'Drop City' was a hippie commune that existed in Colorado from 1965 from 1977, one of the finest examples of the countercultural ideals which would have a significant impact upon the American psyche throughout the 1960s and into the 70s. The paper assesses the city's day-to-day living based on Peter Rabbit's contemporary novel on the commune in order to assess the plausibility of the countercultural ideals in practical life. It also assesses the legacy of the commune; particularly with regards to the construction and artistic projects to emerge from this path of land in southern Colorado.

Given its one-time success and media attention, the paper asks why Drop City began decline from the early 1970s onwards, framing the question in the wider context of American society. Based on this analysis, the paper will answer the question of modern day relevance with regards to these countercultural ideas in a post Financial Crisis era. The answer is a resoundingly positive one, taking wisdom from the successes (and failures) of Drop City to argue for a continuing applicability of hippie ideals that swept large sections of American society in the 1960s.

Most universities have extended their traditional teaching spectrum to provide for a varied range of adult learners. At the University of Warwick the Centre for Lifelong Learning offers full-time and part-time degree courses, Foundation courses and Professional Development courses to adult learners. With all the recent advances in communications technology new innovative teaching solutions are continually being incorporated by academic institutions into the curricula for adult learners.

The Undergraduate Research Support Scheme provided an opportunity to conduct a Case Study into the experience of adult learners in Canada. My research will involve spending three days at the University of Regina meeting members of staff and students from their Centre for Continuing Education followed by three days at the University of Calgary's Continuing Education department._x000D_ In depth interviews on a structured basis will be conducted to establish their unique approaches to adult learning. Subjects to be discussed include the nature and scope of the courses offered, methods of delivery, lecture and class room environment, use of on-line and television facilities, fee structure etc.

A second key objective is to understand what the universities offer to foster a sense of community within their student population. With a diverse geographical distribution it is a challenge to create an environment that gives adult learning students a sense of identity unique to that of the other more traditional students.

The findings will be analysed and presented to CLL staff and students with the objective to implement new ideas into the provision for Warwick adult learners.

Lithium-ion batteries are are now increasingly used in handheld technologies due to their light weight and high energy density. If put in electric cars, however, they present a serious hazard for passengers especially in case of a car crash when standard batteries tend to inflame easily. This research aims to build the basics of a computer model which can help us understand why batteries inflame and how to improve their safety.

It involves building a computer model which contains electrical short-circuit of a lithium-ion multilayer battery penetrated by a 3 mm steel pointed nail. Language used for modelling is Simscape extension of Simulink package for MATLAB. Multilayer battery is modelled by four lithium-ion battery blocks connected in parallel. A single layer penetrated by a nail is represented as short-circuit with switch having the resistance of the nail. Shorting of a multilayer battery is modelled by consecutive short-circuiting of all single layers.

After comparing predicted, by the computer model, voltage of battery to experimental data we found that voltage curve fits up to an order of magnitude. Furthermore, difference between results for four- and ten-battery-blocks models are insignificant which means that simplified version of the model can be used for future analysis.

Findings of this research imply that decreasing the probability of external conducting elements to enter the battery can considerably increase its safety. Further research can be carried out in order to test different methods to accomplish this such as usage of dielectric coating or protective case.

A widely debated topic within language development is the structure of children's early language representations. It is argued that to learn language as rapidly as they do, children must be able to store abstract representations from early on. However, others argue that children's knowledge of language is first collected and stored in word-specific rather than abstract representations. One way to explore mental representations is through priming, essentially eliciting repetition from speakers by exposing them to a sentence before they produce one, influencing their response. Speakers must have access to a mental representation in order to repeat what they have just heard so if children show priming or repetition effects, it suggests they have access to these same types of representations. Previous studies exploring syntactic priming provide evidence for the existence of abstract syntactic representations but more research on the nature of these representations is needed. The study investigates whether children repeat passive structures, specifically comparing between get-passives ('Bill got chased by Ben') and be-passives ('Bill was chased by Ben'). If they do, the study explores whether they repeat word-specific versions (i.e. get-passives after get-passives), or if their repetition suggests an abstract representation (i.e. be-passives after get-passives or vice versa). The results from this study help us to understand more about how children learn and store information about language. This includes how and when to use different types of sentences and thus contribute further to the debated topic of development of syntax in young children.

Climate change is among the most pressing issues on the global agenda. The 2007 United Nations Human Development Report recommends keeping the increase in the world's temperature over the 21st century below 2°C. Nevertheless, current estimates predict a 5°C rise with the present levels of burning fossil fuels. The outcome of such an increase will affect negatively the entire planet. The lack of international binding agreements on climate change has created a significant vacuum of environmental responsibility. To fill this vacuum, regional and national commitments have been set in place. However, the emerging problem lies in closing the gaps between fixed commitments and actions. It is unclear how to frame climate change as an urgent issue and what level of environmental governance would be the most effective in closing the gaps and transitioning towards low-carbon economies. In an attempt to answer these questions, my research project will juxtapose the European Union's and Canada's energy models. By examining their economic development strategies, environmental targets and actions, I will give insights into the policy outcomes resulting from different decision-making levels and portrayals of climate change. The research findings suggest that framing climate change as an economic issue and linking it with development and health issues create perceptions of higher importance and lead to wider commitment to the issue. The results also point out that environmental decision-making that allows for participatory governance is more effective in formulating and implementing green policies. Consequently, combating climate change requires shared participatory governance in devising sustainable policies.

Throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a considerable burden of respiratory viruses on the population, especially amongst young children. This study aims to investigate the epidemiology behind the respiratory viruses that cause childhood pneumonia in eastern Kenya. Using pneumonia admission data obtained from surveillance programs operated by the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), the temporal and spatial trends associated with the occurrence of the viruses that lead to disease can be compared and analysed. Data from rtPCR analysis of nasopharangeal and oropharyngeal swabs obtained from patients can be used to try and identify the viral load within these samples by the analysis of Ct (cycle threshold) values. By investigating the viral load, the distribution of viruses in pneumonia patient samples can be found and the causal virus(es) can be identified, in order to find if one single virus or the co-infection of multiple viruses, are associated with an increase in causality or severity for pneumonia. This analysis of the spatio-temporal trends and etiology of pneumonia admissions could potentially be used to suggest novel surveillance programs and techniques to further increase understanding of the underlying risks and identify at risk populations.

I shall use a critical approach to securitisation theory informed by the Paris School of security studies, specifically the International Political Sociological approach, where I shall combine primary data collection to inform my theoretical investigations.

My project will to investigate the securitisation of the internet and how of the internet is changing the boundaries of security, privacy and, more critically, the relationship between the modern surveillance state and society in the UK. I shall ultimately seek to evaluate the success of authoritative actors promoting discursive actions and how the audience of society perceives this. I feel this research touches upon a topic that will only grow in importance in the coming years across all branches of the social sciences, including security studies and political sociology.

The empirical focus will be placed on understanding the public’s own perception about such issues such as privacy and (in)security. Primary data collection will be through face-to-face surveys in Leamington Spa, London and Crawley. Through the gathering of this targeted data, I hope to offer greater legitimacy, analytical power and empirical grounding to my critical theorising.

Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is the major cause of infant respiratory disease, leading to hospitalization in up to 2% of affected children. A unique coupled translation termination/reinitiation process controls the expression of the HRSV regulatory M2-2 protein, essential for the growth of the virus from a second open reading frame in the M2 mRNA. Pneumonia mice virus (PMV) is closely related to HRSV and also uses coupled translation to express the M2-2 protein, The aim of this project is to investigate the mechanism by which the expression of the PVM M2-2 protein is controlled, with the ultimate aim of designing interventions to inhibit virus growth. This will then be translated into the HRSV system.

The project will specifically focus on highly conserved nucleotide sequence requirements that control the process, in both PVM and HRSV. Mutated sequences of PMV DNA will be ligated into plasmids and used to transfect tissue culture cells. The expression of the M2-2 protein will be detected through ELISA. Using a range of mutations the essential sequences for coupled translation will be identified. This will provide insight into the mechanism by which the process occurs and will aid in the design of drugs to treat HRSV and ultimately minimize the impact of the disease.

(Please note the research project will be carried out summer 2015 as an URSS project and results been obtained then.)

Braid theory is the study of mathematical braids, inspired by braids found in clothing and rope. The topological construct of braids forms a group called the braid group. The braid group distills the key properties of braids and describes how braids interact with each other under operations such as composition and inversion. There exists a surjective group homomorphism from the braid group to the symmetric group. The kernel of the homomorphism is the pure braid group. We consider the commutator subgroup of the pure braid group. Currently presentations are known for both the braid group and the pure braid group. We consider the commutator subgroup of the pure braid group and compute a presentation using the Schreier method. We then move on and consider applications to the infinitesimal pure braid group. We then consider applications to ring theory and knot theory. Knots and braids model cell DNA. A famous example of a DNA braid is the double helix. By applying knot and braid theory results we can predict how many different types of knot DNA can form and if it is possible for a particular knot of DNA to be untangled.