The Process and Impact of a Catholic School Amalgamation: A Mixed Method, Single Case Study

This research provides an investigative analysis of the impact of a large-scale change process involving the amalgamation of two long-standing Catholic schools in a capital city of Australia. The study explores how a change process impacted staff, student and parent stakeholders within the initial year of a school amalgamation by examining Catholic school life and culture, student learning and wellbeing, the physical learning environment, and leadership and administration. The objective is to better understand the process and the impact of the change that took place during the amalgamation, in order to further inform the planning and leading of future Catholic school amalgamations and associated processes, both in terms of student learning outcomes and student self-efficacy. Emerging from a pragmatic worldview, this study captures an insider view of a school amalgamation in detailing the outcomes of actions in reviewing the overall impact of a social phenomenon. This mixed-methods single case study used an online survey instrument to gather the participants’ perspectives on the various aspects of the amalgamation, with their experiences analysed concurrently within a document review process. The study’s emerging themes were then viewed through the lens of Kotter’s eight-step change framework for further synthesis. Despite the challenging and problematic nature of whole-school reform, and the recognition from all stakeholders of the ongoing need to continue building a combined and fully integrated school learning culture, the study provides evidence of the goodwill that existed within the school community bound by this case study and their commitment to a merged school entity. Findings from the study reinforce the importance of honouring the charism of the original school founders within the process of developing an explicit Catholic school learning culture; 2 and how a whole-school focus on student learning and wellbeing within the newly amalgamated College was affirmed by staff, students, and parents. The physical learning environment is also presented as a necessary vehicle in contributing to the educational change process within this case study. The findings present the need to consider a collective form of leadership and are reflected in a proposed conceptual model, promoting a theory to inform future potential Catholic school amalgamations in Australia. This study serves to highlight the challenging complexities that occur as a result of a school amalgamation and the pressures placed on leaders charged with the responsibility of navigating a large-scale initiative within their unique context. The study concludes by making recommendations to safeguard a Catholic school community’s ethos during large-scale reform. This research is significant in this field as it provides a practical understanding of the barriers and opportunities within the nature of school organisational change

Immunogenetic Mechanisms Leading to Thyroid Autoimmunity: Recent Advances in Identifying Susceptibility Genes and Regions

The autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) include Graves’ disease (GD) and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT), which are characterised by a breakdown in immune tolerance to thyroid antigens. Unravelling the genetic architecture of AITD is vital to better understanding of AITD pathogenesis, required to advance therapeutic options in both disease management and prevention. The early whole-genome linkage and candidate gene association studies provided the first evidence that the HLA region and CTLA-4 represented AITD risk loci. Recent improvements in; high throughput genotyping technologies, collection of larger disease cohorts and cataloguing of genome-scale variation have facilitated genome-wide association studies and more thorough screening of candidate gene regions. This has allowed identification of many novel AITD risk genes and more detailed association mapping. The growing number of confirmed AITD susceptibility loci, implicates a number of putative disease mechanisms most of which are tightly linked with aspects of immune system function. The unprecedented advances in genetic study will allow future studies to identify further novel disease risk genes and to identify aetiological variants within specific gene regions, which will undoubtedly lead to a better understanding of AITD patho-physiology

How might environmental education be introduced into a programme of management education? Exploring the use of adaptive concepts

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN028571 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Spatial and temporal variation in crop diversity in agroforestry homegardens of southern Ethiopia

A key assumption in many homegarden studies is that homegardens are ecologically and socio-economically sustainable due to their species diversity. The precise relation between diversity and sustainability is still heavily debated, however. A basic question is how diversity in homegardens can best be characterized in view of the various dimensions of species diversity and their variation in time and space. This paper assesses different types of species diversity in the homegardens of Sidama region of southern Ethiopia. In a survey of crop species in 144 homegardens a total of 78 cultivated crop species (excluding trees) belonging to 10 functional groups were recorded; there were on average 16 crop species and 8 functional groups per farm. Within homegardens, plots differ in species composition and crop diversity. Four types of homegarden systems are distinguished differing in both type and area-share of dominant species, relative orientation at subsistence or cash production and overall crop diversity. The gradual replacement of enset by maize and of coffee by more financially attractive cash crops khat and pineapple causes a decrease in overall crop diversity. Our data demonstrate that it is incorrect to consider homegardens as generic systems with a uniform distribution of species diversity: important within and between homegarden variation exists. Ecological and socio-economic sustainability is not just related to species diversity per se, but rather to more specific features such as presence of keystone species and diversity in functional species groups. Socio-economic sustainability in terms of adjustment to socio-economic change implies dynamics in species diversit

Impact of obesity and type 2 diabetes on health-related quality of life in the general population in England

Stephen CL Gough,1 Nana Kragh,2 Uffe Jon Ploug,2 Mette Hammer21University of Birmingham and University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK; 2Novo Nordisk A/S Global Health Economics and Outcomes Research Krogshojvej 55, DK-2880 Bagsvaerd, DenmarkBackground: Weight gain can contribute towards the development of type 2 diabetes (T2D), and some treatments for T2D can lead to weight gain. The aim of this study was to determine whether having T2D and also being obese had a greater or lesser impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) than having either of the two conditions alone.Methods: The 2003 dataset of the Health Survey for England (HSE) was analyzed using multiple regression analyses to examine the influence of obesity and T2D on HRQoL, and to determine whether there was any interaction between these two disutilities.Results: T2D reduced HRQoL by 0.029 points, and obesity reduced HRQoL by 0.027 points. There was no significant interaction effect between T2D and obesity, suggesting that the effect of having both T2D and being obese is simply additive and results in a reduction in HRQoL of 0.056.Conclusions: Based on analysis of HSE 2003 data, people with either T2D or obesity experience significant reduction in HRQoL and people with both conditions have a reduction in HRQoL equal to the sum of the two independent effects. The effect of obesity on HRQoL in people with T2D should be considered when selecting a therapy.Keywords: diabetes, health-related quality of life, obesity, type 2 diabetes, Englan

Chapter 1.5 Autoimmunity and the Endocrine System

No abstract availabl

Connecting the everyday with the formal: the role of bar models in developing low attainers’ mathematical understanding

Use of the bar model has gained momentum in England in recent years through the introduction of Singapore maths. Yet bar models originating from the Dutch approach known as Realistic Mathematics Education (RME), such as the fraction bar, the percentage bar and the double number line, have been available since the late 1990s. In this paper, we discuss the use of the bar in an intervention with low-attaining students in which we employed the RME approach. RME bases understanding in the everyday, where the role of the bar is to sustain modelling across multiple contexts, building on students’ informal models. We argue that this context-driven ‘bottom-up’ use of the bar is crucial in supporting progress towards formal mathematics, highlighting important issues to consider in the use of bar modelling, particularly with low attaining students. We suggest a consequent need for caution in use of the Singapore bar as a potential ‘top-down’ model

A sense of proportion in crossborder shopping: what the most recent statistics show

Since late 2008 the issue of cross-border shopping has been a favourite topic of media interest and speculation. Stories emerged around Christmas 2008 about ASDA in Enniskillen being the sixth top performing store in the global Wal-Mart chain worldwide.1 Around the same time Irish Minister of Finance, Brian Lenihan, made the comment that ‘people should do their patriotic duty’ and shop locally rather than across the border.2 The response from the retail industry lobby groups, North and South, has fed the story. One claim was that every 150 cross-border trips costs one retail job in Ireland. Contestable, headline grabbing statements such as ‘British shops’ war on Irish’, and ‘Shoppers going North are not traitors’ fuelled misguided perceptions.3 Unfortunately, much of what has been written is based on an imprecise extrapolation from small sample-based surveys and anecdotal evidence from shop owners. In the absence of robust statistics, a sense of perspective on cross-border shopping was in danger of being lost