PGR forum: serving the crop wild relative user community

The Euro-Mediterranean region is an important centre for the diversity of crop wild relatives. Crops, such as oats (Avena sativa), sugar beet (Beta vulgaris), apple (Malus domestica), annual meadow grass (Festuca pratensis), white clover (Trifolium repens), arnica (Arnica montana), asparagus (Asparagus officinalis), lettuce (Lactuca sativa), and sage (Salvia officinalis) etc., all have wild relatives in the region. The European Community funded project, PGR Forum (www.pgrforum.org) is building an online information system to provide access to crop wild relative data to a broad user community; including plant breeders, protected area managers, policy-makers, conservationists, taxonomists and the wider public. The system will include data on uses, geographical distribution, biology, population and habitat information, threats (including IUCN Red List assessments) and conservation actions. This information is vital for the continued sustainable utilisation and conservation of crop wild relatives. Two major databases have been utilised as the backbone to a Euro-Mediterranean crop wild relative catalogue, which forms the core of the information system: Euro+Med PlantBase (www.euromed.org.uk) and Mansfeld’s World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops (http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de). By matching the genera found within the two databases, a preliminary list of crop wild relatives has been produced. Around 20,000 of the 30,000+ species listed in Euro+Med PlantBase can be considered crop wild relatives, i.e. those species found within the same genus as a crop. The list is currently being refined by implementing a priority ranking system based on the degree of relatedness of taxa to the associated crop.

Forum theorizing in the context of professional practice: The case for middle-range theories

This commentary seeks to complement the contribution of the Building Research & Information special issue on 'Developing Theories for the Built Environment' (2008) by highlighting the important role of middle-range theories within the context of professional practice. Middle-range theories provide a form of theorizing that lies between abstract grand theorizing and atheoretical local descriptions. They are also characterized by the way in which they directly engage with the concerns of practitioners. In the context of professional practice, any commitment to theorizing should habitually be combined with an equivalent commitment to empirical research; rarely is it appropriate to neglect one in favour of the other. Any understanding of the role that theory plays in professional practice must further be informed by Schon's seminal ideas on reflective practice. Practitioners are seen to utilize theories as inputs to a process of continuous reflection, thereby guarding against complacency and routinization. The authors would challenge any assumption that academics alone are responsible for generating theories, thereby limiting the role of practitioners to their application. Such a dichotomized view is contrary to established ideas on Mode 2 knowledge production and current trends towards co-production research in the context of the built environment.

Forum - The Stern review: implications for construction

The SternReview(2006) on the economics of climate change has changed the ground onwhich arguments over climate change are fought. In making the economic case for mitigation over adaptation, Stern has sought to undermine one of the primary arguments against decisive early action - that the immediate costs outweigh the long-term benefits. While this argument is made at the global level, it is appropriate to ask what implications Stern's arguments might have at the construction sectoral level. The implications of the Stern Review for construction can be divided into three main questions. How construction would be different if Stern's economics were applied? How would construction companies act differently if Stern's ethics were adopted? How will the political response to the Stern Review change construction's policy and regulatory landscape? The impact of the Review has shifted the debate from the natural science community into the public policy domain and onto an economic rationale. There seems to have been a pronounced shift away from the debate over the science and towards the economics of mitigation versus adaptation. In this context, the academic debate over Stern's methods is irrelevant - it is his findings, authority and use of the hegemonic power of economic argument that carry the day. This is likely to be Stern's true legacy, and through this will come his greatest impact on construction.

Proceedings of the Rank Forum on Vitamin D

The Rank Forum on Vitamin D was held on 2nd and 3rd July 2009 at the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. The workshop consisted of a series of scene-setting presentations to address the current issues and challenges concerning vitamin D and health, and included an open discussion focusing on the identification of the concentrations of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) (a marker of vitamin D status) that may be regarded as optimal, and the implications this process may have in the setting of future dietary reference values for vitamin D in the UK. The Forum was in agreement with the fact that it is desirable for all of the population to have a serum 25(OH)D concentration above 25 nmol/l, but it discussed some uncertainty about the strength of evidence for the need to aim for substantially higher concentrations (25(OH)D concentrations . 75 nmol/l). Any discussion of ‘optimal’ concentration of serum 25(OH)D needs to define ‘optimal’ with care since it is important to consider the normal distribution of requirements and the vitamin D needs for a wide range of outcomes. Current UK reference values concentrate on the requirements of particular subgroups of the population; this differs from the approaches used in other European countries where a wider range of age groups tend to be covered. With the re-emergence of rickets and the public health burden of low vitamin D status being already apparent, there is a need for urgent action from policy makers and risk managers. The Forum highlighted concerns regarding the failure of implementation of existing strategies in the UK for achieving current vitamin D recommendations.

Food and Health Forum meeting - nutritional approaches to cardiovascular health: workshop report

This report summarises the proceedings of a meeting held by the Food and Health Forum at the Royal Society of Medicine, London, on 12 October 2011. The objective of the meeting was to highlight nutritional strategies targeted at cardiovascular health. This included a review of the effects of various foods, nutrients and ingredients on maintenance of healthy cholesterol levels, endothelial function and blood pressure

Playful language alternation in an online discussion forum: the example of digital code plays

This paper explores the linguistic practice of digital code plays in an online discussion forum, used by the community of English-speaking Germans living in Britain. By adopting a qualitative approach of Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis, the article examines the ways in which these bilinguals deploy linguistic and other semiotic resources on the forum to co-construct humorous code plays. These performances occur in the context of negotiating language norms and are based on conscious manipulations of both codes, English and German. They involve play with codes at three levels: play with forms, meanings, and frames. Although, at first sight, such alternations appear to be used mainly for a comic effect, there is more to this than just humour. By mixing both codes at all levels, the participants deliberately produce aberrant German ‘polluted’ with English and, in so doing, dismantle the ideology of language purity upheld by the purist movement. The deliberate character of this type of code alternation demonstrates heightened metalinguistic awareness as well as creativity and criticality. By exploring the practice of digital code plays, the current study contributes to the growing body of research on networked multilingualism as well as to practices associated with translanguaging, poly- and metrolingualism.