Peer Editing as Learning Tool

Structured peer editing of student writing provides a valuable tool for teaching writing concepts and skills. This write-up describes a detailed process for teaching and using peer editing in a journalism class. The goal of the peer editing is to help students understand and apply concepts and skills used to craft engaging and informative news stories, and to develop skills providing and receiving feedback about writing

Managing alcohol-related attendances in emergency care: can diversion to bespoke services lessen the burden?

Acute alcohol intoxication (AAI) has a long history of burdening emergency care services. Healthcare systems around the world have explored a variety of different services that divert AAI away from EDs to better manage their condition. Little formal evaluation has been undertaken, particularly in the UK where alcohol misuse is one of the highest in the world. In this article, we outline a brief history of diversionary services, introduce the concept of Alcohol Intoxication Management Services (AIMS) and describe examples of AIMS in the UK. We then describe Evaluating the Diversion of Alcohol-Related Attendances, a natural experiment including six cities with AIMS compared with six cities without, that involves an ethnographic study, records patient experiences in both AIMS and EDs, assesses impact on key performance indicators in healthcare and evaluates the cost-effectiveness of AIMS

States of citizenship: contexts and cultures of public engagement and citizen action

Drawing on case studies from the Citizenship Development Research Centre, this paper contends that mechanisms aimed at enhancing citizen engagement need to be contextualised in the states of citizenship in which they are applied. It calls for more attention to be focused on understanding trajectories of citizenship experience and practice in particular kinds of states. It suggests that whilst efforts have been made by donors to get to grips with history and context – such as DFID’s Drivers of Change analyses or Sida’s Power Studies – less attention has been given to exploring the implications of the dissonance between the normative dimensions of global narratives of participation and accountability, and the lived experience of civic engagement and the empirical realities of ‘civil society’ in diverse kinds of states. By exploring instantiations of citizenship in different kinds of states, the paper reflects on what citizen engagement comes to imply in these contexts. In doing so, it draws attention to the diverse ways in which particular subject-positions and forms of identification are articulated in the pursuit of concrete social and political projects

Planetary heat flow from shallow subsurface measurements: Mars

Planetary heat flow probes measure heat flow (depth-resolved temperature and thermal conductivity) to provide insight into the internal state of a planet. The probes have been utilized extensively on Earth, twice on the Moon, and once on the Surface of comet 67P-CG. Mars is an important target for heat flow measurement as heat flow is a critical parameter in Martian thermal history models. Earlier studies indicate that Martian planetary heat flow can be accessed at 5 m below the surface in dry regolith monitored over at least one Martian year. A one Martian year monitoring period is necessary because, in the shallow subsurface, heat flow from the interior is superposed with time varying heat flow contributions, primarily due to insolation. Given that a heat flow probe may not achieve its target depth or monitoring period, this study investigates how the depth (2–5 m), duration (0–1 Martian year) and quality of measurements influence the accuracy of planetary heat flow. An inverse model is used to show that, in the preceding scenarios, the accuracy of planetary heat flow directly estimated from depth-dependent thermal conductivity with 10–20% precision errors, temperatures with 50–100 mK precision errors and modelling uncertainties up to 500 mK, can, on average, be improved by a factor of 27 with optimization to 13%. Accuracies increase with sensor penetration depth and regolith monitoring period. Heat flow optimized from instantaneous measurements or those with the shortest regolith monitoring periods have increased accuracy where the frequency and amplitude of the temperature variation are lowest. The inverse model is based on the Function Specification Inversion method. This study demonstrates that a solution subspace can be identified within a space of uncertainties modelled for the temperature measurements and planetary heat flow: the subspace is defined by a constant log-ratio of their respective standard deviations. Optimized heat flow estimates display reduced correlation with increasing temperature precision and systematic conductivity errors, with the constraint of other known model parameters. Consequently, the model permits upper bounds to be placed on the conductivity estimate without conductivity optimization, as heat flows are optimized to a limiting value with increasing systematic conductivity errors for any given parameter set. Overall, the results demonstrate a 52% chance of achieving a direct heat flow estimate accurate to within 40%, with the same being 82% after optimization

Reliability and normative values for the foot mobility magnitude: a composite measure of vertical and medial-lateral mobility of the midfoot

Background: A study was conducted to determine the reliability and minimal detectable change for a new composite measure of the vertical and medial-lateral mobility of the midfoot called the foot mobility magnitude

Analysis of Δ+(1232)\Delta^{+}(1232) Isobar Observables, with Improved Quark Distribution Amplitudes

A model distribution amplitude for the $\Delta^{+}(1232)$ isobar is proposed, derived on the basis of the QCD sum-rule calculations of Farrar et al. combined with those of Carlson and Poor. The transition form factor $\gamma p\Delta^{+}$ is calculated modeling the proton by selected distribution amplitudes. Furthermore, predictions are made for some exclusive charmonium decays into $\Delta\bar{\Delta}$. The obtained results are compared with other theoretical models and with the available data.Comment: 15 pages, RUB-TPII-22/92 Preprin

So what difference does it make? Mapping the outcomes of citizen engagement

Over the last two decades, the idea that citizen engagement and participation can contribute to improved governance and development outcomes has been mainstreamed in development policy and discourse. Yet despite the normative beliefs that underpin this approach, the impact of participation on improved democratic and developmental outcomes has proved difficult to assess. Where previous research studies have attempted to demonstrate impact, they tend to be limited to single interventions, a small number of country contexts or by various conceptual and methodological constraints. In this paper, we report on a meta-case study analysis of a ten-year research programme on citizenship, participation and accountability which analysed a nonrandomised sample of 100 research studies of four types of citizen engagement in 20 countries. By mapping the observable effects of citizen participation through a close reading of these studies, we created a typology of four democratic and developmental outcomes, including (a) the construction of citizenship, (b) the strengthening of practices of participation, (c) the strengthening of responsive and accountable states, and (d) the development of inclusive and cohesive societies. We find that citizen participation produces positive effects across these outcome types, though in each category there are also examples of negative outcomes of citizen participation. We also find that these outcomes vary according to the type of citizen engagement and to political context. These findings have important implications for the design of and support for participatory programmes meant to improve state responsiveness and effectiveness

Between Governance-Driven Democratisation and Democracy-Driven Governance: explaining changes in Participatory Governance in the Case of Barcelona

Scholars of participatory democracy have long noted dynamic interactions and transformations within and between political spaces that can foster (de)democratisation. At the heart of this dynamism lie (a) the processes through which top‐down “closed” spaces can create opportunities for rupture and democratic challenges and (b) vice‐versa, the mechanisms through which bottom‐up, open spaces can be co‐opted through institutionalisation. This paper seeks to unpick dynamic interactions between different spaces of participation by looking specifically at two forms of participatory governance, or participatory forms of political decision making used to improve the quality of democracy. First, Mark Warren's concept of ‘governance‐driven democratization’ describes top‐down and technocratic participatory governance aiming to produce better policies in response to bureaucratic rationales. Second, we introduce a new concept, democracy‐driven governance, to refer to efforts by social movements to invent new, and reclaim and transform existing, spaces of participatory governance and shape them to respond to citizens’ demands. The paper defines these concepts and argues that they co‐exist and interact in dynamic fashion; it draws on an analysis of case study literature on participatory governance in Barcelona to illuminate this relationship. Finally, the paper relates the theoretical framework to the case study by making propositions as to the structural and agential drivers of shifts in participatory governance