To what extent is behaviour a problem in English schools?:Exploring the scale and prevalence of deficits in classroom climate

The working atmosphere in the classroom is an important variable in the process of education in schools, with several studies suggesting that classroom climate is an important influence on pupil attainment. There are wide differences in the extent to which classroom climate is considered to be a problem in English schools. Some ‘official’ reports suggest that behaviour in schools is ‘satisfactory or better’ in the vast majority of schools; other sources have pointed to behaviour being a serious and widespread problem. The paper details four studies conducted over the past decade which aimed to explore these disparities. The aim of the research was to gain a more accurate insight into the extent to which deficits in classroom climate limit educational attainment and equality of educational opportunity in English schools. The findings question the suggestion that behaviour is satisfactory or better in 99.7% of English schools and the concluding section suggests ways in which deficits in classroom climate might be addressed. Although the study is limited to classrooms in England, OECD studies suggest that deficits in the working atmosphere in classrooms occur in many countries. The study therefore has potential relevance for education systems in other countries

Patient safety culture in care homes for older people: a scoping review

Background: In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on the role of safety culture in preventing incidents such as medication errors and falls. However, research and developments in safety culture has predominantly taken place in hospital settings, with relatively less attention given to establishing a safety culture in care homes. Despite safety culture being accepted as an important quality indicator across all health and social care settings, the understanding of culture within social care settings remains far less developed than within hospitals. It is therefore important that the existing evidence base is gathered and reviewed in order to understand safety culture in care homes. Methods: A scoping review was undertaken to describe the availability of evidence related to care homes’ patient safety culture, what these studies focused on, and identify any knowledge gaps within the existing literature. Included papers were each reviewed by two authors for eligibility and to draw out information relevant to the scoping review. Results: Twenty-four empirical papers and one literature review were included within the scoping review. The collective evidence demonstrated that safety culture research is largely based in the USA, within Nursing Homes rather than Residential Home settings. Moreover, the scoping review revealed that empirical evidence has predominantly used quantitative measures, and therefore the deeper levels of culture have not been captured in the evidence base. Conclusions: Safety culture in care homes is a topic that has not been extensively researched. The review highlights a number of key gaps in the evidence base, which future research into safety culture in care home should attempt to address

MEE-DBD Plasma Actuator Effect on Aerodynamics of a NACA0015 Aerofoil: Separation and 3D Wake

© 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators have received considerable attention by many researchers for various flow control applications. Having no moving parts, being light-weight, easily manufacturable, and their ability to respond almost instantly are amongst the advantages which has made them a popular flow control device especially for application on aircraft wings. The new configuration of DBDs which uses multiple encapsulated electrodes (MEE) has been shown to produce a superior and more desirable performance over the standard actuator design. The objective of the current study is to examine the effect of this new actuator configuration on the aerodynamic performance of an aerofoil under leading edge separation and wake interaction conditions. The plasma actuator is placed at the leading edge of a symmetric NACA 0015 aerofoil which corresponds to the location of the leading edge slat. The aerofoil is operated in a chord Reynolds number of 0.2×106. Surface pressure measurements along with the mean velocity profile of the wake using pitot measurements are used to determine the lift and drag coefficients, respectively. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is also utilised to visualise and quantify the induced flow field. The results show improvement in aerodynamic performances of aerofoil under leading edge separation and also facing the wake region