Open plan and academe: pre- and post-hoc conversations

There now exists a strong body of evidence that creative workplaces can, in certain circumstances, exert beneficial influences on organisational cultures and outputs. Academia tends to resist such spaces and faculty buildings. The reasons are explored but the reactions of staff are not found to be different from those reported in the literature on general creative spaces. The success or failure of team oriented workspaces is in large part a socially constructed perception influenced by the manner of implementation and management. As elsewhere new workplaces are about new conversations. The cases studied lead to a model of the tensions inherent in workplace redesign.</p

The Thermal Degradation of Copolymers n-Butyl Acrylate and Methyl Methacrylate

This study of the thermal breakdown of copolymers of n-butyl acrylate and methyl methacrylate represents a further contribution to the establishment of a comprehensive picture of the degradation of acrylate-methacrylate copolymer systems. A series of copolymers covering the whole composition range was synthesised. Degradations were carried out under vacuum either in a dynamic molecular still or using a new technique developed in these laboratories. Thermal methods of analysis such as thermogravimetric analysis (T. G. A.) and thermal volatilization analysis (T. V. A.) showed that the copolymers became more stable to thermal breakdown as the acrylate content was increased. These techniques allowed a suitable temperature range to be chosen in which to study the decomposition isothermally. The gaseous degradation products, liquid products, chain fragments and residue were each examined separately, using, among other techniques, infra-red spectroscopy, gas-liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry and combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The complex nature of the pyrolysis of this copolymer system is reflected by the great variety of products obtained. The main gaseous products were found to be carbon dioxide and but-1-ene, while the most important liquid products are methyl methacrylate and n-butanol. Quantitative measurements enabled the build up of these products to be followed as degradation proceeds, and mass balance tables were drawn up for each copolymer studied. Pyrolysis was carried out mainly at 31

The polarizability of diatomic helium

The calculation of the electric dipole polarizability tensor of the He 2 dimer is described, and the results are used in the computation of several dielectric and optical properties of helium gas, at both high (322 K) and low (4 K) temperatures. The properties considered are the second dielectric virial coefficient, the second Kerr virial coefficient, and the depolarization ratio of the integrated intensities for the Raman scattering experiments. The thesis consists of five parts: the polarizability and various properties are defined; the calculation of the polarizability in the long-range region in terms of a quantum mechanical multipole expansion is described; the calculation of the He2 polarizability in the overlap region via coupled Hartree-Fock perturbation theory is described; the calculation of the quantum pair distribution function for both the He-3 and He-4 isotopes at 4 K is discussed; and the calculated values of the properties of helium gas are given

"Mam, ma troosers is fa'in doon!" Community, caregiver and child in the acquisition of variation in Scottish dialect

Recent work on acquisition in sociolinguistic research suggests that some aspects of the structured variation found in adult speech are evident in children's speech from the very start of language acquisition, and input from the primary caregiver is crucial in this process. In this article we contribute to this research by conducting a cross-sectional analysis of the acquisition of variable forms in a Scottish dialect. Two linguistic variables are targeted in the speech of eleven children (2;10–3;6) and their primary caregivers. Quantitative analysis of over 5000 contexts of use demonstrates that one variable is conditioned by social and linguistic constraints in the speech of the caregiver and these constraints are matched by the children. In contrast, the other variable is influenced by a complex array of linguistic constraints only. We explore the ramifications of these findings for understanding the mechanisms involved in acquisition of variation from the very earliest stages

Participatory Monitoring of Community-Based Rehabilitation and other Disability- Inclusive Development Programmes: the Development of a Manual and Menu

Purpose: This paper describes a three-year research project leading to the development of the CBR Monitoring Manual and Menu (MM&M). The MM&M is a practical toolkit that meets the needs of CBR managers and stakeholders, and is consistent with the philosophy of CBR and community-based disability-inclusive development. It is designed to produce meaningful and locally useful information and data, based on international data standards where possible, to enable aggregation at regional, national and international levels. Methods: Five complementary workstreams of research were carried out from 2011 to 2014: 1) literature review and analysis; 2) participatory action research with CBR stakeholders; 3) analysis and refinement of validity of concepts and structures; 4) consultation and review; and 5) synthesis of results. This article documents the method and key results of each of the five workstreams, and the lessons learned along the way. Results: The MM&M is now freely available on-line at http://sydney.edu.au/health-sciences/cdrp/projects/cbr-monitoring.shtml. Collaboration among members of the development team continues, chiefly via an on-line group to which new members have been welcomed. Conclusion and Implications: At the time of writing, the MM&M is the only international monitoring product, known to the authors, that consciously sets out to reflect both a ‘bottom- up’ and ‘top-down’ perspective of monitoring information and data. To achieve this for a complex programme such as CBR, and to align with its principles, it was essential to use a multi-component and multi-stage strategy for tool development, involving a diverse multidisciplinary team includingcollaboration with CBR stakeholders

Host transcription in active and latent tuberculosis

A recent study has identified a transcriptional signature for active tuberculosis, suggesting that the distinction between active and latent forms may not be absolute

Leverage-induced systemic risk under Basle II and other credit risk policies

We use a simple agent based model of value investors in financial markets to test three credit regulation policies. The first is the unregulated case, which only imposes limits on maximum leverage. The second is Basle II and the third is a hypothetical alternative in which banks perfectly hedge all of their leverage-induced risk with options. When compared to the unregulated case both Basle II and the perfect hedge policy reduce the risk of default when leverage is low but increase it when leverage is high. This is because both regulation policies increase the amount of synchronized buying and selling needed to achieve deleveraging, which can destabilize the market. None of these policies are optimal for everyone: Risk neutral investors prefer the unregulated case with low maximum leverage, banks prefer the perfect hedge policy, and fund managers prefer the unregulated case with high maximum leverage. No one prefers Basle II.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figure

Wide Range Thin-FIlm Ceramic Metal-Alloy Thermometers with Low Magnetoresistance

Many thermal measurements in high magnetic fields require thermometers that are sensitive over a wide temperature range, are low mass, have a rapid thermal response, and have a minimal, easily correctable magnetoresistance. Here we report the development of a new granular-metal oxide ceramic composite (cermet) for this purpose formed by co-sputtering of the metallic alloy nichrome Ni$_{0.8}$Cr$_{0.2}$ and the insulator silcon dioxide SiO$_2$. The resulting thin films are sensitive enough to be used from room temperature down to below 100 mK in magnetic fields up to at least 35 tesla

Developing a conceptual framework for assessing the socio-economic benefits of regeneration projects in the UK

Recent decades have witnessed the evolution of building assessment methods for appraising the sustainability performance of building projects. In the UK for instance, the Government has initiated a number of assessment/evaluation methods to deal with some of the environmental problems associated with regeneration programmes. But attempts aimed at implementing sustainability assessment primarily have been limited to the environmental impact of buildings, with the socio-economic aspects often neglected. The findings of an exploratory case study on a housing regeneration project, which adopted a combination of literature review and focus-group interview approach with eight key stakeholders for data collection in the UK, are presented in this paper. The emergent framework developed and presented in hierarchical order in this paper incorporates project level and wider community socio-economic sustainability indicators