Staff perceptions of the success of an alternative curriculum: Skill Force

This paper describes staff perceptions of the implementation of an alternative curriculum, skill force, for disaffected pupils in the UK. The perceptions of skill force and school staff were compared based on data from questionnaires completed by 62 skill force and 84 school staff, and interviews with representative samples of each. While the data indicated that the programme had been successful in re-engaging the students with education, the improvement was more marked in relation to the skill force programme than the wider school context.<br/

The neural correlates of emotion regulation by implementation intentions

Several studies have investigated the neural basis of effortful emotion regulation (ER) but the neural basis of automatic ER has been less comprehensively explored. The present study investigated the neural basis of automatic ER supported by ‘implementation intentions’. 40 healthy participants underwent fMRI while viewing emotion-eliciting images and used either a previously-taught effortful ER strategy, in the form of a goal intention (e.g., try to take a detached perspective), or a more automatic ER strategy, in the form of an implementation intention (e.g., “If I see something disgusting, then I will think these are just pixels on the screen!”), to regulate their emotional response. Whereas goal intention ER strategies were associated with activation of brain areas previously reported to be involved in effortful ER (including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), ER strategies based on an implementation intention strategy were associated with activation of right inferior frontal gyrus and ventro-parietal cortex, which may reflect the attentional control processes automatically captured by the cue for action contained within the implementation intention. Goal intentions were also associated with less effective modulation of left amygdala, supporting the increased efficacy of ER under implementation intention instructions, which showed coupling of orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala. The findings support previous behavioural studies in suggesting that forming an implementation intention enables people to enact goal-directed responses with less effort and more efficiency

Consumption of diets high in prebiotic fiber or protein during growth influences the response to a high fat and sucrose diet in adulthood in rats

Article deposited according to agreement with BMC, December 6, 2010.YesFunding provided by the Open Access Authors Fund

Assimilative real-time models of HF absorption at high latitudes

Improved real-time HF communications frequency management is required for aircraft on trans-polar routes. Polar cap absorption (PCA) models have therefore been adapted to assimilate real-time measurements of zenithal cosmic radio noise absorption (~ 30 MHz) from a large network of online riometers in Canada and Finland. Two types of PCA model have been developed and improvements to model accuracy following optimisation are quantified. Real-time optimisation is performed by age-weighting riometer measurements in a non-linear regression. This reduces root-mean-square errors (RMSE) from 2-3 dB to less than 1 dB and mean errors to within ±0.2 dB over a wide latitude range. This paper extends previous work by further optimising the models’ dependences on solar-zenith angle to account for differences in the ionospheric response at sunrise and sunset (the Twilight Anomaly). Two models of the rigidity cutoff latitudes are compared and one is optimised in real time by regression to riometer measurements. Whilst measurements from the NASA POES satellites may provide a direct measurement of the rigidity cut-off, it is observed that proton flux measurements from POES often need correcting for relativistic electron contamination for several hours at the start of a PCA event. An optimised real-time absorption model will be integrated into HF ray-tracing propagation predictions relating to measurements of HF signal strengths on a network of HF transmitters and receivers in the high northern latitudes

Imaging and Treatment of Patients with Acute Stroke: An Evidence-Based Review

Evidence-based medicine has emerged as a valuable tool to guide clinical decision-making, by summarizing the best possible evidence for both diagnostic and treatment strategies. Imaging plays a critical role in the evaluation and treatment of patients with acute ischemic stroke, especially those who are being considered for thrombolytic or endovascular therapy. Time from stroke-symptom onset to treatment is a strong predictor of long-term functional outcome after stroke. Therefore, imaging and treatment decisions must occur rapidly in this setting, while minimizing unnecessary delays in treatment. The aim of this review was to summarize the best available evidence for the diagnostic and therapeutic management of patients with acute ischemic stroke

Secondary school pupils' preferences for different types of structured grouping practices

The aim of this paper is to explore pupils’ preferences for particular types of grouping practices an area neglected in earlier research focusing on the personal and social outcomes of ability grouping. The sample comprised over 5,000 year 9 pupils (aged 13-14 years) in 45 mixed secondary comprehensive schools in England. The schools represented three levels of ability grouping in the lower school (years 7 to 9). Pupils responded to a questionnaire which explored the types of grouping that they preferred and the reasons for their choices. The majority of pupils preferred setting, although this was mediated by their set placement, type of school, socio-economic status and gender. The key reason given for this preference was that it enabled work to be matched to learning needs. The paper considers whether there are other ways of achieving this avoiding the negative social and personal outcomes of setting for some pupils

Communicating choice: an exploration of mothers' experiences of birth

YesObjective: This article gives an in-depth insight into the ways in which communication between midwives and the birthing woman shape the birth experience. Background: Birth is a significant life event for many women that can have profound, long-lasting effects on how they see themselves as women and mothers. Within the literature the importance of control over the birth experience and the support that the birthing woman receives from midwives is stressed. Methods: Six women who had recently given birth participated in one-to-one semi-structured interviews designed to explore the kinds of support they received before, during and after their birth. An inductive thematic analysis was employed in order to identify and explore key issues which ran throughout the interviews. Results: Within the interviews the importance of being an active mother, someone who made decisions in relation to her labour, was stressed. The analysis explores the ways in which communication style and compassionate care either enabled or prevented women from adopting the position of ‘active’ mother. Conclusion: It is argued that a personal connection with midwives and clear and open communication which places the birthing woman in a position of control are key to positive birth experiences

Tuneable photoconductivity and mobility enhancement in printed MoS 2 /graphene composites

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IOP Publishing via the DOI in this record.With the aim of increasing carrier mobility in nanosheet-network devices, we have investigated MoS2–graphene composites as active regions in printed photodetectors. Combining liquid exfoliation and inkjet-printing, we fabricated all-printed photodetectors with graphene electrodes and MoS2–graphene composite channels with various graphene mass fractions (0  ≤  M f  ≤  16 wt%). The increase in channel dark conductivity with M f was consistent with percolation theory for composites below the percolation threshold. While the photoconductivity increased with graphene content, it did so more slowly than the dark conductivity, such that the fractional photoconductivity decayed rapidly with increasing M f. We propose that both mobility and dark carrier density increase with graphene content according to percolation-like scaling laws, while photo-induced carrier density is essentially independent of graphene loading. This leads to percolation-like scaling laws for both photoconductivity and fractional photoconductivity—in excellent agreement with the data. These results imply that channel mobility and carrier density increase up to 100-fold with the addition of 16 wt% graphene.We acknowledge the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI/12/RC/2278), the European Commission (n° 696656, Graphene Flagship) and the European Research Council (FUTURE-PRINT)

Introduction : screen Londons

Our aim, in editing the ‘London Issue’ of this journal, is to contribute to a conversation between scholars of British cinema and television, London historians and scholars of the cinematic city. In 2007, introducing the themed issue on ‘Space and Place in British Cinema and Television’, Steve Chibnall and Julian Petley observed that it would have been possible to fill the whole journal with essays about the representation of London. This issue does just that, responding to the increased interest in cinematic and, to a lesser extent, televisual, Londons, while also demonstrating the continuing fertility of the paradigms of ‘space and place’ for scholars of the moving image1. It includes a wide range of approaches to the topic of London on screen, with varying attention to British institutions of the moving image – such as Channel Four or the British Board of Film Classification – as well as to concepts such as genre, narration and memory. As a whole, the issue, through its juxtapositions of method and approach, shows something of the complexity of encounters between the terms ‘London’, ‘cinema’ and ‘television’ within British film and television studies

Model assisted qualification of NDE techniques

The qualification of NDE techniques is currently an expensive and time-consuming process which severely hinders their introduction into service [1]. This is primarily due to the nature of current qualification methodologies which rely upon trials using manufactured or in- service sample defects to demonstrate a sufficient probability of detection (POD) [2]. This process could be significantly improved through the use of experimentally-validated numerical models of inspections which would be able to achieve the same result at a fraction of the cost and time whilst being able to simulate realistic defects. In this work we demonstrate how it is possible to greatly reduce the number of simulations required through sampling and interpolating over the parameter space of possible variations. The result of this process, when combined with the associated probabilities of variations occurring, allows the reliability of an inspection to be quantified. This process yields a wealth of information beyond just a POD curve, allowing inspection methodologies to be optimized during this process as well as demonstrating reliability through a range of metrics including probability of false alarm and the generation of receiver- operator characteristic curves. This procedure will be demonstrated using a simple example of an oblique incidence ultrasonic inspection