17,871 research outputs found

    A Good Night Out: An Investigation into Alcohol Related Consumption and Behaviour Cultures in Young Adults

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    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate drinking patterns; attitudes towards alcohol consumption and alcohol related behaviours amongst differing groups of young adults. A further aim is to investigate whether the drinking behaviours of undergraduate populations can be considered to be representative of young adult behaviours in general. Design/methodology/ approach – Four groups of young adult alcohol consumers were identified. The participants in the first two groups were aged between 18 and 23, one group being undergraduates and the second non-graduates in work. Participants in the second two groups were aged between 24 and 29, one group comprising graduates in work, the second non-graduates in work. 120 questionnaires were completed; thirty in each sample group, with an even gender distribution. Follow up one-to-one interviews were carried out with representatives from each group. Findings – Although a small study it is evident that whilst there are some similarities in behaviours between the differing sample groups significant differences in alcohol related behaviours dominate. Practical Implications – The results suggest that utilising the results of research carried out amongst student populations to inform government policies with regard to the behaviour of young adults in general is unlikely to be successful in changing drinking behaviours. Originality value – This paper produces new insights into current drinking cultures and attitudes towards drinking in differing groups of young adults. Specifically it compares behavioural norms between graduate and non-graduate populations challenging much current research which is based upon student samples as being representative of the young adult population as a whole

    Filling a gap: would evidence-based school librarianship work in the UK?

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    School librarians in the UK have a lower status than librarians in other sectors, and research on school librarianship in the UK is sparse. Annual self-evaluation is one way the profession has tried to make itself more visible. Evidence-based school librarianship (EBSL) could assist school librarians in the UK improve their services, boost their profile, and build their portfolios as part of existing self-evaluation programmes. EBSL is an off-shoot of evidence-based librarianship, which aims to bridge the gap between research and practice, and encourages practitioners to conduct research in the workplace. Most of the current EBSL work is being done in the US, where school librarians are also typically trained teachers, however, EBSL is suitable for adaptation and use in the UK. Appropriate research methods must be chosen in order to make EBSL work in the UK, action research being one such method

    Using all the tools in our arsenal

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    In the face of budget cuts and threats to professional posts, librarians should promote all of the professional skills they have, particularly information literacy, in order to ensure relevance as more information is delivered electronically

    Estimating readability with the Strathclyde readability measure

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    Despite their significant limitations, readability measures that are easy to apply have definite appeal. With this in mind, we have been exploring the prospects for more insightful measures that are computer-based and, thereby, still easily applied. The orthodox reliance on intrinsic syntactic features is an inherent limitation of most readability measures, since they have no reference to the likelihood that readers will be acquainted with the constituent words and phrases. To accommodate this feature of 'human familiarity', we have devised a metric that combines traditional factors, such as Average Sentence Length, with a measure of word 'commonality' based upon word frequency. This paper details the derivation, nature and application of the Strathclyde Readability Measure (SRM)

    Agricultural Research Service research highlights in remote sensing for calendar year 1981

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    Selected examples of research accomplishments related to remote sensing are compiled. A brief statement is given to highlight the significant results of each research project. A list of 1981 publication and location contacts is given also. The projects cover emission and reflectance analysis, identification of crop and soil parameters, and the utilization of remote sensing data

    Agricultural Research Service research highlights in remote sensing for calendar year 1980

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    The AR research mission in remote sensing is to develop the basic understanding of the soil plant animal atmosphere continuum in agricultural ecosystems and to determine when remotely sensed data can be used to provide information about these agricultural ecosystems. A brief statement of the significant results of each project is given. A list of 1980 publication and location contacts is also given

    A methodology for the design and evaluation of minerals extraction processes

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    Imperial Users onl

    Fracture toughness and fatigue-crack propagation in a Zr–Ti–Ni–Cu–Be bulk metallic glass

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    The recent development of metallic alloy systems which can be processed with an amorphous structure over large dimensions, specifically to form metallic glasses at low cooling rates (similar to 10 K/s), has permitted novel measurements of important mechanical properties. These include, for example, fatigue-crack growth and fracture toughness behavior, representing the conditions governing the subcritical and critical propagation of cracks in these structures. In the present study, bulk plates of a Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 alloy, machined into 7 mm wide, 38 mm thick compact-tension specimens and fatigue precracked following standard procedures, revealed fracture toughnesses in the fully amorphous structure of K(lc)similar to 55 MPa root m, i.e., comparable with that of a high-strength steel or aluminum ahoy. However, partial and full crystallization, e.g., following thermal exposure at 633 K or more, was found to result in a drastic reduction in fracture toughness to similar to 1 MPa root m, i.e., comparable with silica glass. The fully amorphous alloy was also found to be susceptible to fatigue-crack growth under cyclic loading, with growth-rate properties comparable to that of ductile crystalline metallic alloys, such as high-strength steels or aluminum alloys; no such fatigue was seen in the partially or fully crystallized alloys which behaved like very brittle ceramics. Possible micromechanical mechanisms for such behavior are discussed

    Landau Ginzburg Theory and Nuclear Matter at Finite Temperature

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    Based on recent studies of the temperature dependence of the energy and specific heat of liquid nuclear matter, a phase transition is suggested at a temperature .8\sim .8 MeV. We apply Landau Ginzburg theory to this transition and determine the behaviour of the energy and specific heat close to the critical temperature in the condensed phase.Comment: 10 pages, Revte

    The effect of NOM characteristics and membrane type on microfiltration performance

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    Efforts to understand and predict the role of different organic fractions in the fouling of low-pressure membranes are presented. Preliminary experiments with an experimental apparatus that incorporates automatic backwashing and filtration over several days has shown that microfiltration of the hydrophilic fractions leads to rapid flux decline and the formation of a cake or gel layer, while the hydrophobic fractions show a steady flux decline and no obvious formation of a gel or cake layer. The addition of calcium to the weakly hydrophobic acid (WHA) fraction led to the formation of a gel layer from associations between components of the WHA. The dominant foulants were found to be the neutral and charged hydrophilic compounds, with hydrophobic and small pore size membranes being the most readily fouled. The findings suggest that surface analyses such as FTIR will preferentially identify hydrophilic compounds as the main foulants, as these components form a gel layer on the surface while the hydrophobic compounds adsorb within the membrane pores. Furthermore, coagulation pre-treatment is also likely to reduce fouling by reducing pore constriction rather than the formation of a gel layer, as coagulants remove the hydrophobic compounds to a large extent and very little of the hydrophilic neutral components
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