VLMA: a tool for creating, annotating and sharing virtual museum collections

The Virtual Lightbox for Museums and Archives (VLMA) is a tool for collecting and reusing, in a structured fashion, the online contents of museums and archive datasets. It is not restricted to datasets with visual components although VLMA includes a lightbox service that enables comparison and manipulation of visual information. With VLMA, one can browse and search collections, construct personal collections, annotate them, export these collections to XML or Impress (Open Office) presentation format, and share collections with other VLMA users. VLMA was piloted as an e-Learning tool as part of JISC’s e-Learning focus in its first phase (2004-2005) and in its second phase (2005-2006) it has incorporated new partner collections while improving and expanding interfaces and services. This paper concerns its development as a research and teaching tool, especially to teachers using museum collections, and discusses the recent development of VLMA.

Enhanced second order non-linear optical properties of silica sol-gel thin films through photo-induced poling

Sol-gel derived inorganic materials are of interest as hosts for non-linear optically active guest molecules and they offer particular advantages in the field of non-linear optics. Orientationally ordered glasses have been prepared using a sol-gel system based on tetramethoxysilane, methyltrimethoxysilane and a non-linear optical chromophore Disperse Red 1. The novel technique of photo-induced poling was used to generate enhanced levels of polar order. The level of enhancement is strongly dependent on the extent of gelation and an optimum preparation time of ∼100 h led to an enhancement factor of ∼5. Films prepared in this manner exhibited a high stability of the polar order.

Photo-induced phase transitions in azobenzene-doped liquid crystals

The effect of irradiation (UV-visible light) on a nematic liquid crystal doped with a photoactive azobenzene derivative was investigated. The selective irradiation results in either an E implies Z or Z implies E isomerization of the azobenzene unit. The effect of the isomerization is to cause a reversible depression of the liquid crystal to isotropic (LC implies l) phase transition temperature of the doped mixture, which can be monitored optically as an isothermal phase transition. This depression also results in a biphasic liquid crystal+isotropic region which is discussed. The authors investigate the cause and magnitude of the phase depression as a function of the amount of doped 4-butyl-4'-methoxyazobenzene (photoactive unit) in 4-cyano-4'-n-pentylbiphenyl (liquid crystal unit), and as a function of the percentage conversion of E implies Z (caused by isomerization) in the azobenzene. The photostationary state of the doped mixtures achieved by Z implies E isomerization is considered and its effect upon the transition temperature of the mixture and response time of the system is discussed. They discuss the implications of the photostationary state with regards to the reversibility of the photo-induced phase transition and hence potential applications.

Studying the impact of ubiquitous monitoring technology on office worker behaviours: the value of sharing research data

Pervasive computing is a continually, and rapidly, growing field, although still remains in relative infancy. The possible applications for the technology are numerous, and stand to fundamentally change the way users interact with technology. However, alongside these are equally numerous potential undesirable effects and risks. The lack of empirical naturalistic data in the real world makes studying the true impacts of this technology difficult. This paper describes how two independent research projects shared such valuable empirical data on the relationship between pervasive technologies and users. Each project had different aims and adopted different methods, but successfully used the same data and arrived at the same conclusions. This paper demonstrates the benefit of sharing research data in multidisciplinary pervasive computing research where real world implementations are not widely available.

Transatlantic Relations: Sharing Ideals and Costs

A study of European relations with the USA and Canada after the end of the Cold War

Cartels and rent sharing at the farmer–trader interface: evidence from Ghana’s tomato sector

Itinerant traders provide an important route for West Africa’s farmers’ to get their perishable produce rapidly to the distant urban markets. But these farmers often accuse the traders of offering “unfairly” low prices while preventing direct access to these markets. Using Ghana’s tomato sector as a case study, we provide the first detailed exploration of the interface between Ghana’s farmers and traders, combining a theoretical model with novel empirical data on daily sales prices and tomato quality. We find that although the prices traders pay farmers are lower than prices in the urban markets, taking into account transport costs, these prices are higher than farmers receive from the local rural market. Our article suggests that policymakers would do better to focus on opening up access to the urban markets rather than on strengthening farmers’ bargaining power with the traders, which restricts market volumes further and harms farmers unable to sell to traders.

Sharing power? Prospects for a U.S. concert-balance strategy

The Pax Americana and the grand strategy of hegemony (or “Primacy”) that underpins it may be becoming unsustainable. Particularly in the wake of exhausting wars, the Global Financial Crisis, and the shift of wealth from West to East, it may no longer be possible or prudent for the United States to act as the unipolar sheriff or guardian of a world order. But how viable are the alternatives, and what difficulties will these alternatives entail in their design and execution? This analysis offers a sympathetic but critical analysis of alternative U.S. National Security Strategies of “retrenchment” that critics of American diplomacy offer. In these strategies, the United States would anticipate the coming of a more multipolar world and organize its behavior around the dual principles of “concert” and “balance,” seeking a collaborative relationship with other great powers, while being prepared to counterbalance any hostile aggressor that threatens world order. The proponents of such strategies argue that by scaling back its global military presence and its commitments, the United States can trade prestige for security, shift burdens, and attain a more free hand. To support this theory, they often look to the 19th-century concert of Europe as a model of a successful security regime and to general theories about the natural balancing behavior of states. This monograph examines this precedent and measures its usefulness for contemporary statecraft to identify how great power concerts are sustained and how they break down. The project also applies competing theories to how states might behave if world politics are in transition: Will they balance, bandwagon, or hedge? This demonstrates the multiple possible futures that could shape and be shaped by a new strategy. viii A new strategy based on an acceptance of multipolarity and the limits of power is prudent. There is scope for such a shift. The convergence of several trends—including transnational problems needing collaborative efforts, the military advantages of defenders, the reluctance of states to engage in unbridled competition, and hegemony fatigue among the American people—means that an opportunity exists internationally and at home for a shift to a new strategy. But a Concert-Balance strategy will still need to deal with several potential dilemmas. These include the difficulty of reconciling competitive balancing with cooperative concerts, the limits of balancing without a forward-reaching onshore military capability, possible unanticipated consequences such as a rise in regional power competition or the emergence of blocs (such as a Chinese East Asia or an Iranian Gulf), and the challenge of sustaining domestic political support for a strategy that voluntarily abdicates world leadership. These difficulties can be mitigated, but they must be met with pragmatic and gradual implementation as well as elegant theorizing and the need to avoid swapping one ironclad, doctrinaire grand strategy for another.