The dynamics of university units as a multi-level process. Credibility cycles and resource dependencies

This paper presents an analysis of resource acquisition and profile development of institutional units within universities. We conceptualize resource acquisition as a two level nested process, where units compete for external resources based on their credibility, but at the same time are granted faculty positions from the larger units (department) to which they belong. Our model implies that the growth of university units is constrained by the decisions of their parent department on the allocation of professorial positions, which represent the critical resource for most units’ activities. In our field of study this allocation is largely based on educational activities, and therefore, units with high scientific credibility are not necessarily able to grow, despite an increasing reliance on external funds. Our paper therefore sheds light on the implications that the dual funding system of European universities has for the development of units, while taking into account the interaction between institutional funding and third-party funding

Low-energy positron interactions with krypton

Cross sections for positron scattering from krypton have been measured with an energy resolution of ∼60 meV over the energy range 0.5–60 eV. Absolute values of the grand total (σGT), positronium formation (σPs), and grand total minus positronium formation (σGT-σPs,) cross sections are presented. Theoretical estimations of σGT and σGT-σPs are also performed for this target using the convergent close-coupling method and the relativistic optical potential approach. We also provide experimental and theoretical results for elastic differential cross sections, for selected energies both below and above the Ps threshold. Where available, the present results are compared to both experimental and theoretical values from the literature.C. Makochekanwa, J. R. Machacek, A. C. L. Jones, P. Caradonna, D. S. Slaughter, R. P. McEachran, J. P. Sullivan, and S. J. Buckman, S. Bellm and B. Lohmann, D. V. Fursa and I. Bray, D.W. Mueller, A. D. Stauffer, M. Hoshin

Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives.

This review collates and examines critically a theoretically convergent but widely dispersed body of research on the influence of external environments on the functioning of families as contexts of human development. Investigations falling within this expanding domain include studies of the interaction of genetics and environment in family processes; transitions and linkages between the family and other major settings influencing development, such as hospitals, day care, peer groups, school, social networks, the world of work (both for parents and children), and neighborhoods and communities; and public policies affecting families and children. A second major focus is on the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course as these affect and are affected by intrafamilial processes. Special emphasis is given to critical research gaps in knowledge and priorities for future investigation. The purpose of this article is to document and delineate promising lines of research on external influences that affect the capacity of families to foster the healthy development of their children. The focus differs from that of most studies of the family as a context of human development, because the majority have concentrated on intrafamilial processes of parent-child interaction, a fact that is reflected in Maccoby and Martin's (1983) recent authoritative review of research on family influences on development. By contrast, the focus of the present analysis can be described as "once removed." The research question becomes: How are intrafamilial processes affected by extrafamilial conditions? Paradigm Parameters In tracing the evolution of research models in developmental science, Bronfenbrenner and Crouter (1983) distinguished a series of progressively more sophisticated scientific paradigms for investigating the impact of environment on development. These paradigms provide a useful framework for ordering and analyzing studies bearing on the topic of this review. At the most general level, the research models vary simultaneously along two dimensions. As applied to the subject at hand, the first pertains to the structure of the external systems that affect the family and the manner in which they exert their influence. The second dimension relates to the degree of explicitness and differentiation accorded to intrafamilial processes that are influenced by the external environment. External Systems Affecting the Family Research paradigms can be distinguished in terms of three different environmental systems that can serve as sources of external influence on the family. Mesosystem models. Although the family is the principal context in which human development takes place, it is but one of several settings in which developmental process can and do occur. Moreover, the processes operating in different settings are not independent of each other. To cite a common example, events at home can affect the child's progress in school, and vice versa. Despite the obviousness of this fact, it was not until relatively recently that students of development began to employ research designs that could identify the influences operating, in both directions, between the principal settings in which human development occurs. The term mesosystem has been use to characterize analytic models of this kind Exosystem models. The psychological development of children in the family is affected not only by what happens in the other environments in which children spend their time but also by what occurs in the other settings in which their parents live their lives, especially in a place that children seldom enter-the parents' world of work. Another domain to which children tend to have limited access is the parents' circle of friends and acquaintances-their social network. Such environments "external" to the developing person are referred to as "exosystems." The findings of investigations employing exosystem designs are reviewed below, in the section "Exosystem Models." 72