282 research outputs found
It all just clicked: a longitudinal perspective on transitions within University
This paper explores the transitions that a group of students, admitted from further education colleges as part of broader widening access initiative at a Scottish researchâintensive university, made across the lifetime of their degrees. It investigates how they negotiate their learning careers beyond the first year, and how they (re)define their approaches to independent learning as they progress to the later years of their courses. Evidence is drawn from 20 students who were interviewed during each of their three or four years of study to provide a longitudinal account of their experiences of engagement and participation at the university. We draw attention to three ways in which the students made transitions across the course of their degrees: to increased knowledge of the conventions of academic writing; to enhanced critical skills; and to practical strategies to prioritise learning
Stresses in silos: Comparison between theoretical models and new experiments
We present precise and reproducible mean pressure measurements at the bottom
of a cylindrical granular column. If a constant overload is added, the pressure
is linear in overload and nonmonotonic in the column height. The results are
{\em quantitatively} consistent with a local, linear relation between stress
components, as was recently proposed by some of us. They contradict the
simplest classical (Janssen) approximation, and may pose a rather severe test
of competing models.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, final version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Stress Propagation through Frictionless Granular Material
We examine the network of forces to be expected in a static assembly of hard,
frictionless spherical beads of random sizes, such as a colloidal glass. Such
an assembly is minimally connected: the ratio of constraint equations to
contact forces approaches unity for a large assembly. However, the bead
positions in a finite subregion of the assembly are underdetermined. Thus to
maintain equilibrium, half of the exterior contact forces are determined by the
other half. We argue that the transmission of force may be regarded as
unidirectional, in contrast to the transmission of force in an elastic
material. Specializing to sequentially deposited beads, we show that forces on
a given buried bead can be uniquely specified in terms of forces involving more
recently added beads. We derive equations for the transmission of stress
averaged over scales much larger than a single bead. This derivation requires
the Ansatz that statistical fluctuations of the forces are independent of
fluctuations of the contact geometry. Under this Ansatz, the
-component stress field can be expressed in terms of a d-component
vector field. The procedure may be generalized to non-sequential packings. In
two dimensions, the stress propagates according to a wave equation, as
postulated in recent work elsewhere. We demonstrate similar wave-like
propagation in higher dimensions, assuming that the packing geometry has
uniaxial symmetry. In macroscopic granular materials we argue that our approach
may be useful even though grains have friction and are not packed
sequentially.=17Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, revised vertion for Phys. Rev.
Concise Reporting of Benign Endometrial Biopsies is an Acceptable Alternative to Descriptive Reporting
In the United Kingdom, endometrial biopsy reports traditionally consist of a morphologic description followed by a conclusion. Recently published consensus guidelines for reporting benign endometrial biopsies advocate the use of standardized terminology. In this project we aimed to assess the acceptability and benefits of this simplified "diagnosis only" format for reporting non-neoplastic endometrial biopsies. Two consultants reported consecutive endometrial biopsies using 1 of 3 possible formats: (i) diagnosis only, (ii) diagnosis plus an accompanying comment, and (iii) the traditional descriptive format. Service users were asked to provide feedback on this approach via an anonymized online survey. The reproducibility of this system was assessed on a set of 53 endometrial biopsies among consultants and senior histopathology trainees. Of 370 consecutive benign endometrial biopsies, 245 (66%) were reported as diagnosis only, 101 (27%) as diagnosis plus a brief comment, and 24 (7%) as diagnosis following a morphologic description. Of the 43 survey respondents (28 gynecologists, 11 pathologists, and 4 clinical nurse specialists), 40 (93%) preferred a diagnosis only, with 3 (7%) being against/uncertain about a diagnosis only report. Among 3 histopathology consultants and 4 senior trainees there was majority agreement on the reporting format in 53/53 (100%) and 52/53 (98%) biopsies. In summary, we found that reporting benign specimens within standardized, well-understood diagnostic categories is an acceptable alternative to traditional descriptive reporting, with the latter reserved for the minority of cases that do not fit into specific categories. This revised approach has the potential to improve reporting uniformity and reproducibility
Do Human Resource Departments Act as Strategic Partners? Strategic Human Capital Management Adoption by County Governments
Drawing on qualitative data from forty counties in New York and North Carolina, this article examines the adoption of strategic human capital management (SHCM) principles and practices at the county level and presents a typology of five levels of SHCM adoption. The level of SHCM implementation in a county depends on: the view of the HR function by executive county leadership, the capacity of the county to engage in strategic planning and management, and the capacity of the HR director to think strategically about the role of HR in the government. The article concludes with recommendations for practice, which focus on educating a diverse set of actors about SHCM, building executive level support, developing HR skill and competencies, and applying basic change management practices
The practice educator as museum guide, art therapist or exhibition curator: a cross-disciplinary analysis of arts-based learning
The use of arts-based approaches in professional education in health and social care has gathered momentum in the last decade and their effectiveness has been well documented. There are helpful models in the education literature that begin to explain how these creative methods work in learning and practice, and that assert the significance of an emotional or affective level of learning. However, the process remains elusive, almost a âgivenâ. A more cross-disciplinary analysis of affective learning is needed to guide arts-based methods and more robust evaluation of their use in health and social care education and practice. This paper identifies different roles that can be taken by the practice educator with a review of those theoretical models of affective learning that underpin them to help understand how and why arts-based approaches are effective
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