Assessing investigative skills in history: a case study from Scotland

Recent changes in our history syllabi stress the importance of developing an investigative/enquiry method of learning involving the framing of questions, subsequent research and the presentation of findings. Scotland has made several attempts to assess not only the end result (the paper) but also the process itself and now uses an extended essay format in two important history courses that come at the end of secondary schooling. This article discusses how we experimented before we decided on these various approaches to assessing investigative skills and evaluates the extended essay solution with particular reference to the comments of students and teachers. This analysis expands a previous article on the assessment of investigative skills which appeared in this journal

Helping to keep history relevant : mulitmedia and authentic learning

The subject based curriculum attracts lively debate in many countries being accused of fragmenting teaching and learning, erecting artificial barriers and failing to teach the skills required in the twenty first century (Hazlewood 2005). Cross-curricular rich tasks are increasingly seen as the means to develop relevant knowledge, understanding and skills. Over the past fourteen years we have developed and evaluated a series of interactive multi-media resources for primary and secondary schools on themes within Scottish History. The generally positive evaluation given to these resources by pupils and teachers points to some ways in which subjects such as history can remain challenging and relevant. The relevance has largely stemmed, in the case of the multi-media resources, from combining the historian's traditional role of problemising the past, with a wide range of primary and secondary sources, new technologies and learning tasks encompassing critical skills/authentic learning. Consequently, we argue that subjects must in future embrace new technologies and authentic learning to maintain their place in the school curriculum

Presbyterianism and social class in mid-nineteenth century Glasgow: A study of nine churches

Abstract Not Provided

Combined coagulation and membrane microfiltration for removal of natural organic material (nom)

The removal of natural organic matter (NOM) is a key requirement of many processes in potable water treatment. Conventionally, removal of NOM and colloidal material has been achieved by coagulation with inorganic coagulants followed by either direct rapid gravity filtration alone or clarification (sedimentation or flotation) followed by at least one stage of rapid gravity filtration. An alternative to conventional processes is to combine membrane microfiltration (MF) with coagulation for NOM removal. The advantages of MF technology over traditional sand filters is the maintenance of an absolute barrier throughout the filtration process, thereby enhancing the physical separation process by presenting an absolute barrier to suspended materials. This thesis presents the results from such a system. A 9.6m2 hollow fibre hydrophilic polysulphone MF membrane system was used in combination with ferric sulphate under controlled pH conditions. The system was operated under constant flow condition and the coagulant concentration varied to assess performance. Coagulation conditions which promoted rapid aggregation of particles was found to give best performance with respect to pressure development, this coincided with a zeta potential at or near zero. Also, a pre-flocculation time of 20 seconds was found to be sufficient to allow complete removal of material associated with the coagulation process. Comparison with other workers showed similar results for the specific cake resistance despite considerable differences in both the scale and type of system used.MPhi

A model for predicting dissolved organic carbon distribution in a reservoir water using fluorescence spectroscopy

A number of water treatment works (WTW) in the north of England (UK) have experienced problems in reducing the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) present in the water to a sufficiently low level. The problems are experienced in autumn/ winter when the colour increases and the coagulant dose at the WTW needs to be increased in order to achieve sufficient colour removal. However, the DOC content of the water varies little throughout the year. To investigate this further, the water was fractionated using resin adsorption techniques into its hydrophobic (fulvic and humic acid fractions) and hydrophilic (acid and non-acid fractions) components. The fractionation process yields useful information on the changing concentration of each fraction but is time consuming and labour intensive. Here, a method of rapidly determining fraction concentration was developed using fluorescence spectroscopy. The model created used synchronous spectra of fractionated material compared against bulk water spectra and predicted the fraction concentrations to within 10% for a specific water. The model was unable to predict fraction concentrations for waters from a different watershed

Methods to Isolate Possible Bacteriophage for Micrococcus Luteus and Acinetobacter Baumannii

The increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria has led to a crisis in treatment options. Acinetobacter baumannii is an example of a bacterium that has developed a dangerous level of multidrug resistance. Not only does it have genes allowing for the resistance to antibiotics, but it also produces a biofilm that protects it. In recent years, A. baumannii has become a major contributor to nosocomial infections making it critical to develop new treatment methods. Micrococcus luteus, while typically not thought of as a pathogen, is also developing a resistance to antibiotics. M. luteus is capable of forming a biofilm on its own making it worrisome as it has increasingly been noted as an opportunistic pathogen. One potential new treatment of antibiotic resistance is the development of bacteriophage therapy, using bacterial viruses to target the infection and treat it. This study examines methods for isolating novel bacteriophage from dairy cattle feces, specifically for the biofilm producers A. baumannii and M. luteus

A free-response evaluation determining value in the computed tomography attenuation correction image for revealing pulmonary incidental findings : a phantom study

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to compare lesion-detection performance when interpreting computed tomography (CT) images that are acquired for attenuation correction when performing single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) myocardial perfusion studies. In the United Kingdom, there is a requirement that these images be interpreted; thus, it is necessary to understand observer performance on these images. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An anthropomorphic chest phantom with inserted spherical lesions of different sizes and contrasts was scanned on five different SPECT/CT systems using site-specific CT protocols for SPECT/CT myocardial perfusion imaging. Twenty-one observers (0-4years of CT experience) searched 26 image slices (17 abnormal, containing 1-3 lesions, and 9 normal, containing no lesions) for each CT acquisition. The observers marked and rated perceived lesions under the free-response paradigm. Four analyses were conducted using jackknife alternative free-response receiver operating characteristic (JAFROC) analysis: (1) 20-pixel acceptance radius (AR) with all 21 readers, abbreviated to 20/ALL analysis, (2) 40-pixel AR with 21 readers (40/ALL), (3) 20-pixel AR with 14 readers experienced in CT (20/EXP), and (4) 20-pixel AR with 7 readers with no CT experience (20/NOT). The significance level of the test was set so as to conservatively control the overall probability of a type I error to <0.05. RESULTS: The mean JAFROC figure of merit (FOM) for the five CT acquisitions for the 20/ALL study were 0.602, 0.639, 0.372, 0.475,and 0.719 with a significant difference in lesion-detection performance evident between all individual treatment pairs (P<.0001) with the exception of the 1-2 pairing, which was not significant (these differed only in milliamp seconds). System 5, which had the highest performance, had the smallest slice thickness and the largest matrix size. For the other analyses, the system orderings remained unchanged, and the significance of FOM difference findings remained identical to those for 20/ALL, with oneexception: for 20/EXP analysis the 1-2 difference became significant with the higher milliamp seconds superior. Improved detection performance was associated with a smaller slice thickness, increased matrix size, and, to a lesser extent, increased tube charge. CONCLUSIONS: Protocol variations for CT-based attenuation correction (AC) in SPECT/CT imaging have a measurable impact on lesion-detection performance. The results imply that z-axis resolution and matrix size had the greatest impact on lesion detection, with a weaker but detectable dependence on the product of milliamp and seconds

What’s coming for health science and policy in 2018? Global experts look ahead in their field

In PLOS Medicine\u27s first editorial of 2018, editorial board members and other leading researchers share their hopes, pleas, concerns, and expectations for this year in health research and policy

Karyology of three evolutionarily hexaploid southern African species of yellowfish, Labeobarbus Rüppel, 1836 (Cyprinidae)

The karyotypes of three species of yellowfish, namely Labeobarbus marequensis (A. Smith, 1841), L. capensis (A. Smith, 1841) and L. polylepis (Boulenger, 1907), were examined by Giemsa staining using an approach improved for the description of high chromosome numbers. In each case, 2n = 150; no heteromorphic chromosomes were detected; chromosomes in all morphological categories ranged smoothly from large to small, with no distinctly large submetacentric pairs; and metacentric chromosomes showed little variation in size. Labeobarbus marequensis had 26 metacentric (m), 44 submetacentric (sm), 42 subtelocentric (st) and 38 acrocentric (a) chromosomes and a fundamental number (FN) of 262; L. capensis had 16 m, 58 sm, 42 st and 34 a chromosomes and FN = 266; and L. polylepis had 18 m, 60 sm, 42 st and 30 a chromosomes and FN = 270. These results, combined with published literature, imply that Labeobarbus Rüppel, 1836 is an evolutionarily hexaploid African lineage and support its removal from synonymy with the evolutionarily tetraploid Asian genus Tor Gray, 1834. A review of fundamental numbers for conspecific Labeobarbus species examined in different studies implicated karyological technique as a confounding factor in assessing details of karyotypes, leading to recommendations for future karyological studies of barbine fishes. Potential synapomorphies are pointed out in karyological characters of species within Labeobarbus