Search results

Comments on the drive towards choice and accountability in education. Highlights three general trends that are emerging as a result of this move: standardised curricula, texts and methodology; greater distribution of resources across the wider continuum of students; and institutions of teacher preparation are required to be accountable for the performance of their graduates.

Highlights the growing trend towards e‐learning and the increased need for universities to accommodate the needs of a busy workforce who are engaged in lifelong learning. Considers the detail of who should own the content of the courses – faculty, the school or the e‐learning partner.

Looks at the challenges facing higher education in the future. Highlights the combined problem of unprecedented student demand for places and the acceleration in the retirement of existing professors that is facing North American higher education. Suggests that this problem has been at least in part addressed through the use of part‐time or adjunct professors. However, it is argued that these models create administrative problems and re not to the advantage of the professors or the standards of education. Explores the tension between academics and university administrators.

The purpose of this study is to collect the first empirical data on the cognitive state of elderly prisoners in Germany and to examine associations between cognitive function and sociodemographic, clinical and incarceration characteristics.

All prisoners aged 60 years and older of five prisons in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, were asked to participate. The cognitive screening instruments mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and the DemTect were used to assess global cognition. Executive functions were tested with the trail making test and the frontal-assessment-battery. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to assess participants’ affective state.

The sample of this study consisted of 58 prisoners with a mean age of 65.52 years (standard deviation = 6.03); 82.8% are male. Using the MMSE with age- and education-corrected z-scores, 36.9% of the prisoners showed marginal or impaired global cognition scores. Using the DemTect, 41.4% of the prisoners were classified as being cognitively impaired. Up to 40% of the prisoners showed deficits in executive functioning and around 60% of the prisoners showed depressive symptoms. The correlation analysis revealed significant associations between cognitive scores and age (rho = –0.335, p = 0.014), education (rho = 0.309, p = 0.020), sentence duration (rho = 0.409, p = 0.007) and duration of current incarceration (rho = 0.302, p = 0.043). The DemTect total score was significantly associated with the PHQ-9 (rho = –0.335, p = 0.016).

A large group of the prisoners showed a higher prevalence of cognitive dysfunction than that observed in same-age people who are not incarcerated. Taken together, there is an urgent need for an adequate management of older cognitively impaired prisoners including routine cognitive testing and guidelines-oriented treatment of cognitive symptoms.

This study has several strengths. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study examining the cognitive and affective state in a German prison population. The authors considered female and male prisoners, as well as different prison settings, representing a realistic prison sample. The authors used several neuropsychological instruments to get a more detailed insight into the older prisoners’ cognitive status while trying to consider the economy of time and possible attention deficits to prevent dropouts during testing.

THE Reference Department of Paisley Central Library today occupies the room which was the original Public Library built in 1870 and opened to the public in April 1871. Since that date two extensions to the building have taken place. The first, in 1882, provided a separate room for both Reference and Lending libraries; the second, opened in 1938, provided a new Children's Department. Together with the original cost of the building, these extensions were entirely financed by Sir Peter Coats, James Coats of Auchendrane and Daniel Coats respectively. The people of Paisley indeed owe much to this one family, whose generosity was great. They not only provided the capital required but continued to donate many useful and often extremely valuable works of reference over the many years that followed. In 1975 Paisley Library was incorporated in the new Renfrew District library service.

The Ruhr region is a long-term showcase for the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS) as part of regional and local development policies. With the implementation of the Emscher Landscape Park and the ecological renewal of the Emscher River System, a fundament for new and integrated strategies and projects was created. The Ruhr Region was inspired by the models, strategies, and discussions of the EU to test and implement ES, NBS, and GI in the last 10 years. The planners were also following the two competing national discussions in Germany to interpret GI more in the context of sustainable urban development or more as nature protection and biodiversity. In 2016, the Ruhr Region published a first own GI strategy named Green Infrastructure Ruhr, which was designed as an integrated and multi-level strategy with five operative fields of action for the whole region: (1) Urban Landscape, (2) Water in the City, (3) Green Urbanism, (4) Climate-friendly Mobility, and (5) Climate Protection and supporting Energy Efficiency. The conceptional and political discussions about this approach in the region are still going on. The author recommends changing the perception of NBS from green conceptual and academic perspective to operative policy and management. NBS can be developed as real urban infrastructures. Our societies are well trained to run, to finance, and to maintain various infrastructure systems. It is time to take operative responsibility for NBS in our cities and regions.

THE beneficent work of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust in connection with libraries continues to demand the attention of everyone concerned with them. This year it is evidenced by the publication of the Report of the County Library Conference held last November, the papers by the delegates to America last year now gathered under the title Aspects of the American Public Library Service, and by the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Trust itself. These excellent publications, which are distributed with a generosity that we cannot too warmly appreciate, show undoubtedly that the Trust is the most active force in the library world at the present moment. This has been due not merely to the command of financial means which the Trust possesses, but also to a strong and consistent policy in which it has implicit faith. When it is remembered that ten years ago what are now called County Libraries were almost unknown in this country, the pace will be seen to have been remarkable. In no small measure has this been due to the eloquence, tact and abundant energy of Colonel Mitchell, who has been possessed with a missionary spirit of a quite unusual type.

In all the 12 Member States today the percentage of women in the working population is increasing, but still many more women than men work at lower levels, and the latter hold most of the decision‐making positions. It is therefore still a reality that the “second half” of the Euro‐pean population is far from being equally represented at decision‐making levels. This is true for the public service and for the private sector. Current statistics have proved again that progress in the past year has been very slow, and because this progress has been much slower than an‐ticipated some years ago, it has become obvious in the meantime that even qualified women do not automatically reach decision‐making positions. Even if today relatively more women are entering the higher public services than in previous years, their percentage remains relatively lower than that of men who started their careers at the same time. Therefore, if there is no automatism, what can be done to reach a more balanced situation especially at the upper le‐vels?