DTI Economics Paper No. 2: A comparative study of the British and Italian Textile and Clothing Industries.

Commissioned by: Association of Suppliers to the British Clothing Industry Conference, Hucknell, Nottingham, February 2004 During the 1990s the Italian clothing and textiles industry grew while the British, French and German textile and clothing industries declined by 40%. In 2001 the Italian textiles & clothing sector was three times larger than the British, accounting for 11.7% of Italian manufacturing output but only 3.3% in Britain. In 2000 Italian fabric exports were 15 times that of the UK. The study was conducted in response to a recommendation by the Textiles and Clothing Strategy Group (TCSG), comprising UK industry, trade unions, Higher Education and the DTI. The purpose of the study was to account for these differences, assess relative merits against value for money and identify best practice in the Italian industry. The methodology comprised comparative analysis and case studies of British and Italian textile mills and tailoring manufacturers, based on my initial recommendations. We visited 5 textile mills in Yorkshire and 15 in Italy plus 3 factories in each country. I conducted a detailed comparative technical analysis of the construction of suit jackets against 13 devised criteria, a number of interviews,compared technologies, equipment and manufacturing methods across all factories, against 8 criteria, drawing on my specialist knowledge and experience as a menswear clothing technologist. The technical reports I compiled formed a section of the final report. Findings were presented to the Clothing Strategy Group and published by the DTI as their Economic Paper No 2 . I made further presentations to industry and academic groups including ASBCI, FCDE, The Textile Society, Savile Row Tailors Association, and LSE. Other outcomes were a publication in the Journal of the Textile Society Text, an article in Selvedge magazine and contributions to the Encyclopaedia of Clothing by Thomson Gale. As a result of this research further consultancy projects have been conducted with the Industry Forum and ASBCI

Integrating ICT through multimodal discourse in a primary classroom

Most children talk to their parents about what they learned at school. Parents hear about books read, pictures drawn, stories written and games played. But how often do parents hear of children using ICT to make multimedia stories with a mathematical focus? In this paper the term “multimodality” will be used to describe such activities. Kress (2004) states that multimodality “deals with all the means we have for making meanings – the modes of representation – and considers their specific way of configuring the world.”Although digital technology is now available in most Australian schools, classroom use of such technology is not always creative and meaningful for learners. Recent state and federal government initiatives provide teachers with opportunities to integrate various digital technology applications into their classroom practice. In late 2011 a small research project was conducted with a class of Grade 4 students from an outer suburban Melbourne government school. As part of the project students planned and produced a multimedia artefact that explained some aspect of mathematics they had learned during the year.This paper outlines the planning and production of the multimedia artefacts created by the students, together with a brief discussion of some impediments to teacher use of technology that were identified by teachers at the school. Other issues considered include assessment and reporting in multiple subject areas based on one piece of student work, and the balancing of the relative importance of subject areas in integrated projects and tasks. The authors argue for the development and deliberate inclusion of integrated multimodal activities throughout the primary school curriculum

Mental health nurses' encounters with occupational health services

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Occupational Medicine following peer review. Under embargo until 16 June 2019. The version of recordJ. Oates, J. Jones, and N. Drey, ‘Mental health nurses’ encounters with occupational health services’, Occupational Medicine, kqy084, (2018), is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqy084.Background: Staff wellbeing is vital to the functioning of the UK National Health Service (NHS). Mental health nurses with personal experience of mental illness can offer a professionally and personally informed insight into the occupational health service offered by their employer. Aims: To investigate mental health nurses’ views of occupational health provision in the NHS, based on their personal experience. Methods: A qualitative interview study using a purposive sample of mental health nurses with personal experience of mental illness. Results: Twenty-seven mental health nurses met the inclusion criteria. Thematic analysis identified three themes: comparisons of ‘relative expertise’ between the mental health nurse and the occupational health clinician; concerns about ‘being treated’ by a service at their work; and ‘returning to work’. Conclusion: Occupational health provision in mental health settings must take account of the expertise of its staff. Further research, looking at NHS occupational health provision from the provider perspective is warranted.Peer reviewe

Microstructural evolution of Ti-5AI-5Mo-5V-3Cr

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On thermalization in the SYK and supersymmetric SYK models

The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis is a compelling conjecture which strives to explain the apparent thermal behavior of generic observables in closed quantum systems. Although we are far from a complete analytic understanding, quantum chaos is often seen as a strong indication that the ansatz holds true. In this paper, we address the thermalization of energy eigenstates in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, a maximally chaotic model of strongly-interacting Majorana fermions. We numerically investigate eigenstate thermalization for specific few-body operators in the original SYK model as well as its $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric extension and find evidence that these models satisfy ETH. We discuss the implications of ETH for a gravitational dual and the quantum information-theoretic properties of SYK it suggests.Comment: Published versio

Practice And Tournament Volumes Of Young Golfers In Regional And National Squads

Practice plays a part in determining skill development, expertise (Ericsson & Pool, 2016; Baker et al., 2003), levels of creativity (Memmert et al., 2010) psychological preparation, increases in novice golfers’ gray matter (Bezzola et al., 2011), and decision making (Baker et al., 2003). Currently there is little empirical research demonstrating the amount of practice golfers conduct on a session to session, weekly, monthly, seasonal or annual basis and the impact this can have on their handicap. Previous research has suggested that deliberate practice can explain some of the variance in performance levels (Macnamara et al., 2016). However, with a paucity of golf specific research in this area, it is important to establish the volumes being undertaken and the impact of those volumes on the golfer’s ability. This initial study aimed to establish the practice and tournament volumes of young golfers involved in a national governing body’s development programme and investigate how practice volumes influence handicap

Auditory-Motor Adaptation to Frequency-Altered Auditory Feedback Occurs When Participants Ignore Feedback

Background Auditory feedback is important for accurate control of voice fundamental frequency (F0). The purpose of this study was to address whether task instructions could influence the compensatory responding and sensorimotor adaptation that has been previously found when participants are presented with a series of frequency-altered feedback (FAF) trials. Trained singers and musically untrained participants (nonsingers) were informed that their auditory feedback would be manipulated in pitch while they sang the target vowel [/ɑ /]. Participants were instructed to either ‘compensate’ for, or ‘ignore’ the changes in auditory feedback. Whole utterance auditory feedback manipulations were either gradually presented (‘ramp’) in -2 cent increments down to -100 cents (1 semitone) or were suddenly (’constant‘) shifted down by 1 semitone. Results Results indicated that singers and nonsingers could not suppress their compensatory responses to FAF, nor could they reduce the sensorimotor adaptation observed during both the ramp and constant FAF trials. Conclusions Compared to previous research, these data suggest that musical training is effective in suppressing compensatory responses only when FAF occurs after vocal onset (500-2500 ms). Moreover, our data suggest that compensation and adaptation are automatic and are influenced little by conscious control

On Supervaluations, Meaning and Consequence

The problem of vagueness is motivated by consideration of a sorites series, and the supervaluationist solution is presented. It is argued that supervaluationism can be regarded as an application of the model-theoretic conception of consequence and should therefore be accepted by all. The limitations of this conception are then explored. In particular, if the theory is to provide a constitutive account of vagueness, an account of vagueness as underspecification is required. University of London Jacobsen Prize Essay 200