The evolution of the general certificate of secondary education to 1986

The evolution of the G.G.S.E. was a phase both in the history of examinations and also in the social and political interaction of education with its environment. Each subject discipline has its own development. The turbulent development of modern languages appears to have experienced a more easily discernible phase of progression in the period approaching the G.G.S.E. than at other times over the century and more especially in the post-wax period; in fact 'languages' reached a greater spread of effective contact of the school population than ever before. Such an incidence of events merits .some attention even though alternative sequences were occurring in other subject disciplines. The G.G.S.E. followed in the tradition of the School Certificate, the G.G.E. and the G.S.E. yet it also mirrored major movements in British society and its expectation of public education. Competition became paramount. Differentiation resolved, somewhat, the problems of a common system for the high and low achievers. The irony was that the G.C.S.E. suited the comprehensive schools but the comprehensive schools did not suit everybody. The teaching profession, whilst trying to deal vrith this problem sensitively, felt its national profile deteriorate. These fundamental changes took place at a time of growing concern over the education system. Yet fundamental changes in society were the key to fundamental changes in education. Languages, throughout, democratized down the hierarchy of learning; other subjects followed the pattern. World War II had polarized for languages a pacific, literature-civilization from a message-communication. These became the opposing sides of the battleground, the victory being a merger of the two. This century's main lost soul of the curriculum found its resting-place in G.G.S.E. practicability'. The post-war extension to the whole ability range forced a lonesome mental introversion. Sound experienced psychoanalysis and therapy by the subject association with basic guidance from the examination boards brought restoration to a new state of health. In fact restoratives primarily for the low achiever had been vital. The new government in 1979 encouraged practicality and usefulness of school subjects. Having advised throughout, the subject associations, like others, took the initiative in the teachers' cold war lull, to sound out true opinion (which could not be done publicly due to the intractability of positions) and made recommendation to the government. The contribution of the low achiever was finally acknowledged. The subject associations, uniquely, were in a position to test opinion and act with speed. The disappearance of Ordinary Level and Grammar Schools had proved a strong brake, yet the post World War II period up to the 1980s was inevitably between staging posts of major educational reform and nothing was to stop the G.G.S.E. being by accident or design the frontrunner of a series of reforms. The sources for this study have been the professional literature and reviews underpinned by personal interviews with relevant and representative personnel

The development of elementary education in Sunderland, 1870 - 1902

During the nineteenth century, Sunderland had at one point become the centre of the shipbuilding world. Soon afterwards it began to vie for supremacy in the export of coal. The town pulsed with success. Any obstacles or setbacks were simply removed or overcome. The aim of this thesis, therefore, was to show how Elementary Education developed within such an atmosphere. In fact, education had grown as a priority within the town during the nineteenth century. When the time came to implement the 1870 Act, a mature decision was taken and in spite of political discord at the first election the School Board began the work of preparing the ground for a provision of education to include all those who would need it. There was no undue haste, nor was the Board slow. Each school was planned with care. As the period progressed the educational needs of the town were met in an orderly sensible manner. Throughout changes in the political nature of the Boards there was a continuity of intent. The existing provision was not interfered with, nor put under undue pressure. The internal and external planning of buildings was unusually varied. Each School had an individual flavour. The accommodation target set in the very beginning was adjusted throughout and reached by the end. The strong religious atmosphere of the town existed alongside and within the Board schools. This background had also helped to provide a continual flow of teachers which, if as elsewhere were largely untrained, compensated by their dedication to the pupils. The curriculum expanded very slowly following a national pattern. Throughout, important local figures guided and advised. Attendance, though only average, did improve gradually. Most importantly, the child was being put at the centre of consideration. In the end, there had been a marked improvement in the attitude towards education in the town and this was most noticeable in the adequate supply of good schools which existed by the first years of the twentieth century. Reassuringly, therefore, a successful industrial town had kept educational priority throughout and mirrored commercial with educational success

Improving root cause analysis through the integration of PLM systems with cross supply chain maintenance data

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a system architecture for integrating Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems with cross supply chain maintenance information to support root-cause analysis. By integrating product-data from PLM systems with warranty claims, vehicle diagnostics and technical publications, engineers were able to improve the root-cause analysis and close the information gaps. Data collection was achieved via in-depth semi-structured interviews and workshops with experts from the automotive sector. Unified Modelling Language (UML) diagrams were used to design the system architecture proposed. A user scenario is also presented to demonstrate the functionality of the system

An intelligent framework and prototype for autonomous maintenance planning in the rail industry

This paper details the development of the AUTONOM project, a project that aims to provide an enterprise system tailored to the planning needs of the rail industry. AUTONOM extends research in novel sensing, scheduling, and decision-making strategies customised for the automated planning of maintenance activities within the rail industry. This paper sets out a framework and software prototype and details the current progress of the project. In the continuation of the AUTONOM project it is anticipated that the combination of techniques brought together in this work will be capable of addressing a wider range of problem types, offered by Network rail and organisations in different industries

The Glasgow outcome at discharge scale: an inpatient assessment of disability after brain injury

This study assesses the validity and reliability of the Glasgow Outcome at Discharge Scale (GODS), which is a tool that is designed to assess disability after brain injury in an inpatient setting. It is derived from the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOS-E), which assesses disability in the community after brain injury. Inter-rater reliability on the GODS is high (quadratic-weighted kappa 0.982; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.968, 0.996) as is concurrent validity with the Disability Rating Scale (DRS) (Spearman correlation −0.728; 95% CI −0.819, −0.601). The GODS is significantly associated with physical and fatigue subscales of the short form (SF)-36 in hospital. In terms of predictive validity the GODS is highly associated with the GOS-E after discharge (Spearman correlation 0.512; 95% CI 0.281, 0.687), with the DRS, and with physical, fatigue, and social subscales of the SF-36. The GODS is recommended as an assessment tool for disability after brain injury pre-discharge and can be used in conjunction with the GOS-E to monitor disability between hospital and the community

Renormalization view on resonance proliferation between many-body localized phases

Topology and many-body localization (MBL) have opened new avenues for preserving quantum information at finite energy density. Resonant delocalization plays a crucial role in destabilizing these phenomena. In this work, we study the statistical properties of many-body resonances in a disordered interacting Ising model - which can host symmetry protected topological order - using a Clifford circuit encoding of the real space renormalization group which allows the resonant properties of the wave functions to be efficiently characterized. Our findings show that both the trivial and topologically ordered MBL phases remain stable to the resonances, but in the vicinity of the transition between them localization is destabilized by resonance proliferation. Diverging susceptibility towards the development of an avalanche instability suggests an intervening ergodic phase. We are also able to access the local integrals of motion in the MBL phases and identify the topological edge-mode operators in the ordered phase. Our results have important implications for the stability of MBL and phase transitions between distinct MBL phases with and without symmetries.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure

Design practices used in the development of microfluidic devices: a services-based view

This paper presents the current state of microfluidic design from a practitioner’s perspective. The capture of microfluidic design practice was facilitated through a combination of industry survey and expert interviews, allowing the authors to draw out models for microfluidic design. Exploration of the current practice of microfluidic design showed that formal design methodologies were not in use. This research has also found that sub-section interactions have been addressed in an inadequate fashion by current design practices. The work presented in this paper outlines the scope for further research in the development of a formal design methodology for microfluidics

Comparative growth and static allometry in the genus Chlorocebus

Characterizing variation in growth across populations is critical to understanding multiple aspects of development in primates, including within-taxon developmental plasticity and the evolution of life history patterns. Growth in wild primates has often been reported and directly compared across larger taxonomic groups and within social groups, but comparisons are rarely investigated across widely dispersed populations of a single taxon. With the Vervet Phenome-Genome Project and the International Vervet Research Consortium, we trapped 936 vervet monkeys of all ages representing three populations (Kenyan pygerythrus, South African pygerythrus, and sabaeus from St. Kitts & Nevis). We gathered 10 different body measurements from each including mass, body breadth and length, segmental limb lengths, and chest circumference. To gain a better understanding of how ontogenetic patterns vary in these populations, we calculated bivariate allometry coefficients, derived using PCA on log-transformed and z-standardized trait values, and compared them to isometric vector coefficients. Within all population samples, around weaning age most traits showed a negative allometric relationship to body length. As each population ages, however, distinct patterns emerge, showing population differences in onset and intensity of growth among traits. In concordance with other analyses on growth in these populations, our results suggest that there exist relative differences in patterns of growth between Chlorocebus populations, further suggesting selection for unique developmental pathways in each

Rise and fall of mercury (Hg) pollution in sediment cores of the Thames Estuary, London, UK

Fifty six sediment cores were collected along a 100 km longitudinal transect of the Thames estuary. Total Hg ranged from 0.01 to 12.07 mg/kg, with a mean of 2.10 mg/kg (n=351). Concentrations of the toxic metal decreased downstream from London to the outer estuary and were positively correlated to total organic carbon (TOC) content. Many Hg profiles showed a clear rise, peak and fall, reflecting changing anthropogenic input through time. Surface concentrations averaged 1.27 mg/kg, confirming the effectiveness of recent environmental legislation and improved river management. Sediments at >40 cm depth from London reaches of the river (Waterloo Bridge, Cuckolds Point (Rotherhithe), Butlers Wharf (Tower Bridge), Millwall, Deptford and Millennium Dome) were highly contaminated, with levels of Hg of >7 mg/kg. The outer Thames had lower Hg, with the exception of Rainham, Crossness and Cliffe. Benchmarking against UK guidelines for the disposal of dredged material revealed that 88 samples from 21 sites exceeded the 3 mg/kg criteria (unsuitable for disposal at sea); 173 fell between 0.3 and 3 mg/kg (further assessment required); and 90 were of no concern. Using Hg as a generic pollution marker, the tidal Thames is one of the world's most contaminated river–estuarine sediment systems