Researching Global Climate Change Challenges to Solve Local Issues with Undergraduate Research and Physical Models

From 2012 through 2020, students in an introductory environmental engineering course have used a service-learning project to research climate resilience challenges and solutions. Issues of local significance exacerbated by climate change are connected to global concerns in three to four sessions of the three-hour laboratory portion of the course. The research is reported in briefs, reports, or conversational blogs.

Summary of two questionnaires designed to understand the research climate for Bioimage Analysts in the UK between 2016-2019

Background: Bioimage analysis is an emerging field within the global research community. It is an interdisciplinary discipline which requires knowledge of biology, image analysis and biophysics. This report represents the analysis and discussion of two questionnaires run by the Image Analysis Focused Interest Group of the Royal Microscopical Society (IAFIG-RMS). The goal of this document, which represents the analysis and interpretation of these questionnaires, is to highlight the current research climate for Bioimage Analysts in the UK and discusses some of the problems and possibilities for this emerging discipline. Methods: Two questionnaires (2016 and 2019) were developed and sent to researchers in the UK using mailing lists and forums specific for microscopy and image analysis. The participants were asked a range of questions spanning different aspects of their work and funding. Respondents were collected and analysed using Jupyter notebooks. Results: The analysis of the responses from these questionnaires highlighted many interesting issues and aspects of this community. It is clear that a major issue for the community is the nature of the funding and the long-term career possibilities available. Furthermore, the issue of independence is discussed with clear evidence that researchers would like to pursue their own research with the option of dedicated time to support the research of others. Conclusions: It is our hope that this study will help catalyse funding opportunities which help support this emerging discipline and help it establish a unique identity for itself within the research community in the UK and beyond.

Điểm tin RW Weekend Read ngày 16-1-2021

Bản Weekend Read của RetractionWatch ngày 16-1 có tựa đề: Pollution of COVID-19 research; climate papers lead to reassignment; time to publish less?

Tracing the Holocene—rock art in the Libyan Sahara

These two volumes present the results of fieldwork conducted by Tertia Barnett from 2004–2009 in the Wādi al-Ajāl (Libya). The first volume provides a general synthesis in three sections: 1) presentation of Saharan rock art in general; history of discoveries and research; climate, environment and human activities in the Holocene Sahara; state of knowledge on the chronology. 2) Presentation of the method adopted for collecting data; results of the surveys; subjects and themes observed. 3) Analysis of the location of the engravings; study of their relationship with the ‘cultural landscape’; concluding remarks. Two appendices are devoted to pre-pastoral and pastoral sites, and to the 3D modelling of several engraved panels respectively. The second volume makes available the totality of the observed data, describing each panel individually. For each one, the inventory indicates its number and geographic position, then gives a detailed description, specifies its orientation, its location in the valley and its degree of inclination, before indicating the stylistic affiliation of the engravings observed. The two books are enhanced by a large number of photographs, surveys and maps, in a very careful presentation and a pleasant layout.

A Reflection on Arts-Based Research

Concerns are raised regarding the place of the arts in education, specifically as they are used in the social science context of educational research under the title ‘arts-based research’. An examination of Elliot Eisner’s claim that art is research concludes that, though the arts may be used for display, data, or heuristic in educational research, they are not being recognised for their distinctive characteristics. John White’s critique of the theory of multiple intelligences is revisited to mitigate common claims for the arts based upon Gardner. Given the dominance of scientism in today’s research climate, it is argued that the arts take their rightful place as foil to research in its quest for certainty; that they be the antagonist mode of thought called for by John Stuart Mill.