Tackling low educational achievement

This report examines the factors underlying low achievement in British education. It is important to find out why tens of thousands of young people leave school with no or very few qualifications. Low achievement at age 16 is associated with disadvantage and also a variety of outcomes by gender and ethnic group. Existing policies and practices within the educational system do not always help. Boys outnumber girls as low achievers by 20 per cent and white British boys comprise nearly half of all low achievers, while there are also achievement problems among some minority ethnic groups. The report addresses the ongoing debate about education policies in relation to reducing low achievement. The study uses the National Pupil Database and related data to examine four different measures of low achievement, and a profile of low achievement is offered. The report will be of interest to all those concerned with educational outcomes, including policymakers, education professionals, unions and the media

Range-Extended Post-Processing Kinematic (PPK) in a Marine Environment

We have been investigating the extension in range of baselines used in support to marine applications. Our focus has been with PPK (post-processing kinematic) following the Remondi\u27s lemma: it is better to have a reliable float ambiguity resolution rather than a wrongly fixed ambiguity. We have focused our attention on the residual effect due to differential troposphere. Our investigation makes use of data sets collected under the scope of the Princess of Acadia Project. In this paper, we focus on a storm know as the 2004 Halifax weather bomb. Zenith tropospheric delays have been compared for that time period. It is shown that using Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) GEM model provides a better agreement with the zenith delay as provided by the IGS tropospheric product for station IGS UNB1. We have developed a program, the UNB NWP Ray-tracing software, intended to compute zenith and slant path delays from NWP data sets. This paper shows the state of the art in our efforts towards using NWP for positioning. Reprinted with permission from The Institute of Navigation (http://ion.org/) and The Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation, (pp. 805-809). Fairfax, VA: The Institute of Navigation

What is the impact of clinically assisted hydration in the last days of life? A systematic literature review and narrative synthesis.

BACKGROUND: Clinically assisted hydration (CAH) can be provided in the last days of life as drinking declines. The impact of this practice on quality of life or survival in the last days of life is unclear. Practice varies worldwide concerning this emotive issue. METHOD: Systematic literature review and narrative synthesis of studies evaluating the impact of, or attitudes toward, CAH in the last days of life. Databases were searched up to December 2019. Studies were included if the majority of participants were in the last 7 days of life, and were evaluated using Gough's 'Weight of Evidence' framework. Review protocol registered with PROSPERO, registration number CRD42019125837. RESULTS: Fifteen studies were included in the synthesis. None were judged to be both of high quality and relevance. No evidence was found that the provision of CAH has an impact on symptoms or survival. Patient and family carer attitudes toward assisted hydration were diverse. CONCLUSION: There is currently insufficient evidence to draw firm conclusions on the impact of CAH in the last days of life. Future research needs to focus on patients specifically in the last days of life, include those with non-malignant diagnoses, and evaluate best ways to communicate effectively about this complex topic with patients and their families

Catalogue of 95 Roman Republican and Imperial coins

Handwriten catalogue describing 95 Roman Republican and Imperial coins that were presented to the University of Tasmania by Andrew Holden, Esq. B.A. of the Ministry of Finance Cairo: selected and described by Kingdon Tregosse Frost (1877-1914) Esq. M.A., F.R.G.S., of Brasenose College Oxford, late student at the British School at Athens, Lecturer in Ancient History under the Ministry of Public Instruction in Egypt 1909. From University Collection UT24/1

Range-Extended PostProcessing Kinematic (PPK) in a marine environment

ABSTRACT We have been investigating on the extension in range of baselines used in support to marine applications. Our focus has been with PPK (post-processing kinematic) following the Remondi's lemma: it is better to have a reliable float ambiguity resolution rather than a wrongly fixed ambiguity". We have focused our attention on the residual effect due to differential troposphere. Our investigation makes use of data sets collected under the scope of the Princess of Acadia Project. In this paper, we focus on a storm know as the 2004 Halifax weather bomb. Zenith tropospheric delays have been compared for that time period. It is shown that using Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) GEM model provides a better agreement with the zenith delay as provided by the IGS tropospheric product for station IGS UNB1. We have developed a program, the UNB NWP Ray-tracing software, intended to compute zenith and slant path delays from NWP data sets. This paper shows the state of the art in our efforts towards using NWP for positioning

Ambiguity, multiple streams, and EU policy

The multiple streams framework draws insight from interactions between agency and institutions to explore the impact of context, time, and meaning on policy change and to assess the institutional and issue complexities permeating the European Union (EU) policy process. The authors specify the assumptions and structure of the framework and review studies that have adapted it to reflect more fully EU decision-making processes. The nature of policy entrepreneurship and policy windows are assessed to identify areas of improvement. Finally, the authors sketch out a research agenda that refines the logic of political manipulation which permeates the lens and the institutional complexity which frames the EU policy process

Childhood Trauma in Clozapine-Resistant Schizophrenia : Prevalence, and Relationship With Symptoms

Background and Hypothesis: The role of early adversity and trauma is increasingly recognized in psychosis but treatments for trauma and its consequences are lacking. Psychological treatments need to understand the prevalence of these experiences, the relationship with specific symptoms and identify potentially tractable processes that may be targeted in therapy. It was hypothesized that greater adversity, and specifically abuse rather than neglect, would be associated with positive symptoms and specifically hallucinations. In addition, negative beliefs would mediate the relationship with positive symptoms. Study Design: 292 Patients with treatment resistant psychosis completed measures of early adversity as well as current symptoms of psychosis. Study Results: Early adversity in the form of abuse and neglect were common in one-third of the sample. Adversity was associated with higher levels of psychotic symptoms generally, and more so with positive rather than negative symptoms. Abuse rather than neglect was associated with positive but not with negative symptoms. Abuse rather than neglect was associated with hallucinations but not delusions. Abuse and neglect were related to negative beliefs about the self and negative beliefs about others. Mediation demonstrated a general relationship with adversity, negative-self, and other views and overall psychotic symptoms but not in relation to the specific experience of abuse and hallucinations. Females were more likely to be abused, but not neglected, than males. Conclusions: Whilst most relationships were modest, they supported previous work indicating that adversity contributes to people with psychosis experiencing distressing symptoms especially hallucinations. Treatments need to address and target adversity

Improving Predictions for Helium Emission Lines

We have combined the detailed He I recombination model of Smits with the collisional transitions of Sawey & Berrington in order to produce new accurate helium emissivities that include the effects of collisional excitation from both the 2 (3)S and 2 (1) S levels. We present a grid of emissivities for a range of temperature and densities along with analytical fits and error estimates. Fits accurate to within 1% are given for the emissivities of the brightest lines over a restricted range for estimates of primordial helium abundance. We characterize the analysis uncertainties associated with uncertainties in temperature, density, fitting functions, and input atomic data. We estimate that atomic data uncertainties alone may limit abundance estimates to an accuracy of 1.5%; systematic errors may be greater than this. This analysis uncertainty must be incorporated when attempting to make high accuracy estimates of the helium abundance. For example, in recent determinations of the primordial helium abundance, uncertainties in the input atomic data have been neglected.Comment: ApJ, accepte

Policy Feedback and the Politics of the Affordable Care Act

There is a large body of literature devoted to how “policies create politics” and how feedback effects from existing policy legacies shape potential reforms in a particular area. Although much of this literature focuses on self‐reinforcing feedback effects that increase support for existing policies over time, Kent Weaver and his colleagues have recently drawn our attention to self‐undermining effects that can gradually weaken support for such policies. The following contribution explores both self‐reinforcing and self‐undermining policy feedback in relationship to the Affordable Care Act, the most important health‐care reform enacted in the United States since the mid‐1960s. More specifically, the paper draws on the concept of policy feedback to reflect on the political fate of the ACA since its adoption in 2010. We argue that, due in part to its sheer complexity and fragmentation, the ACA generates both self‐reinforcing and self‐undermining feedback effects that, depending of the aspect of the legislation at hand, can either facilitate or impede conservative retrenchment and restructuring. Simultaneously, through a discussion of partisan effects that shape Republican behavior in Congress, we acknowledge the limits of policy feedback in the explanation of policy stability and change