Getting pupils to 'see the point' of school subjects: history, a case study

This paper examines the factors that influence pupil take up of a subject, in this case history, at GCSE. The research indicates that pupils enjoy history but significant factors prevent many from choosing it for further study; these include factors that are beyond the control of teachers, such as government policy and the way this is interpreted by senior managers in school, and factors that are within the control of teachers. The paper suggests that there are lessons that departments can learn from more successful departments but there are also important side effects of government policy that are having unintended consequences.

In search of the aim of the free movement of persons provisions: has the Court of Justice missed the point?

The Court of Justice has, over the years, often been vilified for exceeding the limits of its jurisdiction by interpreting the provisions of Community legislation in a way not seem originally envisaged by its drafters. A recent example of this approach was a cluster of cases in the context of the free movement of workers and the freedom of establishment (Ritter-Coulais and its progeny), where the Court included within the scope of those provisions situations which, arguably, did not present a sufficient link with their (economic) aim. In particular, in that case law the Court accepted that the mere exercise of free movement for the purpose of taking up residence in the territory of another Member State whilst continuing to exercise an economic activity in the State of origin, suffices for bringing a Member State national within the scope of Articles 39 and 43 EC. It is argued that the most plausible explanation for this approach is that the Court now wishes to re-read the economic fundamental freedoms in such a way as to include within their scope all economically active Union citizens, irrespective of whether their situation presents a sufficient link with the exercise of an economic activity in a cross-border context. It is suggested that this approach is problematic for a number of reasons. It is, therefore, concluded that the Court should revert to its orthodox approach, according to which only situations that involve Union citizens who have moved between Member States for the purpose of taking up an economic activity should be included within the scope of the market freedoms.

Are the debates on water privatization missing the point? Experiences from Africa, Asia and Latin America

This paper has two principal aims: first, to unravel some of the arguments mobilized in the controversial privatization debate, and second, to review the scale and nature of private sector provision of water and sanitation in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Despite being vigorously promoted in the policy arena and having been implemented in several countries in the South in the 1990s, privatization has achieved neither the scale nor benefits anticipated. In particular, the paper is pessimistic about the role that privatization can play in achieving the Millennium Development Goals of halving the number of people without access to water and sanitation by 2015. This is not because of some inherent contradiction between private profits and the public good, but because neither publicly nor privately operated utilities are well suited to serving the majority of low-income households with inadequate water and sanitation, and because many of the barriers to service provision in poor settlements can persist whether water and sanitation utilities are publicly or privately operated. This is not to say that well-governed localities should not choose to involve private companies in water and sanitation provision, but it does imply that there is no justification for international agencies and agreements to actively promote greater private sector participation on the grounds that it can significantly reduce deficiencies in water and sanitation services in the South.

Well-posed two-point initial-boundary value problems with arbitrary boundary conditions

We study initial-boundary value problems for linear evolution equations of arbitrary spatial order, subject to arbitrary linear boundary conditions and posed on a rectangular 1-space, 1-time domain. We give a new characterisation of the boundary conditions that specify well-posed problems using Fokas' transform method. We also give a sufficient condition guaranteeing that the solution can be represented using a series. The relevant condition, the analyticity at infinity of certain meromorphic functions within particular sectors, is significantly more concrete and easier to test than the previous criterion, based on the existence of admissible functions.

Dispersion of a point-source release of a passive scalar through an urban-like array for different wind directions

The dispersion of a point-source release of a passive scalar in a regular array of cubical, urban-like, obstacles is investigated by means of direct numerical simulations. The simulations are conducted under conditions of neutral stability and fully rough turbulent flow, at a roughness Reynolds number of Reτ = 500. The Navier–Stokes and scalar equations are integrated assuming a constant rate release from a point source close to the ground within the array. We focus on short-range dispersion, when most of the material is still within the building canopy. Mean and fluctuating concentrations are computed for three different pressure gradient directions (0◦ , 30◦ , 45◦). The results agree well with available experimental data measured in a water channel for a flow angle of 0◦ . Profiles of mean concentration and the three-dimensional structure of the dispersion pattern are compared for the different forcing angles. A number of processes affecting the plume structure are identified and discussed, including: (i) advection or channelling of scalar down ‘streets’, (ii) lateral dispersion by turbulent fluctuations and topological dispersion induced by dividing streamlines around buildings, (iii) skewing of the plume due to flow turning with height, (iv) detrainment by turbulent dispersion or mean recirculation, (v) entrainment and release of scalar in building wakes, giving rise to ‘secondary sources’, (vi) plume meandering due to unsteady turbulent fluctuations. Finally, results on relative concentration fluctuations are presented and compared with the literature for point source dispersion over flat terrain and urban arrays. Keywords Direct numerical simulation · Dispersion modelling · Urban array

From symmetry breaking to Poisson Point Process in 2D Voronoi Tessellations: the generic nature of hexagons

We bridge the properties of the regular triangular, square, and hexagonal honeycomb Voronoi tessellations of the plane to the Poisson-Voronoi case, thus analyzing in a common framework symmetry breaking processes and the approach to uniform random distributions of tessellation-generating points. We resort to ensemble simulations of tessellations generated by points whose regular positions are perturbed through a Gaussian noise, whose variance is given by the parameter α2 times the square of the inverse of the average density of points. We analyze the number of sides, the area, and the perimeter of the Voronoi cells. For all valuesα >0, hexagons constitute the most common class of cells, and 2-parameter gamma distributions provide an efficient description of the statistical properties of the analyzed geometrical characteristics. The introduction of noise destroys the triangular and square tessellations, which are structurally unstable, as their topological properties are discontinuous in α = 0. On the contrary, the honeycomb hexagonal tessellation is topologically stable and, experimentally, all Voronoi cells are hexagonal for small but finite noise withα <0.12. For all tessellations and for small values of α, we observe a linear dependence on α of the ensemble mean of the standard deviation of the area and perimeter of the cells. Already for a moderate amount of Gaussian noise (α >0.5), memory of the specific initial unperturbed state is lost, because the statistical properties of the three perturbed regular tessellations are indistinguishable. When α >2, results converge to those of Poisson-Voronoi tessellations. The geometrical properties of n-sided cells change with α until the Poisson- Voronoi limit is reached for α > 2; in this limit the Desch law for perimeters is shown to be not valid and a square root dependence on n is established. This law allows for an easy link to the Lewis law for areas and agrees with exact asymptotic results. Finally, for α >1, the ensemble mean of the cells area and perimeter restricted to the hexagonal cells agree remarkably well with the full ensemble mean; this reinforces the idea that hexagons, beyond their ubiquitous numerical prominence, can be interpreted as typical polygons in 2D Voronoi tessellations.

Three-dimensional random Voronoi tessellations: From cubic crystal lattices to Poisson point processes

We perturb the SC, BCC, and FCC crystal structures with a spatial Gaussian noise whose adimensional strength is controlled by the parameter a, and analyze the topological and metrical properties of the resulting Voronoi Tessellations (VT). The topological properties of the VT of the SC and FCC crystals are unstable with respect to the introduction of noise, because the corresponding polyhedra are geometrically degenerate, whereas the tessellation of the BCC crystal is topologically stable even against noise of small but finite intensity. For weak noise, the mean area of the perturbed BCC and FCC crystals VT increases quadratically with a. In the case of perturbed SCC crystals, there is an optimal amount of noise that minimizes the mean area of the cells. Already for a moderate noise (a>0.5), the properties of the three perturbed VT are indistinguishable, and for intense noise (a>2), results converge to the Poisson-VT limit. Notably, 2-parameter gamma distributions are an excellent model for the empirical of of all considered properties. The VT of the perturbed BCC and FCC structures are local maxima for the isoperimetric quotient, which measures the degre of sphericity of the cells, among space filling VT. In the BCC case, this suggests a weaker form of the recentluy disproved Kelvin conjecture. Due to the fluctuations of the shape of the cells, anomalous scalings with exponents >3/2 is observed between the area and the volumes of the cells, and, except for the FCC case, also for a->0. In the Poisson-VT limit, the exponent is about 1.67. As the number of faces is positively correlated with the sphericity of the cells, the anomalous scaling is heavily reduced when we perform powerlaw fits separately on cells with a specific number of faces.

Numerical Methods for Stiff Two-Point Boundary Value Problems

We consider the two-point boundary value problem for stiff systems of ordinary differential equations. For systems that can be transformed to essentially diagonally dominant form with appropriate smoothness conditions, a priori estimates are obtained. Problems with turning points can be treated with this theory, and we discuss this in detail. We give robust difference approximations and present error estimates for these schemes. In particular we give a detailed description of how to transform a general system to essentially diagonally dominant form and then stretch the independent variable so that the system will satisfy the correct smoothness conditions. Numerical examples are presented for both linear and nonlinear problems.

Latching control of a point absorber

In this paper the authors investigate the use of optimal control techniques for improving the efficiency of the power conversion system in a point absorber wave power device. A simple mathematical model of the system is developed and an optimal control strategy for power generation is determined. They describe an algorithm for solving the problem numerically, provided the incident wave force is given. The results show that the performance of the device is significantly improved with the handwidth of the response being widened by the control strategy.

The importance of attractive three-point interaction in enantioselective surface chemistry: stereospecific adsorption of serine on the intrinsically chiral Cu{531} surface

Both enantiomers of serine adsorb on the intrinsically chiral Cu{531} surface in two different adsorption geometries, depending on the coverage. At saturation, substrate bonds are formed through the two oxygen atoms of the carboxylate group and the amino group (μ3 coordination), whereas at lower coverage, an additional bond is formed through the deprotonated β−OH group (μ4 coordination). The latter adsorption geometry involves substrate bonds through three side groups of the chiral center, respectively, which leads to significantly larger enantiomeric differences in adsorption geometries and energies compared to the μ3 coordination, which involves only two side groups. This relatively simple model system demonstrates, in direct comparison, that attractive interactions of three side groups with the substrate are much more effective in inducing strong enantiomeric differences in heterogeneous chiral catalyst systems than hydrogen bonds or repulsive interactions.