Seeing Merit as a Vehicle for Opportunity and Equity: Youth Respond to School Choice Policy

The Urban Review - School choice policy is ubiquitous in urban school districts. Evidence suggests that it has not fully delivered on its proponents’ promises of equitable educational...     

How to Assess and Categorize Teachers’ Views of Science? Two Methodological Issues

Research in Science Education - This paper addresses two methodological issues related to the assessment of teachers’ views of science. The first concerns the distinction between the...     

The relationship between child behaviour problems at school entrance and teenage vocabulary acquisition: A comparison of two generations of British children born 30 years apart

Behaviour problems in early childhood have a lasting impact on cognitive development and education attainment in later adolescence and into adulthood. Here we address the relationship conduct and hyperactivity problems at school entrance, and vocabulary acquisition in adolescence. We compare performance in identical assessments across two generations of British children born 30 years apart in 1970 (n = 15,676) and 2000/2 (n = 16,628) and find that both conduct and hyperactivity problems have a negative association with later vocabulary in both generations. We take advantage of rich longitudinal birth cohort data and establish that these relationships hold once family socioeconomic status and a child’s personal characteristics and earlier vocabulary acquisition are taken into account. We also find that teenagers today achieved substantively lower scores in the vocabulary assessment compared to their counterparts born 30 years earlier, and that this holds across all categories within each of the family and individual characteristics considered in this article. As vocabulary and language skills are key prerequisites for wider learning, we discuss implications the findings have for education policies.     

On the dynamic stability of an axially oscillating beam

Dynamic problems of axially moving materials as exemplified by strings in textile industry and band saws, belts and chains in mechanical machinery have recently received some attention (1–15). In the present study, the parametric resonance of an axially accelerated beam is investigated. The beam which has encastré ends is subjected to a periodic root force as shown in Fig. 1. The object of the investigation is to identify regions of instability of this system for various combinations of the excitation frequency and amplitude of the axial oscillations.     

Engendering Democratic Participation via the Net: Access, Voice, and Dialogue

Information technology in the form of the Internet and its commercial offspring (referred to in this article collectively as the Net) has received much attention as a vehicle to increase political participation. In this article, we explore the potential of the Net, a vast, loosely coupled system of electronic forums, for facilitating and hindering democratic participation. In so doing, we identify five assumptions that undergird the claim that the Net will enhance democratic participation and suggest that increased democratic participation rests on three fundamental characteristics: access, voice, and dialogue. In order for this network of electronic forums to facilitate democratic participation, educational, economic, and cultural barriers to access, voice, and dialogue must be overcome. The final part of this article raises additional challenges to realizing democracy via the Net.     

A conceptual model of taste receptors

Of all the senses, that of taste is perhaps the hardest to define and quantify and elucidation of the underlying mechanisms is unrespondingly difficult. This article describes a conceptual model — at the molecular level — for the four basic taste modalities, using apparent specific volume as a fundamental parameter. It also considers possible practical applications.     

The European molecular biology laboratory

The need for collaborative ventures in Europe has long been stressed in the editorial pages of this journal, and more than ten years ago (Endeavour, 28, 54, 1969) we gave strong support for a proposal to establish a European Laboratory of Molecular Biology. For this we then incurred some criticism, on the ground that such a laboratory would weaken national academic institutes striving to establish themselves in this rapidly developing field. Nevertheless, we continued to maintain (30, 2, '71) ‘the great political and scientific importance of this [concept]—and of other such collaborative enterprises—if Europe is to maintain the initiative in fields where the great institutions of the United States have established a dominant position.’ In the event, the Laboratory was established at Heidelberg in 1974, though not formally opened until 1978. The Director-General, Sir John Kendrew, here surveys the policy and achievements of this important new institute.     

Glimpses of science and technology in ancient and mediaeval India

Throughout 1982 Britain has been celebrating the Festival of India. Its purpose has been to focus attention on India's contribution to many aspects of human achievement—in art and literature, in dancing and drama, and in science and technology. In London, a special Science in India exhibition was staged at the Science Museum. This article reviews the scientific achievements of ancient and mediaeval India.     

A further contribution to the modelling of multi-waveform generators

A method has been presented in recent papers for deriving precisely stabilized waveform generators by relating them to second-order conservative oscillators. The present paper suggests a method for considerably generalizing the previous class ofgenerator models. This should enable the development of a larger variety of waveform generators with ease and flexibility. The new method is analyzed and is shown to possess implications to theoretical biology and other fields.     

Fluorescent probes: a new way to study lymphocyte activation

Fluorescent dyes can be used as cell probes which bind, according to their chemical structure, to particular subcellular regions of lymphocytes. Because of their sensitivity to variations in the local molecular environment, expressed by changes in fluorescence emission, they provide a means of studying the early events of lymphocyte activation to antigens and mitogens. The technology also yields a rapid assay of lymphocyte activation and thus new diagnostic tests of cell-mediated immunity, for example to organ transplants and to cancer.