Change In Classroom Practice

Over the last ten years deliberate and determined efforts have been made to improve schooling. This book charts recent and current developments in the practical business of changing classroom practice to make schools more effective. It is devoted to detecting the effects on classroom practice of the efforts made to improve schools and classrooms, and to understanding how classroom practice changes. Contributors include advisory teachers, Higher Education HE tutors and researchers, and work described ranges from early years' classrooms to post-experience course outcomes and the tracking of Inservice education and training INSET effectiveness

Atria, Roof-space Solar Collectors and Windows for Low-energy New and Renovated Office Buildings: a Review

As part of achieving near zero energy office buildings, solar gains can be optimised by built form, internal layout and the position, type and area of windows. Those solar gains can then displace heating and lighting energy in most non- domestic buildings without overt engineered solar energy harnessing features. Such approaches have been adopted to successfully realise many low-energy buildings. This review discusses key parameters and the particular challenges in the design of atria, windows and roof-space solar air heaters to reduce energy and carbon emissions associated with heating and lighting in newly-built and renovated non-domestic buildings

Change In Classroom Practice

Over the last ten years deliberate and determined efforts have been made to improve schooling. This book charts recent and current developments in the practical business of changing classroom practice to make schools more effective. It is devoted to detecting the effects on classroom practice of the efforts made to improve schools and classrooms, and to understanding how classroom practice changes. Contributors include advisory teachers, Higher Education HE tutors and researchers, and work described ranges from early years' classrooms to post-experience course outcomes and the tracking of Inservice education and training INSET effectiveness

Tri-Design: Coordination between Healthcare, Design, and Regulatory Communities

This paper discusses the approaches undertaken by organizations, coordination between healthcare, design, and regulatory communities, to respond to the needs for the crisis and bring about models for agile innovation and of disease mitigation. The COVID-19 Design Innovation was born at the core of a major university to operate as a hub for innovation.  In an effort to connect designers, makers, and healthcare professionals, the initiative converged with the main motivation is to be organized in collective efforts with the crisis and deliver creative design innovations. Several products were brought about through the initiative efforts: off the shelf solutions and community driven, hybrid prototyping (reutilizing parts), distributed manufacturing, material investigations, and rapid prototyping for turning labs as manufacturing facilities. As solutions reached refinement, healthcare called for volume, solutions were brought to the community as a rapid response to the crisis. While challenges imposed by time and production, the crisis help coordinate efforts to be agile networks of stakeholders working towards a common goal, hacking the crisis by design

Yes, one-day international cricket 'in-play' trading strategies can be profitable!

In this study, we employ a Monte Carlo simulation technique for estimating the conditional probability of victory at any stage in the first or second innings of a one-day international (ODI) cricket match. This model is then used to test market efficiency in the Betfair 'in-play' market for large sample of ODI matches. We find strong evidence of overreaction in the first innings. A trading strategy of betting on the batting team after the fall of a wicket produces a significant profit of 20%. We also find some evidence of underreaction in the second innings although it is less economically and statistically significant than the first innings overreaction. We also implement trades when the discrepancy between the probability of victory implied by current market odds differs substantially from the odds estimated by our Monte Carlo simulation model. We document a number of trading strategies that yield large statistically significant positive returns in both the first and second innings

Health and equity in New Hampshire: 2013 report card

Analysis of key health disparities among New Hampshire\u27s minority populations

Race, Wealth, and Solid Waste Facilities in North Carolina

BackgroundConcern has been expressed in North Carolina that solid waste facilities may be disproportionately located in poor communities and in communities of color, that this represents an environmental injustice, and that solid waste facilities negatively impact the health of host communities.ObjectiveOur goal in this study was to conduct a statewide analysis of the location of solid waste facilities in relation to community race and wealth.MethodsWe used census block groups to obtain racial and economic characteristics, and information on solid waste facilities was abstracted from solid waste facility permit records. We used logistic regression to compute prevalence odds ratios for 2003, and Cox regression to compute hazard ratios of facilities issued permits between 1990 and 2003.ResultsThe adjusted prevalence odds of a solid waste facility was 2.8 times greater in block groups with ≥50% people of color compared with block groups with < 10% people of color, and 1.5 times greater in block groups with median house values < $60,000 compared with block groups with median house values ≥$100,000. Among block groups that did not have a previously permitted solid waste facility, the adjusted hazard of a new permitted facility was 2.7 times higher in block groups with ≥50% people of color compared with block groups with < 10% people of color.ConclusionSolid waste facilities present numerous public health concerns. In North Carolina solid waste facilities are disproportionately located in communities of color and low wealth. In the absence of action to promote environmental justice, the continued need for new facilities could exacerbate this environmental injustice

Genome wide association mapping of grain arsenic, copper, molybdenum and zinc in rice (Oryza sativa L.) grown at four international field sites

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Emergence of “Us and Them” in 80 Lines of Code: Modeling Group Genesis in Homogeneous Populations

Psychological explanations of group genesis often require population heterogeneity in identity or other characteristics, whether deep (e.g., religion) or superficial (e.g., eye color). We use game-theoretical agent-based models to explore group genesis in homogeneous populations, and find robust group formation with just two basic principles: reciprocity and transitivity. These emergent groups demonstrate in-group cooperation and out-group defection, even though agents lack common identity. Group formation increases individual payoffs, and group structure is robust to varying levels of reciprocity and transitivity. Increasing population size increases group size more than group number, and manipulating baseline trust in a population has predictable effects on group genesis. An interactive online demonstration enables first-hand exploration of the parameter space (www.mpmlab.org/groups), and available source code (supplementary materials) provides a guide to implementing psychological agent-based models

Genome Wide Association Mapping of Grain Arsenic, Copper, Molybdenum and Zinc in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Grown at Four International Field Sites

The mineral concentrations in cereals are important for human health, especially for individuals who consume a cereal subsistence diet. A number of elements, such as zinc, are required within the diet, while some elements are toxic to humans, for example arsenic. In this study we carry out genome-wide association (GWA) mapping of grain concentrations of arsenic, copper, molybdenum and zinc in brown rice using an established rice diversity panel of ~300 accessions and 36.9 k single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The study was performed across five environments: one field site in Bangladesh, one in China and two in the US, with one of the US sites repeated over two years. GWA mapping on the whole dataset and on separate subpopulations of rice revealed a large number of loci significantly associated with variation in grain arsenic, copper, molybdenum and zinc. Seventeen of these loci were detected in data obtained from grain cultivated in more than one field location, and six co-localise with previously identified quantitative trait loci. Additionally, a number of candidate genes for the uptake or transport of these elements were located near significantly associated SNPs (within 200 kb, the estimated global linkage disequilibrium previously employed in this rice panel). This analysis highlights a number of genomic regions and candidate genes for further analysis as well as the challenges faced when mapping environmentally- variable traits in a highly genetically structured diversity panel