A feminist action research inquiry into the hermeneutical injustice of ‘being silenced’ in everyday conversational life

This thesis is an exploration of women’s experiences of being ‘silenced’ in everyday organisational life. Through feminist action research, drawing upon feminist theory and philosophy, and Foucault’s work on technologies and language of power (Foucault, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1991) the complexities of how ‘social silencing’ happens are exposed. Using first-person inquiry and co-operative inquiry methods, the women involved in this research revealed the context, dynamics, and impact of their experience of social silencing. This contributes to our understanding of interactive social experiences and also to our understanding of social experience more generally. The impact, implications, and also possibilities for finding and strengthening voice to overcome social silencing are explored and explained. Social experiences relating to power are often structurally prejudiced against women—or those with the least amount of power—such that dominant collective interpretations of experience mask a void where the name of a distinctive social experience should be. This is due to unequal participation within groups in achieving a proper interpretation. Social silencing is such an experience. This thesis argues that women who are silenced are often put at an acute cognitive disadvantage and are unable to dissent from distorted understandings of their social experiences. In essence they are ‘wronged’ by the injustice of having some significant area of their social experience obscured, unnoticed, and unheard. This is because when a particular experience is not named, not defined, or not integrated in everyday discourse, the ability to interpret the experience and any defining language is hindered. Thus, it may not possible to discuss, report, resist, or change it. This research draws on experiences of family life in the home, teams and leaders at work, and the corporate boardroom. The findings hold important implications and relevance for leadership and organisational development, especially for practitioners working to improve quality of conversation and relationships, team effectiveness, and cultural change in organisations. This thesis will explain the experience of social silencing as a hermeneutic injustice. A framework is offered as a means of examining personal experience and enabling those silenced to develop a critical understanding of their experience and discover ways of strengthening their voice. A range of ‘practices’ are also identified as strategies for overcoming feminine issues of identity, power and voice. These provide potential for disrupting the technologies of power that are at play and overcoming social silencing. This thesis contributes to the identification and empowerment of those silenced. It offers practical strategies for enabling wise and confident decision-making in silencing situations. It will also facilitate critique of, and intervention in, the cultural, social and historical processes of everyday organisational life. ‘It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for acting.’ – Simone de Beauvoir (1948, p.9)

Finite disturbance effect on the stability of a laminar incompressible wake behind a flat plate

An integral method is used to investigate the interaction between a two-dimensional, single frequency finite amplitude disturbance in a laminar, incompressible wake behind a flat plate at zero incidence. The mean flow is assumed to be a non-parallel flow characterized by a few shape parameters. Distribution of the fluctuation across the wake is obtained as functions of those mean flow parameters by solving the inviscid Rayleigh equation using the local mean flow. The variations of the fluctuation amplitude and of the shape parameters for the mean flow are then obtained by solving a set of ordinary differential equations derived from the momentum and energy integral equations. The interaction between the mean flow and the fluctuation through Reynolds stresses plays an important role in the present formulation, and the theoretical results show good agreement with the measurements of Sato & Kuriki (1961)

Analysis of air quality management with emphasis on transportation sources

The current environment and practices of air quality management were examined for three regions: Denver, Phoenix, and the South Coast Air Basin of California. These regions were chosen because the majority of their air pollution emissions are related to mobile sources. The impact of auto exhaust on the air quality management process is characterized and assessed. An examination of the uncertainties in air pollutant measurements, emission inventories, meteorological parameters, atmospheric chemistry, and air quality simulation models is performed. The implications of these uncertainties to current air quality management practices is discussed. A set of corrective actions are recommended to reduce these uncertainties

Temperature dependence of the average electron-hole pair creation energy in Al0.8Ga0.2As

The temperature dependence of the average energy consumed in the creation of an electron-hole pair in the wide bandgap compound semiconductor Al 0.8Ga0.2As is reported following X-ray measurements made using an Al0.8Ga0.2As photodiode diode coupled to a low-noise charge-sensitive preamplifier operating in spectroscopic photon counting mode. The temperature dependence is reported over the range of 261 K-342 K and is found to be best represented by the equation ε AlGaAs 7.327-0.0077 T, where εAlGaAs is the average electron-hole pair creation energy in eV and T is the temperature in K. © 2013 © 2013 Author(s)

DichroMatch: a website for similarity searching of circular dichroism spectra

Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy is a widely used method for examining the structure, folding and conformational changes of proteins. A new online CD analysis server (DichroMatch) has been developed for identifying proteins with similar spectral characteristics by detecting possible structurally and functionally related proteins and homologues. DichroMatch includes six different methods for determining the spectral nearest neighbours to a query protein spectrum and provides metrics of how similar these spectra are and, if corresponding crystal structures are available for the closest matched proteins, information on their secondary structures and fold classifications. By default, DichroMatch uses all the entries in the Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank (PCDDB) for its comparison set, providing the broadest range of publicly available protein spectra to match with the unknown protein. Alternatively, users can download or create their own specialized data sets, thereby enabling comparisons between the structures of related proteins such as wild-type versus mutants or homologues or a series of spectra of the same protein under different conditions. The DichroMatch server is freely available at http://dichromatch.cryst.bbk.ac.uk

Relationship of blood pressure, antihypertensive therapy, and outcome in ischemic stroke treated with intravenous thrombolysis: retrospective analysis from Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-International Stroke Thrombolysis Register (SITS-ISTR)

<p><b>Background and Purpose:</b> The optimal management of blood pressure (BP) in acute stroke remains unclear. For ischemic stroke treated with intravenous thrombolysis, current guidelines suggest pharmacological intervention if systolic BP exceeds 180 mm Hg. We determined retrospectively the association of BP and antihypertensive therapy with clinical outcomes after stroke thrombolysis.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> The SITS thrombolysis register prospectively recorded 11 080 treatments from 2002 to 2006. BP values were recorded at baseline, 2 hours, and 24 hours after thrombolysis. Outcomes were symptomatic (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score deterioration ≥4) intracerebral hemorrhage Type 2, mortality, and independence at (modified Rankin Score 0 to 2) 3 months. Patients were categorized by history of hypertension and antihypertensive therapy within 7 days after thrombolysis: Group 1, hypertensive treated with antihypertensives (n=5612); Group 2, hypertensive withholding antihypertensives (n=1573); Group 3, without history of hypertension treated with antihypertensives (n=995); and Group 4, without history of hypertension not treated with antihypertensives (n=2632). For 268 (2.4%) patients, these data were missing. Average systolic BP 2 to 24 hours after thrombolysis was categorized by 10-mm Hg intervals with 100 to 140 used as a reference.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> In multivariable analysis, high systolic BP 2 to 24 hours after thrombolysis as a continuous variable was associated with worse outcome (P<0.001) and as a categorical variable had a linear association with symptomatic hemorrhage and a U-shaped association with mortality and independence with systolic BP 141 to 150 mm Hg associated with most favorable outcomes. OR (95% CI) from multivariable analysis showed no difference in symptomatic hemorrhage (1.09 [0.83 to 1.51]; P=0.58) and independence (1.03 [0.93 to 1.10]; P=0.80) but lower mortality (0.82 [0.73 to 0.92]; P=0.0007) for Group 1 compared with Group 4. Group 2 had a higher symptomatic hemorrhage (1.86 [1.34 to 2.68]; P=0.0004) and mortality (1.62 [1.41 to 1.85]; P<0.0001) and lower independence (0.89 [0.80 to 0.99]; P=0.04) compared with Group 4. Group 3 had similar results as Group 1.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> There is a strong association of high systolic BP after thrombolysis with poor outcome. Withholding antihypertensive therapy up to 7 days in patients with a history of hypertension was associated with worse outcome, whereas initiation of antihypertensive therapy in newly recognized moderate hypertension was associated with a favorable outcome.</p&gt

A novel method of increasing the range of 1.65µm OTDR using a Q-switched erbium fibre laser

This paper demonstrates a novel method of increasing the range of a 1.65µm optical time domain reflectometer system (OTDR). OTDR measurements at 1.65µm are more sensitive to fibre macro and micro bending losses than those produced at wavelengths 1.3 and 1.55µm. This enables problems to be identified in their early stages reducing the risk of total system failure. However, the dynamic range of current 1.65µm OTDR systems

Assessing the performance of protective winter covers for outdoor marble statuary: pilot investigation

Outdoor statuary in gardens and parks in temperate climates has a tradition of being covered during the winter, to protect against external conditions. There has been little scientific study of the environmental protection that different types of covers provide. This paper examines environmental conditions provided by a range of covers used to protect marble statuary at three sites in the UK. The protection required depends upon the condition of the marble. Although statues closely wrapped and with a layer of insulation provide good protection, this needs to be considered against the potential physical damage of close wrapping a fragile deteriorated surface

Some properties of lithium chloride in mixed solvents

The effect of lithium chloride on the surface tension of a series of alcohol-water mixtures has been determined. By means of the method outlined information has been obtained regarding the surface layer. Approximate values of π alcohol / π water have been obtained