Changing policy and legislation in special and inclusive education: a perspective from Northern Ireland

It is now 15 years since the signing of the 1998 Belfast (or ‘Good Friday’) Peace Agreement which committed all participants to exclusively democratic and peaceful means of resolving differences, and towards a shared and inclusive society defined by the principles of respect for diversity, equality and the interdependence of people. In particular, it committed participants to the protection and vindication of the human rights of all. This is, therefore, a precipitous time to undertake a probing analysis of educational reforms in Northern Ireland associated with provision in the areas of inclusion and special needs education. Consequently, by drawing upon analytical tools and perspectives derived from critical policy analysis, this article, by Ron Smith from the School of Education, Queen’s University Belfast, discusses the policy cycle associated with the proposed legislation entitled Every School a Good School: the way forward for special educational needs and inclusion. It examines how this policy text structures key concepts such as ‘inclusion’, ‘additional educational needs’ and ‘barriers to learning’, and how the proposals attempt to resolve the dilemma of commonality and difference. Conceived under direct rule from Westminster (April 2006), issued for consultation when devolved powers to a Northern Ireland Assembly had been restored, and with the final proposals yet to be made public, this targeted educational strategy tells a fascinating story of the past, present and likely future of special needs education in Northern Ireland. Before offering an account of this work, it is placed within some broader ecological frameworks.

Scales and Hierarchies: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective

The volume advances our understanding of the role of scales and hierarchies across the linguistic sciences. Although scales and hierarchies are widely assumed to play a role in the modelling of linguistic phenomena, their status remains controversial, and it is these controversies that the present volume tackles head-on.

The Equiprobability Bias from a Mathematical and Psychological Perspective

The equiprobability bias (EB) is a tendency to believe that every process in which randomness is involved corresponds to a fair distribution, with equal probabilities for any possible outcome. The EB is known to affect both children and adults, and to increase with probability education. Because it results in probability errors resistant to pedagogical interventions, it has been described as a deep misconception about randomness: the erroneous belief that randomness implies uniformity. In the present paper, we show that the EB is actually not the result of a conceptual error about the definition of randomness. On the contrary, the mathematical theory of randomness does imply uniformity. However, the EB is still a bias, because people tend to assume uniformity even in the case of events that are not random. The pervasiveness of the EB reveals a paradox: The combination of random processes is not necessarily random. The link between the EB and this paradox is discussed, and suggestions are made regarding educational design to overcome difficulties encountered by students as a consequence of the EB.

When innovation fails: An institutional perspective of the (non)adoption of boundary spanning IT innovation

We combine the concepts of legitimacy, institutional (mis)alignments, strategic responses and organizing visions to develop a conceptual framework to analyse the adoption of innovations that span organisational fields. We apply the framework to examine a telehealth innovation connecting a public sector hospital-based eye clinic with private sector optometry practices. We find that while compromise strategies were successful in encouraging adoption within each field, the innovation ultimately failed as fields developed different organising visions which could not be reconciled. The findings suggest that institutional misalignments within and between fields interact to amplify their overall effect on the adoption of hybrid innovations.

The main-belt comets: The Pan-STARRS1 perspective

We analyze a set of 760 475 observations of 333 026 unique main-belt objects obtained by the Pan-STARRS1(PS1) survey telescope between 2012 May 20 and 2013 November 9, a period during which PS1 discoveredtwo main-belt comets, P/2012 T1 (PANSTARRS) and P/2013 R3 (Catalina-PANSTARRS). PS1 cometdetection procedures currently consist of the comparison of the point spread functions (PSFs) of movingobjects to those of reference stars, and the flagging of objects that show anomalously large radial PSFwidths for human evaluation and possible observational follow-up. Based on the number of missed discoveryopportunities among comets discovered by other observers, we estimate an upper limit comet discoveryefficiency rate of 70% for PS1. Additional analyses that could improve comet discovery yields infuture surveys include linear PSF analysis, modeling of trailed stellar PSFs for comparison to trailed movingobject PSFs, searches for azimuthally localized activity, comparison of point-source-optimized photometryto extended-source-optimized photometry, searches for photometric excesses in objects withknown absolute magnitudes, and crowd-sourcing. Analysis of the discovery statistics of the PS1 surveyindicates an expected fraction of 59 MBCs per 106 outer main-belt asteroids (corresponding to a totalexpected population of 140 MBCs among the outer main-belt asteroid population with absolute magnitudesof 12 < HV < 19:5), and a 95% confidence upper limit of 96 MBCs per 106 outer main-belt asteroids(corresponding to a total of 230 MBCs), assuming a detection efficiency of 50%. We note howeverthat significantly more sensitive future surveys (particularly those utilizing larger aperture telescopes)could detect many more MBCs than estimated here. Examination of the orbital element distribution ofall known MBCs reveals an excess of high eccentricities (0:1 < e < 0:3) relative to the background asteroidpopulation. Theoretical calculations show that, given these eccentricities, the sublimation rate for atypical MBC is orders of magnitude larger at perihelion than at aphelion, providing a plausible physicalexplanation for the observed behavior of MBCs peaking in observed activity strength near perihelion.These results indicate that the overall rate of mantle growth should be slow, consistent with observationalevidence that MBC activity can be sustained over multiple orbit passages.

The impact of climate change on existing and emerging microbial threats across the food chain: an island of Ireland perspective

The Agri-Food and aquaculture industries are vital to the economy of the island of Ireland with a gross annual output that is expected to double in the future. Identifying and understanding the potential influences of the anticipated climate variables on microorganisms that cause foodborne diseases, and their impact on these local industries, are essential. Investigating and monitoring foodborne pathogens and factors that influence their growth, transmission, pathogenesis and survival will facilitate assessment of the stability, security and vulnerability of the continuously evolving and increasing complex local food supply chain.

Metal Redispersion Strategies for Recycling of Supported Metal Catalysts: A Perspective

Catalyst deactivation is ultimately inevitable, and one of the processes known to cause deactivation is sintering of metal particles. Consequently, numerous methods to reverse the sintering process by redispersing metal nanoparticles have been developed. These methods are discussed in this perspective, and the reported mechanisms of redispersion are summarized. Additionally, the longer-term practical use of such treatments and the benefits this can bring are briefly disclosed.