Land cover map 2007: using OBIA for LCM2007

Land cover map 2007 (LCM2007) is an object-based land cover map for the UK containing around 10 million objects. The LCM2007 spatial framework is based on the generalisation of national cartography products (OS MasterMap for Great Britain and Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland for NI). 34 composite images (based on summer and winter data) were classified using a maximum likelihood classifier. Areas where composite data were not available were filled with classifications from single-date data. A set of knowledge-based enhancements (KBEs) were then applied to refine the classification using ancillary data sets, including soil and altitude data. The final product showed a correspondence of 83%, when compared to 9127 ground reference polygons. A range of LCM2007 data products are available ranging from the full vector data set, with 10 attributes per polygon, to a 25m raster data set and a series of 1km raster products

New studies in halogenated tetrathiafulvalenes

Several halogenated derivatives of tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) have been synthesised, using a wide range of halogenating agents. Two distinct methods were used to obtain the desired iodo- and bromo-TTFs. Reaction conditions were optimised to increase the yields of products. Representative compounds include 4,5-Dibromo-4',5'- methylthio-tetrathiafulvalene, 4,5-Diiodo-4',5'-bis(2'-cyanoethylthio)-tetrathiafulvalene and 4-Bromo-4,5,5'-trimethyltetrathiafulvalene.Examination of the electrochemistry of these TTFs, employing cyclic voltammetry, showed good donor ability for halogenated TTFs bearing one or two substituent groups. X-ray crystallographic studies on 4,5-Dibromo-4',5'-bis(2'-cyanoethylthio)- tetrathiafulvalene, and the iodide salt of 4,5-Dibromo-4',5'-methylthio- tetrathiafulvalene, showed close intra- and inter-molecular contacts between halogen atoms and other atoms. This work points the way forward for using halogenated TTFs as donor components for radical ion salts, in which the halogen atom(s) contribute to the supramolecular ordering of the structure

Sensitivity to speech rhythm explains individual differences in reading ability independently of phonological awareness

This study considered whether sensitivity to speech rhythm can predict concurrent variance in reading attainment after individual differences in age, vocabulary and phonological awareness have been controlled. Five to six-year-old English-speaking children completed a battery of phonological processing assessments and reading assessments, along with a simple word stress manipulation task. The results showed that performance on the stress manipulation measure predicted a significant amount of variance in reading attainment after age, vocabulary, and phonological processing had been taken into account. These results suggest that stress sensitivity is an important, yet neglected aspect of English-speaking children?s phonological representations, which needs to be incorporated into theoretical accounts of reading development

Reading Together: Computers and Collaboration

About the book: The study of collaborative learning has a relatively brief history, yet there have been notable changes in the nature of the research being undertaken in this field. Initially, the primary aim was to determine whether and when collaborative learning was more effective than learning alone and there is a substantial body of empirical evidence demonstrating that, whilst not an educational panacea, it can have positive effects of social interaction for learning. More recently, however, interest has shifted away from considering just the outcomes and products of collaborative work, towards analyzing the interactions themselves. This shift to a more process-oriented account of productive group-work has brought with it an interest in understanding the nature of productive talk and joint activity and researchers have attempted to identify interactional features which are important for learning and cognitive change. Researchers with different theoretical backgrounds and different methodological approaches have emphasized different facets of interaction with some highlighting the important role of conflict, others that of planning, negotiation, exploratory talk, transactive dialogue and so on. The book brings together contributions from researchers, working across Europe and North America, who have interests in collaborative learning. The work presented here is united through the contributors’ shared desire to understand and promote educationally productive collaborative work, whilst investigating this in diverse ways, for example with respect to the particular contexts, learning communities and the age of the learners being studied

A success story of funding and delivering Erasmus Mundus postgraduate study programmes in the College of Engineering at Swansea University – 2007 – present.

This session will aim to present how, from 2007 to the present day, a broad-reaching programme of postgraduate Erasmus Mundus Masters and Doctoral training was developed by the College of Engineering at Swansea University in collaboration with an international consortium of HE and Industry partners. This session will explore the processes involved from inception to completion, namely, forming the consortium, securing EM funding, recruitment and delivery of the programmes, with a final consideration of what participation in the EM programmes has meant for our graduates in terms of training, employability and student experience