The probation service in England and Wales: A decade of radical change or more of the same?

This article reviews developments in probation in England and Wales since 2010, a decade in which services were exposed to the logic of competition and profit. In 2014, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government’s Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reforms promised an end to a top-down, target-centric culture of state intervention by outsourcing services for low-to-medium risk offenders to 21 privately-owned Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). And yet, just four years after the reforms were implemented, the Conservative government announced that CRCs’ contracts would be terminated, with all offender management services returned to the public sector. With a focus on the private sector, the article argues that radical change to the probation service’s structure has entrenched a focus on centrally-administered performance targets and audit. In other words, contrary to the decentralising rhetoric at the core of TR, the decade has in many ways produced more of the same managerialism that the reforms were presented as a means to displace. The result has been a general decline in the quality of probation services

The Behaviour of Water-Mists in Hot Air Induced by a Room Fire: Effect of the Initial Size of Droplets

This paper presents work on investigating the effect of the initial size of water mist droplets on the evaporation and removal of heat from the fire-induced hot gas layer while travelling through the air in a compartment. The histories of the temperature, diameter and position of droplets with different initial diameters (varied from 100 µm to 1000 µm) are determined considering surrounding air temperatures of 75 °C and 150 °C and a room height of 3.0 m. A water droplet evaporation model (WDEM) developed in a previous study (Fire and Materials 2016; 40:190–205) is employed to navigate this work. The study reveals that tiny droplets (for example, 100 µm) have disappeared within a very short time due to evaporation and travelled a very small distance from the spray nozzle because of their tiny size. In contrast, droplets with a larger diameter (for example, 1000 µm) reached the floor with much less evaporation. In the case of this study, the relative tiny droplets (≤200 µm) have absorbed the highest amount of energy from their surroundings due to their complete evaporation, whereas the larger droplets have extracted less energy due to their smaller area/volume ratios, and their traverse times are shorter. One of the key findings of this study is that the smaller droplets of spray effectively cool the environment due to their rapid evaporation and extraction of heat from the surroundings, and the larger droplets are effective in traversing the hot air or smoke layer and reaching the floor of the compartment in a fire environment. The findings of this study might help in understanding the behaviour of water-mist droplets with different initial diameters in designing a water-mist nozzle

Grouping practices in the primary school: what influences change?

During the 1990s, there was considerable emphasis on promoting particular kinds of pupil grouping as a means of raising educational standards. This survey of 2000 primary schools explored the extent to which schools had changed their grouping practices in responses to this, the nature of the changes made and the reasons for those changes. Forty eight percent of responding schools reported that they had made no change. Twenty two percent reported changes because of the literacy hour, 2% because of the numeracy hour, 7% because of a combination of these and 21% for other reasons. Important influences on decisions about the types of grouping adopted were related to pupil learning and differentiation, teaching, the implementation of the national literacy strategy, practical issues and school self-evaluation

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to assess safety and tolerability during treatment of type 2 diabetes with usual diabetes therapy and either Cycloset™ or placebo

Background: Cycloset™ is a quick-release formulation of bromocriptine mesylate, a dopamine agonist, which in animal models of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes acts centrally to reduce resistance to insulin- mediated suppression of hepatic glucose output and tissue glucose disposal. In such animals, bromocriptine also reduces hepatic triglyceride synthesis and free fatty acid mobilization, manifesting decreases in both plasma triglycerides and free fatty acids. In clinical trials, morning administration of Cycloset™ either as monotherapy or adjunctive therapy to sulfonylurea or insulin reduces HbA1c levels relative to placebo by 0.55–1.2. Cycloset™ therapy also reduces plasma triglycerides and free fatty acid by approximately 25% and 20%, respectively, among those also receiving sulfonylurea therapies. The effects of once-daily morning Cycloset™ therapy on glycemic control and plasma lipids are demonstrable throughout the diurnal portion of the day (7 a.m. to 7 p.m.) across postprandial time points. Methods/Design: 3,095 individuals were randomized in a 2:1 ratio into a one year trial aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of Cycloset™ compared to placebo among individuals receiving a variety of treatments for type 2 diabetes. Eligibility criteria for this randomized placebo controlled trial included: age 30–80, HbA1c ≤ 10%, diabetes therapeutic regimen consisting of diet or no more than two hypoglycemic agents or insulin with or without one additional oral agent (usual diabetes therapy; UDT). The primary safety endpoint will test the hypothesis that the rate of all-cause serious adverse events after one year of usual diabetes therapy (UDT) plus Cycloset™ is not greater than that for UDT plus placebo by more than an acceptable margin defined as a hazard ratio of 1.5 with a secondary endpoint analysis of the difference in the rate of serious cardiovascular events, (myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary revascularization or hospitalization for or angina or congestive heart failure). Efficacy analyses will evaluate effects of Cycloset™ versus placebo on change from baseline in HbA1c, fasting glucose, body weight, waist circumference, blood pressure and plasma lipids. Discussion: This study will extend the current data on Cycloset™ safety, tolerability and efficacy in individuals with type 2 diabetes to include its effects in combination with thiazolodinediones, insulin secretagogues, metformin, alpha-glucosidase inhibitors and exogenous insulin regimens. Trial registration: clinical trials.gov NCT0037767

Defining and assessing enterprise capability in schools

This paper describes the development of an instrument for assessing enterprise capability in schools. The approach to assessing enterprise capability builds on previous work by including three dimensions: self-efficacy, aspirations and knowledge and awareness. We find significant but weak associations between these three constructs suggesting that that, whilst they can be considered as providing a coherent description of enterprise capability they can also be regarded as distinct dimensions. The instrument also distinguishes between aspiration towards not-for-profit and for-profit enterprise and also between self-efficacy towards two broad enterprise capabilities: (i) project planning and (ii) working with people and information and two specific, market related capabilities: (iii) market risk and (iv) price and profit. We found only modest associations between students’ sense of enterpriser self-efficacy and their enterprise knowledge and awareness

Eye-Transcriptome and Genome-Wide Sequencing for Scolecophidia: Implications for Inferring the Visual System of the Ancestral Snake

Molecular genetic data have recently been incorporated in attempts to reconstruct the ecology of the ancestral snake, though this has been limited by a paucity of data for one of the two main extant snake taxa, the highly fossorial Scolecophidia. Here we present and analyze vision genes from the first eye-transcriptomic and genome-wide data for Scolecophidia, for Anilios bicolor, and A. bituberculatus, respectively. We also present immunohistochemistry data for retinal anatomy and visual opsin-gene expression in Anilios. Analyzed in the context of 19 lepidosaurian genomes and 12 eye transcriptomes, the new genome-wide and transcriptomic data provide evidence for a much more reduced visual system in Anilios than in non-scolecophidian (=alethinophidian) snakes and in lizards. In Anilios, there is no evidence of the presence of 7 of the 12 genes associated with alethinophidian photopic (cone) phototransduction. This indicates extensive gene loss and many of these candidate gene losses occur also in highly fossorial mammals with reduced vision. Although recent phylogenetic studies have found evidence for scolecophidian paraphyly, the loss in Anilios of visual genes that are present in alethinophidians implies that the ancestral snake had a better-developed visual system than is known for any extant scolecophidian

The positions of primary and secondary schools in the English school field: a case of durable inequality

In interviews as part of a research study of structural reform in England, some tension between primary head teachers and their secondary peers was evident. This was symptomatic of a long-standing difference in status between the two phases. At a time when relations between stakeholders in local systems are subject to change, we seek to understand anew why that might be the case and how the tension we found was evidence of a current difference of power within interactions between representatives of the phases. We analyse differences of size, resources, workforce, pedagogy and history, and how they have resulted in different, and differently valued, practices and professional identities. We explore how attributes of the two phases have been counterposed and how, in complex interaction with wider discourses of politics, gender and age, this process has invested the differences with meanings and values that tend to relegate attributes associated with primary school. By focusing on the activation of cumulative inequality in interactions, we contribute a complementary perspective to studies of perceived relative status and highlight the implications for understanding school positioning in local arenas as the role of local authorities is reduced