What is the impact of better play training on trainees’ ability to; provide and facilitate better play experiences, understand and respond to the behaviour of the child and be aware of their own responses and reactions?

The study introduces the ‘Better Play Training’ programme and describes how an evaluation of the programme is carried out with a group of staff working in a variety of education settings. The evaluation of the programme is presented, demonstrating the impact on the personal and professional development of the trainees. The training considers the latest research and literature on the neuroscience of attachment and play, as well as considering the burgeoning interest in the dynamics of relationships in the classroom, and the impact of those dynamics on learning and emotional well-being. The study looked at three main areas, the impact of the training on the trainees’ ability to provide and facilitate better play experiences; understand and respond to the behaviour of the child; and be aware of their own responses and reactions. Trainees perceptions of the impact of the training are presented through quantitative responses to a ‘before and after’ questionnaire, while qualitative feedback from open-ended questioning adds considerably to the understanding of the training’s outcomes for participants. The training is set in context of current practice and implications for development and further study are considered. The results of the trainees’ responses to the evaluations are presented. The graphs representing the collated information illustrate increases in all three areas the study considered. Additional comments on the training experience are also included, providing further evidence of the benefits gained. The findings indicate that the programme is a valuable training tool for developing skills and understanding and, crucially, increasing self-awareness in staff

Some metric properties of spaces of stability conditions

We show that, under mild conditions, the space of numerical Bridgeland stability conditions Stab(T) on a triangulated category T is complete. In particular the metric on a full component of Stab(T) for which the central charges factor through a finite rank quotient of the Grothendieck group K(T) is complete. As an example, we compute the metric on the space of numerical stability conditions on a smooth complex projective curve of genus greater than one, and show that in this case the quotient Stab(T)/C by the natural action of the complex numbers is isometric to the upper half plane equipped with half the hyperbolic metric. We also make two observations about the way in which the heart changes as we move through the space of stability conditions. Firstly, hearts of stability conditions in the same component of the space of stability conditions are related by finite sequences of tilts. Secondly, if each of a convergent sequence of stability conditions has the same heart then the heart of the limiting stability condition is obtained from this by a right tilt.Comment: 10 page

Biochar as a Soil Amendment: A Review of the Environmental Implications

The term 'biochar' refers to black carbon formed by the pyrolysis of biomass i.e. by heating biomass in an oxygen-free or low oxygen environment such that it does not (or only partially) combusts. Traditional charcoal is one example of biochar produced from wood. The term 'biochar' is much broader than this however, encompassing black carbon produced from any biomass feedstock. The use of biochar as a soil additive has been proposed as a means to simultaneously mitigate anthropogenic climate change whilst improving agricultural soil fertility. This paper provides a review of what is known about both of these claims and also about the wider environmental implications of the adoption of this process. The intention of this review is not just to summarise current knowledge of the subject, but also to identify gaps in knowledge that require further research

Witt groups of sheaves on topological spaces

This paper investigates the Witt groups of triangulated categories of sheaves (of modules over a ring R in which 2 is invertible) equipped with Poincare-Verdier duality. We consider two main cases, that of perfect complexes of sheaves on locally compact Hausdorff spaces and that of cohomologically constructible complexes of sheaves on polyhedra. We show that the Witt groups of the latter form a generalised homology theory for polyhedra and continuous maps. Under certain restrictions on the ring R, we identify the constructible Witt groups of a finite simplicial complex with Ranicki's free symmetric L-groups. Witt spaces are the natural class of spaces for which the rational intersection homology groups have Poincare duality. When the ring R is the rationals we show that every Witt space has a natural L-theory, or Witt, orientation and we identify the constructible Witt groups with the 4-periodic colimit of the bordism groups of Witt spaces. This allows us to interpret Goresky and Macpherson's L-classes of singular spaces as stable homology operations from the constructible Witt groups to rational homology.Comment: 38 pages, reformatted, minor corrections and changes as suggested by referee. To appear in Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici no. 8