Social Constructionism: A Unifying Metaperspective for Social Work

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Session 4: Meta Perspectives in Practice. Presenter: J. Christopher Hall, PhD, University of Louisville (2005) - "Social Constructivism : A Unifying Metaperspective for Social Work"The Ohio State University College of Social Wor

Moving beyond accuracy: from tests of English to tests of 'Englishing'

This article examines how English is conceptualized in the domain of testing, and particularly the tendency to identify the concepts of ‘standard English’ and ‘native English’ with ‘the language itself’. I argue that such a monolithic view is inconsistent with the diversity of Englishes attestable across both native and non-native users and uses, and that this undermines the inclusion of accuracy criteria in English language tests. Adopting an alternative ‘plurilithic’ orientation, I challenge the traditional view on both cognitive and social grounds, arguing that the Englishes encountered and appropriated by non-native speakers will inevitably be qualitatively different from ‘standard English’ models, and that the effectiveness of the resources learners do develop should be assessed, where appropriate, independently of linguistic criteria. I conclude that a shift is required from tests of English to tests of ‘Englishing’: from testing how people use the language to testing what they can do with it

Social work as narrative: An investigation of the social and literary nature of social work accounting

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis investigates what can be gained by approaching social work reports and conversations as narratives. A conventional approach to social work accounting practices is to treat such documents as (more or less) accurate descriptions of social workers' clients, their problems and proposed remedies. Such a realist approach was found to be flawed, since it assumes straightforward access from accounts to external reality, not considering the constructedness of such documents. Drawing on theoretical themes from the sociology of scientific knowledge, literary theory, conversation analysis, ethnomethodology and sociolinguistics, this thesis explores the construction and reception of social work accounts as rhetorical, narrative and interactional processes. The documents analysed represent some of the occasions on which social workers describe and recommend social work intervention with children and their families - research interviews, court reports, internal memos, case file entries and journal reports. On these occasions, social work is performed and displayed in descriptions of people and their attributes, justifications for social work intervention and excuses for lack of success. The main theme of the thesis is that social work accounts can profitably be analysed as stories. To explain their work and their clients' world to a variety of audiences, social workers are heard to tell competent, professionally persuasive stories. A variety of storytelling features are explored, looking in particular at plot, character, the construction of the reader and the authority of the writer. Stories are heard to vary with reading occasions and critical audiences, and it is the study of reading relations which is a main focus of the analysis - to whom are these accounts addressed and how are they available to be read? Rhetorical features are investigated in order to understand how social work accounts are made available to be read as morally and factually persuasive. A critical reading is also offered, which questions the adequacy of the accounts, and makes available the possibility of reading unheard stories. Reflexive interludes comment on the claims of the thesis writer in terms of the efforts of the social work writer. The implications of this study are that treating social work accounts as textual accomplishments undermines social workers' claims for reporting objectively about their clients and their problems. Social work can be seen as constituted in and through the performance and reception of stories: doing competent social work is achieved through telling competent social work stories

Transfer of Auxinic Herbicide Resistance from Wild Mustard (Sinapis arvensis) into Radish (Raphanus sativus) through Embryo Rescue

The discovery of auxinic herbicides (e.g., 2,4-D, Dicamba, Picloram) for selective control of broad-leaf weeds in cereal crops revolutionized modern agriculture. These herbicides are inexpensive and do not generally have prolonged residual activity in soil. Although cultivated species of Brassicaceae (e.g., radish and other vegetables) are susceptible to auxinic herbicides, some biotypes of wild mustard (Sinapis arvensis, 2n = 18) were found to be highly resistant to Picloram and Dicamba. Inter-generic hybrids between wild mustard and radish (Raphanus sativus, 2n = 18) were produced by traditional breeding coupled with in vitro embryo rescue/ovule culture. To increase frequency of embryo regeneration and hybrid plant production, several hundred reciprocal crosses were performed between these species. Upon altering cultural conditions and media composition, a high frequency of embryo regeneration and hybrid plant establishment was achieved. A protocol was also optimized for in vitro clonal multiplication of inter-generic hybrids produced by embryo rescue. To evaluate transfer of auxinic herbicide resistance from wild mustard into hybrid plants, several screening tests (involving in vitro, molecular-based as well as whole plant-based tests) were performed. Results indicated that hybrids of R. sativus x S. arevensis were resistant to auxinic herbicides suggesting, that, the resistance trait was transferred to these hybrids from the wild mustard. This research for the first time demonstrates the possibility of transfer of auxinic herbicide resistance from wild mustard to radish

High-temperature scaling limit for directed polymers on a hierarchical lattice with bond disorder

Diamond "lattices" are sequences of recursively-defined graphs that provide a network of directed pathways between two fixed root nodes, $A$ and $B$. The construction recipe for diamond graphs depends on a branching number $b\in \mathbb{N}$ and a segmenting number $s\in \mathbb{N}$, for which a larger value of the ratio $s/b$ intuitively corresponds to more opportunities for intersections between two randomly chosen paths. By attaching i.i.d. random variables to the bonds of the graphs, I construct a random Gibbs measure on the set of directed paths by assigning each path an "energy" given by summing the random variables along the path. For the case $b=s$, I propose a scaling regime in which the temperature grows along with the number of hierarchical layers of the graphs, and the partition function (the normalization factor of the Gibbs measure) appears to converge in law. I prove that all of the positive integer moments of the partition function converge in this limiting regime. The motivation of this work is to prove a functional limit theorem that is analogous to a previous result obtained in the $b<s$ case.Comment: 28 pages, 1 figur

Review and Evaluation of the Gibson Dome High Level Nuclear Waste Repository Environmental Assessment: Geohydrologic Issues

Introduction: Background/Authorization: This report is meant to provide a technical review and evaluation of Department of Energy documents concerning groundwater, radionuclide travel time and monitoring issues relative to siting a high level nuclear waste repository in the Gibson Dome area in Southern Utah. in so doing we have, during a relatively short period of time, examined in detail the Department of Energy Guidelines concerning high level nuclear waste disposal (1983) including revisions (1984), and each draft of the Environmental Assessments for Davis and Lavender Canyon, up to and including the fifth draft (dated July 27, 1984). In addition, a large body of supporting DOE documents and relavant published research literature was carefully examined and incorporated into this report. Our approach to the review and evaluation process has been to examine the assumptions analysis procedures, conclusions and supporting data regarding groundwater, radionuclide travel time and monitoring issues for the Davis and Lavender Canyon Environmental Assessments, and to provide independent appraisal of the DOE approach and assessment of these issues. This work is carried out under a contract with the State of Utah Office of Planning and Budget (Contract No. 85-0205)

The human 'pitch center' responds differently to iterated noise and Huggins pitch

A magnetoencephalographic marker for pitch analysis (the pitch onset response) has been reported for different types of pitch-evoking stimuli, irrespective of whether the acoustic cues for pitch are monaurally or binaurally produced. It is claimed that the pitch onset response reflects a common cortical representation for pitch, putatively in lateral Heschl's gyrus. The result of this functional MRI study sheds doubt on this assertion. We report a direct comparison between iterated ripple noise and Huggins pitch in which we reveal a different pattern of auditory cortical activation associated with each pitch stimulus, even when individual variability in structure-function relations is accounted for. Our results suggest it may be premature to assume that lateral Heschl's gyrus is a universal pitch center