An Exploration into the Thoughts and Emotions of Home-Educating Familes; "The world is my classroom and life is my curriculum."

This research explored the views of home-educators and the young people in home-education around their reasons for opting out of school-based education, their level of satisfaction with their decision, what education looks like to them, aspirations for the future and perceived support from the Local Authority (LA). Phase one took the form of a parent/carer questionnaire. The questionnaire was shared nationally and yielded sixty complete responses. Data has been analysed and is displayed in frequency tables and descriptive statistics. Phase two implemented a case-study methodology. Recruitment for this part of the project was extremely difficult and possible reasons for this are explored. I visited five families, speaking to eight young people and either both or one parent. There were some structured arts-based activities which I used as a vehicle to open the dialogue with the young people. These sessions largely took place in the participants’ home, or in another venue of their choosing. With participants aged ten years and over, I adopted a narrative approach, with much guidance taken from Brown and Gilligan’s (1993) “The Listening Guide.” Phrases starting with “I” are taken from the participants’ transcripts and used to create a poem which represents their story, constructs and feelings. These poems were then taken back to the young people in order to check that they were satisfied with the meaning that had been captured. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework for analysing qualitative data was implemented as a tool for analysis across cases. Emergent themes included the value that home-educated families place on child-centred learning, allowing children to develop at their own rates and enabling them to pursue topics of interest. Implications for educational psychologists’ (EPs) practice are discussed

Master of Science

thesisQuantification of groundwater-surface water exchange and the role of hyporheic flow in this exchange is increasingly of interest to a wide range of disciplines (e.g., hydrogeology, geochemistry, biology, ecology). The most direct method to quantify groundwater-surface water exchange is a seepage meter, first developed in the 1940s. Widespread use of the traditional 1970s-era 55-gallon half-barrel seepage meter has shown that the method is subject to potential errors, particularly in flowing waters (e.g., streams, rivers, tidal zones). This study presents two new direct seepage measurement devices, the Shelby tube and the seepage blanket, designed to minimize potential measurement errors associated with flowing surface waters. The objective of the study is to develop and test the new methods by comparing results (specific discharge, hydraulic conductivity, and dissolved constituent concentration) to established methods. Results from both laboratory and field testing suggest that the new devices have utility in quantifying the water and dissolved constituent exchange between surface water and groundwater

Wer hat Angst vor dem "Bremer Taliban"?

Der Fall Kurnaz sorgte besonders in Deutschland für Furore. 2002 kam der Bremer in US-Haft in Guantánamo. 2006 wurde er freigelassen, nachdem über die Jahre nie Beweise für eine Verbindung zu Al-Qaida oder den Taliban gefunden wurden. Meine Magisterarbeit analysiert als publizistik- und kommunikationswissenschaftliche Untersuchung die Berichterstattung von Tageszeitungen über diese Causa. Nicht zuletzt der medial eingeführte und gefestigte Beiname Kurnaz’, „Bremer Taliban“, zeigt die zentrale Rolle der Medien in der Affäre. Durch die Art und Weise wie über Kurnaz berichtet wurde, taucht die Frage auf, ob seine Staatszugehörigkeit sowie sein muslimischer Glaube für Zeitungen einen Unterschied machten. War der gebürtige Bremer mit dem türkischen Pass, der die Türkei nur aus dem Urlaub kennt, für die Journalisten „keiner von uns“? Ausgangspunkt und erster Teil der Untersuchung ist das theoretische Spannungsfeld von Nation und Medien. Benedict Anderson (1988) definiert Nation als imagined community, als vorgestellte Gemeinschaft. Um zu funktionieren betont diese Gemeinde dabei ein „Wir“, dass sich einem äußeren „Sie“ gegenüberstellt. Etienne Balibar (1998) und Friedrich Krotz (2007) befassen sich mit der Bedeutung der Etablierung und Aufrechterhaltung dieses Modells durch die Medien. Mit der Stellung von Diskursen in diesem „System“ setzt sich Siegfried Jäger (2000) auseinander, der darauf verweist, dass Wirklichkeiten diskursiv entstehen, d.h. Diskurse spiegeln nicht Tatsachen wider, sondern konstruieren ihre eigenen Realitäten. Entscheidend ist dabei, wer im Diskurs die Macht hat. Von dieser Position aus kann auf die „Gestaltung“ der medialen Wirklichkeiten Einfluss genommen werden. Ruth Wodak (1998) beschäftigt sich in diesem Zusammenhang mit der diskursiven Konstruktion nationaler Identitäten. Gaye Tuchman (1978) zeigt anhand des Framing-Modells, wie Journalisten durch ihren eigenen Blick, ihr eigenes „Fenster zur Welt“ die Realität verändern. Aufbauend auf diese theoretische Basis beantwortet der zweite Teil der Arbeit die Problemstellung, indem das Fallbeispiel diskursanalytisch untersucht wird. Eine Grobanalyse beleuchtet die Berichterstattung der fünf wichtigsten überregionalen deutschen Tageszeitungen und gibt einen Überblick über den Fall Kurnaz in den Medien von Jänner 2002 bis August 2006. Anhand einer Feinanalyse werden Artikel der Süddeutschen Zeitung und der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung genauer unter die Lupe genommen. So können Erkenntnisse sowohl zum Diskurs als Ganzem, als auch zur Stellung Kurnaz’ in den Wirklichkeiten der Artikel gewonnen werden. Was die Ergebnisse aus der Mikroanalyse betrifft, liegen die zwei Qualitätsmedien FAZ und SZ näher bei einander als man es erwarten würde. Beide Tageszeitungen, wobei die Süddeutsche Zeitung Ansätze einer zeitgemäßen, offenen Berichterstattung zeigt, konstruieren (diskursive) Realitäten (mit), in denen Murat Kurnaz vorverurteilt wird. In das „Wir“ der Artikel ist der Deutsch-Türke und Muslim Kurnaz nicht mit eingeschlossen. Die Darstellung des Islam ist in allen untersuchten Artikeln unausgeglichen oder gar problematisch.The case of the former Guantánamo-prisoner Murat Kurnaz has made headlines in the last years, especially in Germany. Turkish citizen Kurnaz was born and raised in Bremen, in the north of the “Bundesrepublik”. He was brought to the detainment camp in Cuba by the US-Army in 2002 and released in 2006 due to the lack of evidence linking him to either the Taliban or Al-Qaida. From the perspective of the Mass Media and Communication Science, this thesis deals with how the German newspapers covered the affair. The media took over a central role in the case, e.g. by creating the nickname the “Bremer Taliban” (meaning “the Taliban from Bremen”). This was echoed by newspapers and TV-channels everywhere which led a lot of people to identify Kurnaz more and more with the negative connotation of this name. Because of the way the case was covered the question arose if his nationality and his Islamic belief made any difference. Was Kurnaz, from the reporters’ point of view, not part of the (German) community and, if that was the case, did that affect the reports on a man who had no evidence of any wrong-doing against him? The starting point and first major part of the research is the theory section, in which the relationship between the model of the nation and the media is examined. Benedict Anderson (1988) calls nations imagined communities which have to differentiate a “we” from a “they” in order to function. Etienne Balibar (1998) and Friedrich Krotz (2007) discuss the role of the media in supporting and maintaining the system of the nation. Siegfried Jäger (2000) looks at the significance of discourses in this constellation and states that a discourse establishes its very own idea of reality. The question of the definition of this reality is always a question of power - the power to shape discourses. How reality is constructed by discourses concerning national identities is a problem Ruth Wodak (1998) tries to answer. With the framing approach Gaye Tuchman (1978) shows how journalists always look through their “window on the world” and how these frames influence newscasts. The second half of this work consists of a discourse analysis which is based on the theoretical aspects and examines the case study: the affair surrounding Murat Kurnaz. There are, in fact, two parts to this analysis: A broader one gives an overview of the coverage in five important German newspapers as well as of the structure and the development of the discourse. But the core of the analytic part is an analysis of two articles in the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and of two articles in the liberal Süddeutsche Zeitung. The results show more similarities in the discursive realities of the two papers than expected: In both cases Kurnaz had no hope of a neutral, objective coverage, although the Süddeutsche at least tried to report impartially to some extent. This thesis also makes clear that the journalists who wrote about the man from Bremen did not define him as part of the German community and had problems reporting on Islam without prejudices

Groundwater transit time distribution and mean from streambed sampling in an agricultural coastal plain watershed, North Carolina, USA

We measured groundwater apparent age (s) and seepage rate (v) in a sandy streambed using point-scale sampling and seepage blankets (a novel seepage meter). We found very similar MTT estimates from streambed point sampling in a 58 m reach (29 years) and a 2.5 km reach (31 years). The TTD for groundwater discharging to the stream was best fit by a gamma distribution model and was very similar for streambed point sampling in both reaches. Between adjacent point-scale and seepage blanket samples, water from the seepage blankets was generally younger, largely because blanket samples contained a fraction of ‘‘young’’ stream water. Correcting blanket data for the stream water fraction brought s estimates for most blanket samples closer to those for adjacent point samples. The MTT estimates from corrected blanket data were in good agreement with those from sampling streambed points adjacent to the blankets. Collectively, agreement among age-dating tracers, general accord between tracer data and piston-flow model curves, and large groundwater age gradients in the streambed, suggested that the piston flow apparent ages were reasonable estimates of the groundwater transit times for most samples. Overall, our results from two field campaigns suggest that groundwater collected in the streambed can provide reasonable estimates of apparent age of groundwater discharge, and that MTT can be determined from different agedating tracers and by sampling with different groundwater collection devices. Coupled streambed point measurements of groundwater age and groundwater seepage rate represent a novel, reproducible, and effective approach to estimating aquifer TTD and MTT

Quantifying the fate of agricultural nitrogen in an unconfined aquifer: Stream-based observations at three measurement scales

We compared three stream-based sampling methods to study the fate of nitrate in groundwater in a coastal plain watershed: point measurements beneath the streambed, seepage blankets (novel seepage-meter design), and reach mass-balance. The methods gave similar mean groundwater seepage rates into the stream (0.3–0.6 m/d) during two 3–4 day field campaigns despite an order of magnitude difference in stream discharge between the campaigns. At low flow, estimates of flowweighted mean nitrate concentrations in groundwater discharge ([NO-3 ]FWM) and nitrate flux from groundwater to the stream decreased with increasing degree of channel influence and measurement scale, i.e., [NO-3 ]FWM was 654, 561, and 451 mM for point, blanket, and reach mass-balance sampling, respectively. At high flow the trend was reversed, likely because reach mass-balance captured inputs from shallow transient high-nitrate flow paths while point and blanket measurements did not. Point sampling may be better suited to estimating aquifer discharge of nitrate, while reach mass-balance reflects full nitrate inputs into the channel (which at high flow may be more than aquifer discharge due to transient flow paths, and at low flow may be less than aquifer discharge due to channel-based nitrate removal). Modeling dissolved N2 from streambed samples suggested (1) about half of groundwater nitrate was denitrified prior to discharge from the aquifer, and (2) both extent of denitrification and initial nitrate concentration in groundwater (700–1300 mM) were related to land use, suggesting these forms of streambed sampling for groundwater can reveal watershed spatial relations relevant to nitrate contamination and fate in the aquifer

Complement protein C1q interacts with DC-SIGN via its globular domain, and thus may interfere with HIV-1 transmission

Dendritic Cells (DCs) are the most potent antigen presenting cells capable of priming naïve T cells. Its C-type lectin receptor, DC-SIGN, regulates a wide range of immune functions. Along with its role in HIV-1 pathogenesis through complement opsonization of the virus, DC-SIGN has recently emerged as an adaptor for complement protein C1q on the surface of immature DCs via a trimeric complex involving gC1qR, a receptor for the globular domain of C1q. Here, we have examined the nature of interaction between C1q and DC-SIGN in terms of domain localization, and implications of C1q-DC-SIGN-gC1qR complex formation on HIV-1 transmission. We first expressed and purified recombinant extracellular domains of DC-SIGN and its homologue SIGN-R as tetramers comprising of the entire extra cellular domain including the α-helical neck region, and monomers comprising of the carbohydrate recognition domain only. Direct binding studies revealed that both DC-SIGN and SIGN-R were able to bind independently to the recombinant globular head modules ghA, ghB and ghC, with ghB being the preferential binder. C1q appeared to interact with DC-SIGN or SIGN-R in a manner similar to IgG. Mutational analysis using single amino acid substitutions within the globular head modules showed that TyrB175 and LysB136 38 were critical for the C1q-DC-SIGN/SIGN-R interaction. Competitive studies revealed that gC1qR and ghB shared overlapping binding sites on DC-SIGN, implying that HIV- 1 transmission by DCs could be modulated due to the interplay of gC1qR-C1q with DC-SIGN. Since C1q, gC1qR and DC-SIGN can individually bind HIV-1, we examined how C1q and gC1qR modulated HIV-1-DC-SIGN interaction in an infection assay. Here, we report, for the first time, that C1q suppressed DC-SIGN-mediated transfer of HIV-1 to activated PBMCs, although the globular head modules did not. The protective effect of C1q was negated by the addition of gC1qR. In fact, gC1qR enhanced DC-SIGN-mediated HIV-1 transfer, suggesting its role in HIV-1 pathogenesis. Our results highlight the consequences of multiple innate immune pattern recognition molecules forming a complex that can modify their functions in a way which may be advantageous for the pathogen

Quantifying groundwater-surface water exchange: Development and testing of Shelby tubes and seepage blankets as discharge measurement and sample collection devices

Quantification of groundwater-surface water exchange and the role of hyporheic flow in this exchange is increasingly of interest to a wide range of disciplines (e.g., hydrogeology, geochemistry, biology, ecology). The most direct method to quantify groundwater-surface water exchange is a seepage meter, first developed in the 1940s. Widespread use of the traditional 1970s-era 55-gallon half-barrel seepage meter has shown that the method is subject to potential errors, particularly in flowing waters (e.g., streams, rivers, tidal zones). This study presents two new direct seepage measurement devices, the Shelby tube and the seepage blanket, designed to minimize potential measurement errors associated with flowing surface waters. The objective of the study is to develop and test the new methods by comparing results (specific discharge, hydraulic conductivity, and dissolved constituent concentration) to established methods. Results from both laboratory and field testing suggest that the new devices have utility in quantifying the water and dissolved constituent exchange between surface water and groundwater