Becoming a teacher: conceptual and practice development in the learning and skills sector

Drawing on a mixed-methods study of in-service learning and skills sector (LSS) trainees, comprising beginning- and end-of-year surveys and six longitudinal case studies together with literature on trainees’ development in the LSS, schools and higher education sectors, conceptual and practice development continua are proposed. Conceptions become more multi-dimensional and increasingly link teaching and learning whilst initial concern with the practicalities of teaching is followed by recognition of learners’ needs. Next, greater emphasis is placed on learner autonomy and catering for individuals’ needs and finally assessment and evaluation is used systematically to shape practice. The continua offer an understanding of the subtleties and complexities of trainee development allowing for different starting and end points and accommodating varied work contexts. I argue that this provides a more adequate basis for the development of initial teacher education (ITE) than the prescriptive approach embedded within recent LSS ITE policy reforms

Population Dynamics and Community Composition of Ammonia Oxidizers in Salt Marshes after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico had significant effects on microbial communities in the Gulf, but impacts on nitrifying communities in adjacent salt marshes have not been investigated. We studied persistent effects of oil on ammonia-oxidizing archaeal (AOA) and bacterial (AOB) communities and their relationship to nitrification rates and soil properties in Louisiana marshes impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Soils were collected at oiled and unoiled sites from Louisiana coastal marshes in July 2012, 2 years after the spill, and analyzed for community differences based on ammonia monooxygenase genes (amoA). Terminal Restriction Fragment Polymorphism and DNA sequence analyses revealed significantly different AOA and AOB communities between the three regions, but few differences were found between oiled and unoiled sites. Community composition of nitrifiers was best explained by differences in soil moisture and nitrogen content. Despite the lack of significant oil effects on overall community composition, we identified differences in correlations of individual populations with potential nitrification rates between oiled and unoiled sites that help explain previously published correlation patterns. Our results suggest that exposure to oil, even 2 years post-spill, led to subtle changes in population dynamics. How, or if, these changes may impact ecosystem function in the marshes, however, remains uncertain

From Solar Proton Burning to Pionic Deuterium through the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model of light nuclei

Within the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model of light nuclei (the NNJL model), describing strong low-energy nuclear interactions, we compute the width of the energy level of the ground state of pionic deuterium. The theoretical value fits well the experimental data. Using the cross sections for the reactions nu_e + d -> p + p + e^- and nu_e + d -> p + n + nu_e, computed in the NNJL model, and the experimental values of the events of these reactions, detected by the SNO Collaboration, we compute the boron neutrino fluxes. The theoretical values agree well with the experimental data and the theoretical predictions within the Standard Solar Model by Bahcall. We argue the applicability of the constraints on the astrophysical factor for the solar proton burning, imposed by helioseismology, to the width of the energy level of the ground state of pionic deuterium. We show that the experimental data on the width satisfy these constraints. This testifies an indirect measurement of the recommended value of the astrophysical factor for the solar proton burning in terrestrial laboratories in terms of the width of the energy level of the ground state of pionic deuterium.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, Late

Criminal Law: Customer’s Permanent Exclusion From Retail Store Due to Prior Shoplifting Arrests Held Enforceable Under Criminal Trespass Statute

In interpretive research, trustworthiness has developed to become an important alternative for measuring the value of research and its effects, as well as leading the way of providing for rigour in the research process. The article develops the argument that trustworthiness plays an important role in not only effecting change in a research project’s original setting, but also that trustworthy research contributes toward building a body of knowledge that can play an important role in societal change. An essential aspect in the development of this trustworthiness is its relationship to context. To deal with the multiplicity of meanings of context, we distinguish between contexts at different levels of the research project: the domains of the researcher, the collective, and the individual participant. Furthermore, we argue that depending on the primary purpose associated with the collective learning potential, critical potential, or performative potential of phenomenographic research, developing trustworthiness may take different forms and is related to aspects of pedagogical legitimacy, social legitimacy, and epistemological legitimacy. Trustworthiness in phenomenographic research is further analysed by distinguishing between the internal horizon – the constitution of trustworthiness as it takes place within the research project – and the external horizon, which points to the impact of the phenomenographic project in the world mediated by trustworthiness

Studies on the maize cold tolerance tests in the Martonvásár phytotron

The climatic conditions in Hungary and in the countries to which seed is exported makes the study of maize cold tolerance and constant improvements in the cold tolerance of Martonvásár hybrids especially important. An improvement in the early spring cold tolerance of maize would allow it to be grown in more northern areas with a cooler climate, while on traditional maize-growing areas the profitability of maize production could be improved by earlier sowing, leading to a reduction in transportation and drying costs and in diseases caused by Fusarium sp. The recognition of this fact led Martonvásár researchers to start investigating this subject nearly four decades ago. The phytotron has proved an excellent tool for studying and improving the cold tolerance of maize. The review will give a brief summary of the results achieved in the field of maize cold tolerance in the Martonvásár institute in recent decades

Concentration inequalities for random fields via coupling

We present a new and simple approach to concentration inequalities for functions around their expectation with respect to non-product measures, i.e., for dependent random variables. Our method is based on coupling ideas and does not use information inequalities. When one has a uniform control on the coupling, this leads to exponential concentration inequalities. When such a uniform control is no more possible, this leads to polynomial or stretched-exponential concentration inequalities. Our abstract results apply to Gibbs random fields, in particular to the low-temperature Ising model which is a concrete example of non-uniformity of the coupling.Comment: New corrected version; 22 pages; 1 figure; New result added: stretched-exponential inequalit