Does Watching Help? In Search of the Theory of Change for Education Monitoring

Following the publication of the 2015 Global Education for All Monitoring Report, this paper examines the question of how watching and reporting on these global goals might prompt changes in education. What is the function of monitoring and publicizing of information about progress in education? What is the effect of global monitoring? How does it impact on educational policy? While recognizing that the exponential growth in education is a consequence of general social and economic progress, the paper examines how the soft power of the United Nations, and global agreements such as Education for All, may affect ideas and strategic calculations of stakeholders and thus, in turn, lead to policy change. The paper highlights the importance of watching and asserts that, although monitoring is not indicated as a source of predictable progress, it is a way to position the ideas that influence how people talk about education

Environmental Federalism in the European Union and the United States

The United States (US) and the European Union (EU) are federal systems in which the responsibility for environmental policy-making is divided or shared between the central government and the (member) states. The attribution of decision-making power has important policy implications. This chapter compares the role of central and local authorities in the US and the EU in formulating environmental regulations in three areas: automotive emissions for health related (criteria) pollutants, packaging waste, and global climate change. Automotive emissions are relatively centralised in both political systems. In the cases of packaging waste and global climate change, regulatory policy-making is shared in the EU, but is primarily the responsibility of local governments in the US. Thus, in some important areas, regulatory policy-making is more centralised in the EU. The most important role local governments play in the regulatory process is to help diffuse stringent local standards through more centralised regulations, a dynamic which has become recently become more important in the EU than in the US.

An XML format for benchmarks in High School Timetabling

The High School Timetabling Problem is amongst the most widely used timetabling problems. This problem has varying structures in different high schools even within the same country or educational system. Due to lack of standard benchmarks and data formats this problem has been studied less than other timetabling problems in the literature. In this paper we describe the High School Timetabling Problem in several countries in order to find a common set of constraints and objectives. Our main goal is to provide exchangeable benchmarks for this problem. To achieve this we propose a standard data format suitable for different countries and educational systems, defined by an XML schema. The schema and datasets are available online

Western Classical Music in the Minor Mode Is Slower (Except in the Romantic Period)

Two studies are reported that examine the relationship between musical mode and tempo in Western classical music. In the first study, modes were determined for 331 works bearing the tempo markings largo, adagio, allegro, or presto. Slower tempo markings are significantly more likely to be associated with the minor mode in the case of music from the Baroque and Classical periods, whereas the reverse trend is observed in music from the Romantic period. In the second study, an analysis of 21 audio recordings of theme-and-variation keyboard movements (from all three style periods) shows that variations written in the minor mode are performed more slowly than neighboring variations in the major mode. These tempo-related observations are largely consistent with research in speech prosody, which has shown that sad speakers speak relatively slowly

Design of Electromagnetic Cloaks and Concentrators Using Form-Invariant Coordinate Transformations of Maxwell's Equations

The technique of applying form-invariant, spatial coordinate transformations of Maxwell's equations can facilitate the design of structures with unique electromagnetic or optical functionality. Here, we illustrate the transformation-optical approach in the designs of a square electromagnetic cloak and an omni-directional electromagnetic field concentrator. The transformation equations are described and the functionality of the devices is numerically confirmed by two-dimensional finite element simulations. The two devices presented demonstrate that the transformation optic approach leads to the specification of complex, anisotropic and inhomogeneous materials with well directed and distinct electromagnetic behavior.Comment: submitted to "Photonics and Nanostructures", Special Issue "PECS VII", Elsevie