249 research outputs found
London 2012: how was it for us?
No full textThe London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics will be the biggest single sporting event in the UK in our lifetimes. The memories of that summer of sport will remain with us forever, but what did those four weeks tell us about ourselves, our society's values and its possibilities? This collection of critical reflections is not anti-Olympics nor against sport. The writers instead imaginatively address the reality of the Games' impact, question what the ceremonies and Team GB represented, and deconstruct the organisers' claims of economic regeneration and boosting participation. This an essential and exciting read for all who understand and appreciate that London 2012 meant something, but are unsure what. Contributors include world-class experts in Olympism, writers and journalists who reported on and were inspired by the Games, social and cultural critics, sports policy consultants and sport campaigners. Contributors: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Barbara Bell, Billy Bragg, Ben Carrington, Anne Coddington, Gareth Edwards, Bob Gilbert, Eliane Glaser, David Howe, Kate Hughes, Suzanne Moore, Mark Perryman, Gavin Poynter, David Renton, Andrew Simms, Mark Steel, Alan Tomlinson, Zoe Williams. Mark Perryman is the author of the widely acclaimed Why the Olympics Aren't Good For Us And How They Can Be. During London 2012 he was a frequent media commentator on the politics of the Games
Cultural humility: from power imbalance to mutuality and intentional respect; promoting culturally relevant occupation-focused client-centred practice
No full textCultural humility is a stance towards understanding culture. It requires a commitment to lifelong learning. It is a conscious self-reflection on one’s own assumptions and practices. As a practitioner you can take comfort with not knowing, and recognition of the power and privilege imbalance that exists between clients and health professionals (Hammell, 2013). Presented by Michelle Perryman, MSc, HCPC, University of Cumbria, Carlise, United Kingdom. Additional speaker: Virginia Stoffel, PhD, OT, FAOTA, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI. Contributing Author: Karen Morris, PhD, MSc, PgD, PgCLT (HE) BScOT, SFHEA, HCPC registered
Anticipating the Neoliberal Nation::Philip Larkin and the Displacement of Englishness.
No full textAccording to its proponents, English independence would be both an escape from the British imperial legacy and the achievement of a modern and progressive political organisation. The emergence of an English nation state is envisaged by Mark Perryman, for example, as the inherently rational triangulation of territory, people, and state that has been suppressed and overlaid by the aberrant dispensation of the United Kingdom bequeathed by the legacy of empire (Perryman 2009: 31, 18). Or in the more theoretically expansive terms of Michael Gardiner, independence means the overcoming of a British ‘imperial state’ (Gardiner 2012: 163) whose temporal basis is ‘precedence’ (8). Where the temporality of British state is ‘ahistorical’ and abstract, and so inaccessible to experience and exclusive of civic action (8–9), the emergence of an English nation state is nothing less than the inauguration of a new temporality (7). The question of English independence, then, is a ‘battle between heredity and experience — between the pastness-of-the-past on the one hand and present-tense action on the other’ (11). For Gardiner, only an ‘English civic nationalism’ (7) can register ‘national lived-experience’ (155) and so overcome ‘the blockage to agency’ constituted by the imperial British state (14). He therefore contends that ‘the national can be understood broadly to have an anti-ideological function of resistance to the ancient and apparently natural interests which coalesce in [the British] state form’ (12)
A study of the services rendered by the crippled children's division of the Texas State Department of Health, 1948
No full textAnticipating the Neoliberal Nation::Philip Larkin and the Displacement of Englishness.
No full textAccording to its proponents, English independence would be both an escape from the British imperial legacy and the achievement of a modern and progressive political organisation. The emergence of an English nation state is envisaged by Mark Perryman, for example, as the inherently rational triangulation of territory, people, and state that has been suppressed and overlaid by the aberrant dispensation of the United Kingdom bequeathed by the legacy of empire (Perryman 2009: 31, 18). Or in the more theoretically expansive terms of Michael Gardiner, independence means the overcoming of a British ‘imperial state’ (Gardiner 2012: 163) whose temporal basis is ‘precedence’ (8). Where the temporality of British state is ‘ahistorical’ and abstract, and so inaccessible to experience and exclusive of civic action (8–9), the emergence of an English nation state is nothing less than the inauguration of a new temporality (7). The question of English independence, then, is a ‘battle between heredity and experience — between the pastness-of-the-past on the one hand and present-tense action on the other’ (11). For Gardiner, only an ‘English civic nationalism’ (7) can register ‘national lived-experience’ (155) and so overcome ‘the blockage to agency’ constituted by the imperial British state (14). He therefore contends that ‘the national can be understood broadly to have an anti-ideological function of resistance to the ancient and apparently natural interests which coalesce in [the British] state form’ (12)
The Making of History's Greatest Star Map
No full textFrom prehistoric times, mankind has looked up at the night sky, and puzzled at the changing positions of the stars. How far away they are is a question that has confounded scientists for centuries. Over the last few hundred years, many scientific careers – and considerable resources – have been devoted to measuring their positions and motions with ever increasing accuracy. And in the last two decades of the 20th century, the European Space Agency developed and launched the Hipparcos satellite, around which this account revolves, to carry out these exacting measurements from space. What has prompted these remarkable developments? Why have governments been persuaded to fund them? What are scientists learning from astronomy's equivalent of the Human Genome Project? This book traces the subject's history, explains why such enormous efforts are considered worthwhile, and interweaves these with a first-hand insight into the Hipparcos project, and how big science is conducted at an international level. The involvement of amateur astronomers, and the Hipparcos contributions to climate research, ‘death stars' passing close to the Sun, and the search for extra-solar planets and even intelligent life itself, are some of the surprising facets of this unusual space mission. One of the defining points in the creative life of the human mind came about when the ancient Greeks realised that, through a combination of mathematical geometry and the devising of increasingly accurate instruments using 360° scales, it was possible to map the heavens. And from Hipparchus in 150 BC, to ESA's Hipparcos project in the late twentieth century, much of the history of astronomy has been about the increasingly refined measurement of stellar angles, and how we can use them to make sense of the cosmos. This splendid book provides a fascinating account of that intellectual journey, and the defining contribution of a remarkable space mission. Allan Chapman A fascinating and entertaining account of a unique space adventure. From the prologue, which captures the excitement of the satellite launch through to the final future-looking chapter, the book contains a delightful mixture of historical and technical fact, personal insight and intriguing detail – a reading pleasure throughout. Lennart Lindegren A remarkable book, capturing a unique blend of humanism and science, related through the author's experience of research, technology, management, and human relations. The richness of science unveiled through the precise measurements of very small angles is amazing, and the chronicle is a masterpiece of astronomy. Roger-Maurice Bonnet For amateur astronomers who delight in exploring the night sky, here is the captivating and highly readable account of history's greatest star-mapping venture. Hipparcos demanded an almost unbelievable effort, scientific and technical. And who better to tell this story than the astronomer who orchestrated it all? Roger Sinnott The Hipparcos project was hugely important in mapping our Galaxy. This is a fascinating account of an important episode in astronomy, written by the scientist who played a pivotal role in the prolonged and often frustrating series of steps that brought it to fruition, and eventually to a triumphant conclusion.. Sir Martin Ree
Improvement after inspection
No full textThis article is based on a case study of one English secondary school in the three years following its release from Special Measures. Having followed the school's successful improvement (in inspection terms) while under Special Measures, I was interested to know if the school would be able to sustain its improvement once the inspectors had departed. Data used are from interviews with middle and senior management detailing responses to the essential question 'is the school improving?'. I found that, although in many respects the school was maintaining its improvement, some middle and senior managers were suspicious about the long-term effects of becoming an institution so seemingly built around passing inspection. © Author
Globular cluster kinematics with Gaia
No full textWith a targeted accuracy of 10 mu as yr(-1) at V = 15 mag, Gaia will be able to determine the space motions of most galactic globular clusters with an accuracy of a few km s(-1) or better. This will dramatically improve our knowledge of how globular clusters evolve and how they and the Milky Way as a whole have formed. It will also be possible to follow tidal streams from dissolving clusters over many orbits by kinematically selecting their members, which will constrain the form of the galactic potential and give important insights into the nature of dark matter
Photogrammetry of blue whales with an unmanned hexacopter
No full textAuthor Posting. © Society for Marine Mammalogy, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of Society for Marine Mammalogy for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Mammal Science 32 (2016):1510–1515, doi:10.1111/mms.12328.Baleen whales are the largest animals ever to live on earth, and many populations
were hunted close to extinction in the 20th century (Clapham et al. 1999). Their
recovery is now a key international conservation goal, and they are important in marine
ecosystems as massive consumers that can promote primary production through
nutrient cycling (Roman et al. 2014). However, although abundance has been
assessed to monitor the recovery of some large whale populations (e.g., Barlow et al.
2011, Laake et al. 2012) many populations are wide-ranging and pelagic, and this
inaccessibility has generally impeded quantitative assessments of recovery (Peel et al.
2015). To augment traditional abundance monitoring, we suggest that photogrammetric
measures of individual growth and body condition can also inform about population
status, enabling assessment of individual health as well as population numbers. Photogrammetry
from manned aircraft has used photographs taken from directly above
whales to estimate individual lengths (Gilpatrick and Perryman 2008) and monitor growth trends (Fearnbach et al. 2011), and shape profiles can be measured to assess
body condition to infer reproductive and nutritional status (e.g., Perryman and Lynn
2002, Miller et al. 2012). Recently, Durban et al. (2015) demonstrated the utility of
an unmanned hexacopter for collecting aerial photogrammetry images of killer
whales (Orcinus orca); this provided a noninvasive, cost-effective, and safe platform
that could be deployed from a boat to obtain vertical images of whales. Here we
describe the use of this small, unmanned aerial system (UAS) to measure length and
condition of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus), the largest of all whales.María Francisca Cortés Solari;
Rafaela Landea Briones;
MERI Foundation;
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Acces
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