Shoreline armoring implementation strategy: a regional strategy to support and align actions from local to regional scales

Puget Sound recovery is guided by regional and local strategies developed and implemented by a diverse array of actors. Implementation Strategies are a regional planning approach designed to advance and enhance recovery efforts towards specific Puget Sound Vital Sign indicator targets. The Shoreline Armoring Vital Sign aims to reduce the impacts of shoreline armor on the Puget Sound nearshore. The Shoreline Armoring Implementation Strategy addresses the interconnected nature of regulatory, incentive, technological, and planning solutions to reduce armor impacts and recover shoreline processes in Puget Sound. This poster describes four strategies to advance recovery that leverage past and ongoing investments in research, programs, and projects. Moreover, numerous projects represented at the Salish Sea Conference are currently advancing the goals of the Implementation Strategy. The strategies highlight the connection of regional strategies and programs to local strategies, programs and projects and the value of work operating at these different scales

Get rid of private schools? We’d be better tackling inequalities between state schools

First paragraph: Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is the 20th Etonian to become prime minister of the UK. Most of his cabinet is composed of privileged, privately educated people, with two-thirds of his ministers among the 7% of the population who went to fee-paying schools.https://theconversation.com/get-rid-of-private-schools-wed-be-better-tackling-inequalities-between-state-schools-12180

Preparing Versus Persuading: Inequalities between Scottish State schools in University Application Guidance Practices

A university education is often regarded as a means for increasing social mobility, with attendance at a leading university seen as a pathway to an advantaged socio-economic status. However, inequalities are observable in attendance levels at leading UK universities, with children from less advantaged backgrounds less likely to attend the top universities (generally known as the Russell Group institutions). In this paper, we explore the different levels of assistance provided to state school children in preparing for their university applications. Guidance teachers and pupils at a range of Scottish state schools were interviewed. We find that inequalities exist in the cultivation of guidance provided by state schools, with high attainment schools focusing on preparing applicants to be desirable to leading universities, whilst low attainment schools focus on persuading their students that university is desirable

Integration of an Ultrasonic Sensor within a Robotic End Effector for Application within Railway Track Flaw Detection

The rail industry is constantly facing challenges related to safety with regard to the detection of surface cracks and internal defects within rail tracks. Significant focus has been placed on developing sensor technologies that would facilitate the detection of flaws that compromise rail safety. In parallel, robot automation has demonstrated significant advancements in the integration of sensor technologies within end effectors. This study investigates the novel integration of an ultrasonic sensor within a robotic platform specifically for the application of detecting surface cracks and internal defects within rail tracks. The performance of the robotic sensor system was assessed on a rail track specimen containing sacrificial surface cracks and internal defects and then compared against a manual detection system. The investigation concludes that the robotic sensor system successfully identified internal defects in the web region of the rail track when utilising a 60° and 70° wedged probe, with a frequency range between 4 MHz and 5 MHz. However, the surface crack investigation proved that the transducer was insensitive to the detection of cracks, possibly due to the inadequate angle of the wedged probe. The overall outcome of the study highlights the potential that robotic sensor systems have in the detection of internal defects and characterises the limitations of surface crack identification to assist in enhancing rail safety

Working on the railroad: coastal streams prioritization to inform restoration planning

Puget Sound’s nearshore has been substantially modified since the Industrial Revolution with extensive infrastructure developed along the shoreline. In Washington State, the BNSF railroad right-of-way runs along 52 miles of the shoreline, while another 73 miles of railroad is within 200 feet of the shoreline. In many places, the railroad forms a barrier between the coastal watershed and the shoreline preventing the delivery of water, sediment, wood and organic matter into the nearshore. This creates ongoing degradation of habitat quality in the nearshore, including small estuaries and coastal embayments, which provide important habitat to juvenile Chinook salmon. In addition, the modifications associated with the railroad also limit juvenile salmon movements in estuaries, including juvenile chinook who are documented using the estuaries and freshwater habitats of non-natal streams. Nearshore restoration along the railroad is expensive and requires extensive planning. To maximize environmental benefits, restoration efforts should be focused on those areas that provide substantial benefits to fish habitat and nearshore processes. Confluence Environmental is leading a project to prioritize and evaluate coastal embayments and streams along the 125 miles of railroad-impacted shoreline. The project is synthesizing existing data, as well as identifying and filling data gaps for use in the prioritization. This prioritization will be integrated with a list of known railroad maintenance and upgrade needs. An advisory team is guiding the development of the prioritization to ensure it can support identified local and regional restoration outcomes. The outcome of the project will include a prioritized list of coastal embayments and streams to support strategic restoration choices and potential matching of upgrades and maintenance along the railroad to mitigation projects that will benefit fisheries and shoreline processes. The list will also enable independent funders to evaluate the benefits among restoration projects

Exploring the issue of transition between key stage 2 and key stage 3 through the National Curriculum for English A middle school perspective

This study explores the well-documented issue of the academic attainment dip between key stage 2 and key stage 3 through the lens of the English curriculum. Employing critical discourse analysis on two political speeches which set out the aims and rationale for curriculum reform, and on the National Curriculum for English itself (implemented in 2015), this study examines the lack of parity and coherence between the two curricula. This study also utilises data from semi-structured interviews of middle school practitioners to explore first-hand experiences of policy enactment of both key stage 2 and 3. The study explores a body of existing literature on transition, most of which conclude that the issue lies with the social, emotional, and/or behavioural elements involved in the move from primary to secondary school. This thesis, from a middle school perspective where students do not leave for high school until year 9, argues that the issue of transition and subsequent academic attainment dips are as a result of the curriculum. It argues that in order for a more meaningful, fluid transition to occur, the national curriculum needs to be rewritten so the key stage 3 curriculum builds on the key stage 2 curriculum, and offers more cohesion between the two so that secondary English teachers better understand the requirements and expectations in key stage 2, particularly the rigours of the end-of-key-stage SATs

The evolutionary origins of the Southern Ocean philobryid bivalves: hidden biodiversity, ancient persistence

Philobryids (Bivalvia: Arcoida) are one of the most speciose marine bivalve families in the Southern Ocean and are common throughout the Southern Hemisphere. Considering this diversity and their brooding reproductive mode (limiting long-distance dispersal), this family may have been present in the Southern Ocean since its inception. However Philobrya and Adacnarca appear only in the Quaternary fossil record of the Antarctic, suggesting a much more recent incursion. Molecular dating provides an independent means of measuring the time of origin and radiation of this poorly known group. Here we present the first combined molecular and morphological investigation of the Philobryidae in the Southern Ocean. Two nuclear loci (18S and 28S) were amplified from 35 Southern Ocean Adacnarca and Philobrya specimens, with a combined sequence length of 2,282 base pairs (bp). Adacnarca specimens (A. nitens and A. limopsoides) were resolved as a strongly supported monophyletic group. Genus Philobrya fell into two strongly supported groups (‘sublaevis’ and ‘magellanica/wandelensis’), paraphyletic with Adacnarca. The A. nitens species complex is identified as at least seven morpho-species through morphological and genetic analysis of taxon clustering. Phylogenetic analyses resolve Philobryidae as a strongly supported monophyletic clade and sister taxon to the Limopsidae, as anticipated by their classification into the superfamily Limopsoidea. Bayesian relaxed clock analyses of divergence times suggest that genus Adacnarca radiated in the Southern Ocean from the Early Paleogene, while P. sublaevis and P. wandelensis clades radiated in the late Miocene, following the formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

Inconsistency in asylum appeal adjudication

Open access journalNew research findings indicate that factors such as the gender of the judge and of the appellant, and where the appellant lives, are influencing asylum appeal adjudication.Economic and Social Research Counci