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Current research on Digital Twin (DT) is largely focused on the performance of built assets in their operational phases as well as on urban environment. However, Digital Twin has not been given enough attention to construction phases, for which this paper proposes a Digital Twin framework for the construction phase, develops a DT prototype and tests it for the use case of measuring the productivity and monitoring of earthwork operation. The DT framework and its prototype are underpinned by the principles of versatility, scalability, usability and automation to enable the DT to fulfil the requirements of large-sized earthwork projects and the dynamic nature of their operation. Cloud computing and dashboard visualisation were deployed to enable automated and repeatable data pipelines and data analytics at scale and to provide insights in near-real time. The testing of the DT prototype in a motorway project in the Northeast of England successfully demonstrated its ability to produce key insights by using the following approaches: (i) To predict equipment utilisation ratios and productivities; (ii) To detect the percentage of time spent on different tasks (i.e., loading, hauling, dumping, returning or idling), the distance travelled by equipment over time and the speed distribution; and (iii) To visualise certain earthwork operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the effect on assessment of ‘translating’ paper and pencil test items into their computer equivalents. Computer versions of a set of mathematics questions derived from the paper-based end of key stage 2 and 3 assessments in England were administered to age appropriate pupil samples, and the outcomes compared. Although in most cases the change to the different medium seems to make little difference, for some items the affordances of the computer profoundly affect how the question is attempted, and therefore what is being assessed when the item is used in a test. These differences are considered in terms of validity and legitimacy, that is whether the means used to answer a question in a particular medium are appropriate to the assessment intention. The conclusion is not only that translating paper and pencil items into the computer format sometimes undermines their validity as assessments, it is also that some paper and pencil items are less valid as assessments than their computer equivalents would be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhinosinusitis is a common condition with adults experiencing 2-5 episodes per year. The European Positional Paper on Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps (EP3OS) published in 2005 and updated in 2007 provided evidence-based guidelines on the management of sinus disease promoting a conservative approach to treatment. This study examines the effect of EP3OS on sinus surgery uptake and acute admissions for sinusitis in England and Wales. A retrospective study using the national electronic health databases of England (Hospital Episodes Statistics, HES online) and Wales (Patient Episodes Database of Wales, PEDW) was undertaken from 2000 to 2010 using the OPCS-4 codes E12-E17 (sinus surgery) and ICD10 code J01 (acute admission for sinusitis). Data were analysed for effect following the introduction of the EP3OS in 2005 using linear regression and Chi squared analysis. 116,370 sinus procedures and 10,916 acute admissions for sinusitis were made during the study period. No significant decrease in sinus surgery procedures occurred following the introduction of the EP3OS as may have been expected ( p > 0.05), although subgroup analysis suggested a significant increase in Wales ( p < 0.05). In addition, significant increases in acute admissions for sinusitis were observed following the introduction of EP3OS ( p < 0.05). However, subgroup analysis suggested this was not the case in Wales ( p > 0.05). The EP3OS appears to have had little impact on the rates of sinus surgery but more conservative approaches to managing of sinus disease may have led to an increase in acute admissions. Further research is required to investigate whether changes in practice were adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the celebration made by the Linnean Society of London for the 150 years anniversary since the reading of the seminal evolution papers by British naturalists Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace at one of the meetings of the organization in England in 1858. According to the article, the reading of the papers marks the removal of humanity from the center of creation to promote the concept of evolution that theorizes that life came into being by a process of natural selection.

In 2020–2021, 94% of undergraduates in England took out government-backed loans to fund their higher education. The growing and widespread use of student loans in England, mounting student debt, and governments' increasing dependence on tuition fees underwritten by loans to finance public higher education raise important questions which this paper seeks to address. Specifically, the paper asks how do graduates respond to student loan debt and what does this tells us about the nature of the relationship between the graduate debtor and the state lender? We also question the usefulness of symbolic violence as a sociological lens to better understand graduates' different patterns of responses and reactions to student loan debt and their relationship with the state lender. Our analysis draws on 98 in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with English graduates between 2020 and 2021. We conclude that a more comprehensive explanation requires an exploration of both symbolic violence and structural violence and a re-appraisal of the word 'violence' to better represent the wide range of graduates' responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves deeply into the creative pedagogies which support cutting edge digital STEAM practice across primary and secondary school settings. It contextualises the research within current STEAM agendas including transdisciplinarity, and STEAM and technology and goes on to offer insight from the novel context of ocean learning to develop and extend a theorisation of creative pedagogies as entwining both creative teaching and teaching for creativity as embodied, democratic, dialogic and material processes. Intra-action between theory, praxis, nature, culture, the digital and humans enables an emergent perspective about changing the dynamics of power to develop ocean or environmental learning and related activism. Derived from research into an ocean education project, which aimed to develop students' ocean literacy through the combined educative principles of creative pedagogies and digital technologies (Augmented and Virtual Realities), the research draws on data from six projects across primary and secondary school settings in Denmark, Spain and England. It used a 'diffractive' analytic technique, inspired by new materialist theory, to explore the messy mixtures of natural, cultural and technological environments that were being learned through. This involved the development of four material-dialogic assemblages each including diffractive switches. Each is presented first through a 'piece' which demonstrates each assemblage's connection to the core question, followed by 'ripples', which briefly articulate the new learning and questions arising from that assemblage. The four assemblages cover the irresistibility of making kin, the relationships between lively bodies and virtual environments, the importance of spacetimematter in environmental edu-activism and trajectories between transience, stability and dialogic space. The paper leaves the reader/engager with a selection of prompts to highlight the research's contribution to current STEAM agendas related to changing power dynamics, and to provoke reader/engagers' own practices. These can include new pedagogies and activisms, as well as theoretical developments to the combined educative principles of creative pedagogies and digital technologies within STEAM education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents commentaries on the white paper "No More Excuses: A New Approach to Tackling Youth Crime in England and Wales," published in November 1997. It states that the British Home Office has invited those who are affected to give their perspectives in response to proposals for a radical change in the youth justice system in England and Wales. The White Paper has commendable objectives which highlights the importance of youth crime prevention and calls for developing of punitive measures. It concludes that whatever measures applied to the behavior of these children must follow the ethical and moral rights of the child and what is best for the child.

In this article the author discusses the effectiveness of the proposals for a radical reform of the youth justice system in England and Wales which is found in the white paper "No More Excuses." Freider Dunkel, a professional, believes that England has implemented drastic tightening of the juvenile criminal law which falsify the proposal in the White Paper. Henri Giller, a professional, cites the ineffectiveness of the proposed strategies in reducing drug-related crimes.

The article reports on Plastic Logic's plan to open a manufacturing facility for organic electronic circuits. The Cambridge, England-based start-up company has received $100 million in venture capital funding to build the facility. The facility will create thin and flexible plastic electronic circuits using organic semiconductors and printing techniques more commonly fund in graphic houses.

The article reports on the East of England Junior Papers Day at the British School of Racing in Newmarket, England. It states that the Junior Papers Day was sponsored by the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Winners include Roshan Sothinathan, a Senior House Officer (SHO) from Ipswich Hospital, Rory O'Connor, an SHO from Addenbookes Hospital, and Martin Lazenby, an SHO from Princess Alexandra Hospital. It also mentions the winners' audit presentations.

The article offers information on the East of England Junior Papers Day held at the British School of Racing in Newmarket, England. The event is said to be a regional study day following its inauguration of the College's involvement by prize certificates presentation in its quincentenary year of 2005. Among the featured winners for 2009 event are Roshan Sothinathan from Ipswich Hospital, Rory O'Connor from Addenbrookes Hospital, and Vikas Attargekar from Peterborough Hospital.

Reports on the prize awarded to Lieutenant Colonel Neil MacKenzie of the Royal Army Dental Corps at the 2004 Armed Forces Oral and Maxillofacial Tri-service Annual Conference in Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire. Recognition of research paper on recurrent neck node metastases.

Focuses on the University of Cambridge's plans to purchase scientific writings of Sir Isaac Newton from the Earl of Macclesfield at an auction in England. Intention of the university to unite the papers with their existing collection of Newton's works; Contribution from the United Kingdom Heritage Lottery Fund toward the purchase.

This paper presents the landscape of research on airborne microplastics and nanoplastics (MPs/NPs) according to the bibliometric analysis of 147 documents issued between 2015 and 2021, extracted from the Web of Science database. The publications on airborne MPs/NPs have increased rapidly from 2015 onwards, which is largely due to the existence of funding support. Science of the Total Environment is one of the prominent journals in publishing related papers. China, England, the USA, and European Countries have produced a significant output of airborne MP/NP research works, which is associated with the availability of funding agencies regionally or nationally. The research hotspot on the topic ranges from the transport of airborne MPs/NPs to their deposition in the terrestrial or aquatic environments, along with the contamination of samples by indoor MPs/NPs. Most of the publications are either research or review papers related to MPs/NPs. It is crucial to share the understanding of global plastic pollution and its unfavorable effects on humankind by promoting awareness of the existence and impact of MPs/NPs. Funding agencies are vital in boosting the research development of airborne MPs/NPs. Some countries that are lacking funding support were able to publish research findings related to the field of interest, however, with lesser research output. Without sufficient fundings, some impactful publications may not be able to carry a substantial impact in sharing the findings and discoveries with the mass public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study conducted by researchers led by Steven Bramwell of the University College London and Sean Giblin of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in London, England regarding the physical evidence for currents of magnetic monopoles. Bramwell states that the pairwise magnetic interactions between spinning atoms in spin ices stays disordered down to absolute zero. Giblin adds that a muon can be incredibly sensitive to local magnetic fields.

The article discusses postage stamps that have been issued by Britain’s Royal Mail throughout the years and examines the latest set, which commemorates the founding of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, England. This set belongs to the Action for Species series, which depicts threatened species in Great Britain. Other sets of stamps have featured evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin and England’s Queen Elizabeth II.

The article reports on the discovery of David Colquhoun and Lucia Sivilotti on the mechanism that explains the response of receptors to partial agonists in London, England. It reveals that many drugs work by binding to a specific cell receptors and stimulating its activity triggers a cascade of events in the cell. These drugs and the naturally occurring chemicals with the same modus operandi are called agonists but some of these elicit a powerful response while others generate smaller responses even at high levels to occupy all the available receptors. Both of them discovered a new mechanism to explain how receptors respond to partial agonists wherein they found that agonist-bound receptor can exist in one of three states, resting, partially activated or flipped from resting.

The article presents the study regarding Saturn's outermost ring, the F ring, conducted by Carl Murray and colleagues at Queen Mary, University of London in London, England. According to the author, Murray found out that constant collisions and the gravitational pull among a population of small satellites give the ring its form. It reveals that the narrow F ring of Saturn was discovered from images captured by the Pioneer 11 spacecraft in 1979. In addition, later data from Voyager 1 and 2 depicted that the ring as having a core about 1 kilometre wide surrounded by a 50 kilometre wide envelope, both supposedly held in place by the gravitational pull of Prometheus and Pandora, Saturn's shepherding moons.

Profiles Andrew Smith, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London. Career background; Achievements and awards; Civic activities; Biographic profile; Job responsibilities; Institutional and organizational affiliations.

Reports on the conflict between the staff of the 'New England Journal of Medicine' and one of the leaders of a movement for open access to the scientific literature. Impact of the dispute on the publication of various research works in the country; Authors of a kidney transplant study refused by the publication as a result of the dispute.

Highlights the recipients of the Fulker Award for the year 2000 presented at the Behavior Genetics Association Meeting in Cambridge, England. Lon R. Cardon; Goncalo R. Abecasis; Annual Prize.

This paper contributes to the debate on the evolution of living standards in preindustrial England. It emphasizes the need to depart from the approach of focusing only on the time paths of observables, like income per capita and population size, in order to assess the validity of Malthusian predictions. It first constructs a Malthusian model and then develops a robust algorithm for identifying the latent forces that have shaped aggregate outcomes in the preindustrial era. The analysis suggests the existence of two distinct Malthusian regimes in preindustrial England: a survival-driven regime, where mortality is the main latent force in economic-demographic interactions, and a later technology-driven regime that emerges after the mid-fifteenth century and is characterized by both population and productivity growth but stable mortality and long-run stagnation in per capita income. The paper discusses the role of various historical accidents (e.g., the Black Death, the discovery of the New World, the English Reformation) in triggering the emergence of the technology-driven regime, and it also highlights some mediating mechanisms through which subsequent productivity growth may have been sustained. The existence of long-run stagnation in income per capita in England through the mid-seventeenth century, despite the technological dynamism of the early modern period, is consistent with the predictions of Unified Growth Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes ecological systems theory as a conceptual basis for defining and examining the main aspects of 'system leadership' in a large-sized multi-school group, such as a multi-academy trust (MAT) in the context of England. The theory provides a sound framework for understanding the processes and interactions involved in this notion of leadership which is framed within an educational ecosystem as a complex set of interconnected elements. Such an approach focuses on MAT leadership strategies able to create and guide a holistic conception of educational change in the market-oriented and decentralised educational system of England. Data were drawn from interviews with eight MAT leaders and analysed alongside documentary evidence. The findings provide specific insight into the daily work of executive leaders acting as system leaders seeking to create and sustain achievement-centred and practice-focused systems MAT-wide. They demonstrate the social and developing as well as the organisational aspects of system leadership in MATs and the ways in which different elements of the environment influence executive leaders in thinking and acting systemically. This paper adds value to existing knowledge on MATs and the ways in which they are led by system players. It broadens the frame of reference of leadership beyond the individual school to consider features of the broader system and environment. Complexity and ecological perspectives provide essential tools to understand more deeply educational change and have the potential to analyse notions of leadership across multi-school groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data from mid-19th century Britain, this paper studies strategic interaction among local governments in the choice of welfare benefits under the Poor Law, the local welfare system of the time. The paper exploits a national reform that reduced the length of residency required for welfare eligibility, which should have increased the incentive for welfare migration and thus led to both stronger strategic interaction and lower levels of equilibrium spending. The results show evidence of a positive but small degree of baseline interaction, suggesting that modern models of welfare competition may apply even in settings with relatively high migration costs. While the change in post-reform equilibrium spending is negative as predicted, the results show no evidence of stronger interaction after the reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential care services are under increasing pressure to lower service provision costs while maintaining quality of care. Using a translog cost function, this paper examines the relationship between cost, quality and output in England's learning disability (LD) residential care sector. It finds genuine but diminishing economies of scale in LD residential care services vis-à-vis output (i.e., care weeks). However, some variation exists: higher-quality LD residential care homes appear to have larger economies of scale than lower-quality ones. Supplementary regression analysis, examining quality-size, further finds quality (a) is negatively associated with LD care homes of six or fewer beds; (b) shows no association with homes of more than six beds. These findings enhance residential care literature and raise the possibility that, by promoting the establishment of larger high-quality care homes, cost savings may be achieved without sacrificing quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic led to 231,841 deaths and 940,243 hospitalisations in England, by the end of March 2023. This paper calculates the real-time infection hospitalisation risk (IHR) and infection fatality risk (IFR) using the Office for National Statistics Coronavirus Infection Survey (ONS CIS) and the Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission Survey between November 2020 to March 2023. The IHR and the IFR in England peaked in January 2021 at 3.39% (95% Credible Intervals (CrI): 2.79, 3.97) and 0.97% (95% CrI: 0.62, 1.36), respectively. After this time, there was a rapid decline in the severity from infection, with the lowest estimated IHR of 0.32% (95% CrI: 0.27, 0.39) in December 2022 and IFR of 0.06% (95% CrI: 0.04, 0.08) in April 2022. We found infection severity to vary more markedly between regions early in the pandemic however, the absolute heterogeneity has since reduced. The risk from infection of SARS-CoV-2 has changed substantially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic with a decline of 86.03% (80.86, 89.35) and 89.67% (80.18, 93.93) in the IHR and IFR, respectively, since early 2021. From April 2022 until March 2023, the end of the ONS CIS study, we found fluctuating patterns in the severity of infection with the resumption of more normative mixing, resurgent epidemic waves, patterns of waning immunity, and emerging variants that have shown signs of convergent evolution. The severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection varied over the course of the pandemic due to factors such as changes in variant characteristics and population immunity from previous infection or vaccination. Here, the authors estimate infection hospitalisation and infection fatality rates in England over time from the start of the pandemic until March 2023. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In England and Wales, Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) are conducted into domestic abuse-related killings. In 2016, deaths by suicide were brought into the scope of this review system and, to distinguish them from reviews into domestic homicides, we describe these as 'Suicide Domestic Abuse-Related Death Reviews' (S-DARDR). To date, S-DARDRs have been little considered and, in response, this empirical paper seeks to unpack this process. Method: In a larger study, 40 DHR participants were interviewed, and a reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken. 18 participants discussed S-DARDRs. These interviews were re-read, with relevant extracts identified and re-analysed thematically. Through a shared critical reflection, we drew on our practice experience to interrogate the themes generated from the interviews and offer insight into the underlying challenges. Results: From the interviews, we generated four themes relating to commissioning and delivery; the involvement of stakeholders; intersections with other statutory processes; and purpose. Based on our shared critical reflection, we identified the underlying challenges as an under conceptualisation of S-DARDRs, alongside their de-mooring from the criminal justice system. Taken together, these challenges have implications for the conduct of S-DARDRs. We identify recommendations for policy and practice to address these challenges. Conclusion: The development of S-DARDRs has been little considered and challenges arise around when and how they should be undertaken. A shared understanding of key concepts and expectations around delivery is necessary if S-DARDRs are to enable robust learning and be a driver for systems change while also being accessible and understood by all stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The protection and regulation of religious expression present complex challenges. Blasphemy laws, which criminalize acts deemed disrespectful to religious beliefs, have been abolished in England, allowing for broader freedom of expression. However, concerns and discussions about blasphemy persist. The Home Secretary, Suella Braverman (2023), has emphasized that there are no blasphemy laws in Great Britain and no obligation to show reverence towards any religion. Religious Education (RE) plays a crucial role in fostering understanding and tolerance of diverse religious traditions. It provides students with opportunities to develop critical thinking skills and engage in meaningful dialogue. However, certain aspects of critical thinking within RE may be perceived as provocative or blasphemous. This paper explores the ongoing debate on blasphemy laws in England, considering the evolving religious landscape and its implications for the teaching of RE. It aims to shed light on the complex dimensions of this discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violent injury varies widely across England and Wales as does the price of alcohol. While the links between alcohol consumption and violence are well established in the medical and epidemiological literature, a causal link is questionable. This paper cuts through the causative argument by reporting a link between the general price of alcohol and violence-related injury across the economic regions of England and Wales. It examines the influence of the real price of alcohol and identifies an 'April effect' that coincides with the annual uprating of alcohol prices for excise duties, on violence-related injuries recorded at Emergency Department attendance. The data are monthly frequency of violent injury rates covering the period 2005–2014 across the economic regions. The principal finding is that a one-way relationship between the real price of alcohol and violent injury is established, and tax policy can be used to reduce the incidence of violent injury and the associated health costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There were limited opportunities for in-person social, intimate, and sexual interactions in England during 2020–2021, due to restrictions imposed by the UK government in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. While previous studies examined the effects of lockdown on intimate relationships, there is less qualitative research regarding young people's perspectives on and experiences of digitally mediated intimacy (sexting) during the period. This paper discusses findings from focus groups with 80 adolescents and interviews with 38 young adults that explored the topic. Analysis identified a normalization of non-consensual distribution of intimate images within adolescent peer culture and a reluctance to report or intervene in response to incidents of non-consensual distribution that are witnessed or experienced. The adolescent girls and young adult women also described other forms of unwanted and invasive image-sharing and requests for images. Young adults held various perspectives on sexting during lockdown, with some describing sexting as unfulfilling and/or "risky" and others sharing experiences of using sexting to generate intimacy and, among some, engaging in unwanted sexting with partners. By considering both adolescent and young adult perspectives obtained through focus groups and interviews, the study highlighted how group-level norms and meanings surrounding the risks and rewards of sexting may be reproduced or reworked as individuals transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The study underscores the need to support adolescents and young adults in cultivating healthy digital sexual cultures and interpersonal relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' understanding and teaching of argumentation is gaining more attention in science education research. However, little is known about how science teachers engage in argumentation with teachers of different subject taking an interdisciplinary perspective that may inspire new pedagogical ideas or strategies. In particular, the positioning of argumentation at the juncture of science and religion is rare. This paper reports an empirical study involving science and religious education (RE) teachers who collaborated on teaching argumentation in three secondary schools in England. Their interdisciplinary collaboration was sustained by a series of professional development sessions over 18 months. Analysis of the interview data unfolds how the teachers' collaboration impacted their understanding of argumentation and views of teaching their subject. Through working relationally in exploring and teaching argumentation, the science teachers reflected more notable changes than their RE counterparts. Science teachers came to appreciate student voice in the learning process and the role of argumentation in fostering students' scientific reasoning. The paper is a salient step to researching argumentation in a cross-curricular terrain, particularly in relation to RE. It also sheds light on how collaborating with teachers of another subject bolstered science teachers' professional development and broke subject barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the term 'mastery' as used in mathematics education across different times and locations. A case study from England is offered to show how these pedagogical approaches morph as they move from one territory to another, in the context of each territory's history. The paper first examines English policy documents, research and published curricula for their use of the term. This suggests that 'mastery' in England has become associated with mathematics teaching practices used in high-performing territories such as Singapore and Shanghai (China). But, the efforts to transport approaches predominately from East Asian sources, against the background of an existing Western set of meanings for the term, have led to considerable inconsistency in interpretations and definitions of the 'mastery approach'. A subsequent case study of eight teachers involved in developing mastery approaches in England explores how they make sense of 'mastery' in the context of these inconsistent messages. We suggest that this generates challenges for teachers tasked with implementing mastery approaches, with the danger that anything can be done in the name of mastery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines gender differences in travel behaviour by people with mental health conditions based on the results of an on-line survey. Responses from 363 people have been weighted by figures from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014 to make them representative of the population with mental illness in England. The evidence from the surveys presented in this paper shows that more women than men have panic attacks, but that more men than women have communication difficulties. More women than men are prevented by their mental health condition from leaving home, using bus, rail and metro and from buying rail tickets in advance. Significantly more women than men suffered from the following anxieties when travelling: the need for support, wayfinding, interacting with fellow travellers and concerns about the failure of the bus, train or car. For women, the greatest need seems to be policies and actions that will increase their confidence when travelling such as access to staff when assistance is required and clear information when travelling, plus the opportunity to receive travel training. More men than women wanted improvements to the travelling environment, such as less clutter on the street. Summing up, implementing improvements to increase confidence when travelling could help to reduce gender inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educating boys about consent in schools in England is required as part of the now-statutory Relationships, Sex, and Health Education curriculum and, moreover, is considered important for addressing sexual violence, abuse, and harassment among young people. The present paper draws on qualitative data collected in three schools in southeast England to explore how boys are being taught about consent and how they relate to and interpret educational messages about consent in terms of their sociosexual subjectivities and peer sexual cultures. Data was collected during May–June 2022 through classroom observations, focus groups with boys, and discussions with teachers in a co-educational academy, a boys' academy, and a boys' independent school, all in southeast England. The data suggests that while typical consent education messages may rationalise or provide a 'road map' for consent, the boys felt uncertain and anxious about navigating the perceived, often anticipated, realities of youth sexual culture. The framing of sexual activity as only consensual, and thus legitimate, if there is a clear and direct yes, conflicted with these realities. As supposed initiators of sex, as masculine heterosexual subjects, the boys felt a responsibility for obtaining consent yet seemed to lack confidence regarding the socio-affective skills required for doing so. The paper calls for an integrated model of consent education that addresses knowledge, skills (including emotional literacy), and the normative contextual contingencies that constrain the operation of free choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 80,000 children in England were being looked after in Local Authority care in 2020 and a further 40,000 people were defined as 'care leavers'. Although a significant body of research highlights the prevalence of educational low achievement in the care experienced population, official government figures show that around 13% of care experienced pupils progress to higher education by the age of 19. In a climate of 'widening participation' in which universities encourage inclusion and student diversity, this research invited students with a care background to discuss their experiences of settling into university life. Data was collected using in-depth interviews with 42 students from four universities and an online survey completed by 192 students in 29 universities in England and Wales. Findings revealed that although care experienced students overcome significant challenges to progress to higher education, over half considered dropping out. Others reported feeling isolated and inadequately supported, both financially and pastorally, by their institution. This paper uses a lens of resilience to consider the environmental factors that impact upon student transitions, and concludes that universities must act to balance inequalities in order to appropriately welcome and appreciate care leavers for the skills and experience they bring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the problem of ensuring the political stability of a democratic social system with a shortage of a vital commodity (like vaccine against COVID-19). In such a system, members of society citizens assess the authorities. Thus, actions by the authorities to increase the supply of this commodity can contribute to citizens' approval and hence political stability. However, this supply is influenced by random factors, the actions of competitors, etc. Therefore, citizens do not have sufficient information about all the possibilities of supplying, and it is difficult for them to make the right decisions. Such citizen unawareness can be exploited by unscrupulous politicians to achieve personal targets. Therefore, it is necessary to organize public control to motivate politicians to use all available opportunities in supplying. The goal of the paper is to build such a digital mechanism of public control of the politicians by citizens, which would best assess and stimulate the activities of the authorities to improve the supply of a vital commodity. In the age of artificial intelligence, such digital public control in the face of uncertainty can be based on digital machine learning. In addition, it is necessary to take into account and model the activities of politicians associated with the presence of their own targets that do not coincide with public ones. Such politicians can use the learning of citizens for their own targets. The objective of the article is to build an optimal digital mechanism of public control in a two-level model of a democratic social system—a digital society. At its top level, there is the Citizen, who gives an assessment for the Politico located at the lower level. In turn, the Politico can influence the supplying of a vital commodity. Political stability is guaranteed if the Citizen regularly approves of the Politico's actions to increase this supply. However, the Politico may not use the opportunities available to him to offer a commodity to achieve a personal target. To avoid this, the Politico's control mechanism is proposed. It includes the procedure for digital learning of the Citizen, as well as a procedure for assessing the Politico activity. Sufficient conditions have been found for the synthesis of such the Politico's control mechanism, at which stochastic possibilities of increasing the supply of a vital commodity are used. The example of such the Politico's control mechanism is considered on the case of supply of the COVID-19 vaccine in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a new dataset combining the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and Understanding Society (UKHLS), this paper examines the current state of intergenerational income mobility in the UK. This extends previous evidence in several directions, with a focus on younger cohorts of individuals born between 1973 and 1992. I find evidence of considerable intergenerational persistence in the transmission of resources at the household level with an intergenerational elasticity of 0.26 and a rank coefficient of 0.30. This picture of mobility remains at the individual level and under a range of robustness tests that address traditional methodological concerns. While mobility is relatively low at the national level, I find meaningful differences in income mobility rates across the country. More generally, regions with lower income in the North of England display substantially lower levels of both relative and absolute income mobility than regions in the South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates how the July 2005 London terrorist attacks affected Muslim teenagers' education plans and decisions. The attacks triggered a violent backslash against the Muslim community, which could have affected their incentives to continue in full-time education. I examine panel data on educational attitudes from the "Next Steps" Survey in England and use the month the survey was administered to divide individuals into treatment and control groups. I find that the attacks negatively affected the education plans of Muslims, but not those of any other major religious group. The probability of planning to continue in non-compulsory full-time education decreased by around 4.4% points for Muslims after the attacks. This corresponds to a 69% increase in individuals who were not sure whether to continue or drop out of full-time education. However, this change in plans appears to be a temporary reaction, since it did not affect students' actual decisions two years later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanism, temperature, and timescale of granite intrusion remain controversial, with wide-ranging implications for understanding continental growth, differentiation, rheology, and deformation dynamics. In this paper we present a method for determining intrusion emplacement temperature and timescale using the characteristics of the surrounding metamorphic aureole, and apply it to the Skiddaw granite in northern England. The estimated emplacement timescale (0.1–2 Myr) implies magma transport velocities of 1–100 mm/year. At the absent or low melt fractions relevant to our estimated emplacement temperature (580–650 ∘ C), such velocities are incompatible with pluton formation by successive injections through dykes. Instead, our results indicate the intrusion of a diapir of crystal-rich slurry, solidifying before emplacement, with a rheology governed by the solid crystals. The emplacement depth is likely to be governed by the depth-dependent rheology of the surrounding rocks, occurring close to the brittle-ductile transition. The wider implications of our results relate to (1) the appreciation that much of the chemical and textural characteristics of plutons may relate to pre-emplacement crystallisation at depth, passively transported to higher crustal levels, and (2) an explanation of the difficulty of seismically imaging active plutonism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire loads are often used in the fire safety design of buildings as part of the assessment of the severity of potential fires. Despite recognition that balconies may contain combustible items which could contribute to fire development, there has been little research on balcony fire loads. This paper presents the results of a survey of 1020 balconies on private dwellings across England and the calculated fire loads. Consideration is also given to the influence of key parameters on the fire load energy density. It is found that balconies in England have an average fire load energy density of 64.4 MJ/m2, with an 80th percentile value of 110 MJ/m2. The influence of selected key parameters on balcony fire loads is also assessed. The results presented provide balcony fire loads which could be considered as part of building design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Divergence is not a new phenomenon in RE in England and Wales. A diverse range of aims and approaches have been promoted since RE provision became compulsory in 1944. Approaches include the phenomenological, interpretative, and dialogic with current debates centring around the benefits and challenges of a 'worldviews approach'. There have been a range of responses to this approach, and implementation has been diverse. It may appear that at the heart of this divergence is confusion over the definition of the term 'worldview' and what this entails for teachers: adding content knowledge and diverse sources. However, this paper argues that the divergence is much more significantly rooted in the nature of 'substantive knowledge' and the power dynamics associated with who defines, selects and assesses the validity of substantive knowledge. In current research, I am testing the hypothesis that teachers' personal worldviews influence their choice of substantive knowledge in RE. Through 142 questionnaires and 21 interviews, this power dynamic is being investigated. Employing Kelly's (Kelly, Personal construct psychology, Norton, 1955) Personal Construct Theory illuminated teachers' personal worldviews relating to substantive knowledge in RE. Through the completion and analysis of RepGrids, the teachers revealed they taught the 'good' aspects of religions and ignored the 'bad'. They prized knowledge from lived experience above knowledge provided by religious institutions and some deemed online sources more useful than those from religious institutions. The power to define 'substantive' knowledge, once primarily in the hands of religious institutions, has dissipated to embrace definitions from teachers' personal worldviews. Whilst enabling a diversity of beliefs to be covered, without examination, hegemonic power may risk the validity of the subject. What is needed, in the midst of this divergence, is not a battle for supremacy, and a rejection of one voice over the other, but an acknowledgement of the power dynamics in defining substantive knowledge in RE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2018 Religious Education Council of England and Wales' review of Religious Education proposes that the subject should be reframed as Religion & Worldviews. Although follow-up studies have explored this idea in some depth, comparatively little thought has been given to the exploration of personal worldviews. This paper explores James Fowler's work on Faith Development and proposes that this and the accompanying Faith Development Interview components offer a helpful framework for exploring personal worldviews with children. It recommends that Values Clarification strategies could be a helpful way of enabling children to expose and verbalise these elements of their own worldviews within the classroom context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will examine four potential areas of pressure to RE in England in the 2020s: Academisation—and the structural issues arising from ever greater numbers of schools being outside local authority control; the alleged secularisation of the curriculum through the Worldviews Paradigm; the financial situation of Standard Advisory Councils on Religious Education in England; and the teacher recruitment crisis. Taking a historical turn, it will then consider whether these are uniquely challenging to the subject, or whether the RE community might gain solace from a realisation that these challenges have been overcome at other points in history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a pull–push theory of industrial revolutions. Generalizing from the first industrial revolution in England and the second industrial revolution in the United States, it points to the presence of three necessary conditions, namely (i) the existence of a trigger event which creates (ii) new market opportunities (pull) as well as (iii) new process technologies (push). The result is a novel approach to the underlying cause(s) of industrial revolutions, one that is consistent with both material and non-material views in the literature, as well as with demand-shock and supply-shock views. Furthermore, it is consistent with previous accounts of the 19th-century rise of managerial capitalism. Lastly, it provides a set of necessary conditions for what constitutes an industrial revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proper interpretation of offers and acceptances has, despite their undisputable role in the formation of contracts, received relatively little theoretical and comparative analysis in recent years. The notorious legal question of when a contract is considered to have been formed is a fundamental concept in all legal systems, yet its nature remains poorly understood and controversial. Moreover, recent doctrinal and jurisprudential developments in English, French, US, German, and Canadian law of contracts call for further systematic assessment of this fascinating topic. This paper seeks to provide a systematic comparative evaluation of the disparate doctrines governing offer and acceptance and the consequential formation of contracts in English, US, German, French, and Canadian law of contracts. While employing well-defined normative criteria of justice and wealth-maximization, it identifies the aspects of suboptimal reliance, rent-seeking, cost-avoidance, and opportunistic revocations and provides a set of economically inspired arguments for justification of the mailbox rule. The paper is an attempt to determine how much new light the comparative analysis of law can shed on the puzzling issues of offer and acceptance so as to help clarify them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how personal experience of extreme weather events raises awareness and concern about climate change has important policy implications. It has repeatedly been argued that proximising climate change through extreme weather events holds a promising strategy to increase engagement with the issue and encourage climate change action. In this paper, we exploit geo-referenced panel data on climate change attitudes as well as natural variation in flood and heatwave exposure in England and Wales to estimate the causal effect of extreme weather events on climate change attitudes and environmental behaviours using a difference-in-differences matching approach. Our findings suggest that personal experience with both flooding and heatwaves significantly increases risk perception towards climate change impacts but has no effect on climate change concern or pro-environmental behaviour, on average. Moreover, the findings indicate that the effect of flooding on risk perception is highly localised and diminishes at greater distances. For heatwaves, we find that the effect on risk perception is driven by the recent salient summer heatwaves of 2018 and 2019. Having experienced both events also significantly increases climate change concern and pro-environmental behaviour, in addition to risk perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus infection COVID-19 killed millions of people around the world in 2019-2022. Hospitals were in the forefront in the battle against the pandemic. This paper proposes a novel approach to assess the effectiveness of hospitals in saving lives. We empirically estimate the production function of COVID-19 deaths among hospital inpatients, applying Heckman's two-stage approach to correct for the bias caused by a large number of zero-valued observations. We subsequently assess performance of hospitals based on regression residuals, incorporating contextual variables to convex quantile regression. Data of 187 hospitals in England over a 35-week period from April to December 2020 is divided in two sub-periods to compare the structural differences between the first and second waves of the pandemic. The results indicate significant performance improvement during the first wave, however, learning by doing was offset by the new mutated virus straits during the second wave. While the elderly patients were at significantly higher risk during the first wave, their expected mortality rate did not significantly differ from that of the general population during the second wave. Our most important empirical finding concerns large and systematic performance differences between individual hospitals: larger units proved more effective in saving lives, and hospitals in London had a lower mortality rate than the national average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests whether changes in spiritual wellbeing were correlated with self-rated changes in mental and physical health after controlling for changes in psychological wellbeing in a sample from the Church of England taken during the third national COVID-19 lockdown in 2021. During the third lockdown in England an online survey, named Covid-19 and Church-21, was delivered through the Qualtrics XM platform from 22 January to 23 July 2021. The responses included 1878 Anglicans living in England. The change in spiritual wellbeing scale was produced using self-reported changes in the frequency of key spiritual practices (prayer and Bible reading), trust in God, the quality of spiritual life, and spiritual health. Changes in mental and physical health were assessed using single self-report items. Changes in psychological wellbeing were assessed using the Index of Balanced Affect Change (TIBACh). After controlling for changes in psychological wellbeing, better change in spiritual wellbeing was positively correlated with better change in both mental and physical health. Negative affect may have mediated the relationship between spiritual wellbeing and both mental and physical health, and positive affect may also have mediated the relationship with mental health. The results suggest changes in spiritual wellbeing, as defined within a Christian religious context, may have had positive effects in promoting better mental and physical health during a sudden crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was inspired by the author's fortunate acquisition of a copy of an original copy of "Muspratt's Chemistry" that was published in 1860. This raised, for the author, interesting and significant issues regarding the chemistry content and its presentation in the context of chemistry and education today. The paper is presented in two parts: Part 1 explores the content, structure and gives reactions to and insights into the original publication, whereas Part 2 provides a focus on the developments in chemistry education as experienced by the author during almost 70 years of learning and teaching chemistry in schools and in teacher education in England. James Sheridan Muspratt (1821–1871) is best remembered for this publication which is fully entitled "Chemistry, theoretical, practical and analytical as applied and relating to Arts and Manufactures". This was developed during the period 1852–1860 and ran into several editions as well as being translated into German and Russian. Earlier he had done chemistry research with Liebig and Hofmann, and in 1848 he founded the Liverpool College of Chemistry. It is clear that he corresponded extensively with many of the leading nineteenth century chemists in the UK and Europe, many of whose names are still familiar with us today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hostage and crisis negotiators are specialist police officers utilised internationally by police forces to resolve hostage and crisis incidents. Whilst the role has been heavily documented in some parts of the world (namely the United States of America), there is a lack of literature relating to the organisational and operational processes and procedures in place for police negotiators in the United Kingdom. Equally, there is limited research that has explored the experiences of negotiators who perform an essential function within a variety of life-or-death situations with a view to understanding how officers transition from trainee to qualified negotiators. This paper outlines the development of a grounded theoretical model that depicts the "hostage and crisis negotiator journey," as represented by English negotiators. Interviews were conducted with 15 negotiators from nine police forces in England and a conceptual model was developed including five primary, 12 secondary, and 32 tertiary categories. The negotiator journey is chronologically recounted by means of the five main primary categories identified: (1) 'Why? Reasons for entering (and remaining within) the negotiator world', (2) 'Who and how? The negotiator profile and selection', (3) 'Negotiator training', (4) 'Operational negotiator roles', and (5) 'Negotiator welfare and support'. This paper demonstrates one of the first attempts to empirically map the processes and procedures in place for negotiators in England and the findings are discussed in line with their potential implications for police policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]