Distance education, efficiency and scientific management: Some Doubts

The theme of the 1983 Australian and South Pacific External Studies Association concerned developing efficient teaching-learning systems and efficient management systems. Such an emphasis on efficiency was symptomatic in the United States' educational arena to a commitment to the practices of scientific management. The central role accorded to efficiency by some theorists of educational administration is illustrated by educational principles that use the term "raw materials" for students and "worker" for teachers. Business ideology still dominates Western discourse and those in the education sector still perceive themselves and their institutions as vulnerable to it. Institutions that provide distance education materials feel even more vulnerable than do those that maintain a more cloistered and discrete relationship with their students. The methods adopted in a standard approach to distance education materials resemble the methods of scientific management. In order to complete materials successfully, students are required to submit to an "if you can't beat them, join them" approach because the materials fail to acknowledge the centrality of the possible contributions students can make. Issues such as qualitative, as opposed to quantitative, efficiency have not been sufficiently addressed in discussions about efficiency in distance education methods. Differing political commitments generate differing standards and measures of efficiency

Playing whilst injured: More on Phobosophy and Philosophy

An analysis of injury in sport is used to carry the discussion about phobosophy just a little further. The relevance of the idea of 'playing whilst injured' to scholarly work generally, to philosophy and phobosophy more specifically, and subsequently to ordinary members of society is intimated

The Role of the EGF Receptor and Its Ligands in Differentiation and 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) Toxicity

2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) is a highly lipophilic polyaromatic hydrocarbon and a persistent environmental contaminant. In the human epidermis, TCDD causes enhanced proliferation and altered, accelerated differentiation. However, epidermal differentiation, mediated by calcium (Ca), opposes and attenuates proliferative signaling, driven by the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Using a monolayer cell culture model, confluent NHEKs were treated with high Ca (1.8 mM) or TCDD (10 nM). EGFR down-regulation, signaling, and proliferation were then examined to assess the proliferative capacity of differentiating skin versus pathophysiological, TCDD-mediated differentiation. We found that while Ca and TCDD caused marked (~50% and ~30%) loss of [125I]-EGF binding, the effects of this down-regulation differed. ERK activity decreased 45% in Ca-treated cells and increased 300% in TCDD-treated cells. Utilizing ligand-specific ELISAs to interrogate cell-secreted EGFR ligands which might drive ERK activity, we found that Ca increased transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-α) secretion, while TCDD increased TGF-α and EREG secretion relative to basal cells. Amphiregulin (AREG) increased with time in all treatments. Inhibiting ligand secretion with the MMP inhibitor, batimastat, or action with ligand-specific neutralizing antibodies in TCDD-treated cells reduced the increased ERK activity to basal levels but could not rescue ERK activity in Ca-treated cells. Similarly, in TCDD-treated NHEKs, neutralizing AREG or EREG reversed EGFR down-regulation, and removal of TGF-α further reduced biotin-EGF binding. In Ca-treated cells, neutralizing EGFR ligands had no effect on EGFR down-regulation. We then investigated how these treatments influenced proliferative capacity of cell populations through dsDNA quantitation and EdU labelling. We found that while Ca-treatment led to ~15% fewer cells than basal they still retained an equal (~5%) amount of EGFR-dependent proliferating cells. Conversely, TCDD-treatment led to equal cell numbers relative to basal cells, both of which were reduced following ligand neutralization. However, TCDD-treatment led to a significant increase in the population of proliferating cells (~8%) relative to basal. Taken together, our data suggests that in Ca-treated cells, EGFR down-regulation is ligand-independent and correlated with a loss of proliferative signaling capacity while TCDD-treated cells down-regulate the EGFR in a ligand-dependent manner, and that TGF-α retains a population of surface-associated receptors which may drive increased proliferation

Mechanical and Physical Properties of Both Unaged and Aged Coflon and Tefzel

This report deals with all recent mechanical testing performed on variously aged samples of Coflon and TefzeL to complete the work for Phase 1. Earlier results were reported in CAPP/M.7. Fluids A, F, G, and I have all been used for ageing in the last 12 month period, with particular attention concentrated on the effects of Fluid F as a result of discussions at the December 1995 steering committee meeting in Austin. Dramatic mechanical and physical changes occurred to Coflon in our initial studies after 4 weeks at 120 C in this sour gas mixture and so a detailed matrix was drawn up to investigate the effects of time and temperature of exposure. Subsequent tensile tests and compact tension (CT) fatigue tests were performed. Fatigue testing has been limited during this period to Coflon only; however, Tefzel CT samples have been exposed to the same conditions as the Coflon allowing the possibility for fatigue tests to be performed at a later date. Fluid A exposures during the last 6 months have been long-term at 65 C, 100 C and 120 C only. These exposures have been a continuation of earlier work and will complete the investigation of this fluid. Other chemical ageings have involved Fluid G at 120 C to confirm and investigate the hostile nature of this fluid on Coflon. Again, this fluid will not be used in Phase 2. Finally, long-term exposures in Fluid 1, a high aromatic oil mixture, were carried out to investigate the effects on the polymers of aromaticity in a simulated service fluid

The Challenges of Organizational Factors in Collaborative Artificial Intelligence Projects

Despite the current popularity of AI and a steady increase in publications over time, few studies have investigated artificial intelligence (AI) in public contexts. As a result, assumptions about the drivers, challenges, and impacts of AI in government are far from conclusive. By using a case study that involves a large research university in England and two different county councils in a multi-year collaborative project around AI, we study the challenges that interorganizational collaborations face in adopting AI tools and implementing organizational routines to address them. Our findings reveal the most important challenges facing such collaborations: a resistance to sharing data, due to privacy and security concerns; insufficient understanding of the required and available data; a lack of alignment between project interests and expectations around data sharing; and a lack of engagement across organizational hierarchy. Organizational routines capable of overcoming such challenges include working on-site, presenting the benefits of data sharing, re-framing problems, designating joint appointments and boundary spanners, and connecting participants in the collaboration at all levels around project design and purpose

M2000 : an astrometric catalog in the Bordeaux Carte du Ciel zone +11 degrees < {delta} < +18 degrees

During four years, systematic observations have been conducted in drift scan mode with the Bordeaux automated meridian circle in the declination band [+11 ; +18]. The resulting astrometric catalog includes about 2 300 000 stars down to the magnitude limit V_M=16.3. Nearly all stars (96%) have been observed at least 6 times, the catalog being complete down to V_M=15.4. The median internal standard error in position is about 35 mas in the V_M magnitude range [11 ; 15], which degrades to about 50 mas when the faintest stars are considered. M2000 provides also one band photometry with a median internal standard error of 0.04 mag. Comparisons with the Hipparcos and bright part of Tycho-2 catalogs have enabled to estimate external errors in position to be lower than 40 mas. In this zone and at epoch 1998, the faint part of Tycho-2 is found to have an accuracy of 116 mas in alpha instead of 82 mas deduced from the model-based standard errors given in the catalog.Comment: The catalogue can be fetched directly from: ftp://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/cats/I/272 or queried from: http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR?-source=I/272 More information at : http://www.observ.u-bordeaux.fr/~soubiran/m2000.ht