166 research outputs found
The reactions of certain insect species to treatment with toxic substances dispersed in moving air
Imperial Users onl
âSocial work is women's work, right?â Amplifying the voices of male social work students entering into a female majority occupation: applying qualitative methods.
The background to this research study concerns a renewed interest in explaining the dearth of men now engaged in social work training, which has been of concern to social work regulatory bodies. Statistics from the former professional body for social work in England, the General Social Care Council, suggests that 77% of registered social workers in 2010 were female (GSCC, 2010). According to Parker and Ashencaen-Crabtree (2012), which this study seeks to expand upon, a similar disparity is mirrored in the United States of America, where the proportion of male social work graduates in 1960 was 43% decreasing to 15% in 2000. Their work however, does not evaluate why the gender disparity is proportioned in this way. Social work is not a traditionally male occupation and there is a paucity of research which gives voice to the experiences of male social work students (MSWSs). This timely study seeks to amplify their voice and add to a body of in-depth research where reasons for their limited numbers might be explored; thereby illuminating some reasons for their scarcity. The research was grounded in qualitative methodology which included over-arching ethnographic principles and methods. Participants in the study comprised thirty-four MSWSs across six universities in the UK. In order to understand their perspectives and experiences, Bourdieusian and Intersectional lenses were used. Theories of gender, power, intersectionality and capital were employed to explain the issues and challenges identified by the study participants. In addition to promoting the voice of MSWSs, the study presents strategies to encourage a greater gender balance within UK social work qualifying programmes and suggests areas for further research in this field of study. This research therefore contributes to, and updates, the existing literature and narrative concerning men as a minority in social work. Key findings identify that motivations for MSWS to enter into the profession, centred on three broad factors: familial background; previous life experience; and a change in career. Gay and bi-sexual men can gravitate towards a career in social work as they feel congruent with the professionâs ethics and values. There appears a need for increased exploration of âgenderâ within the feminised pedagogy of social work. In addition, fully funded fast-track qualifying routes appear more accessible to males than traditional entry routes. What remains however is a lack of perceived status and professionalism inherent in the title âWorkerâ
Review of the current status of research on smart homes and other domestic assistive technologies in support of the TAHI trials
The study provides an overview of developments in smart home technology and its
use in the assistive technology sector. It includes an extensive literature review and
detailed descriptions of current smart home installations in the UK and Europe.
The report highlights the complexity of providing products and services in this area,
and the relative immaturity of smart home technology in this sector. Many of the
available products have emerged from office automation technologies developed for
use in building control applications or from small niche markets in the assistive
sector. Smart home developments have also concentrated on home control
applications, but larger potential markets are also now being identified in other areas.
Many of the trials described use technology to improve the safety and security of
older and disabled people, concentrating more on the monitoring rather than home
environment control.
The report also demonstrates the practical difficulties faced in developing services in
this sector. For many organisations these have been exploratory first steps in the use
of technology to support care, and this lack of experience is reflected in common
difficulties in specification and installation of equipment especially when retrofitting
installations into buildings.
Many developments have suffered from the lack of relevant experience of electrical
and other contractors, so that it has proved difficult for organisations to identify both
suppliers of equipment and people with the skills to install the technology. In the
majority of cases there has been no formal evaluation of the developments, and it is
therefore difficult to obtain evidence of the costs and benefits of using such
technology to provide care and support independent living
Surfactant-free purification of membrane protein complexes from bacteria: application to the staphylococcal penicillin-binding protein complex PBP2/PBP2a
Surfactant-mediated removal of proteins from biomembranes invariably results in partial or complete loss of function and disassembly of multi-protein complexes. We determined the capacity of styrene-co-maleic acid (SMA) co-polymer to remove components of the cell division machinery from the membrane of drug-resistant staphylococcal cells. SMA-lipid nanoparticles solubilized FtsZ-PBP2-PBP2a complexes from intact cells, demonstrating the close physical proximity of these proteins within the lipid bilayer. Exposure of bacteria to (-)-epicatechin gallate, a polyphenolic agent that abolishes ÎČ-lactam resistance in staphylococci, disrupted the association between PBP2 and PBP2a. Thus, SMA purification provides a means to remove native integral membrane protein assemblages with minimal physical disruption and shows promise as a tool for the interrogation of molecular aspects of bacterial membrane protein structure and function
Increasing Multiyear Sea Ice Loss in the Beaufort Sea: A New Export Pathway for the Diminishing Multiyear Ice Cover of the Arctic Ocean
Historically, multiyear sea ice (MYI) covered a majority of the Arctic and circulated through the Beaufort Gyre for years. However, increased ice melt in the Beaufort Sea during the early 2000s was proposed to have severed this circulation. Constructing a regional MYI budget from 1997 to 2021 reveals that MYI import into the Beaufort Sea has increased year-round, yet less MYI now survives through summer and is transported onwards in the Gyre. Annual average MYI loss quadrupled over the study period and increased from âŒ7% to âŒ33% of annual Fram Strait MYI export, while the peak in 2018 (385,000 km2) was similar in magnitude to Fram Strait MYI export. The ice-albedo feedback coupled with the transition toward younger thinner MYI is responsible for the increased MYI loss. MYI transport through the Beaufort Gyre has not been severed, but it has been reduced so severely to prevent it from being redistributed throughout the Arctic Ocean
Landfast Sea Ice Conditions in the Canadian Arctic: 1983 â 2009
We used Canadian Ice Service (CIS) digital charts from 1983 to 2009 to create a climatology of landfast sea ice in the Canadian Arctic. The climatology characterized the spatial distribution and variability of landfast ice through an average annual cycle and identified the mean onset date, breakup date, and duration of landfast ice. Trends in date and duration of onset and breakup were calculated over the 26-year period on the basis of CIS regions and sub-regions. In several sub-regionsâ particularly in the Canadian Arctic Archipelagoâwe calculated significant trends towards later landfast ice onset or earlier breakup, or both. These later onset and earlier breakup dates translated into significant decreases in landfast ice duration for many areas of the Canadian Arctic. For communities located in the most affected areas, including Tuktoyaktuk, Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, Arctic Bay, and Pond Inlet, this shorter landfast ice season is of significant social, cultural, and economic importance. Landfast sea-ice duration in the interior of the Northwest Passage has not undergone any statistically significant decrease over the time series.Nous nous sommes appuyĂ©s sur les cartes numĂ©riques du Service canadien des glaces (SCG) pour les annĂ©es 1983 Ă 2009 afin de produire la climatologie de la glace de mer de lâArctique canadien. La climatologie permet de caractĂ©riser la distribution spatiale et la variabilitĂ© de la glace de mer au moyen dâun cycle annuel moyen, et de dĂ©terminer la date moyenne du commencement, la date de la dĂ©bĂącle et la durĂ©e de la glace de mer. Les tendances en matiĂšre de dates et de durĂ©es relativement au commencement et Ă la dĂ©bĂącle ont Ă©tĂ© calculĂ©es sur la pĂ©riode de 26 ans en fonction des rĂ©gions visĂ©es par le SCG et des sous-rĂ©gions. Dans plusieurs sous-rĂ©gions â plus particuliĂšrement dans lâarchipel Arctique canadien â nous avons calculĂ© dâimportantes tendances indiquant des dates de commencement plus tardives de la glace de mer ou des dates de dĂ©bĂącle plus hĂątives, ou les deux. Ces dates plus hĂątives et plus tardives se traduisent par la rĂ©duction considĂ©rable de la durĂ©e de la glace de mer en maints endroits de lâArctique canadien. Pour les localitĂ©s situĂ©es dans la plupart des rĂ©gions touchĂ©es, dont Tuktoyaktuk, Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, Arctic Bay et Pond Inlet, cette saison de glace de mer plus courte revĂȘt une grande importance sur les plans social, culturel et Ă©conomique. Du point de vue statistique, la durĂ©e de la glace de mer Ă lâintĂ©rieur du passage du Nord-Ouest nâa pas connu de rĂ©duction importante au cours de cette pĂ©riode
Micrometeorological and Thermal Control of Frost Flower Growth and Decay on Young Sea Ice
Frost flowers are transient crystal structures that form on new and young sea ice surfaces. They have been implicated in a variety of biological, chemical, and physical processes and interactions with the atmosphere at the sea ice surface. We describe the atmospheric and radiative conditions and the physical and thermal properties of the sea ice and atmosphere that form, decay, and destroy frost flowers on young sea ice. Frost flower formation occurred during a high-pressure system that caused air temperatures to drop to â30ËC, with relative humidity of 70% (an undersaturated atmosphere), and very calm wind conditions. The sea ice surface temperature at the time of frost flower initiation was 10Ëâ13ËC warmer than the air temperature. Frost flowers grew on nodules raised above the mean surface height by 5 mm, which were 4Ëâ6ËC colder than the bare, brine-wetted, highly saline sea ice surface that provided the necessary moisture. The cold nodules created potential water vapour supersaturation zones above them with respect to air over the brine skim. Frost flowers formed and grew overnight in the absence of shortwave radiation, while the net longwave radiation was negative and dominated the net all-wave radiation balance at the surface. The observed crystal habits of the frost flowers were long needles, betraying their origin from the vapour phase at temperatures between â20ËC and â30ËC. After a night of growth, frost flowers decayed in association with increased solar radiation, a net surface radiation balance of 0 W m-2, increased air and surface temperatures, increased wind speed, and decreased relative humidity. We hypothesize that these conditions increased vertical mixing, which eroded near-surface water vapour saturation and initiated sublimation. The frost flowers finally were rapidly destroyed by snowfall.Les fleurs de glace sont des structures cristallines transitoires qui se forment sur des surfaces de glace de mer nouvelles et jeunes. Elles dĂ©coulent de divers processus et interactions biologiques, chimiques et physiques avec lâatmosphĂšre, Ă la surface de la glace de mer. Nous dĂ©crivons les conditions atmosphĂ©riques et radiatives de mĂȘme que les propriĂ©tĂ©s physiques et thermiques de la glace de mer qui forment, dĂ©tĂ©riorent et dĂ©truisent les fleurs de glace sur la jeune glace de mer. La formation de fleurs de glace sâest produite lorsquâun systĂšme de haute pression a fait baisser les tempĂ©ratures de lâair Ă â30 ËC, avec une humiditĂ© relative de 70 % (atmosphĂšre sous-saturĂ©e) et un rĂ©gime des vents trĂšs calme. Ă lâamorçage des fleurs de glace, la tempĂ©rature Ă la surface de la glace de mer Ă©tait de 10Ë Ă 13 ËC plus chaude que la tempĂ©rature de lâair. Les fleurs de glace se sont formĂ©es sur des nodules Ă©levĂ©s au-dessus de la hauteur moyenne de la surface dans une mesure de 5 mm, ce qui Ă©tait entre 4Ë et 6 ËC plus froid que la surface de glace de mer brute, saumurĂ©e et fortement saline qui a fourni lâhumiditĂ© nĂ©cessaire. En ce qui a trait Ă lâair au-dessus de lâĂ©cume de saumure, les nodules de froid ont crĂ©Ă© des zones potentielles de sursaturation de vapeur dâeau au-dessus. Des fleurs de glace se sont formĂ©es et ont grossi pendant la nuit, en lâabsence de rayonnement de courtes longueurs dâonde, tandis que le rayonnement net de grandes longueurs dâonde Ă©tait nĂ©gatif et dominait lâĂ©quilibre du rayonnement net de toutes ondes Ă la surface. Lâhabitus cristallin observĂ© dans les fleurs de glace prenait la forme de longues aiguilles, trahissant son origine de la phase vapeur Ă des tempĂ©ratures variant de â20 ËC Ă â30 ËC. AprĂšs une nuit de croissance, les fleurs de glace se sont dĂ©tĂ©riorĂ©es en prĂ©sence du rayonnement solaire accru, du bilan radiatif de la surface de 0 W m-2, des tempĂ©ratures accrues de lâair et de la surface, de la plus grande vitesse du vent et de lâhumiditĂ© relative rĂ©duite. Nous formulons lâhypothĂšse que ces conditions ont eu pour effet dâaugmenter le mĂ©lange vertical, ce qui a Ă©rodĂ© la saturation de vapeur dâeau prĂšs de la surface et dĂ©clenchĂ© la sublimation. Par la suite, les fleurs de glace ont Ă©tĂ© rapidement dĂ©truites par la chute de neige
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