Conviviality under the cosmopolitan canopy? Social mixing and friendships in an urban secondary school

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright © Sociological Research Online 2012.Social mix and social mixing are topics of increasing significance to both the policy and academic communities in the UK, and have particular salience in urban multi-ethnic and socially diverse contexts. Enshrined in the comprehensive school ideal, and implicated in the now legal duty to promote 'community cohesion,' (urban) schools play a pivotal role in agendas for social mixing but little is empirically known about how this is lived and experienced by the young people in those schools. This paper begins to develop a theoretical understanding of social mixing drawing on qualitative data on the patterns, discourses, and experiences of associations and friendships collected in a London comprehensive school. We find that while the social mix of the school is celebrated, in official discourse as congenial and 'convivial', by staff and students alike, the extent of actual mixing - of associations and friendships forming between those of different social and ethnic backgrounds - is both constrained and complex. We point to the social and cultural factors which produce this sense of conviviality, and the opportunities for cultural learning it supports. At the same time, we argue that there are limitations. Schools are sites of differentiation, and friendships as exemplars of social mixing, both (re)produce and are (re)produced by existing social hierarchies and inequalities

Hydrogen Cyanide Accumulation and Transformations in Non-polluted Salt Marsh Sediments

While cyanide is known to be produced by many organisms, including plants, bacteria, algae, fungi and some animals, it is generally thought that high levels of cyanide in aquatic systems require anthropogenic sources. Here, we report accumulation of relatively high levels of cyanide in non-polluted salt marsh sediments (up to 230 μmol kg[superscript −1]). Concentrations of free cyanide up to 1.92 μmol L[superscript −1], which are toxic to aquatic life, were detected in the pore-waters. Concentration of total (free and complexed) cyanide in the pore-waters was up to 6.94 μmol L[superscript −1]. Free cyanide, which is released to the marsh sediments, is attributed to processes associated with decomposition of cord grass, Spartina alterniflora, roots and possibly from other sources. This cyanide is rapidly complexed with iron and adsorbed on sedimentary organic matter. The ultimate cyanide sink is, however, associated with formation of thiocyanate by reaction with products of sulfide oxidation by Fe(III) minerals, especially polysulfides. The formation of thiocyanate by this pathway detoxifies two poisonous compounds, polysulfides and hydrogen cyanide, preventing release of free hydrogen cyanide from salt marsh sediments into overlying water or air

Complicity and contestation in the gentrifying urban primary school

The transformation of primary schools in gentrifying localities has sometimes been referred to as a form of ‘class colonisation’. This article draws on ethnographic research with teachers, teaching assistants and parents in two inner-London primary schools to explore the largely unexamined role of school leaders (headteachers) in mediating gentrification processes within urban schools. It argues that institutional history, contexts of headship and leadership style all play an important role in negotiating and recontextualising middle-class mobilisation and power to re-shape primary schools. Headteachers’ relationship to gentrification is therefore not simply one of complicity, but often of contestation and conflict. This article therefore challenges understandings of gentrification as a hegemonic process, and contributes to a more nuanced picture of the educational consequences of gentrification, particularly the institutional realities and experiences of urban social change

Simulation of steam gasification in a fluidized bed reactor with energy self-sufficient condition

YesThe biomass gasification process is widely accepted as a popular technology to produce fuel for the application in gas turbines and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). Chemical reactions of this process can be separated into three reaction zones: pyrolysis, combustion, and reduction. In this study, sensitivity analysis with respect to three input parameters (gasification temperature, equivalence ratio, and steam-to-biomass ratio) has been carried out to achieve energy self-sufficient conditions in a steam gasification process under the criteria that the carbon conversion efficiency must be more than 70%, and carbon dioxide gas is lower than 20%. Simulation models of the steam gasification process have been carried out by ASPEN Plus and validated with both experimental data and simulation results from Nikoo & Mahinpey (2008). Gasification temperature of 911 °C, equivalence ratio of 0.18, and a steam-to-biomass ratio of 1.78, are considered as an optimal operation point to achieve energy self-sufficient condition. This operating point gives the maximum of carbon conversion efficiency at 91.03%, and carbon dioxide gas at 15.18 volumetric percentages. In this study, life cycle assessment (LCA) is included to compare the environmental performance of conventional and energy self-sufficient gasification for steam biomass gasification.Financing of this research was supported by the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) under Grant Number PHD57I0054 and the Institutional Research Grant by the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) under Grant Number IRG 5780014 and Chulalongkorn University, Contact No. RES_57_411_21_076

Class, Culture And Control:the Transformation Of Educational Work In A Gentrifying Primary School

Research indicates that white middle-class families’ engagement with urban schools in gentrifying localities is often characterised by strategies of dominance and control, which support claims of belonging and identity, as well as securing educational advantage for their children. This is referred as ‘class colonisation’ or ‘school gentrification’. However, there has been a neglect of educators’ perspectives and responses to urban social change and middle-class parental practices. In this paper, I offer an institutionally-focused analysis of class colonisation as a feature of educators’ working lives. I argue that class colonisation produces organisational ‘turmoil’ through parental practices and interactions which unsettle staff’s social and cultural control over key aspects of their work situation and institutional boundary maintenance. This turmoil is experienced as disruptive of the social order, generating staff cynicism, conflict, ambivalence, and alienation. I draw on ethnographic data with teachers and teaching assistants from a gentrifying inner-London primary school to empirically specify these arguments. Theoretically, this paper integrates elements of Bourdieu and micro-sociology, to foreground how agents use their unequal resources to negotiate their interpersonal institutional realities, and in the process, re-produce classed and racialised boundaries and relations within the changing contexts of urban education

Effects of Mother's Illness and Breastfeeding on Risk of Ebola Virus Disease in a Cohort of Very Young Children.

BACKGROUND: Young children who contract Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) have a high case fatality rate, but their sources of infection and the role of breastfeeding are unclear. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Household members of EVD survivors from the Kerry Town Ebola Treatment Centre in Sierra Leone were interviewed four to 10 months after discharge to establish exposure levels for all members of the household, whether or not they became ill, and including those who died. We analysed a cohort of children under three years to examine associations between maternal illness, survival and breastfeeding, and the child's outcome. Of 77 children aged zero to two years in the households we surveyed, 43% contracted EVD. 64 children and mothers could be linked: 25/40 (63%) of those whose mother had EVD developed EVD, compared to 2/24 (8%) whose mother did not have EVD, relative risk adjusted for age, sex and other exposures (aRR) 7·6, 95%CI 2·0-29·1. Among those with mothers with EVD, the risk of EVD in the child was higher if the mother died (aRR 1·5, 0·99-2·4), but there was no increased risk associated with breast-feeding (aRR 0·75, 0·46-1·2). Excluding those breastfed by infected mothers, half (11/22) of the children with direct contact with EVD cases with wet symptoms (diarrhoea, vomiting or haemorrhage) remained well. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This is the largest study of mother-child pairs with EVD to date, and the first attempt at assessing excess risk from breastfeeding. For young children the key exposure associated with contracting EVD was mother's illness with EVD, with a higher risk if the mother died. Breast feeding did not confer any additional risk in this study but high risk from proximity to a sick mother supports WHO recommendations for separation. This study also found that many children did not become ill despite high exposures

The Historical Phytogeography of \u3cem\u3eCirsium arvense\u3c/em\u3e, An Invasive Species in Pennsylvania

According to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Cirsium arvense (Asteraceae family) is currently an invasive plant in the state of Pennsylvania. Invasive species pose a problem as they are detrimental to natural ecosystems and very costly to manage and eradicate. In this study, distribution of C. arvense in Pennsylvania was reconstructed using only herbarium records. Through detailed methodology, it was determined that there were no shifts in habit preference over time. With the data being specific to Pennsylvania, the objective was to determine if the distribution and habitat preference would align with the current literature on what is known about C. arvense. The data seemed to support the current literature in that C. arvense appeared to be widespread and prefers dry, disturbed areas like roadsides. However, with further analysis, the data was found to reflect trends in field collecting as opposed to the distribution of the species. One of the limitations of the study was collector bias in addition to procedural obstacles. From this study, valuable insight was gained about the future of botanical collecting techniques and the importance of phytogeographical studies

Public–Private Partnership: countries' attractiveness and the risk of project failure

The primary objective of this thesis is to analyse the public private partnership (PPP) framework for infrastructure development in developing countries across the six regions of the world. The thesis utilises the World Bank's private participation in infrastructure (PPI) dataset for the period 1980–2014, and examines three thematic areas. The first comprises of an exploratory analysis of the PPI dataset. The second research area focuses on the relationship between countries' attractiveness for PPPs and the characteristics of the countries, including: macroeconomic and market; fiscal constraints; regulatory and governance; and experience in PPPs, by utilising the Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial and Cragg's Double Hurdle models in an attempt to model private investors' decision to engage in PPPs as separate participation and consumption decisions. The third research area employs the methodology of survival analysis to investigate the risk of failure of PPP projects based on the allocation of residual facility ownership between the partners. The thesis's primary contributions include the utilisation of a wider and more informative range of econometric methodologies which have not been previously applied to the PPI dataset, and for the first time also, provides a framework to select an appropriate structure for PPPs that will enhance project survival. A key finding of the thesis is that private investors prioritise macroeconomic and market variables, such as price stability over regulatory and governance variables, such as corruption, in their determination as to which country to engage in PPPs. Contrary to previous research, corruption was found to be of no consequence to private investors who wish to engage in PPPs even for developing countries. Another key finding is that PPP projects which confer residual ownership on the public sector have lower risk of failure than those for which such ownership is conferred on the private sector. Evidence also suggests that the size of the project and the participation of multilateral institutions in PPPs also affect the risk of project failure