Opportunities and Weaknesses in Professional Development of Teachers at Secondary Schools of Agriculture in Serbia

Recent developments in market economies have showed that education and human resource creation are among the top priorities of national strategies and social, economic, and technological progress policies. The common denominator of educational reforms in many European countries is an attempt to set up a flexible system for professional education and development to respond to changes in labour market demands. In 2012, the Serbian Government adopted Serbia’s Education Strategy until 2020. This document provides for professional development of teachers and expert assistants at secondary specialist schools. Some of the projected actions involve working out various models of professional development, primarily teacher practice in their respective professions, carried out in companies or institutions. This document focuses on continuing professional development through various forms of formal and informal education. Success in finding acceptable solutions in food production technology largely depends on educated staff in agriculture and their engagement in transferring their knowledge and technologies to agricultural practice. Secondary school education is most important as it is the education level producing a qualified student who will do a specific job. The aim of this paper is to address to the need and weaknesses in continuing professional development of teachers at secondary schools of agriculture in Serbia. The weaknesses experienced in practice regarding their development are numerous and often hard to overcome. How to recognise these weaknesses and resolve them is the subject matter of this paper. The paper presents the organizational weaknesses of accredited seminars and their evaluation

Investigation of top mass measurements with the ATLAS detector at LHC

Several methods for the determination of the mass of the top quark with the ATLAS detector at the LHC are presented. All dominant decay channels of the top quark can be explored. The measurements are in most cases dominated by systematic uncertainties. New methods have been developed to control those related to the detector. The results indicate that a total error on the top mass at the level of 1 GeV should be achievable.Comment: 47 pages, 40 figure

Enhancing learning experience by collaborative industrial projects

This paper presents how collaborative industrial project are embedded into engineering curriculum at two departments: School of Science and the School of Engineering, at RMIT University, Australia. We introduce general structure of the industrial projects as Work Integrated Learning (WIL) modules, as well as provide a number of examples of recently completed projects. Industrial summer projects, which were running in the years 2015/16 in collaboration with ANZ, ABB, Alfred Hospital, etc., were pipelined with final year projects from the School of Engineering as well as with the Software Engineering Projects (Bachelor and Master level) from the School of Science. The goal of these projects was to enable continuity of activities as per industry requirements and enhance learning experience, as well as, employability of the students. All the projects were successfully completed, also receiving positive feedback from industry partners. Some of the projects led to student's employment within the companies that have sponsored the projects. With this approach, Future Designers Grant from the Department of State Development, Business and Innovation, Victoria, was efficiently implemented and a new product developed. After receiving Bosch Venture Forum Award in Germany, in June 2015 industry collaboration has extended to new partner, School of Science and activities continued over the summer. New design is implanted as well as large number of improvements

Attachment and mentalization as predictors of outcome in family therapy for adolescent anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa-focussed family therapy (FT-AN) is the first-line treatment for adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN), but the predictors of poor treatment response are not well understood. The main aim of this study was to investigate the role of attachment and mentalization in predicting treatment outcome. The secondary aims of the study were to investigate therapeutic alliance at 1 month as a predictor of outcome, and to test the associations between alliance and baseline attachment and mentalization. 192 adolescents with AN and their parents were recruited as they began family therapy in out-patient specialist eating disorder services. Self-report measures of attachment, mentalization, and emotion regulation were completed at the start of treatment by adolescent patients and one of their parents. Self-reported alliance scores were collected at one month. Higher scores on the Certainty Scale of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, completed by parents, which indicate over-certainty about mental states, were the strongest predictor of poor outcome (Odds Ratio: 0.42, CI: 0.20–0.87). Similarly, for adolescents, higher Lack of Clarity scores on the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, representing being unclear about one’s feelings, were predictive of positive treatment outcome (OR: 1.10, CI: 1.00–1.21). Higher alliance scores at 1 month predicted positive outcome, and were associated with attachment security and mentalization. These novel findings suggest that, particularly in parents, a tendency towards excessive certainty about mental states in others may predict poor outcome in FT-AN. Further research is warranted to replicate the finding and characterise families at risk of poor outcome

Generalized Hamiltonian structures for Ermakov systems

We construct Poisson structures for Ermakov systems, using the Ermakov invariant as the Hamiltonian. Two classes of Poisson structures are obtained, one of them degenerate, in which case we derive the Casimir functions. In some situations, the existence of Casimir functions can give rise to superintegrable Ermakov systems. Finally, we characterize the cases where linearization of the equations of motion is possible

Chiral effective action with heavy quark symmetry

We derive an effective action combining chiral and heavy quark symmetry, using approximate bosonization techniques of QCD. We explicitly show that the heavy-quark limit is compatible with the large $N_c$ (number of color) limit in the meson sector, and derive specific couplings between the light and heavy mesons ($D$, $D^*$, ...) and their chiral partners. The relevance of this effective action to solitons with heavy quarks describing heavy baryons is discussed.Comment: 14 pages, SUNY-NTG-92/2

Longer-term effectiveness of systemic family therapy compared with treatment as usual for young people after self-harm: An extended follow up of pragmatic randomised controlled trial

Background: Self-harm in adolescents is common and repetition frequent. Evidence for effective interventions to reduce self-harm is limited. Long term follow-up of existing studies is rare. Methods: Extended follow up, from 18 to at least 36-months, of the SHIFT trial: a pragmatic, multi-centre, individually-randomised, controlled trial involving young people (11–17) who had self-harmed at least twice and presented to Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). SHIFT evaluated manualised family therapy (FT) versus treatment as usual (TAU) in reducing repetition of self-harm leading to hospital attendance 18 months post-randomisation. We obtained ONS mortality data, adult mental health data, and further details of hospital attendance from routine Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data plus researcher follow-up. We assessed longer-term differences in outcome using multivariable Cox Proportional Hazards regression analysis, and assessed all-cause mortality and morbidity relating to hospital attendances for reasons other than self-harm. Study registration: ISRCTN 59793150 Outcomes: The original sample of 832 were randomised between April 2010 and December 2013. Extended follow-up continued until February 2017 for a median 55·4 months (range 0–82·5 months), providing post 18-month data for 804 (96·6%) participants, of whom 785 (94·4%) had a minimum of 36-months follow-up. There was no evidence of a between-group difference in the primary outcome during the extended follow-up period (Hazard Ratio (HR) 1·03; 95% CI: 0·83, 1·28; p-value=0·78), consistent with our findings in the original trial with 18 months follow-up (HR 1·14, 95% CI 0·87, 1·49; p-value 0·33). There was a reduced rate of self-harm in older participants aged 15–17 (HR 0·7, 95% CI 0·56, 0·88), as compared with those aged 11–14; and significantly increased rates of self-harm in participants whose index episode combined self-injury and poisoning (HR 1·8, 95% CI 1·2, 2·7). Two deaths were reported during the extended follow up period. Interpretation: For adolescents referred to CAMHS after self-harm, having self-harmed at least once before, trial FT confers no benefits over TAU in reducing subsequent hospitalisation for self-harm over 18 months or 36 months. Funding: NIHR HTA Reference: 07/33/0

Calculation of the Chiral Lagrangian Coefficients from the Underlying Theory of QCD: A Simple Approach

We calculate the coefficients in the chiral Lagrangian approximately from QCD based on a previous study of deriving the chiral Lagrangian from the first principles of QCD in which the chiral Lagrangian coefficients are defined in terms of certain Green's functions in QCD. We first show that, in the large N(c)-limit, the anomaly part contributions to the coefficients are exactly cancelled by certain terms in the normal part contributions, and the final results of the coefficients only concern the remaining normal part contributions depending on QCD interactions. We then do the calculation in a simple approach with the approximations of taking the large-N(c) limit, the leading order in dynamical perturbation theory, and the improved ladder approximation, thereby the relevant Green's functions are expressed in terms of the quark self energy. By solving the Schwinger-Dyson equation for the quark self energy, we obtain the approximate QCD predicted coefficients and the quark condensate which are consistent with the experimental values.Comment: Further typos corrected, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Thermodynamic and thermophysical properties for green compounds at high pressures

The harmful impact of the fossil fuels consumption on the environment and their limited reserves have prompted a reaction from both researchers and government officials. New environmental protection measures have been adopted and the research for renewable energy sources is strongly supported. The goal is to find the renewable, non-toxic, biodegradable, environment-friendly substitutes for fossil fuels and optimize their use. Within our research various green solvents and biofuels, such as biodiesels, terpenes, ionic liquids, and deep eutectic solvents have been studied. Biodiesels are widely known substitutes for fossil fuels; they can be applied in diesel engines, pure or mixed with a petro-diesel in various proportions, without corrections in engine design [1]. Terpenes found a promising role as an alternative fuel for aviation transport where fuel of high energy density is required due to small volume-limited fuel tanks [2]. Ionic liquids have shown a great potential in CO2 absorption from air or exhaust gas. These salts are very attractive for industrial purposes, because of their specific properties, changed based on selected combination of anion and cation [3]. Further, for more efficient energy production and consumption, investigation on improving the properties of the heat transfer fluid was performed, adding nanoparticles to ethylene glycol (EG) [4]. The data on thermophysical properties of various chemical compounds and their mixtures under different conditions of pressure and temperature are essential for various processes. For example, the fuel injection and combustion in diesel engines are performed at high pressures and temperatures and are greatly influenced by the fuel’s density and viscosity [1]. Densities of sunflower oil biodiesels and their mixtures with diesel fuel, a group of terpenes and ionic liquids, and EG with caffeine were measured at temperatures in the range (298.15–413.15) K and at pressures up to 60 MPa [1-4]. The experimental data were successfully correlated using the modified Tammann–Tait equation. That enabled the calculation of the derived properties, such as the isothermal compressibility, the isobaric thermal expansivity, the internal pressure and the difference between the specific heat capacity at constant pressure and at constant volume