Quebec's Public Libraries: An Overview of Their History and Current Situation

This article begins with a brief historical review of the establishment of the first public libraries in the province of Quebec and the difficulties and challenges they faced. The Catholic Church played a significant role in library evolution. The article then relates the situation of public libraries in Quebec today. After analyzing their current levels of performance, the article concludes that, although Quebec's libraries have improved, they continue to be held back compared to other Canadian public libraries.     

Sex education in Spain: the relevance of teachers’ training and attitudes / Educación sexual en España: importancia de la formación y las actitudes del profesorado

Abstract

This research has two main aims: a) the study of Spanish teachers’ training and attitudes towards sex education, as well as the delivery of this subject in classrooms, while also exploring the existence of differences according to personal and professional characteristics; and b) to examine the association between teachers’ training and attitudes, and the extent to which these variables predict the delivery of sex education. A total of 3,695 Infant, Primary, Secondary and High school teachers (66.1% women, 33.9% men) throughout the country completed a voluntary online questionnaire that inquired about their training and attitudes towards sex education, their delivery or non-delivery of this subject in classrooms, and other personal and professional characteristics. Analyses indicate that participants show positive attitudes towards sex education, but that 43.3% are not trained in this issue, and 48.6% do not teach it at school. Some significant differences by sex, educational stage and type of school have been found. In addition, trained teachers show more positive attitudes to sex education. Finally, having more positive attitudes and, to a lesser extent, having prior training, positively predicts the delivery of sex education. These results highlight the importance of reviewing and improving teachers’ training on sexuality and sex education, with particular emphasis on attitudinal contents.     

Market accountability in schools: policy reforms in England,Germany, France and Italy

This article concentrates on the policy reforms of schools in England, Germany, France and Italy, from 1988 to 2009, with a focus on the introduction of market accountability. Pressing demands for organisational change in schools, shaped by the objectives of ‘efficiency’ and competition, which were introduced in England in the 1980s, have been adopted in other European countries, albeit at a slower pace and within the continuing need for domestic institutional conformity. How does the increasing predominance of market accountability in state schools change traditional bureaucratic and professional accountability relationships between politicians, managers, professionals and users? The article argues that despite some evidence of convergence between different education systems, England remains the outlier and continental European countries have been much more reluctant to adopt choice and competition policies.     

The impact of microfluidics in high-throughput drug-screening applications

Drug discovery is an expensive and lengthy process. Among the different phases, drug discovery and preclinical trials play an important role as only 5–10 of all drugs that begin preclinical tests proceed to clinical trials. Indeed, current high-throughput screening technologies are very expensive, as they are unable to dispense small liquid volumes in an accurate and quick way. Moreover, despite being simple and fast, drug screening assays are usually performed under static conditions, thus failing to recapitulate tissue-specific architecture and biomechanical cues present in vivo even in the case of 3D models. On the contrary, microfluidics might offer a more rapid and cost-effective alternative. Although considered incompatible with high-throughput systems for years, technological advancements have demonstrated how this gap is rapidly reducing. In this Review, we want to further outline the role of microfluidics in high-throughput drug screening applications by looking at the multiple strategies for cell seeding, compartmentalization, continuous flow, stimuli administration (e.g., drug gradients or shear stresses), and single-cell analyses.     

Does generating examples aid proof production?

Many mathematics education researchers have suggested that asking learners to generate examples of mathematical concepts is an effective way of learning about novel concepts. To date, however, this suggestion has limited empirical support. We asked undergraduate students to study a novel concept by either tackling example generation tasks or reading worked solutions to these tasks. Contrary to suggestions in the literature, we found no advantage for the example generation group on subsequent proof production tasks. From a second study, we found that undergraduate students overwhelmingly adopt a trial and error approach to example generation and suggest that different example generation strategies may result in different learning gains. We conclude by arguing that the teaching strategy of example generation is not yet understood well enough to be a viable pedagogical recommendation.     

The elixir (or burden) of youth? Exploring differences in innovation between start-ups and established firms

Despite the widely acknowledged role of start-ups in economic development, little is known about their innovative activities compared with those of established firms. Drawing on a sample of 12,209 UK firms, we differentiate between services and manufacturing firms and, using a matching estimator approach, demonstrate that start-ups differ significantly from established firms in their innovation activities. We find that in services, being a start-up increases the likelihood of product innovations. However, in manufacturing, we find no significant differences in the likelihood of product innovation between start-ups and established firms. When examining the returns to innovation, we find that start-ups have a significant advantage both in services and in manufacturing. We explore the implications of these results for theory and policy.     

Reading minds: the relation between children's mental state knowledge and their metaknowledge about reading

The relation between children's mental state knowledge and metaknowledge about reading was examined in 2 studies. In Study 1, 196 children (mean age = 9 years) were tested for verbal ability (VA), metaknowledge about reading, and mental state words in a story task. In Study 2, the results of Study 1 were extended by using a cross-lagged design and by investigating older children (N = 71, mean ages = 10 years at Time 1 and 11 years at Time 2) for mental state knowledge, metaknowledge about reading, and VA. Results showed a significant relation between early cognitive (but not emotion) mental state knowledge and later metaknowledge about reading, controlling for VA. Results suggest close links between different aspects of children's knowledge about the mind.     

Principal component analysis of colour measurements of patinas and coating systems for outdoor bronze monuments

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied on colour measurements performed on outdoor bronze patinas and protective coating systems on bronze coupons in order to monitor natural weathering and cleaning effects. PCA chemometric technique is shown to be a powerful tool to analyse the large measurement data set which is needed to characterise these kinds of system. The results are compared with previous work where the CIELAB L*a*b space was used, in order to spot the advantages and disadvantages of both techniques and how they can complete each other in order to set up a workflow when dealing with large datasets of colour measurements. As previously stated, quicker colour variations in the early stage of natural weathering of bronze coupons are characterised, which is mainly due to lightness reduction. PCA analysis helps to visualise the different behaviour upon cleaning procedure of different monument patinas and colour difference reduction due to cleaning. It gives the advantage in a first screening phase to possibly highlight the presence of outliers, check the level of noise in the spectra, and select the variables which carry more information. Its integration in a workflow for colour measurement can help in speeding up the process of later analysing data with the well-established CIELAB system.     

Sparks in the dark: the attraction of electricity in the eighteenth century

Electricity was the craze of the eighteenth century. Thrilling experiments became forms of polite entertainment for ladies and gentlemen who enjoyed feeling sparks, shocks and attractions on their bodies. Popular lecturers designed demonstrations that were performed in darkened salons to increase the spectacle of the so-called electric fire. Not only did the action, the machinery and the ambience of such displays match the culture of the libertine century, it also provided new material for erotic literature.