Refurbishment of the cryogenic coolers for the Skylab earth resources experiment package

Skylab Earth Resources Experiment Package (EREP) experiments, S191 and S192, required a cold temperature reference for operation of a spectrometer. This cold temperature reference was provided by a subminiature Stirling cycle cooler. However, the failure of the cooler to pass the qualification test made it necessary for additional cooler development, refurbishment, and qualification. A description of the failures and the cause of these failures for each of the coolers is presented. The solutions to the various failure modes are discussed along with problems which arose during the refurbishment program. The rationale and results of various tests are presented. The successful completion of the cryogenic cooler refurbishment program resulted in four of these coolers being flown on Skylab. The system operation during the flight is presented

A Cryogenic Helium Pressurization System for the Lunar Excursion Module

No abstract availabl

Summary Report on National Debates on the Reconciliation of Family and Employment, from the EU Framework V project Gender, Parenthood and the Changing European Workplace (Transitions).

This report provides an overview of national debates on work and family, based on national researchers analysis of discourses within the media, government, employers and trade union, in the eight participating countries, during the period of the Transitions research project (2003-5).We were interested in what is on the political and social agenda in each country, what is driving change in policies and practices, and what are the public and media reactions to these debates – for example about fertility concerns, disability, parental leaves, funding for childcare, and changing gender role expectations. This report is part of the Context Mapping workpackage (WP3).The Context Mapping report (Transitions Research Report #1) aimed to provide a broad outline of the principle economic, social and demographic characteristics of the eight participating countries

Australian Organic Market Report 2008

Being four years since the publication of a similar research document, the Australian Organic Market Report (AOMR) 2008 is a landmark report for the organic industry. The report will be invaluable for monitoring and planning the industry development during a period of high growth. Delivering consistent data for benchmarking growth across the various sectors of the industry, it will be a key tool for decision making by organic producers and marketers, along with interested parties such as government and media, in assisting in understanding the nature, size and development of the organic industry in Australia. Supply chain development has been hindered over many years by a lack of basic information about volumes, seasonality, continuity and quality, not only making it difficult for potentially new members of industry to feel confident about investing in organic, however also likely to cause overseas buyers to look for other countries with more comprehensive industry information. The report is an important base research document required by any growing industry. It has been commissioned by Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA), and has been carried out independently by the University of New England’s Organic Research Group. The report has the financial support of major sponsor Westpac Bank, all State Governments in Australia as well as many dedicated industry businesses

Sense of entitlement to support for the reconciliation of employment and family life

This article explores young European women and men’s expectations of support - from the state and employers - for reconciling paid employment and family life. It is based on a qualitative study employing focus groups with young women and men in Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Ireland and the UK. Drawing on the concept of sense of entitlement, derived from social justice theory, it was expected that the type of welfare state and ‘gender contract’ that young adults have experienced will influence their sense of entitlement to support for work and family life. Findings indicate that participants perceived their entitlement to state and employer support differently across national context. However this is moderated by gender, parental and occupational status, and particularly by awareness of provisions in other countries in the case of state support, while perceived entitlement to employer support varies according to the specific policy considered, gender and perception of benefits to employers. Some implications for public policy makers and employers are discussed

Final Report of the EU Framework V project Gender, Parenthood and the Changing European Workplace (Transitions).

This project extends understanding of the changing contexts in which young parents negotiate the transition to parenthood, based on policy analysis and an international literature review in eight European states and empirical work in seven countries. The overall objective was to examine qualitatively how young European women and men negotiate motherhood and fatherhood and workfamily boundaries and how this impacts on their well-being, in the context of different national welfare state regimes, substantial organisational change, and family and employer support. Eleven organisational case studies were conducted in private (mostly finance) and public (social services) sector workplaces, followed by home based biographical interviews with selected parents and some of their partners. New parents in this study managed work and care in particularly intense, competitive and pressured contexts amid rapid workplace changes and especially the increasingly demanding workloads reported in all the case study organisations. This is compounded by an intensification of parenting as well as of work, as parents in all countries are expected to put growing amounts of effort and time into parenting activities. Nevertheless, the study also highlighted the positive aspects of paid work for many new mothers and fathers who reported their enjoyment of challenging work and contact with colleagues. National and organisational policies to support employed parents are undermined both by current workplace practices associated with work intensification and, in many contexts, concerns for future job opportunities in rapidly changing job climates. Although the right to ask for flexible working, and longer parental leave entitlements, especially for fathers, are increasingly enshrined in legislation in many countries, parents are often in practice prevented from working flexibly by heavy workloads, or by concerns about their perceived commitment to the job. More important than policies alone, is support from line managers, particularly in the countries with fewer supportive national regulations. However, colleague support also emerged as significant in contemporary workplaces. National policies and provisions interact with the formal and informal workplace policies, practices and cultures and economic conditions to support and constrain gender expectations and transformations. However, policies for combining paid work and family care are undermined by the persistent assumption made by managers at all levels, by colleagues, and by many of the parents themselves, that these are primarily policies for women. Experiences and well-being of parents of young children depend on multiple levels of context. Good, affordable childcare is regarded as essential, but not in itself sufficient for parental wellbeing in a context of long working hours and/or unstable employment conditions. Control over work-family boundaries, is also important although parents described a range of preferences and strategies for boundary management. Wellbeing is also highly related to expectations. Growing expectations of support for parenting, and for gender equity, are associated with transitional tensions if they are not mirrored by institutional changes. Recommendations from the study include the need for a multi-layered partnership approach to supporting parents in contemporary, changing contexts. This will involve confronting uncomfortable issues about the contradictions between work intensification in the global economic context and the needs of parents and children

Entitled or misunderstood? Towards the repositioning of the sense of entitlement concept in the generational difference debate

This paper contributes to debates in the broad area of generational differences at work. Specifically, we locate this study within the literature of the work values and expectations of the ‘Millennial generation’, also known as ‘GenMe’ (Twenge, 2006; 2010). Much has been made in the media and popular practitioner literature about how the latest generation of workers have a ‘sense of entitlement’ and therefore expect more from the workplace than previous generations. In this paper, we argue that this mainstream view of the sense of entitlement as a concept is problematic and requires a more critical examination. We consider two divergent bodies of literature on the sense of entitlement in relation to generational differences at work – a manageralist approach, which conceptualises sense of entitlement to work-life balance (WLB) as a negative trait, and a second body, based on the seminal work by Sue Lewis and colleagues, that treats sense of entitlement as a situated process rather than an internal characteristic. We use data from a study of young adults leaving university in the UK, inspired by Sue’s work. Our analysis challenges the notion of today’s younger workers as more ‘entitled’ than previous generations. This study extends existing research by providing a contextualised analysis of young people’s situated accounts of sense of entitlement at work

Using professional interpreters in undergraduate medical consultation skills teaching.

The ability to work with interpreters is a core skill for UK medical graduates. At the University of Sheffield Medical School, this teaching was identified as a gap in the curriculum. Teaching was developed to use professional interpreters in role-play, based on evidence that professional interpreters improve health outcomes for patients with limited English proficiency. Other principles guiding the development of the teaching were an experiential learning format, integration to the core consultation skills curriculum, and sustainable delivery. The session was aligned with existing consultation skills teaching to retain the small-group experiential format and general practitioner (GP) tutor. Core curricular time was found through conversion of an existing consultation skills session. Language pairs of professional interpreters worked with each small group, with one playing patient and the other playing interpreter. These professional interpreters attended training in the scenarios so that they could learn to act as patient and family interpreter. GP tutors attended training sessions to help them facilitate the session. This enhanced the sustainability of the session by providing a cohort of tutors able to pass on their expertise to new staff through the existing shadowing process. Tutors felt that the involvement of professional interpreters improved student engagement. Student evaluation of the teaching suggests that the learning objectives were achieved. Faculty evaluation by GP tutors suggests that they perceived the teaching to be worthwhile and that the training they received had helped improve their own clinical practice in consulting through interpreters. We offer the following recommendations to others who may be interested in developing teaching on interpreted consultations within their core curriculum: 1) consider recruiting professional interpreters as a teaching resource; 2) align the teaching to existing consultation skills sessions to aid integration; and 3) invest in faculty development for successful and sustainable delivery