A Continuous Improvement Journey in the Higher Education Sector: A Case Study of a University in Ireland

The paper’s purpose is to contribute to a developing literature in relation to Continuous Improvement (CI), incorporating Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This paper follows on from a previous study which focused on the initial steps taken by an Irish university on its CI journey by discussing the next steps, detailing the findings from these

Dose-response of weanling pigs to streptococcus faecium

Two 5-wk experiments, using a total of 270 pigs (avg initial wt of 16.1 and 13.11b), were conducted to determine the dose-response relationship between Streptococcus faecium additions to drinking water and performance of newly weaned pigs. In experiment 1, treatments were: 1) untreated control; 2, 3, and 4) .5, 2.5, and 4.5 x 109 CFU of S. faecillm/pig/d; 5) antibioticfed positive control (CSP250 and CUS04)\u27 Bacterial content of feces collected from the pigs on d 7, 14, and 21 indicated that antibiotic feeding greatly reduced fecal content of streptococci. S. faecium given in the water (.5, 2.5, or 4.5 x 10 CFU/pig/d) slightly increased the CFU of streptococci in the feces. Giving S. faecillm in the water or antibiotics in the feed did not reduce fecal content of coliform bacteria. Antibiotic feeding improved feed intake, growth rate, and efficiency of gain when compared to the untreated control. Pigs given the highest level of S. faecium addition to the water (i.e., 4.5 x 10^9 had performance that was intermediate to that of the untreated control and positive control. In experiment 2, dosages of S. faecium were spread further apart. Treatments were: 1) untreated negative control; 2,3, and 4) 5 x 107, 5 X 109, and 5 x 1011 CFU of S. faecium/pig/d; and 5) antibiotic-fed positive control. Streptococci content of the feces was increased by giving S. faecillm in the water. However, total coliform content was not affected by giving S. faecium or antibiotics. Antibiotic feeding improved rate of gain, feed intake, and efficiency of gain, but giving S. faecium did not improve performance of pigs compared to those given the untreated control.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 16, 198

Reviews

Where the Shadows Lie: A Jungian Interpretation of Tolkien\u27s The Lord of the Rings. Pia Skogemann. Reviewed by Edith L. Crowe. Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story. Evan I. Schwartz. Reviewed by Richard Tuerk. Out of My Bone: The Letters of Joy Davidman. Ed. Don W. King. Reviewed by Joe R. Christopher. Collected Poems. Mervyn Peake, edited with an introduction by R.W. Maslen. Reviewed by David Bratman. C.S. Lewis on the Final Frontier: Science and the Supernatural in the Space Trilogy. Sanford Schwartz. Reviewed by Joe R. Christopher. Death and Fantasy: Essays on Philip Pullman, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, And R.L. Stevenson. William Gray. Reviewed by David D. Oberhelman. Stephen R. Donaldson and the Modern Epic Vision. Christine Barkley; Series editors Donald E. Palumbo and C. W. Sullivan III. Jefferson. Reviewed by Kim Coleman Healy. The Fantastic Horizon: Essays and Reviews. Darrell Schweitzer. Reviewed by David Bratman

Using pre-stimulus EEG to predict driver reaction time to road events

The ability to predict a driver's reaction time to road events could be used in driver safety assistance systems, allowing for autonomous control when a driver may be about to react with sup-optimal performance. In this paper, we evaluate a number of machine learning and feature engineering strategies that we use to predict the reaction time(s) of 24 drivers to road events using EEG (Electroencephalography) captured in an immersive driving simulator. Subject-independent models are trained and evaluated using EEG features extracted from time periods that precede the road events that we predict the reaction times for. Our paper has two contributions: 1) we predict the reaction times corresponding to individual road events using EEG spectral features from a time period before the onset of the road event, i.e. we take EEG data from 2 seconds before the event, and 2) we predict whether a subject will be a slow or fast responder compared to other drivers

The Lantern Vol. 54, No. 1, Fall 1987

• Darkside • Reflections on a Subway Ride • Demand for Love • Music Man • Something Wild • The Nice Guy\u27s Story • The Picnic • Internalize • Days When You Feel Like Wonder Bread • II • A Tear • In Pursuit of Beauty • A Walk Down Sycamore Lane • A Wish • Sins of Omission • Pessimism • And the Sky Cracked • The Clock Strikes • Invinciblehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1131/thumbnail.jp

Encountering Berlant part 1: Concepts otherwise

In Part 1 of ‘Encountering Berlant’, we encounter the promise and provocation of Lauren Berlant's work. In 1000-word contributions, geographers and others stay with what Berlant's thought offers contemporary human geography. They amplify an encounter with their work, demonstrating how a concept, idea, or style disrupts something, opens up a new possibility, or simply invites thinking otherwise. The encounters range across the incredible body of work Berlant left us with, from the ‘national sentimentality’ trilogy through to recent work on negativity. Varying in form and tone, the encounters exemplify and enact the inexhaustible plenitude of Berlant's thought: fantasy, the case, love, impasse, feel tanks, slow death, ellipses, gesture, attrition, intimate public, ambivalence, style. Part 2 of ‘Encountering Berlant’ focuses on Berlant's most influential concept: ‘cruel optimism’. Across these heterogeneous encounters, Berlant's enduring concern with the tensions and possibilities of relationality and how to enact better forms of common life shine through. These enduring concerns and Berlant's commitment to the incoherence and overdetermination of phenomena are summarised in the Introduction, which also explores how Berlant's work has been engaged with in geography. The result is a repository of what an encounter with Berlant's thought makes possible

Encountering Berlant part one: Concepts otherwise

In Part 1 of ‘Encountering Berlant’, we encounter the promise and provocation of Lauren Berlant's work. In 1000-word contributions, geographers and others stay with what Berlant's thought offers contemporary human geography. They amplify an encounter with their work, demonstrating how a concept, idea, or style disrupts something, opens up a new possibility, or simply invites thinking otherwise. The encounters range across the incredible body of work Berlant left us with, from the ‘national sentimentality’ trilogy through to recent work on negativity. Varying in form and tone, the encounters exemplify and enact the inexhaustible plenitude of Berlant's thought: fantasy, the case, love, impasse, feel tanks, slow death, ellipses, gesture, attrition, intimate public, ambivalence, style. Part 2 of ‘Encountering Berlant’ focuses on Berlant's most influential concept: ‘cruel optimism’. Across these heterogeneous encounters, Berlant's enduring concern with the tensions and possibilities of relationality and how to enact better forms of common life shine through. These enduring concerns and Berlant's commitment to the incoherence and overdetermination of phenomena are summarised in the Introduction, which also explores how Berlant's work has been engaged with in geography. The result is a repository of what an encounter with Berlant's thought makes possible. Short Abstract Part 1 of ‘Encountering Berlant’ explores the promise and provocation of Lauren Berlant's work. Contributors amplify an encounter with Berlant's concepts, tones, and styles, drawing out their implications for understanding relationality and how to invent and live better ways of being in common. The result is a repository of what Berlant's thinking offers geographers

Using the split squat to potentiate bilateral and unilateral jump performance

The purpose of this study was to examine if a split squat conditioning exercise with no or light loads could potentiate unilateral and bilateral jump performance. Twelve semi-professional rugby players (age: 22.3 +/- 1.4 years; height: 1.84 +/- 0.05 m, mass: 92.4 +/- 9.6 kg) from the English National League 1 performed a series of unilateral and bilateral countermovement jumps (CMJ) and broad jumps (BJ) over the course of two testing days. Both testing days involved performing baseline jumps before completing two sets of ten repetitions of a split squat, this completed with either bodyweight (testing session 1) or a 30kg weighted vest (testing session 2). A five-minute recovery period was permitted both following the warm up and following the completion of the split squat exercise. Significantly larger bilateral jump scores were reported following completion of the bodyweight split squat: CMJ (p = 0.001, ES = 0.44, [mean difference 2.517]), BJ (p = 0.001, ES = 0.37, [mean difference 3.817]), and the weighted vest split squat; CMJ (p = 0.001, ES = 0.8, [mean difference 4.383]), BJ (p = 0.001, ES = 0.68, [mean difference 6.817]). The findings of this study demonstrate that no or light loads of a split squat conditioning exercise are able to potentiate bilateral jump performance in semi-professional rugby players without the need for expensive weight room equipment. As such, this may provide coaches with a viable option of enhancing bilateral jump performance as part of a warm up or on-field conditioning practice

A copula-based clustering algorithm to analyse EU country diets

The aim of the paper is to suggest a novel clustering technique to explore the changes of the food diet in 40 European countries in accordance with common European policies and guidelines on healthy diets and lifestyles. The proposed clustering algorithm is based on copulas and it is called Co- Clust. The CoClust algorithm is able to find clusters according to the mul- tivariate dependence structure of the data generating process. The database analysed contains information on the proportions of calories from 16 food aggregates in 40 European countries observed over 40 years by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The findings suggest that European country diets are changing, individually or as a group, but not in a unique direction. Central and Eastern European countries are becoming unhealthier, while the tendency followed by the majority of the remaining countries is to integrate the common European guidelines on healthy, bal- anced, and diversified diets in their national policies

Encountering Berlant part 1: Concepts otherwise

In Part 1 of ‘Encountering Berlant’, we encounter the promise and provocation of Lauren Berlant's work. In 1000-word contributions, geographers and others stay with what Berlant's thought offers contemporary human geography. They amplify an encounter with their work, demonstrating how a concept, idea, or style disrupts something, opens up a new possibility, or simply invites thinking otherwise. The encounters range across the incredible body of work Berlant left us with, from the ‘national sentimentality’ trilogy through to recent work on negativity. Varying in form and tone, the encounters exemplify and enact the inexhaustible plenitude of Berlant's thought: fantasy, the case, love, impasse, feel tanks, slow death, ellipses, gesture, attrition, intimate public, ambivalence, style. Part 2 of ‘Encountering Berlant’ focuses on Berlant's most influential concept: ‘cruel optimism’. Across these heterogeneous encounters, Berlant's enduring concern with the tensions and possibilities of relationality and how to enact better forms of common life shine through. These enduring concerns and Berlant's commitment to the incoherence and overdetermination of phenomena are summarised in the Introduction, which also explores how Berlant's work has been engaged with in geography. The result is a repository of what an encounter with Berlant's thought makes possible