"Not right in the head": How should teachers assess new talk about teenagers?

Recently in New Zealand the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor has warned of changing circumstances creating a "powder keg" during adolescence, another top government advisor is reported as claiming young people's behaviour problems are the country's "biggest social issue", and the catchphrase of a parenting series on national television has been that teenagers are best understood as "not right in the head". Perhaps it is unsurprising that surveys have been reporting high levels of teacher stress and increasing levels of abuse and assault. Should secondary teaching therefore be considered a dubious career choice and a mass exodus from the profession anticipated? With regard to the implications for those whose lives continue to meet and mix in schools, this paper critically examines some of the local and overseas "expert talk" inspired by key features of scientific assertions regarding the changing nature of physical and cognitive development in adolescence

Library performance measurement in the digital age

Book synopsis: University libraries around the world have embraced the possibilities of the digital learning environment, facilitating its use and proactively seeking to develop the provision of electronic resources and services. The digital environment offers opportunities and challenges for librarians in all aspects of their work - in information literacy, virtual reference, institutional repositories, e-learning, managing digital resources and social media. The authors in this timely book are leading experts in the field of library and information management, and are at the forefront of change in their respective institutions. University Libraries and Digital Learning Environments will be invaluable for all those involved in managing libraries or learning services, whether acquiring electronic resources or developing and delivering services in digital environments

Measuring the impact of higher education libraries: the LIRG/SCONUL Impact Implementation Initiative

The Library and Information Research Group (LIRG) and the Society of College, National, and University Libraries (SCONUL) are working together on a joint initiative looking at the impact of higher education libraries on learning, teaching, and research. Twenty-two libraries have been involved in assessing the impact of particular services or new innovations in their institutions. This article considers why measuring impact is important, describes the background to the Impact Initiative and what led to it being set up, identifies the institutions that are involved and their chosen topics, outlines what is involved for the participating institutions, and reviews progress to date

The Effects of Congressional Appropriation Committee Membership on the Distribution of Federal Research Funding to Universities

This paper examines the impact of congressional representation of a university through district representation or an alma mater affiliation on the distribution of research funding to research and doctoral universities in the United States. Because appropriations are allocated to agencies on an annual basis, Congress and agencies may be considered strategic actors that seek to minimize as well as exploit their differences in informational asymmetries. Using a data set that covers more than twenty-five years of data, I find there are strong effects from congressional representation on the distribution of research funding. These effects vary based on the type of representation, the seniority of the member serving on the committee, as well as the type of ownership of the university (private or public). Depending on the empirical specification, political diversions of research funding range between four and forty-eight percent. Surprisingly, the diversions associated with an alma mater affiliation are more robust than the diversions associated with district representation, suggesting the existence of political slack. These results suggest that informational asymmetries play a role in the level of congressional influence on agency actions. In addition, the results suggest that actions taken by members of the appropriations committees vary based on their tenure on the committees.congressional representation, research funding, universities

Do Congressional Earmarks Increase Research Output at Universities?

For twenty years universities have been able to bypass peer-reviewed research competition for federal funding and seek a direct appropriation of funding from Congress. Proponents of this earmarking claim that this funding helps the university build the infrastructure needed to be able to compete for peer-reviewed funding. Opponents claim this funding is used poorly and is less than productive than peer-reviewed funding. This paper attempts to answer this question by examining whether earmarked funding, when treated as a stock of capital, increases the number of academic articles published and/or the number of citations per article published. Using two panel data sets that span 1980 to 1998, incorporating university and year fixed effects, and using an instrumental variables estimation, this paper shows that while the number of articles published increase, the number of citations per article decrease. Depending on the data set used the annual increase in articles ranges, on average, between 8 and 14 percent. The annual decrease in citations per article ranges between 9 and 57 percent. If we concentrate only on earmarks for agriculture, earmarks that often are for small discrete projects, the results suggest the effect from an increase in earmarked funding is not statistically different from zero for both publications and citations per publication. These results suggest that earmarked funding may increase the quantity of publications but decreases the quality of the publications and the performance of earmarked funding is lower than that from using peer-reviewed funding.congressional earmarking, research funding, universities

Part specification solar cells, silicon N-on-P solderless low temperature operation for Jupiter missions

The requirements for 10 ohm cm N-ON-P, silicon solar cells, for use on solar panel assemblies for space flight applications are specified

Development and pilot line production of lithium doped silicon solar cells

Scaling up the BCl3 without O2 diffusion beyond 30 to 40 cells was investigated by using a 100 cell capacity diffusion boat which held the cells vertically. Sheet resistances and I-V curves were uniform with 10 to 20 cells spaced along the entire boat, so the quantity was increased to 40 and then 60 cells per diffusion. There was no change in cell output and uniformity going from 20 to 40 cells per diffusion; however only half the lithium cells fabricated from slices diffused in the 60 cell diffusion had efficiencies of 11% or better. Although uniform sheet resistances and I-V characteristic curves were obtained with up to 60 cells in the BCl3 with O2 diffusion, the short circuit currents were approximately 15% lower than the anticipated 135 to 140 mA. Consequently, work on this diffusion process has been aimed solely at increasing the short circuit current. The diffusion temperature was lowered from 1055 to 1000 and 950 C, and at each of these temperatures variations in diffusion time were investigated. At 1000 C short circuit currents were approximately 10 mA higher, 130 rather than 120 mA average

Development of lithium diffused radiation resistant solar cells Third quarterly report

Development of boron diffusion process to diffuse large quantities of stress-free, high efficiency, radiation resistant solar cell

Lending a Hand: How Federal Tax Policy Could Help Get More Cash to More Charities

Although total giving to charities in Canada has increased in the last two decades, the share of tax filers reporting cash donations has fallen, and the sector’s reliance on large donations by wealthy donors has risen. To broaden the donation base, the author suggests creating a single tax-credit rate for cash donations or an RRSP-like charitable gift plan.charities papers, federal tax policy, Canadian charities