Walking the path of desire: evaluating a blended learningapproach to developing study skills in a multi-disciplinarygroup

This case study describes the methods used to evaluate a series of study skills workshops and online learning materials created for a cohort of foundation degree arts and humanities students. The workshops and online content were created in response to feedback from the previous cohort which revealed that students had struggled to relate the workshops to their assignment, which was a portfolio of critical reflections. In order to better understand the disconnect experienced by the students between the module content and the course assessment, it was decided to track the paths of desire taken by the cohort in their learning, and assess whether online content could improve learning outcomes or whether workshops and print sources are more valuable for skills development. Quantitative data, such as attendance, VLE use and book loans, along with qualitative data from the students’ critical reflections were gathered to track student engagement with material, creating a narrative of the learning journeys of the cohort. Findings revealed that online content has a valuable role in supporting success for some students but that attendance at workshops has a strong correlation with portfolio grade and skills development

Systems and certification issues for civil transport aircraft flow control systems

This article is placed here with permission from the Royal Aeronautical Society - Copyright @ 2009 Royal Aeronautical SocietyThe use of flow control (FC) technology on civil transport aircraft is seen as a potential means of providing a step change in aerodynamic performance in the 2020 time frame. There has been extensive research into the flow physics associated with FC. This paper focuses on developing an understanding of the costs and design drivers associated with the systems needed and certification. The research method adopted is based on three research strands: 1. Study of the historical development of other disruptive technologies for civil transport aircraft, 2. Analysis of the impact of legal and commercial requirements, and 3. Technological foresight based on technology trends for aircraft currently under development. Fly by wire and composite materials are identified as two historical examples of successful implementation of disruptive new technology. Both took decades to develop, and were initially developed for military markets. The most widely studied technology similar to FC is identified as laminar flow control. Despite more than six decades of research and arguably successful operational demonstration in the 1990s this has not been successfully transitioned to commercial products. Significant future challenges are identified in cost effective provision of the additional systems required for environmental protection and in service monitoring of FC systems particularly where multiple distributed actuators are envisaged. FC generated noise is also seen as a significant challenge. Additional complexity introduced by FC systems must also be balanced by the commercial imperative of dispatch reliability, which may impose more stringent constraints than legal (certification) requirements. It is proposed that a key driver for future successful application of FC is the likely availability of significant electrical power generation on 787 aircraft forwards. This increases the competitiveness of electrically driven FC systems compared with those using engine bleed air. At the current rate of progress it is unlikely FC will make a contribution to the next generation of single-aisle aircraft due to enter service in 2015. In the longer term, there needs to be significant movement across a broad range of systems technologies before the aerodynamic benefits of FC can be exploited.This work is supported by the EU FP6 AVERT (AerodynamicValidation of Emissions Reducing Technologies) project

Towards a historical ecology of intertidal foraging in the Mafia Archipelago: archaeomalacology and implications for marine resource management

Understanding the timing and nature of human influence on coastal and island ecosystems is becoming a central concern in archaeological research, particularly when investigated within a historical ecology framework. Unfortunately, the coast and islands of eastern Africa have not figured significantly within this growing body of literature, but are important given their historically contingent environmental, social, and political contexts, as well as the considerable threats now posed to marine ecosystems. Here, we begin developing a longer-term understanding of past marine resource use in the Mafia Archipelago (eastern Africa), an area of high ecological importance containing the Mafia Island Marine Park. Focusing on the comparatively less researched marine invertebrates provides a means for initiating discussion on potential past marine ecosystem structure, human foraging and environmental shifts, and the implications for contemporary marine resource management. The available evidence suggests that human-environment interactions over the last 2000 years were complex and dynamic; however, these data raise more questions than answers regarding the specific drivers of changes observed in the archaeomalacological record. This is encouraging as a baseline investigation and emphasizes the need for further engagement with historical ecology by a range of cognate disciplines to enhance our understanding of these complex issues

HII Shells Surrounding Wolf-Rayet stars in M31

We present the results of an ongoing investigation to provide a detailed view of the processes by which massive stars shape the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM), from pc to kpc scales. In this paper we have focused on studying the environments of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in M31 to find evidence for WR wind-ISM interactions, through imaging ionized hydrogen nebulae surrounding these stars. We have conducted a systematic survey for HII shells surrounding 48 of the 49 known WR stars in M31. There are 17 WR stars surrounded by single shells, or shell fragments, 7 stars surrounded by concentric limb brightened shells, 20 stars where there is no clear physical association of the star with nearby H-alpha emission, and 4 stars which lack nearby H-alpha emission. For the 17+7 shells above, there are 12 which contain one or two massive stars (including a WR star) and that are <=40 pc in radius. These 12 shells may be classical WR ejecta or wind-blown shells. Further, there may be excess H-alpha point source emission associated with one of the 12 WR stars surrounded by putative ejecta or wind-blown shells. There is also evidence for excess point source emission associated with 11 other WR stars. The excess emission may arise from unresolved circumstellar shells, or within the extended outer envelopes of the stars themselves. In a few cases we find clear morphological evidence for WR shells interacting with each other. In several H-alpha images we see WR winds disrupting, or punching through, the walls of limb-brightened HII shells.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures (in several parts: some .jpg and others .ps), accepted to AJ (appearing Oct, 1999

The gendering of violent crime: towards a human rights approach

This article reveals the diverse threats violent masculinities pose to human rights, especially females, in view of the idea that 'all things are equal now' between the genders. In the UK the Human Rights Act (1998) has sustained existing safeguards for the mainly male perpetrators of violence, but the needs of some female victims of domestic violence remain unmet. Contemporaneously, mainly female crime victims are vulnerable to violations of their basic human rights. The analysis in this paper identifies and interrogates the negative consequences of the principles of modernisation and six drivers of crime control underpinning government approaches since the late 1990s to dealing with violence against women in the context of general approaches to victimisation. Alongside issues relating to the receding influence of the state our argument is that a human rights-informed approach reveals not only the deficiencies and contradictions of government policy affecting change, but provides a vehicle for embedding a more comprehensive way of safeguarding human rights in practice

The P Cygni supergiant [OMN2000] LS1 – implications for the star formation history of W51

Original article can be found at: http://www.aanda.org/ Copyright The European Southern Observatory (ESO) DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200911980Aims. We investigate the nature of the massive star [OMN2000] LS1 and use these results to constrain the history of star formation within the host complex W51. Methods. We utilised a combination of near-IR spectroscopy and non-LTE model atmosphere analysis to derive the physical properties of [OMN2000] LS1 , and a combination of theoretical evolutionary calculations and Monte Carlo simulations to apply limits on the star formation history of W51. Results. We find the spectrum of [OMN2000] LS1 to be consistent with that of a P Cygni supergiant. With a temperature in the range of 13.2–13.7 kK and log( ) , it is significantly cooler, less luminous, and less massive than proposed by previous authors. The presence of such a star within W51 shows that star formation has been underway for at least 3 Myr, while the formation of massive O stars is still on going. The lack of a population of evolved red supergiants within the complex shows that the rate of formation of young massive clusters at ages 9 Myr was lower than currently observed. We find no evidence of internally triggered, sequential star formation within W51, and favour the suggestion that star formation has proceeded at multiple indepedent sites within the GMC. Along with other examples, such as the G305 and Carina star-forming regions, we suggest that W51 is a Galactic analogue of the ubiquitous star cluster complexes seen in external galaxies such as M51 and NGC2403.Peer reviewe

Eltrombopag for the treatment of chronic idiopathic (immune) thrombocytopenic purpura : A Single Technology Appraisal

Evidence Review Group (ERG) final report for the National Institute for Health and Clinical ExcellencePublisher PD