909 research outputs found
Promoting Social Justice in Partnership with the Mass Media
Research on mass communications suggests that public understanding of social justice issues can be significantly enhanced by the appropriate use of the media. Indeed, without the access to the public that only the mass media can provide, social workers are unlikely to have much impact in the public\u27s understanding of critical social justice issues and appropriate responses to these issues. Based on emerging research and practice, we identify opportunities for individuals, groups and organizations interested in addressing issues of social justice to engage in productive public communication activities through newspapers, radio and television
The Expanding Array of Human Service Personnel
This paper assesses the impact upon social work and the social welfare services of the various types of personnel being produced by the expanding human service education programs that have recently appeared in colleges and universities throughout the country. It also considers some possible responses by the social work profession, by social work education, and by the social welfare field to these developments
Social Work\u27s Diminished Commitment to the Paraprofessional
This paper reviews the rise during the 1960\u27s and the apparent decline during the 1970\u27s of social work\u27s support of the paraprofessional and concludes that failure to follow through unequivocally on its early commitment to the paraprofessional is likely to create future difficulties for the profession
Quantum optomechanics beyond the quantum coherent oscillation regime
Interaction with a thermal environment decoheres the quantum state of a
mechanical oscillator. When the interaction is sufficiently strong, such that
more than one thermal phonon is introduced within a period of oscillation,
quantum coherent oscillations are prevented. This is generally thought to
preclude a wide range of quantum protocols. Here, we introduce a pulsed
optomechanical protocol that allows ground state cooling, general linear
quantum non-demolition measurements, optomechanical state swaps, and quantum
state preparation and tomography without requiring quantum coherent
oscillations. Finally we show how the protocol can break the usual thermal
limit for sensing of impulse forces.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Item Wording and Internal Consistency of a Measure of Cohesion: The Group Environment Questionnaire
A common practice for counteracting response acquiescence in psychological measures has been to employ both negatively and positively worded items. However, previous research has highlighted that the reliability of measures can be affected by this practice (Spector, 1992). The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect that the presence of negatively worded items has on the internal reliability of the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ). Two samples (N = 276) were utilized, and participants were asked to complete the GEQ (original and revised) on separate occasions. Results demonstrated that the revised questionnaire (containing all positively worded items) had significantly higher Cronbach α values for three of the four dimensions of the GEQ. Implications, alternatives, and future directions are discussed
Time taken to reach undetectable viral loads in therapy-naïve HIV patients commencing ART
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Non-linear optomechanical measurement of mechanical motion
Precision measurement of non-linear observables is an important goal in all
facets of quantum optics. This allows measurement-based non-classical state
preparation, which has been applied to great success in various physical
systems, and provides a route for quantum information processing with otherwise
linear interactions. In cavity optomechanics much progress has been made using
linear interactions and measurement, but observation of non-linear mechanical
degrees-of-freedom remains outstanding. Here we report the observation of
displacement-squared thermal motion of a micro-mechanical resonator by
exploiting the intrinsic non-linearity of the radiation pressure interaction.
Using this measurement we generate bimodal mechanical states of motion with
separations and feature sizes well below 100~pm. Future improvements to this
approach will allow the preparation of quantum superposition states, which can
be used to experimentally explore collapse models of the wavefunction and the
potential for mechanical-resonator-based quantum information and metrology
applications.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, extensive supplementary material available with
published versio
Evolution of the Fucaceae (Phaeophyceae) inferred from nrDNA-ITS
Sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS-1, 5.8S, and ITS-2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA were obtained from 16 species representing all six genera of Fucaceae (Ascophyllum, Fucus, Hesperophycus, Pelvetia, Pelvetiopsis, and Xiphophora) plus one outgroup (Hormosira). Parsimony analysis indicated that the family Fucaceae is monophyletic and that the northern hemisphere taxa are highly divergent from the only southern hemisphere genus, Xiphophora. The genus Pelvetia is not monophyletic because the European P. canaliculata is more closely related to Fucus, Hesperophycus, and Pelvetiopsis than to other Pelvetia species. We establish Silvetia, gen. nov. and transfer the 3 Pacific species of Pelvetia to the new genus. Fucus is monophyletic and not ancestral in the Fucaceae. The ITS sequences identified two strongly supported lineages within Fucus, one with F. serratus sister to the clade containing F. gardneri, F. distichus, and F. evanescens and a second including F. vesiculosus, F. spiralis, F. ceranoides, and F. virsoides. The ITS was not useful for resolving relationships within each of these clusters and between populations of F. vesiculosus. Within-individual variation in ITS sequences is high in Fucus, a derived genus, compared to Ascophyllum, a more ancestral genus. Mapping of the two characters that form the basis of Powell’s model for speciation in the Fucaceae showed that 1) number of eggs per oogonium has not followed a gradual reduction and that 2) monoecy/dioecy has changed several times during evolution of this family
Strong thermomechanical squeezing via weak measurement
We experimentally surpass the 3 dB limit to steady-state parametric squeezing of a mechanical oscillator. The localization of an atomic force microscope cantilever, achieved by optimal estimation, is enhanced by up to 6.2 dB in one position quadrature when a detuned parametric drive is used. This squeezing is, in principle, limited only by the oscillator Q factor. Used on low temperature, high frequency oscillators, this technique provides a pathway to achieve robust quantum squeezing below the zero-point motion. Broadly, our results demonstrate that control systems engineering can overcome well established limits in applications of nonlinear processes. Conversely, by localizing the mechanical position to better than the measurement precision of our apparatus, they demonstrate the usefulness of mechanical nonlinearities in control applications
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