453 research outputs found

    An evaluation of a Breeam case study project

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    The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the traditional, upward-only rent review clauses in English commercial leases can be replaced by rent indexation. Analysis of the existing literature found widespread criticism of upward-only rent reviews. Most importantly, they represent a disadvantage for tenants and an advantage for landlords. Contrary to this, analysis of the qualitative data, gathered through semi-structured interviews with professionals, showed that property market forces have shifted. This leaves tenants in a stronger negotiation position. A clear trend towards shorter leases and break options as opposed to rent review mechanisms. The evidence within the study suggests that the Codes of Leasing Practice have not had a significant impact on the flexibility of commercial leases. The findings of the study indicate that the Government should not legislate against upward-only rent reviews as this could have major negative impacts on the property market. Indexation was found to be a fair and reasonable option for both landlords and tenants. However, the exclusive use of indexation in commercial leases would lead to a distortion of the property market as the determination of market rents and values would be impossible. The principal conclusion of this dissertation was that the self-adjustment of the market, which led to a higher flexibility in commercial leases, made a restriction of upward-only rent reviews unnecessary. Moreover, rent indexation is a well-established rent review mechanism in England – a tool whereby both parties can benefit. An exclusive use of indexation in commercial leases though seems most unlikely

    Is “end of life” a special case? Connecting Q with survey methods to measure societal support for views on the value of life-extending treatments

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    Preference elicitation studies reporting societal views on the relative value of end-of-life treatments have produced equivocal results. This paper presents an alternative method, combining Q methodology and survey techniques (Q2S) to determine the distribution of 3 viewpoints on the relative value of end-of-life treatments identified in a previous, published, phase of this work. These were Viewpoint 1, “A population perspective: value for money, no special cases”; Viewpoint 2, “Life is precious: valuing life-extension and patient choice”; and Viewpoint 3, “Valuing wider benefits and opportunity cost: the quality of life and death.”. A Q2S survey of 4,902 respondents across the United Kingdom measured agreement with these viewpoints; 37% most agreed with Viewpoint 1, 49% with Viewpoint 2, and 9% with Viewpoint 3. Regression analysis showed associations of viewpoints with gender, level of education, religion, voting preferences, and satisfaction with the NHS. The Q2S approach provides a promising means to investigate how in-depth views and opinions are represented in the wider populati

    Enhancing the Relationships Between Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and Their Teachers

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    Outcomes of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) have failed to meet the standards of educators and educational researchers. For several decades, such students have had worse academic and postsecondary outcomes than any other student population. This has led to emphasis on implementation of evidence-based practices to combat the negative outcomes associated with educational diagnoses of EBD (i.e., behavioral outbursts, suspension, and expulsion). Despite this increased attention, little improvement has occurred, leading to the question of whether practices implemented for students with EBD have been addressing the underlying causes of these students’ negative outcomes. Student–teacher relationships could be an underlying cause of negative outcomes for students with EBD. Student–teacher relationships have a large impact on the academic and behavioral outcomes of students. When a positive student–teacher relationship is present, student motivation and engagement increase—this in turn leads to better academic performance and an increase in academic self-efficacy (Roorda et al., 2011; Sakiz et al., 2012). Teachers also offer more support to students with whom they perceive they have more positive relationships (Bergin, 2016; Upadya & Eccles, 2014). However, few researchers have studied the impact of positive student–teacher relationships on students with EBD. The point of this study was to determine whether a relationship-based intervention (dialogue journaling) improves student–teacher relationships between students with EBD and their teachers. An exploratory pre-/postintervention design was implemented across two classrooms (two teachers and 10 students). Improvements of student–teacher relationships were minimal. However, stronger positive student–teacher relationships developed when intervention fidelity was higher. The findings lay a foundation for future research on student–teacher relationships and students with EBD

    Plasticity of boldness in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss: do hunger and predation influence risk-taking behaviour?

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    Boldness, a measure of an individual's propensity for taking risks, is an important determinant of fitness but is not necessarily a fixed trait. Dependent upon an individual's state, and given certain contexts or challenges, individuals may be able to alter their inclination to be bold or shy in response. Furthermore, the degree to which individuals can modulate their behaviour has been linked with physiological responses to stress. Here we attempted to determine whether bold and shy rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, can exhibit behavioural plasticity in response to changes in state (nutritional availability) and context (predation threat). Individual trout were initially assessed for boldness using a standard novel object paradigm; subsequently, each day for one week fish experienced either predictable, unpredictable, or no simulated predator threat in combination with a high (2% body weight) or low (0.15%) food ration, before being reassessed for boldness. Bold trout were generally more plastic, altering levels of neophobia and activity relevant to the challenge, whereas shy trout were more fixed and remained shy. Increased predation risk generally resulted in an increase in the expression of three candidate genes linked to boldness, appetite regulation and physiological stress responses – ependymin, corticotrophin releasing factor and GABAA – but did not produce a significant increase in plasma cortisol. The results suggest a divergence in the ability of bold and shy trout to alter their behavioural profiles in response to internal and exogenous factors, and have important implications for our understanding of the maintenance of different behavioural phenotypes in natural populations

    Assistive Technology User Groups and Early Childhood Educators

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    This article explores the potential of User Groups as a professional development venue for early childhood educators in developing operational and functional competence in using hardware and software components of an Assistive Technology (AT) Toolkit. User Groups are composed of varying numbers of participants having an interest in technology, and are led by one or more skilled facilitators who meet with participants across time to help them acquire and demonstrate new technology skill sets. A series of these groups were conducted with seven early education professionals serving young preschool children who were at risk or who had disabilities. The impact of these User Groups was examined using self-reports subsequent to User Group participation. Specific data were collected regarding the types of technologies that had been used, and the types of classroom instructional products that had been created and implemented in classrooms using the technologies. A discussion of the value of User Groups is presented

    Could e-learning Change How we Think About Scholarship and Teaching?

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    We are three Final Year Chemistry students investigating the impact of new Virtual Learning Environments on the Student Learning Experience. Together with the School of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, and Learning Science Ltd, Pre- lab online interactive simulations and post-lab auto-grading environments were developed. We are currently leading evaluations of the impact these online resources have on the student learning experience. We have carefully developed a consistent methodology for data collection and for analysis. We have focussed on gathering feedback from students who have been supported with these online resources, and those who have not (for comparison). To present our findings we would use video demonstrations and graphical results from the investigation. We hope that our final report can be used as a case study, to help demystify design and implementation of effective e-resources, to highlight considerations and challenges in the process, and ultimately to encourage uptake across disciplines

    Could e-learning Change How we Think About Scholarship and Teaching?

    Get PDF
    We are three Final Year Chemistry students investigating the impact of new Virtual Learning Environments on the Student Learning Experience. Together with the School of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, and Learning Science Ltd, Pre- lab online interactive simulations and post-lab auto-grading environments were developed. We are currently leading evaluations of the impact these online resources have on the student learning experience. We have carefully developed a consistent methodology for data collection and for analysis. We have focussed on gathering feedback from students who have been supported with these online resources, and those who have not (for comparison). To present our findings we would use video demonstrations and graphical results from the investigation. We hope that our final report can be used as a case study, to help demystify design and implementation of effective e-resources, to highlight considerations and challenges in the process, and ultimately to encourage uptake across disciplines

    Magnetic Field Evolution in Merging Clusters of Galaxies

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    We present initial results from the first 3-dimensional numerical magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of magnetic field evolution in merging clusters of galaxies. Within the framework of idealized initial conditions similar to our previous work, we look at the gasdynamics and the magnetic field evolution during a major merger event in order to examine the suggestion that shocks and turbulence generated during a cluster/subcluster merger can produce magnetic field amplification and relativistic particle acceleration and, as such, may play a role in the formation and evolution of cluster-wide radio halos. The ICM, as represented by the equations of ideal MHD, is evolved self-consistently within a changing gravitational potential defined largely by the collisionless dark matter component represented by an N-body particle distribution. The MHD equations are solved by the Eulerian, finite-difference code, ZEUS. The particles are evolved by a standard particle-mesh (PM) code. We find significant evolution of the magnetic field structure and strength during two distinct epochs of the merger evolution.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, Figure 2 is color postscript. Accepted for publication in Ap

    Development of the ACTIVE framework to describe stakeholder involvement in systematic reviews

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    Objectives Involvement of patients, health professionals, and the wider public (‘stakeholders’) is seen to be beneficial to the quality, relevance and impact of research and may enhance the usefulness and uptake of systematic reviews. However, there is a lack of evidence and resources to guide researchers in how to actively involve stakeholders in systematic reviews. In this paper we report the development of the ACTIVE framework to describe how stakeholders are involved in systematic reviews. Methods We developed a framework using methods previously described in the development of conceptual frameworks relating to other areas of public involvement, including: literature searching, data extraction, analysis, and categorisation. A draft ACTIVE framework was developed and then refined after presentation at a conference workshop, before being applied to a series of example systematic reviews. Data extracted from 32 systematic reviews, identified in a systematic scoping review, were categorised against pre-defined constructs, including: who was involved, how stakeholder were recruited, the mode of involvement, at what stage there was involvement and the level of control or influence. Results The final ACTIVE framework described whether patients, carers and/or families, and/or other stakeholders (including health professionals, health decision makers and funders) were involved. We defined: recruitment as either open or closed; the approach to involvement as either onetime, continuous or combined; and the method of involvement as either direct or indirect. The stage of involvement in reviews was defined using the Cochrane Ecosystem stages of a review. The level of control or influence was defined according to the roles and activities of stakeholders in the review process, and described as the ACTIVE continuum of involvement. Conclusions The ACTIVE framework provides a structure with which to describe key components of stakeholder involvement within a systematic review, and we have used this to summarise how stakeholders have been involved in a subset of varied systematic reviews. The ACTIVE continuum of involvement provides a new model that uses tasks and roles to detail the level of stakeholder involvement. This work has contributed to the development of learning resources aimed at supporting systematic review authors and editors to involve stakeholders in their systematic reviews. This framework may support the decision-making of systematic review authors in planning how to involve stakeholders in future review
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