Studies of chemical speciation in naturally anoxic basins

The chemical speciation of both metals and non-metals, the use of polarographic techniques, and application to the study of the chemistry of anoxic waters are considered. In the first part of the paper unfamiliar terminology is explained and then an example of simple lake chemistry is presented to illustrate why the concept of speciation is necessary

Family learning: "What's the score?"

Family Learning through Football and Coaching (FLTFC) was developed with Sunderland Association Football Club (SAFC) Foundation, an adult basic skills provider, a primary school and the Open College Network. Ten years on this programme has high participation rates and is recognised for its capacity to engage the ‘hard-to-reach’ in learning. This paper provides a focused historical analysis and attempts to locate family learning in relation to policy, local authority structures and educational discourse. As cuts to public services continue, there is an expectation that the third sector, including social enterprises such as SAFC Foundation, will step in to fill the gap. The success of FLTFC could be presented as evidence of the effectiveness of the Big Society agenda however taking the long view it is evident that partnership with the public sector is an essential element in the development and continuity of successful provision. The theoretical framework which informs the paper incorporates brief consideration of the concept of lifelong learning and an examination of informal learning in the context of the family. The emerging localism agenda and issues relating to the current Coalition government's Big Society concept also inform the discussion. The paper will contribute to understanding of support for learning within families by providing a historical analysis of the endurance and success of a specific family learning programme. The findings of this study have the potential to contribute to the implementation of policy arising from the current review of adult informal community learning (BIS, 2011)

Formation of iron sulfide at faecal pellets and other microniches within suboxic surface sediment.

Faecal pellet deposition and bioturbation may lead to heterogeneously distributed particles of localized highly reactive organic matter (microniches) being present below the oxygen penetration depth. Where O2, NO3-, and Fe/Mn oxyhydroxides become depleted within these microniches or where they exist in zones of sulfate reduction, significant localized peaks in sulfide concentration can occur. These discrete zones of sulfide evolution can cause formation of iron sulfides that would not be predicted by analysis of the ‘bulk’ sediment. Using a reaction-transport model developed specifically for investigating spherical microniches, and incorporating 3D diffusion, we investigated how the rate constants of organic matter (OM) degradation, particle porosity and niche lifetime, affect dissolved sulfide and iron concentrations, and formation of iron sulfide at such niches. For all of the modelled scenarios the saturation index for iron sulfide is positive, indicating favourable conditions for FeS precipitation in all niches. Those simulations within the microniche lifetime range of 2.5 to 5 days gave comparable concentration ratios of sulfide to iron in solution within the niche to experimentally observed values. Our model results provide insight into the mechanisms of preservation of OM, including soft tissue, in the paleo record, by predicting the conditions that result in preferential deposition of precipitates at the edge of microniches. Decreases in porosity, shorter niche lifetimes and increases in OM degradation rate constants, all tend to increase the likelihood that FeS precipitation will preferentially occur at the edges of a niche, rather than uniformly throughout the niche volume

A systematic definition of sentence topic

Bibliography: leaves 43-46Supported in part by the National Institute of Education under contract no. HEW-NIE-C-400-76-011

New Zealand Kindergartens 2005 to 2010: Funding and operational changes

Participation in good quality early childhood education has positive outcomes for children, families and society. Supportive policy frameworks and sufficient, secure and predictable funding are necessary to encourage participation and ensure that flexible services, designed to respond to the needs of children and families are available. This has not always been the case in New Zealand early childhood education. New Zealand kindergartens for example have always relied on significant voluntary donations and support to maintain their sessional services and provision. In 2005 and 2007, however, new early childhood funding initiatives opened up opportunities for kindergartens to review their operation and make changes to their provision. This article is based on the findings from a survey of New Zealand Kindergarten association management conducted in 2010. The survey sought to find out what changes had occurred in kindergarten provision as a result of the funding initiatives. Association responses show that significant change has been embraced and that this has resulted in improved quality, greater flexibility of hours and attendance options and less reliance on voluntary donations and support

Private damages actions under EU competition policy : an exploration of the ongoing sea change in respect of such actions concerning articles 101 and 102 TFEU infringements

The EU has an established history of public enforcement concerning antitrust infringements under what are now Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Yet, until recently, this has not been true in respect of private compensatory damages actions in relation to the said Articles. Hence, these actions are now seen as reinforcing the existing deterrent provided by pubic enforcement fines. This paper focuses upon the ongoing sea change that aims to enable and encourage compensatory damages claims in relation to harm caused by breaches of 101 and 102 TFEU. It reveals that both the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Commission have played pioneering roles in advancing this sea change. It further asserts that, although the rulings of the CJEU have created a hybrid architecture that makes possible private actions in relation to the said breaches under Member state procedural laws before national courts, the architecture itself is problematic as it fails to guarantee that Member states’ procedural rules have a high degree of uniformity, thereby failing to guarantee a regulatory level playing field across the Union concerning the said damages actions. Moreover, not only is the architecture problematic, but it needed further development in respect of rules and requirements in several key areas, such as the right of evidential disclosure, the limitation period issue, collective redress and the quantification of harm, so as to facilitate and encourage claims. The Commission was aware of these concerns, and this paper explores its response. The issues could have been addressed by the establishment of a set of EU procedural rules which national courts would apply in the said actions but the Commission decided upon a different way forward. Working with the said hybrid architecture, and through the vehicle of the 2014 Directive on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States and of the European Union, the Commission has amended and created rules and requirements which will form part of member states’ domestic procedural law - and therefore will be applied by national courts – in order to establish a more level regulatory playing field across the Union which should facilitate and encourage private compensatory damages actions for harm caused by EU antitrust breaches. Of course, a more level playing field means that differences will still remain. Moreover, it will be some time before the success of the Directive can be gauged, and further measures may be required in the future

Refined invariants of finite-dimensional Jacobi algebras

We define and study refined Gopakumar-Vafa invariants of contractible curves in complex algebraic 3-folds, alongside the cohomological Donaldson--Thomas theory of finite-dimensional Jacobi algebras. These Gopakumar-Vafa invariants can be constructed one of two ways: as cohomological BPS invariants of contraction algebras controlling the deformation theory of these curves, as defined by Donovan and Wemyss, or by feeding the moduli spaces that Katz used to define genus zero Gopakumar-Vafa invariants into the machinery developed by Joyce et al. The conjecture that the two definitions give isomorphic results is a special case of a kind of categorified version of the strong rationality conjecture due to Pandharipande and Thomas, that we discuss and propose a means of proving. We prove the positivity of the cohomological/refined BPS invariants of all finite-dimensional Jacobi algebras. This result supports this strengthening of the strong rationality conjecture, as well as the conjecture of Brown and Wemyss stating that all finite-dimensional Jacobi algebras for appropriate symmetric quivers are isomorphic to contraction algebras.Comment: 29 page