The energy demand for heating decreases in highly-insulated dwellings. Comfort cooling becomes more important due to higher thermal loads and rising summer thermal comfort demands. Heat pumps can provide space heat and domestic hot water but also may provide cooling. Heat sources of heat pumps often can be used for passive cooling. The aim of the project is to support energy efficient solutions for heating and cooling of residential buildings. First step should always be reducing the heat loads by e.g. shading and night-time ventilation. In a simulation study three heat pump systems have been compared, a variable refrigerant flow multi-split air-to-air heat pump, an air-to-water heat pump and a brine-to-water heat pump. The system with vertical borehole heat exchanger yields the highest efficiency in all modes. Only few additional components are necessary to add the cooling function. The airto-water heat pump shows the lowest efficiency but also lowest additional system expenditure. A relatively high efficiency for active heat pump operation achieved the air-to-air heat pump, albeit significantly below the brine-to-water in passive cooling operation mode. All systems achieve good thermal comfort.

On 8 December 2017 the House of Lords is due to debate a motion moved by the Archbishop of Canterbury that: "this House takes note of the role of education in building a flourishing and skilled society". The Archbishop has previously spoken of the importance of educating the 'whole person', a concept which is reflected in the Church of England (CofE) vision for education. The CofE vision reflects the wider discourse around the importance of 'character education', and the role that plays in preparing children for all aspects of life. The emergence of character education in public policy is based on a growing body of evidence which demonstrates the positive impact in: improved academic attainment; providing the skills desired by employers; and enabling children to make a positive contribution to British society. At the same time there is also a range of evidence to suggest that not enough is being done to promote well-being with a number of reports highlighting the UK's poor record of mental ill-health in children. There is no explicit reference to 'character education' in statute. However, there is a requirement for the curriculum to at least address the traits which may contribute to the character development of pupils. Under the Education Act 2002 (section 78) maintained schools and maintained nursery schools must promote pupils' spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development. All schools are expected to teach personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education, which deals with issues such as drug, financial and health education. Citizenship has been a statutory subject on the curriculum in post-primary schools since 2002. The Secretary for State can now make the teaching of PSHE mandatory under section 35 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017. Under section 34 of this Act, relationship and sex education lessons would also be mandatory. The Government expects to consult on regulations and guidance, with new subjects to be taught in schools from September 2019. The House of Commons Health and Education committees conducted a joint inquiry into the role of education in improving the mental health of students. The committees found improved wellbeing increased pupils' capacity to learn, citing evidence that children with higher levels of emotional, behavioural, social and school wellbeing have higher levels of academic achievement on average. This is a finding repeated across a range of studies, some of which are also considered in this briefing.

Aside from the environmental and public health risks posed by poorly maintained septic tanks, their impact on water quality has the potential to lead to Infraction proceedings if water quality targets established by the Water Framework Directive (WFT) are not met. This paper discusses how this threat of infraction prompted the Irish Government to legislate for the regulation of OSWWTSs in 2012 and to introduce an inspection and replacement scheme. The initial outcomes of this work are also discussed.

The Archbishop has previously spoken of the importance of educating the ‘whole person’, a concept which is reflected in the Church of England (CofE) vision for education. The CofE vision reflects the wider discourse around the importance of ‘character education’, and the role that plays in preparing children for all aspects of life. The emergence of character education in public policy is based on a growing body of evidence which demonstrates the positive impact in: improved academic attainment; providing the skills desired by employers; and enabling children to make a positive contribution to British society. At the same time there is also a range of evidence to suggest that not enough is being done to promote well-being with a number of reports highlighting the UK’s poor record of mental ill-health in children.

briefings are compiled for the benefit of MLAs and their support staff. Authors are available to discuss the contents of these papers with Members and their staff but cannot advise members of the general public. We do, how ever, welcome written evidence that relates to our papers and this should be sent to the

Recently historians of eugenics have turned their attention toward the locations where eugenics was disseminated and practiced. Continuing in this tradition, this article investigates the role of the Harvard geographer and climatologist Robert DeCourcy Ward as a leading member of the Immigration Restriction League of Boston between 1893 and 1921. I argue that the cultural history of the New England region and the evolving political and social landscape shaped eugenic thinking and thus 'restrictionist' discourse. In that sense, eugenic proclamations can be studied geographically as they often reflect the political and social conventions of their place and time.

Racial mapping during the Progressive Era played into the political narratives of eugenic intervention and immigration restriction. This article argues that the racial cartographic work of the Yale geographer and prolific eugenicist Ellsworth Huntington was both developed within and contributed to this racist milieu. Huntington’s middle-class and educated upbringing, his familial history, and his expertise as a well-travelled geographer all conspired to shape his views on eugenics, race, and immigration. By applying the critical cartographic theories of John Brian Harley, Denis Wood, Heather Winlow, and others, I show that Huntington’s racial maps were a product of his cultural and political environment. The success of a map’s impact was often due to maps being seen as objective depictions of spatial variation. Indeed, for Huntington they performed an essential role in communicating and portraying racial information. But, as I argue, they were susceptible to bias, misunderstanding, ...

Recently historians of eugenics have turned their attention toward the locations where eugenics was disseminated and practiced. Continuing in this tradition, this article investigates the role of the Harvard geographer and climatologist Robert DeCourcy Ward as a leading member of the Immigration Restriction League of Boston between 1893 and 1921. I argue that the cultural history of the New England region and the evolving political and social landscape shaped eugenic thinking and thus 'restrictionist' discourse. In that sense, eugenic proclamations can be studied geographically as they often reflect the political and social conventions of their place and time.