Transient analysis of steam generator in PWR nuclear power plant

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AN OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN A SAMPLE OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO PROVISIONS OF DISTANCE TEACHING

This article gives an overview of current provisions for environmental education in the context of distance education programmes in a sample of European countries. The methodology, that was employed by means of a postal survey aimed at identifying current trends in environmental education in relation to distance teaching, is described. The sample surveyed consisted of approximately 500 higher education institutions, members of the Association of European Universities (CRE), over 200 of which had signed the CRE‐Copernicus Universities Charter on Sustainable Development. The article presents a regional summary of the research findings that formed part of a larger enquiry into the status of environmental education in European countries, Commonwealth countries, and individual countries such as the United Kingdom and Pakistan.     

Designing a trust evaluation model for open‐knowledge communities

The openness of open‐knowledge communities (OKCs) leads to concerns about the knowledge quality and reliability of such communities. This confidence crisis has become a major factor limiting the healthy development of OKCs. Earlier studies on trust evaluation for Wikipedia considered disadvantages such as inadequate influencing factors and separated the treatment of trustworthiness for users and resources. A new trust evaluation model for OKCs—the two‐way interactive feedback model—is developed in this study. The model has two core components: resource trustworthiness (RT) and user trustworthiness (UT). The model is based on more interaction data, considers the interrelation between RT and UT, and better represents the features of interpersonal trust in reality. Experimental simulation and trial operation for the Learning Cell System, a novel open‐knowledge community developed for ubiquitous learning, show that the model accurately evaluates RT and UT in this example OKC environment.     

Academics transformational leadership: an investigation of heads of department leadership behaviours in Malaysian public universities

Presently, the role and the function of universities in Malaysia have been described as being in a state of change. Several strategies have been adopted to assist in the re-branding of higher institutions of learning. As a consequence, an effective model of leadership practices, particularly at the Malaysian academic departmental level, has to be generated in order to replace the traditional leadership practices in meeting the national aspirations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between department heads’ leadership behaviour with academics’ organisational commitment. Survey responses from 430 academics from Malaysian public universities were received and analysed. The main finding of this study reveals that the adoption of encouraging leadership behaviour (Kouzes and Posner’s Transformational Leadership) shows a 55% direct positive relationship with academics’ organisational commitment, with demographical factors playing no role as a moderator with either variable. This reinforces the rationalisation for adopting the model within the Malaysian academic setting, where department heads should indeed lead the academic organisation.     

A qualitative inquiry of doctoral students' herding in education and validation of ‘herding in educational decisions’ scale

Fresh PhD recipients are experiencing restricted career opportunities yet the enrolment of PhD Scholars is increasing rapidly. Perhaps, doctoral students lack conscious educational decision-making. Building on such a perspective of doctoral students' unconscious educational choices, we explored their educational choices throughout their life trajectory. We started with a qualitative inquiry of 18 different PhD scholars in Pakistan. The findings helped us in developing a measure to determine the extent of herding in doctoral students' educational decisions. We ‘benefitted from’ this opportunity and validated the scale in two separate quantitative inquiries for conducting an exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The study concluded a 3-dimensional scale (consisting of 15-items) for measuring ‘herding in educational decisions’. The study offers certain implications for conscious educational decisions.     

British South Asians and pathways into selective schooling: social class,culture and ethnicity

This article is a theoretical and empirical study of the ways in which different South Asian groups, Bangladeshi, Indian, and Pakistani, achieve entry into the selective education system, taking into consideration the factors of social class, ethnicity and culture. In‐depth interviews with 42 South Asian school pupils from three single‐sex selective schools (one independent and two grammar), 47 South Asian school pupils from three secondary modern schools, and 25 South Asian parents are used to interpret perceptions, attitudes towards, and experiences of selective school entry. It is found that that certain working‐class South Asian parents possess strong middle‐class attitudes towards selective education, irrespective of their ability to facilitate it as a function of their financial, cultural, or social capital. Middle‐class South Asians were not only highly motivated but also possessed the economic, social and cultural capital to ensure successful selective school entry. In general, social class status was the strongest factor in the likelihood of gaining entry into selective schools. This research contributes to the literature on selective education as well as on the intricacies of the British South Asian educational experience.     

The social impact of open government data in Hong Kong: Umbrella Movement protests and adversarial politics

While there has been much anticipation that open government data (OGD) would increase the inclusion of marginalized groups in government decision-making processes, researchers have found little evidence of it. Such findings or lack of findings of social impact have led researchers to call for critical review of present notions of OGD’s impact and also for better theoretical frameworks. In response to these calls, we develop a theoretical framework based on an ethnographic study of civic use of OGD in Hong Kong. We argue that constrained by the deliberative democracy models that focus on existing mechanisms of political participation, researchers have tended to overlook the use of OGD for protests, contestation, and other expressions of adversarial politics, which also produce a use of OGD for social impacts.