bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Silicon Valley versus Silicon Glen: the impact of computers upon teaching and learning: a comparative study
Authors: Conlon Tom , Simpson Mary 
Published: June 2003

AbstractDrawing on data from a major survey on the impact of information technology initiatives on Scottish schools, we assess the extent to which the outcomes resemble those that have already been reported by Larry Cuban in his study of schools in Silicon Valley. We find a large measure of agreement. Scottish teachers and school students mostly have access to computers in their homes and classrooms. The home computers appear to be frequently used. The classroom computers, however, are encountered by students only seldom and when students do use computers in the classroom the activity is often peripheral to the learning process, such as word processing of essays. We discuss some possible explanations for this state of affairs and suggest some implications for policy‐making.
ICT—the hopes and the reality
Authors: Reynolds David , Treharne Dave , Tripp Helen 
Published: June 2003

AbstractAn analysis is made of the reasons for excessive optimism concerning the potential of ICT to enhance levels of pupil achievement. After a review of evidence concerning the potential of ICT, a small‐scale survey is reported that shows continuing problems in the adoption of ICT by teachers. It is concluded that more research is needed to improve the expectations and effectiveness of ICT provision and utilisation.
Reality bytes: examining the rhetoric of widening educational participation via ICT
Authors: Selwyn Neil , Gorard Stephen 
Published: June 2003

AbstractInformation and communications technology (ICT) has fast become the rhetorical foundation of the UK government's attempts to transform adult education radically and to establish a ‘learning society’. Central to this rhetoric are a series of largely untested assumptions about the potential of ICT to increase and widen levels of educational participation to include those groups of learners who have previously been excluded. With this in mind, the present paper contrasts recent government rhetoric concerning post‐compulsory ‘e‐learning’ with an analysis of data from the 2002 National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) survey of 5,885 households. With these data suggesting that access to ICT does not, in itself, make people any more likely to participate in education and (re)engage with learning, the paper concludes by considering how ICT might be more realistically re‐approached by the educational and political communities.
Knowledge transformation through ICT in science education: a case study in teacher‐driven curriculum development—Case‐Study 1
Authors: Baggott La Velle Linda , McFarlane Angela , Brawn Richard 
Published: June 2003

AbstractThe papers in this volume of BJET relate to the over‐riding concern about the role of information and communications technologies (ICT) in education: the extent to which the claims of policy makers, administrators, publicists, politicians and bureaucrats are borne out in the reality of teaching and learning inside and outside the classroom. One approach to providing the evidential base for judging the extent of and nature of the gap between rhetoric and reality and closing it are major research studies based upon statistically significant sampling like IMPACT2, another is to build up a body of in‐depth case‐study evidence that can be used as the basis for generalisation. This paper falls into the latter category, looking at a case study of the initial stages of the development of effective ICT in Science Education. The research and development work involved is an element in the ICT strand of the Teaching and Learning in the Information Age Project. The paper first reviews the issues in the development of a design initiative for furthering our understanding of the problem of knowledge transformation in science education through ICT. A discussion of the development of ICT use in science education then leads to an illustration of current use in UK school science classrooms and laboratories. A theoretical framework of teacher's knowledge and pedagogical reasoning in science through ICT is presented as the basis for the curriculum research and redevelopment that the case study involves. The case study, findings and discussion then follow.
Rhetoric and reality: using ICT to enhance pupil learning—Harry Potter and the Warley Woods Mystery—Case study 2
Authors: Nichol Jon , Watson Kate , Waites Graham 
Published: June 2003

AbstractHow can we use ICT to enhance the quality of pupil learning? The case study below deliberately embedded ICT within the context of an existing scheme of work to develop 11–12 year olds’ understanding of the skills and processes of historical investigation. It also mapped onto the existing teaching styles of the teachers involved, and reflected their orientation—beliefs and values. The role for the ICT was to present the pupils with a problem that would intrigue, excite and motivate them. Accordingly, we asked them to act in role as assistants to Harry and Hermione in investigating the strange death of Sam Woodhouse in 1822. The pupils carried out the investigation using a hyperlinked set of clues. They had undertaken two identical kinds of investigation earlier in the year. One was a murder mystery, the other the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower in 1483. For both these mysteries the clues were on cards. Comparisons of the results of the ICT mystery with those of the earlier two investigations suggest that the hyperlink version was equally effective in terms of developing understanding, with some clear advantages in developing pupils’ overall understanding of the problem and ability to make links between disparate clues and pieces of information.
The Virtual Field Station (VFS): using a virtual reality environment for ecological fieldwork in A‐Level biological studies—Case Study 3
Authors: Poland Roger , Baggott la Velle Linda , Nichol Jon 
Published: June 2003

AbstractCase studies are one way of producing the evidential base necessary for ICT to become embedded in everyday teaching and learning. Such case studies are vital for the purposes of generalisation. Also, teacher generated case‐studies have the benefit of being research that is done by teachers in conjunction with Higher Education support and mediation, as opposed to research being done to teachers by Higher Education. One such teacher‐generated case study at the cutting edge of ICT researches the effectiveness of a Virtual Field Station for the teaching of an A Level biology topic. The subject was the exotic one of the Mediterranean sea turtle. Student fieldwork involving these fascinating creatures is desirable but difficult, as the sea turtle's habitat is the archipelago of the Aegean Sea. The paper argues that a Virtual Field Centre is an effective substitute for actuality in terms of the development of student knowledge and understanding for examination purposes. As such, it is an innovative development that sits at the forefront of an area of Science Education that is rapidly developing, ie ICT‐mediated teaching and learning.
‘High‐performance’ Management Practices, Working Hours and Work–Life Balance
Authors: White Michael , Hill Stephen , McGovern Patrick , Mills Colin , Smeaton Deborah 
Published: June 2003

AbstractThe effects of selected high‐performance practices and working hours on work–life balance are analysed with data from national surveys of British employees in 1992 and 2000. Alongside long hours, which are a constant source of negative job‐to‐home spillover, certain ‘high‐performance’ practices have become more strongly related to negative spillover during this period. Surprisingly, dual‐earner couples are not especially liable to spillover — if anything, less so than single‐earner couples. Additionally, the presence of young children has become less important over time. Overall, the results suggest a conflict between high‐performance practices and work‐life balance policies.
Work–Life Imbalance in Call Centres and Software Development
Authors: Hyman Jeff , Baldry Chris , Scholarios Dora , Bunzel Dirk 
Published: June 2003

AbstractThe paper evaluates the centrality of work to employees in two growing employment sectors, call‐centres and software development. It then examines evidence for extensions of work into household and family life in these two sectors. Extensions are identified as tangible, such as unpaid overtime, or intangible, represented by incursions imported from work, such as exhaustion and stress. The study finds that organizational pressures, combined with lack of work centrality, result in work intruding into non‐work areas of employee lives, though intrusions manifest themselves in different ways according to type of work, levels of worker autonomy and organizational support.
Inter‐organizational Relations and Employment in a Multi‐employer Environment
Authors: Rubery Jill , Cooke Fang Lee , Earnshaw Jill , Marchington Mick 
Published: June 2003

AbstractThis study focuses on the employment dimensions of inter‐organizational relations, taking as an example a large regional airport. The dense and complex relationships that emerge in a multi‐agency setting are highlighted to illustrate the tensions and contradictions that characterize the management of workers in an environment where contracting and recontracting predominate. These findings suggest that there is a need, on the one hand, to include inter‐organizational relations in the study of the employment relationship and, on the other hand, to reinsert employment issues into the analysis of inter‐organizational contracting and partnerships.
Heightening Tension in Relations between Trade Unions and the Labour Government in 2002
Authors: Waddington Jeremy 
Published: June 2003

AbstractDuring 2002 tension between trade unions and the Labour government reached a level not seen before in their relationship. This review examines the source of the tension and its manifestations. It shows that during the year a range of issues emerged that divided the government and unions. New Labour ‘modernizers’ cited these differences as reasons to further distance the Party from trade unions. The article argues that relations between trade unionism and the government are at low ebb, and that the extent of disagreement between the two is now more pronounced than at any other time since 1997.
Transport Taxes with Multiple Trip Purposes
Authors: Van Dender Kurt 
Published: June 2003

AbstractA congestible urban transport system is considered in which cars and buses are used for commuting and non‐commuting trips. Commuting is a strict complement to taxable labour supply. The optimal tax structure for raising a given amount of government revenue is examined for the cases where differentiation of transport tolls between trip purposes is and is not possible. An application to Belgian urban environments shows that optimal toll differentiation produces significant efficiency improvements. Without differentiation, reforming transport taxes generates substantial gains only when the labour tax can be reduced.
The Repo Auctions of the European Central Bank and the Vanishing Quota Puzzle*
Authors: Nautz Dieter , Oechssler Jörg 
Published: June 2003

AbstractUntil June 2000 the European Central Bank (ECB) used fixed rate tenders for its weekly repo auctions. A switch to variable rate tenders became necessary due to massive overbidding by banks. In this paper we introduce a stylized game among banks to investigate this overbidding phenomenon. Our results confirm the weakness of the fixed rate tender format and indicate that the ECB's liquidity management has significantly improved since the switch to the variable rate system. Yet recent episodes of rate cut expectations suggest that the ECB's practice of setting a minimum bid rate should be abandoned in favor of a more symmetric interest rate target.
Monetary Policy Rules and Business Cycles
Authors: Kim Soyoung 
Published: June 2003

AbstractBasic features of business cycle properties under both exogenous and endogenous monetary policy rules are examined in calibrated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models with nominal rigidities (the nominal wage contract model, the monopolistic competition model with price adjustment costs and a combination of these models). The experiments show that the difference in business cycle features under exogenous and endogenous monetary policy rules is as large as the change generated by introducing nominal rigidities (and monetary disturbances). This result suggests that, for monetary business cycle research, developing a proper way to incorporate endogenous monetary policy rules may be as important as developing new transmission mechanisms of monetary policy disturbances.
How High is the Private Gain from Wage Indexation?
Authors: Laséen Stefan 
Published: June 2003

AbstractThe effects of firm‐specific shocks on the gain from writing state‐contingent wage contracts are examine in an extension of the model in Gottfries (1992). It is shown that the introduction of firm‐specific uncertainty increases the gain from indexation to prices only moderately. Moreover, nominal wage contracts should be more prevalent when unemployment benefits are high or unemployment spells are short.
Risk Preferences, Production Risk and Firm Heterogeneity*
Authors: Kumbhakar Subal C. , Tveterås Ragnar 
Published: June 2003

AbstractA new technique is proposed for deriving the risk preference function under production risk and expected utility of profit maximization. The derivation depends on neither a specific parametric form of the utility function nor any distribution of the error term representing production risk. The proposed risk preference function is flexible enough to test different types of risk behavior and symmetry of the output distribution. Furthermore, our production risk specification allows for inputs with positive and negative marginal risk. The econometric model accommodates production risk, risk preferences and firm heterogeneity simultaneously. Norwegian salmon farming data are used as an application.
A Proposed Monetary Regime for Small Commodity Exporters: Peg the Export Price (‘PEP’)
Authors: Frankel Jeffrey 
Published: June 2003

AbstractOn the one hand, the big selling points of floating exchange rates – monetary independence and accommodation of terms of trade shocks – have not lived up to their promise. On the other hand, proposals for credible institutional monetary commitments to nominal anchors have each run aground on their own peculiar shoals. Rigid pegs to the dollar are dangerous when the dollar appreciates. Money targeting does not work when there is a velocity shock. CPI targeting is not viable when there is a large import price shock. And the gold standard fails when there are large fluctuations in the world gold market. This paper advances a new proposal called PEP: peg the export price. Most applicable for countries that are specialized in the production of a particular mineral or agricultural product, the proposal calls on them to commit to fix the price of that commodity in terms of domestic currency. A series of simulations shows how such a proposal would have worked for oil producers over the period 1970–2000. The paths of real oil prices, exports, and debt are simulated under alternative regimes. An illustrative finding is that countries that suffered a declining world market in oil or other export commodities in the late 1990s would under the PEP proposal have automatically experienced a depreciation and a boost to exports when it was most needed. The argument for PEP is that it simultaneously delivers automatic accommodation to terms of trade shocks, as floating exchange rates are supposed to do, while retaining the credibility‐enhancing advantages of a nominal anchor, as dollar pegs are supposed to do.
Sovereign Debt Restructurings – The Market Knows Best
Authors: Galvis Sergio J. 
Published: June 2003

Books reviewed in this article:Jeremy Bulow, First World Governments and Third World DebtJeffrey Sachs, Resolving the Debt Crisis of Low‐Income CountriesMichelle J. White, Sovereigns in Distress: Do They Need Bankruptcy?Nouriel Roubini, Do We Need a New Bankruptcy Regime?Hal S. Scott, How Would a Bankruptcy Regime Help?Edwin M. Truman, Debt Restructuring: Evolution or Revolution?
Intervention and Exchange Rate Stabilization Policy in Developing Countries
Authors: Hutchison Michael M. 
Published: June 2003

AbstractRecent evidence based on event studies demonstrates the short‐run effectiveness of sterilized (non‐monetary) intervention to stabilize exchange rates. This role is especially important for developing economies where currency volatility is frequently tied to unstable market expectations, herding behaviour and contagion, rather than ‘fundamental’ macroeconomic imbalances. Intervention coordinated with several governments is more likely to succeed in moving exchange rates in the desired direction. The Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) is a step towards greater cooperation on exchange rate management in Asia, but its main component is a limited US dollar swap agreement between Japan and developing economies and is conditional on an IMF financial package. A much stronger political, as well as economic, commitment to intervene in exchange markets than currently embodied in the CMI would be needed to reduce exchange rate volatility in the region and to ward off future speculative attacks. Greater currency stability, in turn, would give developing economies more flexibility to use monetary and fiscal policy to pursue domestic stabilization policy objectives.
Business Cycles and Macroeconomic Policy in Emerging Market Economies
Authors: Lane Philip R. 
Published: June 2003

AbstractThis paper argues that significant structural differences exist between industrial and emerging market economies. Cyclical fluctuations have been more extreme for the latter group and exacerbated by inappropriately pro‐cyclical macroeconomic policies. However, we argue that effective stabilization policies remain feasible for the emerging market economies, so long as these invest in developing a robust domestic institutional infrastructure.
Financial Centres and the Geography of Capital Flows
Authors: Warnock Francis E. , Cleaver Chad 
Published: June 2003

AbstractA geographical mismatch is evident in portfolio flows data. Because the data collection system was designed to measure cross‐border transactions with foreign counterparties who are often intermediaries, the majority of flows are attributed to financial centres. We quantify this geographical mismatch by using the bilateral capital flows data to estimate bilateral debt and equity positions between the USA and over 40 countries and comparing those estimates with data from benchmark surveys. Our findings have implications for researchers and policy makers who use capital flows data or flows‐based positions estimates.
Is Business Cycle Volatility Costly? Evidence from Surveys of Subjective Well‐Being
Authors: Wolfers Justin 
Published: June 2003

AbstractThis paper analyses the effects of business cycle volatility on measures of subjective well‐being, including self‐reported happiness and life satisfaction. I find robust evidence that high inflation and, to a greater extent, unemployment lower perceived well‐being. Greater macroeconomic volatility also undermines well‐being. These effects are moderate but important: eliminating unemployment volatility would raise well‐being by an amount roughly equal to that from lowering the average level of unemployment by a quarter of a percentage point. The effects of inflation volatility on well‐being are less easy to detect and are likely smaller.
Mutants Suppressing Novobiocin Hypersensitivity of amukBNull Mutation
Authors: Adachi Shun , Hiraga Sota 
Published: June 2003

ABSTRACTThemukBgene is essential for the partitioning of sister chromosomes inEscherichia coli. AmukBnull mutant is hypersensitive to the DNA gyrase inhibitor novobiocin. In this work, we isolated mutants suppressing the novobiocin hypersensitivity of themukBnull mutation. All suppressor mutations are localized in or near thegyrBgene, and the four tested clones have an amino acid substitution in the DNA gyrase beta subunit. We found that in themukBmutant, the process of sister chromosome segregation is strikingly hypersensitive to novobiocin; however, the effect of novobiocin on growth, which was measured by culture turbidity, is the same as that of the wild-type strain.
Identification and Molecular Characterization of the Mg
2+
Stimulon of
Escherichia coli
Authors: Minagawa Shu , Ogasawara Hiroshi , Kato Akinori , Yamamoto Kaneyoshi , Eguchi Yoko , Oshima Taku , Mori Hirotada , Ishihama Akira , Utsumi Ryutaro 
Published: June 2003

ABSTRACT

Transcription profile microarray analysis in
Escherichia coli
was performed to identify the member genes of the Mg
2+
stimulon that respond to the availability of external Mg
2+
in a PhoP/PhoQ two-component system-dependent manner. The mRNA levels of W3110 in the presence of 30 mM MgCl
2
, WP3022 (
phoP
defective), and WQ3007 (
phoQ
defective) were compared with those of W3110 in the absence of MgCl
2
. The expression ratios of a total of 232 genes were <0.75 in all three strains (the supplemental data are shown at
http://www.nara.kindai.ac.jp/nogei/seiken/array.html
), suggesting that the PhoP/PhoQ system is involved directly or indirectly in the transcription of these genes. Of those, 26 contained the PhoP box-like sequences with the direct repeats of (T/G)GTTTA within 500 bp upstream of the initiation codon. Furthermore, S1 nuclease assays of 26 promoters were performed to verify six new Mg
2+
stimulon genes,
hemL
,
nagA
,
rstAB
,
slyB
,
vboR
, and
yrbL
, in addition to the
phoPQ
,
mgrB
, and
mgtA
genes reported previously. In gel shift and DNase I footprinting assays, all of these genes were found to be regulated directly by PhoP. Thus, we concluded that the
phoPQ
,
mgrB
,
mgtA
,
hemL
,
nagA
,
rstAB
,
slyB
,
vboR
, and
yrbL
genes make up the Mg
2+
stimulon in
E
.
coli
.
mgr, a Novel Global Regulator inStaphylococcus aureus
Authors: Luong Thanh T. , Newell Steven W. , Lee Chia Y. 
Published: June 2003

ABSTRACTThe virulence determinants ofStaphylococcus aureusare coordinately controlled by several unlinked chromosomal loci. Here, we report the identification of CYL5614, derived from strain Becker, with a mutation that affects the expression of type 8 capsular polysaccharide (CP8), nuclease, alpha-toxin, coagulase, protease, and protein A. This novel locus, namedmgr, was linked by transposon Tn917and mapped by three-factorial transduction crosses. The region containing themgrlocus was cloned and sequenced. Deletion mutagenesis and genetic complementation showed that the locus consisted of one gene,mgrA. Interestingly,mgrA-null mutants exhibited a phenotype opposite to that of CYL5614. This was due to a T-to-C mutation upstream ofmgrAthat resulted in a four- to eightfold increase inmgrAtranscription in strain CYL5614. Thus, these results indicate thatmgrAis an activator of CP8 and nuclease but a repressor of alpha-toxin, coagulase, protease, and protein A. In addition, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analyses showed that themgrlocus profoundly affected extracellular protein production, suggesting that the locus may regulate many other genes as well. The translated MgrA protein has a region of significant homology, which includes the helix-turn-helix DNA-binding motif, with theEscherichia coliMarR family of transcriptional regulators. Northern slot blot analyses suggested thatmgraffected CP8, alpha-toxin, nuclease, and protein A at the transcriptional level.