158 research outputs found
Technical education and the London county council 1918-1939. A study in course innovation and development
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Our thesis is concerned with the process of course innovation and Development in technical education within the area of the London County Council During the period 1918-39. Although essential, an historical study, the Thesis is intended to be of value in a consideration of future development in Technical education, and in particular in the study of the relationship between Curriculum management and manpower planning. The first part of our thesis describes the institutional structure of the principal sectors of technical education in London and outlines the Type of courses that were available and their general progress during the Interwar years. The second part of our thesis seeks to analyse the background to course innovation and to assess why certain courses were successful and why others were comparative failures. Since the topic is potentially so vast, our thesis has been limited to an identification of major factors, rather than a detailed consideration of each one. Our analysis shows the process of course innovation and development in technical education to have been a highly complex interaction of forces in which the other aspects of the educational structure, including administrative as well as teach1ng institutions, played a vital role. Emphasis has been given to the influence of senior administrative officers within the local I education authority framework. Special mention has been made of the work of the Board of Education and of the limitations of the Board in tailing to establish definite guidelines for course development in technical education. Important factors outside the educational structure have also been considered, including the attitudes of parents and business management to formal technical training
What does the ‘Fourth Wave’ mean for teaching feminism in 21st century social work?
Get PDFThere is no straightforward definition of feminism today. In spite of this, scholars and researchers who describe themselves as ‘feminist’ continue to produce work that both interrogates the specific and general conditions of women’s lives and explores the more ubiquitous construct of ‘gender’, and in social work, feminist understandings remain central to practice, theory and research. This may, in large part, be reflective of the continuing over-representation of women as providers and users of social work services. It may also echo social work’s broader emancipatory, ‘social justice’ aspirations. Whichever is the case, we are currently witnessing a resurgence of interest in feminism across the world, with a claim that we are experiencing a ‘fourth wave’ in the global North that has its birthplace primarily on the Internet (Baumgardner, 2011; Leupold, 2010; Solomon, 2009). Given that this is so, this paper asks: what (if any) is the impact or possible influence of fourth wave feminism on teaching social work today
The development of the British army during the wars with France, 1793-1815
Get PDFThe British Army that fought the engagement at Waterloo in 1815, was outwardly little changed from that which was engaged in the initial campaigns of the Wars, twenty-two years previously. Line upon line of red-coated, musket-armed infantry, manoeuvred as chess pieces across open fields, deciding the issue by volley and bayonet, having spent a hungry night exposed to rain and cold. The cavalry were still beautifully and often impractically clad, and were always seeking the decisive charge, on their unfed and often sickly mounts. The Army's commander still viewed his troops as 'the scum of the earth', who were rarely paid, and predominantly enlisted for life. It would therefore appear that little had altered from 1793 to 1815, and that this will be a study of continuity rather than change. However, this thesis will show that despite outward appearances, the Army that took the field at Waterloo was intrinsically different from the one that entered the conflict in 1793, being modernised in line with other institutions of state, and other European armies. This thesis is first and foremost intended to be a contribution to the history of the British Army from the outbreak of war with Revolutionary France in 1793, to the reduction of the forces after the battle of Waterloo in 1815. It proceeds from an assumption that the understanding of not only that history, but the history of the developing British state, will be significantly advanced through a study of the operation of, and the changes which took place within, the Army during the Wars with France
The development of social legislation for blind or deaf persons in England 1834-1939
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.As indicated by the title the purpose of the thesis is to trace the development of social legislation for blind or deaf persons in England between 1834 and 1939. No attempt is made to deal with assistance whether from statutory or voluntary sources for war blinded or deafened persons. In the first chapter a survey is made of the position of the blind or deaf under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and succeeding Poor Law legislation up to 1919. Chapter two deals with the enquiry into the condition of the blind carried out in 1874-75 by the Charity Organisation Society and the much more comprehensive survey of the state of the blind or deaf made between 1884 and 1888 by the Royal Commission on the Blind, Deaf and Dumb which reported in 1889. The latter enquiry resulted in the passing of the Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act of 1893 and also provided the essential data on which state action for the two disabilities could be based. The third chapter gives an account of the campaign to secure legislation for the blind which culminated in the Blind Persons Act of 1920. How the Blind Persons Act was implemented at the local level and the effect on blind welfare of the work of the Advisory Committee on the Welfare of the Blind and the passing of the Local Government Act of 1929, is the concern of chapter four.
Chapter five describes the events leading up to the enactment of legislation relating to the issue of free dog licences in respect of guide dogs for the blind, concessionary postal rates, reduced fees in respect of wireless receiving licences, and the Blind Voters Act of 1933.
In Chapter six the story of the campaign for legislation for the blind is continued up to the passing of the Blind Persons Act of 1938. The penultimate chapter relates the attempts made to secure legislation provision for the deaf in the form of a Deaf Persons Act broadly similar in scope to the Acts on behalf of the blind. The thesis concludes with a consideration of certain conclusions drawn from the subject matter presented in the preceding chapters
Enacting Reasoning-and-Proving in Secondary Mathematics Classrooms through Tasks
Get PDFProof is the mathematical way of convincing oneself and others of the truth of a claim for all cases in the domain under consideration. As such, reasoning-and-proving is a crucial, formative practice for all students in kindergarten through twelfth grade, which is reflected in the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics. However, students and teachers exhibit many difficulties employing, writing, and understanding reasoning-and-proving. In particular, teachers are challenged by their knowledge base, insufficient resources, and unsupportive pedagogy.
The Cases of Reasoning and Proving (CORP) materials were designed to offer teachers opportunities to engage in reasoning-and-proving tasks, discuss samples of authentic practice, examine research-based frameworks, and develop criteria for evaluating reasoning-and-proving products based on the core elements of proof. A six-week graduate level course was taught with the CORP materials with the goal of developing teachers’ understanding of what constitutes reasoning-and-proving, how secondary students benefit from reasoning-and-proving, and how they can support the development of students’ capacities to reason-and-prove. Research was conducted on four participants of the course during either their first or second year of teaching. The purpose of the research was to study the extent to which the participants selected, implemented, and evaluated students’ work on reasoning-and-proving tasks. The participants’ abilities were examined through an analysis of answers to interview questions, tasks used in class, and samples of student work, and scoring criteria. The results suggest that: 1.) participants were able to overcome some of the limitations of their insufficient resource by modifying and creating some reasoning-and-proving exercises; 2.) participants were able to maintain the level of cognitive demand of proof tasks during implementation; and 3) participants included some if not all of the core elements of proof in their definition of proof and in their evaluation criteria for student products of reasoning-and-proving products
Big Data, Big Libraries, Big Problems?: the 2014 LibTech Anti-talk?
Get PDFThe desire to create automatons is a familiar theme in human history, and during the age of the Enlightenment mechanical automatons became not only an “emblem of the cosmos”, but a symbol of man’s confidence that he would unlock nature’s greatest mysteries and fully harness her power. And yet only a century later, automatons had begun to represent human repression and servitude, a theme later picked up by writers of science fiction. Man’s confidence undeterred, the endgame of the modern scientific and technological mindset, or MSTM, seems to be increasingly coming into view with the rise of “information technology” in general and “Big data” in particular. Along with those who wield them, these can be seen as functioning together as a “mechanical muse” of sorts – surprisingly alluring – and, like a physical automaton can serve as a symbol – a microcosm – of what the MSTM sees (at the very least in practice) as the cosmic machine, our “final frontier”. And yet, individuals who unreflectively participate in these things – giving themselves over to them and seeking the powers afforded by the technology apart from technology’s rightful purposes – in fact yield to the same pragmatism and reductionism those wielding them are captive to. Thus, they ultimately nullify themselves philosophically, politically, and economically – their value increasingly being only the data concerning their persons, and its perceived usefulness. Likewise libraries, the time-honored place of, and symbol for, the intellectual flowering of the individual, will, insofar as they spurn the classical liberal arts (with the idea that things are intrinsically good, and in the case of humans, special as well) in favor of the alluring embrace of MSTM-driven “information technology” and Big data - unwittingly contribute to their irrelevance and demise as they find themselves increasingly less needed, valued, wanted. Likewise for the liberal arts as a whole, and in fact history itself, if the acid of a “science” untethered from what is, in fact, good (intrinsically), continues to gain strengt
Operations of armd engineers in ETO. A research report prepared at The Armored School, Fort Knox, Kentucky, 1949-1950.
No full textThe purpose of this report has been to gather information concerning the operations of armored engineer battalions in World War II. All of these units operated in the European Theater.
TOC: Introduction; Organization; The Armored Engineer versus Topography; North Africa (8 November 1942-13 May 1943); Italy (9 September 1943-2 May 1945); Normandy-Northern France (6 June-14 September 1944); Rhineland (14 September 1944-21 March 1945); Ardennes (16 December 1944-25 January 1945); Central Europe (22 March-11 May 1945); Conclusion
A rapid and systematic review of the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine and vinorelbine in non-small-cell lung cancer
Get PDFBACKGROUND:
The incidence of lung cancer is declining following a drop in smoking rates, but it is still the leading cause of death from cancer in England and Wales, with about 30,000 deaths a year. Survival rates for lung cancer are poor everywhere, but they appear to be better in the rest of the European Community and the USA than in the UK. Only about 5 per cent of people with lung cancer survive for 5 years, and nearly all of these are cured by surgery after fortuitously early diagnosis. At present, only a small proportion of patients (probably about 5 per cent) with non-small-cell lung cancer are being given chemotherapy. Some centres treat a greater proportion.
OBJECTIVES:
This review examines the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of four of the newer drugs - vinorelbine, gemcitabine, paclitaxel and docetaxel - used for treating the most common type of lung cancer (non-small-cell lung cancer). The first three drugs are used for first-line treatment, but at present docetaxel is used only after first-line chemotherapy has failed.
METHODS:
This report was based on a systematic literature review and economic modelling, supplemented by cost data. RESULTS - NUMBER AND QUALITY OF STUDIES: A reasonable number of randomised trials were found - three for docetaxel, six for gemcitabine, five for paclitaxel and 13 for vinorelbine. The quality of the trials was variable but good overall. There was a wide range of comparators. Some trials compared chemotherapy with best supportive care (BSC), which involves care that aims to control symptoms, with palliative radiotherapy if needed, but not to prolong life. Others compared the newer drugs against previous drugs or combinations. RESULTS - SUMMARY OF BENEFITS: The gains in duration of survival with the new drugs are modest - a few months - but worthwhile in a condition for which the untreated survival is only about 5 months. There are also gains in quality of life compared with BSC, because on balance the side-effects of some forms of chemotherapy have less effect on quality of life than the effects of uncontrolled spread of cancer. RESULTS - COSTS: The total cost to the NHS of using these new drugs in England and Wales might be about GBP 10 million per annum, but is subject to a number of factors. There would be non-financial constraints on any increase in chemotherapy for the next few years, such as staffing; the number of patients choosing to have the newer forms of chemotherapy is not yet known; and the costs of the drugs may fall, for example, as generic forms appear. RESULTS - COST PER LIFE-YEAR GAINED: The available data did not provide an entirely satisfactory basis for cost-effectiveness calculations. The main problem was the lack of direct comparisons of the new drugs. In order to strengthen the analysis, three different modelling approaches were used: pairwise comparisons using trial data; cost-minimisation analysis, as if all the new regimens were of equal efficacy; and cost-effectiveness analysis pooling the results of several trials with different comparators, giving indirect comparisons of the new drugs by using BSC as the common comparator. A number of different scenarios were explored through extensive sensitivity analysis in each model. Outcomes were expressed in incremental cost per life-year saved or incremental cost, versus BSC. There was insufficient evidence from which to derive cost per quality-adjusted life-year. In first-line treatment, vinorelbine, gemcitabine, and the lower-dose paclitaxel plus cisplatin combinations generally performed well against BSC under a range of different scenarios and especially when given as a maximum of 3 cycles. Incremental cost per life-year gained (LYG) versus BSC varied depending on scenario, but baseline figures based on trial data and protocols were: single-agent vinorelbine, pound 2194 per LYG; vinorelbine plus cisplatin, pound 5206; single-agent gemcitabine, pound 5690; gemcitabine plus cisplatin, pound 10,041; and paclitaxel plus cisplatin, pound 8537. In second-line chemotherapy, docetaxel gave a cost per LYG of pound 17,546, again well within the range usually accepted as cost-effective. However, in routine care, the impact of therapy would be regularly reviewed, and continuation would depend on response, side-effects, patient choice and clinical judgement. Chemotherapy would be stopped in non-responders, making chemotherapy more cost-effective. A 'real-life' scenario in which 60 per cent of patients receive only 1 or 2 cycles of chemotherapy gives much lower costs per LYG, with single-agent gemcitabine, single-agent vinorelbine, and paclitaxel plus platinum appearing to be cost-saving compared with BSC; the incremental cost of gemcitabine plus cisplatin would be pound 2478 per LYG, and of vinorelbine plus cisplatin, pound 2808. At the very least, gains in duration of survival were achieved without diminution of quality of life (at best, they improved quality) and with relatively low incremental cost. Comparisons among the individual drugs should be viewed with caution because they have had to be based on indirect comparisons. RESULTS - LIMITATIONS OF THE ANALYSIS: Each of the three models had limitations. The cost-effectiveness estimates from the pairwise comparisons were based on single studies. The cost-minimisation analysis assumed that the regimens have equal efficacy in practice. The cost-effectiveness analysis had to be based on pooling data from individual trials. The costs of BSC, inpatient stay and outpatient visits were from Scottish data. Median rather than mean data on duration of survival have been used in the analysis, because most of the trials reported only median data. Median survival and number of drug cycles were calculated by averaging across a number of studies, rather than being reliant on one particular study. The costs of the less expensive antiemetics cited in the trials were omitted. The use of more modern and costly antiemetics would have a modest detrimental effect on cost-effectiveness. In the absence of published data, an estimate was made of the cost of side-effects of chemotherapy, in particular hospital admissions, and applied to all the new regimens. In practice, admissions related to side-effects and their respective costs are likely to vary by regimen.
CONCLUSIONS:
The new drugs for non-small-cell lung cancer extend life by only a few months compared with BSC, but appear to do so without net loss in quality of life and at a cost per LYG that is much lower than for many other NHS activities. Depending on assumptions used, these new drugs range from being cost-effective, as conventionally accepted, to being cost-saving. CONCLUSIONS - IMPLICATIONS OF THE NEWER DRUGS: One of the present constraints on chemotherapy is availability of inpatient beds. The advent of newer and gentler forms of chemotherapy given on an outpatient basis would not only overcome this, but it would allow more patients to be treated. This might apply particularly to older patients. The treatment of more patients would increase workload for oncologists, cancer nurses and pharmacists. The Government has already announced increased expenditure on staff for cancer care. The previously pessimistic attitudes to chemotherapy in non-small-cell lung cancer are changing in the wake of the newer agents, and this shift is likely to increase referral. CONCLUSIONS - NEED FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Recent advances in chemotherapy are welcome, but their effects remain small for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. Much more research is needed into better drugs, better combinations, new ways of assessing the likelihood of response and especially direct comparisons between the new regimens. This research would be aided by having a greater proportion of patients involved in trials, but there will be infrastructure implications of increased participation
Operation of the separate tank battalion. A research report prepared at The Armored School, Fort Knox, Kentucky, 1949-1950.
No full textAs is indicated in the title of this paper, the problem under study is the employment of the separate tank battalion in support of infantry units in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. Separate tank battalions were employed in that theater with the infantry divisions under many circumstances. It was, therefore, decided to isolate a typical example of this employment and use it to illustrate the problems encountered, the techniques employed, and the results as written in history. The particular type of operation under study is the river crossing and the means whereby the tank battalion assisted the infantry units in the accomplishment of their mission.
TOC: Introduction; The Importance of the Operation; The Problem of the Roer; Across the Roer; Comparison of Employment; Separate Tank Battalions; Summary; Appendix
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