1,235 research outputs found
The incidence and make up of ability grouped sets in the UK primary school
The adoption of setting in the primary school (pupils ability grouped across classes for particular subjects) emerged during the 1990s as a means to raise standards. Recent research based on 8875 children in the Millennium Cohort Study showed that 25.8% of children in Year 2 were set for literacy and mathematics and a further 11.2% of children were set for mathematics or literacy alone. Logistic regression analysis showed that the best predictors of being in the top set for literacy or mathematics were whether the child was born in the Autumn or Winter and cognitive ability scores. Boys were significantly more likely than girls to be in the bottom literacy set. Family circumstances held less importance for setting placement compared with the child’s own characteristics, although they were more important in relation to bottom set placement. Children in bottom sets were significantly more likely to be part of a long-term single parent household, have experienced poverty, and not to have a mother with qualifications at NVQ3 or higher levels. The findings are discussed in relation to earlier research and the implications for schools are set out
On the class SI of J-contractive functions intertwining solutions of linear differential equations
In the PhD thesis of the second author under the supervision of the third
author was defined the class SI of J-contractive functions, depending on a
parameter and arising as transfer functions of overdetermined conservative 2D
systems invariant in one direction. In this paper we extend and solve in the
class SI, a number of problems originally set for the class SC of functions
contractive in the open right-half plane, and unitary on the imaginary line
with respect to some preassigned signature matrix J. The problems we consider
include the Schur algorithm, the partial realization problem and the
Nevanlinna-Pick interpolation problem. The arguments rely on a correspondence
between elements in a given subclass of SI and elements in SC. Another
important tool in the arguments is a new result pertaining to the classical
tangential Schur algorithm.Comment: 46 page
118: Co-transplanation of haploidentical mesenchymal stem cells to overcome graft dysfunction associated with parental haploidentical CD34 postive selected peripheral stem cell grafts
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Charmless Decays Based on the six-quark Effective Hamiltonian with Strong Phase Effects II
We provide a systematic study of charmless decays (
and denote pseudoscalar and vector mesons, respectively) based on an
approximate six-quark operator effective Hamiltonian from QCD. The calculation
of the relevant hard-scattering kernels is carried out, the resulting
transition form factors are consistent with the results of QCD sum rule
calculations. By taking into account important classes of power corrections
involving "chirally-enhanced" terms and the vertex corrections as well as weak
annihilation contributions with non-trivial strong phase, we present
predictions for the branching ratios and CP asymmetries of decays into
PP, PV and VV final states, and also for the corresponding polarization
observables in VV final states. It is found that the weak annihilation
contributions with non-trivial strong phase have remarkable effects on the
observables in the color-suppressed and penguin-dominated decay modes. In
addition, we discuss the SU(3) flavor symmetry and show that the symmetry
relations are generally respected
An epitaxial model for heterogeneous nucleation on potent substrates
© The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International 2012In this article, we present an epitaxial model for heterogeneous nucleation on potent substrates. It is proposed that heterogeneous nucleation of the solid phase (S) on a potent substrate (N) occurs by epitaxial growth of a pseudomorphic solid (PS) layer on the substrate surface under a critical undercooling (ΔT ). The PS layer with a coherent PS/N interface mimics the atomic arrangement of the substrate, giving rise to a linear increase of misfit strain energy with layer thickness. At a critical thickness (h ), elastic strain energy reaches a critical level, at which point, misfit dislocations are created to release the elastic strain energy in the PS layer. This converts the strained PS layer to a strainless solid (S), and changes the initial coherent PS/N interface into a semicoherent S/N interface. Beyond this critical thickness, further growth will be strainless, and solidification enters the growth stage. It is shown analytically that the lattice misfit (f) between the solid and the substrate has a strong influence on both h and ΔT ; h decreases; and ΔT increases with increasing lattice misfit. This epitaxial nucleation model will be used to explain qualitatively the generally accepted experimental findings on grain refinement in the literature and to analyze the general approaches to effective grain refinement.EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Liquid Metal Engineerin
Topological self-similarity on the random binary-tree model
Asymptotic analysis on some statistical properties of the random binary-tree
model is developed. We quantify a hierarchical structure of branching patterns
based on the Horton-Strahler analysis. We introduce a transformation of a
binary tree, and derive a recursive equation about branch orders. As an
application of the analysis, topological self-similarity and its generalization
is proved in an asymptotic sense. Also, some important examples are presented
Force-Extension Relations for Polymers with Sliding Links
Topological entanglements in polymers are mimicked by sliding rings
(slip-links) which enforce pair contacts between monomers. We study the
force-extension curve for linear polymers in which slip-links create additional
loops of variable size. For a single loop in a phantom chain, we obtain exact
expressions for the average end-to-end separation: The linear response to a
small force is related to the properties of the unstressed chain, while for a
large force the polymer backbone can be treated as a sequence of Pincus--de
Gennes blobs, the constraint effecting only a single blob. Generalizing this
picture, scaling arguments are used to include self-avoiding effects.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; accepted to Phys. Rev. E (Brief Report
International education: a force for peace and cross-cultural understanding?
This paper discusses the notion that the international sojourn has the potential to transform sojourners into cultural mediators who carry the power to improve global relations. A year-long ethnographic study of the adjustment experiences of international postgraduate students in England revealed a universal early enthusiasm for cross-cultural contact that was matched by a widespread adoption of segregated patterns of interacting. The most common friendship networks were described by bonds with conationals, and yet all students attested to an increase in their cultural learning and mindfulness by the end of the sojourn. Nevertheless, intercultural competence was maximised only in those few students who pursued a multicultural strategy of interaction, leading the researcher to call on Higher Education Institutions to instigate policies to encourage lasting cross-cultural contact
Existence and stability of viscoelastic shock profiles
We investigate existence and stability of viscoelastic shock profiles for a
class of planar models including the incompressible shear case studied by
Antman and Malek-Madani. We establish that the resulting equations fall into
the class of symmetrizable hyperbolic--parabolic systems, hence spectral
stability implies linearized and nonlinear stability with sharp rates of decay.
The new contributions are treatment of the compressible case, formulation of a
rigorous nonlinear stability theory, including verification of stability of
small-amplitude Lax shocks, and the systematic incorporation in our
investigations of numerical Evans function computations determining stability
of large-amplitude and or nonclassical type shock profiles.Comment: 43 pages, 12 figure
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