Managing ambiguity: between markets and managerialism - a case study of 'middle' managers in further education

Advocates of devolved and market oriented Education reform, point to the benefits from self determination which enhance both teacher and managerial autonomy. Critics refer, on the other hand, to the ways in which running education institutions on business and accounting principles have introduced a new managerialism (Clarke et al, 1994; Pollitt, 1990; Clarke and Newman, 1997), which has driven a wedge between lecturers and senior manager interests. In Further Education, according to Elliott (1996a), this finds expression in conflict between lecturers in defence of professional and pedagogic values, and senior managers promoting the managerial bottom line (Randle and Brady, 1994). The danger in polarising such interests in this way is that it presents a plausible, if not oversimplified, analysis of organisational behaviour as market forces permeate FE. If this paper concurs with many critics on the effects of the new managerialism, it departs company from a prevailing determinism which assumes an over controlled view of the FE workplace (Seddon and Brown, 1997). Despite evidence of widespread casualisation and depro-fessionalisation in FE, this paper examines changing managerial cultures in the FE workplace, in this case among academic ‘middle’ managers, which suggests that managerialism is not as complete or uncontested as is often portrayed. The paper draws on an ESRC research project conducted by the authors (ESRC no. R000236713), looking at Changing Teaching and Managerial Cultures in FE, at a time when the sector is emerging from a series of funding crises associated with redundancies, industrial action, mismanagement and low morale at college level

Nonstandard electroconvection in a bent-core oxadiazole material

Electroconvection (EC) phenomena have been investigated in the nematic phase of a bent-core oxadiazole material with negative dielectric anisotropy and a frequency dependent conductivity anisotropy. The formation of longitudinal roll (LR) patterns is one of the predominant features observed in the complete frequency and voltage range studied. At voltages much above the LR threshold, various complex patterns such as the "crisscrossed" pattern, bimodal varicose, and turbulence are observed. Unusually, the nonstandard EC (ns-EC) instability in this material, is observed in a regime in which we measure the dielectric and conductivity anisotropies to be negative and positive respectively. A further significant observation is that the EC displays distinct features in the high and low temperature regimes of the nematic phase, supporting an earlier report that EC patterns could distinguish between regions that have been reported as uniaxial and biaxial nematic phases

Enhancement in Electro-Optic Properties of Dynamic Scattering Systems through Addition of Dichroic Dyes

Electro-optic properties of dynamic scattering in homeotropically aligned pure and dichroic dye-doped nematic liquid crystal samples are examined. The optical properties of the two systems are quantified using transmission properties of scattered and unscattered as a function of amplitude and frequency of an applied voltage. Auto-correlation of the scattered signal at different applied voltages is used to compare the decay times in the two systems. Lastly, the histogram of the scattered signal reveals a wavevector dependent large light scattering event. The dye-doped system shows a significant enhancement of light blocking property in both normal and off-axis light propagation. The characteristics of the system are compared to other scattering technologies. The results suggest that dye-doped system can overcome shortcomings in scattering based devices used for near-eye applications

Nanofabricated media with negative permeability at visible frequencies

We report a nanofabricated medium made of electromagnetically coupled pairs of gold dots with geometry carefully designed at a 10-nm level. The medium exhibits strong magnetic response at visible-light frequencies, including bands with negative \mu. The magnetism arises due to the excitation of quadrupole plasmon resonances. Our approach shows for the first time the feasibility of magnetism at optical frequencies and paves a way towards magnetic and left-handed components for visible optics.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. submitted to Nature on 1 April 200

Labour efficiency on-farm

End of project reportImprovements in milking efficiency have a greater influence than any other aspect of the dairy farmers work on overall farm labour inputs (Whipp, 1992). In order to facilitate the examination of milking process labour inputs, the milking process may be divided into the following three components: herding pre and post milking (transfer of cows to and from the milking parlour); milking (milking tasks / work routines within the parlour); and washing (washing of milking machine and yard). Meanwhile, within milking specifically, the number of cows milked per operator per hour is the best measure of both the performance of the operator and the milking installation (Clough, 1978). This is affected by the following three factors: the milking times of the cows, the number and arrangement of the milking units, and the operator’s work routine (Whipp, 1992). The addition of extra milking units will only increase milking performance if the operator has idle time during milking (Hansen, 1999)

Understanding the unusual reorganization of the nanostructure of a dark conglomerate phase

The dark conglomerate (DC) phase exhibited by a bent-core liquid crystal shows remarkable properties including an electric-field tunable chiral domain structure and a large (0.045) reduction of refractive index, while maintaining an optically dark texture when observed under crossed polarizers. A detailed investigation of the system is presented, leading to a model that is fully consistent with the experimental observations. It reports the observation of two distinct regimes in the DC phase: a higher temperature regime in which the periodicity measured by small angle x-ray scattering decreases slightly (0.5%) and a lower temperature regime where it increases considerably (16%). Also, the paper discusses the unusual electric-field-induced transformations observed in both the regimes. These changes have threshold fields that are both temperature and frequency dependent, though the phenomena are observed irrespective of device thickness, geometry, and the alignment layer. The electro-optic behavior in the DC phase corresponds to a number of structural changes leading to unusual changes in physical properties including a small (1%) increase in periodicity and a doubling of the average dielectric permittivity. We propose a model of the DC phase where in the ground state the nanostructure of the phase exhibits an anticlinic antiferroelectric organization. Under an electric field, it undergoes a molecular rearrangement without any gross structural changes leading to an anticlinic ferroelectric order while keeping the overall sponge-like structure of the DC phase intact

Lipid coated liquid crystal droplets for the on-chip detection of antimicrobial peptides

We describe a novel biosensor based on phospholipid-coated nematic liquid crystal (LC) droplets and demonstrate the detection of Smp43, a model antimicrobial peptide (AMP) from the venom of North African scorpion Scorpio maurus palmatus. Mono-disperse lipid-coated LC droplets of diameter 16.7 ± 0.2 μm were generated using PDMS microfluidic devices with a flow-focusing configuration and were the target for AMPs. The droplets were trapped in a bespoke microfluidic trap structure and were simultaneously treated with Smp43 at gradient concentrations in six different chambers. The disruption of the lipid monolayer by the Smp43 was detected (<6 μM) at concentrations well within its biologically active range, indicated by a dramatic change in the appearance of the droplets associated with the transition from a typical radial configuration to a bipolar configuration, which is readily observed by polarizing microscopy. This suggests the system has feasibility as a drug-discovery screening tool. Further, compared to previously reported LC droplet biosensors, this LC droplet biosensor with a lipid coating is more biologically relevant and its ease of use in detecting membrane-related biological processes and interactions has the potential for development as a reliable, low-cost and disposable point of care diagnostic tool