Harnessing Technology in Schools Survey 2007: technical report

This technical report provides a detailed review of the methods used and the data gathered for this survey. The report also provides copies of the research instruments used in this survey

Evaluation of curriculum online: report of the follow up survey of schools

This report contains the findings of the second survey of schools carried out as part of the evaluation of curriculum online. One questionnaire collected school-level information for each school and additional questionnaires collected data for selected subject areas

Harnessing Technology Schools Survey 2007

The report contains detailed analyses of the bulk of the data from the HTSS in 2007 to supplement the main report

Evaluation of curriculum online: Report of the third survey of schools

This report, based on interviews with a range of teachers and pupils in a sample of primary and secondary schools in England, examined, in depth, how schools responded to the third year of the curriculum online programme. Report on the industry impact of curriculum onlin

Accommodations and Compliance Series: Employees with Learning Disabilities

[Excerpt] The Accommodation and Compliance Series is a starting point in the accommodation process and may not address every situation. Accommodations should be made on a case by case basis, considering each employee\u27s individual limitations and accommodation needs. Employers are encouraged to contact JAN to discuss specific situations in more detail

Curriculum online: final report

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) commissioned NatCen and the University of Bristol to conduct a four-year evaluation of curriculum online, beginning in 2002. This is the final evaluation report for the programme, reviewing outcomes from the research

Evaluation of the 16-19 Bursary Fund: year 1 report

Key Findings: The total number of young people in England receiving a Defined Vulnerable Group (DVG) Bursary in 2011/12 is estimated to be 27,400. The total number of students awarded Discretionary Bursaries in 2011/12 in England is estimated to be 251,800. - Profiles of applicants and recipients for DVG and Discretionary Bursaries across all characteristics were very similar, suggesting that no groups were more or less likely to be awarded Bursaries if they applied. - The majority of providers used income-related criteria to determine eligibility for Discretionary Bursaries, with Free School Meal entitlement, household income and household benefit receipt being the most common criteria. Other eligibility criteria used by providers included identifying financial needs, transport costs and equipment needs. - Discretionary Bursaries were most commonly awarded to cover the costs of transport or educational equipment. - In-kind awards were used by more than a quarter (27%) of providers for at least some Bursaries and by a smaller proportion (12%) for all Bursary awards. - Two-thirds of providers (68%) thought that the Bursary Fund was effective in targeting young people with the greatest barriers to participation

MCMC-ODPR : primer design optimization using Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling

Background Next generation sequencing technologies often require numerous primer designs that require good target coverage that can be financially costly. We aimed to develop a system that would implement primer reuse to design degenerate primers that could be designed around SNPs, thus find the fewest necessary primers and the lowest cost whilst maintaining an acceptable coverage and provide a cost effective solution. We have implemented Metropolis-Hastings Markov Chain Monte Carlo for optimizing primer reuse. We call it the Markov Chain Monte Carlo Optimized Degenerate Primer Reuse (MCMC-ODPR) algorithm. Results After repeating the program 1020 times to assess the variance, an average of 17.14% fewer primers were found to be necessary using MCMC-ODPR for an equivalent coverage without implementing primer reuse. The algorithm was able to reuse primers up to five times. We compared MCMC-ODPR with single sequence primer design programs Primer3 and Primer-BLAST and achieved a lower primer cost per amplicon base covered of 0.21 and 0.19 and 0.18 primer nucleotides on three separate gene sequences, respectively. With multiple sequences, MCMC-ODPR achieved a lower cost per base covered of 0.19 than programs BatchPrimer3 and PAMPS, which achieved 0.25 and 0.64 primer nucleotides, respectively. Conclusions MCMC-ODPR is a useful tool for designing primers at various melting temperatures at good target coverage. By combining degeneracy with optimal primer reuse the user may increase coverage of sequences amplified by the designed primers at significantly lower costs. Our analyses showed that overall MCMC-ODPR outperformed the other primer-design programs in our study in terms of cost per covered base