Language Learning and Interactive TV

The integration of engaging TV style content with the individualization and ‘intelligent’ content management offered by techniques from AI has the potential to provide learning environments that are both highly motivating and educationally sound. This paper describes why the area of language learning would be a particularly appropriate domain for interactive educational television to focus on. It also indicates some of the criteria to be fulfilled in order to provide optimal language learning conditions and how these might be satisfied using TV/Film content and techniques from AIED

Gout

INTRODUCTION: Gout affects about 5% of men and 1% of women, with up to 80% of people experiencing a recurrent attack within 3 years. METHODS AND OUTCOMES:We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of treatments for acute gout? What are the effects of treatments to prevent gout in people with prior acute episodes? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to June 2008 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically, please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). RESULTS: We found 21 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria.We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions. CONCLUSIONS: In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: colchicine, corticosteroids, corticotrophin (ACTH), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), sulfinpyrazone, xanthine oxidase inhibitors, advice to lose weight, advice to reduce alcohol intake, advice to reduce dietary intake of purines

An improved lumped parameter method for building thermal modelling

In this work an improved method for the simplified modelling of the thermal response of building elements has been developed based on a 5-parameter second-order lumped parameter model. Previous methods generate the parameters of these models either analytically or by using single objective function optimisation with respect to a reference model. The analytical methods can be complex and inflexible and the single objective function method lacks generality. In this work, a multiple objective function optimisation method is used with a reference model. Error functions are defined at both internal and external surfaces of the construction element whose model is to be fitted and the resistance and capacitance distributions are adjusted until the error functions reach a minimum. Parametric results for a wide range (45) of construction element types have been presented. Tests have been carried out using a range of both random and periodic excitations in weather and internal heat flux variables resulting in a comparison between the simplified model and the reference model. Results show that the simplified model provides an excellent approximation to the reference model whilst also providing a reduction in computational cost of at least 30%

Environmental controls on the distribution of neoselachian sharks and rays within the British Bathonian (Middle Jurassic).

Extensive sampling from a range of facies within the Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) of southern England has allowed the palaeoenvironmental distribution of a number of taxa of neoselachian sharks and rays to be assessed. Faunas were collected from a number of recurrent facies, with different assemblages being characteristic of particular palaeoenvironments. Palaeoenvironmental specificity occurred at both ordinal and specific level. Samples from offshore facies contain high diversity faunas containing members of all neoselachian groups known to have been present in the Middle Jurassic. Shallower water assemblages contain lower diversity faunas lacking Synechodontiformes and Hexanchiformes. Samples from lagoonal facies contain low diversity faunas typically comprising different species from open marine settings. The presence of different taxa within different palaeoenvironments suggests that by the Bathonian neoselachians had differentiated into a wide range of niches and ecologically more diverse than has previously been recognised. Implications for early neoselachian palaeoecology, salinity tolerance and diversification are discussed

The impact on teacher identity of international connections

Paper presented within the symposium: 'Changing teacher professionality through support for teacher leadership in Europe and beyond' at ECER 2014. This paper is linked to a doctoral study focussing on the impact of international networking and knowledge exchange on the professional identity of teachers. The perspective is shaped by the author’s experience of teacher union activity and involvement in international networking related to work for the British Council and the International Teacher Leadership initiative as well as on a twenty year career as a teacher. This paper involves analysis of data drawn from interviews with three teachers from Britain who have been involved in working with fellow teachers from other nations largely teachers from the Balkans. It explores the extent to which these teachers share a common professional identity with teachers from other nations and also whether this therefore constitutes a professional community. The paper includes a consideration of the implications for international networks and international teacher exchange programmes. It is also envisaged that the paper will support a discussion about ways in which the cultivation of international links may contribute to the global 'Education for All' campaign

Interstipe webbing in the Silurian graptolite Cyrtograptus murchisoni and its palaeobiological significance.

Although it has long been recognized that the Graptoloidea constituted a diverse group of planktic organisms, the precise hydrodynamics of the various colony morphotypes has been a source of debate. Recent discoveries of specimens of Cyrtograptus murchisoni with a complex suite of webs or vanes between the central coiled stipe and the cladial branches have shown that the hydrodynamic modifications of at least this taxon were considerably more complex than previously thought. These webs are composed of very thin peridermal tissue and stretch between the first or second order cladial branches and the main stipe, the webs overlapping to give a screw-type morphology to the rhabdosome. The form of the webbing also has implications for the mode of life and mobility of individual zooids within the colony, as the main areas of web construction are in regions in which the zooids were enclosed within restricted thecal apertures

Sharks, Rays and a Chimaeroid from the Kimmeridgian (Late Jurassic) of Ringstead, Southern England

Sampling of a lenticular concentration of vertebrate debris and associated sediments from the lower Kimmeridgian of southern England has allowed the study of a diverse and abundant assemblage of chondrichthyan remains. A number of previously undescribed species are recorded, of which three new species are named; Squatina? frequens, Synechodus plicatus and Protospinax planus. Additional diagnosis of the genus Paracestracion Koken is given to allow its identification from dental remains. Several nominal batoid species are synonymised with Spathobatis bugesiacus Thiolliere. This assemblage is considered to be typical of Middle–Late Jurassic neritic environments, and is compared to other contemporaneous selachian faunas

Understanding professional community and professional identity through the experiences of Bahraini teachers working with British teachers in a partnership project

This paper is an exploration into the nature of the professional community that is formed when teachers from different nations work together. The research presented here consists of the findings from a small-scale exploratory case study that is the scoping study for a larger piece of research on this same theme. This larger piece of research is my doctoral study that I am currently undertaking at Cambridge University. This paper specifically involves the presentation of data drawn from interviews with teachers from Bahrain who have been involved in working with teachers from Britain via programmes run by the British Council and others. In this paper I discuss how identity is constructed within a professional community that crosses national boundaries. I conclude by suggesting that teachers who are working with colleagues from other nations build their professional identity together in innovative and exploratory ways. I also suggest that they actively construct professional communities with these colleagues and that they find this rewarding and significant. This paper responds to several of the identified themes of the ECER Conference 2015. These include ‘ways in which teachers learn and develop throughout their professional career’. In relation to this, this paper also addresses issues around the conference title 'education and transition'