E-maturity and school performance: a secondary analysis of COL evaluation data. Analysis report.

This publication focuses on a secondary analysis of the Curriculum Online evaluation data to examine the relationships between school performance, e-maturity and pupil attainment in both primary and secondary schools

Risky behaviour and social activities

The aim of the study was to explore whether risky behaviour is reinforced or counterbalanced by various types of social and individual activities and the impacts on educational outcomes at age 16. The analysis is based on four waves of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England together with National Pupil Database data. The data did not allow identification of the type of ‘structured and supervised’ positive activities promoted by policy to reduce risky behaviour and therefore could not (and was not intended to) test the effectiveness of this policy focus.Andreas Cebulla and Wojtek Tomaszewsk

Towards distributed reasoning for behavioral optimization

We propose an architecture which supports the behavioral self-optimization of complex systems. In this architecture we bring together specification-based reasoning and the framework of ant colony optimization (ACO). By this we provide a foundation for distributed reasoning about different properties of the solution space represented by different viewpoint specifications. As a side-effect of reasoning we propagate the information about promising areas in the solution space to the current state. Consequently the system’s decisions can be improved by considering the long term values of certain behavioral trajectories (given a certain situational horizon). We consider this feature to be a contribution to autonomic computing1st IFIP International Conference on Biologically Inspired Cooperative Computing - Biological Inspiration 1Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Towards distributed reasoning for behavioral optimization

We propose an architecture which supports the behavioral self-optimization of complex systems. In this architecture we bring together specification-based reasoning and the framework of ant colony optimization (ACO). By this we provide a foundation for distributed reasoning about different properties of the solution space represented by different viewpoint specifications. As a side-effect of reasoning we propagate the information about promising areas in the solution space to the current state. Consequently the system’s decisions can be improved by considering the long term values of certain behavioral trajectories (given a certain situational horizon). We consider this feature to be a contribution to autonomic computing1st IFIP International Conference on Biologically Inspired Cooperative Computing - Biological Inspiration 1Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Responses to an Ageing Workforce: Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom

Background: An ageing workforce is a challenge for businesses that are increasingly expected to adapt workplaces to enable employees to remain in work longer. Emerging evidence highlights employer practices to attract or retain older workers. This paper explores employers’ motivations for introducing measures to accommodate an older workforce in three European case study countries. Objectives: The objective is to illustrate and understand different approaches to, and stages in, adjusting workplaces to accommodate an ageing workforce. Methods/Approach: The study combines case studies, including site visits and interviews, with expert consultations. Results: The research finds marked between-country differences, with United Kingdom case studies highlighting a strong emphasis on age-neutral practices shaped by legislation; age-confident practices in Germany resulting from collaborative arrangement between employers and trades unions (with legislation permissive towards age discrimination); business in Spain remaining relatively inactive, despite evidence of people expecting to work longer in life. Conclusions: Diverging employer motivations and responses to the challenge of an ageing workforce risk a multi-speed Europe in age-confident workplace innovation. A concerted effort that draws on the multiple factors that motivate initiative would be required to achieve good working conditions for older workers across Europe

Selbsthilfeorganisationen und -gruppen in der Verhaltensmedizin: Übersicht und Beschreibung

Background: Over the past years self-help organizations have become an essential part of prevention and rehabilitation in German health care. It was the aim of our enquiry to inform experts and interested persons about the most important self-help organizations (SHO) and self-help groups (SHG) of different fields in behavioral medicine. Methods: 70 SHO and SHG of different fields in behavioral medicine were selected dealing with allergy and asthma, congenital disorders, relatives of patients with psychic disorders, anxiety disorders, chronic pain disorders, eating disorders, diseases of the musculoskeletal system, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and incontinence, skin diseases, hearing and speech disorders, life crises, disorders pertaining to the nervous system, personality disorders and psychic problems, abuse, or obsessive-compulsive disorders. The selected SHO and SHG received a structured questionnaire including questions regarding (1) address, (2) means of contact, (3) group of interest, (4) tasks and aims, (5) provision, (6) structure of organizations, and (7) comments. Results: 90% of SHO replied, 56 SHO sent back the questionnaire completely answered, 5 institutions sent material of information instead, and 30 included both questionnaire and information material. The data clearly show the extensive support SHO might offer to sufferers. Conclusions: This report provides an informative overview of SHO. It might help to support the already existing cooperation between experts and SHO in this field

Perceptions of labour market risks: shifts and continuities across generations

In the risk society thesis, most notably forwarded by Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens, the labour market plays a key role in individualization processes. While for previous generations, family and personal networks, and also government institutions, were important in providing access to and mobility within the labour market, cohorts entering the labour market since the 1970s and onwards are perceived to be living in a modern 'risk regime', requiring each individual to make choices and decisions in relation to a market that no longer accommodates employment based on kinship and friendship. Based on data from 58 qualitative interviews with parents and their adult children, this article examines more closely these purported changes. The study's main observation is that important changes towards increased perceived individualization have taken place from one generation to the next. While affirming the disjuncture posited by Beck between a 'collectivized past' and an 'individualized present', this study's empirical evidence from two generations of individuals indicates that the disjuncture is muddier and more complex than previously understood. © The Author(s) 2011

Public perceptions of the police: effects of police investigation and police resources

Since the 1980s, successive UK governments have sought to increase efficiency in, and effectiveness of, policing through what has been described as “cycles of reform” (Reiner, 2000, p. 204). The reforms typically involved exerting greater central control over regional police forces. Many of the early initiatives met with resistance from within the police and, as a result, were not fully implemented (McLaughlin and Murji, 1995). By the late 1990s and early 2000s, however, more effective and direct control over police performance was finally established. This took the form of a centralisation of police management, which resulted in the introduction of more uniform measures of monitoring police performance, including the regular recording of crime and crime detection rates among police forces. Performance targets were set and the public’s satisfaction with the work of the police in their local area became one of several performance indicators. Performance targets and measures to generate greater cost efficiency in service provision, however, can have unexpected, sometimes perverse side effects. Two of these are focus of this paper. First, it explores how shifts in the police’s focus on specific types of crime in response to the introduction of performance targets affected the public’s reporting of crime. Second, it asks whether, in the light of efforts to achieve efficiency savings in the police, public spending on police forces has had any bearing on the public’s perception of the quality of local policing