School success stories of young men at risk

This paper arises from the concern about school inequality. This is a topic that uses to concern European organizations. Education is one of the five key goals of the “European Strategy 2020” to achieve economic growth, to combat social inequality and build a socially and economically strong Europe. This concern is also shared by international organisations such as the OECD, the World Bank and the UNESCO which, together with the European Union have become political agents that exercise their influence on national policies.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Non-topological solitons in field theories with kinetic self-coupling

We investigate some fundamental features of a class of non-linear relativistic lagrangian field theories with kinetic self-coupling. We focus our attention upon theories admitting static, spherically symmetric solutions in three space dimensions which are finite-energy and stable. We determine general conditions for the existence and stability of these non-topological soliton solutions. In particular, we perform a linear stability analysis that goes beyond the usual Derrick-like criteria. On the basis of these considerations we obtain a complete characterization of the soliton-supporting members of the aforementioned class of non-linear field theories. We then classify the family of soliton-supporting theories according to the central and asymptotic behaviors of the soliton field, and provide illustrative explicit examples of models belonging to each of the corresponding sub-families. In the present work we restrict most of our considerations to one and many-components scalar models. We show that in these cases the finite-energy static spherically symmetric solutions are stable against charge-preserving perturbations, provided that the vacuum energy of the model vanishes and the energy density is positive definite. We also discuss briefly the extension of the present approach to models involving other types of fields, but a detailed study of this more general scenario will be addressed in a separate publication.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, revtex4, minor corrections adde

Phenomenological research on professsional knowledge and educational relationship building

Following Dewey’s (1997) and Schwab’s (2013) ideas, Clandinin & Connelly (1992) developed their notion of teacher as curriculum maker, it means, the “teacher not so much as a maker of curriculum but as a part of it and to imagine a place for contexts, culture (Dewey´s notion of interaction), and temporality (both past and future contained in Dewey´s notion of continuity)” (p.365). In this way, teachers are not seen as implementers of curricular plans but as part of the curriculum making process. In other words, they understand that students create their curriculum in their experience at school when they interact with teachers and the environment. Therefore, the educational relationship creates the framework where learning can take place and students can build knowledge (Atkinson, 2015); it means, relationships generate meeting places that allow the making and reshaping of curriculum. If teaching takes place in the relationship, it means recognition (and acceptance) of the other person, of the otherness. It supposes trying to come into relation with the other, and it implies also acceptance of the uncertainty that otherness has. Therefore, education Is not about the implementation of an education programme in order to achieve (pre)determined results. It is not about intervention on students, but it is an experience of relationship where each one constructs their own story (Molina, Blanco & Arbiol, 2016). In short, curriculum is made through experiences that are lived in relation and, therefore, we could say that education is an act of relationship (Piussi, 2006). In this way, education does not require that teachers have the most appropriate knowledge and programme for every situation; the educational experience is unpredictable and ineffable, we cannot anticipate or face it completely (Van Manen, 2015). Thus, teaching requires becoming aware of how we build relationships and how we see the other person (Contreras, 2002).Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

AGN spiral galaxies in groups: effects of bars

We explore properties of barred active spiral galaxies in groups selected from the SDSS-DR7, with the aim of assessing the effects of bars on AGN and the role of the high density environment. We identified barred active galaxies that reside in groups from SDSS-DR7 group catalog. To provide a suitable quantification of the effects of bars, a reliable control sample of unbarred active galaxies in high density environments with similar redshift, magnitude, morphology, and bulge size distributions was constructed. We found that the fraction of barred AGN galaxies in groups (~ 38 %) is higher than those in the total barred AGN sample ( ~ 28 %), indicating that AGN spiral galaxies in groups are more likely to be barred than those in the field. We also found that barred AGN galaxies are more concentrated towards the group centers than the other unbarred AGN group members. In addition, barred AGN host galaxies show an excess of population dominated by red colors suggesting that bars produce an importanteffect on galaxy colors of AGN hosts. The host groups of the barred AGN exhibit a larger fraction of red colors than the host groups of the corresponding unbarred active galaxies. Color-magnitude relations of both host groups of AGN differ significantly: the host group colors of barred active galaxies display distributions spreading toward red populations, with respect to the host groups of the unbarred AGN objects. Barred active galaxies show an excess of nuclear activity compared to galaxies without bars. We found that barred active galaxies located farther from the group-center have stronger Lum[OIII]. Our findings suggest that the efficiency of bars to transport material towards the more central regions of the AGN galaxies in high density environments reveals an important dependence on the localization of objects within the group and on the host group colors.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for Astronomy & Astrophysic

Is optimization an opportunity ? an assessment of the impact of class size and school size on the performance of Ukrainian secondary schools

Using a rich data set of almost the entire population of Ukrainian secondary schools, the authors estimate the effect of school size and class size on the performance of secondary schools on Ukraine's External Independent Test. They find that larger schools tend to have somewhat better performance, both in terms of test scores and in terms of test participation. The size of this effect is relatively small, however, especially in rural areas for which the estimates are likely to be more clean estimates. Class size is found to be insignificant in most specifications and, if significant, of negligible size.Tertiary Education,Secondary Education,Teaching and Learning,Education For All,Primary Education

Is Optimization an Opportunity? An Assessment of the Impact of Class Size and School Size on the Performance of Ukrainian Secondary Schools

Using a rich data set of almost the entire population of Ukrainian secondary schools, the authors estimatethe effect of school size and class size on the performance of secondary schools on Ukraine's External Independent Test. They find that larger schools tend to have somewhat better performance, both in terms of test scores and in terms of test participation. The size of this effect is relatively small, however, especially in rural areas for which the estimates are likely to be more clean estimates. Class size is found to be insignificant in most specifications and, if significant, of negligible size.Tertiary Education, Secondary Education, Teaching and Learning, Education For All, Primary Education

The Burgers' equation with stochastic transport: shock formation, local and global existence of smooth solutions

In this work, we examine the solution properties of the Burgers' equation with stochastic transport. First, we prove results on the formation of shocks in the stochastic equation and then obtain a stochastic Rankine-Hugoniot condition that the shocks satisfy. Next, we establish the local existence and uniqueness of smooth solutions in the inviscid case and construct a blow-up criterion. Finally, in the viscous case, we prove global existence and uniqueness of smooth solutions