Stand Up to Bullying: Bullying Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents

This is a presentation on a curriculum designed for MAPP trainers to help foster parents and adoptive parents identify bullying behaviors and help children in their care who may be engaged in bullying or are victims

Towards cleaner production: a roadmap for predicting product end-of-life costs at early design concept

The primary objective of the research was to investigate how disposal costs were being incurred in the domain of defence electronic systems by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and subsequently to ascertain a novel approach to prediction of their end-of-life (EOL) costs. It is intended that the OEM could utilise this method as part of a full lifecycle cost analysis at the conceptual design stage. The cost model would also serve as a useful guide to aid decision making at the conceptual design stage, so that it may lead to the design of a more sustainable product in terms of recycling, refurbishment or remanufacture with the consideration of financial impact. The novelty of this research is that it identifies the significance of disposal costs from the viewpoint of the OEM and provides a generic basis for evaluation of all the major EOL defence electronic systems. A roadmap has been proposed and developed to facilitate the prediction of disposal costs and this will be used to determine a satisfactory solution of whether the EOL parts of a defence electronic system are viable to be remanufactured, refurbished or recycled from an early stage of a design concept. A selected defence electronic system is used as a case study. Based on the findings, the proposed method offers a manageable and realistic solution so that the OEM can estimate the cost of potential EOL recovery processes at the concept design stag

On the map: towards a multidimensional understanding of Open Educational Practices

In the context of contemporary higher education, the concept of “Open Education” has come to be closely associated with technology-enabled approaches, particularly the creation, sharing and repurposing of Open Educational Resources (OER), and the development and facilitation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). However, today’s Open Education Movement (OEM) partakes of a longer tradition of opening activities which have sought to extend access to the transformative benefits of education and knowledge. Educational openness, therefore, takes a variety of forms, and the meaning of “open” can best be understood as contextual, contingent and situated (Havemann, 2016). Openness, in the context of OER, resides in the application of an ‘open’, permissive license that enables access, reuse and remixing. The openness of open courses, conversely, can be understood as chiefly a question of unrestricted enrolment or participation. In the last decade, the term Open Educational Practices (OEP) has gained currency, in association with attempts to both a) recognize that resources do not emerge without practices and practitioners, and b) broaden the conversation about openness beyond resources, licenses, and technology. Yet, whereas a resource can be open via a license, it is less obvious how a practice is classified as open (or not-open). The invocation of the term open problematically suggests a contrast with its binary other, closed, or perhaps that a continuum exists between these two extremes. Yet, if we accept that different forms of practice are open in different ways, then a continuum model is also inadequate. This session reports on experiences of leading a series of workshops in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, in which participants were asked to explore the multidimensionality of openness. The activity draws upon an existing mapping exercise based upon White and Le Cornu’s (2011, 2017) work on digital “visitors and residents” (V&R). In the original V&R mapping activity, the two axes labeled Visitor-Resident and Personal-Institutional are placed on the page, creating four quadrants, and participants are then asked to consider in which quadrant(s) their own digital practices are located. For the “axes of open” mapping, participants examine “microcases” of OEP and consider in what senses these are open or closed. Two axes are used, with one labeled Closed-Open and the other left unlabelled, as the core goal of the workshop is to provoke debate about what the ‘other dimension’ of openness might be (Havemann, 2017). This session will provide an overview of how the workshop was conducted and discuss the outcomes of the initial series of workshops. Of these outcomes, the most significant is the irreducibility of openness in an OEP context, as no consensus was reached about the nature of the other axis. A wide range of possibilities have surfaced, and in turn, stimulated a wider discussion about diversity and criticality in the Open Education space. References Havemann, L. (2016) Open educational resources. In: Peters, M.A. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory. Singapore: Springer Singapore. http://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/17820 Havemann, L. (2017) ‘Yes, we are open’: exploring definitions of openness in education. In: ALT-C 2017: Beyond islands of innovation – how Learning Technology became the new norm(al), 5-7 Sep 2017, Liverpool, UK. White, D.S. and Le Cornu, A. 2011: Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9). http://firstmonday.org/article/view/3171/3049 White, D.S. and Le Cornu, A. 2017: Using ‘Visitors and Residents’ to visualise digital practices. First Monday, 22(8). http://www.firstmonday.dk/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/7802/651

Once in a blue moon: detection of ‘bluing’ during debris transits in the white dwarf WD 1145+017

The first transiting planetesimal orbiting a white dwarf was recently detected in K2 data of WD 1145+017 and has been followed up intensively. The multiple, long and variable transits suggest the transiting objects are dust clouds, probably produced by a disintegrating asteroid. In addition, the system contains circumstellar gas, evident by broad absorption lines, mostly in the u΄ band, and a dust disc, indicated by an infrared excess. Here we present the first detection of a change in colour of WD 1145+017 during transits, using simultaneous multiband fast-photometry ULTRACAM measurements over the u΄g΄r΄i΄ bands. The observations reveal what appears to be ‘bluing' during transits; transits are deeper in the redder bands, with a u΄ − r΄ colour difference of up to ∼−0.05 mag. We explore various possible explanations for the bluing, including limb darkening or peculiar dust properties. ‘Spectral' photometry obtained by integrating over bandpasses in the spectroscopic data in and out of transit, compared to the photometric data, shows that the observed colour difference is most likely the result of reduced circumstellar absorption in the spectrum during transits. This indicates that the transiting objects and the gas share the same line of sight and that the gas covers the white dwarf only partially, as would be expected if the gas, the transiting debris and the dust emitting the infrared excess are part of the same general disc structure (although possibly at different radii). In addition, we present the results of a week-long monitoring campaign of the system using a global network of telescopes

A reassessment of Kelmayisaurus petrolicus, a large theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China

The Early Cretaceous fossil record of large−bodied theropods from Asia is poor, hindering comparison of Asian predatory dinosaur faunas with those from other continents. One of the few large Asian theropod specimens from this interval is a partial skull (maxilla and dentary) from the Lianmugin Formation (?Valanginian–Albian), the holotype of Kelmayisaurus petrolicus. Most authors have either considered this specimen as an indeterminate basal tetanuran or a nomen dubium. Weredescribe K. petrolicus and note that it possesses a single autapomorphy (a deep accessory groove on the lateral surface of the anterior dentary), as well as a unique combination of characters that differentiates it from other theropods, affirming its validity. A phylogenetic analysis recovers K. petrolicus as a basal carcharodontosaurid, which is supported by various features: very deep interdental plates (a carcharodontosaurid synapomorphy), fused interdental plates (present in carchardontosaurids and a limited number of other theropods), and the absence of diagnostic features of other clades of large−bodied theropods such as abelisaurids, megalosauroids, and coelurosaurs. As such, Kelmayisaurus is the second known carcharodontosaurid from Asia, and further evidence that this clade represented a global radiation of large−bodied predators during the Early–mid Cretaceous

Open Education as a threshold concept in Teacher Education: a theoretical framework for further research

* Threshold concept framework: A threshold concept can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress. As a consequence of comprehending a threshold concept there may thus be a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape, or even worldview (Meyer and Land, 2003). Threshold concepts have been explored in many disciplines (Bradbeer, 2006) and may have a key role for the transformation of the students’ learning experience (Cousin, 2006). Since open education has implications for innovation and change (Peter and Deimann, 2013), we suggest exploring it as a threshold concept. There are five main attributes defined originally by Meyer and Land (2003) and three more have also been listed stemming from comments made by the authors (UCL, 2013): transformative, troublesome, irreversible, integrative, bounded, discursive, reconstitutive and liminal. * Openness as a threshold concept: 1. Transformative Is openness transformative for students involved in open educational practices? 2. Troublesome What difficulties do students face when being involved in open educational practices? 3. Irreversible How do students’ perceptions change when being involved in open educational practices? How do these changes impact visions of their own future professional careers? 4. Liminality How can the progressive change towards the open movement be scaffolded? How can feedback help in the construction of authentic open educational practices? 5. Discursive What kind of narrative do students involved in open educational practices develop? Does it reflect authentic construction of the open movement understanding? This is the theoretical framework for future research about openness as a threshold concept. More research is needed to obtain data that would throw light on how to address each particular attribute. This is an open call to those interested in going further in this line of research

Democracy and governance networks: compatible or not?

The relationship between representative democracy and governance networks is investigated at a theoretical level. Four conjectures about the relationship are defined. The incompatibility conjectures rests on the primacy of politics and sees governance networks as a threat. The complementarity conjecture presents governance networks as a means of enabling greater participation in the policy process and sensitivity in programme implementation. The transitional conjecture posits a wider evolution of governance forms towards network relationships. The instrumental conjecture views governance networks as a powerful means through which dominant interests can achieve their goals. Illustrative implications for theory and practice are identified, in relation to power in the policy process, the public interest, and the role of public managers. The heuristic potential of the conjectures is demonstrated through the identification of an outline research agenda

Some Consequences of Thermosolutal Convection: The Grain Structure of Castings

The essential principles of thermosolutal convection are outlined, and how convection provides a transport mechanism between the mushy region of a casting and the open bulk liquid is illustrated. The convective flow patterns which develop assist in heat exchange and macroscopic solute segregation during solidification; they also provide a mechanism for the transport of dendritic fragments from the mushy region into the bulk liquid. Surviving fragments become nuclei for equiaxed grains and so lead to blocking of the parental columnar, dendritic growth front from which they originated. The physical steps in such a sequence are considered and some experimental data are provided to support the argument