‘Multi-directional management’: Exploring the challenges of performance in the World Class Programme environment

Driven by the ever-increasing intensity of Olympic competition and the ‘no compromise – no stone unturned’ requirements frequently addressed by HM Government and its main agency, UK Sport, a change in culture across Olympic team landscapes is a common occurrence. With a focus on process, this paper presents reflections from eight current or recently serving UK Olympic sport Performance Directors on their experiences of creating and disseminating their vision for their sport, a vital initial activity of the change initiative. To facilitate a broad overview of this construct, reflections are structured around the vision’s characteristics and foundations, how it is delivered to key stakeholder groups, how it is influenced by these groups, the qualities required to ensure its longevity and its limitations. Emerging from these perceptions, the creation and maintenance of a shared team vision was portrayed as a highly dynamic task requiring the active management of a number of key internal and external stakeholders. Furthermore, the application of ‘dark’ traits and context-specific expertise were considered critical attributes for the activity’s success. Finally, recent calls for research to elucidate the wider culture optimisation process are reinforced

How Could the Proton Transversity be Measured

The perspectives of two new nonstandard methods of transversal quark polarization measurement are considered: the jet handedness and the so-called "Collins effect" due to spin dependent T-odd fragmentation function responsible for the left-right asymmetry in fragmenting of transversally polarized quarks. Recent experimental indications in favor of these effects are observed: 1.The correlation of the T-odd one-particle fragmentation functions found by DELPHI in $Z\to 2$-jet decay. Integrated over the fraction of longitudinal and transversal momenta, this correlation is of 1.6% order, which means order of 13% for the analyzing power. 2.A rather large ($\approx10$) handedness transversal to the production plane observed in the diffractive production of ($\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-$) triples from nuclei by the $40 {\rm GeV/c}$ $\pi^-$--beam. It shows a clear dynamic origin and resembles the single spin asymmetry behavior. All this makes us hope to use these effects in polarized DIS experiments for transversity measurement. The first estimation of transversity was done by using the azimuthal asymmetry in semi-inclusive DIS recently measured by HERMES and SMC.Comment: 8 pages, Latex, czjphys2.sty. Talk at Int. Workshop "PRAHA-SPIN99", Prague 6-11 Sept 1999. To appear in Czech.J.Phys Supp

The measurement of participation in adult education.

This paper examines the disparate rates of participation in adult education that have been reported by the Current Population Survey and the National Household Education Survey. The authors examine issues including population coverage and sampling, survey nonresponse, the use of proxy respondents, and survey context effects

Regge phenomenology of pion photoproduction off the nucleon at forward angles

We present a Regge model for pion photoproduction which is basically free of parameters within the framework of the s-channel helicity amplitude. We use coupling constants of all exchanged mesons determined from empirical decay widths or from the SU(3) relations together with consistency check with existing estimates that are widely accepted in other reaction processes. Cross sections and spin polarization asymmetries at various photon energies are analyzed and results are obtained in better agreement with experimental data without referring to any fitting procedure.Comment: 19 pages, 20 figures, two column, revtex

Microtubules: Montroll's kink and Morse vibrations

Using a version of Witten's supersymmetric quantum mechanics proposed by Caticha, we relate Montroll's kink to a traveling, asymmetric Morse double-well potential suggesting in this way a connection between kink modes and vibrational degrees of freedom along microtubulesComment: 2pp, twocolum

Thermal conductivity measurements of proton-heated warm dense aluminum.

Thermal conductivity is one of the most crucial physical properties of matter when it comes to understanding heat transport, hydrodynamic evolution, and energy balance in systems ranging from astrophysical objects to fusion plasmas. In the warm dense matter regime, experimental data are very scarce so that many theoretical models remain untested. Here we present the first thermal conductivity measurements of aluminum at 0.5-2.7 g/cc and 2-10 eV, using a recently developed platform of differential heating. A temperature gradient is induced in a Au/Al dual-layer target by proton heating, and subsequent heat flow from the hotter Au to the Al rear surface is detected by two simultaneous time-resolved diagnostics. A systematic data set allows for constraining both thermal conductivity and equation-of-state models. Simulations using Purgatorio model or Sesame S27314 for Al thermal conductivity and LEOS for Au/Al release equation-of-state show good agreement with data after 15 ps. Discrepancy still exists at early time 0-15 ps, likely due to non-equilibrium conditions

Thermal transport measurements of individual multiwalled nanotubes

The thermal conductivity and thermoelectric power of a single carbon nanotube were measured using a microfabricated suspended device. The observed thermal conductivity is more than 3000 W/K m at room temperature, which is two orders of magnitude higher than the estimation from previous experiments that used macroscopic mat samples. The temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity of nanotubes exhibits a peak at 320 K due to the onset of Umklapp phonon scattering. The measured thermoelectric power shows linear temperature dependence with a value of 80 $\mu$V/K at room temperature.Comment: 4 pages, figures include

Phase-Field Formulation for Quantitative Modeling of Alloy Solidification

A phase-field formulation is introduced to simulate quantitatively microstructural pattern formation in alloys. The thin-interface limit of this formulation yields a much less stringent restriction on the choice of interface thickness than previous formulations and permits to eliminate non-equilibrium effects at the interface. Dendrite growth simulations with vanishing solid diffusivity show that both the interface evolution and the solute profile in the solid are well resolved

Combining work and child care: The experiences of mothers in Accra, Ghana

Work-family research has focused predominantly on Western women. Yet the forms of economic labour in which women are typically involved and the meaning of motherhood are context-specific. This paper aims to explore the experience of combining economic activity and child care of mothers with young children using urban Ghana as a case study. Semi-structured interviews (n=24) were conducted in three locations in the Accra Metropolitan Area. Transcripts were analysed using the general inductive approach. The results found women’s experience of role conflict to be bi-directional. With regard to role enhancement, economic activity allowed women to provide materially for their children. The combination of work and child care had negative consequences for women’s wellbeing. This research questions policy makers’ strategy of frequently targeting women in their roles either as generators of income, or as the primary care-takers of children by highlighting the reality of women’s simultaneous performance of these roles

Effect of pseudouridylation on the structure and activity of the catalytically essential P6.1 hairpin in human telomerase RNA

Telomerase extends the 3′-ends of linear chromosomes by adding conserved telomeric DNA repeats and is essential for cell proliferation and genomic stability. Telomerases from all organisms contain a telomerase reverse transcriptase and a telomerase RNA (TER), which together provide the minimal functional elements for catalytic activity in vitro. The RNA component of many functional ribonucleoproteins contains modified nucleotides, including conserved pseudouridines (Ψs) that can have subtle effects on structure and activity. We have identified potential Ψ modification sites in human TER. Two of the predicted Ψs are located in the loop of the essential P6.1 hairpin from the CR4-CR5 domain that is critical for telomerase catalytic activity. We investigated the effect of P6.1 pseudouridylation on its solution NMR structure, thermodynamic stability of folding and telomerase activation in vitro. The pseudouridylated P6.1 has a significantly different loop structure and increase in stability compared to the unmodified P6.1. The extent of loop nucleotide interaction with adjacent residues more closely parallels the extent of loop nucleotide evolutionary sequence conservation in the Ψ-modified P6.1 structure. Pseudouridine-modification of P6.1 slightly attenuates telomerase activity but slightly increases processivity in vitro. Our results suggest that Ψs could have a subtle influence on human telomerase activity via impact on TER–TERT or TER–TER interactions