An investigation into primary children's feelings about physical disability: some implications for special educational needs provision

The aim of the present research was to investigate the feelings of primary aged children towards physical disability and to consider the implications of the findings for those involved in the integration of disabled pupils into mainstream schools. The study involved pupils from two schools. One of these had disabled children on roll, while the other had no pupils with obvious disabilities. The pupils were from two age groups. Consideration was given to differences between these age groups, gender and ethnic differences and the effects of contact with disabled pupils. The researcher used semi-structured interviews, repertory grids and open-ended discussions with these pupils. Evidence indicated that there was a significant difference between the age groups. There were also indications of some gender and ethnic differences. It was also apparent that contact with disabled people had a positive influence. Consideration was given to the implications of these findings for integration and some suggestions were made as to the use of teaching the non disabled about disability, providing cooperative learning scenarios and presenting a programme of social skills teaching

Synthesizing galactose modified polymeric nanoparticles for biofilm inhibition of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Treating patients with antibiotics is becoming harder with the increase in antibiotic resistance. This is due to the widespread antibiotic use in clinical and agricultural settings. With antibiotic resistance outpacing new drugs making it to the market, developing new options to treat bacterial infections is and will be important. We created sugar modified nanoparticles to inhibit the biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. P. aeruginosa is a gram-negative opportunistic pathogen that infects its host that has a compromised immune system. This makes it one of the most significant bacterial infection in hospitals. P. aeruginosa uses biofilms as an attack mechanism on the host. These biofilms are regulated through quorum sensing. Lec-A is the galactose binding lectin in P. aeruginosa which was the lectin target for this project. By knowing the binding pocket of the Lec-A, a galactose-modified di-block co-polymer is assembled into nanoparticles. In order to make the nanoparticles to work better, more galactose modified sugars are added to the co-polymer. This was done by using Lysine to attach two galactose modified sugars to. The polymer was assembled by adding polymer to Cyanuric Chloride (TCT) then two lysines doubled modified galactose sugars to the TCT giving a tetra-modified polymer which will then be assembled to a nanoparticle

EXPLORING THE ECOSYSTEM SERVICE VALUE AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ECOSYSTEM SERVICE POLICY APPROACH IN A NORTHERN UK CITY.

This project aims to identify and engage two main target groups within the Liverpool City Region (LCR): key decision-makers and the public living within LCR. Both are stakeholders within the commentary surrounding green infrastructure within the region. The project broadly aims to explore stakeholder (both public and private) perceptions of urban greenspace within the LCR. It hopes to further the narrative on the application of environmental economics within northern UK cities through implementing ecosystem valuation methodologies within the wider ecosystem service framework. I have taken this opportunity to advance otherwise limited WTP data within low-income communities by choosing a study site in Everton, North Liverpool, ranked amongst the 1% most deprived areas in the country (Urban GreenUp, 2017). The project also looks more broadly at perceptions of an ecosystem service policy approach and the potential for its implementation within the LCR via accessing current knowledge and perceptions from key decision makers within the region. In short, this study broadly looks to generate data fit to inform environmental decision-making within a local, regional and national scale. The project therefore sets out objectives to: • Elicit public values and perceptions of urban greenspace through the development and application of a willingness-to-pay choice contingent study in Everton, North Liverpool. • Fill gaps in research via generating willingness-to-pay data for GI in a low-income community within a northern UK city. • Assess professional knowledge, perceptions, and the potential for implementation of an ecosystem service policy approach, specifically the natural capital approach, within the Liverpool City Region. • Provide context to the wider discussion around future changes in environmental legislation, in term informing the decision-making process at varying levels

A Comparison of Evolutionary Algorithms for Tracking Time-Varying Recursive Systems

A comparison is made of the behaviour of some evolutionary algorithms in time-varying adaptive recursive filter systems. Simulations show that an algorithm including random immigrants outperforms a more conventional algorithm using the breeder genetic algorithm as the mutation operator when the time variation is discontinuous, but neither algorithm performs well when the time variation is rapid but smooth. To meet this deficit, a new hybrid algorithm which uses a hill climber as an additional genetic operator, applied for several steps at each generation, is introduced. A comparison is made of the effect of applying the hill climbing operator a few times to all members of the population or a larger number of times solely to the best individual; it is found that applying to the whole population yields the better results, substantially improved compared with those obtained using earlier methods

Inhibition of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm Formation with Surface Modified Polymeric Nanoparticles

The gram-negative bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa represents a prominent clinical concern. Due to the observed high levels of antibiotic resistance, copious biofilm formation, and wide array of virulence factors produced by these bacteria, new treatment technologies are required. Here, we present the development of a series of P. aeruginosa LecA-targeted polymeric nanoparticles and demonstrate the anti-adhesion and biofilm inhibitory properties of these constructs

Inhibition of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm Formation with Surface Modified Polymeric Nanoparticles

The gram-negative bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa represents a prominent clinical concern. Due to the observed high levels of antibiotic resistance, copious biofilm formation, and wide array of virulence factors produced by these bacteria, new treatment technologies are required. Here, we present the development of a series of P. aeruginosa LecA-targeted polymeric nanoparticles and demonstrate the anti-adhesion and biofilm inhibitory properties of these constructs

Literacy Assessment New Zealand Style

It\u27s mostly performance based. It assesses students in teams as well as individually. What\u27s more, students like it

Growing Together : An Analysis of Measurement Transparency Across 15 Years of Player Motivation Questionnaires

There are many questionnaires to assess player motivation, originating from a diverse range of disciplines. Each discipline differs in their usage and reporting of questionnaires, but there has been no attempt to synthesise or standardise their application. No standard approach leads to a lack of transparency in usage reporting, which affects the ability of the field to synthesise. This has made it unclear whether player motivation research is a unified community, or a collection of individuals with a similar goal. Therefore, the current work assesses the transparency of reporting practices of player motivation questionnaires published within the last 15 years. 18 questionnaires were identified via a scoping review, then papers citing these questionnaires were analysed for their transparency of reporting practices (n=238); first via a content analysis of justifications for use, then followed by an analysis of transparency against eight criteria created for this work. Overall, reporting transparency is lacking, driven by little priority for presenting items alongside text. Many papers use questionnaires because they are theory-based or have measured specific variables in previous works, but explicit justification is rare. The work concludes with a transparency checklist based on the eight criteria used, which authors can use to standardise the field and allow for more cohesive research synthesis