Designing and implementing a new advanced level biology course.

Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology is a new advanced level biology course currently being piloted from September 2002 in England with around 1200 students. This paper discusses the reasons for developing a new advanced biology course at this time, the philosophy of the project and how the materials are being written and the specification devised. The aim of the project is to provide an up-to-date course that interests students, is considered appropriate by teachers and other professionals in biology, and takes full advantage of modern developments in biology and in teaching

Explaining differences in environmental governance patterns between Canada, Italy and the United States.

The objective of the paper is to formulate a hypothesis that can help explain the different patterns of environmental governance in three countries: Canada and the United States (both federal states) and Italy (a decentralized unitary state). To that effect, we will make use of what is a robust theory of the assignment of powers in federal and decentralized unitary states on the role of competition as a driving force in shaping these assignments. The differing patterns of environmental governance we wish to explain are that most environmental policies are enacted and implemented by the national government in the United States, by provincial governments in Canada, and by both national and regional governments in Italy.

Shaping Global Partnerships for a Post-2015 World

As we discuss the post-2015 development agenda, how can we empower global partnerships to achieve the transformational change we need for a better future? This article provides lessons and best practices from six diverse initiatives on applying the collective impact approach on a global scale -- how to develop a common agenda, operate effective shared measurement systems, support and coordinate activities, facilitate communication, and provide strong governance for global collaborative efforts.The report uses a collective impact lens to research and evaluate a range of global partnerships, with a particular emphasis on these six diverse initiatives: Roll Back Malaria Partnership, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Global Road Safety Partnership, the World Economic Forum's New Vision for Agriculture, the Global Partnership for Education, and the World Wide Fund for Nature

Examination of Teacher Workplace Satisfaction and Student Achievement

Research has been conducted to study teacher workplace satisfaction. The following factors were identified as integral to teacher workplace satisfaction: administrative support; student behaviors; workplace atmosphere; autonomy and efficacy. Findings within the extant literature indicated that student achievement is a factor in teachers\u27 satisfaction with their work. Specifically, educators have repeatedly expressed a need to impact student achievement and have noted satisfaction or dissatisfaction in relation to their perception of their influence or lack therefore. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher workplace satisfaction and student achievement with the intent of making recommendations regarding maximization of satisfaction in order to positively impact student achievement. A non-experimental design was used to examine teacher workplace satisfaction and student achievement. The researcher designed a teacher workplace satisfaction survey and distributed it to 1,532 teachers within a large metropolitan school district in Georgia to measure five factors of workplace satisfaction (administrative support, student behaviors, workplace atmosphere, autonomy, and efficacy). Further, student achievement data for each teacher participant was gathered. A mean scale score of student achievement scores for the students assigned to each teacher was calculated and matched with the corresponding teacher\u27s satisfaction rating. An independent t-test was conducted to determine whether or not teacher workplace satisfaction and student achievement had statistically significant different mean values. In order to discern the relationship between teacher workplace satisfaction and student achievement, the five factors (administrative support, student behaviors, workplace atmosphere, autonomy, and efficacy) that contribute to the dependent variable, student achievement, were held constant to estimate the independent contribution of each to the variation in student achievement. Through a multiple regression analysis, the findings of this study reaffirmed the correlation between satisfaction and student achievement, but they did not however, provide any additional insight for development of a predictive model because teacher satisfaction is a complex phenomenon made up of several factors that individually cannot account for improved student achievement. Thus, how best to maximize workplace satisfaction as a vehicle to improving student achievement remains unknown

Avian influenza risk assessment for the Australian commercial chicken industry

The rapid expansion of commercial free range chicken farms in Australia has caused concern among industry experts that contact between wildlife and commercial chicken flocks will increase, therefore leading to increased exposure to low pathogenic AI (LPAI) virus from wild birds and subsequent mutation within the chicken flocks to high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The probabilities involved with chickens being exposed to LPAI virus, the occurrence of subsequent spread of both LPAI and HPAI, as well as features or practices on farm that could mitigate the risks were largely unknown. This thesis describes the conduct of a farm survey and wildlife camera trapping to describe features related to farm design, management practices, biosecurity practices and wildlife visits on Australian commercial chicken farms, specifically; 15 non-free range meat chicken farms, 15 free range meat chicken farms, nine cage layer farms, nine barn layer farms and 25 free range layer farms in the Sydney basin bioregion and South East Queensland. It then describes the development, evaluation and sensitivity analysis of exposure and partial consequence risk assessment models using inputs from the farm survey, scientific literature and expert opinion to assess the risk of exposure and spread of LPAI and HPAI among these commercial chicken farm types in the Australian context. The exposure risk assessment model investigated the pathways of exposure of Australian commercial chicken farms to LPAI virus from Australian wild birds and estimated the probability of exposure occurring using scenario trees and a stochastic modelling approach. The partial consequence assessment following the exposure risk assessment model investigated the likelihood of spread of LPAI and HPAI without quantifying the impact of the consequences of spread within and between Australian commercial chicken farms