Sustaining the turnaround: what capacity building means in practice

The purpose of this paper is to show how successful, sustained school improvement in schools in urban settings which serve highly disadvantaged communities relies upon the qualities and skills of their principals to engage, simultaneously, in capacity building at individual, collective and community levels. Definitions of capacity building as, ‘the interplay between personal abilities, interpersonal relationships, and organisational structures (Mitchell and Sackney, 2000:11) are limited in their application for they often fail to acknowledge that over the course of the time needed to build stable and successful learning and achievement environments, principals are likely to have to move through a number of ‘layered’ development phases, each one of which will contain priorities; and that during this change process, principals will likely also need to maintain, articulate and communicate a clear set of values upon which their strategies will be based

Sustaining the turnaround: what capacity building means in practice

The purpose of this paper is to show how successful, sustained school improvement in schools in urban settings which serve highly disadvantaged communities relies upon the qualities and skills of their principals to engage, simultaneously, in capacity building at individual, collective and community levels. Definitions of capacity building as, ‘the interplay between personal abilities, interpersonal relationships, and organisational structures (Mitchell and Sackney, 2000:11) are limited in their application for they often fail to acknowledge that over the course of the time needed to build stable and successful learning and achievement environments, principals are likely to have to move through a number of ‘layered’ development phases, each one of which will contain priorities; and that during this change process, principals will likely also need to maintain, articulate and communicate a clear set of values upon which their strategies will be based

An experimental study of interceptors for drag reduction on high-performance sailing yachts

Interceptors have been widely used in recent years in fast ferries and small high-speed leisure and commercial craft for ride and trim control, and steering. In the context of high-performance sailing yachts, they first appeared in 2008 on the yacht Ecover 3 which was dismasted while leading the Vendee Globe Challenge race. However, in spite of their popularity in power craft, few studies have been published investigating the impact of interceptors on vessel performance, and apparently none in the case of sailing yachts. In the current study, interceptors are compared with an aerodynamic device known as a Gurney flap. It is shown that interceptors are generally substantially smaller than Gurney flaps. A comprehensive experiment programme is presented exploring the impact of interceptors on the performance of an Open 60 yacht hull. Results show a marked reduction in calm-water resistance over a wide speed range, with benefits of 10–18% in the speed range between 8 and 20 knots, accompanied by reduced sinkage and trim. The gains observed are much larger than those observed in powercraft, and also substantially greater than those achievable through trim changes by moving ballast longitudinally. The benefits appear to be largely sustained in small waves

Sostener el cambio de rumbo: qué significa la construcción de capacidades en la práctica

The purpose of this paper is to show how successful, sustained school improvement in schools in urban settings which serve highly disadvantaged communities relies upon the qualities and skills of their principals to engage, simultaneously, in capacity building at individual, collective and community levels. Definitions of capacity building as, ‘the interplay between personal abilities, interpersonal relationships, and organisational structures’ (Mitchell and Sackney, 2000:11) are limited in their application for they often fail to acknowledge that over the course of the time needed to build stable and successful learning and achievement environments, principals are likely to have to move through a number of ‘layered’ development phases, each one of which will contain priorities; and that during this change process, principals will likely also need to maintain, articulate and communicate a clear set of values upon which their strategies will be basedEl propósito de este artículo es mostrar cómo centros en contextos urbanos de comunidades altamente desfavorecidas, logran y mantienen la mejora escolar, apoyándose en las cualidades y competencias de sus directores para implicarse simultáneamente en la construcción de las capacidades individuales, colectivas y de la comunidad. Las definiciones de la construcción de capacidades como “la interacción entre las habilidades personales, las relaciones interpersonales y las estructuras organizativas” (Mitchell y Sackney 2009:11) son limitadas en la puesta en práctica dado que frecuentemente fallan en el reconocimiento de que a lo largo del paso del tiempo se necesita construir entornos estables de aprendizaje y de rendimiento; los directores probablemente han de atravesar diferentes capas en las fases de desarrollo, cada una ellas tienen sus propias prioridades; y durante estos procesos de cambio, los directores probablemente también necesitan mantener, articular y comunicar una serie de valores claros en los que se basan sus estrategia

Influences on the capacities for emotional resilience of teachers in schools serving disadvantaged urban communities: challenges of living on the edge

This paper investigates how teachers in one school in a socio-economically disadvantaged urban setting draw upon their capacities for resilience to maintain a sense of positive professional identity, commitment and moral purpose. It identifies the dynamic influences of individual, school environment, relational, leadership and external personal and policy contexts. The findings show that the capacity for ‘emotional resilience’ is essential for teachers who constantly “live on the edge,” as they seek to manage everyday, intensive pupil motivational and behavioural challenges whilst responding to demands for raising standards of teaching, learning and attainment

Partnerships for education, well-being and work : models of university service in the community

"This five month multi-perspective study, commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), investigated the nature, forms and practices of three partnership enterprises between the University of Nottingham and its local schools and communities" -- page vii

Betaine chemistry, roles, and potential use in liver disease

Background Betaine is the trimethyl derivative of glycine and is normally present in human plasma due to dietary intake and endogenous synthesis in liver and kidney. Betaine is utilized in the kidney primarily as an osmoprotectant, whereas in the liver its primary role is in metabolism as a methyl group donor. In both organs, a specific betaine transporter mediates cellular uptake of betaine from plasma. The abundance of both betaine and the betaine transporter in liver greatly exceeds that of other organs. Scope of review The remarkable contributions of betaine to normal human and animal health are summarized together with a discussion of the mechanisms and potential beneficial effects of dietary betaine supplements on liver disease. Major conclusions A significant amount of data from animal models of liver disease indicates that administration of betaine can halt and even reverse progression of the disruption of liver function. Betaine is well-tolerated, inexpensive, effective over a wide range of doses, and is already used in livestock feeding practices. General significance The accumulated data indicate that carefully controlled additional investigations in humans are merited. The focus should be on the long-term use of betaine in large patient populations with liver diseases characterized by development of fatty liver, especially non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and alcoholic liver disease

Amino acid changes in the spike protein of feline coronavirus correlate with systemic spread of virus from the intestine and not with feline infectious peritonitis

Recent evidence suggests that a mutation in the spike protein gene of feline coronavirus (FCoV), which results in an amino acid change from methionine to leucine at position 1058, may be associated with feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). Tissue and faecal samples collected post mortem from cats diagnosed with or without FIP were subjected to RNA extraction and quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to detect FCoV RNA. In cats with FIP, 95% of tissue, and 81% of faecal samples were PCR-positive, as opposed to 22% of tissue, and 60% of faecal samples in cats without FIP. Relative FCoV copy numbers were significantly higher in the cats with FIP, both in tissues (P < 0.001) and faeces (P = 0.02). PCR-positive samples underwent pyrosequencing encompassing position 1058 of the FCoV spike protein. This identified a methionine codon at position 1058, consistent with the shedding of an enteric form of FCoV, in 77% of the faecal samples from cats with FIP, and in 100% of the samples from cats without FIP. In contrast, 91% of the tissue samples from cats with FIP and 89% from cats without FIP had a leucine codon at position 1058, consistent with a systemic form of FCoV. These results suggest that the methionine to leucine substitution at position 1058 in the FCoV spike protein is indicative of systemic spread of FCoV from the intestine, rather than a virus with the potential to cause FIP