Children's Well-being in Contexts of Poverty: Approaches to Research, Monitoring and Participation

Monitoring, protecting and promoting 'well-being' are central to realisation of children's rights. Yet definitions of the concept are both variable and can appear conceptually confused. Competing research paradigms engage with the concept and its measurement, while applications of well-being in policy are equally contested. This paper outlines some of the major debates, as a starting point for reviewing three contrasting approaches to well-being: indicator-based, participatory and longitudinal research. In particular, it focuses on applications of the concept in contexts of child poverty worldwide. We suggest there are some promising signs of integration amongst these approaches, and argue that well-being does have potential as a bridging concept, at the same time highlighting inequalities, acknowledging diversities, and respecting children's agency

A forward solution for RF impedance tomography in wood

Both integral equation and differential equation methods enable modelling current and hence impedance of wood, to provide the forward solution for impedance tomography that in turn provides a measure of its internal moisture distribution. Previously, we have used a series impedance model and successfully demonstrated measurement of internal moisture distribution. Here we describe the adaptation of our integral equation method for this application. This has required an alternative calculation to model the impressed field from the segmented electrodes used in the measurements to date, and we demonstrate distortion of the anomalous field due to the presence of a wood dielectric, and the field magnitude. Further work will be required to translate the resulting field distribution from our model, to complex current and hence impedance readings, to allow completion of tomographic reconstruction using this approach

An Investigation into Collaboration and Knowledge Management during Product Development in the Aerospace and Defence Industry

Organisations need to overcome a number of challenges, including improving knowledge management, to ensure competitiveness in today’s global business environment. Product development and engineering design decisions are typically based on the knowledge available within enterprises. An ability to quickly discover and capture this knowledge and communicate with colleagues is required to enable effective outputs. An in-depth industry investigation, conducted within a leading manufacturing organisation in the Aerospace and Defence Industry (ADI), confirmed that knowledge management is only average. Employees would welcome the introduction of new technology to improve knowledge sharing and feel competent to use Web 2.0 and social media technologies. Based on the investigation, an interactive groupware prototype employing collaborative Web 2.0 technologies has been proposed. The prototype will be introduced as a case study to engineers within the collaborating company during product development projects with benefits in productivity and collaborative practices being assessed

The visual word form system in context

According to the “modular” hypothesis, reading is a serial feedforward process, with part of left ventral occipitotemporal cortex the earliest component tuned to familiar orthographic stimuli. Beyond this region, the model predicts no response to arrays of false font in reading-related neural pathways. An alternative “connectionist” hypothesis proposes that reading depends on interactions between feedforward projections from visual cortex and feedback projections from phonological and semantic systems, with no visual component exclusive to orthographic stimuli. This is compatible with automatic processing of false font throughout visual and heteromodal sensory pathways that support reading, in which responses to words may be greater than, but not exclusive of, responses to false font. This functional imaging study investigated these alternative hypotheses by using narrative texts and equivalent arrays of false font and varying the hemifield of presentation using rapid serial visual presentation. The “null” baseline comprised a decision on visually presented numbers. Preferential activity for narratives relative to false font, insensitive to hemifield of presentation, was distributed along the ventral left temporal lobe and along the extent of both superior temporal sulci. Throughout this system, activity during the false font conditions was significantly greater than during the number task, with activity specific to the number task confined to the intraparietal sulci. Therefore, both words and false font are extensively processed along the same temporal neocortical pathways, separate from the more dorsal pathways that process numbers. These results are incompatible with a serial, feedforward model of reading

High pressure polymorphism of ?-TaON

The high pressure behavior of TaON was studied using a combination of Raman scattering, synchrotron X-ray diffraction, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy in diamond anvil cells to 70 GPa at ambient temperature. A Birch–Murnaghan equation of state fit for baddeleyite structured ?-TaON indicates a high bulk modulus value Ko = 328 ± 4 GPa with K?o = 4.3. EXAFS analysis of the high pressure XAS data provides additional information on changes in the Ta–(O,N) and Ta–Ta distances. Changes in the X-ray diffraction patterns and Raman spectra indicate onset of a pressure induced phase transition near 33 GPa. Our analysis indicates that the new phase has an orthorhombic cotunnite-type structure but that the phase transition may not be complete even by 70 GPa. Similar sluggish transformation kinetics are observed for the isostructural ZrO2 phase. Analysis of compressibility data for the new cotunnite-type TaON phase indicate a very high bulk modulus Ko 370 GPa, close to the theoretically predicted value.<br/

Evolution of precipitates, in particular cruciform and cuboid particles, during simulated direct charging of thin slab cast vanadium microalloyed steels

A study has been undertaken of four vanadium based steels which have been processed by a simulated direct charging route using processing parameters typical of thin slab casting, where the cast product has a thickness of 50 to 80mm ( in this study 50 mm) and is fed directly to a furnace to equalise the microstructure prior to rolling. In the direct charging process, cooling rates are faster, equalisation times shorter and the amount of deformation introduced during rolling less than in conventional practice. Samples in this study were quenched after casting, after equalisation, after 4th rolling pass and after coiling, to follow the evolution of microstructure. The mechanical and toughness properties and the microstructural features might be expected to differ from equivalent steels, which have undergone conventional processing. The four low carbon steels (~0.06wt%) which were studied contained 0.1wt%V (V-N), 0.1wt%V and 0.010wt%Ti (V-Ti), 0.1wt%V and 0.03wt%Nb (V-Nb), and 0.1wt%V, 0.03wt%Nb and 0.007wt%Ti (V-Nb-Ti). Steels V-N and V-Ti contained around 0.02wt% N, while the other two contained about 0.01wt%N. The as-cast steels were heated at three equalising temperatures of 1050C, 1100C or 1200C and held for 30-60 minutes prior to rolling. Optical microscopy and analytical electron microscopy, including parallel electron energy loss spectroscopy (PEELS), were used to characterise the precipitates. In the as-cast condition, dendrites and plates were found. Cuboid particles were seen at this stage in Steel V-Ti, but they appeared only in the other steels after equalization. In addition, in the final product of all the steels, fine particles were seen, but it was only in the two titanium steels that cruciform precipitates were present. PEELS analysis showed that the dendrites, plates, cuboids, cruciforms and fine precipitates were essentially nitrides. The two Ti steels had better toughness than the other steels but inferior lower yield stress values. This was thought to be, in part, due to the formation of cruciform precipitates in austenite, thereby removing nitrogen and the microalloying elements which would have been expected to precipitate in ferrite as dispersion hardening particles

Judging the impact of leadership-development activities on school practice

The nature and effectiveness of professional-development activities should be judged in a way that takes account of both the achievement of intended outcomes and the unintended consequences that may result. Our research project set out to create a robust approach that school staff members could use to assess the impact of professional-development programs on leadership and management practice without being constrained in this judgment by the stated aims of the program. In the process, we identified a number of factors and requirements relevant to a wider audience than that concerned with the development of leadership and management in England. Such an assessment has to rest upon a clear understanding of educational leadership,a clearly articulated model of practice, and a clear model of potential forms of impact. Such foundations, suitably adapted to the subject being addressed, are appropriate for assessing all teacher professional development

Intelligence within BAOR and NATO's Northern Army Group

During the Cold War the UK's principal military role was its commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) through the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), together with wartime command of NATO's Northern Army Group. The possibility of a surprise attack by the numerically superior Warsaw Pact forces ensured that great importance was attached to intelligence, warning and rapid mobilisation. As yet we know very little about the intelligence dimension of BAOR and its interface with NATO allies. This article attempts to address these neglected issues, ending with the impact of the 1973 Yom Kippur War upon NATO thinking about warning and surprise in the mid-1970s. It concludes that the arrangements made by Whitehall for support to BAOR from national assets during crisis or transition to war were - at best - improbable. Accordingly, over the years, BAOR developed its own unique assets in the realm of both intelligence collection and special operations in order to prepare for the possible outbreak of conflict