Animals and anomalies: an analysis of the UK veterinary profession and the relative lack of state reform

The sociology of professions literature would predict that the contemporary state would not allow groups to continue unregulated or unreformed. However, this is indeed the case with the UK veterinary profession, with legislation dating back to 1966. Using an interdisciplinary analysis of published literature and reports, this paper assesses whether wider social, political and ethical dynamics can better explain this intriguing anomaly. We conclude with critical implications for the sociology of the professions. Furthermore, we argue that continuing to ignore the veterinary profession, and animals more generally, in sociological research will result in an impoverished and partial understanding of contemporary healthcare and occupations

Tabulator Redux: writing Into the Semantic Web

A first category of Semantic Web browsers were designed to present a given dataset (an RDF graph) for perusal, in various forms. These include mSpace, Exhibit, and to a certain extent Haystack. A second category tackled mechanisms and display issues around linked data gathered on the fly. These include Tabulator, Oink, Disco, Open Link Software's Data Browser, and Object Browser. The challenge of once that data is gathered, how might it be edited, extended and annotated has so far been left largely unaddressed. This is not surprising: there are a number of steep challenges for determining how to support editing information in the open web of linked data. These include the representation of both the web of documents and the web of things, and the relationships between them; ensuring the user is aware of and has control over the social context such as licensing and privacy of data being entered, and, on a web in which anyone can say anything about anything, helping the user intuitively select the things which they actually wish to see in a given situation. There is also the view update problem: the difficulty of reflecting user edits back through functions used to map web data to a screen presentation. In the latest version of the Tabulator project, described in this paper we have focused on providing the write side of the readable/writable web. Our approach has been to allow modification and addition of information naturally within the browsing interface, and to relay changes to the server triple by triple for least possible brittleness (there is no explicit 'save' operation). Challenges which remain include the propagation of changes by collaborators back to the interface to create a shared editing system. To support writing across (semantic) Web resources, our work has contributed several technologies, including a HTTP/SPARQL/Update-based protocol between an editor (or other system) and incrementally editable resources stored in an open source, world-writable 'data wiki'. This begins enabling the writable Semantic Web

Gender and journalism

The media is an important cultural gatekeeper, but not a disinterested one. Inevitably journalists, their interests, backgrounds, intellectual capacity and prejudices shape what they consider we need to know. Even unconsciously they filter what they want us to know about ourselves, each other and the world. This makes the media a major vehicle, although curiously not the only vehicle, for the shaping of public opinion and in particular for the management of our responses to change. The media is also one of four so-called pillars of democracy, ensuring electors are able to make informed choices as well as engage in public policy debate. Accordingly an effective media represents a diversity ogf opinion and a range of interests which include the rights and interests and real lives of women as well as the contribution they make to the life of the nation. That's why gender counts in journalism. It is part of diversity.&nbsp

Gravity travelling waves for two superposed fluid layers, one being of infinite depth: a new type of bifurcation

International audienceIn this paper, we study the travelling gravity waves in a system of two layers of perfect fluids, the bottom one being infinitely deep, the upper one having a finite thickness h. We assume that the flow is potential, and the dimensionless parameters are the ratio between densities ρ = ρ 2 /ρ 1 and λ = gh/c^2. We study special values of the parameters such that λ(1 − ρ) is near 1 − , where a bifurcation of a new type occurs. We formulate the problem as a spatial reversible dynamical system, where U = 0 corresponds to a uniform state (velocity c in a moving reference frame), and we consider the linearized operator around 0. We show that its spectrum contains the entire real axis (essential spectrum), with in addition a double eigenvalue in 0, a pair of simple imaginary eigenvalues ±iλ at a distance O(1) from 0, and for λ(1 − ρ) above 1, another pair of simple imaginary eigenvalues tending towards 0 as λ(1 − ρ) → 1 +. When λ(1 − ρ) ≤ 1 this pair disappears into the essential spectrum. The rest of the spectrum lies at a distance at least O(1) from the imaginary axis. We show in this paper that for λ(1 − ρ) close to 1 − , there is a family of periodic solutions like in the Lyapunov-Devaney theorem (despite the resonance due to the point 0 in the spectrum). Moreover, showing that the full system can be seen as a perturbation of the Benjamin-Ono equation, coupled with a nonlinear oscillation, we also prove the existence of a family of homoclinic connections to these periodic orbits, provided that these ones are not too small

Professional learning modes. Literature review

This literature review summarises evidence from education research to describe and compare different modes of professional learning. It applies the findings to the question: ‘what works best, and for whom’ in terms of modes of professional learning for Australian teachers, with particular focus on early childhood teachers, casual relief teachers and teachers in rural and remote teaching contexts. A key professional learning challenge common to these teachers is isolation – which can be physical, pedagogical, technological and/or social isolation. The review sought to identify research on modes of professional learning and in particular any studies that compared different modes of professional learning. The reviewers were interested in evidence pointing to the circumstances in which a particular mode of professional learning might have the most impact on teaching practice or school culture, as well as whether particular modes, or combination of modes, had greater impact for specific cohorts of teachers

Effects of remote learning on mental health and socialisation. Literature Review

This literature review focuses on the effects of remote learning on mental health, including acute mental health issues and possible ongoing implications for student wellbeing and socialisation. It provides an overview of some of the challenges that can impact on the mental health and relationships of young people, many of which have accelerated or become more complex during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the light of concern about rising antisocial behaviour and extremism there is a focus on socialisation and self-regulation on return to school post-pandemic. In the face of limited Australian research on these topics, the review takes a global focus and includes experiences from other countries as evidenced in the emerging research literature. Based on these findings the review offers advice to school leaders regarding the self-regulatory behaviours of students on return to school after periods of remote learning, and addresses social and emotional considerations as students transition back to school. It also considers ways in which schools can promote wellbeing and respond to mental health concerns as a way to address and prevent antisocial behaviours, recognise manifestations in extremism (including religious fundamentalism), and challenge a general rise in extremist views

Societal sentience: constructions of the public in animal research policy and practice

The use of non-human animals as models in research and drug testing is a key route through which contemporary scientific knowledge is certified. Given ethical concerns, regulation of animal research promotes the use of less ‘sentient’ animals. This paper draws on a documentary analysis of legal documents, and qualitative interviews with Named Veterinary Surgeons and others at a commercial laboratory in the UK. Its key claim is that the concept of animal sentience is entangled with a particular imaginary of how the general public or wider society views animals. We call this imaginary societal sentience. Against a backdrop of increasing ethnographic work on care encounters in the laboratory, this concept helps to stress the wider context within which such encounters take place. We conclude that societal sentience has potential purchase beyond the animal research field, in helping to highlight the affective dimension of public imaginaries (Welsh and Wynne 2013), and their ethical consequences. Researching and critiquing societal sentience, we argue, may ultimately have more impact on the fate of humans and non-humans in the laboratory, than focusing wholly on ethics as situated practice

What a difference a year made! : an evaluation of the National Year of Reading 2012 in Western Australia, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory

This report is an evaluation of how the National Year of Reading helped to build a reading culture across the nation. The evaluation was undertaken by The Centre for Research in Early Childhood Education, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia . The report describes the nature and outcomes of the National Year of Reading in the four case studies, including a consideration of what participating organisations delivered beyond what would normally be expected of them. The findings lead to a series of conclusions about the program\u27s successes, challenges and legacy followed by recommendations about how these successes can be sustained and extended beyond 2012

Rapid review of effective practice principles in the design and delivery of digital resources for teachers

This rapid review, commissioned by Life Education Australia (LEA), gathered evidence about effective practice in the design and delivery of digital professional learning for teachers. Its goal was to inform development of principles to guide the design and delivery of LEA’s own digital resources for teachers. The key research question for the review was: What does the research evidence say about the design and delivery of digital / online resources for teachers and what practice implications and recommendations could be made based on this research evidence

Understanding resistance to childhood vaccination in the UK: radicals, reformists and the discourses of risk, trust and science

Vaccination is regarded by the medical profession as one of the greatest public health success stories, and recent opposition, for example over the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine, as a failure of understanding. Relatively little social scientific analysis exists on vaccination opposition. However, risk, trust and science are dominant themes within literature on public resistance to technology, and in contemporary theories such as risk society. This thesis therefore evaluates the relevance of these themes for an understanding of vaccination resistance in the UK. The empirical research primarily involves a discourse analysis of interview, document and website data generated from ten parental organisations, established to campaign against aspects of vaccination policy. The study defines these organisations as 'Vaccine Critical groups' and further classifies them into Radical and Reformist categories. In contrast to smallpox vaccination in nineteenth century England, vaccination is no longer compulsory in the UK. Nevertheless, from a governmentality perspective, the individual is still subjected to, what can be termed, the 'imperative of vaccination'. This thesis argues that the Vaccine Critical groups resist this imperative: first, by reframing risk as unknown, non-objective and individual specific; second, by demonstrating an ambivalent relationship with science; and third, by challenging faith in professional expertise and constructing the parent as the potential vaccine expert. These discourses create another type of moral imperative, which actually conforms to developments in the new public health that are encouraged by the state and the medical profession. The findings demonstrate the limits of a realist approach to risk, challenge existing theories of risk society and complicate assumptions about a public crisis of trust in expertise or science. Policy implications include the need to engage with vaccine resisters and their critical discourses, and to reassess the value of risk communication strategies