4,462 research outputs found
Nae too bad: a survey of job satisfaction, staff morale and qualifications in residential child care in Scotland
The report of the National Childrenâs Bureau study of staff morale, qualifications and retention in England (Mainey, 2003) rightly highlighted a number of crucial issues facing providers of residential child care. Entitled Better Than You Think the key finding was that the rates of morale and job satisfaction were not low despite the adverse environment in which residential care operates. Residential care in the modern world is intended to be mainly a temporary placement for some of the most demanding young people who require out-of-home care. However, as with foster care, significant numbers of young people are spending years in out-of-home care and many residential services have to accommodate a wide variety of needs within a single unit. This general remit is challenging enough but the sector also continues to struggle with the aftermath of a number of high profile public inquiries which have identified instances of abuse of children and young people in residential care (Kent, 1997; Utting, 1997; Waterhouse, 2000)
On-line digital computer control of the NERVA nuclear rocket engine
The problem of on-line digital computer control of the NERVA nuclear rocket engine is considered. Proposed is a method of State Dependent State Variable Feedback (SDSVF) as a practical approach to the control of NERVA and other complex nonlinear and/or time-varying systems. The difficulties inherent in other design methods are avoided by defining the optimal closed loop system in terms of a desired transfer function, rather than a performance index to maximize or minimize
Formation of molecular oxygen in ultracold O + OH reaction
We discuss the formation of molecular oxygen in ultracold collisions between
hydroxyl radicals and atomic oxygen. A time-independent quantum formalism based
on hyperspherical coordinates is employed for the calculations. Elastic,
inelastic and reactive cross sections as well as the vibrational and rotational
populations of the product O2 molecules are reported. A J-shifting
approximation is used to compute the rate coefficients. At temperatures T = 10
- 100 mK for which the OH molecules have been cooled and trapped
experimentally, the elastic and reactive rate coefficients are of comparable
magnitude, while at colder temperatures, T < 1 mK, the formation of molecular
oxygen becomes the dominant pathway. The validity of a classical capture model
to describe cold collisions of OH and O is also discussed. While very good
agreement is found between classical and quantum results at T=0.3 K, at higher
temperatures, the quantum calculations predict a larger rate coefficient than
the classical model, in agreement with experimental data for the O + OH
reaction. The zero-temperature limiting value of the rate coefficient is
predicted to be about 6.10^{-12} cm^3 molecule^{-1} s^{-1}, a value comparable
to that of barrierless alkali-metal atom - dimer systems and about a factor of
five larger than that of the tunneling dominated F + H2 reaction.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
Hypnosis for acute procedural pain: a critical review
Clinical evidence for the effectiveness of hypnosis in the treatment of acute procedural pain was critically evaluated based on reports from randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs). Results from the 29 RCTs meeting inclusion criteria suggest that hypnosis decreases pain compared to standard care and attention control groups and that it is at least as effective as comparable adjunct psychological or behavioral therapies. In addition, applying hypnosis in multiple sessions prior to the day of the procedure produced the highest percentage of significant results. Hypnosis was most effective in minor surgical procedures. However, interpretations are limited by considerable risk of bias. Further studies using minimally effective control conditions and systematic control of intervention dose and timing are required to strengthen conclusions
Selective herbicide strategies for use in Australian desmanthus seed crops
Grass and broad-leaved weeds can reduce both yields and product marketability of desmanthus (Desmanthus virgatus) seed crops, even when cultural control strategies are used. Selective herbicides might economically control these weeds, but, prior to this study, the few herbicides tolerated by desmanthus did not control key weed contaminants of desmanthus seed crops. In this study, the tolerance of desmanthus cv. Marc to 55 herbicides used for selective weed control in other leguminous crops was assessed in 1 pot trial and 3 Queensland field trials. One field trial assessed the tolerance of desmanthus seedlings to combinations of the most promising pre-emergent and post emergent herbicides. The pre-emergent herbicides, imazaquin, imazethapyr, pendimethalin, oryzalin and trifluralin, gave useful weed control with very little crop damage. The post-emergent herbicides, haloxyfop, clethodim, propyzamide, carbetamide and dalapon, were safe for controlling grass weeds in desmanthus. Selective post-emergence control of broad-leaved weeds was achieved using bentazone, bromoxynil and imazethapyr. One trial investigated salvaging second-year desmanthus crops from mature perennial weeds, and atrazine, terbacil and hexazinone showed some potential in this role.
Overall, our results show that desmanthus tolerates herbicides which collectively control a wide range of weeds encountered in Queensland. These, in combination with cultural weed control strategies, should control most weeds in desmanthus seed crops
Pearl Kendrick, Grace Eldering, and the Pertussis Vaccine
State health department laboratories are crucial to the development of public health research
- âŠ