3,237 research outputs found
‘Shell to Sea’ in Ireland: building social movement potency
In 1996 the Corrib gas field, holding over 1 trillion cubic feet of gas, was discovered by Enterprise Oil 83km off the North West coast of Ireland. Acquired by Shell in 2002,
proposed extraction and processing is now a co-venture between several multinational energy corporations who aim to transport the gas some 90kms via pipeline to an onshore refinery site at Bellanaboy. Although heralded as a significant opportunity for development and employment by Shell and participating companies, local resistance to the proposals, on social and environmental grounds, has been
sustained and effective. Mirroring global conflicts between the petrochemical industry and local people and lifeworlds, this resistance has elicited repressive responses,
including the jailing of local landowners by the Irish state following their resistance to unprecedented compulsory land acquisition orders, and the taking out of a court injunction by Shell in 2005. Drawing on elements of contemporary social movement theory, and on both field research and analysis of campaign documents and media
reports, this paper seeks to describe and reflect on the shape and spread of the social movement that has arisen in response to this development project. We focus on the
‘Shell to Sea’ campaign which has argued for the offshore, as opposed to the onshore, development of the gas field, and has garnered support from many other social movement groups and networks. In particular we consider the use of alternative media in strengthening shared networks of concern and in engaging critically with corporate media representations of both the project and the mobilisation. We
conclude that social movement effectiveness and potency is in large part an outcome of collective and subjective commitments to intense work effort and the sharing of felt
solidarity regarding environmental and social concerns; and we iterate the significance of affective and subjective dimensions of social movement activities alongside more
conventional descriptions of work practices and structuring contexts
Developing a survey instrument to evaluate tertiary chemistry students' attitudes and learning experiences
New Zealand tertiary institutions, like others worldwide, have experienced a decline in science and chemistry enrolments in recent times as students seek other career paths that they perceive to be more lucrative. In a previous article we described a qualitative study of the learning experiences of students enrolled in a first year chemistry course at a New Zealand tertiary institution. Researchers in education and science education have two choices of methodology, a qualitative or a quantitative approach, and each possesses advantages and disadvantages. Qualitative studies typically use resource intensive data gathering techniques such as interviews. These studies are useful in that they allow researchers to study issues of interest in great depth and, for example, allow investigators to probe for underlying reasons about students' views for abstract scientific concepts. However, because qualitative studies are more labour intensive, they typically involve only small numbers of participants, which in the minds of many researchers and teachers results in a lack of generalisability. In other words, it is not necessarily clear what implications the findings hold in other contexts. In contrast, quantitative studies involve larger numbers of participants. By the judicious use of statistical analysis, researchers can investigate changes and trends, and extrapolate their findings to a large (or target) population. However, whilst the results from quantitative studies are more generalisable, they are often less detailed. Hence researchers are confronted with a trade-off situation in which they must choose between the depth of understanding provided from qualitative studies, versus the generalisability of a quantitative approach: because of this dilemma, increasingly researchers employ a mixed methodology approach. In this paper we describe a quantitative study that complements previous qualitative work. We report on the development of a questionnaire that investigates tertiary level learning experiences of chemistry students, along with their attitude toward chemistry and chemistry self-efficacy
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Caution: examinations in progress - the operation of neighbourhood plan examinations in England
Gavin Parker, Kat Salter and Hannah Hickman look at what experience to date tells us about how the examination stage in the neighbourhood plan production process is being undertaken, and the issues and associated questions emerging from that experience
Space and surface power for the space exploration initiative: Results from project outreach
The analysis and evaluations of the Space and Surface Power panel, one of eight panels created by RAND to screen and analyze submissions to the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) Outreach Program, is documented. In addition to managing and evaluating the responses, or submissions, to this public outreach program, RAND conducted its own analysis and evaluation relevent to SEI mission concepts, systems, and technologies. The Power panel screened and analyzed submissions for which a substantial portion of the concepts involved power generation sources, transmission, distribution, thermal management, and handling of power (including conditioning, conversion, packaging, and enhancements in system components). A background discussion of the areas the Power panel covered and the issues the reviewers considered pertinent to the analysis of power submissions are presented. An overview of each of the highest-ranked submissions and then a discussion of these submissions is presented. The results of the analysis is presented
Census estimates of algal and epiphytic carbonate production highlight tropical seagrass meadows as sediment production hotspots
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Frontiers Media via the DOI in this record.Tropical shelf, platform and reef-lagoon systems are dominated by calcium carbonate (CaCO3) sediments. However, data on habitat-specific CaCO3 sediment production rates by different sediment producing taxa are sparse, limiting understanding of where and in what form CaCO3 sediment is produced, and how overall sediment budgets are influenced by habitat type and scale. Using novel census methodologies, based primarily on measures of plant biovolumes and carbonate content, we assessed habitat-scale production by two ubiquitous biogenic CaCO3 sediment producers, calcareous green algae and seagrass epiphytes, across southern Eleuthera Bank, Bahamas (area ~140 km2). Data from species-specific plant disaggregation experiments and from X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of calcified plants also allowed us to resolve questions about the size fractions and mineralogies of the carbonates produced. Production rates varied significantly among habitats (range: 1.8–237.3 g CaCO3 m-2 yr-1), collectively totalling ~0.98 M kg annually across the study area. Outputs comprise similar amounts of aragonite and high Mg-calcite, with ~54% of the CaCO3 produced being contributed as mud-grade (<63 μm) sediment. Our analysis also reveals that habitat type and extent - especially of
medium and high density seagrass beds - strongly influence the amounts and types of carbonate sediment generated. Dense seagrass beds were identified as the dominant per unit area production sites, contributing ~17% of total CaCO3 despite covering only 0.5% of the study area. These findings have direct relevance for quantifying present-day sediment budgets and for predicting changes in sediment generation at the system scale in responses to modified habitat extent and productivity.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC
WISE J163940.83-684738.6: A Y Dwarf identified by Methane Imaging
We have used methane imaging techniques to identify the near-infrared
counterpart of the bright WISE source WISEJ163940.83-684738.6. The large proper
motion of this source (around 3.0arcsec/yr) has moved it, since its original
WISE identification, very close to a much brighter background star -- it
currently lies within 1.5" of the J=14.90+-0.04 star 2MASS16394085-6847446.
Observations in good seeing conditions using methane sensitive filters in the
near-infrared J-band with the FourStar instrument on the Magellan 6.5m Baade
telescope, however, have enabled us to detect a near-infrared counterpart. We
have defined a photometric system for use with the FourStar J2 and J3 filters,
and this photometry indicates strong methane absorption, which unequivocally
identifies it as the source of the WISE flux. Using these imaging observations
we were then able to steer this object down the slit of the FIRE spectrograph
on a night of 0.6" seeing, and so obtain near-infrared spectroscopy confirming
a Y0-Y0.5 spectral type. This is in line with the object's
near-infrared-to-WISE J3--W2 colour. Preliminary astrometry using both WISE and
FourStar data indicates a distance of 5.0+-0.5pc and a substantial tangential
velocity of 73+-8km/s. WISEJ163940.83-684738.6 is the brightest confirmed Y
dwarf in the WISE W2 passband and its distance measurement places it amongst
the lowest luminosity sources detected to date.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, 20 September
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Detection of noise-corrupted sinusoidal signals with Josephson junctions
We investigate the possibility of exploiting the speed and low noise features
of Josephson junctions for detecting sinusoidal signals masked by Gaussian
noise. We show that the escape time from the static locked state of a Josephson
junction is very sensitive to a small periodic signal embedded in the noise,
and therefore the analysis of the escape times can be employed to reveal the
presence of the sinusoidal component. We propose and characterize two detection
strategies: in the first the initial phase is supposedly unknown (incoherent
strategy), while in the second the signal phase remains unknown but is fixed
(coherent strategy). Our proposals are both suboptimal, with the linear filter
being the optimal detection strategy, but they present some remarkable
features, such as resonant activation, that make detection through Josephson
junctions appealing in some special cases.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figure
Detection of fingerprint alterations using deep convolutional neural networks
Fingerprint alteration is a challenge that poses enormous security risks. As a result, many research efforts in the scientific community have attempted to address this issue. However, non-existence of publicly available datasets that contain obfuscation and distortion of fingerprints makes it difficult to identify the type of alteration. In this work we present the publicly available Sokoto-Coventry Fingerprints Dataset (SOCOFing), which provides ten fingerprints for 600 different subjects, as well as gender, hand and finger name for each image, among other unique characteristics. We also provide a total of 55,249 images with three levels of alteration for Z-cut, obliteration and central rotation synthetic alterations, which are the most common types of obfuscation and distortion. In addition, this paper proposes a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to identify these alterations. The proposed CNN model achieves a classification accuracy rate of 98.55%. Results are also compared with a residual CNN model pre-trained on ImageNet, which produces an accuracy of 99.88%
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Repurposing PPE
The exhibit explores the theme of ‘reparation’ through creative experimentation into repurposing used PPE isolation gowns. The exhibit comprises fashion and textile concepts; 2-D samples and 3-D prototypes developed from the gown materials, to prevent them from being shipped offshore or sent to landfill after the legislated ‘75 wash and wear’ cycle. While reusable medical textiles outperform disposable products on human and environmental scales, there is still an urgent need to move towards a circular system whereby the life of the polyester/carbon fabric is extended before being recycled as fibre.
Through a series of r workshops between March and April 2023, the researchers worked alongside students and staff from the Fashion, Textile and Knitwear department, to develop potential solutions for repurposing this waste stream. Outcomes included patchworked, knitted, printed, woven and embroidered pieces, upcycled gowns, full and half-scale garments. For more information see project Instagram @ppe_refashione
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