Abstract-Glaze Testing: Methods and Results

Floating blue is a glaze that appears to have a blue layer floating over an earthy undertone, giving it the illusion of depth. The base of the glaze floating blue was taken aside while its original colorants (rutile, red iron oxide, and cobalt carbonate) were added in different increments with other ones to get different hues. The main goal was to produce a green version of floating blue, that is, a glaze that has the same textural and visual effect as floating blue that instead has a green hue. This was tested by replacing cobalt carbonate with copper carbonate, while adding different amounts of the other two colorants, red iron oxide and rutile. The base of floating blue was taken and separated into groups, and the decision of what percentages of other colorants to add was made by using a triaxial blend method of charting out and keeping track of different colorants. These test glazes were then applied to test tiles made out of stoneware. The results did not meet the expectation, but did show that the goal might have been met if a higher percentage of red iron oxide and rutile had been used, and if I had a richer green colorant to work with. Further testing would be required to meet this goal, and my timeframe made this impossible for the time being

母語教學與培養學生的自我意識 = Self development & the use of Cantonese as the medium of instruction

上月底，香港特區政府的教育局公布教學語言政策最後修訂方案，宣布由明年九月開始不再劃分中文中學與英文中學，正式放棄實行了十年的母語教學政策。教育局局長孫明陽表示，學校日後選擇教學語言將有更大自由度，就像在餐廳用膳，「menu 有好多選擇，任你揀」。 這樣說不但低估了教學語言的重要，也小看了教育。教育（education）不可與職業訓練（vocational training）混為一談：職業訓練旨在改善學員的謀生能力，以及提升他們在市場上的競爭力和受聘價值（employability）；而教育則致力培養學生的自我意識，讓他們有足夠的自信和能力去「實現自己」和「發現世界」。這個教育理想古已有之，亦不分中外。古希臘的文學家以及後來的尼采都鼓勵世人 become who you are ，近乎中國人所說的「立己」。巴特農神廟中銘刻的那句箴言： know thyself ，則是中國人所說的「知己」。美國教育家杜威(John Dewey)認為，知識的累積和展示並非教育的目的，懂得怎樣運用這些知識來幫助思考才是，一如蔡元培所言，大學教育在於培養學生的獨立精神。 因而教學語言的選擇不可單單取決於語言本身的工具價值(instrumental value)或者市場價值(market value)，因為它涉及教育的功能和價值取向等重大課題

Calculating the Smarandache Numbers

The Smarandache Numbers are: 1,2,3,4,5,3,7,4,6,5,11,4,13,7,5,6,17,6,19,5,7, 11 ,23,4,1 0, 1, 3, 9,7,29,5,31,8,11,17,7,6,37, 19,13,5,41,7,43,11,6,23,47,6,14,10,17,13,53,9,11 ,7, 19,29,59,5,61,31,7,8,13,11,67,17, 23,7,71,6,73,37,10,19,11,13,79,6,9,41,83,7, ... and defined as the smallest integer m such that n divides mt Finding the exact value of a(n) is an open problem, and this paper presents an effective algorithm for detennining the value of a(n)

Theory and practice in the induction of five graduate nurses : a reflexive critique : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education at Massey University

This thesis investigates the induction of comprehensive nurses into a professional culture during their polytechnic nursing education and first year of hospital practice. It combines a critical theory approach with case study method. The ways in which social forces constrain individual and professional action are demonstrated through a critical reflexive analysis of the perceptions of five recently graduated comprehensive nurses. Each graduate was interviewed at regular intervals over a three month period. It is argued that previous studies of professional socialisation of nurses conducted within both empirico-analytic and interpretive epistemologies, have tended to objectify the day-to-day actions that students and new graduates take. While providing descriptions of the socialisation process, previous studies have not explored the reflexivity of understanding and action as well as the structural constraints of nursing education and practice. In this thesis critical social theory provides a framework in which to reveal, through empirical research, the constraining conditions of actions, and, through interpretive forms of enquiry, human perception and understanding. The reflections of the five participants in this study reveal that there are similar structural constraints in education as in hospital based nursing practice. There is, in effect, a continuity of structural constraints and this is contrasted with a disjunction between knowledge and beliefs gained through education and those apparently required in nursing practice. The graduates' perceptions are discussed and interpreted in terms of both the intended and the unintended learning states engendered by their actual experiences in the polytechnic and hospital settings. It is suggested that, at present, nursing education and practice are shaped by forms of technical control which arise from the dominant ideologies already embedded in the education and health care structures. In particular, nursing curricula are dominated by the technical linear paradigm of curri­culum design which contributes to a distorted separation of theory and practice and which obscures the process of reproduction of professional culture. It is argued that a more socially critical approach to the design of nursing curricula might begin to transform some of the structures which presently inhibit and constrain the professional choices and actions of student and graduate nurses

PROTEINS OF PAROTOID GLAND SECRETIONS FROM TOADS OF THE GENUS BUFO

Freeze-dried parotoid gland secretions from toads of the genus Bufo contained large proportions of protein (25-35% by weight). SDS-PAGE suggested that secretions from several species of Bufo contained mixtures of proteins in the relative molecular mass range of approximately 12 - 200 kDa, which exhibited markedly different banding patterns from species to species. These proteins were presumably not discovered before because the previous extraction procedures used with these secretions were designed to examine low molecular mass compounds and would denature the proteins. SDS-PAGE of secretions from B. mauritanicus and B. calamita are shown here. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of one of the bands (approx. 58 kDa) of B. mauritanicus was found to be LPIPAFPGLDHGF and of a B. calamita band (30.5 kDa) was VQVFGLQKEA. No significant similarities to these two sequences and to three separate but partial N-terminal sequences obtained from these species were found in genetic databases

The Effects of Disability Insurance: Evidence from Social Security's Disabled-Widow Program

This study measures the effect of disability insurance on labor supply and health insurance coverage. The effect is identified by a policy in 1990 that increased the generosity of Social Security's disabled-widow program. Using data from the Current Population Survey, the results suggest that, in this context, disability benefits led to a one-to-one decline in labor force participation, employment, and private insurance coverage. The results imply that the demand for disability benefits may not reflect a latent demand for public health insurance

Health Information and Social Security Entitlements

This study examines whether new health information, obtained through medical screening, affects entitlements to Social Security benefits. Random assignment of information is derived from a unique feature of the Continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. To examine the effect of information on entitlements, the survey data are matched to administrative data from the Social Security Administration. The results suggest that new health information leads to delayed entitlements, particularly among workers near the early retirement age

Italian fascism and the political mobilisation of working-class women 1937-43

AbstractThe Sezione Operaie e Lavoranti a Domicilio dei Fasci Femminili (Section of the Fascist Women's Groups for Female Workers and Outworkers) is the only one of the three Italian Fascist Party organisations for adult women that has never been studied. Founded in 1937 and recruiting factory workers, outworkers and domestic servants, it achieved a membership of almost a million by the fall of the regime in 1943. A top-down organisation, run by the largely middle-class Fasci Femminili, it offered its membership a mix of social, educational and professional opportunities. This article explores its activities, its organisational structure, the messages it attempted to convey to its membership and the reasons why such large numbers of women joined.</jats:p