5,971 research outputs found
Postmodernization: a phase we're going through? Management in social care
This paper considers the challenges facing managers of social care services in public sector organizations in the UK. Some theorists might argue that these challenges are the manifestation of a new postmodern era. It is argued here, however, that society is not fully postmodern: indeed modernity continues with some of its features (such as a concern with rationality and reason) heightened and intensified. Social trends associated with this transitional phase of postmodernization have been highlighted in the literature and here they form the framework for discussing social care management today
Changes to the Equine Hindgut Microflora in Response to Antibiotic Challenge
Antibiotics are important to equine medicine, but can cause detrimental side-effects including reduced feed intake, allergic reactions, and diarrhea. Antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) is attributed to disruption of the hindgut microflora, permitting proliferation of pathogenic microbes. The objectives were to evaluate the effects of antibiotics on beneficial fecal bacteria, AAD-associated pathogens, microbial species richness and fermentation. Horses were assigned to treatment groups: control (no antibiotics, n=6), trimethoprim-sulfadiazine (oral, n=6), or sodium ceftiofur (IM, n=6). Fecal samples were taken during adaptation (3 wk), antibiotic challenge (1 wk), and withdrawal (1 wk). Fecal cellulolytics decreased by \u3e99% during challenge and did not recover during withdrawal (P \u3c 0.0001). Lactobacilli decreased by \u3e60% during challenge (P = 0.0453). Salmonella spp. increased 94% with trimethoprim-sulfadiazine challenge (P = 0.0115). There was no detectable Clostridium difficile during adaptation or in any control horse. C. difficile increased (P \u3c 0.0001) when horses were challenged, and remained elevated 7 d after withdrawal. There was no effect of challenge on in vitro digestibility or microbial species richness as evaluated by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (P \u3e 0.05). These results indicate that antibiotics can disrupt the normal flora and allow proliferation of pathogens, even without affecting digestibility and causing AAD
Respiration Of The Rhizomes Of Nuphar Advenum And Other Water Plants
Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141877/1/ajb214719.pd
Respiration Of The Leaves Of Nuphar Advenum And Typha Latifolia
Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141951/1/ajb210918.pd
The Wave Function of Vasiliev's Universe - A Few Slices Thereof
We study the partition function of the free Sp(N) conformal field theory
recently conjectured to be dual to asymptotically de Sitter higher-spin gravity
in four-dimensions. We compute the partition function of this CFT on a round
sphere as a function of a finite mass deformation, on a squashed sphere as a
function of the squashing parameter, and on an S2xS1 geometry as a function of
the relative size of S2 and S1. We find that the partition function is
divergent at large negative mass in the first case, and for small in the
third case. It is globally peaked at zero squashing in the second case. Through
the duality this partition function contains information about the wave
function of the universe. We show that the divergence at small S1 occurs also
in Einstein gravity if certain complex solutions are included, but the
divergence in the mass parameter is new. We suggest an interpretation for this
divergence as indicating an instability of de Sitter space in higher spin
gravity, consistent with general arguments that de Sitter space cannot be
stable in quantum gravity.Comment: 30 pages plus appendices, 6 figure
Burst avalanches in solvable models of fibrous materials
We review limiting models for fracture in bundles of fibers, with
statistically distributed thresholds for breakdown of individual fibers. During
the breakdown process, avalanches consisting of simultaneous rupture of several
fibers occur, and the distribution of the magnitude of
such avalanches is the central characteristics in our analysis. For a bundle of
parallel fibers two limiting models of load sharing are studied and contrasted:
the global model in which the load carried by a bursting fiber is equally
distributed among the surviving members, and the local model in which the
nearest surviving neighbors take up the load. For the global model we
investigate in particular the conditions on the threshold distribution which
would lead to anomalous behavior, i.e. deviations from the asymptotics
, known to be the generic behavior. For the local
model no universal power-law asymptotics exists, but we show for a particular
threshold distribution how the avalanche distribution can nevertheless be
explicitly calculated in the large-bundle limit.Comment: 28 pages, RevTeX, 3 Postscript figure
A new method for monitoring global volcanic activity
The ERTS Data Collection System makes it feasible for the first time to monitor the level of activity at widely separated volcanoes and to relay these data rapidly to one central office for analysis. While prediction of specific eruptions is still an evasive goal, early warning of a reawakening of quiescent volcanoes is now a distinct possibility. A prototypical global volcano surveillance system was established under the ERTS program. Instruments were installed in cooperation with local scientists on 15 volcanoes in Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, California, Iceland, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The sensors include 19 seismic event counters that count four different sizes of earthquakes and six biaxial borehole tiltmeters that measure ground tilt with a resolution of 1 microradian. Only seismic and tilt data are collected because these have been shown in the past to indicate most reliably the level of volcano activity at many different volcanoes. Furthermore, these parameters can be measured relatively easily with new instrumentation
Threshold concepts: Impacts on teaching and learning at tertiary level
This project explored teaching and learning of hard-to-learn threshold concepts in first-year English, an electrical engineering course, leadership courses, and in doctoral writing. The project was envisioned to produce disciplinary case studies that lecturers could use to reflect on and refine their curriculum and pedagogy, thereby contributing to discussion about the relationship between theory and methodology in higher education research (Shay, Ashwin, & Case, 2009).
A team of seven academics investigated lecturersâ awareness and emergent knowledge of threshold concepts and associated pedagogies and how such pedagogies can afford opportunities for learning. As part of this examination the lecturers also explored the role of threshold concept theory in designing curricula and sought to find the commonalities in threshold concepts and their teaching and learning across the four disciplines.
The research highlights new ways of teaching threshold concepts to help students learn concepts that are fundamental to the disciplines they are studying and expand their educational experiences. Given that much of the international research in this field focuses on the identification of threshold concepts and debates their characteristics (Barradell, 2013; Flanagan, 2014; Knight, Callaghan, Baldock, & Meyer, 2013), our exploration of what happens when lecturers use threshold concept theory to re-envision their curriculum and teaching helps to address a gap within the field. By addressing an important theoretical and practical approach the project makes a considerable contribution to teaching and learning at the tertiary level in general and to each discipline in particular
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