Measuring attitudes towards Global Learning among future educators in England

This paper reports upon a multi-agency approach to measuring attitudes towards global learning among future educators at a university in the north-west of England. This study provides a response to concerns that global learning research and evaluation of global education interventions tend to focus upon short-term, observable outcomes rather than longer-term changes in behaviour, attitude, and practice. It is based upon the assumption that global learning in teacher education must focus upon the development of who the educator is as a person, including his or her values, attitudes, and associated dispositions. This paper will outline the process of constructing an attitude inventory, based upon Thurstone scaling, by a range of professionals working in local government, teacher education, and non-government organizations that promote global education. It reports upon the use of this survey at the beginning, middle, and end of a compulsory course completed by a cohort of 154 undergraduate students of primary teacher education. The findings show positive changes in attitudes towards global learning among females and eradication of the most negative attitudes towards global learning during the course of study. Causal factors relating to cultural practice are suggested. The limitations of this particular tool for researching global learning are discussed alongside the insight gained from this collaborative process of evaluation

Failure time and microcrack nucleation

The failure time of samples of heterogeneous materials (wood, fiberglass) is studied as a function of the applied stress. It is shown that in these materials the failure time is predicted with a good accuracy by a model of microcrack nucleation proposed by Pomeau. It is also shown that the crack growth process presents critical features when the failure time is approached.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Europhysics Letter

Assessment of energy efficiency and sustainability scenarios in the transport system

Background Energy Policy is one of the main drivers of Transport Policy. A number of strategies to reduce current energy consumption trends in the transport sector have been designed over the last decades. They include fuel taxes, more efficient technologies and changing travel behavior through demand regulation. But energy market has a high degree of uncertainty and the effectiveness of those policy options should be assessed. Methods A scenario based assessment methodology has been developed in the frame of the EU project STEPS. It provides an integrated view of Energy efficiency, environment, social and competitiveness impacts of the different strategies. It has been applied at European level and to five specific Regions. Concluding remarks The results are quite site specific dependent. However they show that regulation measures appear to be more effective than new technology investments. Higher energy prices could produce on their turn a deterioration of competitiveness and a threat for social goals

First occurrence of Xanthomonas campestris pv. raphanion wallflower (Erysimum cheiri) in the United Kingdom

In a study of diseases caused by Xanthomonas campestris on UK nursery-grown wallflowers (Erysimum cheiri), one isolate (P764) obtained in 1990 from Sussex differed from the others. The affected plants (cv. Bedder Mixed), showed distorted growth with chlorotic and necrotic spots, but no sectored V-shaped wilting, the most common symptom associated with xanthomonads in wallflowers. Other X. campestris isolates (including P763), were obtained from wallflowers with typical wilting. Infected plant material was comminuted in sterile 0.1% peptone solution and loopfuls streaked onto yeast dextrose chalk agar and nutrient dextrose agar (Lelliott & Stead, 1987). Plates were incubated for up to 72 hours at 28°C. Xanthomonas-like colonies were purified by re-streaking and isolates were maintained at -80°C (Protect System, UK)

The Relative Space: Space Measurements on a Rotating Platform

We introduce here the concept of relative space, an extended 3-space which is recognized as the only space having an operational meaning in the study of the space geometry of a rotating disk. Accordingly, we illustrate how space measurements are performed in the relative space, and we show that an old-aged puzzling problem, that is the Ehrenfest's paradox, is explained in this purely relativistic context. Furthermore, we illustrate the kinematical origin of the tangential dilation which is responsible for the solution of the Ehrenfest's paradox.Comment: 14 pages, 2 EPS figures, LaTeX, to appear in the European Journal of Physic

An introduction to Elinor Glyn : her life and legacy

This special issue of Women: A Cultural Review re-evaluates an author who was once a household name, beloved by readers of romance, and whose films were distributed widely in Europe and the Americas. Elinor Glyn (1864–1943) was a British author of romantic fiction who went to Hollywood and became famous for her movies. She was a celebrity figure of the 1920s, and wrote constantly in Hearst's press. She wrote racy stories which were turned into films—most famously, Three Weeks (1924) and It (1927). These were viewed by the judiciary as scandalous, but by others—Hollywood and the Spanish Catholic Church—as acceptably conservative. Glyn has become a peripheral figure in histories of this period, marginalized in accounts of the youth-centred ‘flapper era’. Decades on, the idea of the ‘It Girl’ continues to have great pertinence in the post-feminist discourses of the twenty-first century. The 1910s and 1920s saw the development of intermodal networks between print, sound and screen cultures. This introduction to Glyn's life and legacy reviews the cross-disciplinary debate sparked by renewed interest in Glyn by film scholars and literary and feminist historians, and offers a range of views of Glyn's cultural and historical significance and areas for future research

Lessons from Love-Locks: The archaeology of a contemporary assemblage

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Journal of Material Culture, November 2017, published by SAGE Publishing, All rights reserved.Loss of context is a challenge, if not the bane, of the ritual archaeologist’s craft. Those who research ritual frequently encounter difficulties in the interpretation of its often tantalisingly incomplete material record. Careful analysis of material remains may afford us glimpses into past ritual activity, but our often vast chronological separation from the ritual practitioners themselves prevent us from seeing the whole picture. The archaeologist engaging with structured deposits, for instance, is often forced to study ritual assemblages post-accumulation. Many nuances of its formation, therefore, may be lost in interpretation. This paper considers what insights an archaeologist could gain into the place, people, pace, and purpose of deposition by recording an accumulation of structured deposits during its formation, rather than after. To answer this, the paper will focus on a contemporary depositional practice: the love-lock. This custom involves the inscribing of names/initials onto a padlock, its attachment to a bridge or other public structure, and the deposition of the corresponding key into the water below; a ritual often enacted by a couple as a statement of their romantic commitment. Drawing on empirical data from a three-year diachronic site-specific investigation into a love-lock bridge in Manchester, UK, the author demonstrates the value of contemporary archaeology in engaging with the often enigmatic material culture of ritual accumulations.Peer reviewe

Relationship between spatial proximity and travel-to-work distance : the effect of the compact city

In this paper, an assessment is made of the relationship between selected aspects of spatial proximity (density, diversity, minimum commuting distance, jobs-housing balance and job accessibility) and reported commuting distances in Flanders (Belgium). Results show that correlations may depend on the considered trip end. For example, a high residential density, a high degree of spatial diversity and a high level of job accessibility are all associated with a short commute by residents, while a high job density is associated with a long commute by employees. A jobs-housing balance close to one is associated with a short commute, both by residents and by employees. In general, it appears that the alleged sustainability benefits of the compact city model are still valid in a context of continuously expanding commuting trip lengths

Social marketing and healthy eating : Findings from young people in Greece

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12208-013-0112-xGreece has high rates of obesity and non-communicable diseases owing to poor dietary choices. This research provides lessons for social marketing to tackle the severe nutrition-related problems in this country by obtaining insight into the eating behaviour of young adults aged 18–23. Also, the main behavioural theories used to inform the research are critically discussed. The research was conducted in Athens. Nine focus groups with young adults from eight educational institutions were conducted and fifty-nine participants’ views towards eating habits, healthy eating and the factors that affect their food choices were explored. The study found that the participants adopted unhealthier nutritional habits after enrolment. Motivations for healthy eating were good health, appearance and psychological consequences, while barriers included lack of time, fast-food availability and taste, peer pressure, lack of knowledge and lack of family support. Participants reported lack of supportive environments when deciding on food choices. Based on the findings, recommendations about the development of the basic 4Ps of the marketing mix, as well as of a fifth P, for Policy are proposedPeer reviewe

Effect of CPOE User Interface Design on User-Initiated Access to Educational and Patient Information during Clinical Care

Objective: Authors evaluated whether displaying context sensitive links to infrequently accessed educational materials and patient information via the user interface of an inpatient computerized care provider order entry (CPOE) system would affect access rates to the materials. Design: The CPOE of Vanderbilt University Hospital (VUH) included "baseline” clinical decision support advice for safety and quality. Authors augmented this with seven new primarily educational decision support features. A prospective, randomized, controlled trial compared clinicians' utilization rates for the new materials via two interfaces. Control subjects could access study-related decision support from a menu in the standard CPOE interface. Intervention subjects received active notification when study-related decision support was available through context sensitive, visibly highlighted, selectable hyperlinks. Measurements: Rates of opportunities to access and utilization of study-related decision support materials from April 1999 through March 2000 on seven VUH Internal Medicine wards. Results: During 4,466 intervention subject-days, there were 240,504 (53.9/subject-day) opportunities for study-related decision support, while during 3,397 control subject-days, there were 178,235 (52.5/subject-day) opportunities for such decision support, respectively (p = 0.11). Individual intervention subjects accessed the decision support features at least once on 3.8% of subject-days logged on (278 responses); controls accessed it at least once on 0.6% of subject-days (18 responses), with a response rate ratio adjusted for decision support frequency of 9.17 (95% confidence interval 4.6-18, p < 0.0005). On average, intervention subjects accessed study-related decision support materials once every 16 days individually and once every 1.26 days in aggregate. Conclusion: Highlighting availability of context-sensitive educational materials and patient information through visible hyperlinks significantly increased utilization rates for study-related decision support when compared to "standard” VUH CPOE methods, although absolute response rates were lo