Chinese Scholarship on Chinese Export Art for European Markets, 1572-1620 with Dr Elsje van Kessel

The aim of the proposed project has been to produce a bibliography of Chinese scholarship on export art produced for European markets during China’s Wanli period (1572-1620). The assistantship took place in conjunction with my current research project ‘Stolen Ships and Globalisation: Asian Material Culture in Europe c. 1600’. I am investigating the European circulation of East Asian art objects at the turn of the seventeenth century (objects such as Chinese blue-and-white porcelain), yet because of language barriers I have only limited access to the significant body of Chinese scholarship on this topic. The student’s input into the project was designed to help me with this. Over the course of the second semester, the student surveyed recent Chinese-language literature about Chinese export art for Europe and organised relevant scholarship into an annotated bibliography.

 

After an introductory period, in which I set up a database in Zotero and the student familiarised herself with the most pertinent English language literature, she got started and gradually filled up the database with relevant studies. She organised the entries into various themes and subthemes, and translated all titles into English, so that the database is now bilingual English and Chinese. The final phase of the project consisted of translating abstracts of selected papers and, in cases where such abstracts were lacking, writing summaries from scratch. Throughout the project, we had regular conversations, usually once a week, and these were important for both of us: I monitored progress and gave instructions, while she gave me deeper insights into the themes, problems and approaches she was finding during her reading.

 

In the end, the project as a whole was mutually beneficial. It has given me insight into a body of scholarship on a topic relevant to my work, and, on a more general level, has helped me think about the challenges of doing transnational art history. For the student, the project has given in-depth knowledge of a particular aspect of Chinese art history that our regular curriculum does not cover. More importantly, still, it has enabled her to be involved in art historical research and train her analytical skills in a way that is usually accessible only to much more advanced students. Moving into second year after the summer, the student completed the project in an impressive manner.

Project title: Sexual selection and mate choice in the bug Lygaeus simulans with Dr David Shuker

The intern joined us to work on research aimed at understanding how pre- and post-copulatory sexual selection interact in the seed bug Lygaeus simulans. In particular, Mia was involved in undertaking experiments looking at patterns of sperm competition in L. simulans, using a recently isolated visible mutant (the “pale” mutant). Briefly, the sperm competition experiment involved twice-mating females to either wild-type or pale males, in a fully reciprocal design, and then phenotyping offspring to assign parentage to either one male or the other. Our bugs are characterised by remarkably high levels of “mating failure” (copulations that do not involve sperm transfer) and we wished to characterise patterns of paternity in the light of this high level of failed inseminations, ultimately with the aim of ascribing variation in sperm transfer success to males, females, or both. In addition to phenotyping offspring, Mia measured the body sizes of experimental bugs, calculating the repeatability of her measurements as part of that process (the repeatability was very high, in excess of 90%).

The results from the sperm competition experiment are still being analysed, led by my PhD student Vicki Balfour. We will include Mia in the process of statistical analysis and the writing of the resulting manuscript. While she was in the lab, Mia also helped with bugs from another experiment during busy experimental days, an experiment characterising so-called “Bateman Gradients” (the relationship between mating success and reproductive success), led by a Masters intern Cédric Aumont. We will again include Mia in the writing process, which is already well underway.

In summary, Mia was a dedicated and committed member of the lab, always thinking and asking questions, and eager to help beyond her own project. I think she has got a great deal from her time in the lab and will strongly recommend her to others, or indeed welcome her back in the lab in the future.

 

Comparative aspects of regeneration in amphioxus species with Ildiko Somorjai

My laboratory addresses comparative aspects of development and regeneration, focusing on the invertebrate chordate model amphioxus, a good proxy for the vertebrate ancestor. With the exception of some species, vertebrates on the whole regenerate poorly as adults. In contrast, my research shows that the European amphioxus Branchiostoma lanceolatum can regenerate its entire tail, including the nerve cord. We are interested in understanding whether regenerative capacity is conserved across species of the Cephalochordata, whether embryological processes are reinitiated during regeneration, and how ageing affects regenerative ability.

The student took advantage of available specimens of another species, Branchiostoma floridae, to begin to address these questions. He photographed and began to quantify regeneration in adults of known ages. He also collected a large series of data from stained cross-sections of regenerating tails at different stages post-amputation to look at changes at the cellular level. This is a time consuming exercise requiring careful and precise imaging, which he diligently completed. Combined, these datasets allow comparison with regeneration data in B. lanceolatum, as well as are careful quantification of regeneration rate during ageing. In combination with the regeneration quantification experiments, the student was able to observe and participate in molecular experimental techniques including in situ hybridisation to monitor gene expression (an extended protocol including immunohistochemistry steps), and phalloidin staining of F-actin in amphioxus embryos to look at cellular morphology. These techniques require full-time lab work over the course of a week, and thus are not compatible with coursework during term-time. However, the student observed these during the break in order to become familiar with these key developmental biology methodologies. He also assisted in an evening spawning after the end of term, as well as a number of lab meetings over the course of the semester, attesting to his desire to make the most out of the RA scheme. Overall, he accomplished the majority of the goals set out in the project for him, and hopes to return in the summer when he will be free to perform his own embryological experiments.

 

Development of new experiment for the undergraduate teaching labs 

Three students were involved in this project. One student redeveloped and enhanced an experiment that was previously used in level 2 labs, but was removed due to a reorganisation of content. The experiment has now been made suitable for the current level 2 and has been rolled out this coming academic year (2018/19). The student spent the remainder of her time beginning development of a potential experiment to replace one that currently generates a large amount of metal waste. This worked well overall but still has some issues that will need further testing before this can be rolled out to the labs.

The second student spent her project time investigating an experiment that could be turned into ‘research led’ experiment for our new CH4421 Research skills lab, invoking the students to plan, prepare and research the necessary details themselves. These types of experiments are useful at bridging the gap between teaching labs and research. One of these experiments will be rolled out next academic year if the class size increases such that we need more experiments.

the third student also attempted to develop a few of these types of experiments, but sadly with limited success. However, JHM did manage to test and develop a short experiment for the 2nd year labs which focused on phosphorus chemistry. This relates strongly to the lecture material. Part of JHM’s development work is now included in the current CH2501 labs.

Without the support of this funding, the improvements to the chemistry teaching labs would not have been possible. BAC is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to host students to continually develop and make our teaching labs the best they can be.

Visualising War with Dr Alice Konig and Dr Nicolas Wiater

The aim of the project was to build up a database of battle narratives across antiquity, from different periods, places, genres and media, with a view to exploring interplay between them. Stage 1 required the student to read through the dataset already generated by last year’s URA, to get a sense of the spread of material and potential gaps, then edit the existing materials. Stage 2, the student identified battle narratives that might contrast and/or overlap with others in interesting and thought-provoking ways (the emphasis of the project is on INTERPLAY between battle narratives, and more generally we are trying to uncover the poetics of the battle narrative as a complex network of ideas that crosses between genres, media, time periods and places, mix images (painting, sculpture, funerary art, etc), epigraphy and texts (epic, historiographic, satiric, elegiac, rhetorical, novelistic, philosophical, technical/scientific, administrative, legal, etc), mix of familiar and not so well known (perhaps veer towards the latter), including Greek, Latin, Jewish, early Christian, near-Eastern (e.g. Babylonian, Mesopotamian, Persian, Syriac), African (Carthage, Egypt, etc), Gallic, Celtic etc., ranging from c. 8^th c. BC to c. 4^th c. AD. 

 

These texts/images need preparing for publication on our project website. A (zoomable) map-page (with hover-point pop-ups, highlighting chronological and thematic clusters of battle narratives) will click through to individual ‘blog’ pieces on each image/text, identifying key features of the battle narrative in question and links/overlaps/contrasts with other texts/images in (and beyond) our collection

 

A document on each item, offering:

• A summary of identifying factors for each battle narrative (e.g. date, provenence, author, genre/medium, etc)
• An overview of key features of each battle narrative (such as autopsy, collective action, sharp weaponry, deceit, strategic cunning, luck, landscape, etc)
• A list of other texts/images within the collection with which there are parallels
• A list of texts/images with which there are significant contrasts
• A list (where relevant) of other texts/images beyond our database, which readers of the website might turn to in their own time

This data will be used to create hyperlinks and thematic/regional/chronological clusters. Ideally, we will need a hierarchy of tags, as well as category descriptions.

 

Travels and Marvels project with Dr Alexia Petsalis Diomidis

TASK ONE

To search the catalogues of the Museum of the University of St Andrews to identify any objects relating to marvels and St Andrews as a place of pilgrimage; producing brief research notes on how these objects might be used in a future exhibition, in consultation with Alison Hadfield, Learning and Access Curator at MUSA. Initial research was carried out on the online catalogue to longlist objects; followed by email correspondence with curators at MUSA for further information on these objects; some visits to Musa to consult the paper object files.

TASK TWO

To develop and produce teaching materials based on handouts etc used in outreach activities in Lawhead Primary School in April 2018; with a view to expand the provision of this paedagogical engagement to other schools.

TASK THREE

To set up, conduct and record interviews with golfers on the subject of their experience of travel, movement in the game of golf and around St Andrews. The intention is to use this archive of interviews at the Travels and Marvels conference in May 2019 and possibly in a future exhibition.

A feasibility study of OCR for early French books with Mark-Jan Nederhof

The motivation for this project was an initiative of Clive Sneddon (emeritus, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies) and Simon Dobson to explore the feasibility of applying OCR on Mediaeval French bibles, with the ultimate aim to obtain their digitisations, including transcriptions, in a cost-effective manner. Digitised representations are essential for systematic study of differences between versions, and for creating inventories of orthographic conventions in these texts.

 

A first step towards exploring the feasibility was to apply an on-the-shelf OCR tool on a small sample of early French texts, and this is what the student project was involved with. We have chosen for the Python tool OCRopus, as it is open source, easy to install, is widely reported to give competitive accuracy, and can be trained on custom scripts and fonts.

 

The intern considered 6 pages from a printed bible from 1543. The scans were provided by the Special Collections group of the university library. Manual transcriptions were produced, and with the help of these, OCRopus was trained and accuracy could be determined. It was established that with only a few pages for training, an accuracy of about 4 mistakes per line is achievable. A report was written with a summary of the experiments, and with a detailed set of instructions how to do the training and testing with OCRopus.

 

Preparing the iVoLVER Platform for Easy Extension and Public Release with Miguel Nacenta

iVoLVER is a research API designed and developed at the School of Computer Science of the University of St Andrews. This API enables programmers to easily create web visual programming interfaces that support people who cannot or do not want to program textually, and to create visualizations of data, including data that is not in structured formats (e.g., from data in the environment such as photos). The iVoLVER project’s next step is to share the platform with the world, enabling other research groups and companies to extend or integrate the interface for their own research or products (potential for impact). However, before this can happen it needs to be structured, cleaned up, and integrated with some new functionality. The intern worked on this area helping along the project team, learning software development within research teams as well as the processes of interactive design and Human-Computer Interaction principle application.

 

Identification and Classification of subtle human gestures using a high frequency IMU (Accelero-Gyro) based unit with Aaron Quigley

 

The project was a hand gesture recognition system for external interface control. The student made use of a highly sensitive integrated accelerometer (4Khz) and gyroscope (32Khz) sensor unit which was interfaced with the Teensy 3.2 microcontroller.

 

The aim of the project was to detect extremely subtle changes in all hand related orientations and movements etc. We have been successful in classifying and differentiating four major different types of gestures – anticlockwise and clockwise rotational hand movements, opening and closure of fist and two finger movements. By such a classification, we could make use of various degrees of movements for any external control. The hardware individual sensor.

 

Sensory signal analysis, peak detection over univariate time series after Z-score, spectral and Fourier analysis and a supervised classifier for gesture categorization was implemented in Python.

 

At the first stage of classification, each individual gesture was simply differentiated on the basis of their varied FFT peaks. Peak-to-peak detection over amplitude and FFT data was used to categorise all four gestures. A supervised learning algorithm (NN based) was also implemented on the captured frame of each gesture for better accuracy. Another approach tested was a prior based probabilistic estimation model whereby the model predicted the next x,y,z cartesian coordinates of the gyroscope based on the last four prior x,y,z coordinates whereby accuracy attained was <64%.

 

Further research and developments needs to be carried out in the Bayesian probabilistic estimation approach to improve on the results.

Mood-driven Choices and Self-Regulation with Kemal Ozbek

An ordinary individual should consider all alternatives that are available to her and choose the one that best satisfies her normative objectives. However, there are many mood-driven factors, such as addiction, temptation, or inattention, which can lead to choices conflicting with long-term objectives. As such, the individual, who is concerned that moods might jeopardize her long-term objectives, has an incentive to take precautionary actions, so as to regulate her-self to avoid making inferior choices.

 

For instance, temporary cravings for nicotine may lead the individual to smoke, especially when she is feeling stressed, anxious, or irresolute, which conflict with her long-term goal to quit smoking. As a result, there is an incentive for the individual to exert effort, so as to better resist cravings, reduce their frequency, or lessen their intensity, where these efforts could be physical (e.g., exercise, rest), mental (e.g., meditation, self-motivation), or could take many other forms (e.g., medical, social, monetary).

 

Two students were involved in this project and provided a review of the current state of knowledge in economics and psychology literatures on findings about (i) how moods affect choice behaviour, and (ii) how precautionary actions, aimed at regulating moods, can be used to improve choice behaviour.

 

The locations of WWII bombs and the persistence of within-city deprivation with Alex Trew

Our research project looks to understand the location and persistence of the most deprived parts of cities in the UK. The hypothesis is that the poor neighbourhoods were concentrated in those areas most affected by the highly pollutive factories that emerged during the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century. The research assistants’ task was to use maps we have already collected in digital form to place markers that identify the location and characteristics of bombs that were dropped during World War II. We will then use this information to ask whether, first, the more deprived areas do indeed respond to the intensity of pollution and, second, whether the effects of that (now absent pollution) are still felt to the modern day.  Two interns were guided to use the software and were allocated to a selection of cities to work with.

 

Women's agency and demographic outcomes with Vibhor Saxena

The research project is looking into the demographic outcomes in India. The female to male sex ratios have declined in India in the early age groups. However, there is a recent trend of declining sex ratios throughout the age group of 25 – sex ratios start improving after this. We are looking into the impact of economic development and women’s agency on this U-shaped relationship. The role of RAs was to collect the district level data on male and female population for the age group of 0 – 25. They have collected dataset of 2001 and 2011 census. This data will then be merged with 1981 and 1991 data to construct a panel of district level sex ratios. Three interns were trained to collect dataset from the government of India’s Census websites and were allocated to a selection of districts to work with. Each of the students did great work, learned the data collection process quickly and were extremely diligent in the activity given to them.

 

Can options market makers drive the stock prices? with Ruslan Tuneshev

The project involved one student who prepared a detailed report describing the mechanics of options markets (including the economics of options trading) and highlighting the properties of stock options. The student thoroughly studied six factors affecting the value of a stock option and put-call parity. Furthermore, the student acquired and demonstrated a deep understanding of such concepts as volatility smile, complicated trading strategies with options and the importance of Greek letters.

 

Second, the student made big progress with further exploring the idea of how options illiquidity affects stock prices. The student started reviewing an existing literature on informed trading and its effect on asset prices. Next, we have developed a stylized framework trying to figure out the effect of market maker’s trading on stock prices. We have had one or two meetings every week to discuss findings and new results. The student has prepared a very comprehensive literature review, including comparative statics from stylized framework, on options illiquidity as well as market makers’ costs and risks. Overall, I am very happy with the student’s progress and with knowledge he has acquired while doing this project. 

 

Storybooks as a tool to promote literacy: content, language and quality with Vibhor Saxena

This research involved  carrying out a bibliographic research on the theme: "Storybooks as a tool to promote literacy: content, language and quality." Specifically, the student worked on the sub-theme of interventions which specifically attempted to change social norms using storybooks. She collected literature from economics, education and psychology related to interventions using children's storybooks to promote literacy and changes in cultural norms or prejudices. Selected papers were then assessed based on the rigour of their study design, their findings were summarised, and finally were assembled in an annotated bibliography. The student then extended this research on the topic of using story books to overcome racial stereotypes: a topic she chose herself to advance the project.

 

The student produced two excellent literature reviews, both clearly-presented and containing highly relevant research papers. The work she produced went above and beyond my expectations for the project. All deadlines were met and responses were prompt. With her help, I have compiled an extensive collection of papers to advance my knowledge in this area: I hope to use this literature in my research work with Save the Children's Children's Book Initiative.

Creating Documentary Impact with Dr Leshu Torchin

Creating Documentary Impact is a project in its nascent stages with an overall goal to produce a website for grassroots activists and filmmakers to find and determine best strategies and practices for producing social change through film and video.

 

 The intern conducted independent research to produce a spreadsheet of resources that can educate filmmakers in ways that documentary film can be mobilised for impact. As such, it involved the following activities:

 

• Sourcing materials: What essays, online resources, etc. can be collected and used for developing case studies?
• Determining entries/categories: What are the key terms for searching or ordering materials? (Filmmaker names, film titles, tactics for advocacy, partners, resources…)
• Writing up brief case studies in which a film has been used for activism, advocacy, and social change. It explains how (with attention to whether action occurred in development, production, exhibition, or distribution process) and is linked to resources in which a person can learn more.

History of costume design materials with Lucy Donaldson

The project required the intern to source a range of historical materials on costume and costume design, using historical sources (primarily the Media Lantern site http://lantern.mediahist.org/) for any materials relating to costume and costume design. A specific area of interest was interviews or articles featuring costume designers, as well as stars and costume. The student has produced an annotated bibliography and image database. During the project she has shown great diligence and initiative, and the materials that she has found and collated cover a range of costume design/fashion materials from the 1910s-1950s. The student was able to use her own interest/knowledge to source really exciting materials that uncover a whole host of unknown names in costume design, and to provide a great selection of materials that show the cross-over of costume design, fashion and star images. The project provides a great basis for me to build further research on.

 

Make-up design materials with Lucy Donaldson

This project asked the intern to source a range of materials on make-up design, including interviews and journal articles. The student built a fantastic annotated bibliography of a variety of articles/books relating to make-up design, sources which range from more practical/popular histories to scholarly materials. The student also put together a series of film case studies with materials on their make-up design, as well as selections from interviews (not always focused on make-up but addressing its use or importance in a particular film). The intern did an excellent job, following her own initiative in discussions with me, to source some really fascinating material which will be a huge asset to my teaching and research. In particular, the student was able to draw on her own interests/research strengths in exploring make-up in relation to gender and race. She worked independently very well, and it was great to see her make the most of the opportunity.

 

Festivals and Academics with Dina Iordanova

An intern was appointed with a brief to attend the London Film Festival and specifically scrutinize the spatial organization and the venues used by the festival. The intern presented an extended report, which not only covered the material I had requested him to research but also commented on the programme, architecture and on some of the films that the festival had played. Subsequently, he also prepared a shorter version of the report which was successfully published under the Point of View rubric in our doctoral research journal, FRAMES CINEMA JOURNAL, and which could be viewed here: http://framescinemajournal.com/article/framed-space-and-framing-spaces-61st-bfi-london-film-festival-in-review/

 

Thus, the project was not only completed but also exceeded expectations, and resulted in a good publication which benefits the both film festival research community, as well as the student. I am myself using some of the observations in the longer report toward my work that scrutinizes the spatial organization of venues of film festivals.

Operação Lava Jato: A network chronology for Brazil’s ‘Lava Jato’ investigation with Dr William Vlcek

Over the past three years the on-going bribery and corruption scandal known as ‘Lava Jato’ (‘Car Wash’) has disrupted political society in Brazil.  Through the bribery practices of Brazilian multinational firms this scandal has extended its reach into other Latin American states, and attracted the attention of the US Department of Justice.  This research assistantship will contribute to an investigation on the implementation of anti-money laundering guidance in Latin America.  The specific task is to produce a chronological network map identifying the individuals, firms and consequences (e.g. fines and convictions), along with the public officials (judges, prosecutors, etc.) investigating the case.

 

This project was completed as planned.  The student produced a 20-page report with tables, figures and bibliography.  She summarised the identified participants behind this corruption scandal in Brazil and then situated them in chronological groups to help contextualise the evolution of the scandal.   This report will be particularly beneficial to me because the student included information from Brazilian sources for which I do not have the Portuguese language skills.  One especially useful Brazilian source is an archive of documents seized from Odebrecht, a multinational construction firm revealed to have engaged in corrupt practices in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America.  These documents included the ‘codenames’ for the recipients for the firm’s bribes, offering insight for the presence of cultural practices (nicknames) in the conduct of the firm’s bribery operations.  My intention is to incorporate this research as part of a Brazilian case study in future papers on corruption and anti-money laundering regulations.

 

Great Power Authoritarianism with Chris Ogden

This project related to contemporary authoritarianism among the international system's great powers - namely Russia, China, India and the US.  The aim of the project was to discern areas of commonality / difference within the political foundations, institutions and guiding security practices of these four states, and from this basis then compare the extent of authoritarian tendencies within them.  Rather than seeing authoritarianism and democracy as dichotomous concepts, the research instead worked from the understanding that they are interlinked across the same spectrum, which allowed for a comparison of diverse political states to take place. 

 

The RA collected empirical data concerning Russia and the US and compiled a literature review of pertinent theoretical and empirical concepts / approaches, as well as sending me PDF copies of all the academic articles covered by the literature review.  By doing so, she greatly helped with this research project and gave me access to information for future comparison with my two major established research areas on China and India.  In turn, carrying out this RA project also significantly contributed to the student's intellectual development / knowledge, as was displayed in our meetings on this topic and also by her written work.  A curious and inquisitive manner coupled with a hardworking and dedicated approach aided these accomplishments.

 

(New) World Order with Marit Eriksson

This project related to world order and how it has been explained / discussed / defined in international relations.  The aim of the project was to discern how this term has featured in the literature, and to produce a literature review on this subject that pulls out geographical and historical nuances, as well as thinking about how disciplines outside IR have dealt with this subject.  It is intended to then set up the staff member's next research project relating to a Chinese world order.

 

The RA collected empirical data, and compiled a literature review of pertinent theoretical and empirical concepts / approaches, as well as sending me PDF copies of all the academic articles covered by the literature review.  By doing so, she greatly helped with this research project.  In turn, carrying out this RA project also significantly contributed to the student's intellectual development / knowledge, as was displayed in our meetings on this topic and also by her written work.  A curious and inquisitive manner coupled with a hardworking and dedicated approach aided these accomplishments.

 

Post-conflict statebuilding with Mateja Peter

The student’s involvement in this project was to provide research assistance to Dr Mateja Peter for her project on international authority in post-conflict state building. The student worked with empirical material on Bosnia and Herzegovina, constructing a database and researching news reporting on the country in the English language media. Her work feeds into Dr Peter’s longitudinal study of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, covering the period between 1995 and 2015. The database will serve as a basis for statistical representation of decisions and policies of the key international mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is a contribution to scholarly knowledge by itself. The student’s  work was diligent and thoughtful and her part in the overall project has been completed satisfactorily.

How Philanthropy Shapes Scotland: An Online Story Map with Shona Russell, Dr Tobias Jung and Dr Alina Baluch

Scotland and philanthropy have a longstanding and inseparable relationship. Alongside being the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie, Scotland itself has been, and continues to be, shaped through the gifts and actions of philanthropy. Examples include the influence of the Younger family in St Andrews (Younger Hall, All Saints Church, Craigtoun Country Park), the gifts by McEwan and Usher respectively to establish landmark graduation and concert halls in Edinburgh, and the role of philanthropy in establishing Glasgow’s Merchant House and Women’s Library.

 

So far, however, the role of philanthropy in shaping Scotland has only seen limited academic exploration. To address this knowledge gap, the Centre for the Study of Philanthropy & Public Good is in the process of developing an online story map that will provide a spatial and temporal account of philanthropy in Scotland. Initially focusing on philanthropy within the areas of St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the map will allow users to identify and learn about places of philanthropic interest: what is their history and role; what were philanthropy’s motives and drivers; and what role and influence have these gifts had? Further information on the project is available at http://www.philanthropy.scot/philanthropy-shapes-scotland-online-story-map/ .

 

One student undertook desk-based research which assisted in the identification of resources associated with historical philanthropic activities in Edinburgh from the 1800s to the present. Furthermore, the student contributed to the design and development of a stakeholder workshop on Scottish philanthropy in Glasgow.

 

A second student created a copyright protocol document, which outlines guidelines for understanding copyright law, when images can and cannot be used, and how to label them. In addition, the student catalogued existing images with copyright accreditation and conducted biographical research for the ‘philanthropist of the month’ component of the Philanthropy Map project. Finally, the student uploaded information to the online mapping tool. 

 

A rich archive of philanthropists (individuals and groups) and philanthropic activities in Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews has now been created. The resulting archive and dataset forms the basis for work next semester which will generate and curate narratives for the online story map and for future research projects and research outputs examining philanthropy in Scotland, spanning themes of gender, place, social ties, and reciprocity. The student successfully contributed to building and developing the project’s underpinning dataset.

Kisspeptins (Kiss) with Dr Javier Tello

Kisspeptins (Kiss) are neuropeptides that control reproductive physiology through actions on gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons in the hypothalamus. Kiss neurons located in the medial amygdala (MeA) have recently raised interest due to the possible role of linking reproductive behaviour with reproductive endocrine responses. A subset of amygdala Kiss neurons send long-range projections to GnRH neurons in the hypothalamus and activation of amygdala Kiss neurons increases social interaction and enhances partner preference in male mice coincident with raising reproductive hormone levels. However, GnRH neurons are modulated both by neuropeptides such as Kiss but also by neurotransmitters such as glutamate (excitatory) and GABA (inhibitory), which are fundamental for reproductive function and behaviours. The student undertook multiplexed in situ hybridization/immunohistochemistry experiments on brain sections from transgenic mice to investigate the neurotransmitter composition of MeA Kiss neurons. He revealed that 71% of MeA Kiss neurons express the inhibitory GABAergic marker, 29% express the excitatory neurotransmitter marker (Vglut2) and 6% express both. He helped to reveal that MeA Kiss neurons consist of a mixed population likely functioning through an interplay of neuropeptide and neurotransmitter signalling. His analysis has been included in a recent manuscript submitted to Neuroendocrinology for publication, in which he is a listed co-author.

 

Relationship between parental health anxiety and health behaviours in paediatric health promotion with Dr Gozde Ozakinci

The student will be involved in the Relationship between parental health anxiety and health behaviours in paediatric health promotion.  Participants will be asked to complete an adapted short health anxiety inventory (SHAI), parental feeding questionnaire (PFQ), as well as a short interview obtaining some basic demographical information of their child, and their perception of their child’s health. They will then read some information related to childhood obesity, and repeat a PFQ and short interview, about their opinion on their child’s health and obesity. Parents with children aged 4-12 will be invited as participants, and the research will take place within the School of Medicine.

 

Develop learning resources and academic skills with Dr Ruth Cruickshank 

Two student internships involved working collaboratively with CAPOD to develop learning resources and academic skills sessions more specific for the needs of students studying on the BSc (Hons) Medicine courses. In addition the student interns receive training to allow them to help assist in the delivery of academic study skills sessions to medical students in the coming academic year.

Rwandan Stories of Change: Editing of Testimonies from Rwandan Survivors and Perpetrators with Dr Hannah Grayson

This AHRC–funded project is translating and analyzing a selection of testimonies from survivors and perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Once translated, the testimonies will be stored in the Genocide Archive of Rwanda in Kigali and a selection published in a book by UK publisher I.B. Tauris. Two students worked closely with Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Hannah Grayson to check and edit the English versions of the testimonies. Through their work on the project, the students acquired transferable skills of proof-reading, copy-editing and working to deadlines. Dr Grayson met with the students initially to brief them about the project and the challenges of the work, and both responded maturely to those challenges. The students worked extremely efficiently on the proofreading they were given, covering a large amount of text in the given time. They were responsible and sensitive in carrying out the work and got in touch with any queries they had. The final work they handed in was thoroughly completed, and will form a vital contribution to our publication, a book of selected testimonies to be published by I.B. Tauris in Spring 2019. This book will support an impact case study currently being prepared for REF 2021.

 

Dickens in Russia with Dr Emily Finer

The intern’s contributions to the research project involved searching for references to the works of Charles Dickens in pre-1917 journals and magazines for children on the Russian National Children’s Library online archive (4 blocks); and, curating a RuNet presence and updating message boards (2 blocks). I believe that this research has proven useful to the intern because it has overlapped with the undergraduate honours module “Russian Children’s Literature RU4133” that she took this semester. During this second semester some of the time allocated for searching the Russian National Children’s Library was used instead for searching the RuNet for multiple Russian translations of the same passage from Our Mutual Friend. The project was completed successfully and findings  presented in a useful format. I was able to explore this material at an interdisciplinary conference “Crosscurrents of Commensuration” organised by the Limits of the Numerical Project, CRASSH, University of Cambridge, on 16-17^th April.

 

Setting up a website on contemporary French writer Annie Ernaux with Elise Hugueny-Leger

Over the course of the past year, an intern carried out extensive bibliographical work, compiling all resources available on Annie Ernaux - one of the most prominent contemporary French authors. This includes primary sources, books, chapters, articles, audiovisual material, digital material, and interviews. The student formatted the bibliography and transferred it onto the website, which has been set up with help from Mary Woodcock Kroble. The student diligently checked references and provided hyperlinks where possible, so that website users can access the documents whenever they're available online.

 

The website still requires some work and specialist input before it can be launched, but the bibliography being the largest section of the website, this contribution is very significant, and will be acknowledged appropriately on the website.

The Ethics of Public Policy with Ben Sachs

An intern was assigned to complete a literature review on the ethics of public policy.  Using various databases, her first step was to compile an annotated bibliography of books and articles that have been published on the topic.  She came to grips with this literature entirely on her own; I knew very little about it going in and provided very little help to her in figuring out where to look. 

 

Based on her annotations I selected four books from the list that I decided I’d like to know more about.  The student’s second step, then, was to read those four books and write up a detailed outline of each.  Her outlines were well organized, clear, and extremely helpful.  She also updated her annotated bibliography along the way, as she became aware of further relevant readings.  Overall, I’m very pleased with the work the student has carried out; it’ll be very helpful to me as I begin to do research on the ethics of public policy.

 

Effective Altruism Teaching Resources with Theron Pummer

An intern was assigned the task of constructing a comprehensive list and providing brief summaries of published academic works that explicitly discuss Effective Altruism, and teaching resources that are designed to communicate relevant ethical ideas to a general audience. 

 

The intern provided me with a clearly written and well-organized map of the different online teaching resources that currently exist, with detailed bullet-point summaries of each, which will be very useful to me going forward (working with PG RAs) creating my own online teaching resources that fills in the missing gaps. More information about the Effective Altruism project at St Andrews can be found here: http://ceppa.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/research-projects/effective-altruism/

 

Best Practices in Blogging as an Element of Assessment in Undergraduate Modules with Dr Ben Sachs and Dr Lisa Jones

The purpose of this project was to assist Drs. Sachs and Jones in their ongoing effort to identify the best way to design an assessed blogging component for undergraduate modules.  Three Interns were assigned to work collaboratively in collecting evidence on this matter and producing a report, complete with design options.

 

The interns worked diligently and produced a very good report.  They found that students who have been assessed on blogging are universally in favour of the use of that assessment method.  They also found that students would like very clear, rigorous guidance on how to produce an acceptable blog post.  In addition, Zoey, the intern produced a scoring rubric for blog posts and recommended Google Classroom as the optimal host for a module-based blog.

 

‘We will be taking their findings under consideration for future curriculum and assessment design, and overall we are very happy with the work the students did on this project’. 

Changing parameters to explore a neuro-cognitive model of visual research with Dr Michaesl Oram

The project intended to study the neuronal model of decision making process in visual search. We designed an experiment to explore the influence of different set sizes in visual search processing. We firstly set a pilot study to collect participants’ reaction time and their accuracy of spotting the target letter. The two-way ANOVA method was applied to find the influence of set size and number of targets (DV) on reaction time and accuracy (IV). The result showed that, for reaction time, there is no clear redundancy effect, although there is clear redundancy effect in terms of accuracy. In addition, when the target letter is absent, as set size increases, the variance of drift rate decreases. This suggested that visual search processing might not be purely parallel. The intern gained rich experience on setting up experiments, particularly how to do-modeling and analyzing data using SPSS and so on. Future research could focus on separating decision latency and the motor latency, or adapting the linear formula of the LATER model.

 

The mechanisms underlying mirror reading and writing with Dr Ines Jentzsch

In this summer project we wanted to investigate whether words are processed as objects that are subject to object consistency rules and how recognizing geometrically transformed text can be facilitated by language learning.

Twenty participants were recruited using the university’s SONA system; Participants completed a word identification task (living versus non-living), using normally oriented, partially or wholly mirror inverted words (see examples above). Also as shown in the examples above, each word was surrounded by a frame that was compatible with the word-outline or incompatible. Behavioural data (speed and accuracy), as well as EEG data were analysed to investigate both the effect of mirror inversion as well as frame compatibility.

 

Behavioural data showed that participants were significantly slower for the partially and fully inverted words compared to the normally oriented worded, with no significant behavioural differences between the two former. Participants were general faster for compatible than incompatible trials. The compatibility effect was confirmed in the EEG data at parieto-occipital electrode sites. Together, these findings support the idea that words are processed as objects as the irrelevant frame clearly affected word reading in this task.

 

Student Training/Experience: During the summer internship the student got involved in all aspects of the research, from experimental design to data analysis and write-up. The student learned the basics of experimental programming using ERTS, EEG testing and behavioural data collection as well as basic EEG analysis procedures using BESA, KN-Format and SPSS. The money provided by the school was paid as a summer intern scholarship to Natalia. All research expenses were covered by the supervisor from her class grant.