THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD BOTANIC GARDEN: SHARING THE SCIENTIFIC WONDER AND IMPORTANCE OF PLANTS WITH THE WORLD

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 438-450
Author(s):  
Chris J. Thorogood
Keyword(s):  
Botanic Garden ◽  
University Of Oxford ◽  
The World ◽  
The University

The Press and the Wider University

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Goldman
Keyword(s):  
Educational Institution ◽  
Academic Culture ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
University Of Oxford ◽  
The Press ◽  
The World ◽  
Successful Business ◽  
The University ◽  
Unique Relationship

Oxford University Press operates as a department of the University of Oxford and, along with its Board of Delegates, draws many of its staff, authors, editors, and advisers from the graduates and scholars of that institution. Financial contributions from a successful and expanding Press have sustained the University during an era of decreasing state funding. The publications of the Press have enhanced and extended the scholarly reputation of the University and advertised Oxford University as a leader in education and research around the world. The Press relies upon the University for governance and a home in an academic culture that lends authority to all its publications. As a successful business located within an educational institution, the legal and fiscal status of the Press has sometimes been challenged, but the unique relationship has persisted. This chapter surveys the academic, financial, and administrative links between the two institutions.

Book Reviews

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 701-703
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Growth Patterns ◽  
Global Inequality ◽  
University Of Oxford ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Economic Association ◽  
The World ◽  
The University

Valpy FitzGerald of the University of Oxford reviews “Inequality and Growth: Patterns and Policy. Volume II. Regions and Regularities,” edited by Kaushik Basu and Joseph E. Stiglitz. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Eight papers and eight responses, based on a roundtable convened by the International Economic Association and the World Bank on 'Shared Prosperity and Growth' and held at Dead Sea, Jordan, in June 2014, examine the state of global inequality and inequality in different regions, and analyzes other kinds of inequality and discrimination.”

Commentary on the general results

1964 ◽  
Vol 161 (982) ◽  
pp. 3-6 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
Soil Samples ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Joint Effort ◽  
National Herbarium ◽  
The World ◽  
New Varieties ◽  
The University

As regards the collection of plants, totalling about 3000 numbers, most of the flowering plants and ferns have been identified by the staff of the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, mainly by Mr Forman and Professor Holttum. We collected, whenever possible, ten to twelve duplicates and most of these are being distributed to the main herbaria of the world. There are still, nevertheless, many specimens which need monographic revision to establish their true identity. It is impossible, yet, to say how many are new. Professor J. L. Harrison, at the University of Singapore, is still at work on his account of the small mammals and their parasites. Mr Askew is at work on the soil samples. For my part, I have studied the fig collections, and there is nowhere in the world, that I know of, with such a rich fig flora as Kinabalu. It has 78 species (15 endemic), and our expedition discovered 2 new species and 4 new varieties, which fit neatly into gaps in the classification which I have been making. The fig insects are being studied by Dr Wiebes, at the National Museum in Leiden, in our joint effort to write the zoo-botany of Ficus . Already, Dr Wiebes has been able to publish a revision of the insect genus solen which inhabits Ficus sect. Sycocarpus ; he recognizes 32 species of which 23 are new, including 10 from our collections on Kinabalu. I am also at work on the fungi, which have to be collated with my earlier Malayan collections. This work, however, means almost monographic treatment of every group. With the great help of Dr Bas, at the National Herbarium in Leiden, an illustrated account of the genus Amanita in Malaya and Borneo has recently been published. We recognize 22 new species out of a total of 30, and this proportion shows the difficulty of pursuing mycology where there are so few names.

The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature

Corpora ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarle Ebeling
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
Automatic Processing ◽  
Electronic Text ◽  
Text Corpus ◽  
University Of Oxford ◽  
The World ◽  
The University

With invaluable help from and in close co-operation with colleagues from around the world, the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature project at the University of Oxford has compiled, lemmatised and made publicly available a large body of Sumerian literature. Building a corpus of literary compositions originally written on clay tablets in the cuneiform script, and dating back nearly four thousand years, poses special challenges, not least with regard to mark-up and automatic processing of data. Some of these challenges are discussed in this paper together with issues relating to the fact that Sumerian is a language isolate and lacks resources we take for granted when working with other languages, modern or extinct, such as a standardised sign list and a comprehensive dictionary.

scholarly journals Plant Letters: A citizen science project uncovering historical biodiversity data

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Margarida Dias da Silva ◽  
M. Teresa Girão da Cruz ◽  
Joana Cabral-Oliveira ◽  
Helena Freitas ◽  
Antonio C. Gouveia
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Museum Specimens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Biodiversity Data ◽  
Botanical Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Material Circulation ◽  
The University

The XIXth century saw an enormous accumulation of biological specimens coming to Europe from all over the world, which are now part of museums, herbaria and other natural history collections. For many centuries, the exchange of letters was the privileged means of circulating information and knowledge. At the University of Coimbra (UC), the Life Sciences Department safeguards almost 5000 letters and other documentation addressed to directors, gardeners and other collaborators of the Botanic Garden. These records of Portuguese botanical science and expeditions of plant discovery, collection and identification are held in thousands of handwritten letters, species lists and assorted notebooks, in more than five different languages. Historical repositories such as this archive, but also the biological and museum collections and objects that it documents, imply added responsibilities to the University of Coimbra, as the information contained within the documentation, pertains not only to a country (in this case Portugal), but also to its developing historical roles and actions. As a colonial power for many centuries, the records of Portuguese scientific activity and occupation strategies of overseas territories, in Africa, South America, Asia and the Pacific, are also documented, and its valuable data (e.g., historical biological records) is of crucial importance to these now independent countries. Received correspondence is a great resource for understanding the process of knowledge creation and circulation in the plant sciences, including botany and agriculture, as well as the scientific colonial practices and their implication for the amassing of biological collections at the UC. In order to uncover historical biodiversity data within this archival material, we have implemented Plant Letters (https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/catedraunesco/plant-letters), a citizen science transcription project that seeks to uncover the stories within these historical archives, the tales of travelers and scientists, on the quest of recording of the world’s diversity, mostly in the Portuguese ex-colonies in sub-Saharan Africa. Using the collaborative platform Zooniverse (https://www.zooniverse.org), users are requested to engage with the archive and transcribe mostly handwritten letters in several languages, giving dimension to our continuous efforts of promoting open and widespread access to information. The project invites everyone to transcribe handwritten or typed letters received by the Botanic Garden between about 1870 and 1928, from more than 1100 correspondents from around the world. The main purpose of this project is to track plant species, locations and scientists in the correspondence received in the 19th and 20th centuries at the Botanic Garden of the University of Coimbra. To do so, Plant Letters seeks in users, both experts or simply curious, a source of participation in the construction of knowledge, making use of collective intelligence, in a lively exchange of information, experiences and knowledge. In transcribing the letters, we want to retrieve information that can include: inquiries and doubts about plant classification and taxonomy; historical plant species locations, distribution records and abundance; biological material circulation (plant and seed exchanges); track the path of herbarium and museum specimens in our collections; unravel networks of botanical knowledge. inquiries and doubts about plant classification and taxonomy; historical plant species locations, distribution records and abundance; biological material circulation (plant and seed exchanges); track the path of herbarium and museum specimens in our collections; unravel networks of botanical knowledge. Transcribing the information contained in these documents will allow us to: track plant specimens as they travelled from their native countries to the scientists who named them; to determine historical plant locations in parts of sub-Saharan Africa; to better understand the scientific processes of plant discovery, taxonomy and botany; and to collect information that gives context to biological specimens in museum objects and other natural history collections. All of these data, valuable to the present and future conservation of tropical flora, will be made available, bearing in mind the open science principles.

scholarly journals VIII.—Memoir on the Spermogones and Pycnides of Filamentous, Fruticulose, and Foliaceous Lichens

1861 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Lauder Lindsay
Keyword(s):  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Botanical Society ◽  
The World ◽  
Alpine Species ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
The University

The following Memoir contains the results of researches made during the last three years. My investigations were originally directed to British lichens only, but they have subsequently and gradually embraced lichens from all parts of the world. The majority of Scotch species examined were collected by myself while on botanical tours in various parts of Scotland during the last ten years. Lowland species were collected chiefly in the counties of Perth, Edinburgh, and Dumfries; but also in Forfar, Fife, and others of the midland counties. In order to study alpine species I made a special tour among the highest of our Scotch mountains in the summer of 1856. I then visited the Braemar Highlands, Ben Lawers, Ben Nevis, and the Coollin Hills, in Skye. I have likewise studied the lichens of Don, now in the possession of Mr M'Nab, of the Ptoyal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh; the lichens collected by Maughan, M'Millan, and others, in the Herbarium of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh; those collected by the late Alexander Menzies, in the Menziesian Herbarium belonging to the Botanic Garden of Edinburgh; those collected by Borrer, Hooker, Carmichael, Gardiner, and others, in the magnificent Hookerian Herbarium at Kew; and I have also examined the valuable herbarium of the University of Edinburgh, under the care of Professor Balfour, and the herbarium of Dr Greville.

scholarly journals Overview of COVID-19 Disease: Virology, Epidemiology, Prevention Diagnosis, Treatment, and Vaccines

Biologics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-40
Author(s):  
Iman Salahshoori ◽  
Noushin Mobaraki-Asl ◽  
Ahmad Seyfaee ◽  
Nasrin Mirzaei Nasirabad ◽  
Zahra Dehghan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
World Health ◽  
Person Identification ◽  
Health Organizations ◽  
The Public ◽  
University Of Oxford ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The University

Coronaviruses belong to the “Coronaviridae family”, which causes various diseases, from the common cold to SARS and MERS. The coronavirus is naturally prevalent in mammals and birds. So far, six human-transmitted coronaviruses have been discovered. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Common symptoms include fever, dry cough, and fatigue, but in acute cases, the disease can lead to severe shortness of breath, hypoxia, and death. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the three main transmission routes, such as droplet and contact routes, airborne transmission and fecal and oral for COVID-19, have been identified. So far, no definitive curative treatment has been discovered for COVID-19, and the available treatments are only to reduce the complications of the disease. According to the World Health Organization, preventive measures at the public health level such as quarantine of the infected person, identification and monitoring of contacts, disinfection of the environment, and personal protective equipment can significantly prevent the outbreak COVID-19. Currently, based on the urgent needs of the community to control this pandemic, the BNT162b2 (Pfizer), mRNA-1273 (Moderna), CoronaVac (Sinovac), Sputnik V (Gamaleya Research Institute, Acellena Contract Drug Research, and Development), BBIBP-CorV (Sinofarm), and AZD1222 (The University of Oxford; AstraZeneca) vaccines have received emergency vaccination licenses from health organizations in vaccine-producing countries. Vasso Apostolopoulos, Majid Hassanzadeganroudsari

scholarly journals Harcourt Arboretum

2012 ◽  
pp. 13-19
Author(s):  
Ben Jones
Keyword(s):  
50Th Anniversary ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
University Of Oxford ◽  
The University ◽  
Year 2013

Harcourt Arboretum has been managed by the University of Oxford Botanic Garden since 1963. The year 2013 will be the 50th anniversary of this union and improvements to the visitor facilities which will provide increased educational opportunities are planned as part of these celebrations. Details of the history, management and developments are provided along with images of the Arboretum.

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