Why are there still so few men within Early Years in primary schools: views from male trainee teachers and male leaders?

One of the challenges facing the Early Years (EY) sector is how to encourage more male practitioners to counterbalance a largely feminised workforce. Using case studies of male trainees at different stages of their primary undergraduate Initial Teacher Training course at one university, we attempt to consider data why there is underrepresentation of men within the leadership strata in EY settings. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted with the male sample groups and male leaders in primary schools to gain an overview regarding gender stereotyping. Our findings suggest that male trainees enjoy working in the EY sector, but they need mentoring by strong leaders to help them overcome the perceived contextual barriers of male stereotypes in that setting. In conclusion, we consider some of these barriers of stereotypes, attitudes, values, beliefs existing and the actions needed in addressing such stereotypes if a long-lasting change is to happen

The surface structure and growth of natural zeolites.

A systematic study has been carried out in order to investigate two aspects of zeolite chemistry: to determine the external surface structure and to establish the mechanism of crystal growth. The natural zeolite edingtonite (EDI) was chosen as a model material and the surface structures were studied by finding the most stable termination for each face. For each of the four morphologically important faces the surface structure was found to minimise the number of broken bonds created upon cleaving the surface. In the absence of experimental data, the crystal morphologies were used as a proxy indicator of relative growth rate of different faces. Qualitative inspection indicates that only the equilibrium morphology is able to reproduce the habit of the natural crystal. However, quantitative analysis with the crystal habit observed in SEM images reveals a discrepancy in aspect ratios. By predicting the crystal morphology by using a newly proposed, less demanding method of calculating the number of broken bonds upon cleaving the surface per surface area (Nbb/SA), one is able to accurately reproduce the crystal morphology with the correct aspect ratio. The utility of the NBb/SA method has been tested for a sample of zeolites, results show the Nbb/SA technique has correctly predicted the growth rate and crystal habit of merlinoite, analcime, natrolite, and zeolite A. The test on thomsonite was able to reproduce the correct order of stability for each face, however the aspect ratios were not precisely predicted. By the use of atomistic and ab-initio methods, this research has also investigated the growth mechanism of EDI. The total and condensation energies of a range of possible solution fragments have been calculated and the most stable cluster along with the mechanism of formation has been suggested. The energetics of clusters along with the surface structural analysis has shown strong evidence that characteristic building units control the growth and aggregation of EDI, which dictates the extended crystal structure and the rate at which these building units condense onto the surface determines the crystal shape

Reliable and robust molecular sexing of the hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) using PCR-RFLP of the CHD1 gene

The hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) is a bird of prey that is persecuted in the United Kingdom, and there is a need for a DNA-based individual identification and sexing system for the use in forensic investigations. This study reports a new set of PCR primers for the chromo-helicase-DNA-binding protein 1 gene, which allows sexing using PCR-RFLP. Instead of exonic primers that amplify across a large intron, this set consists of a primer within the intron, enabling reduction in amplicon sizes from 356 to 212 bp and 565 to 219 bp in W and Z chromosomes. DNA degradation and dilution experiments demonstrate that this set is significantly more robust than one that amplifies across the intron, and sequencing of the intronic primer-binding region across several individuals shows that it is highly conserved. While our objective is to incorporate this primer set into an STR-based individualization kit, it may in the meantime prove useful in forensic or conservation studies

Mixed-Integer Convex Nonlinear Optimization with Gradient-Boosted Trees Embedded

Decision trees usefully represent sparse, high dimensional and noisy data. Having learned a function from this data, we may want to thereafter integrate the function into a larger decision-making problem, e.g., for picking the best chemical process catalyst. We study a large-scale, industrially-relevant mixed-integer nonlinear nonconvex optimization problem involving both gradient-boosted trees and penalty functions mitigating risk. This mixed-integer optimization problem with convex penalty terms broadly applies to optimizing pre-trained regression tree models. Decision makers may wish to optimize discrete models to repurpose legacy predictive models, or they may wish to optimize a discrete model that particularly well-represents a data set. We develop several heuristic methods to find feasible solutions, and an exact, branch-and-bound algorithm leveraging structural properties of the gradient-boosted trees and penalty functions. We computationally test our methods on concrete mixture design instance and a chemical catalysis industrial instance

What does a globalized curriculum look like for diverse learners in primary schools?

Children in our classrooms today come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and some have English as an Additional Language (EAL). Haslam et al define such children as ‘learners whose preferred language/s are not English and therefore add it to their language/s’ (2005: 97). The words diversity and globalization have numerous and contested meanings. We begin this article by looking at the multiple ways in which the ideas these terms express are conceptualized, especially for primary school children with EAL. We then explore globalization as a concept to see how it links with diversity so that relevant knowledge is generated using ideas from empirical and methodological studies. Finally, we consider how primary school leaders can bring a global dimension into their curriculum