Investigating how schools may help improve diet, particularly in low- and middle-income countries In recent decades, Sri Lanka has experienced a social, economic, demographic and environmental transition. Currently it suffers a double burden of under- and over-nutrition. It is important to align health promotion and development. This DPhil, which is part of a larger “Integrating Nutrition Promotion and Rural Development” project, investigates how schools may help improve diet, particularly in...

This lecture illustrates the ways in which the landscape in Central Asia has been influenced by active faults and earthquakes and will examine the hazard faced at the present-day. Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan are lands of high mountains, faults, and earthquakes in the heart of Asia. The active deformation is due to the collision of India and Asia, which has generated faulting and mountain-building covering a region stretching from the Himalaya to Siberia, and is one of the main...

The importance of looking at the American colonial period not as the ‘Thirteen Colonies’ but as a British America consisting of twenty-six colonies and provinces. This discussion emphasises the importance of looking at the American colonial period not as the ‘Thirteen Colonies’ but as a British America consisting of twenty-six colonies and provinces. The US founding myth has persisted in part because it is such a big part of American culture and identity that no one questions it, and because...

How non-invasive brain stimulation techniques might work, and how we have started to use them in stroke survivors. Non-invasive brain stimulation has been around for thousands of years - from the use of electric fish in Ancient Greece to cure headaches, to the modern use of very small electric currents passed through the brain via two electrodes placed on the scalp. Today, we use stimulation to modulate on-going brain activity, with the ultimate aim of improving hand use after stroke. Here I...

From predicting the properties of nanotechnological devices to the structural stability of small proteins and dynamics of water. Atomistic computer simulations of matter based on solving quantum mechanical equations is an interdisciplinary area that touches physics, chemistry, and a part of biology. By calculating the electronic structure of an arrangement of atoms, and at the same time predicting the forces acting on the individual nuclei (which are themselves quantum particles), it is...

Reviewing the methodology surrounding missing data in research and statistical analysis, clarifying why it can contribute to misleading results. Missing data is present in almost all research. However, it is also a well-recognised problem in the analysis and reporting of clinical research due to its potential to introduce bias into the results. Patient-reported outcomes measures, which are increasingly used in clinical research, can be particularly susceptible to missing data. This...

How mathematicians think about the puzzle that Christopher Monckton launched in 1999. In 1999 Christopher Monckton launched a new type of puzzle, similar to a jigsaw but with 209 plain green plastic pieces with geometric shapes. To attract interest, and increase sales, he offered a £1,000,000 prize for the first solution if found within a time limit of a few years. I'll describe some of the ideas Alex Selby and I developed to work on this puzzle, and try to explain (without details!) how...

How do debt managers decide about the maturity of new public debt? Typical debt management objectives include: cost minimization, economic stabilization and tax smoothing, and adjusting to investor preferences. These objectives cannot be all achieved simultaneously. Theoretical models from the normative literature point to (2) tax smoothing as the optimal strategy. Yet due to scarcity of empirical research, it is not clear whether that is what debt managers actually follow. In this positivist...

Why animals are everywhere in Shakespeare's language. Only two actual animals definitely appear in Shakespeare’s plays: a naughty dog in The Two Gentlemen of Verona and a hungry bear in The Winter’s Tale. But animals are everywhere in Shakespeare’s language. This talk will offer some suggestions as to why that is, and will show that the much-vaunted idea of human specialness in the Renaissance was highly precarious

How we need to characterize materials at atomic level in order to understand their macroscopic behaviour. Some components of nuclear reactors, such as steam generators, can weigh over 300 tonnes (4m diameter and 20m tall) and are expected to be safely in service for over 20 years. However, it is not unusual that they suffer from environmental degradation and develop cracks that can ultimately force their replacement (which is very costly to the nuclear industry). In this talk, I will show how...

An introduction to the theory of unreliable narration and outlines two critical approaches: the cognitivist and the rhetorical. Body language experts and polygraph tests can help us to determine when we are being deceived, but how do we know whether the narrator in a literary text is lying to us? This talk provides an introduction to the theory of unreliable narration and outlines two critical approaches: the cognitivist and the rhetorical. Using examples from Günter Grass’s 1959 novel The...

Using a scenario from the Hollywood film "Hot Shots", how should a compensation payment have been divided up between all those involved in the circumstances of "Dead Meat" Thompson's death? The circumstances of LT “Dead Meat” Thompson’s (from Hot Shots) death are as unfortunate as they are spectacular: during a training flight he crashes into another jet whose pilot, LT “Wash Out” Pfaffenbach, is not allowed to fly. Dead Meat survives the crash without any major injuries, but down on earth at...

Demonstrating the pilot and explaining the significance of this digital database. A prolific letter-writer, Catherine II ruled during the high point of the European Enlightenment, when letters were the essential knowledge-transfer medium in government, commerce and intellectual exchange in an increasingly globalised world. She maintained a vast correspondence with fellow crowned heads of state, great thinkers and writers (Voltaire, d'Alembert), and her generals and court. Despite their huge...

Our research uses brain imaging techniques such as MRI, to assess changes in brain activity or brain structure. We then try to use this information to design new interventions to improve healthy ageing or boost recovery from stroke. The brain changes when we learn, get older, or recover from damage such as stroke. Our research uses brain imaging techniques such as MRI, to assess changes in brain activity or brain structure. We then try to use this information to design new interventions to...

How our ability to now see the invisible is central to research in biology – from infectious disease to cancer and Alzheimers. The development of the electron microscope in the middle of the last century revolutionised biology and our understanding of cells and tissues. Developments have continued and in this century computation methods have enabled 3D imaging of complete cells. I will show, using images of diverse cells and life forms, how our ability to now see the invisible is central to...

Why is cancer metastasis to bone so devastating, what are the challenges, and what are we trying to do about it.

Is Climate Change responsible for the downfall of the Pyramid Age of Egypt Recent palaeoenvironmental evidence suggests that northeast Africa and southwest Asia were struck by an intense 'mega-drought' around the year 2200 BC. The event has already been blamed for the collapse of complex societies in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. I am trying to radiocarbon date both the drought event, at the headwaters of the Nile, and the collapse of the Pyramid Age of Egypt. Ultimately, I am hoping to...

Anomalocaridids: their ecology & their diversity. The Cambrian Explosion was a major biodiversification event that saw the rise of nearly all animal phyla in a rapid burst 500 million years ago. The anomalocaridids are iconic members of these primitive animal ecosystems, owing to their huge size, bizarre morphology and complicated history of desription. In this talk, I will discuss their ecology, and particularly the view that the anomalocardidids were highly specialised apex predators...

An analysis of George Eliot's 'Middlemarch' and how the writer's critique of railroads might inform an ethically sensitive approach to HS2 Whilst no-one would question the economic advantages of a high-speed rail network connecting major cities in the UK, there is still little agreement about the feasibility of the government’s £50 billion HS2 project. My talk will apply an analysis of George Eliot’s Middlemarch (1874) to this issue, asking how the writer’s critique of railroads might inform...

What role did trade unions play in the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings of 2010/2011? What role did trade unions play in the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings of 2010/2011? This talk challenges the predominant assumption in research on trade unions and democratization rule, namely that trade unions are necessarily driven by material interests or by the defence of their members' interests in such scenarios. Instead,I argue that in some cases, especially under authoritarian regimes with highly...

Fossil records tell us a lot about evolution around the time of dinosaurs

How audiences respond to the body on stage and on screen. This presentation will seek to explore how audiences respond to the body on stage and on screen. We will explore the concept of ‘liveness’ and question how the physical presence of an actor alters our expectation of a cinematic/ theatrical event. We will touch on spectator theory, in both theatre and film, briefly explaining the key theories and concepts in relation to this. Finally, we will apply this to a practical example, using the...

How flow cytometry can help investigations into immune-mediated diseases. Flow cytometry is a technique which uses flourescent compounds of different colours to label molecules on cells. Using this approach we can investigate the cell populations responsible for causing immune-mediated diseases such as Ankylosing Spondylitis and explore how new therapies can alter the behaviour of the different cell types.