Understanding your pupil’s behaviour: a pilot study from two primary schools in Kent

The Solihull Approach was developed to help frontline workers be more effective in their work as they are in the ideal position to intervene early in any potential emotional or behavioural difficulty for a child. The Approach has been developed for both early years’ practitioners and those working with young people in their school years. The theoretical model has been developed from three concepts: containment, reciprocity, and behaviour management, taken from psychotherapeutic, child development and behavioural models respectively. A new programme specifically for schools, Understanding Your Pupils Behaviour, has been developed. At present most of the evaluation and research has been on the 0-5-year work with Health Visitors. Further work needs to look at the effectiveness of this in the school years and in other settings outside of the health sector. The piloting of the Solihull Approach in a school setting to help school staff better understand their pupils’ behaviour provides an ideal opportunity to assess the impact of the approach in this setting. A mixed method design combining both quantitative measures and qualitative interviews was used to assess the impact of the training. The study focuses on 2 primary schools, an experimental school that received the training and another matched control school. Data was collected pre-training and 6 months after the final training session. The teacher variables measured included anxiety, burnout, compassion satisfaction and fatigue, self-concept and teacher efficacy. Interviews with 7school staff who have received the training were undertaken. Quantitative statistical analysis found that six months after training, teachers in School A showed a statistically significant increase in satisfaction with their helping role, self-esteem, and teacher efficacy scores as well as a decrease in feeling burnt out/stressed. The teachers at School B who did not receive the training only showed an improvement in teacher efficacy over the period. Qualitative thematic analysis found that overall, the teachers found that following aspects useful: that they were offered a framework that underpinned all aspects of the work they do; focus on the relationships not only with pupils, but teachers, support staff and parents as well; and the focus on well-being and its link with learning. Conclusions should be treated tentatively due to limitations associated with samples size, matching of school and the inability to control for other factors

Corp(Se)ocracy: Marketing Death in Margaret Atwood\u27s Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood

Margaret Atwood\u27s novels of speculative fiction Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood articulate a currently possible future world of corporate control marked by profitable practices of death. Narrated by both individuals of privilege and also of the underclass, the novels reveal insidious systems of self-perpetuating diseases and cosmetic enhancements that ultimately bankrupt or kill the consumers. As the state is policed by CorpSECorps, the corporate security forces, individuals have very little protection or recourse, and groups such as God\u27s Gardeners, conservationists who resist consuming the corporate products, are in danger of annihilation. Yet when humanity is destroyed by a bioengineered virus, it is those who have shunned the corporate materialism who are able to avoid death

An Analysis of the Technical and Economic Potential for Mid-Scale Distributed Wind

This report examines the status, restrainers, drivers, and estimated development potential of mid-scale (10 kW to 5000 kW) distributed wind projects. This segment of the wind market has not enjoyed the same growth that central-station wind has experienced. The purpose of this report is to analyze why, and to assess the market potential for this technology under current market and policy conditions. As discussed in section 2, one of the most significant barriers to the development of distributed wind is a general scarcity of turbine choices and turbine inventory available for purchase. Most turbine manufacturers have scaled back their involvement in the mid-scale market segments in favor of larger turbines suitable for large, central-station wind farms. Those distributed-scale turbines that are available are often relatively expensive (on a $/kW basis), hard to order in single units or small lots, and suffer from long delivery delays. Section 3 discusses various other factors—both positive and negative—that affect the viability of distributed wind. In addition to the product scarcity described in section 2, distributed wind is challenged by relatively poor productivity (compared with more modern large turbines), siting issues, burdensome interconnection rules, aesthetic concerns, and fragmented state rules regarding net metering. Several other factors favor distributed wind: areas of high and rising retail electricity prices, increasingly favorable public policies, and greater community interest in the environmental and economic benefits of renewable energy. As examined in section 4, the study evaluated the economic potential for distributed wind in the contiguous United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. The analysis began with a GIS screening process to eliminate areas that are technically impractical for distributed wind. Sites were eliminated in areas where: • Elevation was too high; • Slope was too steep; • Population density was too great; • Wind Power Class was less than 2; and • Areas legally excluded from wind-power development, such as national parks. After screening out ineligible sites, more than 3.6 million surviving sites were evaluated to determine whether distributed wind would be financially feasible. Certain customer types were excluded from the study, such as agricultural, construction companies, and military facilities, because they lacked data necessary for the analysis. The financial model considered: • Wind resources; • Wholesale and retail power prices; • Renewable Energy Credit (REC) prices; • Customer type (community wind, commercial, industrial, or public facility); • Project size; • Turbine technical and financial characteristics; • Onsite and offsite energy use; and • Incentives. The results varied significantly by customer class. Overall, the study showed that 67,100 out of the 3,611,655 sites/areas that were analyzed for economic viability yielded a positive net present value under current market conditions and policies and including all applicable state and federal incentives. To assess the potential of new technology, two virtual wind turbines—the NREL 250 and NREL 500—were included in the analysis. These virtual turbines were compared to existing 250 kW and 500 kW turbines. Overall, the study showed that 204,677 sites analyzed had positive net present values with the virtual turbines compared with 10,407 economically successful projects with existing 250 kW and 500 kW turbines. These numbers do not include the application of capped state and federal incentives. The following crucial changes could expand distributed wind development into the future. • Improvements in technology; • Reductions in cost; • Greater productivity at lower wind speeds; and • Greater policy support

An Analysis of the Technical and Economic Potential for Mid-Scale Distributed Wind

This report examines the status, restrainers, drivers, and estimated development potential of mid-scale (10 kW to 5000 kW) distributed wind projects. This segment of the wind market has not enjoyed the same growth that central-station wind has experienced. The purpose of this report is to analyze why, and to assess the market potential for this technology under current market and policy conditions. As discussed in section 2, one of the most significant barriers to the development of distributed wind is a general scarcity of turbine choices and turbine inventory available for purchase. Most turbine manufacturers have scaled back their involvement in the mid-scale market segments in favor of larger turbines suitable for large, central-station wind farms. Those distributed-scale turbines that are available are often relatively expensive (on a $/kW basis), hard to order in single units or small lots, and suffer from long delivery delays. Section 3 discusses various other factors—both positive and negative—that affect the viability of distributed wind. In addition to the product scarcity described in section 2, distributed wind is challenged by relatively poor productivity (compared with more modern large turbines), siting issues, burdensome interconnection rules, aesthetic concerns, and fragmented state rules regarding net metering. Several other factors favor distributed wind: areas of high and rising retail electricity prices, increasingly favorable public policies, and greater community interest in the environmental and economic benefits of renewable energy. As examined in section 4, the study evaluated the economic potential for distributed wind in the contiguous United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. The analysis began with a GIS screening process to eliminate areas that are technically impractical for distributed wind. Sites were eliminated in areas where: • Elevation was too high; • Slope was too steep; • Population density was too great; • Wind Power Class was less than 2; and • Areas legally excluded from wind-power development, such as national parks. After screening out ineligible sites, more than 3.6 million surviving sites were evaluated to determine whether distributed wind would be financially feasible. Certain customer types were excluded from the study, such as agricultural, construction companies, and military facilities, because they lacked data necessary for the analysis. The financial model considered: • Wind resources; • Wholesale and retail power prices; • Renewable Energy Credit (REC) prices; • Customer type (community wind, commercial, industrial, or public facility); • Project size; • Turbine technical and financial characteristics; • Onsite and offsite energy use; and • Incentives. The results varied significantly by customer class. Overall, the study showed that 67,100 out of the 3,611,655 sites/areas that were analyzed for economic viability yielded a positive net present value under current market conditions and policies and including all applicable state and federal incentives. To assess the potential of new technology, two virtual wind turbines—the NREL 250 and NREL 500—were included in the analysis. These virtual turbines were compared to existing 250 kW and 500 kW turbines. Overall, the study showed that 204,677 sites analyzed had positive net present values with the virtual turbines compared with 10,407 economically successful projects with existing 250 kW and 500 kW turbines. These numbers do not include the application of capped state and federal incentives. The following crucial changes could expand distributed wind development into the future. • Improvements in technology; • Reductions in cost; • Greater productivity at lower wind speeds; and • Greater policy support

A new record of Craspedacusta sowerbii (Cnidaria: Limnomedusae) from southern Africa

The northern hemisphere Craspedacusta sowerbii has been recorded recently from temperate regions of South Africa. Its introduction to southern Africa is thought to have occurred in the 1940s, when a number of exotic species were introduced, associated with man's interference in river catchments. A new record from Theewaterskloof Dam, Cape Province, suggests that its spread is being facilitated by inter-basin translocation of the polyp stage. Histological analysis of the gonads of medusae from Theewaterskloof impoundment showed that they were all females, supporting the hypothesis that only one sex of medusa is budded from any one polyp colony

Why is timing of bird migration advancing when individuals are not?

Recent advances in spring arrival dates have been reported in many migratory species but the mechanism driving these advances is unknown. As population declines are most widely reported in species that are not advancing migration, there is an urgent need to identify the mechanisms facilitating and constraining these advances. Individual plasticity in timing of migration in response to changing climatic conditions is commonly proposed to drive these advances but plasticity in individual migratory timings is rarely observed. For a shorebird population that has significantly advanced migration in recent decades, we show that individual arrival dates are highly consistent between years, but that the arrival dates of new recruits to the population are significantly earlier now than in previous years. Several mechanisms could drive advances in recruit arrival, none of which require individual plasticity or rapid evolution of migration timings. In particular, advances in nest-laying dates could result in advanced recruit arrival, if benefits of early hatching facilitate early subsequent spring migration. This mechanism could also explain why arrival dates of short-distance migrants, which generally return to breeding sites earlier and have greater scope for advance laying, are advancing more rapidly than long-distance migrants

Star Formation in Collision Debris: Insights from the modeling of their Spectral Energy Distribution

During galaxy-galaxy interactions, massive gas clouds can be injected into the intergalactic medium which in turn become gravitationally bound, collapse and form stars, star clusters or even dwarf galaxies. The objects resulting from this process are both "pristine", as they are forming their first generation of stars, and chemically evolved because the metallicity inherited from their parent galaxies is high. Such characteristics make them particularly interesting laboratories to study star formation. After having investigated their star-forming properties, we use photospheric, nebular and dust modeling to analyze here their spectral energy distribution (SED) from the far-ultraviolet to the mid-infrared regime for a sample of 7 star-forming regions. Our analysis confirms that the intergalactic star forming regions in Stephan's Quintet, around Arp 105, and NGC 5291, appear devoid of stellar populations older than 10^9 years. We also find an excess of light in the near-infrared regime (from 2 to 4.5 microns) which cannot be attributed to stellar photospheric or nebular contributions. This excess is correlated with the star formation rate intensity suggesting that it is probably due to emission by very small grains fluctuating in temperature as well as the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) line at 3.3 micron. Comparing the attenuation via the Balmer decrement to the mid-infrared emission allows us to check the reliability of the attenuation estimate. It suggests the presence of embedded star forming regions in NGC 5291 and NGC 7252. Overall the SED of star-forming regions in collision debris (and Tidal Dwarf Galaxies) resemble more that of dusty star-forming regions in galactic disks than to that of typical star-forming dwarf galaxies.Comment: 22 pages, 24 figures, accepted for publication in A

Reflections on “Personal Responsibility” after COVID and Dobbs: Doubling Down on Privacy

This essay uses lenses of gender, race, marriage, and work to trace understandings of “personal responsibility” in laws, policies, and conversations about public support in the United States over three time periods: (I) the pre-COVID era, from the beginning of the American “welfare state” through the start of the Trump administration; (II) the pandemic years; and (III) the present post-pandemic period. We sought to explore the possibility that COVID and the assistance programs it inspired might have reshaped the notion of personal responsibility and unsettled assumptions about privacy and dependency. In fact, a mixed picture emerges. On the one hand, the Supreme Court has rejected longstanding constitutional protection for abortion, and campaigns for “parental rights” have gained traction in several states. On the other hand, innovative forms of public support for families have appeared at state and local levels. In developing these conclusions, we highlight familiar challenges to the public/private divide while also exposing new cracks in doctrine that purports to distinguish intentional discrimination from disparate impact and to protect negative but not positive rights