Staff Engagement for Cohesion

This chapter in a book on small and rural libraries looks at issues around why staff engagement is a concern. We discuss the barriers to staff engagement and the role professional development plays in lowering the barriers. We look at events programming and the library's impact on other campus departments. Concludes with advice to other small academic libraries on developing a staff engagement plan.Ye

Building Community: Synergy and Empowerment through Staff Development and Marketing in a Small Rural Academic Library

This paper presents two collaborative programs at a small academic library that leverage the insights, engagement, and interests of our most important asset: our staff. Two new library committees, the Staff Training Advisory Group and the Marketing Team, extended planning, accountability, and partnerships to paraprofessional staff members. The onset and associated activities of these two committees yielded not only direct results in terms of staff training programs and marketing initiatives, but also resulted in creating a more collaborative culture and shared purpose in our library. This paper examines how the overlap of these two committees created a convergence that fostered excitement about the library, interest in improving library roles, and furthering library initiatives. By working together, and with our university community, we developed solid, popular programs in addition to cultivating a more intentional, thoughtful, and inclusive approach to our work and, ultimately, to supporting our university community.published under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (more details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Ye

Transpennine enlightenment: Literary and philosophical societies in the north of England, 1780-1800

This thesis is primarily concerned with the first two decades of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, founded in 1781. Well known to historians of science and medicine, the society has not been much studied by literary historians. This dissertation aims to rectify this situation by taking the word “literary” in the society’s title seriously, and looking at what it meant by providing readings of its publications and studying its activities. The question is complicated because both “science” and “literature” were terms that were in the process of emerging as separate disciplines. The founders of the MLPS were clear in 1781, however, that “physics and the belles lettres” were jointly involved in a process of “improvement.” The first three chapters take the MLPS from its inception up to 1800, investigating, especially, the pressures put on its associational structure by the French Revolution and the reaction against Joseph Priestley’s influential model of improvement via voluntary association and unlimited discussion. The MLPS had a particularly close relationship with groups associated with William Roscoe and James Currie in Liverpool, both of whom were honorary members. The Literary and Philosophical Society founded at Newcastle in 1793 was the direct result of the friendship between Thomas Percival and William Turner (both of whom had been graduates of the Warrington Academy). My final two chapters concentrate on Liverpool and Newcastle respectively, looking at what their development up to around 1800 can tell us about the ethos at Manchester and the broader spirit of the “literary” culture of these societies in their early decades

Fluorescence Imaging Study of Transition in Underexpanded Free Jets

Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) is demonstrated to be a valuable tool for studying the onset of transition to turbulence. For this study, we have used PLIF of nitric oxide (NO) to image underexpanded axisymmetric free jets issuing into a low-pressure chamber through a smooth converging nozzle with a sonic orifice. Flows were studied over a range of Reynolds numbers and nozzle-exit-to-ambient pressure ratios with the aim of empirically determining criteria governing the onset of turbulence. We have developed an image processing technique, involving calculation of the standard deviation of the intensity in PLIF images, in order to aid in the identification of turbulence. We have used the resulting images to identify laminar, transitional and turbulent flow regimes. Jet scaling parameters were used to define a rescaled Reynolds number that incorporates the influence of a varying pressure ratio. An empirical correlation was found between transition length and this rescaled Reynolds number for highly underexpanded jets

Inhaled methoxyflurane and intranasal fentanyl for prehospital management of visceral pain in an Australian ambulance service

Objective This study analysed the analgesic effect and changes in vital signs associated with administration of inhaled Methoxyflurane (MTX) and/or intranasal Fentanyl (INF) for prehospital management of visceral pain. Method A retrospective, observational study reviewing 1024 randomly selected records of patients with presumed visceral pain administered MTX (465), INF (397) or both (162) by the Western Australian Ambulance Service between January 2004 and February 2006. Clinical variables assessed included systolic blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration rate and Glasgow Coma Scale score. Pain was assessed utilising Visual/Verbal Analogue Scale pain scores. Results Overall effects on vital signs appeared favourable 5 min after use and at hospital arrival with either agent alone or in combination. As sole agents, MTX produced the greatest initial pain scores reduction (2.0 (1.7 to 2.2) vs 1.6 (1.4 to 1.8)) (mean (95% CI), and INF provided greater pain reduction by hospital arrival (3.2 (2.9 to 3.5) vs 2.5 (2.1 to 2.9)). While both agents were effective, INF provided a greater pain score reduction for cardiac (3.0 (2.6 to 3.4) vs 2.3 (1.8 to 2.8)), female (3.4 (2.9 to 4.0) v 2.5 (2.0 to 3.0)) and age 75+ patients (3.2 (2.5 to 3.8) vs 1.8 (1.0 to 2.5)). Combined use of agents was not advantageous. Conclusions MTX and INF are effective agents for providing visceral pain analgesia in the prehospital setting. While MTX provided a more rapid onset of pain relief, INF provided superior analgesia after subsequent doses and in female, cardiac and older patients

Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) investigation of hypersonic flowfields in a Mach 10 wind tunnel

Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of nitric oxide (NO) was used to visualize four different hypersonic flowfields in the NASA Langley Research Center 31-Inch Mach 10 Air wind tunnel. The four configurations were: (1) the wake flowfield of a fuselage-only X-33 lifting body, (2) flow over a flat plate containing a rectangular cavity, (3) flow over a 70deg blunted cone with a cylindrical afterbody, formerly studied by an AGARD working group, and (4) an Apollo-geometry entry capsule - relevant to the Crew Exploration Vehicle currently being developed by NASA. In all cases, NO was seeded into the flowfield through tubes inside or attached to the model sting and strut. PLIF was used to visualize the NO in the flowfield. In some cases pure NO was seeded into the flow while in other cases a 5% NO, 95% N2 mix was injected. Several parameters were varied including seeding method and location, seeding mass flow rate, model angle of attack and tunnel stagnation pressure, which varies the unit Reynolds number. The location of the laser sheet was as also varied to provide three dimensional flow information. Virtual Diagnostics Interface (ViDI) technology developed at NASA Langley was used to visualize the data sets in post processing. The measurements demonstrate some of the capabilities of the PLIF method for studying hypersonic flows

Will this improve my teaching? Academics mentoring female students in STEM

Background A mentoring program designed to assist female students to make appropriate choices in pursuing and achieving STEM-related career goals during and after university is being implemented at a regional Australian university in 2015. This project will benefit both mentorees (students) and mentors (academics and professionals). For mentorees, the program offers assistance in recognising and addressing potential roadblocks to a sustained and successful career, in building confidence in pursuing career goals, and in developing sound decision making skills in career planning. For mentors, the program offers professional development opportunities related to STEM education and careers. Objectives This presentation will describe the mentoring program, with a particular focus on the professional development opportunities offered to academic mentors. These include professional training, online resources and webinars, and networking opportunities with STEM professionals (academic and industry based). The benefits to academics will be explored, along with how this type of professional development can have a flow on effect to foster and inspire change and innovation in teaching. Data Collection Academics interested in becoming mentors in the program completed an expression of interest (EOI), which included questions such as: ‘What do you believe you will gain from being a Mentor?’, and ‘What do you believe are the issues facing female students interested in a career in STEM?’ In an interview at the end of the program academic mentors will be asked to reflect on these questions again. In addition, they will be asked questions that relate to teaching such as: ‘Has participation in the mentoring program had an effect on how you will approach your teaching in future?’ Results In the EOIs, academics identified a number of possible benefits from mentoring. They included personal growth, awareness of students’ attitudes towards study and careers in STEM, flow-on effect back to the workplace and disciplinary teams, and, importantly, better-informed teaching and enhanced capability to make a difference as a teacher. Analysis of interviews held at the end of the program will determine if academics have realised the benefits they identified at the start, and will also probe further to uncover other benefits and evidence of impact. Of particular interest will be evidence of the impact of program participation on their teaching. Conclusions Through the establishment of a mentoring program, academics have been provided with professional development opportunities that will potentially enhance interactions with colleagues and students, have a positive impact on their teaching and result in positive outcomes for STEM education

A Uniform Analysis of the Ly-alpha Forest at z=0 - 5: V. The extragalactic ionizing background at low redshift

In Paper III of our series "A Uniform Analysis of the Ly-alpha forest at z=0 - 5", we presented a set of 270 quasar spectra from the archives of the Faint Object Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. A total of 151 of these spectra, yielding 906 lines, are suitable for using the proximity effect signature to measure J(\nu_0), the mean intensity of the hydrogen-ionizing background radiation field, at low redshift. Using a maximum likelihood technique and the best estimates possible for each QSO's Lyman limit flux and systemic redshift, we find J(\nu_0)= 7.6^+9.4_-3.0 x 10^-23 ergs s^-1 cm^-2 Hz^-1 sr^-1 at at 0.03 < z < 1.67. This is in good agreement with the mean intensity expected from models of the background which incorporate only the known quasar population. When the sample is divided into two subsamples, consisting of lines with z 1, the values of J(\nu_0) found are 6.5^+38._-1.6 x 10^-23 ergs s^-1 cm^-2 Hz^-1 sr^-1, and 1.0^+3.8_-0.2 x 10^-22 ergs s^-1 cm^-2 Hz^-1 sr^-1, respectively, indicating that the mean intensity of the background is evolving over the redshift range of this data set. Relaxing the assumption that the spectral shapes of the sample spectra and the background are identical, the best fit HI photoionization rates are found to be 6.7 x 10^-13 s^-1 for all redshifts, and 1.9 x 10^-13 s^-1 and 1.3 x 10^-12 s^-1 for z 1, respectively. This work confirms that the evolution of the number density of Ly-alpha lines is driven by a decrease in the ionizing background from z ~ 2 to z ~ 0 as well as by the formation of structure in the intergalactic medium. (Abridged)Comment: 71 LaTeX pages, 20 encapsulated Postscript figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ, Figure 4 available at http://lithops.as.arizona.edu/~jill/QuasarSpectra/ or http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/QuasarSpectra