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/

Influence of aberrations on confocal-based remote refractive index measurements

Confocal scanning combined with low-coherence interferometry is used to provide remote refractive index and thickness measurements of transparent materials. The influence of lens aberrations in the confocal measurement is assessed through ray-trace modeling of the axial point-spread functions generated using optical configurations comprised of paired aspherics and paired achromats. Off-axis parabolic mirrors are suggested as an alternative to lenses and are shown to exhibit much more symmetric profiles provided the system numerical aperture is not too high. The modeled results compare favorably with experimental data generated using an optical instrument comprised of a broadband source and line-scan spectrometer. Refractive index and thickness measurements are made with each configuration with most mirror pairings offering better than twice the repeatability and accuracy of either lens pairing

2D spatially-resolved depth-section microfluidic flow velocimetry using dual beam OCT

A dual beam optical coherence tomography (OCT) instrument has been developed for flow measurement that offers advantages over microscope derived imaging techniques. It requires only a single optical access port, allows simultaneous imaging of the microfluidic channel, does not require fluorescent seed particles, and can provide a millimetre-deep depth-section velocity profile (as opposed to horizontal-section). The dual beam instrument performs rapid re-sampling of particle positions, allowing measurement of faster flows. In this paper, we develop the methods and processes necessary to make 2D quantitative measurements of the flow-velocity using dual beam OCT and present exemplar results in a microfluidic chip. A 2D reference measurement of the Poiseuille flow in a microfluidic channel is presented over a spanwise depth range of 700 μm and streamwise length of 1600 μm with a spatial resolution of 10 μm, at velocities up to 50 mm/s. A measurement of a more complex flow field is also demonstrated in a sloped microfluidic section

Contemporary medical television and crisis in the NHS

This article maps the terrain of contemporary UK medical television, paying particular attention to Call the Midwife as its centrepiece, and situating it in contextual relation to the current crisis in the NHS. It provides a historical overview of UK and US medical television, illustrating how medical television today has been shaped by noteworthy antecedents. It argues that crisis rhetoric surrounding healthcare leading up to the passing of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 has been accompanied by a renaissance in medical television. And that issues, strands and clusters have emerged in forms, registers and modes with noticeable regularity, especially around the value of affective labour, the cultural politics of nostalgia and the neoliberalisation of healthcare

Political brand identity: an examination of the complexities of Conservative brand and internal market engagement during the 2010 UK General Election campaign

This paper seeks to build an understanding of the importance of internal communications when building a strong political brand. Using Kapferer’s brand prism as a conceptual framework, the paper explores UK Conservative Party members’ attitudes towards the development of the Conservative brand as personified by David Cameron. There are clear implications for political strategists as the findings suggest that it is crucial to engage the internal market in the co-creation of the marketing communications strategy for as brand evangelists they interpret the brand promise at the local level

Metre-per-second microfluidic flow velocimetry with dual beam optical coherence tomography

A novel dual beam Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) instrument has been developed for high velocity flow measurement, principally in microfluidics applications. The scanned dual beam approach creates a pair of image-frames separated by a small spatiotemporal offset. Metre-per-second flow measurement is achieved by rapid re-imaging by the second beam allowing for particle tracking between each image-frame of the pair. Flow at 1.06 m/s using a single optical access port has been measured, more than two orders of magnitude larger than previously reported OCT systems, at centimetre depth and with millimetre scale depth of field within a microfluidic chip, whilst simultaneously imaging the microfluidic channel structure

Molecular phases in coupled quantum dots

We present excitation energy spectra of few-electron vertically coupled quantum dots for strong and intermediate inter-dot coupling. By applying a magnetic field, we induce ground state transitions and identify the corresponding quantum numbers by comparison with few-body calculations. In addition to atomic-like states, we find novel "molecular-like" phases. The isospin index characterizes the nature of the bond of the artificial molecule and this we control. Like spin in a single quantum dot, transitions in isospin leading to full polarization are observed with increasing magnetic field.Comment: PDF file only, 28 pages, 3 tables, 4 color figures, 2 appendices. To appear in Physical Review B, Scheduled 15 Feb 2004, Vol. 69, Issue

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

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