4,244 research outputs found
Focus group methodology in a life course approach – individual accounts within a peer cohort group
This paper explores the use of focus group methodology as part of a life course approach building on Julia Brannen’s pioneering work in these two areas. Much life course research uses individual interviews, including biographical interview techniques. It is less usual to find focus groups used within the life course perspective. This paper draws on a PhD study of young British and Asian adults’ experiences of the transition from university to full-time employment, using focus groups as part of a multi-method approach, within a life course perspective. The study drew explicitly on Julia Brannen’s approach to life course transitions. Three focus group excerpts are presented and discussed to illustrate how focus group data can further the understanding of the ways in which a group of peers discuss the transition to work and especially future work–life balance. We show how focus group discussions about individual choice for future work and ‘life’ or ‘lifestyle’ can highlight shared assumptions of this birth cohort group as well as areas of disagreement and contention, rooted in both individual experiences and societal and socio-cultural expectations. We relate this to Julia Brannen’s conceptualisation of the three different modalities which young people draw on to talk about the future
Heavy-Baryon Spectroscopy from Lattice QCD
We use a four-dimensional lattice calculation of the full-QCD (quantum
chromodynamics, the non-abliean gauge theory of the strong interactions of
quarks and gluons) path integrals needed to determine the masses of the charmed
and bottom baryons. In the charm sector, our results are in good agreement with
experiment within our systematics, except for the spin-1/2 , for
which we found the isospin-averaged mass to be to be
MeV. We predict the mass of the (isospin-averaged)
spin-1/2 to be {MeV}. In the bottom
sector, our results are also in agreement with experimental observations and
other lattice calculations within our statistical and systematic errors. In
particular, we find the mass of the to be consistent with the recent
CDF measurement. We also predict the mass for the as yet unobserved
to be 5955(27) MeV.Comment: Invited talk at Conference of Computational Physics 2009. 3 page
Bottom baryons from a dynamical lattice QCD simulation
Bottom baryon masses are calculated based on a 2+1 flavor dynamical lattice
QCD simulation. The gauge field configurations were computed by the CP-PACS and
JLQCD collaborations using an improved clover action. The bottom quark is
described using lattice NRQCD. Results are presented for single and double-b
baryons at one lattice spacing. Comparison with experimental values is
discussed.Comment: 8 pages, changes to references,revised calculation, new experimental
results discussed, consistent with published versio
Air-Fuel Ratio Control of Spark Ignition Engines With Unknown System Dynamics Estimator: Theory and Experiments
This brief addresses the emission reduction of spark ignition engines by proposing a new control to regulate the air-fuel ratio (AFR) around the ideal value. After revisiting the engine dynamics, the AFR regulation is represented as a tracking control of the injected fuel amount. This allows to take the fuel film dynamics into consideration and simplify the control design. The lumped unknown engine dynamics in the new formulation are online estimated by suggesting a new effective unknown system dynamics estimator. The estimated variable can be superimposed on a commercially configured, well-calibrated gain scheduling like proportional-integral-differential (PID) control to achieve a better AFR response. The salient feature of this proposed control scheme lies in its simplicity and the small number of required measurements, that is, only the air mass flow rate, the pressure and temperature in the intake manifold, and the measured AFR value are used. Practical experiments on a Tata Motors Limited two-cylinder gasoline engine are carried out under a realistic driving cycle. The comparative results show that the proposed control can achieve an improved AFR control response and reduced emissions
Testing for Network and Spatial Autocorrelation
Testing for dependence has been a well-established component of spatial
statistical analyses for decades. In particular, several popular test
statistics have desirable properties for testing for the presence of spatial
autocorrelation in continuous variables. In this paper we propose two
contributions to the literature on tests for autocorrelation. First, we propose
a new test for autocorrelation in categorical variables. While some methods
currently exist for assessing spatial autocorrelation in categorical variables,
the most popular method is unwieldy, somewhat ad hoc, and fails to provide
grounds for a single omnibus test. Second, we discuss the importance of testing
for autocorrelation in data sampled from the nodes of a network, motivated by
social network applications. We demonstrate that our proposed statistic for
categorical variables can both be used in the spatial and network setting
Focus group methodology in a life course approach – individual accounts within a peer cohort group
This paper explores the use of focus group methodology as part of a life course approach building on Julia Brannen’s pioneering work in these two areas. Much life course research uses individual interviews, including biographical interview techniques. It is less usual to find focus groups used within the life course perspective.
This paper draws on a PhD study of young British and Asian adults’ experiences of the transition from university to full-time employment, using focus groups as part of a multi-method approach, within a life course perspective. The study drew explicitly on Julia Brannen’s approach to life course transitions. Three focus group excerpts are presented and discussed to illustrate how focus group data can further the understanding of the ways in which a group of peers discuss the transition to work and especially future work–life balance. We show how focus group discussions about individual choice for future work and ‘life’ or ‘lifestyle’ can highlight shared assumptions of this birth cohort group as well as areas of disagreement and contention, rooted in both individual experiences and societal and socio-cultural expectations. We relate this to Julia Brannen’s conceptualisation of
the three different modalities which young people draw on to talk about the future
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