‘The voluntary organisation forms … a unique feature of the British way of life’: One voluntary organisation’s response to the birth of the Youth Service

With the future of the UK’s statutory Youth Service in doubt, this article looks back to the days of its birth. After the Second World War, some people were critical about the idea of direct state involvement and its possible association with the indoctrination of impressionable young people. However, in the West Riding of Yorkshire (WRY), the Education Authority saw the arrival of state provision as signalling an end to the need for voluntary organisations in youth work. The West Riding Association (WRA) and the Leeds Association of Girls’ and Mixed Clubs (LAGC) fought to continue their work with voluntary sector clubs where young people played a leading role in planning and organising their programmes. The Associations’ archives show the struggle leading up to their eventual amalgamation in 1950, in the face of the almost total removal of funding

Sticking together: teaching, learning and the art of research

In this paper we emphasise the importance for community educators of building bridges between emerging needs, research, teaching and learning. A case study of recent work is used to illustrate the way in which research in vocational education and training offers the potential for practical outcomes which are not necessarily defined by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). We believe that fragmentation must be resisted: the glue securing teaching, learning and research must be preserved. The project which functions as our case study concerned the education and training needs of youth and community arts practitioners. Situated in the north of England, the research was directed by a partnership comprising Yorkshire and Humberside Arts, West Yorkshire Youth Association, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, youth and community arts practitioners and the University of Huddersfield. This innovative collaboration led to pragmatic outcomes in course development, teaching and learning: a new postgraduate course is planned in direct response to the research, a conference was held to share the findings with practitioners whose input, using a focus group approach, was vital in the writing of the final report. We also envisage the work having a practical impact on future approaches to teaching and learning. We analyse the glue which holds together the collaborative partnership and answer the question: what is the nature of cross-sectoral partnership and how do all the partners get what they want? We believe this brings us back to the good old fashioned idea that the purpose of educational research is to inspire change, and is not only to add to the sum of human knowledge. Sadly, all too often nowadays there is a tendency for research to serve the demands of the RAE

Numerical Computation of Flapping-Wing Propulsion and Power Extraction

AIAA Paper No. 97-0826, 35th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, Nevada, Jan. 1997.Numerical procedures are presented for the systematic computation of unsteady flows over moving airfoils or airfoil combinations, and these procedures are applied to the investigation of flapping-wing propulsion and power extraction. Flow solutions about single foils are computed using an unsteady, two-dimensional panel code coupled with a boundary layer algorithm and driven using an interactive graphical user interface. Flow solutions about airfoil combinations are computed using a companion, multi-element version of the panel code. Results for pitching-only and plunging-only motions compare favorably with theory and reasonably well with experimental results. Extensive computations are performed over the broad parameter space for combined pitching and plunging motions using the foil as both a propulsive device and as a wingmill or power-extraction device. Results modeling flight in ground effect are compared with other numerical and experimental results

Youth work in England: An uncertain future?

England’s youth workers have always tended to look back to a golden age when funding was available, when there were apparently fewer restrictive regulations and, presumably, the sun shone on well-resourced programs. The post-war period when government funding was channeled into work with young people via local authorities and third sector or voluntary organizations provides the touchstone for reminiscence. For once, there appear to be firm grounds for nostalgia. Drastically reduced funding for all forms of work with young people provides the context for this chapter. Cuts in funding have served to reinforce and extend inequalities. The UK magazine, Children and Young People Now, published an article entitled, ‘Youth sector on a “knife-edge” as third of organizations at risk’ (N.K., 2013). It presented a depressing overview of reductions in expenditure and a pessimistic prediction of the future. Shortly afterwards, Butler (2013) reported that over a two year period, cuts to youth services averaged 27% and in some places amounted to 50% while a handful axed their entire youth budget. It is clear that youth services have been subject to drastic cuts accompanied by amalgamation with targeted and acute services for young peopl

Two-dimensional topological gravity and equivariant cohomology

In this paper, we examine the analogy between topological string theory and equivariant cohomology. We also show that the equivariant cohomology of a topological conformal field theory carries a certain algebraic structure, which we call a gravity algebra. (Error on page 9 corrected: BRS current contains total derivatives.)Comment: 18 page

An Investigation of the Fluid-Structure Interaction in an Oscillating-Wing Micro-Hydropower Generator

in Fluid Structure Interaction II, Eds. Chakrabarti, S.K., Brebbia, C.A., Almorza, D. and Gonzalez-Palma, R., WIT Press, Southampton, UK, 2003, pp. 73-82.Results of a computational and experimental investigation of the fluid-structure phenomena occurring in an oscillating-wing micro-hydropower generator are presented. The generator consists of tandem wings which oscillate in a combined pitch-plunge mode with approximately 90 degree phase angle between the two motions. Two-dimensional inviscid and viscous flow codes are used to predict the oscillatory flow field and the power transferred from the water flow to the oscillating wings. Experimental results of water tunnel tests of this hydropower generator are also described and comparisons between the measured and predicted power output are given

A note on the index bundle over the moduli space of monopoles

Donaldson has shown that the moduli space of monopoles $M_k$ is diffeomorphic to the space \Rat_k of based rational maps from the two-sphere to itself. We use this diffeomorphism to give an explicit description of the bundle on \Rat_k obtained by pushing out the index bundle from $M_k$. This gives an alternative and more explicit proof of some earlier results of Cohen and Jones.Comment: 9 page

PMTCT from research to reality - results from a routine service

Objectives. Assessment of the efficacy of a prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme in a routine service setting in comparison to a research environment.Design. Descriptive study over a 13-month period utilising retrospective data obtained from hospital records complemented by prospective data on a sample of patients enrolled in a study to determine an affordable HIV diagnostic protocol for infants.Setting. Routine PMTCT service at Coronation Women and Children's Hospital (CWCH) situated in Johannesburg and affiliated to the University of the Witwatersrand.Subjects. Pregnant women known to be HIV infected who delivered at CWCH from 1 October 2001 to 31 October 2002.Outcome measures. The HIV transmission rate to infants, which reflects nevirapine (NVP) delivery and infant feeding practices, and follow-up rates of perinatally exposed children.Results. Of the 8 221 deliveries, 1 234 (15%) occurred in women known to be HIV infected, HIV transmission rates of 8.7% at 6 weeks and 8.9% at 3 months of age in the study population verifies the high rate of NVP administration and the ability of women to formula-feed their babies and abstain from breast-feeding. More than one-third of infants never return for follow-up and more than 70% are lost to follow-up by 4 months of age.Conclusions. The low HIV transmission rate confirms the efficacy of this routine service PMTCT programme. HIV infected children are not being identified for medical management as part of PMTCT follow-up. It is imperativethat record keeping is improved to facilitate ongoing monitoring