What do others think is the point of design and technology education?

As a result of a national curriculum review in England (Department for Education [DfE], 2011), a new curriculum for design and technology (D&T) is being taught in secondary schools from September 2014 (Department of Education [DoE], 2013a). This curriculum is compulsory for a decreasing number of schools; two potential consequences are the nature of D&T in secondary schools changing to reflect local perceptions of the subject and maybe D&T being removed from the curriculum completely. The pressure on D&T’s curriculum content is likely to come from different stakeholders such as senior school leaders, D&T teachers, and pupils. D&T school departments could respond to this pressure by adapting the curriculum to popularise the subject or produce high exam results with a consequence that much of the subject’s value is lost. This paper reports on a small research project conducted in two secondary schools where stakeholder representatives were interviewed to identify their values of D&T. These different stakeholders were interviewed using the active interview method (Holstein & Gubrium, 1995), coded following Aurebach and Silverstein’s method (2003) and their values compared to Hardy’s values framework (Hardy, 2013b). Analysis shows most stakeholders believe a key value of D&T is to provide ‘practical life skills’ (Hardy, p.226), whilst only one recognizes that learning in D&T involves ‘identifying problems to be solved’. The outcomes from the research are being used to support critically reflective conversations within both D&T departments (Zwozdiak-Myers, 2012) framing their evaluation of their local curriculum and making changes to their curriculum

Relationship between Religion and Science: An Overview

This paper presents an overview of the relationship between religion and science. It points out that historically religion preceded science, as the limitations of human intelligence in a bizarre world led man very early to postulate a being considered ultimate, supreme and worthy of human obeisance and worship. Like religion and philosophy, science began in wonder: to explore the wonders of nature - of the physical world. Religion and science are related in that both of them have perspectives on cosmic reality, even though there are several differences in their interpretations of reality. It is the different interpretations as well as their methods at arriving at their truths and conclusions that eventuated in conflicts, conflicts that actually came to the fore with the emergence of experimental science in and after the seventeenth century of our era and led to the condemnation by the Catholic Church of Galileo, the acknowledged founder of modem science. Scientific theories such as the evolution theory, quantum physics, and some theories of neuroscience presented challenges to religious doctrines of creation, cosmic order and intelligibility, divine sovereignty, and human nature. However, there are areas of integration, such as natural theology and design, order and regularity of nature, that provide evidence of the existence of God- evidence that is supported by most scientists. The paper concludes that religion and science are different languages that ultimately express the same reality or at least present complementary accounts of reality, and that, given the wonders and mysteries of the created universe and the limitations of human intelligence, religion and science will continue to be bedfellows in the twenty first century and beyond

Review of the Use of Bioindication Method for Appraisal of the State of Urban Soils in Two Areas of Saint Petersburg, Russia

The paper examines the use of culture of Paramecium caudatum (infusoria) as an indicator to determine soil toxicity of urban soils within the areas of Vsileostrovsky and Elagin Ostrov in St Petersburg, Russia. The results of the study indicated that urban soils of Vasileostrovsky were toxic; index of soil toxicity (T) ranged within the limits of 0.27–0.77. Results of tested soils from Elagin Ostrov showed a significant negative index of soil toxicity, which ranged from –0.86 to –1.26, specified that soils were not toxic. Comparing results from this study to the study conducted on ecological zoning of Vasileostrovsky, on the basis of green plants reaction to complex pollutants, showed wide disparities between the two bioindication approaches, which was attributed to specific biological characteristics of species tolerance (test organisms) and their levels of sensitivity to complex ecological factors. In view of the growing need to conserve soils in urban areas the investigation, which used paramecium caudatum as bioindicator to detect soil toxicity, will promote monitoring of state of soils in developing cities.West African Journal of Applied Ecology Vol. 13 2008: pp. 117-12

The unexamined life: philosophy and the African experience

An inaugural lecture delivered at the University of Ghana on Thursday, May 7, 198

Educational status and organizational safety climate: does educational attainment influence workers' perceptions of workplace safety?

From a practical perspective, understanding the impact of education on perceptions of workplace safety would benefit management’s decisions regarding workers’ adaptability, general work effectiveness, accident frequency, implementation of safety management policies, and handling of education-related accident characteristics. The current study thus examined the relationship between educational attainment and (i) safety perception, (ii) job satisfaction, (iii) compliance with safety management policies, and (iv) accident frequency. Participants were Ghanaian industrial workers (N = 320) categorized into four educational groups based on their responses: basic education 50% (n = 159); secondary education, n = 98 (30%); vocational/professional education, 17% (n = 56); and university education, 3% (n = 7). Workplace safety perception was assessed with Hayes et al.’s 50-item Work Safety Scale (WSS): a scale that effectively captures the dimensions identified by safety experts to influence perceptions of workplace safety. Multivariate analysis (MANOVA) was used to test for differences of statistical significance. Posterior comparison with t-test consistently revealed significant differences between the two higher-educated cohorts and their lower-educated counterparts. The results indicated a positive association between education and safety perception. Higher-educated workers recorded the best perceptions on safety, indicated the highest level of job satisfaction, were the most compliant with safety procedures and recorded the lowest accident involvement rate

An Optimum Vertical Handoff Decision Algorithm for UMTS-WLAN

The integration of diverse but complementary cellular and wireless technologies in the next generation of wireless communication systems requires the design of intelligent vertical handoff decision algorithms to enable mobile users to seamlessly switch network access and experience uninterrupted service continuity anywhere and anytime. This paper provides an adaptive multiple attribute vertical handoff decision algorithm that enables wireless access network selection at a mobile terminal using fuzzy logic concepts and a genetic algorithm. A performance study using the integration of wireless wide area networks (WWANs) and wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs) as an example shows that our proposed vertical handoff decision algorithm is able to determine when a handoff is required, and selects the best access network that is optimized to network conditions, quality of service requirements, mobile terminal conditions, user preferences, and service cost

A Multi-Stage Supply Chain Network Optimization Using Genetic Algorithms

In today's global business market place, individual firms no longer compete as independent entities with unique brand names but as integral part of supply chain links. Key to success of any business is satisfying customer's demands on time which may result in cost reductions and increase in service level. In supply chain networks decisions are made with uncertainty about product's demands, costs, prices, lead times, quality in a competitive and collaborative environment. If poor decisions are made, they may lead to excess inventories that are costly or to insufficient inventory that cannot meet customer's demands. In this work we developed a bi-objective model that minimizes system wide costs of the supply chain and delays on delivery of products to distribution centers for a three echelon supply chain. Picking a set of Pareto front for multi-objective optimization problems require robust and efficient methods that can search an entire space. We used evolutionary algorithms to find the set of Pareto fronts which have proved to be effective in finding the entire set of Pareto fronts.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Assessing Households’ Preparedness for Earthquakes in Gbawe, Accra

Episodic earth tremors occurrence in Gbawe signal looming earthquakes, a major threat to many households, lives and properties. One basic approach to reduce future risk and increase the resilience of communities to earthquake is for communities to create household’s preparedness plan for earthquakes. The research explored the basic issue of what preparedness for earthquake means and its relevance to people in Gbawe. The main objective of this paper is to assess the extent of households readiness for earthquake; qualitative research involving collecting and analysing non-numerical data using questionnaires and interviews were used as the basic method. Household preparedness was measured with fourteen (14) earthquake list of items deemed as basic necessities needed during emergency response to earthquake. If an individual acted on 6 of the 14 indicators, they were deemed poorly prepared. Rating was done based on the number of indicators acquired by a household. The study revealed that, no household was very well prepared; 3.3% respondents were well prepared for earthquakes, 10% were moderately prepared, 16.7% were averagely prepared, 20% were below averagely prepared, and 50% were not prepared for earthquake emergencies. About 90% respondents had less than 6 of the emergency necessities and therefore were not well prepared for earthquakes. The study recommends capacity building of households to improve upon their preparedness for earthquakes. Keywords: household, preparedness, earthquakes, Gbawe, mitigation, risk DOI: 10.7176/JEES/12-11-03 Publication date: November 30th 202

Cash Conversion Cycle Theory and Corporate Profitability: Evidence from Non-Financial Firms Listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

This study usesRichards and Laughlin’s (1980) Cash Conversion Cycle theory to investigate theimpact of working capital management efficiency and its separate components onthe profitability of a sample of 75 non-financial firms listed on theJohannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). Panel data regression methodology was usedto analyse financial data obtained from I-Net Bridge and BF McGregor for the 10year period, 2003 to 2012 to determine the nexus between working capitalmanagement and profitability (proxied by return on assets). The study resultsare consistent with the CCC theory that: 1) there exists a negativerelationship between working capital management and corporate profitability; 2)there exist a negative relationship between inventory conversion period andprofitability; 3) there is a negative relationship between accounts receivablesconversion period and profitability; and 4) there is a positive relationshipbetween accounts payable deferral period (PDP) and profitability. The findingsthus suggest that corporate managers can create value for shareholders byreducing the CCC to an extent that it enhances its profitability