Promoting widening participation and higher education: Lessons from a four year intervention programme

Since the labour government came to power in 1997, a major policy has been to increase the participation rates of those entering higher education, particularly those from lower-socio economic backgrounds. Just over 10 years later, little has changed. The Brunel Urban Scholars programme is a 4 year long intervention programme for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds aged 12-16. It aims, through university style teaching, emersion in a university environment, and regular interaction with undergraduates, to enhance these students’ aspirations and higher education orientation. Findings from the first 2 years suggest that higher education orientation has increased. Aspirations are showing some signs of increasing, but are more gradual. This evidence supports previous findings from pilot programmes that change is slow, and justifies and suggests the need for a longer intervention programmes

‘Are we being de-gifted, Miss?’ Primary school gifted and talented co-ordinators’ responses to the Gifted and Talented Education Policy in England

This is the accepted version of the following article: Koshy, V. and Pinheiro-Torres, C. (2013), ‘Are we being de-gifted, Miss?’ Primary school gifted and talented co-ordinators’ responses to the Gifted and Talented Education Policy in England. British Educational Research Journal, 39: 953–978. doi: 10.1002/berj.3021, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3021/abstract.Over a decade ago the UK government launched its gifted and talented education policy in England, yet there has been very little published research which considers how schools and teachers are interpreting and implementing the policy. By seeking the views of the gifted and talented co-ordinators (For ease of reference, the term gifted and talented (G&T) co-ordinator is used throughout the paper as a generic shorthand for the research participants who were either designated school gifted and talented co-ordinators or teachers or head teachers with responsibility for policy implementation) with responsibility for addressing the requirements of the policy, the study reported in this paper explored how primary schools in England responded to the policy. Drawing on data gathered using questionnaires with a national sample of primary schools as well as follow-up in-depth interviews with a sample of G&T co-ordinators, the authors report their findings. The study found that there was considerable unease about the concept of identifying and ‘labelling’ a group of pupils as ‘gifted and talented’. G&T co-ordinators found it difficult to interpret the policy requirements and were responding pragmatically to what they considered to be required by the government. Curriculum provision for the selected group of gifted and talented pupils was patchy. The paper concludes by identifying a need for further professional development for teachers and by challenging the policy's over-emphasis on identifying and labelling gifted and talented pupils. We posit whether the gifted and talented education policy would have been better introduced and enjoyed greater success by leaving the identification of pupils to one side and by placing greater emphasis on developing effective learning and teaching strategies instead

Unavoidable Conflict Between Massive Gravity Models and Massive Topological Terms

Massive gravity models in 2+1 dimensions, such as those obtained by adding to Einstein's gravity the usual Fierz-Pauli, or the more complicated Ricci scalar squared ($R^2$), terms, are tree level unitary. Interesting enough these seemingly harmless systems have their unitarity spoiled when they are augmented by a Chern-Simons term. Furthermore, if the massive topological term is added to $R + R_{\mu\nu}^2$ gravity, or to $R + R_{\mu\nu}^2 + R^2$ gravity (higher-derivative gravity), which are nonunitary at the tree level, the resulting models remain nonunitary. Therefore, unlike the common belief, as well as the claims in the literature, the coexistence between three-dimensional massive gravity models and massive topological terms is conflicting.Comment: 13 pages, no figure

Massive, Topologically Massive, Models

In three dimensions, there are two distinct mass-generating mechanisms for gauge fields: adding the usual Proca/Pauli-Fierz, or the more esoteric Chern-Simons (CS), terms. Here we analyze the three-term models where both types are present, and their various limits. Surprisingly, in the tensor case, these seemingly innocuous systems are physically unacceptable. If the sign of the Einstein term is ``wrong'' as is in fact required in the CS case, then the excitation masses are always complex; with the usual sign, there is a (known) region of the two mass parameters where reality is restored, but instead we show that a ghost problem arises, while, for the ``pure mass'' two-term system without an Einstein action, complex masses are unavoidable. This contrasts with the smooth behavior of the corresponding vector models. Separately, we show that the ``partial masslessness'' exhibited by (plain) massive spin-2 models in de Sitter backgrounds is formally shared by the three-term system: it also enjoys a reduced local gauge invariance when this mass parameter is tuned to the cosmological constant.Comment: 7 pages, typos corrected, reference adde

Estudio de la aplicación de Alta Presión Hidrostática sobre quesos ibéricos (torta del Casar y queso de Évora): efecto en las características fisicoquímicas y sensoriales durante la maduración y la vida útil

Existe evidência que o processamento por alta pressão possa acelerar a maturação dos queijos. No entanto, o processo é complexo, envolvendo enzimas e a flora natural , e os efeitos precisos da pressão são muito variados em função da especificidade do queijo . A dificuldade de manter um queijo por logo tempo , com umas dimensões tão pequenas, com umatextura e caracteristiscas sensoriais que não defraudem as espectativas dos consumidores, tem levado os produtores de queijo de Évora a procurar alternativas para conservar o queijo. A procura de grandes quantidades pelas grandes cadeias de supermercados, leva a que os fornecimentos tenham de ser em maior quantidade por cada carga de trasporte, o que implica um maior tempo de prateleira dos quejios nas grandes superficies e o risco de devoluções são certamemte mais frequentes; Merendeiras de Évora com 30 e 60 dias de cura, foram aplicados tratamentos HP de 400 e 600 Mpa, e amostrados com intervalos de 30 dias até aos 150 dias de cura. O tratamento HP na merendeira de Évora, nestas condições, contribui para a obtenção de um produto com uma maior de garantia de tempo de prateleira (150 dias), mantendo as caracteristicas do produto com DOP. Não se verificando alterações significativas nas caracteristicas sensoriais e de textura, e as contagens microbianas foram mais baixas que nas amostras control. Deve salientar-se que se verificou uma grande variabilidade entre amostras , o que dificulta a clara e inequivoca conclusão . Sugere-se para trabalho seguinte a testagem de um filme com diferentes durezas ou variedades de filmes de forma a que em queijos com pequena dimensão e pasta mais mole , não se verifique a deformação da aparência externa. Quando o tratamento de HP é efectuado aos 30 dias,o que de facto garante uma textura muito agradável ao queijo até aos 150 dias de cura , a aparencia externa dos queijos não é a adequado, considerando que é uma das carateristicas principais para o consumidor não familiarizado com o produto

New insights into the biomechanics of Legg-Calvé-Perthes’ disease: The role of epiphyseal skeletal immaturity in vascular obstruction

ObjectivesLegg–Calvé–Perthes’ disease (LCP) is an idiopathic osteonecrosis of the femoral head that is most common in children between four and eight years old. The factors that lead to the onset of LCP are still unclear; however, it is believed that interruption of the blood supply to the developing epiphysis is an important factor in the development of the condition.MethodsFinite element analysis modelling of the blood supply to the juvenile epiphysis was investigated to understand under which circumstances the blood vessels supplying the femoral epiphysis could become obstructed. The identification of these conditions is likely to be important in understanding the biomechanics of LCP.ResultsThe results support the hypothesis that vascular obstruction to the epiphysis may arise when there is delayed ossification and when articular cartilage has reduced stiffness under compression.ConclusionThe findings support the theory of vascular occlusion as being important in the pathophysiology of Perthes disease