The history of elementary and secondary education in Westmorland 1870-1914

Westmorland was an agricultural county, with isolated villages and only one town (Kendal). It had a distinctive character and social structure. It was predominantly Conservative and Anglican. The county had a strong educational tradition. The Schools Inquiry Commission reported that it had more grammar schools per head than any other county. By 1870, most of them had become elementary schools in practice. Their decline had been hastened by changes in the social structure. This still left Westmorland well-provided with grammar schools, but the best secondary education went to boarders, not mainly Westmorland children. Westmorland was also well-provided with elementary schools in 1870. Few parishes were without a school and attendance was relatively high. Except in East Ward, there were enough school places but the standard of the schools was poor. Few of them were under government inspection. Nearly all were Anglican. During the period 1870 - 1903, the grammar schools were re-organised by the Endowed School (later Charity) Commissioners. They classified the schools into grades, reformed the governing bodies, widened the curriculum, insisted that the schools charge fees, and tried to introduce a scholarship system. These changes had varied effects on the individual schools. In some cases, they caused controversies, of which the most acute arose from the decision to close the Kendal Blue Coat School and to amalgamate its endowments with those of Kendal Grammar School. This case has already been discussed by Simon (Studies in the History of Education, 1780-1870) and Owen (English Philanthropy, 1660-1960), but neither has looked at all the evidence, and both their views need qualification. The principal immediate effect of the 1870 Act was to stimulate the building of voluntary schools. There were soon enough school places, but the attendance problem was difficult to solve. Improvements in buildings and in staffing were slow to come, and the curriculum remained narrow. Anglican control was as strong as ever. Only a few School Boards were formed, mainly in East Ward where Nonconformity was strong. Kendal had a School Board, but it only concerned itself with enforcing attendance. As a result of the 1902 Act, Westmorland County Council became a Local Education Authority, with Kendal as a Part III Authority. By 1914 there was an efficient grammar school in every part of the county, and there had been a great extension of secondary education for girls. These changes occasioned little controversy, except at Lowther. The improvements in elementary education were steady rather than dramatic. In general, throughout the period, the provision for education in Westmorland was among the best in the country

Policy-Making in Teacher Education in Scotland, 1959-81

This thesis attempts to describe and explain the national policy issues in teacher education in Scotland between 1959 and 1981. It concentrates on the main structural issues of the expansion and contraction of the teacher education system and its relations with the rest of higher education. These issues are set within the context of debates about policy-making. The thesis takes as its theoretical framework a 'process model' of policy-making derived from Hogwood's 'From Crisis to Complacency'. Within that framework, it particularly explores how far the concept of a 'policy community' was applicable to teacher education in Scotland. In addition to using these theoretical insights, it also uses comparisons and contrasts with developments in England and Wales to explain those in Scotland. The thesis draws on a variety of sources: published material; the archives of the Joint Committee of Colleges of Education, of the General Teaching Council and of individual colleges; the Scottish Education Department files in West Register House (the author was granted privileged access to those still closed under the 30 years rule); and interviews with a number of the significant policy-makers. The argument of the thesis is that, for most of the period, there was a close-knit policy community for teacher education in Scotland, within which most policy decisions were reached after consultation by a process of 'bureaucratic accommodation'. It analyses the roles within the policy community of the main participating groups : the Scottish Education Department, the Scottish Council for the Training of Teachers (1959-67), the General Teaching Council (after 1967), the Committee of Principals, the Educational Institute of Scotland and the universities. It shows how the relationships between these groups changed over time and in respect to different issues. It then suggests that the process of bureaucratic accommodation does not work when issues are politically controversial and, therefore, that the problem of contracting the teacher education system could not be resolved within the normal boundaries and by the normal procedures of the policy community. It also notes that contraction in Scotland did not, as in England and Wales, lead to the virtual disappearance of separate institutions for teacher education, and suggests reasons why the Scottish colleges were not merged with other institutions in this period

Splitting fields and general differential Galois theory

An algebraic technique is presented that does not use results of model theory and makes it possible to construct a general Galois theory of arbitrary nonlinear systems of partial differential equations. The algebraic technique is based on the search for prime differential ideals of special form in tensor products of differential rings. The main results demonstrating the work of the technique obtained are the theorem on the constructedness of the differential closure and the general theorem on the Galois correspondence for normal extensions..Comment: 33 pages, this version coincides with the published on

Itch sensitization?:A systematic review of studies using quantitative sensory testing in patients with chronic itch

As well established for patients with chronic pain, patients suffering from chronic itch also exhibit signs of peripheral and central sensitization. This has been linked to parallel neuroplastic sensitization processes. However, for chronic itch, sensitization has not yet been systematically assessed, studied, and hence validated. This review (Prospero CRD42016043002) summarizes and meta-analytically evaluates whether sensory aberrations including sensitization for itch occur in chronic itch. Databases PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library were searched for studies investigating somatosensory sensitivity assessment by quantitative sensory testing stimuli, including experimental cutaneous chemical pruritic provocations, in patients with chronic itch from skin/neurological conditions and compared with healthy controls. Outcomes were extracted for lesional and nonlesional skin, and risk of biases were assessed. Meta-analyses were performed when sufficient quantitative data were available. Of 4667 identified articles, 46 were included and 25 were eligible for meta-analyses. Patients (66% atopic dermatitis [AD]) were found more sensitive than the controls to histamine-evoked itch in lesional skin (standardized mean difference [SMD]: 0.66 confidence interval [CI]: 0.16-1.15), but not nonlesionally (SMD: −0.26 [CI: −0.58 to 0.06]). Cowhage did not evoke more itch in nonlesional skin of patients as compared to the controls (SMD: 0.38 [CI: −0.04 to 0.81]). For numerous other chemical provocations as well as for mechanical, thermal, and electrical stimulation paradigms, results were ambiguous or based on few studies. Patients with chronic itch are only robustly sensitized to various chemical pruritic stimuli when applied lesionally. More studies on somatosensory aberrations in chronic itch conditions other than AD are needed to establish whether sensitization is robustly present across chronic itch conditions.Health and self-regulatio

An axiomatic approach to the non-linear theory of generalized functions and consistency of Laplace transforms

We offer an axiomatic definition of a differential algebra of generalized functions over an algebraically closed non-Archimedean field. This algebra is of Colombeau type in the sense that it contains a copy of the space of Schwartz distributions. We study the uniqueness of the objects we define and the consistency of our axioms. Next, we identify an inconsistency in the conventional Laplace transform theory. As an application we offer a free of contradictions alternative in the framework of our algebra of generalized functions. The article is aimed at mathematicians, physicists and engineers who are interested in the non-linear theory of generalized functions, but who are not necessarily familiar with the original Colombeau theory. We assume, however, some basic familiarity with the Schwartz theory of distributions.Comment: 23 page

Completeness of dagger-categories and the complex numbers

The complex numbers are an important part of quantum theory, but are difficult to motivate from a theoretical perspective. We describe a simple formal framework for theories of physics, and show that if a theory of physics presented in this manner satisfies certain completeness properties, then it necessarily includes the complex numbers as a mathematical ingredient. Central to our approach are the techniques of category theory, and we introduce a new category-theoretical tool, called the dagger-limit, which governs the way in which systems can be combined to form larger systems. These dagger-limits can be used to characterize the dagger-functor on the category of finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, and so can be used as an equivalent definition of the inner product. One of our main results is that in a nontrivial monoidal dagger-category with all finite dagger-limits and a simple tensor unit, the semiring of scalars embeds into an involutive field of characteristic 0 and orderable fixed field.Comment: 39 pages. Accepted for publication in the Journal of Mathematical Physic

Magma-driven, high-grade metamorphism in the Sveconorwegian Province, southwest Norway, during the terminal stages of Fennoscandian Shield evolution

Recently it has been argued that the Sveconorwegian orogeny in southwest Fennoscandia comprised a series of accretionary events between 1140 and 920 Ma, behind a long-lived, active continental margin characterized by voluminous magmatism and high-grade metamorphism. Voluminous magnesian granitic magmatism is recorded between 1070 and 1010 Ma (Sirdal Magmatic Belt, SMB), with an apparent drop in activity ca. 1010-1000 Ma. Granitic magmatism resumed ca. 1000-990 Ma, but with more ferroan (A type) compositions (hornblende-biotite granites). This ferroan granitic magmatism was continuous until 920 Ma, and included emplacement of an AMCG (anorthosite-mangerite-charnockite-granite) complex (Rogaland Igneous Complex). Mafic rocks with ages corresponding to the spatially associated granites suggest that heat from underplated mafic magma was the main driving force for lower crustal melting and long-lived granitic magmatism. The change from magnesian to ferroan compositions may reflect an increasingly depleted and dehydrated lower crustal source. High-grade metamorphic rocks more than ~20 km away from the Rogaland Igneous Complex yield metamorphic ages of 1070-1015 Ma, corresponding to SMB magmatism, whereas similar rocks closer to the Rogaland Igneous Complex yield ages between 1100 and 920 Ma, with an apparent age peak ca. 1000 Ma. Ti-in-zircon temperatures from these rocks increase from ~760 to 820 °C ca. 970 Ma, well before the inferred emplacement age of the Rogaland Igneous Complex (930 Ma), suggesting that long-lived, high-grade metamorphism was not directly linked to the emplacement of the latter, but rather to the same mafic underplating that was driving lower crustal melting. Structural data suggest that the present-day regional distribution of high- and low-grade rocks reflects late-stage orogenic doming

Relative contribution of intramyocellular lipid to whole-body fat oxidation is reduced with age but subsarcolemmal lipid accumulation and insulin resistance are only associated with overweight individuals

Insulin resistance is closely related to intramyocellular lipid (IMCL) accumulation, and both are associated with increasing age. It remains to be determined to what extent perturbations in IMCL metabolism are related to the aging process per se. On two separate occasions, whole-body and muscle insulin sensitivity (euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp with 2-deoxyglucose) and fat utilization during 1 h of exercise at 50% VO2max ([U-13C]palmitate infusion combined with electron microscopy of IMCL) were determined in young lean (YL), old lean (OL), and old overweight (OO) males. OL displayed IMCL content and insulin sensitivity comparable with those in YL, whereas OO were markedly insulin resistant and had more than twofold greater IMCL in the subsarcolemmal (SSL) region. Indeed, whereas the plasma free fatty acid Ra and Rd were twice those of YL in both OL and OO, SSL area only increased during exercise in OO. Thus, skeletal muscle insulin resistance and lipid accumulation often observed in older individuals are likely due to lifestyle factors rather than inherent aging of skeletal muscle as usually reported. However, age per se appears to cause exacerbated adipose tissue lipolysis, suggesting that strategies to reduce muscle lipid delivery and improve adipose tissue function may be warranted in older overweight individuals

Psychoimmunological effects of dioscorea in ovariectomized rats: role of anxiety level

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Anxiety levels in rats are correlated with interleukin-2 (IL-2) levels in the brain. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of dioscorea (wild yam), a Chinese medicine, on emotional behavior and IL-2 levels in the brain of ovariectomized (OVX) rats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>One month after ovariectomy, female Wistar rats were screened in the elevated plus-maze (EPM) test to measure anxiety levels and divided into low anxiety (LA) and high anxiety (HA) groups, which were then given dioscorea (250, 750, or 1500 mg/kg/day) by oral gavage for 27 days and were tested in the EPM on day 23 of administration and in the forced swim test (FST) on days 24 and 25, then 3 days later, the brain was removed and IL-2 levels measured.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to sham-operated rats, anxiety behavior in the EPM was increased in half of the OVX rats. After chronic dioscorea treatment, a decrease in anxiety and IL-2 levels was observed in the HA OVX rats. Despair behavior in the FST was inhibited by the highest dosage of dioscorea.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results show that OVX-induced anxiety and changes in neuroimmunological function in the cortex are reversed by dioscorea treatment. Furthermore, individual differences need to be taken into account when psychoneuroimmunological issues are measured and the EPM is a useful tool for determining anxiety levels when examining anxiety-related issues.</p