Final report of work-with-IT: the JISC study into evolution of working practices

Technology is increasingly being used to underpin business processes across teaching and learning, research, knowledge exchange and business support activities in both HE and FE. The introduction of technology has a significant impact on the working practices of staff, often requiring them to work in a radically different way. Change in any situation can be unsettling and problematic and, where not effectively managed, can lead to poor service or functionality and disenfranchised staff. These issues can have a direct impact on institutional effectiveness, reputation and the resulting student experience. The Work-with-IT project, based at the University of Strathclyde, sought to examine changes to working practices across HE and FE, the impact on staff roles and relationships and the new skills sets that are required to meet these changes

Mechanisms for the maintenance and eventual degradation of neurofilament proteins in the distal segments of severed goldfish Mauthner axons

Cellular mechanisms that might affect the degradation of neurofilament proteins (NFPs) were examined in the distal segments of severed goldfish Mauthner axons (M-axons), which do not degenerate for more than 2 months after severance. Calpain levels, as determined by reactivity to a polyclonal antibody, remained constant for 80 d postseverance in distal segments of M-axons and then declined from 80 to 85 d postseverance. Calpain activity in rat brain, as determined by a spectrophotometric assay, was much higher than calpain activity in control and severed goldfish brain, spinal cord, muscle, or M-axons. Calpain activity was extremely low in M-axons compared with that in all other tissues and remained low for up to 80 d postseverance in distal segments of M-axons. Phosphorylated NFPs, as determined by Stains-All treatment of SDS gels, were maintained for up to 72 d postseverance and then decreased noticeably at 75 d postseverance when NFP breakdown products appeared on silver-stained gels. By 85 d postseverance, phosphorylated NFPs no longer were detected, and NFP breakdown products were the most prominent bands on silver-stained gels. These results suggest that the distal segments of M-axons survive for months after severance, because NFPs are maintained in a phosphorylated state that stabilizes and protects NFPs from degradation by low levels of calpain activity in the M-axon; the distal segments of severed M-axons degenerate eventually when NFPs no longer are maintained in a phosphorylated state and become susceptible to degradation, possibly by low levels of calpain activity in the M-axon.This work was supported by an Advanced Technology Project Grant to G.D.B.Neuroscienc

Crime, Urban Flight, and the Consequences for Cities

This paper demonstrates that rising crime rates in cities are correlated with city depopulation. Instrumental variables estimates, using measures of the certainty and severity of a state?s criminal justice system as instruments for city crime rates, imply that the direction of causality runs from crime to urban flight. Using annual city-level panel data, our estimates suggest that each additional reported crime is associated with a one person decline in city residents. There is some evidence that increases in suburban crime tend to keep people in cities, although the magnitude of this effect is small. Analysis of individual-level data from the 1980 census confirms the city-level results and demonstrates that almost all of the crime-related population decline is attributable to increased outmigration rather than a decrease in new arrivals to a city. Those households that leave the city because of crime are much more likely to remain within the SMSA than those leaving the city for other reasons. The migration decisions of high-income households and those with children are much more responsive to changes in crime than other households. Crime-related mobility imposes costs on those who choose to remain in the city through declining property values and a shrinking tax base.

Despair disguised as entertainment: Does Oprah Winfrey sensationalize human suffering in order to fuel her media empire and encourage other media to follow?

These papers describe position of a popular medial star Oprah Winfey and her influence for today’s culture and tries to show all the points of view on the problematic of her controversial TV show program and all the business around her. The Oprah Winfrey Show is about a certain form of social suffering that originates in the family and that is articulated from the experience and viewpoint of women inside the family. Ironically, while western photojournalism and the evening news regularly import nonwestern images of war, famine, and natural disasters, The Oprah Winfrey Show represents the first television genre that exports American forms of suffering to the rest of the world, a suffering that differs significantly from the imported kinds in that it is individual, private and concerns the self. Oprah made a whole world about her. People are running their lives based around the programs they watch. The Oprah Winfrey Show is about a certain form of social suffering that originates in the family and that is articulated from the experience and viewpoint of women inside the family. Confessional discourse is deployed on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and consumerism, expressions of anxiety and fragmentation, and therapy all coexist with the announcement of self-recovery and self-realization that come from narrating one’s own story. Oprah operates through an interplay of ‘ordinary’ topics, which is her mark, as well as that of the guests, and extra-ordinariness confirmed by her celebrity status. The Oprah Winfrey Show convinces its viewers that their personhood is tied to community, friendship and familial networks but more importantly, that their self is purpose-driven and capable of contesting oppressive forces. What is fascinating is that this mantra of self-betterment acts as an umbrella over the Oprah persona, which stretches across her multi-media empire. Her show, her Web Site, her magazine, her book club, her films, her made for TV movies, even her friends make up the Oprah community. There is a definite mixture of charity, television and the consumer market. Frequently called trash TV, talk shows are cited as representing the worst excesses of cheap television, signaling the ‘dumbing down’ of culture.’ It’s a complex mix of celebrity, media synergy, and female buying power

The unusual distribution of molecular gas and star formation in Arp 140

We investigate the atomic and molecular interstellar medium and star formation of NGC 275, the late-type spiral galaxy in Arp 140, which is interacting with NGC 274, an early-type system. The atomic gas (HI) observations reveal a tidal tail from NGC 275 which extends many optical radii beyond the interacting pair. The HI morphology implies a prograde encounter between the galaxy pair approximately 1.5 x 10**8 years ago. The Halpha emission from NGC 275 indicates clumpy irregular star-formation, clumpiness which is mirrored by the underlying mass distribution as traced by the Ks-band emission. The molecular gas distribution is striking in its anti-correlation with the {HII regions. Despite the evolved nature of NGC 275's interaction and its barred potential, neither the molecular gas nor the star formation are centrally concentrated. We suggest that this structure results from stochastic star formation leading to preferential consumption of the gas in certain regions of the galaxy. In contrast to the often assumed picture of interacting galaxies, NGC 275, which appears to be close to merger, does not display enhanced or centrally concentrated star formation. If the eventual merger is to lead to a significant burst of star formation it must be preceded by a significant conversion of atomic to molecular gas as at the current rate of star formation all the molecular gas will be exhausted by the time the merger is complete.Comment: 13 paper, accepted my Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Kroger Co. v. Morris: The Diminution of Hearing Officers

In Kroger Co. v. Morris the Court of Appeals of Virginia reached two contradictory conclusions. On one hand the court held that the Virginia Workers\u27 Compensation Commission could overrule a deputy commissioner\u27s fact findings based solely on evidence contained in the record below. On the other hand, the court concluded that it was itself unable to make such fact findings based solely on the record

A Comparison of the Decision Quality of Group Decisions Made in a Face-to-Face Environment with Decisions Made Using a Distributed Group Decision Support System

The Air Force is increasingly turning to a team approach for decision making. When team members are geographically separated it can be expensive for them to meet in a traditional face to face setting. Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS), designed to help groups make decisions, may be able to support these groups in a distributed mode. The assertion of this thesis is that a GDSS can indeed support such distributed processes and that these processes will be of higher quality than decisions made in a face to face environment. This study explores decision quality in terms of quality of the outcome, and acceptance of the decision by group participants. Through a laboratory experiment, groups of three or four members met to solve a management problem. Results suggest that quality of the decision depends upon the type of group interaction, the order of that interaction and the scenario difficulty. The analysis found no statistically significant difference for decision quality in either type of group interaction. Additional research is necessary to examine the potential for Air Force use of distributed GDSS to reduce travel costs without reducing decision quality