Subordination in Children’s Writing

This paper reports an investigation into the use of subordinate clauses in the writing of a class of seven to nine year old children when attempting five different writing tasks. The investigation was undertaken in part-response to an inspection report on the school by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) which recommended that the school should extend the writing skills of pupils in this age-range. The importance of developing subordination in writing is related to previous research and to evidence from reviews of Ofsted inspection evidence. The different patterns of subordination are discussed, between tasks and pupils and in relation to variation in the writing of individual children when tackling the different tasks. The paper ends by suggesting how similar informal investigations can assist schools in promoting writing development. It also outlines how the teaching approaches outlined in the National Literacy Strategy will provide opportunities for this promotion, particularly by exploiting links between reading and writing

Researchers’ opinions about ethically sound dissemination of BCI research to the public media

BCI research and (future) applications raise ethical questions. A websurvey among 144 BCI researchers identified disseminating BCI research to the public media as a central topic. Most researchers felt that BCI scientists must responsibly communicate with the media and that general ethical guidelines on BCI research and application are needed within the next 5 years. We recommend further debate on ethical aspects related to BCI and the development of guidelines

Semiempirical method for predicting vortex-induced rolling moments

A method is described for the prediction of rolling moments on a wing penetrating a vortex velocity field generated by a large aircraft. Rolling moments are determined from lifting pressure coefficients computed with an inviscid-flow linear panel method. Two empirical corrections are included to account for the lifting efficiency of an airfoil section and the local stall on the wing. Predicted rolling moments are compared with those from two windtunnel experiments. Results indicate that experimental rolling moments, for which the Reynolds number of the following wing is low, should be interpreted with caution

Stress and large-scale spatial structures in dense, driven granular flows

We study the appearance of large-scale dynamical heterogeneities in a simplified model of a driven, dissipative granular system. Simulations of steady-state gravity-driven flows of inelastically colliding hard disks show the formation of large-scale linear structures of particles with a high collision frequency. These chains can be shown to carry much of the collisional stress in the system due to a dynamical correlation that develops between the momentum transfer and time between collisions in these "frequently-colliding" particles. The lifetime of these dynamical stress heterogeneities is seen to grow as the flow velocity decreases towards jamming, leading to slowly decaying stress correlations reminiscent of the slow dynamics observed in supercooled liquids.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Secondary prevention of stroke: Using the experiences of patients and carers to inform the development of an educational resource

Copyright @ The Author 2008. This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below.Background. Patients who have had one stroke are at increased risk of another. Secondary prevention strategies that address medical risk factors and promote healthy lifestyles can reduce the risk. However, concordance with secondary prevention strategies is poor and there has been little research into patient and carer views. Objectives. To explore the experiences of patients and carers of receiving secondary prevention advice and use these to inform the development of an educational resource. Methods. A total of 38 participants (25 patients and 13 carers) took part in the study which used an action research approach. Focus groups and interviews were undertaken with patients and carers who had been discharged from hospital after stroke (between 3 and 24 months previously). Framework analysis was used to examine the data and elicit action points to develop an educational resource. Results. Participants’ main concern was their desire for early access to information. They commented on their priorities for what information or support they needed, the difficulty of absorbing complex information whilst still an in-patient and how health professionals’ use of language was often a barrier to understanding. They discussed the facilitators and barriers to making lifestyle changes. The educational resource was developed to include specific advice for medical and lifestyle risk factors and an individual action plan. Conclusion. An educational resource for secondary prevention of stroke was developed using a participatory methodology. Our findings suggest that this resource is best delivered in a one-to-one manner, but further work is needed to identify its potential utility.Peninsula Primary Care Research Networ

Simulations of Galactic Cosmic Rays Impacts on the Herschel/PACS Photoconductor Arrays with Geant4 Code

We present results of simulations performed with the Geant4 software code of the effects of Galactic Cosmic Ray impacts on the photoconductor arrays of the PACS instrument. This instrument is part of the ESA-Herschel payload, which will be launched in late 2007 and will operate at the Lagrangian L2 point of the Sun-Earth system. Both the Satellite plus the cryostat (the shield) and the detector act as source of secondary events, affecting the detector performance. Secondary event rates originated within the detector and from the shield are of comparable intensity. The impacts deposit energy on each photoconductor pixel but do not affect the behaviour of nearby pixels. These latter are hit with a probability always lower than 7%. The energy deposited produces a spike which can be hundreds times larger than the noise. We then compare our simulations with proton irradiation tests carried out for one of the detector modules and follow the detector behaviour under 'real' conditions.Comment: paper submitted to Experimental Astronomy in March 200

Minimal Brownian Ratchet: An Exactly Solvable Model

We develop an exactly-solvable three-state discrete-time minimal Brownian ratchet (MBR), where the transition probabilities between states are asymmetric. By solving the master equations we obtain the steady-state probabilities. Generally the steady-state solution does not display detailed balance, giving rise to an induced directional motion in the MBR. For a reduced two-dimensional parameter space we find the null-curve on which the net current vanishes and detailed balance holds. A system on this curve is said to be balanced. On the null-curve, an additional source of external random noise is introduced to show that a directional motion can be induced under the zero overall driving force. We also indicate the off-balance behavior with biased random noise.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, RevTex source, General solution added. To be appeared in Phys. Rev. Let