Generalized curve fit and plotting (GECAP) program

Program generates graphs on 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper and is designed to be used by engineers and scientists who are not necessarily professional programers. It provides fast and efficient method for display of plotted data without having to generate any additional FORTRAN instructions

Redefining Self‐Advocacy: A Practice Theory‐Based Approach

The disabled people's movements have successfully influenced public policies and laws. Self‐advocates who are autistic or have an intellectual disability have been working alongside other advocates for recent decades. Practice theory has rarely been used in disability research. This study explores “practice theory” through the analysis of interviews with advocates and self‐advocates within the autism and intellectual disability advocacy movements. This is a qualitative, empirical study based on interviews and focus groups with 43 participants in two countries. The data were collected in 2016–17. Content analysis was used to identify themes. Data indicate that everyday practices of self‐advocates and advocates such as parent advocates and professional advocates largely overlap. There are five major types of practices that are done by nearly all advocates: “informing and being informed,” “using media,” “supporting each other,” “speaking up,” and “bureaucratic duties.” Contrary to several previous studies on self‐advocacy that emphasized “speaking up” as the main activity in advocacy, this study found that most practices of advocates and self‐advocates are “para‐advocacy” practices that may or may not lead directly to “speaking up.” Practices of self‐advocates are often embedded in other everyday activities people do. The line between practices that belong to self‐advocacy and practices outside self‐advocacy may not always be clear even to self‐advocates. Findings also indicate that hierarchies in the disability movement influence strongly the position of self‐advocates

Award Winning Communication Programs: Centrality or Confusion?

This article analyzes award winning communication programs. The winners of the Small College Interest Group\u27s Programs of Excellence Award provide directions for achieving centrality and the goals outlined by the National Communication Association Task Force on Advancing the Discipline. They have similar names, degrees and locations within their institutions and they favor a holistic department and curricula that are interdisciplinary with strong department anchors. Most have assessment programs in place to maintain this quality. In most cases, they have identified themselves with the mission of their institution through courses and goals. These programs can provide some guidelines for departments in schools of 5,000 or less undergraduates to use in conducting self evaluations to determine if their programs have centrality

Broadband, slow sound on a glide-symmetric meander-channel surface

This is the final version. Available from Acoustical Society of America via the DOI in this record.All data created during this research are openly available from the University of Exeter’s institutional repository at https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/.The acoustic surface waves supported by hard surfaces patterned with repeat-period, meandering grooves are explored. The single, continuous groove forms a glide-symmetric surface, inhibiting the formation of a bandgap at the first Brillouin-zone boundary. Consequently, the acoustic surface waves exhibit an almost constant, sub-speed-of-sound, group velocity over a broad frequency band. Such slow, broadband modes may have applications in controlling the flow of noise over surfaces.QinetiQ LtdEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)QinetiQ Lt

Outcomes and costs of skilled support for people with severe or profound intellectual disability and complex needs

Background With increasing reductions in funding for social care across many countries, the need to ensure that resources are used to best effect is becoming increasingly important, in particular for those with severe and complex needs. Methods In order to explore the outcomes and costs of skilled support for this group of people, quality of life was assessed for 110 people in 35 services in England. Information on costs was also collected. Results People who received consistently good active support experienced better outcomes in terms of several quality of life domains. Good support did not require significantly more staff time, and there was no evidence of higher total costs for those receiving good support. Conclusions The inclusion of active support in government guidance and local commissioning practices related to people with severe intellectual disabilities is likely to improve user outcomes. Observation should be an important element in measuring service quality

The acoustic phase resonances and surface waves supported by a compound rigid grating (article)

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via the DOI in this record.The dataset associated with this article is located in ORE at: https://doi.org/10.24378/exe.606We study the radiative and bound acoustic modes supported by a rigid grating formed of three same-depth, narrow grooves per unit cell. One of the grooves is twice the width of the other two, forming a ‘compound’ grating. The structure supports so-called ‘phase’ resonances where the phase difference of the pressure field between the grooves on resonance varies by multiples of π. We explore the dispersion of these modes experimentally by monitoring the specularly reflected signal as a function of the angle of incidence. In addition, by near-field excitation, the dispersion of the non-radiative surface modes has been characterised. Our results are compared with the predictions of a finite element method model.The authors wish to acknowledge financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the United Kingdom, via the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Metamaterials (Grant No. EP/L015331/1), QinetiQ and DSTL

Schism or communion? A discussion of the morality of Online Learning through a Christian/Catholic lens

While massive open online courses (MOOCs) garnered plenty of attention at the beginning of the decade, initial findings about their value have been disappointing. In particular, only a narrow range of participants appear to be successful in completing and passing these unmonitored courses: white, educated, affluent males. One prominent Catholic scholar, Jonathan Malesic, went as far as saying that the very nature of MOOCs does not align with Catholic teachings of learning through social interaction, adapting to the needs of the learner, and teaching (i.e., successfully) the masses. Further, by extension, he applied these criticisms to online learning in general. This article examines these criticisms, describes how these problems are present in K-12 online learning, and gives examples of how these issues are mitigated. The article concludes with ideas for using the online learning medium to promote Catholic and Christian values

Pre-stressed plates as a mechanism to provide additional under belly blast protection

The use of curved pre-stressed plates is investigated as this provides a possible additional mechanism to resist both initial folding and later structural collapse. Numerical modelling in Autodyn (R) and empirical calculations based on the Westine model were used to determine starting conditions for the explosive trials. Trials were conducted in which plates were pre-stressed by the imposition of a large bending moment from two parallel sides resulting in a tensile stress on the outer surface facing the blast. Tests were conducted at approximately one third linear scale using target plates of 500mm x 500mm and a charge of between 100g and 250g buried in dried sand was used to load them. Unstressed but curved plates were tested and then compared to similar shaped curved plates with an imposed bending stress equal to the yield stress or ultimate tensile stress of the plate material

Managerial Work in a Practice-Embodying Institution - The role of calling, the virtue of constancy

What can be learned from a small scale study of managerial work in a highly marginal and under-researched working community? This paper uses the ‘goods-virtues-practices-institutions’ framework to examine the managerial work of owner-directors of traditional circuses. Inspired by MacIntyre’s arguments for the necessity of a narrative understanding of the virtues, interviews explored how British and Irish circus directors accounted for their working lives. A purposive sample was used to select subjects who had owned and managed traditional touring circuses for at least 15 years, a period in which the economic and reputational fortunes of traditional circuses have suffered badly. This sample enabled the research to examine the self-understanding of people who had, at least on the face of it, exhibited the virtue of constancy. The research contributes to our understanding of the role of the virtues in organizations by presenting evidence of an intimate relationship between the virtue of constancy and a ‘calling’ work orientation. This enhances our understanding of the virtues that are required if management is exercised as a domain-related practice