98 research outputs found
Engendering a culture of quality enhancement in teaching and learning: lessons learned
Enhancing the quality of learning and teaching in higher education has been on the English national agenda for more than a decade. The Government and funding organisations have enabled universities to focus on creating a culture of excellence in learning and teaching and continuing academic and professional development. This paper describes some of the strategies that have promoted a culture of quality teaching in higher education in England and how one organisation, the University of Westminster has implemented those strategies to engender a culture of quality enhancement and continuing professional development
The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme in England and Northern Ireland
In the 1990s, the Higher Education Funding Councils of England and the equivalent body in Northern Ireland (DEL NI) took a positive step by supporting the development of initiatives that promoted and supported innovation and the recognition of excellence in learning and teaching in Higher Education. One of the earliest manifestations of this support was the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, making this a timely opportunity to consider the personal and professional impact this scheme has had on the quality of teaching throughout the Higher Education sector
The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme in England and Northern Ireland: a review
In the late 1990s, the Higher Education Funding Councils of England and the equivalent body in Northern Ireland (DEL NI) took the positive step of supporting the development of initiatives that promoted and supported innovation, and the recognition of excellence, in learning and teaching in Higher Education. One of the earliest manifestations of this support was the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, making this a timely opportunity to consider the personal and professional impact this scheme has had on the quality of teaching throughout the Higher Education sector locally, and the implications of this development for the wider EU community
HST, radio and infrared observations of 28 3CR radio galaxies at redshift z ~ 1: I. Old stellar populations in central cluster galaxies
Hubble Space Telescope images of 3CR radio galaxies at redshifts 0.6 < z <
1.8 have shown a remarkable variety of structures, generally aligned along the
radio axis, indicating that the radio source strongly influences the optical
appearance of these galaxies. In this paper we investigate the host galaxies
underlying this aligned emission, combining the HST data with ground-based
infrared images. An investigation of the spectral energy distributions of the
galaxies shows that the contribution of the aligned blue component to the
K--band light is generally small (about 10%). The radial intensity profiles of
the galaxies are well matched at radii <~ 35 kpc by de Vaucouleurs' law,
demonstrating that the K--band light is dominated by that of an elliptical
galaxy. There is no evidence for a nuclear point source, in addition to the de
Vaucouleurs profile, with a contribution >~15% of the total K--band flux
density, except in two cases, 3C22 and 3C41. Large characteristic radii are
derived, indicating that the 3CR galaxies must be highly evolved dynamically,
even at a redshift of one. At radii > 35 kpc, a combined galaxy profile clearly
shows an excess of emission reminiscent of cD--type halos. This supports other
independent evidence for the hypothesis that the distant 3CR galaxies lie in
moderately rich (proto--)clusters. Since the nearby FR II galaxies in the 3CR
catalogue lie in more diffuse environments and do not possess cD halos, the
galactic environments of the 3CR galaxies must change with redshift. The K-z
relation of the 3CR galaxies cannot, therefore, be interpreted using a standard
`closed-box, passive stellar evolution' model. We offer a new interpretation,
and compare the model with the K-z relations of lower power radio galaxies and
brightest cluster galaxies. (abridged)Comment: 21 pages including 13 figures, LaTeX. To appear in MNRA
Some geochemical constraints upon models for the crystallization of the upper critical zone-main zone interval, northwestern Bushveld complex
Ratios between elements Mg, Fe, Co, Cr, Ni, V, and Sc are consistently different in mafic rocks of the upper critical zone, and those above the Bastard unit. Within the 300 m section above the Merensky Reef, 87Sr/86Sr ratios increase from c.0.7063 to c.0.7087, irrespective of rock type. Decoupling of Mg/(Mg + Fe2+) ratios and the Ca contents of plagioclase, and wide variations in the proportions of anorthosite within the Bastard, Merensky, and Merensky Footwall units, are inconsistent with anorthosite formation by simple fractional crystallization of magma batches of limited volume
Acute Intermittent Porphyria: Pathophysiology and Treatment
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90337/1/j.1875-9114.1984.tb03340.x.pd
A deep Chandra observation of the Groth Strip. I. The X-ray data
We present the results of a 200 ks Chandra observation of part of the Groth
Strip region, using the ACIS-I instrument. We present a relatively simple
method for the detection of point-sources and calculation of limiting
sensitivities, which we argue is at least as sensitive and more self-consistent
than previous methods presented in the literature. 158 distinct X-ray sources
are included in our point-source catalogue in the ACIS-I area. The number
counts show a relative dearth of X-ray sources in this region. For example at a
flux limit of 1E-15 (cgs) around 20 per cent more soft band sources are
detected in the HDF-N and almost 50 per cent more in the ELAIS-N1 field, which
we have analysed by the same method for comparison. We find, however, that
these differences are consistent with Poisson variations at 2 sigma
significance, and therefore there is no evidence for cosmic variance based on
these number counts alone. We determine the average spectra of the objects and
find a marked difference between the soft-band selected sources, which have
Gamma=1.9 typical of unobscured AGN, and the hard-band selected sources, which
have Gamma=1.0. Reassuringly, the sample as a whole has a mean spectrum of
Gamma=1.4\pm 0.1, the same as the X-ray background. Nonetheless, our results
imply that the fraction of sources with significant obscuration is only ~25 per
cent, much less than predicted by standard AGN population synthesis models.
This is confirmed by direct spectral fitting, with only a handful of objects
showing evidence for absorption. After accounting for absorption, all objects
are consistent with mean intrinsic spectrum of Gamma=1.76 \pm 0.08, very
similar to local Seyferts (abridged).Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, MNRAS, in pres
Cosmological evolution of the Fanaroff-Riley type II source population
By combining a model for the evolution of the radio luminosity of an
individual source with the radio luminosity function, we perform a
multi-dimensional Monte-Carlo simulation to investigate the cosmological
evolution of the Fanaroff-Riley Class II radio galaxy population by generating
large artificial samples. The properties of FRII sources are required to evolve
with redshift in the artificial samples to fit the observations. Either the
maximum jet age or the maximum density of the jet environment or both evolve
with redshift. We also study the distribution of FRII source properties as a
function of redshift. From currently available data we can not constrain the
shape of the distribution of environment density or age, but jet power is found
to follow a power-law distribution with an exponent of approximately -2. This
power-law slope does not change with redshift out to z=0.6. We also find the
distribution of the pressure in the lobes of FRII sources to evolve with
redshift up to .Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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