Motivations to volunteer in selected service organisations in Australia

The contributions of volunteers assist many organisations to stretch scarce resources further in a bid to provide important services to the community. Such organisations are challenged to motivate the participation of new and continuing volunteers. Although most people in the community recognise the value and importance of volunteerism, few actually commit to participating as volunteers. This study seeks to expand the somewhat limited research on volunteers in an Australian context. The sample consisted of 361 volunteers from three service organisations in Australia-- Rotary International, Horne and Community Care (HACC), and Surf Life Saving Australia. Each of these groups fulfils an important role in the community, yet struggles to recruit and retain the services of volunteers. Determining the motivations that members and potential members seek to have satisfied through their volunteer participation allows persuasive communication to be developed that will more effectively attract people to these organisations. It can also assist the placement of volunteers in the most satisfying roles, resulting in longer retention of volunteers. This study employed the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI), an instrument that measures the motivational profile of individual volunteers. The reasonable sample size facilitated the use of multivariate techniques such as factor, discriminant, and cluster analysis, Motivational and demographic profiles of the sample and each sub-group were determined and differences between the three sub-groups examined. The results determined that, for this sample, there were five key motivations to volunteer, contrasting with the six-factor result consistently found by the developers of the VFI. Further research is required to determine whether this is a reflection of Australian volunteers or rather of this particular sample. For the total sample and for each sub-group, the primary motivators of their volunteer participation were the Values and Understanding functions, and the Career function was the least important motivation. The Career motive was, however, significantly more important for Surf Life Saving volunteers than for the Rotary and HACC volunteers and served to differentiate between the groups. The results suggested that Surf Life Saving volunteers tended to be more egoistically-oriented in their motivations for volunteering than were the Rotary and HACC volunteers. Implications for the recruitment, placement and retention of volunteers in these organisations are subsequently discussed

Egg-laying substrate selection for optimal camouflage by quail

Camouflage is conferred by background matching and disruption, which are both affected by microhabitat [1]. However, microhabitat selection that enhances camouflage has only been demonstrated in species with discrete phenotypic morphs [2 and 3]. For most animals, phenotypic variation is continuous [4 and 5]; here we explore whether such individuals can select microhabitats to best exploit camouflage. We use substrate selection in a ground-nesting bird (Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica). For such species, threat from visual predators is high [6] and egg appearance shows strong between-female variation [7]. In quail, variation in appearance is particularly obvious in the amount of dark maculation on the light-colored shell [8]. When given a choice, birds consistently selected laying substrates that made visual detection of their egg outline most challenging. However, the strategy for maximizing camouflage varied with the degree of egg maculation. Females laying heavily maculated eggs selected the substrate that more closely matched egg maculation color properties, leading to camouflage through disruptive coloration. For lightly maculated eggs, females chose a substrate that best matched their egg background coloration, suggesting background matching. Our results show that quail “know” their individual egg patterning and seek out a nest position that provides most effective camouflage for their individual phenotyp

Conformational stability in dinucleoside phosphate crystals. Semiempirical potential energy calculations for uridylyl-3'-5'-adenosine monophosphate (UpA) and guanylyl-3',5'-cytidine monophosphate (GpC)

Classical potential energy calculations were performed for the dinucleoside phosphates UpA and GpC. Two widely accessible low-energy regions of conformation space were found for the w', w pair. That of lowest energy contains conformations similar to helical RNA, with w' and w in the vicinity of 300° and 280°, respectively. All five experimental observations of crystalline GpC, two of ApU, and the helical fragment of ApApA fall in this range. The second lowest region has w' and w at about 20° and 80°, respectively, which is in the general region of one experimentally observed crystalline conformer of UpA, and the nonhelical region of ApApA. It is concluded that GpC and ApU, which were crystallized as either sodium or calcium salts, are shielded from each other in the crystal by the water of hydration and are therefore free to adopt their predicted in vacuo minimum energy helical conformations. By contrast, crystalline UpA had only 1/2 water per molecule, and was forced into higher energy conformations in order to maximize intermolecular hydrogen bonding

The malleability of uranium: manipulating the charge-density wave in epitaxial films

We report x-ray synchrotron experiments on epitaxial films of uranium, deposited on niobium and tungsten seed layers. Despite similar lattice parameters for these refractory metals, the uranium epitaxial arrangements are different and the strains propagated along the a-axis of the uranium layers are of opposite sign. At low temperatures these changes in epitaxy result in dramatic modifications to the behavior of the charge-density wave in uranium. The differences are explained with the current theory for the electron-phonon coupling in the uranium lattice. Our results emphasize the intriguing possibilities of producing epitaxial films of elements that have complex structures like the light actinides uranium to plutonium.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Physical mapping of chromosomes 3HS and 3DS

Relatório de estágio do mestrado em Ensino da Educação Física nos Ensinos Básico e Secundário, apresentado à Faculdade de Ciências do Desporto e Educação Física da Universidade de CoimbraO presente documento divide-se em duas partes: a reflexão dos aspetos relacionados com o estágio pedagógico e o desenvolvimento do tema-problema. Numa primeira fase será dado enfoque à prática da docência, desenvolvida na escola E.B.2,3 Dr. Daniel de Matos. Serão apresentadas as expectativas iniciais em relação à prática, serão apresentadas e justificadas as opções metodológicas tomadas ao longo do estágio, serão relatadas as atividades desenvolvidas durante o estágio e será realçada a componente ética e profissional da profissão. De seguida será realizada uma justificação das opções tomadas. Para finalizar a primeira parte do presente trabalho será feita uma análise reflexiva sobre a prática pedagógica. Na segunda parte temos o tema-problema e seu desenvolvimento, num documento que se pretende orientador da prática docente e auxiliar de como resolver comportamentos de desvio da tarefa por parte dos alunos. Servirá também para analisar e mostrar conclusões sobre o problema que a escola atual, enquanto organização enfrenta, a indisciplina. Será efetuada uma pequena investigação, em que o objetivo é analisar a perceção dos docentes de uma escola pública sobre a gravidade dos comportamentos de indisciplina praticados. O objetivo é chegar a alguma conclusão que possa ajudar/beneficiar os professores da escola na procura de estratégias e metodologias que possam minimizar o impacto deste tipo de comportamentos no normal funcionamento da aula. This document is divided into two parts: a reflection of aspects related to teaching practice and development of the “theme-issue”. Initially focus will be given to the practice of teaching, developed in E.B.2, 3 Dr. Daniel de Matos school. Initial expectations will be presented, as well as the methodological choices made along the stage and its reasons. The activities made during the internship will be reported and I will emphasize ethics and professional component of the teacher’s profession. Then I will do a justification of the choices made. To finish the first part of this work I will make a reflective analysis of teaching practice. In the second part we have the “theme-issue” and its development, a document intended to be the guiding teaching practice and assist in solving the task behaviors of misuse by students. Will also serve to analyze and display conclusions about the problem that the current school, as an organization, faces, the indiscipline. Will be performed a little investigation, in which the objective is to analyze the perceptions of teachers in a public school on the severity of disruptive behaviors committed. The goal is to achieve some conclusion that can help / benefit school teachers in finding strategies and methodologies that can minimize the impact of such behaviors on normal class

Structure of guanylyl-3′,5′-cytidine monophosphate. II. Description of the molecular and crystal structure of the calcium derivative in space group P2₁

The structural features of calcium guanosine-3′,5′-cytidine monophosphate (GpC) have been elucidated by X-ray diffraction analysis. The molecule was crystallized in space group P2₁ with cell constants of a = 21.224 Å, b = 34.207 Å, c = 9.327 Å, and β = 90.527°, Z = 8. The hydration of the crystal is 21% by weight with 72 water molecules in the unit cell. The four GpC molecules in the asymmetric unit occur as two Watson-Crick hydrogen-bonded dimers related by a pseudo-C face centering. Each dimer consists of two independent GpC molecules whose bases are hydrogen bonded to each other in the traditional Watson-Crick fashion. Each dimer possesses a pseudo twofold axis broken by a calcium ion and associated solvent. The four molecules are conformationally similar to helical RNA, but are not identical to it or to each other. Instead, values of conformational angles reflect the intrinsic flexibility of the molecule within the range of basic helical conformations. All eight bases are anti, sugars are all C3′-endo, and the C4′-C5′ bond rotations are gauche-gauche. The R factor is 12.6% for 2918 observed reflections at 1.2-Å resolution