancer progression and metastasis and thus represents a potential therapeutic target. Here we report the identification of novel small-molecule inhibitors of hepsin catalytic activity. We utilized purified human hepsin for high-throughput screening of established drug and chemical diversity libraries and identified sixteen inhibitory compounds with IC(50) values against hepsin ranging from 0.23-2.31 microM and relative selectivity of up to 86-fold or greater. Two compounds are orally administered drugs established for human use. Four compounds attenuated hepsin-dependent pericellular serine protease activity in a dose dependent manner with limited or no cytotoxicity to a range of cell types. These compounds may be used as leads to develop even more potent and specific inhibitors of hepsin to prevent prostate cancer progression and metastasis

iPad use in fieldwork: formal and informal use to enhance pedagogical practice in a bring your own technology world

We report on use of iPads (and other IOS devices) for student fieldwork use and as electronic field notebooks and to promote active. We have used questionnaires and interviews of tutors and students to elicit their views and technology and iPad use for fieldwork. There is some reluctance for academic staff to relinquish paper notebooks for iPad use, whether in the classroom or on fieldwork, as well as use them for observational and measurement purposes. Students too are largely unaware of the potential of iPads for enhancing fieldwork. Apps can be configured for a wide variety of specific uses that make iPads useful for educational as well as social uses. Such abilities should be used to enhance existing practice as well as make new functionality. For example, for disabled students who find it difficult to use conventional note taking. iPads can be used to develop student self-directed learning and for group contributions. The technology becomes part of the students’ personal learning environments as well as at the heart of their knowledge spaces – academic and social. This blurring of boundaries is due to iPads’ usability to cultivate field use, instruction, assessment and feedback processes. iPads can become field microscopes and entries to citizen science and we see the iPad as the main ‘computing’ device for students in the near future. As part of the Bring Your Own Technology/Device (BYOD) the iPad has much to offer although, both staff and students need to be guided in the most effective use for self-directed education via development of Personal Learning Environments. A more student-oriented pedagogy is suggested to correspond to the increasing use of tablet technologies by student

Hawking Radiation and Energy Conservation in an Evaporating Black Hole

We define the Bondi energy for two-dimensional dilatonic gravity theories by generalizing the known expression of the ADM energy. We show that our definition of the Bondi energy is exactly the ADM energy minus the radiation energy at null infinity. An explicit calculation is done for the evaporating black hole in the RST model with the Strominger's ghost decoupling term. It is shown that the infalling matter energy is completely recovered through the Hawking radiation and the thunderpop.Comment: 17 pages, LaTex, 3 figures available on request

Student perceptions of iPads as mobile learning devices for fieldwork

This paper reports findings from six field courses about student’s perceptions of iPads as mobile learning devices for fieldwork. Data were collected through surveys and focus groups. The key findings suggest that the multi-tool nature of the iPads and their portability were the main strengths. Students had some concerns over the safety of the iPads in adverse weather and rugged environments, though most of these concerns were eliminated after using the devices with protective cases. Reduced connectivity was found to be one of the main challenges for mobile learning. Finally, students and practitioners views of why they used the mobile devices for fieldwork did not align