The unexplored brutality of performance recipes

In the context of a predominantly managerial discourse, innovation in construction is often conceived in linear terms as a one-way diffusion process. Innovation is to be facilitated by management and is equated with the beneficial spread of novel technologies and operational ideas to a population of firms: from those that are “in the know” to those that are not. Lean Construction, Integrated Project Delivery and Building Information Modelling are well-known innovations in this sense. These are large scale, all-encompassing and well-intended recipes for industry improvement and change. However, in spite of the rhetoric around Lean, IPD or BIM, diffusion of these ideas, principles and technologies has been slow. This can be attributed to a gap between the persuasiveness of linear diffusion models and the realities of complex, messy, and fragmented construction activities. Perhaps as a response to this, recent attempts have been made to broaden the appeal and increase the coverage of performance recipes – by linking them together. This just further obscures the tension between simplistic models of innovation and the complexity of construction innovation process involving many actors, interests and activities. To address this, we develop a systemic, rather than linear, understanding of innovation, which accounts for, rather than obscures, complexity and heterogeneity. In doing so, the underlying and often reductionist assumptions on which Lean, IPD and BIM as innovation programs are based, become visible. By highlighting how these innovations make assumptions about complexity in construction, the relationships and tensions between recipes are highlighted. The different and often brutal ways in which construction is reproduced and reduced through representation in these recipes points to the inherent problems with linear models of construction innovation, and suggests alternative system-oriented perspectives

Caring - at what cost. Rebuilding and refinancing the community and voluntary sector.

In recent years, successive Irish Governments have increasingly relied on community/voluntary sector organisations to deliver services and outcomes that matter to some of the most vulnerable individuals and communities in Ireland. However, the continued capacity of this sector to play a strong and progressive role in service delivery has been severely tested over the past eight years of recession. Sustained cutbacks in organisational funding have been accompanied by increased demand for assistance, from individuals and communities that find themselves under pressure as a result of the well documented social and economic crisis. Within these organisations employees are increasingly expected to do more, with less and for less. Frequently, personal motivation, commitment and energy make the difference between continued provision or the reduction or discontinuation of services. The purpose of the research summarised in this document is to examine the role of community/voluntary sector organisations and those who work within them in public service provision during the period of the recent economic and social crisis. In particular, the research focuses on the experiences of organisations, frequently described as ‘Section 39’ organisations. In 2014 almost 1900 organisations were supported by Section 39 funding, though within this there were substantial differences in levels of funding, service provision and employment

Responsibility with a Safety Net:Exploring the Medical Student to Junior Doctor Transition During COVID-19

INTRODUCTION: The Foundation Interim Year-one (FiY1) Programme was part of a UK strategy to increase the medical workforce in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the strategy was introduced urgently without evidence. We sought to explore the transition experience of medical student to FiY1 to foundation doctor, with a view to inform future undergraduate education. METHODS: In this hermeneutic phenomenology study, semi-structured individual interviews were completed with nine foundation doctors who had experience of an FiY1 placement. A template analysis approach was taken, and themes reported. RESULTS: Participants reported that FiY1 tended to offer a positive experience of transition as a stepping stone to becoming a foundation doctor. Having a degree of clinical responsibility including the right to prescribe medication with supervision was highly valued, as was feeling a core member of the healthcare team. Participants perceived that FiY1 made them more prepared for the foundation transition, and more resilient to the challenges they faced during their first foundation job. DISCUSSION: The FiY1 fostered many opportunities for junior doctors to bridge the transition to foundation doctor. Aspects of the FiY1 programme, such as early licencing and increased team membership, should be considered for final-year students in the future

'Insularity is not the way forward': three university vice-chancellors on Brexit

First paragraph: Universities and their leaders are contemplating the spectre of a British exit from the European Union with considerable alarm. Over the last few decades, the institutional architecture of Britain’s universities has become ever more European. The threat of Brexit jeopardises a range of collaborations and research projects including the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme and the ERASMUS student exchange scheme. Universities, unsurprisingly, are worried. Access article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/insularity-is-not-the-way-forward-three-university-vice-chancellors-on-brexit-6066

Prospectus, April 8, 2004

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_2004/1009/thumbnail.jp

Broadband X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of the Crab Nebula and Pulsar with NuSTAR

We present broadband (3 -- 78 keV) NuSTAR X-ray imaging and spectroscopy of the Crab nebula and pulsar. We show that while the phase-averaged and spatially integrated nebula + pulsar spectrum is a power-law in this energy band, spatially resolved spectroscopy of the nebula finds a break at $\sim$9 keV in the spectral photon index of the torus structure with a steepening characterized by $\Delta\Gamma\sim0.25$. We also confirm a previously reported steepening in the pulsed spectrum, and quantify it with a broken power-law with break energy at $\sim$12 keV and $\Delta\Gamma\sim0.27$. We present spectral maps of the inner 100\as\ of the remnant and measure the size of the nebula as a function of energy in seven bands. These results find that the rate of shrinkage with energy of the torus size can be fitted by a power-law with an index of $\gamma = 0.094\pm 0.018$, consistent with the predictions of Kennel and Coroniti (1984). The change in size is more rapid in the NW direction, coinciding with the counter-jet where we find the index to be a factor of two larger. NuSTAR observed the Crab during the latter part of a $\gamma$-ray flare, but found no increase in flux in the 3 - 78 keV energy band

High-Energy X-ray Imaging of the Pulsar Wind Nebula MSH~15-52: Constraints on Particle Acceleration and Transport

We present the first images of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) MSH 15-52 in the hard X-ray band (>8 keV), as measured with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). Overall, the morphology of the PWN as measured by NuSTAR in the 3-7 keV band is similar to that seen in Chandra high-resolution imaging. However, the spatial extent decreases with energy, which we attribute to synchrotron energy losses as the particles move away from the shock. The hard-band maps show a relative deficit of counts in the northern region towards the RCW 89 thermal remnant, with significant asymmetry. We find that the integrated PWN spectra measured with NuSTAR and Chandra suggest that there is a spectral break at 6 keV which may be explained by a break in the synchrotron-emitting electron distribution at ~200 TeV and/or imperfect cross calibration. We also measure spatially resolved spectra, showing that the spectrum of the PWN softens away from the central pulsar B1509-58, and that there exists a roughly sinusoidal variation of spectral hardness in the azimuthal direction. We discuss the results using particle flow models. We find non-monotonic structure in the variation with distance of spectral hardness within 50" of the pulsar moving in the jet direction, which may imply particle and magnetic-field compression by magnetic hoop stress as previously suggested for this source. We also present 2-D maps of spectral parameters and find an interesting shell-like structure in the NH map. We discuss possible origins of the shell-like structure and their implications.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Ap