Consultation with experts on the prevention of sexual abuse of children: preparation of the Council of Europe Campaign to stop sexual violence against children

This report summarises the contributions of the participants who attended the meeting in December 2009 and is based on: the information given in presentations from the experts at the meeting; and the discussions that followed presentations and took place in plenary summary events

Relational pedagogy for student engagement and success at university

The Australian Government's policy to transform higher education by 2020 includes plans to significantly raise the levels of undergraduate enrolment by people of low socio-economic status. In light of this policy direction, this article examines how a group of undergraduate students of low socio-economic status work to maintain their desire for learning and to remain included in the university system despite experiencing cultural processes of exclusion. As the students reflect on the cultural and pedagogical conditions that promote, support and enhance their participation and engagement in higher education, a picture emerges of the importance of students' relationships with academics. Whilst positive relationships help students to remain engaged, negative experiences work against continuing participation and engagement. Given the desire of the Australian government to increase participation in higher education by students from under-represented groups, this research identifies some challenges and possibilities for both universities and academics

Review of the use of partners by KT Offices.

This research was undertaken in partnership with the Institute of Knowledge Transfer UK Universities undertaking Knowledge Transfer (KT) activities are said to be increasingly supported by both internal and external partners. The aim of this work was to identify the extent to which the KT Offices of UK universities are working in partnership with academics and administrators within their organizations and with external service providers A questionnaire was developed using an on-line survey tool (www.surveymonkey.com) to explore this issue. Responses received from the KT Offices at 29 UK universities identified that: • KT Offices were reported to provide a key role in a wide range of activity areas, with strong support from Senior Management. • Major levels of academic involvement were a feature of only a minority of activities. • There was little use of external organisations for undertaking supporting activities

A marine environmental monitoring and assessment program

The need for the use of modern, extremely sensitive techniques to aid in rapidly and synoptically assessing the relative health and production of coastal waters and estuaries is reported. Major emphasis is placed on establishing a solid foundation for the use of remote sensing in basic oceanographic studies and the management of human wastes

Youth gangs, sexual violence and sexual exploitation: a scoping exercise for the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England

This report presents the findings of a scoping exercise on the issue of youth gangs, sexual violence and sexual exploitation, derived from key informant interviews and a literature review

Electron Spin Relaxation in a Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Quantum Dot

We study the relaxation of a single electron spin in a circular quantum dot in a transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayer defined by electrostatic gating. Transition-metal dichalcogenides provide an interesting and promising arena for quantum dot nano-structures due to the combination of a band gap, spin-valley physics and strong spin-orbit coupling. First we will discuss which bound state solutions in different B-field regimes can be used as the basis for qubits states. We find that at low B-fields combined spin-valley Kramers qubits to be suitable, while at large magnetic fields pure spin or valley qubits can be envisioned. Then we present a discussion of the relaxation of a single electron spin mediated by electron-phonon interaction via various different relaxation channels. In the low B-field regime we consider the spin-valley Kramers qubits and include impurity mediated valley mixing which will arise in disordered quantum dots. Rashba spin-orbit admixture mechanisms allows for relaxation by in-plane phonons either via the deformation potential or by piezoelectric coupling, additionally direct spin-phonon mechanisms involving out-of-plane phonons give rise to relaxation. We find that the relaxation rates scale as $\propto B^6$ for both in-plane phonons coupling via deformation potential and the piezoelectric effect, while relaxation due to the direct spin-phonon coupling scales independant to B-field to lowest order but scales strongly on device mechanical tension. We will also discuss the relaxation mechanisms for pure spin or valley qubits formed in the large B-field regime.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Effects on Amorphous Silicon Photovoltaic Performance from High-temperature Annealing Pulses in Photovoltaic Thermal Hybrid Devices

There is a renewed interest in photovoltaic solar thermal (PVT) hybrid systems, which harvest solar energy for heat and electricity. Typically, a main focus of a PVT system is to cool the photovoltaic (PV) cells to improve the electrical performance, however, this causes the thermal component to under-perform compared to a solar thermal collector. The low temperature coefficients of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) allow for the PV cells to be operated at higher temperatures and are a potential candidate for a more symbiotic PVT system. The fundamental challenge of a-Si:H PV is light-induced degradation known as the Staebler-Wronski effect (SWE). Fortunately, SWE is reversible and the a-Si:H PV efficiency can be returned to its initial state if the cell is annealed. Thus an opportunity exists to deposit a-Si:H directly on the solar thermal absorber plate where the cells could reach the high temperatures required for annealing. In this study, this opportunity is explored experimentally. First a-Si:H PV cells were annealed for 1 hour at 100\degreeC on a 12 hour cycle and for the remaining time the cells were degraded at 50\degreeC in order to simulate stagnation of a PVT system for 1 hour once a day. It was found that, when comparing the cells after stabilization at normal 50\degreeC degradation, this annealing sequence resulted in a 10.6% energy gain when compared to a cell that was only degraded at 50\degreeC

A personal distributed environment for future mobile systems

A Personal Distributed Environment (PDE) embraces a user-centric view of communications that take place against a backdrop of multiple user devices, each with its distinct capabilities, in physically separate locations. This paper provides an overview of a Personal Distributed Environment and some of the research issues related to the implementation of the PDE concept that are being considered in the current Mobile VCE work programme

Religious Lawyering\u27s Second Wave

Since the mid-1990s, the religious lawyering movement has expanded dramatically, receiving greater attention within the academy and the bar. As the movement enters what we term its second wave of development, this essay begins with a look back to its first wave of path-breaking scholarship and its gradual shift toward more institutionalized structures and programs. It argues that the predominant characteristic of first-wave religious lawyering scholarship was to claim a space within the professional conversation for lawyers to bring religious values to bear on their work. The essay then predicts that in the second wave religious lawyering conversations and scholarship will increasingly move beyond the question of whether lawyers should bring religious values to bear on their work, toward the difficult issues of how this should be done. It concludes with a glance toward the ways in which international horizons might bring new and refreshing challenges to the religious lawyering movement