Evaluation study of the IHM project on the evaluation of the accreditation of health and social care managers: a pilot.

This evaluation report was commissioned by the Institute of Healthcare Management (IHM) in March 2009 and is based on the accredited manager pilot project that started in May 2009. The IHM pilot project was funded by the Department of Health (Estates). The pilot project aimed to offer managers for the health and social care sectors the opportunity to gain accredited manager status based upon their previous performance and achievements towards nine core manager behaviours1. The pilot project was intended to develop and implement materials that would support the managers in completion of a portfolio of achievement to demonstrate competence in the behaviours (Sugden, 2009). The evaluation study of the pilot project has aimed to include the experiences of the main stakeholders, namely; the candidates (Healthcare and Social), the pilot project team, a representative from the Department of Health (Estates), representing the commissioning body for the project, and the assessors of the candidate portfolios and viva voce examinations. The candidates were drawn mainly from the field of estates and facilities managers within the healthcare sector, with two participants for the social care sector. The project was prompted by the recognition that many managers in the health and social care sector may encounter difficulties in finding the time to attend conventionally delivered training and development programmes. There was also recognition of the need for experienced managers to be able to demonstrate their competence towards good practice behaviours rather than have to undertake taught delivery

Power, participation and partnership: methodological reflection on researching professional doctorate candidates' experiences of researching in the workplace

This study aimed to explore the candidate experience in order to understand more deeply aspects of the development in work based research. Delphi technique was chosen as an approach in order to capture a range of experience and data, to inform how we may best support candidates on practice based doctorates. Many such programmes include a stakeholder learning agreement between the candidate, the university and the employer organisation with the common aim to bring about transformational and sustainable change. Our research to date indicates a disparity within the agreement in the level of stakeholder participation. Where the organisation stakeholder is not fully engaged and involved in supporting the research, there is a potential threat to the effectiveness of any change outcome. Current practice based doctoral research participants were invited to relate to a range of temporal themes in their research project cycle, for example: setting up the project; implementing the project; changes/ contingency planning within the project; project completion and post completion. Of particular interest in relation to the above was the availability of resources and how they were used within the project life cycle. In this respect, resources are deemed to include, human, material, time, personal and organisational culture influence. The allocation, manipulation and distribution of such resources can be understood in terms of power relationships. The paper presents our experience and reflections from two iterative Delphi cycles and proposes a final stage of greater integration with existing academic resources within the professional doctorate programme. The study has enabled the researchers to gain a new understanding of how power may operate in a work based research project through the experience of undertaking the Delphi approach. Furthermore, by thinking about affordances of the project life cycle, it may help us to better understand needs and strategy for the curriculum in order to more effectively support candidates through their transformational learning experience. The consequences of such change might have implications for participation and power distribution within the management and leadership of doctoral work base research projects

The light chain of tetanus toxin inhibits calcium-dependent vasopressin release from permeabilized nerve endings

The effects of tetanus toxin and its light and heavy chain subunits on vasopressin release were investigated in digitonin-permeabilized neurosecretory nerve terminals isolated from the neural lobe of the rat pituitary gland. Exocytosis was induced by challenging the permeabilized nerve endings with micromolar calcium concentrations. Tetanus toxin inhibited vasopressin release only in the presence of the reducing agent dithiothreitol. This effect was irreversible. The purified light chain of tetanus toxin strongly inhibited exocytosis in a dose-dependent manner with half-maximal effect at c. 10 nM. The action of the light chain was observed after only 2.5 min of preincubation. Separated heavy chain subunit had no effect on hormone secretion. Inhibition of vasopressin release could be prevented by preincubating the light chain of tetanus toxin with an immune serum against tetanus toxin. The data clearly demonstrate that in mammalian neurosecretory nerve endings tetanus toxin acts at a step downstream from the activation by Ca2+ of the exocytotic machinery and that the functional domain of this toxin is confined to its light chain

Organisational involvement in supporting the learned professional.

This paper describes the Doctorate in Professional Studies (DProf) as developed at a UK University and specifically focuses on the specialist doctoral pathways in Health, Environment and Risk in the School of Health and Social Sciences. The paper considers the role of the major stakeholders; Doctoral candidate, Employer Organisation hosting the research, and the University. Since the inception of the DProf there has been recognition of the need for the employer organisation to be an active partner in the research by supporting it through being receptive to the emerging research findings. There is also recognition of the differences between traditional doctoral study and that of the work based professional doctoral candidate. Portwood (2000) considered the concept of the learned worker as the person who is able to develop a reflective and cognisant view of organisational developments and change. Armsby and Costley (2009) took the learned worker concept further by considering the potential risks and barriers encountered through the “situatedness” of the professional doctoral candidate in the organisation, and ultimately their vulnerability should there be internal resistance or apathy towards the research. The paper considers two examples of such resistance and analyses the support required for the learned professional doctoral candidate through utilising the resources of “organisation sapiens”. Recommendations are made on strategy for leading the change process and understanding positive and constructive approaches to questioning organisational change. The paper concludes with a consideration of a more inclusive and participatory approach to organisation stakeholder involvement and potential methodologies that may enable greater partnership in the research

Exploring the functional domain and the target of the tetanus toxin light chain in neurohypophysial terminals

The tetanus toxin light chain blocks calcium induced vasopressin release from neurohypophysial nerve terminals. Here we show that histidine residue 233 within the putative zinc binding motif of the tetanus toxin light chain is essential for the inhibition of exocytosis, in the rat. The zinc chelating agent dipicolinic acid as well as captopril, an inhibitor of zinc-dependent peptidases, counteract the effect of the neurotoxin. Synthetic peptides, the sequences of which correspond to motifs present in the cytoplasmic domain of the synaptic vesicle membrane protein synaptobrevin 1 and 2, prevent the effect of the tetanus toxin light chain. Our results indicate that zinc bound to the zinc binding motif constitutes the active site of the tetanus toxin light chain. Moreover they suggest that cleavage of synaptobrevin by the neurotoxin causes the inhibition of exocytotic release of vasopressin from secretory granules

Proton spin polarizabilities from polarized Compton scattering

Polarized Compton scattering off the proton is studied within the framework of subtracted dispersion relations for photon energies up to 300 MeV. As a guideline for forthcoming experiments, we focus the attention on the role of the proton's spin polarizabilities and investigate the most favorable conditions to extract them with a minimum of model dependence. We conclude that a complete separation of the four spin polarizabilities is possible, at photon energies between threshold and the $\Delta(1232)$ region, provided one can achieve polarization measurements with an accuracy of a few percent.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures

Stable ultrahigh-density magneto-optical recordings using introduced linear defects

The stability of data bits in magnetic recording media at ultrahigh densities is compromised by thermal `flips' -- magnetic spin reversals -- of nano-sized spin domains, which erase the stored information. Media that are magnetized perpendicular to the plane of the film, such as ultrathin cobalt films or multilayered structures, are more stable against thermal self-erasure than conventional memory devices. In this context, magneto-optical memories seem particularly promising for ultrahigh-density recording on portable disks, and bit densities of $\sim$100 Gbit inch$^{-2}$ have been demonstrated using recent advances in the bit writing and reading techniques. But the roughness and mobility of the magnetic domain walls prevents closer packing of the magnetic bits, and therefore presents a challenge to reaching even higher bit densities. Here we report that the strain imposed by a linear defect in a magnetic thin film can smooth rough domain walls over regions hundreds of micrometers in size, and halt their motion. A scaling analysis of this process, based on the generic physics of disorder-controlled elastic lines, points to a simple way by which magnetic media might be prepared that can store data at densities in excess of 1 Tbit inch$^{-2}$.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, see also an article in TRN News at http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/041801/Defects_boost_disc_capacity_041801.htm

Beyond the random phase approximation in the Singwi-Sj\"olander theory of the half-filled Landau level

We study the $\nu=1/2$ Chern-Simons system and consider a self-consistent field theory of the Singwi-Sj\"olander type which goes beyond the random phase approximation (RPA). By considering the Heisenberg equation of motion for the longitudinal momentum operator, we are able to show that the zero-frequency density-density response function vanishes linearly in long wavelength limit independent of any approximation. From this analysis, we derive a consistency condition for a decoupling of the equal time density-density and density-momentum correlation functions. By using the Heisenberg equation of motion of the Wigner distribution function with a decoupling of the correlation functions which respects this consistency condition, we calculate the response functions of the $\nu=1/2$ system. In our scheme, we get a density-density response function which vanishes linearly in the Coulomb case for zero-frequency in the long wavelength limit. Furthermore, we derive the compressibility, and the Landau energy as well as the Coulomb energy. These energies are in better agreement to numerical and exact results, respectively, than the energies calculated in the RPA.Comment: 9 Revtex pages, 4 eps figures, typos correcte

The role of BoFLC2 in cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L.) reproductive development

In agricultural species that are sexually propagated or whose marketable organ is a reproductive structure, management of the flowering process is critical. Inflorescence development in cauliflower is particularly complex, presenting unique challenges for those seeking to predict and manage flowering time. In this study, an integrated physiological and molecular approach was used to clarify the environmental control of cauliflower reproductive development at the molecular level. A functional allele of BoFLC2 was identified for the first time in an annual brassica, along with an allele disrupted by a frameshift mutation (boflc2). In a segregating F2 population derived from a cross between late-flowering (BoFLC2) and early-flowering (boflc2) lines, this gene behaved in a dosage-dependent manner and accounted for up to 65% of flowering time variation. Transcription of BoFLC genes was reduced by vernalization, with the floral integrator BoFT responding inversely. Overall expression of BoFT was significantly higher in early-flowering boflc2 lines, supporting the idea that BoFLC2 plays a key role in maintaining the vegetative state. A homologue of Arabidopsis VIN3 was isolated for the first time in a brassica crop species and was up-regulated by two days of vernalization, in contrast to findings in Arabidopsis where prolonged exposure to cold was required to elicit up-regulation. The correlations observed between gene expression and flowering time in controlled-environment experiments were validated with gene expression analyses of cauliflowers grown outdoors under 'natural' vernalizing conditions, indicating potential for transcript levels of flowering genes to form the basis of predictive assays for curd initiation and flowering time