The making of Lebanese foreign policy: The case of the 2006 Hizballah-Israeli war

This thesis assesses the relevance of Waltz and Wendt’s systemic theories of international relations for understanding Lebanon’s international political behaviour during the 2006 war. It tests the hypothesis that substate factors, especially identity, are more important than systemic factors for affecting the conditions against which states make foreign policy-decisions. Using data collected from interviews and the analysis of primary and secondary sources, it looks at the decisions made by the Lebanese government in the context of the 2006 war between Israel and Hizballah. It seeks to identify whether factors at the systemic, state or sub-state levels were the main influence on Lebanese foreign policy-making during this period. It concludes that sub-state identities were a crucial factor affecting Lebanon’s international political behaviour and foreign policy-making capacity because they fractured the state from below and compromised its ability to act like a united, rational and coherent security-maximising actor. As a result the state was unable to react to systemic structures in the way systemic theories of international relations assume. However, as the war progressed and Lebanon came under increasing threat from Israel, different internal groups united together and the state, temporarily, began to act like a rational, security maximising actor as Waltz and Wendt assume. This means that Waltz and Wendt’s theories of international relations are unable to fully account for the conditions affecting Lebanese foreign policy making during the initial stages of the war. This highlights the need for a more pluralistic approach to fully understand the conditions that affect the foreign policy-making of the Lebanese state

Doing child-protection social work with parents: what are the barriers in practice?

For many social workers, participatory practice may seem an unachievable goal, particularly in the field of child protection. In this paper, we discuss a significant programme of change in one London local authority, as part of which we undertook 110 observations of practice and provided more than eighty follow-up coaching sessions for workers. Through these observations, we saw many examples of key participatory practice skills such as empathy, collaboration and involvement in decision making. We also saw many examples of reducing autonomy and excluding parents from decision making. Often, we found the same worker would adopt a participatory approach with one family and a non-participatory approach with another. Through coaching sessions, we explored how and why workers used different approaches and discussed the barriers to adopting a more consistently participatory approach. These discussions led us to reflect on fundamental questions relating to the purpose of child-protection social work, how social workers can best help families and what the limits might be of participation in situations of high risk. We argue that truly participatory child-protection social work requires not simply better training or different tools, but an innovation in the value base of children’s services

L’histoire, l’endroit et le moment : le déclenchement de la British Invasion

Après une année ponctuée de succès retentissants au Royaume-Uni, les Beatles connurent, en 1964, un succès encore plus considérable aux États-Unis. Non seulement les ventes de leurs disques et leur popularité atteignirent des niveaux sans précédent, mais encore, l’acceptation du groupe par le public américain marqua le début de ce que l’on appelle aujourd’hui la British Invasion, des vagues d’artistes britanniques leur emboîtant le pas pour se lancer à la conquête du marché américain. Si l’accès des Beatles à une renommée internationale a été largement documenté, peu d’auteurs se sont intéressés aux circonstances de l’engagement de trois semaines qu’ils ont honoré en France en janvier 1964. En effet, quand les Beatles arrivèrent à Paris pour se produire à l’Olympia, ils n’étaient guère connus en dehors du Royaume-Uni. Quand ils quittèrent la ville, trois semaines plus tard, ils avaient amorcé la conquête de l’Amérique (et du reste du monde) qui allait bouleverser le cours des musiques populaires pour les décennies à venir. Dans cet article, nous cherchons à comprendre en quoi cet épisode parisien peut être considéré comme une étape essentielle dans l’évolution des Beatles, mais aussi dans le basculement qui allait s’ensuivre en termes du jeu imprévu des influences musicales entre les États-Unis et le Royaume-Uni.After a year of spectacular musical achievements in Britain through 1963, the Beatles enjoyed even greater success across the US in the following year. Not only were their record sales and personal popularity there unprecedented, but the group’s acceptance by US audiences signalled the beginnings of what became known as the British Invasion, as waves of performers followed in their footsteps to dominate the lucrative American market over the next few years. Although the Beatles’ transition from domestic to international fame has been well documented, little attention has been paid to the circumstances of the group’s three-weeks engagement in France in January 1964. When the Beatles arrived in Paris to appear at the Olympia Theatre they were little known outside Britain. When they left the city, three weeks later, they had begun a triumphant conquest of America (and the world) that would substantially shift the trajectory of popular music for decades to come. In this paper, we argue that the role of Paris in this process was not incidental, but that it provided a crucial bridging point in the evolution of the Beatles, and in an unforeseen shift of musical influence

L’histoire, l’endroit et le moment : le déclenchement de la British Invasion

Après une année ponctuée de succès retentissants au Royaume-Uni, les Beatles connurent, en 1964, un succès encore plus considérable aux États-Unis. Non seulement les ventes de leurs disques et leur popularité atteignirent des niveaux sans précédent, mais encore, l’acceptation du groupe par le public américain marqua le début de ce que l’on appelle aujourd’hui la British Invasion, des vagues d’artistes britanniques leur emboîtant le pas pour se lancer à la conquête du marché américain. Si l’accès des Beatles à une renommée internationale a été largement documenté, peu d’auteurs se sont intéressés aux circonstances de l’engagement de trois semaines qu’ils ont honoré en France en janvier 1964. En effet, quand les Beatles arrivèrent à Paris pour se produire à l’Olympia, ils n’étaient guère connus en dehors du Royaume-Uni. Quand ils quittèrent la ville, trois semaines plus tard, ils avaient amorcé la conquête de l’Amérique (et du reste du monde) qui allait bouleverser le cours des musiques populaires pour les décennies à venir. Dans cet article, nous cherchons à comprendre en quoi cet épisode parisien peut être considéré comme une étape essentielle dans l’évolution des Beatles, mais aussi dans le basculement qui allait s’ensuivre en termes du jeu imprévu des influences musicales entre les États-Unis et le Royaume-Uni.After a year of spectacular musical achievements in Britain through 1963, the Beatles enjoyed even greater success across the US in the following year. Not only were their record sales and personal popularity there unprecedented, but the group’s acceptance by US audiences signalled the beginnings of what became known as the British Invasion, as waves of performers followed in their footsteps to dominate the lucrative American market over the next few years. Although the Beatles’ transition from domestic to international fame has been well documented, little attention has been paid to the circumstances of the group’s three-weeks engagement in France in January 1964. When the Beatles arrived in Paris to appear at the Olympia Theatre they were little known outside Britain. When they left the city, three weeks later, they had begun a triumphant conquest of America (and the world) that would substantially shift the trajectory of popular music for decades to come. In this paper, we argue that the role of Paris in this process was not incidental, but that it provided a crucial bridging point in the evolution of the Beatles, and in an unforeseen shift of musical influence

What is supervision? The views of child and family social workers and supervisors in England

The importance of supervision is largely taken for granted within social work. Yet it can often seem as if policy-based descriptions of what supervision ‘should be’ are disconnected from the realities of practice. In this study, we sought to understand the perspectives of social workers and supervisors about what supervision is and what it is for. Interviews were undertaken with social workers (n = 56) and supervisors (n = 10) in one authority in England between September 2018 and March 2019. We identified three functions of supervision – accountability, emotional support and providing a different perspective. Supervisors were expected to be constantly available for their staff yet had insufficient time to engage in what they considered to be reflective discussions. Supervision was considered to be primarily a mechanism for worker accountability, with support and education being much more ad-hoc functions. These findings suggest that while workers are not wholly negative about case management approaches to supervision, there is a pressing need to define reflection more clearly and articulate what it looks like in practice and how else, if not via supervision, it can be enabled within statutory services for children and families

A COMPARISON OF ADMINISTRATORS’ AND TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS

The need for teachers and administrators to select and use appropriate and effective technologies to support instruction is critical for the academic and social success of students. The purpose of the study was to document and compare administrators’ and teachers’ perceptions related to National Technology Standards (NETS). The research was intended to assist district level leaders in making informed decisions to identify plausible professional development (PD) training needs of school administrators and teachers. The mixed-method study was conducted in a large school district in the southeastern region of the United States. Participants included elementary and middle public school administrators and teachers. Survey and interview data depict both groups view pedagogical practices of high importance. Despite the fact that results of the online survey reveal both groups engaged in PD, results from the semi-structured interview depict an ongoing need for purposeful selection of technology training opportunities. Advances in technology are constant and to provide engaging learning environments for all students professional development grounded in research is essential for both administrators and teachers to influence leadership and classroom practices

First Light And Reionisation Epoch Simulations (FLARES) XIII: the Lyman-continuum emission of high-redshift galaxies

The history of reionisation is highly dependent on the ionising properties of high-redshift galaxies. It is therefore important to have a solid understanding of how the ionising properties of galaxies are linked to physical and observable quantities. In this paper, we use the First Light and Reionisation Epoch Simulations (FLARES) to study the Lyman-continuum (LyC, i.e. hydrogen-ionising) emission of massive ($M_*>10^8\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$) galaxies at redshifts $z=5-10$. We find that the specific ionising emissivity (i.e. intrinsic ionising emissivity per unit stellar mass) decreases as stellar mass increases, due to the combined effects of increasing age and metallicity. FLARES predicts a median ionising photon production efficiency (i.e. intrinsic ionising emissivity per unit intrinsic far-UV luminosity) of $\log_{10}(\xi_{\rm ion}\rm{/erg^{-1}Hz})=25.40^{+0.16}_{-0.17}$, with values spanning the range $\log_{10}(\xi_{\rm ion}\rm{/erg^{-1}Hz})=25-25.75$. This is within the range of many observational estimates, but below some of the extremes observed. We compare the production efficiency with observable properties, and find a weak negative correlation with the UV-continuum slope, and a positive correlation with the OIII equivalent width. We also consider the dust-attenuated production efficiency (i.e. intrinsic ionising emissivity per unit dust-attenuated far-UV luminosity), and find a median of $\log_{10}(\xi_{\rm ion}\rm{/erg^{-1}Hz})\sim25.5$. Within our sample of $M_*>10^8\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$ galaxies, it is the stellar populations in low mass galaxies that contribute the most to the total ionising emissivity. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) emission accounts for $10-20$ % of the total emissivity at a given redshift, and extends the LyC luminosity function by $\sim0.5$ dex.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, submitted to MNRA

Revisiting Date and Party Hubs: Novel Approaches to Role Assignment in Protein Interaction Networks

The idea of 'date' and 'party' hubs has been influential in the study of protein-protein interaction networks. Date hubs display low co-expression with their partners, whilst party hubs have high co-expression. It was proposed that party hubs are local coordinators whereas date hubs are global connectors. Here we show that the reported importance of date hubs to network connectivity can in fact be attributed to a tiny subset of them. Crucially, these few, extremely central, hubs do not display particularly low expression correlation, undermining the idea of a link between this quantity and hub function. The date/party distinction was originally motivated by an approximately bimodal distribution of hub co-expression; we show that this feature is not always robust to methodological changes. Additionally, topological properties of hubs do not in general correlate with co-expression. Thus, we suggest that a date/party dichotomy is not meaningful and it might be more useful to conceive of roles for protein-protein interactions rather than individual proteins. We find significant correlations between interaction centrality and the functional similarity of the interacting proteins.Comment: 27 pages, 5 main figures, 4 supplementary figure