Schools, communities and social capital: building blocks in the 'Big Society' (Research associate full report)

"This study looked at how effective schools engage with their communities. Its aim was to identify key mechanisms that promoted community engagement. It also sought to determine the impact this had on the amount and nature of social capital available to pupils, parents and the wider community. Effective schools were found to generate significant amounts of social capital within their institutions as demonstrated by the degree of trust, reciprocity, civic engagement and social cohesion. Pupil voice was a powerful mechanism in developing a sense of control and self-efficacy. Recently created posts such as family workers, therapists and social work placements extended much of this impact into the family. Schools that went further to promote social capital in the neighbourhood were those with a more aspirational vision that went beyond simply engaging the community to aid school improvement. They viewed community empowerment as key to the success of their pupils and families within the wider social context. They encouraged community leadership and decision-making, often through informal learning approaches, and truly became ‘hubs of the community’, facilitating community development and promoting community cohesion. The findings suggest that a more reciprocal view is needed of the relationship between school and community and that schools could play a central role in creating the ‘Big Society’.

Intercusp Geodesics and Cusp Shapes of Fully Augmented Links

We study the geometry of fully augmented link complements in $S^3$ by looking at their link diagrams. We extend the method introduced by Thistlethwaite and Tsvietkova to fully augmented links and define a system of algebraic equations in terms of parameters coming from edges and crossings of the link diagrams. Combining it with the work of Purcell, we show that the solutions to these algebraic equations are related to the cusp shapes of fully augmented link complements. As an application we use the cusp shapes to study the commensurability classes of fully augmented links

How to stop "weevil" damage in stored grain

Caption title

Studies of Neotropical caddisflies, XII: Rhyacophilidae, Glossosomatidae, Philopotamidae, and Psychomyiidae from the Amazon Basin (Trichoptera)

Based primarily on colleçtions of FITTKAU and MARLIER, adults of the Amazonian species in four families of Trichoptera are described and figured. Keys are provided to the Latin American families (except those exclusively Chilean), potentially Amazonian genera, and described species. Fifty-five species (of which 52 are described as new) are placed in the genera: Atopsyche (1 species), Antoptila (1 species), Protoptila (10 species), Wormaldia (1 species), Dolophilodes (1 species), Chimarra (8 species), Polyplectropus (4 species), Nyctiophylar (1 species), Cyrnellus (7 species), and Cernotína (21 species)

Effect of Electrolyte Concentration on the Capacitance and Mobility of Graphene

The use of graphene field-effect transistors as a biosensor is increasingly being used to study biological phenomena, due to the sensitivity and low reactivity of graphene. To further improve sensitivity in biological environments, we examined how different salt concentrations affect the mobility of capacitance of the graphene. Samples were also measured after an annealing process. We report on the positive correlation between sensitivity and electrolyte concentration and speculate on methods to improve future detectors. Mobility of the device was found to change from 1.07*103cm2/ (V*s) in de-ionized water to 2.78*103cm2/ (V*s) in a 500 mM potassium phosphate buffer solution