Overt Research Project- 'A Fieldguide to Dark Places - South Edition'

Directed by artist researcher Neal White, Office of Experiments collaborated with researcher and artist Steve Rowell a project manager at the Center for Land Use Interpretation for 18 months in an exchange of methods, standard and experimental, fieldwork and mapping processes. The development of a specifically named research method 'Overt Research' was used to label an inversion of the direction of technologies and techniques exploited in surveillance and security control, and was used in this research to document both the real and imaginary spaces of secrecy in the UK, initially near to Southampton. Using photographic and GIS data sites of experimentation, intelligence and knowledge not normally accessible to the public were brought together in a drupal database. With a taxonomy and vocabulary based on levels of transparency of sites the research output brought together discourse concerning the UK and its techno-scientific and military complex and the public imaginary in relation to these sites. 'A Fieldguide to Dark Places - South Edition' was a central part of the larger exhibition, Dark Places, that White co-curated at John Hansard Gallery in 2009-10. ORP was launched as an 'open project' that also engages members of the public and amateur enthusiasts, and now incorporates them into the research process through attendance of planned activities and events. Many works are also included in 'Critical Dictionary' (Blackdog 2012) and were also exhibited in an installation at Blackdog Gallery, London 2012. Featured extracts from the database appeared in a 6 page article as part of Blueprint magazine edition examining new topographies. March 2010. Critical excursions / mediated bus tours using the ORP have further been supported by ESCR (Experimental Ruins, UCL, London), Big Picture (Secrets of Portland, Portland, Dorset 2011) and The Heritage Lottery Fund (London Orbital Tour 2012)

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MOOCs in Higher Education magazines: A content analysis of internal stakeholder perspectives

Higher Education magazines have echoed the rapid spread of MOOCs in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) since 2012. In their pages, MOOC related articles are proliferating. The focus of such articles has often been the disruptive nature as well as the survival of this new form of open online education, especially the first years. However, there is also a great deal of mentions of how internal stakeholders in HEIs perceive the advent of MOOCs. These perceptions are the object of analysis in this article. Using the Content Analysis (CA) method, MOOC related sources in three Higher Education magazines during 2014 have been analysed against a set of key themes. These themes have been established by combining data from two previous studies: a Content Analysis of MOOC related academic literature, and a set of interviews to internal stakeholders using grounded theory. As the findings indicate, in 2014 the main concerns of internal stakeholders have been the new teaching practices and new work dynamics resulting from the incorporation of MOOCs in their working routines. It is argued that educational media no longer focuses on the debate of the future of MOOCs. Rather, the debate is on how MOOCs should be best implemented from a practitioner’s perspective

PhD

dissertationVarious parameters of anion and cation transport were measured in the cerebral cortex of neonatal (3 days old) and adult rats following acute and chronic treatment with PHT. Acutely, phenytoin (PHT) significantly inhibited the enzyme Na+, K+-ATPase in both neonatal and adult rats. This effect was accompanied by a significant increase in cerebral cortical sodium (Na+) content and a decrease in potassium (K+) content only in neonatal animals. Chronic treatment (bid and qid for 7 days) of adult rats with PHT significantly reduced the Na+ content without affecting the whole homogenate Na+, K+-ATPase activity. The activity of this enzyme was markedly increased in the myelin- (glial product) and slightly decreased in the synaptosomal- (neuronal) fractions following chronic (qid for 7 days) PHT treatment. These results suggest that PHT differentially affects the two forms (neuronal and glial) of the enzyme Na+, K+-ATPase. The possible relevance of this hypothesis in relationship to the anticonvulsant and excitatory properties of PHT is discussed. Chronic (bid and qid for 7 days) PHT treatment increased both DNA content and activity of the glial marker enzyme carbonic anhydrase. Activity of the mitochondrial enzyme HCO3-C1-ATPase was also increased following chronic PHT treatment. These two enzymes are intimately involved in the regulation of HCO3[-]-C1- transport across glial cell and mitochondrial membranes, and these results suggest that PHT is able to beneficially effect glial regulatory processes. The ability to enhance glial regulation of extracellular fluid anions and cations provides new and important insights into the mechanism of the anticonvulsant action of PHT. The activity of enzymes involved in anion and cation transport, the concentration of intracellular potassium (K+i), and the trans-membrane potential (Em) was determined following acute and chronic exposure of primary astroglial cultures to micro-molar concentrations of phenytoin (PHT). Na+, K+-ATPase activity of homogenates of cultured glial cells was determined in the presence of increasing K+ concentration (1-20 mM). Acutely, PHT had little effect on the K+-activation pattern of Na+, K+-ATPase. In contrast, the percent of Na+, K+-ATPase activated by elevating the K+ concentration was dose-dependently increased by chronic PHT treatment. This effect was accompanied by a marked increase in K+i and a significant membrane hyper polarization. The acute effect of PHT on the Em was biphasic, characterized by membrane hyper polarization at concentrations of 1 x 10[-6] to 1 x 10[-5] M. At concentrations between 1 x 10[-5] M and 1 x 10[-4] M, the Em progressively returned to control values. These results suggest that glial cells acutely and chronically treated with therapeutic concentrations of PHT have an enhanced capacity to control elevated extracellular potassium. Return of the Em to control values at PHT concentrations greater than 1 x 10[-5] M suggest that these cells are less able to regulate extracellular potassium. These data can partially explain the excitatory effects of PHT at high therapeutic concentrations