The influence of temperature and humidity on swelling and surfactant migration in acrylic emulsion paint films

It has often been observed anecdotally and implied through experimentation that acrylic emulsion paintings accumulate and entrain soils over time due to the inherent mechanical softness in artist's acrylic paint films, through the presence of hydrophilic film components, and by virtue of the ubiquitous presence of surfactant moieties on these film surfaces once they dry. In the present study, it has been this last effect that we have sought to describe more fully in terms of surfactant responsiveness to both temperature and relative humidity (RH). Surfactant hydration and dehydration under varying temperature and RH conditions affects the ultimate partitioning of the surfactant at the paint–air interface, as well as the inherent size, aggregation tendencies, and solubility of surfactant in the bulk paint materials which contain components that are highly responsive to changes in temperature and RH (e.g. polyacrylic or polymaleic anhydride-type dispersal materials). In this work, analytical techniques including three-dimensional microscopy and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation were used to add to and reinforce current understanding of the physical and mechanical changes to acrylic paint films with temperature and RH. The migration of surfactant at the film surface was studied using desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared microscopy.     

Analysis and treatment of child abuse: A set of behavioral propositions

Five propositions are presented to suggest the potential of a behavioral approach to the understanding and treatment of child abuse. Each proposition deals with an important source of child abuse: (a) ineffective child management techniques; (b) deliberately punitive child rearing practices; (c) impulsive acts by the parent triggered by the child; (d) high levels of stress; and (e) negative attitude toward the child. For each proposition we discuss supportive findings from both child abuse and general psychological research as well as the additional information that would be needed in order to obtain a better functional analysis of clinical cases. Based on this discussion, behavioral therapy strategies are proposed with special attention being given to the various measures needed to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment programs.     

Using critical questions to evaluate written and oral arguments in an undergraduate general education seminar: a quasi-experimental study

Reading and Writing - Although the Toulmin model (1958) has dominated argumentation research, it does not provide many tools for evaluating argument quality. Towards that end, we draw on work in...     

Revisions to rationality: the translation of ‘new knowledges’ into policy under the Coalition Government

This article gives an account of the use of knowledges from emerging scientific fields in education and youth policy making under the Coalition government (2010–15) in the UK. We identify a common process of ‘translation’ and offer three illustrations of policy-making in the UK that utilise diverse knowledges produced in academic fields (neuroscience, network theory and well-being). This production of ‘new knowledges’ in policy contexts allows for the identification of sites of policy intervention. This process of translation underlies a series of diverse revisions of the rational subject of policy. Collectively, these revisions amount to a change in policy-making and the emergence of a different subject of neoliberal policy. This subject is not an excluded alterity to an included rational subject of neoliberalism, but a ‘plastic subject’ characterised by its multiplicity. The plastic subject does not contradict the rational subject as central to neoliberal policy-making, but diversifies it.     

Beyond the Bounds of Thought: Speculative Philosophy and the Last Proposition of the Tractatus

Wittgenstein's Tractatus attempts to characterize, via an account of the meaning and truth of propositional expressions, the limits to human thought. It turns out that not only, according to him, are the limits to human thought something which lie outside the capacity for humans to express, but such a notion is strictly speaking without sense. He concludes the book with the sentence "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence." Whitehead, on the contrary, is concerned to suggest that human sentential expressions are always inadequate to the thoughts which we wish to express. Nonetheless he suggests that a happy speculation a la Plato might just be right, even though we may never know that it is. This paper argues that there are no convincing arguments that either Wittgenstein or Whitehead is right here. So it is best that we maintain an agnostic position with respect to the view that human thought is strictly limited or that no adequate expressions of our thoughts can be found. Both educationally and practically, failing of any convincing arguments to the contrary, it is better that we presuppose, along with the mediaeval Christian thinkers, that our reason and insight are sufficient to the task of ultimately penetrating into the mysteries of the world, however difficult that task might be. Thus a happy speculation with no grounding is a perfectly good thing to engage in. It just might be true.     

Are children in need of liberation?

Conclusion In spite of my reservations on the key points of Professor McMurtry's article, I think that he has written the most interesting and sustained case for the liberation of children which I have seen. If he is wrong that children are not identical in status to slaves, he is surely right that some children are treated as badly as slaves were often treated and that our laws at the present time make it very difficult to intervene. If he is wrong in his presupposition that children are persons by the very fact of their being human beings, then he is erring on the side of angels. Because if we thought them so, then we would be much less likely to abuse them. And if our laws treated them so, we would have grounds for preventing the treatment of children as less than human by parents or other adults.     

Young Students’Informal Statistical Knowledge

This article reports some results of an informal study of very young children's reactions to some visual displays of data.     

Citizenship and enterprise: issues from an investigation of teachers' perceptions in England and Hungary

We explore the perceptions of teachers concerning citizenship and enterprise in Hungary and England. Contextual matters are described and research methods outlined prior to a discussion of emerging issues. We argue that citizenship in both countries is understood broadly in terms of what it means to be human. The English teachers emphasized community issues and being socially active more often than those in Hungary. Hungarian teachers were less positive about state and civil society and more patriotic about their country. In both countries those in provincial towns (rather than those in capital cities) suggested a belief in the need for a greater adherence to rules. There was greater enthusiasm for citizenship education in primary rather than secondary schools in both countries. All teachers seemed wary about a form of enterprise education that relates directly to the economy and this was especially true for the Hungarian sample. Teachers in both countries, while recognizing the current emphasis on competition between and within schools, tended to characterize citizenship education as a constructive social enterprise (rather than an economic enterprise), in which young people are encouraged to explore problems and develop their initiative and capacity for action. All teachers favoured a collaborative and broad‐based pedagogical approach in which young people are allowed to explore social and political issues through dilemmas.