Not the Whole Story of the National Literacy Strategy: A Response to Dominic Wyse

There is evidence that the National Literacy Strategy has led to a sustained increase in literacy attainment, especially in reading, although recent international comparisons also suggest some additional issues regarding pupil performance in England. The relative success of the NLS may at least partly lie in the policy application of several complementary areas of educational research, a suggestion disputed by Dominic Wyse (2003). However, his critical commentary is marred by important omissions, particularly of reference to debates about the teaching of reading and to the statutory status of the National Curriculum for English. His alternative suggestions on the use of ‘child development’ evidence lack methodological detail and are only partly formulated

Integrated electronic prescribing and robotic dispensing: a case study

INTRODUCTION: To quantify the benefits of electronic prescribing directly linked to a robotic dispensing machine. CASE DESCRIPTION: Quantitative case study analysis is used on a single case. Hospital A (1,000 beds) has used an integrated electronic prescribing system for 10 years, and in 2009 linked two robotic dispensing machines to the system. The impact on dispensing error rates (quality) and efficiency (costs) were assessed. EVALUATION AND DISCUSSION: The implementation delivered staff efficiencies above expectation. For the out-patient department, this was 16% more than the business case had suggested. For the in-patients dispensary, four staff were released for re-deployment. Additionally, £500,000 in stockholding efficiency above that suggested by the business case was identified. Overall dispensing error rates were not adversely affected and products dispensed by the electronic prescribing - robot system produced zero dispensing errors. The speed of dispensing increased also, as the electronic prescribing - robot combination permitted almost instantaneous dispensing from the point of a doctor entering a prescription. CONCLUSION: It was significant that the combination of electronic prescribing and a robot eliminated dispensing errors. Any errors that did occur were not as a result of the electronic prescribing - robotic system (i.e. the product was not stocked within the robot). The direct linking of electronic prescribing and robots as a dispensing system together produces efficiencies and improves the quality of the dispensing process

The river sharing problem: A review of the technical literature for policy economists

Water is essential for life. However, the basic problem of water resource allocation has been that water tends to be over-allocated. Demand for water exceeds the available supply. Essentially, the water economy is bankrupt. Bankruptcy problems have been almost exhaustively studied in the literature on economic theory-primarily from the perspective of cooperative game theory. The main concern of this literature has been how to fairly divide up the assets of a bankrupt entity. In water resource economics cooperative game theory has often been employed as a means of analyzing water resource allocation. It was only recently that the problem of directional flow was incorporated into such analyses. This has come to be known as the “river sharing problem” in the theoretical literature. Accounting for the direction of flow in water resource allocation problems has profound implications for policies that wish to facilitate both fair and efficient water allocations. This is the case whether proposed policies are interventionist or market based in nature. There is now a considerable literature on the allocation and distribution of water resources characterized by unidirectional flow. In this paper I critically review and appraise this literature with a view to making it more accessible to applied and policy economists. A key feature of the paper is that the connection between the bankruptcy literature, which has recently also realized the importance of flow, and the river sharing literature is discussed. The current state of the art in game theoretic models of water resource allocation with directional flow is discussed and implications and consequences for water resource policy highlightedRiver sharing problem, Bankruptcy, Cooperative game theory, Water resouyrce allocation, distributive justice

Rent seeking, interest groups and environmental lobbying: Cane Farmers versus Great Barrier Reef Protectionists

In this paper an interest group model of rent seeking behaviour between sugarcane farmers and environmental protectionists is developed. The motivation for this scenario comes from the debate over fertilizer run-off and its possible impact on Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef. The paper takes Gordon Tullock’s rent-seeking model and applies it to the bargaining process over controls on fertilizer application in an effort to learn something about the likely political outcomes of this debate.Public choice; Environmental economics; Agricultural policy

A Critical Analysis of the Effects of Colello v. SEC on International Securities Law Enforcement Agreements

The load carrying capacity of interbre joints are one of the key entities for build-up of strength inpaper materials. In order to gain insight in how to tailor the macroscopic properties of such materialsby chemical and/or mechanical treatments at a microscopic level, direct measurement of individualbre{bre crosses are typically performed. However, the state of loading in the interbre joint, intesting of individual bre{bre crosses, is in general very complex and an increased understandingfor how to evaluate the mechanical properties of interbre joints is desirable. In Paper A, amethod for manufacturing and measuring the strength of isolated interbre joints is presented. Themethod is applied to investigate the strength of bre{bre crosses at two dierent modes of loading.Also, an investigation on the manufacturing conditions is presented. The strength distribution ofindividually prepared bre{bre crosses is characterized and it was found that the median strengthin a peeling type of loading was about 20% compared to samples tested in the conventional shearingtype of loading. In Paper B, a procedure for evaluating interbre joint strength measurementsin terms of resultant forces and moments in the interbre joint region is presented. The methodis applied to investigate the state of loading in bre{bre crosses tested in peeling and shearing,respectively. It is shown that for a typical interbre joint strength test, the load components otherthan shear, cannot in general be neglected and is strongly dependent on the structural geometry ofthe bre{bre crosses. In Paper C, four distinctly dierent load cases; peeling, shearing, tearingand a biaxial type of loading was tested mechanically and evaluated numerically in order to gainmore information on how interbre joints behave in dierent modes of loading. In Paper D, thein uence of a chemical additive on the interbre joint strength is investigated on the microscopic(joint) scale and correlated to the eect previously observed on the macroscopic (sheet) scale. Xraymicrotomography and image analysis was used to understand structural changes in the brousnetwork in terms of the number of interbre joints as well as the average interbre joint contact area.The results showed that the median interbre joint strength increased by 18% upon adsorption, andthat the polyelectrolyte increased the number of contacts between the bres as well as an increasedarea of contact. In Paper E, the damage behaviour of individual interbre joints is analyzed. Froman extensive number of mechanical tests, the typical damage behaviour is identied and a failurecriterion is used to study the in uence of failure properties to give indications on how to tailor thematerial to optimize the joint strength.En av de viktigaste mekanismerna for den lastbarande formagan hos pappersmaterial ar brottegenskapernahos berfogarna. For att eektivt skraddarsy sadana materials egenskaper genom kemiskoch/eller mekanisk behandling samt for att forsta hur sadana modieringar paverkar egenskapernapa en mikroskopisk niva ar provning av individuella ber-ber-kors en allmant anvand metod. Belastningeni en berfog vid sadan provning ar dock generellt komplicerad och ytterligare kunskapom hur berfogars mekaniska egenskaper skall utvarderas ar onskvard. I Artikel A, presenterasen metod for tillverkning samt mekanisk provning av isolerade ber-kors vid tva olika typer avbelastning. Vidare undersoks hur torktrycket, torkmetoden samt graden av malning inverkar pafogstyrkan. Resultaten visar att brottlasten for en globalt akande belastning var omkring 20 % avbrottlasten for prov utforda med den konventionella skjuvande belastningen samt att styrkan hosindividuellt tillverkade berkors ar fordelade enligt en Weibull fordelning. I Artikel B, presenterasen numerisk metod for utvardering av fogstyrke-matningar med avseende pa kraft- och momentresultanternai gransytan mellan brerna. Metoden anvands for att studera belastningsmoden hosber-kors i tva principiellt olika lastfall. Resultaten visar att for ett typiskt berfogsprov, kan intelastkomponenterna, vid sidan av skjuvning, generellt forsummas da de ar starkt beroende avber-korsets geometri. I Artikel C, jamfors fogstyrkematningar under fyra principiellt olika lastfall; akande, skjuvande, rivande samt biaxiellt. De experimentella last-forskjutningskurvorna, samtde beraknade lastmoderna anvands for att undersoka vilket tillskott pa information de foreslagnalastfallen kan ge i hansyn till fogstyrkan hos massabrer. I Artikel D, undersoks en polymers (somabsorberats pa berytorna) inverkan pa saval berniva som pa natverksniva. Fiberfogstyrkan matsexperimentellt och eekten av den kemiska tillsatsen jamfors pa mikroskopisk niva (ber-kors) medtidigare uppmatt eekt pa makroskopisk niva (ark). Rontgentomogra och bildanalys anvands foratt undersoka de strukturella skillnaderna som uppstar i de brosa natverken vid absorption av enpolyamin och resultaten visar att antalet berfogar per berlangdenhet samt att medelkontaktareanokade. Resultaten visar ocksa att medianen av berfogsstyrkan okade med 18 %. Dessa eekter sammantagetar anledningen till varfor polyaminer, sasom PAH, ar sa eektiva for att oka torrstyrkanhos pappersmaterial. I Artikel E, karakteriseras skadebeteendet hos individuella berfogar franett omfattande antal matningar. Ett brottkriterium infors i den numeriska utvarderingsmetoden foratt studera skadebeteendet. Kanslighetsanalys och inverkan av brottparametrarna studeras ocksafor att ge indikationer pa hur egenskaperna kan skraddarsys for att optimera berfogstyrkan.QC 20140527BiMaC Innovatio

Room for improvement

Some businesses have begun to make space work for their staff, while others are stuck in a different ag

Buy Your Gas Range with Dollars and Sense

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