Rational's experience using Ada for very large systems

The experience using the Rational Environment has confirmed the advantages forseen when the project was started. Interactive syntatic and semantic information makes a tremendous difference in the ease of constructing programs and making changes to them. The ability to follow semantic references makes it easier to understand exisiting programs and the impact of changes. The integrated debugger makes it much easier to find bugs and test fixes quickly. Taken together, these facilites have helped greatly in reducing the impact of ongoing maintenance of the ability to produce a new code. Similar improvements are anticipated as the same level of integration and interactivity are achieved for configuration management and version control. The environment has also proven useful in introducing personnel to the project and existing personnel to new parts of the system. Personnel benefit from the assistance with syntax and semantics; everyone benefits from the ability to traverse and understand the structure of unfamiliar software. It is often possible for someone completely unfamiliar with a body of code to use these facilities, to understand it well enough to successfully with a body of code to use these facilities to understand it well enough to successfully diagnose and fix bugs in a matter of minutes

Synthesis and Biosynthesis of Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids

This work is divided into five parts: (a) Synthesis of macrocyclic diester alkaloid analogues, (b) Synthesis of a macrocyclic diester alkaloid and elucidation of its absolute stereochemistry, (c) Structural studies, (d) Synthetic approaches to pyrrolizidine bases, and (e) Biosynthetic studies. (a) Synthesis of Macrocyclic Diester Alkaloid Analogues. Treatment of (+)-retronecine with a series of substituted glutaric anhydrides resulted in the formation of mixtures of 7- and. 9- monoesters of (+)-retronecine. Cyclisation of these mixtures by the Corey-Nicolaou method led to the formation of 13-substituted 1,2-didehydrocrotalanines. 1,2-Didehydrocrotalanine, 13,13-dimethyl, 13,13-diphenyl, (13R)- and (13S)-13-methyl, and 13,13-tetramethylene-1,2-didehydro-crotalanine were synthesised by this method. (b) Synthesis of a Macrocyclic Diester Alkaloid and Elucidation of its Absolute Stereochemistry. A mixture of the 7- and 9- monoesters of (+)-retronecine was formed from (+)-retronecine and dicrotalic anhydride. This mixture was cyclised by the Corey-Nicolaou method to yield the pyrrolizidine alkaloid dicrotaline and its C-13 epimer. The absolute configuration at C-13 of both these alkaloids was determined by correlation with mevalonolactone. (c) Structural Studies. The plant Crotalaria globifera was shown to contain two pyrrolizidine alkaloids. One was shown to be trichodesmine. The other is believed to be a new pyrrolizidine alkaloid and has been named globiferine. A structure has been proposed for this alkaloid. (d) Synthetic Approaches to Pyrrolizidine Bases. Synthetic approaches to the pyrrolizidine base crotanecine based on 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions and intramolecular cyclisations on iminium ions have been investigated. (e) Biosynthetic Studies. Evidence has been obtained for the incorporation of L-isoleucine and valine into the pyrrolizidine alkaloids trichodesmine and globiferine in C. globifera

The potential of a methodology for university-wide multimedia and educational technology evaluation

This paper reports on the methodology used for a review conducted at the University of Melbourne to determine the impact on teaching, learning and student study habits of multimedia and educational technology. Of particular methodological interest among the multiple components of the review was a quasi-controlled study of student attitudes towards and experiences of using educational technology. These were gathered using a targeted student sample comprising students known to have studied units in which well-established and highly peer rated IT products are deployed and a random student sample stratified to be representative of the typical student experience of the university. The paper reports the outcomes and effectiveness of this methodology

Studying and working : a national study of student finances and student engagement

A key determinant of the new relationship between students and universities in Australia is the changing nature of higher education funding arrangements and the shift towards &ldquo;user-pays&rdquo;. In 2007, the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) completed a commissioned national study, Australian University Student Finances 2006: Final Report of a National Survey of Students in Public Universities. Drawing on the project report, this article discusses selected findings relating to student expectations and engagement to present a worrying picture of financial duress and involvement in paid work and examines the possible effects on the quality of higher education. <br /

Planning for Emotional Labor and Secondary Traumatic Stress in Child Welfare Organizations

This analysis provides an emergent framework that emphasizes a neglected component of both direct practice with families and organizational development. Human emotions, both beneficial (positive emotional labor) and harmful (negative emotional labor), have received short shrift in leadership development, supervision, direct practice preparation and supports, and workforce stabilization, and professionalization. Significantly, a key indicator of negative emotional labor—secondary traumatic stress (STS)—often has been ignored and neglected, despite the fact that it may be endemic in the workforce. STS typically results from traumatic events in practice, but it also stems from workplace violence. Often undetected and untreated, STS is at least a hidden correlate and perhaps a probable cause of myriad problems such as questionable practice with families, life-work conflicts, undesirable workforce turnover, and a sub-optimal organizational climate. Special interventions are needed. At the same time, new organizational designs are needed to promote and reinforce positive emotional labor. Arguably, positive emotional labor and the positive organizational climates it facilitates are requisites for harmonious relations between jobs and personal lives, desirable workforce retention, and better outcomes for children and families. What’s more, specialized interventions for positive emotional labor constitute a key component in the prevention system for STS. A dual design for positive emotional labor and STS (and other negative emotional labor) prevention/intervention is provided herewith. Early detection and rapid response systems for STS, with social work leadership, receive special attention. Guidelines for new organizational designs for emotional labor in child welfare are offered in conclusion

Inferior Parietal Lobule Contributions to Visual Word Recognition

This study investigated how the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) contributes to visual word recognition. We used repetitive TMS to temporarily disrupt neural information processing in two anatomical fields of the IPL, namely, the angular (ANG) and supramarginal (SMG) gyri, and observed the effects on reading tasks that focused attention on either the meaning or sounds of written words. Relative to no TMS, stimulation of the left ANG selectively slowed responses in the meaning, but not sound, task, whereas stimulation of the left SMG affected responses in the sound, but not meaning, task. These results demonstrate that ANG and SMG doubly dissociate in their contributions to visual word recognition. We suggest that this functional division of labor may be understood in terms of the distinct patterns of cortico-cortical connectivity resulting in separable functional circuits