The Purpose and Value for Students of PBL Groups for Learning

Groups are central to problem-based learning (PBL) and educational and professional outcomes relevant to clinical education. However, PBL groups in practice may differ from theoretical conceptions of groups. Therefore, this study explored students’ understandings of the purpose and value of PBL groups for their learning. We conducted a naturalistic study with novice (first-year) students at two dental schools (Australia, Ireland), using observation and interviews analyzed thematically. Students constructed PBL learning as individual knowledge gain, and group purpose as information gathering and exchange; few students acknowledged the learning potential of group processes. Group value depended on assessment and curriculum context. Findings are explained in relation to how students’ epistemologies and perceptions of their learning contexts shaped group behaviour. Implications for health professional education practice are considered

Another Piece of the “Silence in PBL” Puzzle: Students’ Explanations of Dominance and Quietness as Complementary Group Roles

A problem-based learning (PBL) assumption is that silence is incompatible with collaborative learning. Although sociocultural studies have reinterpreted silence as collaborative, we must understand how silence occurs in PBL groups. This essay presents students’ explanations of dominance, leadership, and silence as PBL group roles. An ethnographic investigation of PBL groups, informed by social constructionism, was conducted at two dental schools (in Australia and Ireland). The methods used were observation, interviews, and focus groups. The participants were volunteer first-year undergraduates. Students attributed dominance, silence, and members’ group roles to personal attributes. Consequently, they assumed that groups divided naturally into dominant leaders and silent followers. Sometimes silence had a collaborative learning function, but it was also due to social exclusion. This assumption enabled social practices that privileged some group members and marginalized others. Power and participation in decision making in PBL groups was restricted to dominant group members

Thermodynamic properties of sodium chloride

Measured values of the molar heat capacity of sodium chloride, depending on the temperature (293-673 K). According to the experimental curves Cp (T) by numerical integration to calculate the changes of thermodynamic functions: enthalpy, entropy, Gibbs energy

Sensitivity bond graphs

A sensitivity bond graph, of the same structure as the system bond graph, is shown to provide a simple and effective method of generating sensitivity functions of use in optimisation. The approach is illustrated in the context of partially known system parameter and state estimation

The Committee on Climate Change : A Policy Analysis

Domestic action on climate change is increasingly important in the light of the difficulties with international agreements and requires a combination of solutions, in terms of institutions and policy instruments. One way of achieving government carbon policy goals may be the creation of an independent body to advise, set or monitor policy. This paper critically assesses the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which was created in 2008 as an independent body to help move the UK towards a low carbon economy. We look at the motivation for its creation in terms of: information provision, advice, monitoring, or policy delegation. In particular we consider its ability to overcome a time inconsistency problem by comparing and contrasting it with another independent body, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. In practice the Committee on Climate Change appears to be the ‘inverse’ of the Monetary Policy Committee, in that it advises on what the policy goal should be rather than being responsible for achieving it. The CCC incorporates both advisory and monitoring functions to inform government and achieve a credible carbon policy over a long time frame. This is a similar framework to that adopted by Stern (2006), but the CCC operates on a continuing basis. We therefore believe the CCC is best viewed as a “Rolling Stern plus” body. There are also concerns as to how binding the budgets actually are and how the budgets interact with other energy policy goals and instruments, such as Renewable Obligation Contracts and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. The CCC could potentially be reformed to include: an explicit information provision role; consumption-based accounting of emissions and control of a policy instrument such as a balanced-budget carbon tax

Higher cost of finance exacerbates a climate investment trap in developing economies

Finance is vital for the green energy transition, but access to low cost finance is uneven as the cost of capital differs substantially between regions. This study shows how modelled decarbonisation pathways for developing economies are disproportionately impacted by different weighted average cost of capital (WACC) assumptions. For example, representing regionally-specific WACC values indicates 35% lower green electricity production in Africa for a cost-optimal 2 °C pathway than when regional considerations are ignored. Moreover, policy interventions lowering WACC values for low-carbon and high-carbon technologies by 2050 would allow Africa to reach net-zero emissions approximately 10 years earlier than when the cost of capital reduction is not considered. A climate investment trap arises for developing economies when climate-related investments remain chronically insufficient. Current finance frameworks present barriers to these finance flows and radical changes are needed so that capital is more equitably distributed

Scottish climate change policy : an overview

Despite much of energy policy being a reserved issue for the UK Government, Scotland has pursued its own distinctive energy policy (Allan et al, 2008a), particularly in relation to climate change. The Climate Change Act (Scotland) was passed in 2009 and outlines Scotland’s commitment to tackling climate change. It requires Scottish greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2050 to be 80% less than their 1990 levels, with an interim target of a 42% reduction by 2020. Climate change is an international problem which appears to require a global solution and it is therefore not clear that the appropriate spatial scale for policy action is the regional or even national level. The Scottish Government is aware of this, but claims that such emissions’ reduction targets can be used as a means of supporting the UK’s international commitments and also showing leadership to encourage other nations to tackle climate change. However, Scottish climate change policy must also be considered in the context of Scottish energy policy as a whole. The Scottish Government has other energy policy goals, notably security of supply, affordability and economic growth through the development of low carbon technologies, notably renewables. This paper is intended to provide a brief overview of the main issues involved in Scottish climate change policy. We give a brief background, in Section 2, on international, EU and UK climate change policy. In Section 3 we provide an overview of the main features of the Scottish Climate Change Act and highlight particular differences with the UK equivalent framework. In Section 4 we discuss the issues surrounding low carbon technologies and their impact on climate change policy in Scotland. We consider the policy instruments available to the Scottish Government while functioning within EU and UK frameworks in Section 5. In Section 6 we conclude and identify avenues for future research

Grain boundary migration: misorientation dependence

Abstract The ability of grain boundaries (GB) to move has been found to be strongly dependent on crystallography, i.e. misorientation of the adjacent grains and orientation (inclination) of the GB in a crystal. Boundary mobility is rate-controlling in recrystallization and grain growth and thus, affects microstructure evolution and texture formation. This paper deals with recent advances in our understanding of misorientation and inclination dependence of grain boundary migration. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. A most important peculiarity of grain boundaries is their capillary driven motion technique, in which a curved GB ability to move. This grain boundary (GB) property has moves under the action of GB curvature, and the driving been found to be strongly dependent on grain boundary force p is provided by the GB surface tension g. Since the crystallography, i.e. misorientation of the adjacent grains true value of g is commonly not known, a reduced GB and orientation (inclination) of the GB in a crystal. Boundary mobility is rate-controlling in recrystallization [m / s], i.e. the same as the diffusion coefficient. An and grain growth and thus, affects microstructure evolution inherent feature of GB mobility is that it depends, apart and texture formation. Recent achievements in our underfrom the conventional thermodynamic variables (temperastanding of misorientation and inclination dependence of ture, pressure, etc.), on the misorientation of the adjacent grain boundary migration constitute the subject of this grains and GB orientation. A precise measurement and paper. thus, examination of the misorientation dependence of GB The mobility m is a quantitative measure of the kinetic mobility was made possible by tracking techniques of GB b properties of a grain boundary and thus, the principal migration in bicrystals. The distinctive properties of such parameter of the process of GB migration. It is defined as techniques are: controlled driving force, continuous track-GB velocity v per unit of driving force p: ing of GB displacement, accuracy and reproducibility of GB crystallography [**1]. As a first milestone, from v ] m 5 measurements with these techniques materials scientists b p became aware that properties of GBs with different A driving force for GB migration arises when a boundary misorientation can be essentially different. In particular, it displacement leads to a reduction of the total energy of the was established that GB mobility and its parameters are system. It is necessary to stress that the system need not be changing in a non-motonic way with the angle of mislimited to adjacent grains and a GB only, but may include orientation. external elastic, electrical or magnetic fields as well. There For special misorientations (low-S boundaries) the are two ways by which this driving force arises. The first activation enthalpy H of GB migration assumes a minim uses the free energy of a GB itself, the other utilizes a free mum. An example is shown i