Poverty and closing the gap: Adastra research consultancy projects

A fundamental principle which underpins all our teaching and research is the integration of theory and practice, and this principle is vividly exemplified within all the research consultancy projects. The longstanding successes in teacher training of Bishop Grosseteste University are founded upon the strength of our partnership with schools and educational settings. A key strand, that links our research ambitions with our commitment to teacher education, is the engagement in research consultancy and action research with partnership schools. The following reports all embed this approach of teachers working alongside researchers, integrating theory with practice, and focusing upon school-specific issues. They also represent excellent examples of how research can genuinely impact the prospects and life chances of young people. At the heart of our partnership is a focus on learners and learning, which the projects here also clearly share, alongside their key contribution in helping to close the educational attainment gap. Specifically, the research projects will enable the individual schools to develop further good practice, for the benefit of their own pupils, but also with potential applicability to other schools and settings. Furthermore, it is hoped they may motivate and inspire other teachers or schools to embark upon action research projects, driving further improvements in teaching and learning. Finally, for the individual teachers involved, the experience will hopefully stimulate an on-going theory-practice dialogue and provide impetus for further CPD and/or action research

Reclaiming the secular: developing dialogic skills for a post-secular society

This research paper addresses secularization from both political and religious perspectives. One of its manifestations in the political sphere is that of globalization that can lead to alienation within society; and in the United Kingdom this is exemplified by Brexit. Within the religious sphere secularization is usually couched in oppositional terms. This paper reclaims the original use of the word secular as envisaged in a three realms’ model of society comprising profane, sacred and secular realms. The secular realm acts as a buffer between the profane and sacred realms and in this neutral, public sphere the power of reason prevails. An educational starting point for such creation is pedagogy and through linguistic, psychological and cultural analysis, this paper identifies the development of reasoning through the dialogic skills of building consensus (cumulative talk) and constructive criticism (exploratory talk). Sixty-five students from a varied background of UK secondary schools have participated in the development of these dialogic skills

Stars and saints: professional conversations for enhancing classroom practices

This paper explores a reflective activity - professional conversation. In so doing, it recalls the recent experience of working alongside 'starring' teachers who are dedicated to serving the poor in areas of deprivation. And this recollection is framed around the advice of saints - secular, religious and philosophical

The Hog-Pork Industry Woes of 1998

Livestock Production/Industries,

Hand washing promotion for preventing diarrhoea.

BACKGROUND: Diarrhoea accounts for 1.8 million deaths in children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). One of the identified strategies to prevent diarrhoea is hand washing. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of hand washing promotion interventions on diarrhoeal episodes in children and adults. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group Specialized Register (27 May 2015); CENTRAL (published in the Cochrane Library 2015, Issue 5); MEDLINE (1966 to 27 May 2015); EMBASE (1974 to 27 May 2015); LILACS (1982 to 27 May 2015); PsycINFO (1967 to 27 May 2015); Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index (1981 to 27 May 2015); ERIC (1966 to 27 May 2015); SPECTR (2000 to 27 May 2015); Bibliomap (1990 to 27 May 2015); RoRe, The Grey Literature (2002 to 27 May 2015); World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trial Registry Platform (ICTRP), metaRegister of Controlled Trials (mRCT), and reference lists of articles up to 27 May 2015. We also contacted researchers and organizations in the field. SELECTION CRITERIA: Individually randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster-RCTs that compared the effects of hand washing interventions on diarrhoea episodes in children and adults with no intervention. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Three review authors independently assessed trial eligibility, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. We stratified the analyses for child day-care centres or schools, community, and hospital-based settings. Where appropriate, incidence rate ratios (IRR) were pooled using the generic inverse variance method and random-effects model with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We used the GRADE approach to assess the quality of evidence. MAIN RESULTS: We included 22 RCTs: 12 trials from child day-care centres or schools in mainly high-income countries (54,006 participants), nine community-based trials in LMICs (15,303 participants), and one hospital-based trial among people with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) (148 participants).Hand washing promotion (education activities, sometimes with provision of soap) at child day-care facilities or schools prevents around one-third of diarrhoea episodes in high income countries (rate ratio 0.70; 95% CI 0.58 to 0.85; nine trials, 4664 participants, high quality evidence), and may prevent a similar proportion in LMICs but only two trials from urban Egypt and Kenya have evaluated this (rate ratio 0.66, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.99; two trials, 45,380 participants, low quality evidence). Only three trials reported measures of behaviour change and the methods of data collection were susceptible to bias. In one trial from the USA hand washing behaviour was reported to improve; and in the trial from Kenya that provided free soap, hand washing did not increase, but soap use did (data not pooled; three trials, 1845 participants, low quality evidence).Hand washing promotion among communities in LMICs probably prevents around one-quarter of diarrhoea episodes (rate ratio 0.72, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.83; eight trials, 14,726 participants, moderate quality evidence). However, six of these eight trials were from Asian settings, with only single trials from South America and sub-Saharan Africa. In six trials, soap was provided free alongside hand washing education, and the overall average effect size was larger than in the two trials which did not provide soap (soap provided: rate ratio 0.66, 95% CI 0.56 to 0.78; six trials, 11,422 participants; education only: rate ratio: 0.84, 95% CI 0.67 to 1.05; two trials, 3304 participants). There was increased hand washing at major prompts (before eating/cooking, after visiting the toilet or cleaning the baby's bottom), and increased compliance to hand hygiene procedure (behavioural outcome) in the intervention groups than the control in community trials (data not pooled: three trials, 3490 participants, high quality evidence).Hand washing promotion for the one trial conducted in a hospital among high-risk population showed significant reduction in mean episodes of diarrhoea (1.68 fewer) in the intervention group (Mean difference 1.68, 95% CI 1.93 to 1.43; one trial, 148 participants, moderate quality evidence). There was increase in hand washing frequency, seven times per day in the intervention group versus three times in the control in this hospital trial (one trial, 148 participants, moderate quality evidence).We found no trials evaluating or reporting the effects of hand washing promotions on diarrhoea-related deaths, all-cause-under five mortality, or costs. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Hand washing promotion probably reduces diarrhoea episodes in both child day-care centres in high-income countries and among communities living in LMICs by about 30%. However, less is known about how to help people maintain hand washing habits in the longer term

Guaranteeing the diversity of number generators

A major problem in using iterative number generators of the form x_i=f(x_{i-1}) is that they can enter unexpectedly short cycles. This is hard to analyze when the generator is designed, hard to detect in real time when the generator is used, and can have devastating cryptanalytic implications. In this paper we define a measure of security, called_sequence_diversity_, which generalizes the notion of cycle-length for non-iterative generators. We then introduce the class of counter assisted generators, and show how to turn any iterative generator (even a bad one designed or seeded by an adversary) into a counter assisted generator with a provably high diversity, without reducing the quality of generators which are already cryptographically strong.Comment: Small update

Environmental Legislation: Factors and Factions

In recent years the environment has become an increasingly salient issue, with many citizens calling for higher environmental protection and precautions within the United States. However, it seems that congressmen have become unresponsive to these demands as partisanship progressively becomes the determining factor in environmental voting. This study attempts to discover what factors, along with party, determine a representative’s voting decisions on environmental legislation. By collecting data on United States House members in 2006, 2007, and 2010 and running linear regressions, the most significant factors in predicting House members’ voting patterns are identified; however, party and ideology seem to have increasingly become the most crucial factors in determining environmental voting decisions