From research to design: Perspectives on early years and digital technologies

The three papers explore how we can use existing research traditions to create challenging new directions for design and development of technologies for the early years. The papers focus on literacy, numeracy and reflections on the design process

The visualisation of fingermarks on Pangolin scales using gelatine lifters

Recent media reports document the plight of the Pangolin and its current position as “the most trafficked mammal in the world”. They are described by some as scaly anteaters as all species are covered in hard keratinous tissue in the form of overlapping scales acting as a “flexible dermal armour”. It is estimated that between 2011 and 2013, 117,000–234,000 pangolins were slaughtered, but the seizures may only represent as little as 10% of the true volume of pangolins being illegally traded. In this paper, methods to visualise fingermarks on Pangolin scales using gelatine lifters is presented. The gelatine lifters provide an easy to use, inexpensive but effective method to help wildlife crime rangers across Africa and Asia to disrupt the trafficking. The gelatine lifting process visualised marks producing clear ridge detail on 52% of the Pangolin scales examined, with a further 30% showing the impression of a finger with limited ridge detail. The paper builds on an initial sociotechnical approach to establishing requirement, then it focuses on the methods and outcomes relating to lifting fingermarks off Pangolin scales using gelatine lifters, providing an evaluation of its use in practice

Exploring Play and Creativity in Pre-schooler's use of apps: Final Project Report

This report outlines the key findings of a co-produced study, developed in collaboration between academics at the Universities of Sheffield and Edinburgh, the BBC (CBeebies), Monteney Pirmary School and the children’s media companies Dubit and Foundling Bird (Appendix 1 outlines the project team members and Advisory Board members). The project was co-produced in that all project partners contributed to the development of the project aims and objectives and were involved in data collection, analysis and dissemination. The aim of the study was to identify pre-school children’s (aged 0-5) uses of and responses to tablet apps in terms of the impact on their play and creativity

Pebbles and avalanches

This joint exhibition of ten artists from the University of Lincoln was curated by Clare Charnley and used artworks to draw attention to the complex dynamics of the two-way process of influence between teachers and students of art. This show included stills from one of my video pieces - ‘Domain of formlessness’, which was inspired by Steve Dutton whom I met whilst doing my Masters. The video relates (quite literally) to the notion of ‘avalanches’ in the title of this exhibition and the film stems from a conversation that started between Steve and myself (and continues to this day) about the catastrophes that result from trying to deal with landslides of material from abandoned artistic activities which often end up strewn chaotically across the studio. Dutton and Peacock made a film called ‘Plague-Orgy-Time’ in 1997 and I first saw it in their exhibition ‘Apocatropes’ at the Mappin Gallery in the same year. I was taken by their approach to a ‘series of accretions of things in a space punctuated by scattered evidence of artistic activity’ (Glover, I. 1997). My film deals with a similar issue but in this case the studio is reduced to a model and artistic activities are miniaturised in a series of ‘Gulliver-esque’ tableaux or enactments – each one punctuated by the close of a stage curtain. In a way my film consciously tends towards 'the reproduced', the constructed stage, film or theatre set in its depictions of a series of avalanches and visually references old slapstick humour films in a sequence of ‘vignettes’. The strange beauty of this apparently absurd process experienced in the studio is foregrounded in this 'homage'. References Izi Glover 1997 ‘Musée Imaginaire’ Frieze Issue 3

Membrane clustering and the role of rebinding in biochemical signaling

In many cellular signaling pathways, key components form clusters at the cell membrane. Although much work has focused on the mechanisms behind such cluster formation, the implications for downstream signaling remain poorly understood. Here, motivated by recent experiments, we study via particle-based simulation a covalent modification network in which the activating component is either clustered or randomly distributed on the membrane. We find that while clustering reduces the response of a single-modification network, clustering can enhance the response of a double-modification network. The reduction is a bulk effect: a cluster presents a smaller effective target to a substrate molecule in the bulk. The enhancement, on the other hand, is a local effect: a cluster promotes the rapid rebinding and second activation of singly active substrate molecules. As such, the enhancement relies upon frequent collisions on a short timescale, which leads to a diffusion coefficient at which the enhancement is optimal. We complement simulation with analytic results at both the mean-field and first-passage distribution levels. Our results emphasize the importance of spatially resolved models, showing that significant effects of spatial correlations persist even in spatially averaged quantities such as response curves.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

Pharmacologically directed strategies in academic anticancer drug discovery based on the European NCI compounds initiative

Background: The European NCI compounds programme, a joint initiative of the EORTC Research Branch, Cancer Research Campaign and the US National Cancer Institute, was initiated in 1993. The objective was to help the NCI in reducing the backlog of in vivo testing of potential anticancer compounds, synthesised in Europe that emerged from the NCI in vitro 60-cell screen. Methods: Over a period of more than twenty years the EORTC—Cancer Research Campaign panel reviewed ~2000 compounds of which 95 were selected for further evaluation. Selected compounds were stepwise developed with clear go/no go decision points using a pharmacologically directed programme. Results: This approach eliminated quickly compounds with unsuitable pharmacological properties. A few compounds went into Phase I clinical evaluation. The lessons learned and many of the principles outlined in the paper can easily be applied to current and future drug discovery and development programmes. Conclusions: Changes in the review panel, restrictions regarding numbers and types of compounds tested in the NCI in vitro screen and the appearance of targeted agents led to the discontinuation of the European NCI programme in 2017 and its transformation into an academic platform of excellence for anticancer drug discovery and development within the EORTC-PAMM group. This group remains open for advice and collaboration with interested parties in the field of cancer pharmacology