Measuring What’s Valued Or Valuing What’s Measured? Knowledge Production and the Research Assessment Exercise

Power is everywhere. But what is it and how does it infuse personal and institutional relationships in higher education? Power, Knowledge and the Academy: The Institutional is Political takes a close-up and critical look at both the elusive and blatant workings and consequences of power in a range of everyday sites in universities. Authors work with multi-layered conceptions of power to disturb the idea of the academy as a haven of detached reason and instead reveal the ways in which power shapes personal and institutional relationships, the production of knowledge and the construction of academic careers. Chapters focus on, among other areas, student-supervisor relationships, personal PhD journeys, power in research teams, networking, the Research Assessment Exercise in the UK, and the power to construct knowledge in literature reviews. This chapter does not address which mechanism of research assessment provides a more truthful account of the value of a set of ‘research outputs’. Instead, it focuses on the power of any such mechanism to reinforce particular values and to inscribe hierarchies regarding knowledge. Regardless of what replaces it, the UK's RAE will have been productive, not just reflective of academic values. Some of the negative consequences of the RAE for UK academic life are considered, focusing on the operation of power through processes of knowledge production

Phosphorus Immobilization in Poultry Litter and Litter-amended soils with Aluminum, Calcium and Iron amendments

Arkansas produces approximately one billion broilers each year. Phosphorous (P) runoff from fields receiving poultry litter is believed to be one of the primary factors affecting water quality in Northwest Arkansas. Poultry litter contains approximately 20 g P kg-1, of which about 2 g P kg-1 is water soluble. Soils that have received repeated heavy applications of litter may have water soluble P contents of as high as 10 mg P Kg-1 soil. The objective of this study was to determine if soluble P levels could be reduced in poultry litter and litter-amended soils with Al,Ca, and/or Fe amendments. Poultry litter was amended with alum, sodium aluminate, quick lime, slaked lime, calcitic limestone, dolomitic limestone, gypsum, ferrous chloride, ferric chloride, ferrous sulfate and ferric sulfate, and incubated in the dark at 25°C for one week. Three soils which had been excessively fertilized with poultry litter were amended with alum, ferrous sulfate, calcitic limestone, gypsum and slaked lime and incubated for 4 weeks at 25 °C. In the litter studies, the Ca treatments were tested with and without CaF2 additions in an attempt to precipitate fluorapatite. At the end of the incubation period, the litter and soils were extracted with deionized water and soluble reactive P (SRP) was determined. SRP levels in the poultry litter were reduced from over 2,000 mg P kg-1 litter to less than 1 mg P kg-1 litter with the addition of alum, quick lime, slaked lime, ferrous chloride, ferric chloride, ferrous sulfate and ferric sulfate under favorable pH conditions. S.RP levels in the soils were reduced from approximately 5 mg P Kg-1 soil to less than 0.05 mg P Kg-1 soil with the addition of alum and ferrous sulfate under favorable pH conditions. Gypsum and sodium aluminate reduced SRP levels in litter by 50 to 60 percent while calcitic and dolomitic limestone were even less effective. In soils, the Ca amendments were less effective than the Al and Fe amendments, although slaked lime was effective at high pH. The results of these studies suggest that treating litter and excessively fertilized soils with some of these compounds, particularly alum, could significantly reduce the amount of SRP in runoff from littered pastures. Therefore, chemical additions to reduce SRP in litter and soil may be a best management practice in situations where eutrophication of adjacent water bodies due to P runoff has been identified. Preliminary calculations indicate that this .p ractice may be economically feasible. However, more research is needed to determine any beneficial and/or detrimental aspects of this practice

A Low Noise Receiver for Submillimeter Astronomy

A broadband, low noise heterodyne receiver, suitable for astronomical use, has been built using a Pb alloy superconducting tunnel junction (SIS). The RF coupling is quasioptical via a bowtie antenna on a quartz lens and is accomplished without any tuning elements. In its preliminary version the double sideband receiver noise temperature rises from 205 K at 116 GHz to 815 K at 466 GHz. This is the most sensitive broadband receiver yet reported for sub-mm wavelengths. Its multi-octave sensitivity and low local oscillator power requirements make this receiver ideal for remote ground observatories or space-borne telescopes such as NASA's Large Deployable Reflector. A version of this receiver is now being built for NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory

On the convergence of Regge calculus to general relativity

Motivated by a recent study casting doubt on the correspondence between Regge calculus and general relativity in the continuum limit, we explore a mechanism by which the simplicial solutions can converge whilst the residual of the Regge equations evaluated on the continuum solutions does not. By directly constructing simplicial solutions for the Kasner cosmology we show that the oscillatory behaviour of the discrepancy between the Einstein and Regge solutions reconciles the apparent conflict between the results of Brewin and those of previous studies. We conclude that solutions of Regge calculus are, in general, expected to be second order accurate approximations to the corresponding continuum solutions.Comment: Updated to match published version. Details of numerical calculations added, several sections rewritten. 9 pages, 4 EPS figure

Motivations, expectations and experiences of Australian rural and regional planners

Despite playing an extremely important role in shaping communities, the role and contribution of planners is not widely understood or acknowledged. At the same time, there is a shortage of planners in Australia, especially in non-urban areas. Thus, though an online survey of 185 rural and regional planners, this research explores their motivations, expectations and experiences. Most enjoyed and felt confident in their role, explaining that they valued the relaxed family orientated rural lifestyle and the varied nature of the planning work. Although they sometimes felt isolated, the non-urban location provided quicker progression to senior roles, the ability to engage directly with the community and to see the consequences of their decisions. Only half felt their education had prepared them well for their role, citing gaps in terms of computerised modelling, team leadership and conflict resolution skills. Their feedback centred on providing a more practical course, focussing more on regional planning, and encouraging urban and rural experience placements. As the first study to quantifiably explore rural and regional Australian planners perceptions of their role and challenges, the findings illustrate current experiences, key planning challenges, perceived educational gaps and future priorities.Rural and regional planners; expectations; experiences; Australia