A study to determine if learning experiences on night duty are meeting the objectives for this experience

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

The micro-politics of micro-management: exploring the role of programme leader in English universities

This study is based on interviews with 25 programme leaders at two universities in England. Programme leadership is ubiquitous and essential to effective university operations, yet there is surprisingly little research on the role. It is an ambiguous and complex form of leadership, existing as it does in the space between standard academic and manager profiles. Existing literature on other leadership roles highlights such ambiguity as a major source of stress and cause of inefficiency. Drawing from the perspectives of current programme leaders, four main areas of difficulty are identified: role confusion, the management of others, the status and demands of leadership, and bureaucratic burdens. The paper suggests that the role of programme leader should be taken more seriously at both a research and institutional level, and that sufficient support should be implemented in relation to the four challenges mentioned above. Any real engagement with leadership at programme level, however, should also take into account the micro-politics of institutional management, a politics that combines issues of values, status and identity with more prosaic concerns over role definition, workload and student support

Can Cooperative Movements Be Successful in Traditional Societies? The Case of Southern Senegal

In spite of professional and political support for cooperatives in West Africa, their record of accomplishments is very spotty. Advocates of cooperatives have been blamed for not tailoring the movement to the needs, social practices, and orientations of traditional societies. In this paper, an attempt is made to show how indigenous groups can be organized to improve the coordination of traditional groups, local governments, financial institutions, and aid donors. Village cooperatives, called "Groupement Villageois," in southern Senegal were allowed to organize their own business affairs. Credit was provided to the cooperative group by the development agency. Cooperative activities were structured around cultural norms, village traditions, and production systems, rather than merely Rochdale principles. The village chief and elders were responsible for linkages and contacts with external entities. The whole village, and not just individual members, was responsible for credit, marketing, and distribution. After two years of operation, cooperative repayment of credit funds averaged 90 percent. Input use of food crops had increased and member contributions to cooperative equity were on the rise. Applications of this cooperative model were expanding rapidly throughout the region.Agribusiness,

Effects of argon ion injections in the plasmasphere

In lifting massive space power system payloads from low Earth orbit to geosynchronous Earth orbit, Cargo Orbit Transfer (COTV) using ion propulsion will inject energetic beams of argon ions into the plasmasphere. The relationship of the beam velocity to Alfven and thermal velocities as a function of radial distance in the plasmasphere is given for positions near the Earth's equatorial plane. A beam sheath loss model is used which results in a deposition of argon ions and hence energy in the plasmasphere which is much less than that in models calling for clouds or plasma instabilities to rapidly stop the beam. A comparison is given of the cumulative fractional mass loss of an ion beam injected at 1.5 R for the ion cloud and the ion beam sheath loss process. The integrated difference of these two deposition models is shown for the construction of one SPS

Galactic cosmic ray heavy primary secondary doses

Results of a calculation which estimates the heavy primary secondary doses from cosmic ray interaction data are reported. The incident galactic cosmic ray heavy primary spectrum is represented as the sum of helium, nitrogen, magnesium, and iron components. The incident iron nuclei are allowed to fragment into lesser Z secondaries, which are assumed to travel in the same direction and start with the same energy per nucleon as the interacting primary. The total emergent particle energy spectra and dose are then presented for the galactic heavy primary spectrum incident on aluminum and tissue slabs. The importance of the fragmentation parameters assumed is also evaluated. The total dose from the heavy primaries and their secondaries is found to be reduced by only a factor of two in 20 g/sq cm of shielding

A study of radiation environment in space and its biological effects

Biological effects on man in space resulting from galactic and solar cosmic radiation are discussed. Importance of secondary ions which contribute to galactic cosmic radiation hazards is analyzed. Mathematical model to show rate of production of secondary ions of given atomic number at various points in absorber is presented

Heterodon nasicus

Number of Pages: 10Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Electrostatic depletion forces between planar surfaces

The interaction between two dielectric plates immersed in an electrolyte solution is examined by using a variational perturbation approximation for the grand partition function. This approach differs from previous treatments in that the screening length between the plates is treated as a variational parameter. A key finding is that adjacent to each plate is a layer of ion depletion with thickness given by about one-half of a Bjerrum length. Consequently, for plate-plate separations less than the Bjerrum length, nearly all the electrolyte is excluded from between the plates, and the interaction is given by the sum of a van der Waals interaction and an attractive osmotic depletion force. In contrast to the predictions of previous theories, the interaction between the plates at short range increases with increasing electrolyte concentration and may provide an important contribution to the salt-induced attraction, commonly referred to as salting out. Because the range of the osmotic depletion force is roughly equal to the Bjerrum length, it increases with the square of the valency of the electrolyte. At larger plate-plate separations, the van der Waals interaction is screened as electrolyte enters the space between the plates, leading to an exponential decay of the interactions, as has been previously observed. However, this interaction is slightly stronger than that previously predicted, due to ion depletion from the surface of the interface, also this effect increases with increasing electrolyte concentration