Education and citizenship in the knowledge society - towards the comparative study of national systems of education

This paper is an attempt to propose how education systems can be studied in relation to the welfare state and knowledge society in the global age. It begins by discussing the aims of education and relates these to the core values of social citizenship, arguing that access to the provision of education is a fundamental pillar of citizenship with the purpose of extending and enhancing life chances by general principles of social inclusion and equality of opportunity. It further on reviews a large body of comparative research which studies how the design of education institutions in various countries influences one important aspect of these aims, namely school-leavers’ entrance into the labour market. The third and last section investigates the possibilities and difficulties inherent in comparative studies of national systems of education, particularly with regard to questions concerning validity when constructing conceptual models and comparable indicators. The tentative conclusion of the paper is that further comparative endeavours should set out analyzing primarily input- and process-related features of compulsory education, and the dimensions of stratification and standardization of upper secondary education for an assessment of these institutions’ capacity to equip citizens with knowledge and skills for human flourishing.education systems; social citizenship

Simple holographic duals to boundary CFTs

By relaxing the regularity conditions imposed in arXiv:1107.1722 on half-BPS solutions to six-dimensional Type~4b supergravity, we enlarge the space of solutions to include two new half-BPS configurations, which we refer to as the \kap\ and the \funnel. We give evidence that the \kap\ and \funnel\ can be interpreted as fully back-reacted brane solutions with respectively $AdS_2$ and $AdS_2\times S^2$ world volumes. \kap\ and \funnel\ solutions with a single asymptotic $AdS_3 \times S^3$ region are constructed analytically. We argue that \kap\ solutions provide simple examples of holographic duals to boundary CFTs in two dimensions and present calculations of their holographic boundary entropy to support the BCFT dual picture.Comment: 37 pages, pdflatex, 5 figure

Contact nucleation: in situ and ex situ observations of surface damaging

To investigate the damaging done to a crystal surface potassium dihydrogen phosphate, KDP and potassium hydrogen phthalate, KAP) due to a crystal-rod contact, both ex situ and in situ experiments were performed and the impact sites studied either using an interference contrast microscope or a scanning electron microscope. An ex situ contact (performed in air) causes subsurface cracks and the breakage of small fragments (KDP) or the removal of thin plates (KAP) from the surface. In the former case the fragments have thicknesses roughly corresponding to the height of macrosteps present on the surface. Contacts during growth on KAP produced secondary nuclei; the crystal size distribution of these nuclei displays a log-normal behaviour

Cryptococcal infection of the ventriculoperitoneal shunt in an immunocompetent patient

Patient: Male, 52 Final Diagnosis: Cryptococcal ventriculoperitoneal shunt infection Symptoms: Confusion • fever • Lethargy Medication: Amphotericin B • Flucytosine Clinical Procedure: Ventriculoperitoneal shunt removal Specialty: Infectious disease OBJECTIVE: Rare disease BACKGROUND: Ventriculoperitoneal shunting is an effective treatment for hydrocephalus. Ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) infection is a common complication. Cryptococcus neoformans as an implicated organism is rare. In this report, we describe a patient with cryptococcal VPS infection. CASE REPORT: A 52-year-old male with normal pressure hydrocephalus, status post implantation of VPS one year prior to the presentation; who was admitted with a fever, lethargy and confusion for three days. He was treated empirically with intravenous cefepime and vancomycin for VPS infection. The CSF analysis from both the lumbar puncture and the VPS was significant for a low white blood count, low glucose and high protein. Other work-up including India ink and cryptococcal antigen was unrevealing. He remained febrile despite antibiotic treatment for 5 days. The CSF from the shunt was sent for analysis again and it demonstrated similar results from the prior study, but the culture was now positive for Cryptococcus neoformans. The patient was started on oral flucytosine and intravenous liposomal amphotericin B. The VPS was removed and an externalized ventricular catheter was placed. The patient showed rapid resolution of the symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: To date, there was a total of nine reported cases of cryptococcal VPS infection upon review of the literature. Our presenting case and the literature review highlight the difficulties in making an accurate diagnosis of cryptococcal shunt infection. There were case reports of false negative cryptococcal antigen tests with culture proven cryptococcal meningitis. The CSF culture from the shunt remains a mainstay for identifying cryptococcal shunt infection. Cryptococcal shunt infections are rare and early diagnosis and treatment is essential for patient management which involves shunt replacement with concomitant administration of intravenous antifungal medication. High clinical suspicion is crucial and shunt culture preferably from the valve is recommended

Sector-specific corporate responsibility in the United Kingdom

The economy of the United Kingdom (UK) is dominated by services and particularly financial services industries, and it was thus hard hit by the financial crisis. The UK has a long tradition of free trade, and its politics over at least the last 30 years have been characterised by a market orientation. UK governments have, on the whole, favoured light-touch regulation and voluntary rather than mandatory approaches to encouraging businesses to work in the public interest. The idea of corporate responsibility (CR) has a longer tradition in the UK than in other European countries. Likewise, government encouragement of CR has been on the agenda for several decades now. There are a number of initiatives aimed at specific industry sectors. These initiatives take a variety of forms and administrative arrangements. A voluntary CR approach to achieving public goods is generally favoured by industry, and such initiatives can have good industry responses. However, in the light of the financial crisis and stringent cutbacks in the public sector spending, the future of such initiatives is unclear. The chapter gives an overview of public policy CR initiatives in the United Kingdom and discusses three sector specific initiatives in detail: The Courtauld Commitment, aimed at reducing waste in the food and drinks manufacturing and retail industries; the Strategy for Sustainable Construction, a high-level strategy aiming to bring together a range of separate sustainability initiatives for the construction sector; and Treating Customers Fairly, a regulatory initiative aimed at improving customer care in financial services