Experiences of post-qualifying study in social work

This article is based on a research project to explore the experiences of past and current candidates for post-qualifying awards in social work in England. Also included in the study are the Leads of the post-qualifying consortia in England. The study used questionnaire survey and nominal group techniques to gather data, which were coded and categorised into themes. The main findings relate to the perceived purposes of post-qualifying study, motivations for undertaking post-qualifying study, the factors that sustain and hinder study, the advice that those who have or who are experiencing post-qualifying study would give to those about to start and future plans and hopes in this area.Post-qualifying study is generally valued, especially in relation to the opportunities it provides for professional development. The support of a mentor who has direct experience of the candidate's programme is highly prized, as are clear and consistent guidance from the programme and meaningful study time and workload relief from employers. There are also frustrations for some candidates who do not feel that their post-qualifying study has stretched them beyond qualifying standards or who experience the teaching as divorced from the realities of daily practice. The appetite for a wider choice of post-qualifying modules suggests that providers of post-qualifying study will need to collaborate within and across regions in order to achieve a critical mass of candidates for more specialist or focused learning. The study suggests a need for further research to understand the impact of post-qualifying study on candidates' social work practice.The article concludes with two checklists of questions, one for individual candidates and another for agencies and programmes. These questions arise from the findings in the research

Flow properties of suspensions rich in solids

Mathematical evaluation of flow properties of fluids carrying high concentrations of solids in suspension relates suspension viscosity to physical properties of the solids and liquids, and provides a means for predicting flow behavior. A technique for calculating a suspensions flow rates is applicable to the design of pipelines

Foolproof quick-release locking pin

Locking pin can be withdrawn only when stress on the joint is negligible. Pin consists of a forward-pointing sleeve, a spring-loaded sliding handle, and a sliding plunger. Plunger movement controls installation and withdrawal of pin

Effects of CP Violation from Neutral Heavy Fermions on Neutrino Oscillations, and the LSND/MiniBooNE Anomalies

Neutrinos may mix with ultralight fermions, which gives flavor oscillations, and with heavier fermions, which yields short distance flavor change. I consider the case where both effects are present. I show that in the limit where a single oscillation length is experimentally accessible, the effects of heavier fermions on neutrino oscillations can generically be accounted for by a simple formula containing four parameters, including observable CP violation. I consider the anomalous LSND and MiniBooNE results, and show that these can be fit in a model with CP violation and two additional sterile neutrinos, one in the mass range between 0.1 and 20 eV, and the other with mass between 33 eV and 40 GeV. I also show that this model can avoid conflict with constraints from existing null short baseline experimental results.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Iterated function systems, representations, and Hilbert space

This paper studies a general class of Iterated Function Systems (IFS). No contractivity assumptions are made, other than the existence of some compact attractor. The possibility of escape to infinity is considered. Our present approach is based on Hilbert space, and the theory of representations of the Cuntz algebras O_n, n=2,3,.... While the more traditional approaches to IFS's start with some equilibrium measure, ours doesn't. Rather, we construct a Hilbert space directly from a given IFS; and our construction uses instead families of measures. Starting with a fixed IFS S_n, with n branches, we prove existence of an associated representation of O_n, and we show that the representation is universal in a certain sense. We further prove a theorem about a direct correspondence between a given system S_n, and an associated sub-representation of the universal representation of O_n.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures containing 7 EPS graphics; LaTeX2e ("elsart" document class); v2 reflects change in Comments onl

Front Propagation in the Pearling Instability of Tubular Vesicles

Recently Bar-Ziv and Moses discovered a dynamical shape transformation induced in cylindrical lipid bilayer vesicles by the action of laser tweezers. We develop a hydrodynamic theory of fluid bilayers in interaction with the surrounding water and argue that the effect of the laser is to induce a sudden tension in the membrane. We refine our previous analysis to account for the fact that the shape transformation is not uniform but propagates outward from the laser trap. Applying the marginal stability criterion to this situation gives us an improved prediction for the selected initial wavelength and a new prediction for the propagation velocity, both in rough agreement with the experimental values. For example, a tubule of initial radius 0.7\micron\ has a predicted initial sinusoidal perturbation in its diameter with wavelength 5.5\micron, as observed. The perturbation propagates as a front with the qualitatively correct front velocity a bit less than 100\micron/sec. In particular we show why this velocity is initially constant, as observed, and so much smaller than the natural scale set by the tension. We also predict that the front velocity should increase linearly with laser power. Finally we introduce an approximate hydrodynamic model applicable to the fully nonlinear regime. This model exhibits propagating fronts as well as fully-developed ``pearled" vesicles similar to those seen in the experiments.Comment: 42 pages, 6 eps figures included with text in uuencoded file, ps file available from ftp://dept.physics.upenn.edu/pub/Nelson/pearl_propagation.ps submitted to Journal de Physiqu

The Quantum Modular Group in (2+1)-Dimensional Gravity

The role of the modular group in the holonomy representation of (2+1)-dimensional quantum gravity is studied. This representation can be viewed as a "Heisenberg picture", and for simple topologies, the transformation to the ADM "Schr{\"o}dinger picture" may be found. For spacetimes with the spatial topology of a torus, this transformation and an explicit operator representation of the mapping class group are constructed. It is shown that the quantum modular group splits the holonomy representation Hilbert space into physically equivalent orthogonal ``fundamental regions'' that are interchanged by modular transformations.Comment: 23 pages, LaTeX, no figures; minor changes and clarifications in response to referee (basic argument and conclusions unaffected

Neutrino Oscillations as a Probe of Dark Energy

We consider a class of theories in which neutrino masses depend significantly on environment, as a result of interactions with the dark sector. Such theories of mass varying neutrinos (MaVaNs) were recently introduced to explain the origin of the cosmological dark energy density and why its magnitude is apparently coincidental with that of neutrino mass splittings. In this Letter we argue that in such theories neutrinos can exhibit different masses in matter and in vacuum, dramatically affecting neutrino oscillations. Both long and short baseline experiments are essential to test for these interactions. As an example of modifications to the standard picture, we consider simple models which may simultaneously account for the LSND anomaly, KamLAND, K2K and studies of solar and atmospheric neutrinos, while providing motivation to continue to search for neutrino oscillations in short baseline experiments such as BooNE.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, refs added, additional data considered, minor change in conclusions about LSN

Survey of EPA facilities for solar thermal energy applications

A study was done to assess the feasibility of applying solar thermal energy systems to EPA facilities. A survey was conducted to determine those EPA facilities where solar energy could best be used. These systems were optimized for each specific application and the system/facility combinations were ranked on the basis of greatest cost effectiveness

Comparative Quantizations of (2+1)-Dimensional Gravity

We compare three approaches to the quantization of (2+1)-dimensional gravity with a negative cosmological constant: reduced phase space quantization with the York time slicing, quantization of the algebra of holonomies, and quantization of the space of classical solutions. The relationships among these quantum theories allow us to define and interpret time-dependent operators in the ``frozen time'' holonomy formulation.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX, no figure