Teachers' involvement in decision-making: a case-study of a primary school at a time of rapid change

This thesis rests upon a case-study of staff involvement in decision-making during a time of rapid change in the education system of England and Wales in a Church of England (aided) primary school for children aged 5 to 12. referred to under the pseudonym St. Kerensa's. Against this background of change. I develop a framework for the analysis of teacher involvement with special reference to the influence of statutory demands, focusing particularly upon the headteacher's attempts to establish a climate of collaboration and staff reactions to the opportunities for involvement. The imposition of govemment reforms affects the development of intra-school policy, diverting attention from various immediate school needs. The tightly coupled decision-making process established by the headteacher as part of her response in dealing with the reforms is found to be inadequate in itself to facilitate committed teacher participation. The case-study indicated that in her quest to establish this process the headteacher needed to take into account teachers' interpretation of events, value positions and workload, the effect of interest groups, and teachers' misgivings about involvement. Clarification over the purpose of the consultation process was found to be an important factor in ensuring teachers' satisfaction about their involvement; in this respect, the conditions under which consultation took place reflected the level of collegiality and consensus. The thesis contributes to our fuller understanding of teachers' involvement in decisionmaking by recognizing the importance of both the structural and inter-personal elements in decision-making. Headteachers need to be clear about the extent of their hegemony and the importance of a school culture in which staff well-being is valued, their concerns for children acknowledged, and the clarification of shared values and goals viewed as axiomatic in the quest for coherent decision-making during a time of imposed national reforms

Seasonality in the Business Survey. Quarterly Economic Commentary Special Article, July 1985

In 1961 the European Commission, in association with government departments or research institutes in Member States, instituted a harmonised monthly survey of the business attitudes held by managements affirms in the manufacturing sector. With Ireland's accession to the EEC the survey would have been extended here. However, there was already a quarterly survey on businessmen's intentions in operation. Beginning with the fourth quarter of 1961, the Confederation oflrish Industry ( CII) and The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) had been conducting a quarterly survey of businessmen's attitudes in the Republic of Ireland and publishing (from 1968) an account of the results of the latter's Quarterry Economic Commentary. On Ireland's accession, the CII-ESRI survey was revised so as to ensure comparability with other member countries, and the first monthly survey was carried out in March, 1974. Results are now reported in the Commission's Business Survey publication and in Ireland in a CII monthly report

Type I IFN induces IL-10 production in an IL-27-independent manner and blocks responsiveness to IFN-gamma for production of IL-12 and bacterial killing in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected macrophages

Tuberculosis, caused by the intracellular bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, currently causes ~1.4 million deaths per year, and it therefore remains a leading global health problem. The immune response during tuberculosis remains incompletely understood, particularly regarding immune factors that are harmful rather than protective to the host. Overproduction of the type I IFN family of cytokines is associated with exacerbated tuberculosis in both mouse models and in humans, although the mechanisms by which type I IFN promotes disease are not well understood. We have investigated the effect of type I IFN on M. tuberculosis-infected macrophages and found that production of host-protective cytokines such as TNF-a, IL-12, and IL-1ß is inhibited by exogenous type I IFN, whereas production of immunosuppressive IL-10 is promoted in an IL-27-independent manner. Furthermore, much of the ability of type I IFN to inhibit cytokine production was mediated by IL-10. Additionally, type I IFN compromised macrophage activation by the lymphoid immune response through severely disrupting responsiveness to IFN-?, including M. tuberculosis killing. These findings describe important mechanisms by which type I IFN inhibits the immune response during tuberculosis.This work was funded by Medical Research Council, U.K. Grant U117565642 and European Research Council Grant 294682-TB-PATH. M.S. and L.M.-T. were funded by the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, Portugal. M.S. is a Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, Portugal investigator. L.M.T. was supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, Portugal Grant SFRH/BPD/77399/2011

High-temperature experimental and thermodynamic modelling research on the pyrometallurgical processing of copper

Uncertainty in the metal price and competition between producers mean that the daily operation of a smelter needs to target high recovery of valuable elements at low operating cost. Options for the improvement of the plant operation can be examined and decision making can be informed based on accurate information from laboratory experimentation coupled with predictions using advanced thermodynamic models. Integrated high-temperature experimental and thermodynamic modelling research on phase equilibria and thermodynamics of copper-containing systems have been undertaken at the Pyrometallurgy Innovation Centre (PYROSEARCH). The experimental phase equilibria studies involve high-temperature equilibration, rapid quenching and direct measurement of phase compositions using electron probe X-ray microanalysis (EPMA). The thermodynamic modelling deals with the development of accurate thermodynamic database built through critical evaluation of experimental data, selection of solution models, and optimization of models parameters. The database covers the Al-Ca-Cu-Fe-Mg-O-S-Si chemical system. The gas, slag, matte, liquid and solid metal phases, spinel solid solution as well as numerous solid oxide and sulphide phases are included. The database works within the FactSage software environment. Examples of phase equilibria data and thermodynamic models of selected systems, as well as possible implementation of the research outcomes to selected copper making processes are presented

Influence of Antipodally Coupled Iodine and Carbon Atoms on the Cage Structure of 9,12-I2-closo-1,2-C2B10H10 : An Electron Diffraction and Computational Study

Because of the comparable electron scattering abilities of carbon and boron, the electron diffraction structure of the C2v-symmetric molecule closo-1,2-C2B10H12 (1), one of the building blocks of boron cluster chemistry, is not as accurate as it could be. On that basis, we have prepared the known diiodo derivative of 1, 9,12-I2-closo-1,2-C2B10H10 (2), which has the same point-group symmetry as 1 but in which the presence of iodine atoms, with their much stronger ability to scatter electrons, ensures much better structural characterization of the C2B10 icosahedral core. Furthermore, the influence on the C2B10 geometry in 2 of the antipodally positioned iodine substituents with respect to both carbon atoms has been examined using the concerted application of gas electron diffraction and quantum chemical calculations at the MP2 and density functional theory (DFT) levels. The experimental and computed molecular geometries are in good overall agreement. Molecular dynamics simulations used to obtain vibrational parameters, which are needed for analyzing the electron diffraction data, have been performed for the first time for this class of compound. According to DFT calculations at the ZORA-SO/BP86 level, the 11B chemical shifts of the boron atoms to which the iodine substituents are bonded are dominated by spin-orbit coupling. Magnetically induced currents within 2 have been calculated and compared to those for [B12H12]2-, the latter adopting a regular icosahedral structure with Ih point-group symmetry. Similar total current strengths are found but with a certain anisotropy, suggesting that spherical aromaticity is present; electron delocalization in the plane of the hetero atoms in 2 is slightly hindered compared to that for [B12H12]2-, presumably because of the departure from ideal icosahedral symmetry

On the making and taking of professionalism in the further education workplace

This paper examines the changing nature of professional practice in English further education. At a time when neo-liberal reform has significantly impacted on this under-researched and over-market-tested sector, little is known about who its practitioners are and how they construct meaning in their work. Sociological interest in the field has tended to focus on further education practitioners as either the subjects of market and managerial reform or as creative agents operating within the contradictions of audit and inspection cultures. In challenging such dualism, which is reflective of wider sociological thinking, the paper examines the ways in which agency and structure combine to produce a more transformative conception of the further education professional. The approach contrasts with a prevailing policy discourse that seeks to re-professionalise and modernise further education practice without interrogating either the terms of its professionalism or the neo-liberal practices in which it resides

Smart energy management and conversion

This chapter introduced power management circuits and energy storage unit designs for sub‐1 mW low power energy harvesting technologies, including indoor light energy harvesting, thermoelectric energy harvesting and vibration energy harvesting. The solutions address several of the problems associated with energy harvesting, power management and storage issues including low voltage operation, self‐start, efficiency (conversion efficiency as well as impact of power consumption of the power management circuit itself), energy density and leakage current levels. Additionally, efforts to miniaturize and integrate magnetic parts as well as integrate discrete circuits onto silicon are outlined to offer improvements in cost, size and efficiency. Finally initial results from efforts to improve energy density of storage devices using nanomaterials are introduced

Lost in the Digital Wild: Hiding Information in Digital Activities

This paper presents a new general framework of information hiding, in which the hidden information is embedded into a collection of activities conducted by selected human and computer entities (e.g., a number of online accounts of one or more online social networks) in a selected digital world. Different from other traditional schemes, where the hidden information is embedded into one or more selected or generated cover objects, in the new framework the hidden information is embedded in the fact that some particular digital activities with some particular attributes took place in some particular ways in the receiver-observable digital world. In the new framework the concept of "cover" almost disappears, or one can say that now the whole digital world selected becomes the cover. The new framework can find applications in both security (e.g., steganography) and non-security domains (e.g., gaming). For security applications we expect that the new framework calls for completely new steganalysis techniques, which are likely more complicated, less effective and less efficient than existing ones due to the need to monitor and analyze the whole digital world constantly and in real time. A proof-of-concept system was developed as a mobile app based on Twitter activities to demonstrate the information hiding framework works. We are developing a more hybrid system involving several online social networks