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source: University of Oxford 2016年12月6日 Patricia Scotland QC discusses The Commonwealth’s distinctive contribution to areas of pressing global concern, such as climate change, countering violent extremism, and eliminating violence against women and girls. She described how The Commonwealth’s hallmark characteristics of connectedness, consensus and goodwill are bringing ‘soul’ to international affairs. From its beginnings in the late 19th century, The Commonwealth has evolved through an era of decolonisation and independence. It is bound by much more than governments, with deep links in education and civil society. Today it is home to 2.2 billion citizens, almost two thirds of them under the age of 30.
source: University of Oxford 2016年10月25日
Hau Ming Tse, Research Fellow in the Department of Education, as well as students and teachers from Northfleet Technology College, talk about how the design of their new school building has affected learning.
The new school building was designed by architects, teachers and students to ensure that their modern style of teaching and learning was reflected in the building itself.
Design Matters is a project led by Harry Daniels, Professor of Education in Oxford’s Department of Education. The AHRC funded project investigates the effects of newly designed schools on their users, particularly students and teachers. This addresses an important policy issue but also has implications for architectural practice, educational theory and methodology. Visit http://designmatters.education.ox.ac.uk
You can watch more films and animations about Social Sciences research and impact at: www.socsci.ox.ac.uk/research/videos
source: University of Oxford 2016年10月4日
Invisible to the naked eye, yet a constant presence, microbes ('germs') live in, on and around us.
The researchers in this project collaborate with members of the public to explore and experiment on the microbial life in their kitchens (and in one instance - a cat) and starts to unpick what we really mean by 'clean' and 'dirty'.
source: University of Oxford 2016年8月19日
It is 300 years since the birth of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, who designed the gardens of some of England’s most beloved country houses. Dr Oliver Cox, Heritage Engagement Fellow at the University, tells us about ‘the man behind England’s green and pleasant land’.
source: University of Oxford 2016年8月9日
Dr Stuart Lee, lecturer in the Faculty of English and an expert on J.R.R. Tolkien, explains what we can learn about the Lord of the Rings author from 90 minutes of unbroadcast footage of him, which Dr Lee uncovered in the BBC archive.
source: OxfordSparks 2015年11月9日
How do you know when it's time to wake up or go to sleep? More powerful than any alarm are your circadian rhythms. In this animation we take a look at how these rhythms work and what controls them, inspired by the TeenSleep project being carried out at the University to look at how later start times at school might affect achievement.
How does our body know when it’s time to sleep?
Humans detect light through the eye. Light enters the eye and is focused onto the retina at the back of eye. The retina contains photoreceptive cells that detect light and send this information to the brain, via the optic nerve. The most obvious outcome of this process is the ability to form images; to see. Image-forming vision depends upon rod and cone photoreceptors, which are critical for low light vision and bright light colour vision, respectively. However, it was discovered in 1999 that the circadian system of animals lacking rods and cones could still respond to light. This led to the discovery of a new class of photoreceptive cells: the photo-sensitive retinal ganglion cells (pRGCs), which express the light sensitive pigment melanopsin. These pigments undergo a chemical reaction when they absorb light, which causes the ganglion nerve cells to fire signals to the brain.
These signals from the melanopsin pRGCs feed directly into the Suprachiasmatic Nuclei (SCN). These are cells in the hypothalamus, near the base of the brain, which contains the master circadian clock (or pacemaker). The SCN orchestrates our circadian processes, to make sure that systems throughout our bodies are working together, in time. This system is also involved in controlling our sleep-wake cycle. As the level of light gradually decreases at the start of the night we produce increasing levels of a hormone called melatonin. Melatonin plays a vital role in our day-night cycles, acting as an internal signal of night time.
Why is being exposed to light at the wrong time so bad?
If we are exposed to light at the wrong time, say because we work night shifts, this confuses our system. Light suppresses the production of melatonin, and promotes wakefulness. We delay our sleep and other circadian and sleep-dependent processes. We can work nightshifts for years and our circadian system will not adapt to our new sleep-wake cycle – primarily because we are exposed to natural light during the day, which is far brighter than artificial light sources. This leads to a whole host of problems. Working through the night means we are working when our bodies are craving sleep.
Is it different for teenagers?
The reason we are so interested in sleep during adolescence is because our circadian rhythms change during this period. From the age of 10 until around 21 our circadian rhythms delay. This means that as we go through adolescence and into early adulthood we are naturally more inclined to go to bed later and also to get up later. This is a biological process, and will happen to teenagers regardless of their environment.
Asking an adolescent to get up at 07:00 to start school at 09:00 is akin to asking a 55-year-old to get up at 05:00: this leads adolescence to accumulate a significant amount of sleep deprivation. The circadian drive isn’t optimised for wakefulness and engagement until around 10:00.This means that adolescents are typically starting school at a time when they are feeling the effects of sleep deprivation and when their natural rhythms are not optimised for alertness, and therefore learning. There have been a whole host of studies, mostly from the US showing that a delay in the school start time improves sleep, mood, well-being, alertness and academic outcomes with one study suggesting that a delay in the school start time is more effective than improving the quality of the teaching.
Whilst timing of sleep (and activity) is important, so too is understanding what other factors might affect the quality of your sleep. Not only do adolescents have a natural biological predisposition to staying up later, but the devices they use to communicate and for entertainment may also impact sleep. TV screens, tablets and phones emit light at a level which may interfere with sleep onset, compounding the effects of the naturally occurring circadian delay. A recent study has suggested that teenagers may be particularly susceptible to the effects of light emitting deceives. Students are also dealing with the stress of exams and the pressure to perform well. The TEENSLEEP study aims to address some of these issues by looking at the effect of sleep education and delaying the start time of teaching on sleep quality and academic outcomes.
To find out more about the science behind the animation visit http://www.oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/what...
source: Oxford Martin 2016年7月28日
Recent basic biological findings about sleep and circadian rhythm are underpinning a growing interest in the relevance of sleep loss. New strategies are emerging to deal with common sleep disorders. Allan I. Pack, Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses new research in the field.
Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford
source: University of Oxford 2016年7月20日
Dr Indrajit Roy studies the lives of circular and internal migrants, people who move around their own countries usually in search of work. Such internal migrants do not move permanently, but instead are coming and going constantly. So their patterns of movement change what we think about the nature of the city as an entity. In places where citizenship rights like the right to vote or social entitlements are tied to place of birth, they are often denied such rights. The aim of this project is to understand the lives of internal migrants and to encourage governments to think about local service provisioning for people who are mobile.
Dr Roy is an ESRC Future Research Leader in Oxford University’s Department of International Development and a member of the International Migration Institute.
www.imi.ox.ac.uk
source: University of Oxford 2016年6月29日
Prof David Clark and his team have tirelessly worked with successive governments, using evidence to demonstrate how the NHS can better tackle depression and social anxiety.
Find out more about the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme here:http://www.iapt.nhs.uk/
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this video, please visit: www.talkingspaceplus.org.uk or http://www.healthymindsbucks.nhs.uk
source: University of Oxford 2016年7月15日
Sir Martin Wood founded Oxford Instruments in 1959 as a spin-out company to manufacture superconducting magnets for research. We find out how an Oxford researcher of quantum computation is working with the company today to create tools for tomorrow's researchers.
source: University of Oxford 2016年6月3日
The question, ‘Where do domestic dogs come from?’, has vexed scholars for a very long time. Some argue that humans first domesticated wolves in Europe, while others claim this happened in Central Asia or China. A new paper, published in Science, suggests that all these claims may be right. Supported by funding from the European Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council, a large international team of scientists compared genetic data with existing archaeological evidence and show that man’s best friend may have emerged independently from two separate (possibly now extinct) wolf populations that lived on opposite sides of the Eurasian continent. This means that dogs may have been domesticated not once, as widely believed, but twice.
source: University of Oxford 2016年7月11日
New archaeological evidence suggests that Brazilian capuchins have been using stone tools to crack open cashew nuts for at least 700 years. Researchers say, to date, they have found the earliest archaeological examples of monkey tool use outside of Africa. In their paper, published in Current Biology, they suggest it raises questions about the origins and spread of tool use in New World monkeys and, controversially perhaps, prompts us to look at whether early human behaviour was influenced by their observations of monkeys using stones as tools. The research was led by Dr Michael Haslam of the University of Oxford, who in previous papers presents archaeological evidence showing that wild macaques in coastal Thailand used stone tools for decades at least to open shellfish and nuts. http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-07-11-m...
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source: University of Oxford 2010年10月25日
Mathematics Lectures from Oxford University
The annual Oxford University Alumni Weekend aims to showcase the Collegiate University as a whole, giving prominence to a range of current research and its application to real world situations, as well as recognising the achievements of Oxford men and women. Past themes include "A Global Oxford" (2008), "Equal Citizenship" (2009) and "Shared Treasures" (2010).
source: University of Oxford 2016年7月22日
Group exercise builds stronger bonds -- stronger bonds build fitter teams!
Emma Cohen, Arran Davis and Jacob Taylor of Oxford University’s Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology are examining the causal links between exertion and cooperation, and between social support and performance.
source: University of Oxford 2016年6月30日
Find out how a multidisciplinary team of scientists came to create England's new way to identify how to fight and track TB outbreaks using DNA analysis. http://modmedmicro.nsms.ox.ac.uk
source: University of Oxford 2016年6月30日
www.younglives.org.uk
Young Lives is an international study of childhood poverty following the lives of 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India (in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), Peru and Vietnam over 15 years.
Find out how understanding the changes in children's lives across time and space have been able to influence government policy.
source: University of Oxford 2014年6月17日
Learn more about Oxford 'smart glasses' here: http://www.eye.ox.ac.uk/research/oxfo...
Professor Stephen Hicks and his colleagues explain the technology behind their smart glasses, sensing and redisplaying depth and outline information to allow partially-sighted people to navigate.
www.ox.ac.uk/research
source: University of Oxford 2012年6月19日
On the occasion of the Vice-Chancellor's Hong Kong Alumni and Friends reception, Professor Russell Foster, chair of circadian neuroscience and Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, presents his latest Oxford research into sleep science to the city that never sleeps.
# automatic playing for the 5 videos (click the up-left corner for the list)
source: University of Oxford 上次更新日期：2014年6月12日
Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion has been a run away best seller. It has stimulated global debate, not always very charitable, about whether Dawkins is right to say that it is probably the case that God does not exist. During this weekend philosophers Marianne Talbot and Stephen Law will discuss the debate from a philosophical point of view. What are Dawkins' arguments? Are they good arguments? Are they conclusive arguments? Where does the debate about God's existence stand now?
Amartya Sen 'democracy and social decisions' - introductory speeches
34:00
35:37 Amartya Sen – ‘Democracy and Social Decisions’
