National evaluation of Diplomas: cohort 1 - the second year

The introduction of Diplomas for 14-19 year olds represented a major innovation in educational opportunity for young people in England. The Diplomas are being offered at three levels and across 14 subjects and have been implemented in three phases (from September 2008, 2009 and 2010). Following the establishment of the Coalition government in May 2010, a number of changes to the implementation and delivery of the Diploma qualification were introduced. The Minister of State for Schools announced that development of new Diplomas in science, humanities and languages, which were due to be introduced from September 2011, would be discontinued. Additionally the Diploma entitlement, whereby all young people within an area would be able to access any of the Diploma subjects, would be removed and that the decision about which Diploma subjects would be available to students would in future be made by schools and colleges. Moreover, it was decided that the Gateway application process whereby consortia (of schools, colleges, training providers, employers and Higher Education Institutes (HEIs)) had previously submitted an application to the Department for Education (DfE) for each Diploma subject they wanted to offer would no longer be required for provision commencing from 2012. Other changes included the freedom for institutions to decide whether or not they wanted to work collaboratively to provide Diploma provision

Navigating later life transitions: An evaluation of emotional and psychological interventions

Transitions in later life, for instance retiring from paid work, changing career, ending or starting a relationship, can have a major impact on people’s lives and their wellbeing. Recognising a gap in preventative support for transitions such as these, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (CGF; UK Branch) has funded a number of projects that provide group-based psychological and emotional support as part of its Transitions in Later Life (TiLL) programme. CGF and the Centre for Ageing Better partnered on the evaluation of two of these courses — Working Longer and Living Life to the Full, a two-day course run by Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CWP) and Changing Gears, a three-day course run by Age & Opportunity in Dublin, Ireland. The aim of the evaluation was to find out what impact the courses had on individual attributes that would help people be better prepared for later life transitions; what changes people make as a result of the courses; and what practice, resources or processes in the organisations are important in ensuring their implementation and efficacy

Special educational needs and disability : Understanding local variation in prevalence, service provision and support

There is a growing recognition of the variation between local authorities in the proportions of children with SEN, the apparent composition of these groups, and the nature and quality of services provided to support them. Local area data collected on children with SEN, particularly the termly School Census and the annual SEN2 return by local authorities, show differences in the number of children with SEN, the nature of their recorded conditions and the Code of Practice level of support they are receiving. This variation was highlighted by the House of Commons Education and Skills Select Committee which commented on a ‘postcode lottery’ or a ‘lottery of provision’, and reports by the Audit Commission and Ofsted which also highlighted variation in provision and standards

An improved synthesis of (2E,4Z)-6-(benzyloxy)-4-bromohexa-2,4-dien-1-ol

An improved synthesis of (2E,4Z)-6-(benzyloxy)-4-bromohexa-2,4-dien-1-ol has been devised. This new route increases the throughput and yield of the diene product by circumventing a low yielding preparation of boronic acid intermediate as well as removing the need to use multi-gram quantities of highly toxic thallium salts. In the process of developing this new route, a higher yielding preparation of ( E)-3-hydroxyprop-1-enylboronic acid was also achieved. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Vortex Production in Non-Relativistic and Relativistic Media

We examine string (vortex) formation at a quench for a weakly-coupled global U(1) theory when the excitation spectrum is non-relativistic. It is so similar to vortex production in the corresponding relativistic plasma as to reinforce arguments for the similarity of vortex production in the early universe and in low-temperature many-body physics.Comment: 20 pages, RevTeX and epsf, 1 postscript figure. Resubmitted because archive (not a bulletin board) ate the figures file first time round. Available through anonymous ftp as LaTeX from ftp://euclid.tp.ph.ic.ac.uk/papers/94-5_53.tex or as LaTeX or postscript at http://euclid.tp.ph.ic.ac.uk/Papers/index.htm

Root production is determined by radiation flux in a temperate grassland community

Accurate knowledge of the response of root turnover to a changing climate is needed to predict growth and produce carbon cycle models. A soil warming system and shading were used to vary soil temperature and received radiation independently in a temperate grassland dominated by Holcus lanatus L. Minirhizotrons allowed root growth and turnover to be examined non-destructively. In two short-term (8 week) experiments, root responses to temperature were seasonally distinct. Root number increased when heating was applied during spring, but root death increased during autumnal heating. An experiment lasting 12 months demonstrated that any positive response to temperature was short-lived and that over a full growing season, soil warming led to a reduction in root number and mass due to increased root death during autumn and winter. Root respiration was also insensitive to soil temperature over much of the year. In contrast, root growth was strongly affected by incident radiation. Root biomass, length, birth rate, number and turnover were all reduced by shading. Photosynthesis in H. lanatus exhibited some acclimation to shading, but assimilation rates at growth irradiance were still lower in shaded plants. The negative effects of shading and soil warming on roots were additive. Comparison of root data with environmental measurements demonstrated a number of positive relationships with photosynthetically active radiation, but not with soil temperature. This was true both across the entire data set and within a shade treatment. These results demonstrate that root growth is unlikely to be directly affected by increased soil temperatures as a result of global warming, at least in temperate areas, and that predictions of net primary productivity should not be based on a positive root growth response to temperature