Mapping Educational Specialist knowHow (MESH): the building of a knowledge management system for research informed practice

In this invited article the authors present an evaluative report on the development of the MESHGuides project (http://www.meshguides.org/). MESHGuides’ objective is to provide education with an international knowledge management system. MESHGuides were conceived as research summaries for supporting teachers’ in developing evidence-based practice. Their aim is to enhance teachers’ capacity to engage actively with research in their own classrooms. The original thinking for MESH arose from the work of UK-based academics Professor Marilyn Leask and Dr Sarah Younie in response to a desire, which has recently gathered momentum in the UK, for the development of a more research-informed teaching profession and for the establishment of an on-line platform to support evidence-based practice (DfE, 2015; Leask and Younie 2001; OECD 2009). The focus of this article is on how the MESHGuides project was conceived and structured, the technical systems supporting it and the practical reality for academics and teachers of composing and using MESHGuides. The project and the guides are in the early stages of development, and discussion indicates future possibilities for more global engagement with this knowledge management system.

Departmental differences in attitudes to special educational needs in the secondary school

As trends in favour of inclusion continue, questions arise concerning the extent to which teachers in mainstream schools feel prepared for the task of meeting pupils' special educational needs. Little previous research has considered how the subject taught impacts upon the attitudes of mainstream teachers towards pupils with special educational needs. In this article, Jean Ellins, research fellow at the University of Birmingham, and Jill Porter, senior lecturer at the University of Bath, report on their research into the attitudes of teachers in one mainstream secondary school. Building a detailed case study using documents, records of pupil progress, an interview and a questionnaire using a Likert-type attitude scale and open-ended questions, these researchers set out to explore distinctions between the attitudes of teachers working in different departments. Their findings suggest that the teachers of the core subjects, English, mathematics and science, had less positive attitudes than their colleagues. Further, pupils with special educational needs made least progress in science where teacher attitudes were the least positive. Jean Ellins and Jill Porter review the implications of these findings and make recommendations for future practice and further enquiry.

Economic experiments used for the evaluation of building users’ energy-saving behavior

Different treatments that could be implemented in the home environ-ment are evaluated with the objective of reaching a more rational and efficient use of energy. We consider that a detailed knowledge of energy-consuming behaviour is paramount for the development and implementation of new technologies, services and even policies that could result in more rational energy use. The proposed evaluation methodology is based on the development of economic experiments implemented in an experimental economics laboratory, where the behaviour of individuals when making decisions related to energy use in the domestic environment can be tested.

English language teaching and educational reform in Western China: a knowledge management perspective

This study examines the impact of a large-scale UK-based teacher development programme on innovation and change in English language education in Western China within a knowledge management (KM) framework. Questionnaire data were collected from 229 returnee teachers in 15 cohorts. Follow-up interviews and focus groups were conducted with former participants, middle and senior managers, and teachers who had not participated in the UK programme. The results showed evidence of knowledge creation and amplification at individual, group and inter-organizational levels. However, the present study also identified knowledge creation potential through the more effective organization of follow-up at the national level, particularly for the returnee teachers. It is argued that the KM framework might offer a promising alternative to existing models and metaphors of Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

Ice-sheet configuration in the CMIP5/PMIP3 Last Glacial Maximum experiments

We describe the creation of a data set describing changes related to the presence of ice sheets, including ice-sheet extent and height, ice-shelf extent, and the distribution and elevation of ice-free land at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), which were used in LGM experiments conducted as part of the fifth phase of the Coupled Modelling Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and the third phase of the Palaeoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP3). The CMIP5/PMIP3 data sets were created from reconstructions made by three different groups, which were all obtained using a model-inversion approach but differ in the assumptions used in the modelling and in the type of data used as constraints. The ice-sheet extent in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) does not vary substantially between the three individual data sources. The difference in the topography of the NH ice sheets is also moderate, and smaller than the differences between these reconstructions (and the resultant composite reconstruction) and ice-sheet reconstructions used in previous generations of PMIP. Only two of the individual reconstructions provide information for Antarctica. The discrepancy between these two reconstructions is larger than the difference for the NH ice sheets, although still less than the difference between the composite reconstruction and previous PMIP ice-sheet reconstructions. Although largely confined to the ice-covered regions, differences between the climate response to the individual LGM reconstructions extend over the North Atlantic Ocean and Northern Hemisphere continents, partly through atmospheric stationary waves. Differences between the climate response to the CMIP5/PMIP3 composite and any individual ice-sheet reconstruction are smaller than those between the CMIP5/PMIP3 composite and the ice sheet used in the last phase of PMIP (PMIP2).

Start-up rheometry of highly polydisperse magnetorheological fluids: experiments and simulations

An extensive experimental and simulation study is carried out in conventional magnetorheological fluids formulated by dispersion of mixtures of carbonyl iron particles having different sizes in Newtonian carriers. Apparent yield stress data are reported for a wide range of polydispersity indexes (PDI) from PDI = 1.63 to PDI = 3.31, which for a log-normal distribution corresponds to the standard deviation ranging from to . These results demonstrate that the effect of polydispersity is negligible in this range in spite of exhibiting very different microstructures. Experimental data in the magnetic saturation regime are in quantitative good agreement with particle-level simulations under the assumption of dipolar magnetostatic forces. The insensitivity of the yield stresses to the polydispersity can be understood from the interplay between the particle cluster size distribution and the packing density of particles inside the clusters.

The BALTIMOS (BALTEX Integrated Model System) fi eld experiments: A comprehensive atmospheric boundary layer data set for model validation over the open and ice- covered Baltic Sea

A comprehensive atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) data set was collected in eight fi eld experiments (two during each season) over open water and sea ice in the Baltic Sea during 1998–2001 with the primary objective to validate the coupled atmospheric- ice-ocean-land surface model BALTIMOS (BALTEX Integrated Model System). Measurements were taken by aircraft, ships and surface stations and cover the mean and turbulent structure of the ABL including turbulent fl uxes, radiation fl uxes, and cloud conditions. Measurement examples of the spatial variability of the ABL over the ice edge zone and of the stable ABL over open water demonstrate the wide range of ABL conditions collected and the strength of the data set which can also be used to validate other regional models.

Joint use of attribute importance rankings and non-attendance data in choice experiments

The joint and alternative uses of attribute non-attendance and importance ranking data within discrete choice experiments are investigated using data from Lebanon examining consumers’ preferences for safety certification in food. We find that both types of information; attribute non-attendance and importance rankings, improve estimates of respondent utility. We introduce a method of integrating both types of information simultaneously and find that this outperforms models where either importance ranking or non-attendance data are used alone. As in previous studies, stated non-attendance of attributes was not found to be consistent with respondents having zero marginal utility for those attributes

Design, implementation and interpretation of in vitro batchculture experiments to assess enteric methane mitigation in ruminants—a review

In vitro fermentation techniques (IVFT) have been widely used to evaluate the nutritivevalue of feeds for ruminants and in the last decade to assess the effect of different nutritionalstrategies on methane (CH4) production. However, many technical factors may influencethe results obtained. The present review has been prepared by the ‘Global Network’ FACCE-JPI international research consortium to provide a critical evaluation of the main factorsthat need to be considered when designing, conducting and interpreting IVFT experimentsthat investigate nutritional strategies to mitigate CH4emission from ruminants. Given theincreasing and wide-scale use of IVFT, there is a need to critically review reports in the lit-erature and establish what criteria are essential to the establishment and implementationof in vitro techniques. Key aspects considered include: i) donor animal species and numberof animal used, ii) diet fed to donor animals, iii) collection and processing of rumen fluidas inoculum, iv) choice of substrate and incubation buffer, v) incubation procedures andCH4measurements, vi) headspace gas composition and vii) comparability of in vitro andin vivo measurements. Based on an evaluation of experimental evidence, a set of techni-cal recommendations are presented to harmonize IVFT for feed evaluation, assessment ofrumen function and CH4production.

Results of Joint Experiments and other IAEA activities on research using small tokamaks

This paper presents an overview of the results obtained during the Joint Experiments organized in the framework of the IAEA Coordinated Research Project on `Joint Research Using Small Tokamaks` that have been carried out on the tokamaks CASTOR at IPP Prague, Czech Republic (2005), T-10 at RRC `Kurchatov Institute`, Moscow, Russia (2006), and the most recent one at ISTTOK at IST, Lisbon, Portugal, in 2007. Experimental programmes were aimed at diagnosing and characterizing the core and the edge plasma turbulence in a tokamak in order to investigate correlations between the occurrence of transport barriers, improved confinement, electric fields and electrostatic turbulence using advanced diagnostics with high spatial and temporal resolution. On CASTOR and ISTTOK, electric fields were generated by biasing an electrode inserted into the edge plasma and an improvement of the global particle confinement induced by the electrode positive biasing has been observed. Geodesic acoustic modes were studied using heavy ion beam diagnostics on T-10 and ISTTOK and correlation reflectometry on T-10. ISTTOK is equipped with a gallium jet injector and the technical feasibility of gallium jets interacting with plasmas has been investigated in pulsed and ac operation. The first Joint Experiments have clearly demonstrated that small tokamaks are suitable for broad international cooperation to conduct dedicated joint research programmes. Other activities within the IAEA Coordinated Research Project on Joint Research Using Small Tokamaks are also overviewed.

Anisotropy and chemical composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using arrival directions measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Collaboration has reported. evidence for anisotropy in the distribution of arrival directions of the cosmic rays with energies E > E(th) = 5.5 x 10(19) eV. These show a correlation with the distribution of nearby extragalactic objects, including an apparent excess around the direction of Centaurus A. If the particles responsible for these excesses at E > E(th) are heavy nuclei with charge Z, the proton component of the sources should lead to excesses in the same regions at energies E/Z. We here report the lack of anisotropies in these directions at energies above E(th)/Z (for illustrative values of Z = 6, 13, 26). If the anisotropies above E(th) are due to nuclei with charge Z, and under reasonable assumptions about the acceleration process, these observations imply stringent constraints on the allowed proton fraction at the lower energies.

Is the unfolding of the group discussion off-pattern? Improving coordination support in educational forums using mobile devices

A forum is a valuable tool to foster reflection in an in-depth discussion; however, it forces the course mediator to continually pay close attention in order to coordinate learners` activities. Moreover, monitoring a forum is time consuming given that it is impossible to know in advance when new messages are going to be posted. Additionally, a forum may be inactive for a long period and suddenly receive a burst of messages forcing forum mediators to frequently log on in order to know how the discussion is unfolding to intervene whenever it is necessary. Mediators also need to deal with a large amount of messages to identify off-pattern situations. This work presents a piece of action research that investigates how to improve coordination support in a forum using mobile devices for mitigating mediator`s difficulties in following the status of a forum. Based on summarized information extracted from message meta-data, mediators consult visual information summaries on PDAs and receive textual notifications in their mobile phone. This investigation revealed that mediators used the mobile-based coordination support to keep informed on what is taking place within the forum without the need to log on their desktop computer. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.