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Creating the Learning Space for Insider Inquiry: Threshold Concepts in Observing Organisations
No full textThis paper reflects on the experience of creating an appropriate learning space for a threshold concept, namely insider inquiry. The paper defines a threshold concept, outlines pedagogic principles and describes learning activities that seek to enact these principles. The paper is based on an action research project which examines how an undergraduate business course was designed and delivered to enable final year students to learn ‘insider inquiry’ skills by focusing on both organisational dynamics (Coghlan & Rashford, 2006) and the students’ own cognitional operations. The paper is based upon experience of an established final year undergraduate course in a university in Ireland. The development of this paper draws upon output from “Embedding Threshold Concepts”, a project based at Staffordshire University concerned with the application of this approach to teaching and learning.
Keywords: Space of Learning, Insider Inquiry, Threshold Concepts, Action Researc
Interconnection between ground state and excited state gain in InAs/GaAs quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers
No full textDifferent energy levels are generally assumed to be associated with ground state (GS) and excited state (ES) gain in semiconductor qunatum dot lasers and amplifiers. We present calculations based on 8 band k.p Hamiltonian which show that this is not the case. Two distinct absorption bands are calculated due to transitions between the GS electrons and all dot hole states. In additon to the peak due to transitions between GS electron and GS hole levels, a higher energy band is also calculated due ot transistions between GS electrons and highly excited dot hole states. We demonstrate that the removal of electron-hole pairs through simulated emission at the ES gain maximum can result in an amplitude reduction for a probe pulse tuned to the GS gain maximum, due to the existence of these higher energy transitions, and also due to the effects of two photon absorption. We also find that the instatneous phase change at the ES gain maximum due to dot to dot interband transistions is small compared to the measured value. (c) 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinhei
TOWARDS A MODEL OF NEW SERVICE DEVELOPMENT FOR DIFFERENTIATED TOURISM SERVICES
Get PDFAs tourism services become increasingly competitive and the life expectancy of many services becomes shorter, there is a need to both develop new services and enhance existing services. The process for new service development remains a difficulty for most tourism firms and in particular for SME’s who may be deficient in the skills necessary for service development Pikkemaat & Peters (2005). The perceived difficulty in the creation of new services is due in no small part to the fragmented and limited nature of research on the subject (Stevens & Dimitriadis, 2005) and the contention that empirical studies have not yet reached consensus on a well formalised New Service Development (NSD) process (Menor et al., 2002).The purpose of this paper is to address this knowledge gap by identifying the activities and resources necessary to develop new services in a tourism context. It is the author’s assertion that the development of tourism services requires a model tailored to the specific characteristics of the sector. This paper proposes to develop a conceptual model of NSD which will include applicable components of existing NSD and New Product Development (NPD) models, but will also add new components to reflect the specific characteristics and challenges of NSD in the tourism industry. It is anticipated that the study will make a significant contribution to both academic knowledge and tourism practice by addressing deficiencies in both tourism and service development literature and will assist practitioners in appreciating the stages and factors that should be considered in developing differentiated new services. This mini case study’s primary aim was to build an understanding of the components of the experience concept at the Guinness Storehouse and to understand the process by which it was achieved. The following are a summary of the elements of the Storehouse experience concept: a scripted theme, authentic physical elements, a range of emotions including excitement, surprise, pleasure and personal control, tiered levels of knowledge transfer, sensory stimulation, brand connection & emotional engagement. The experience is supported by activities including the use of mobile elements, knowledgeable and engaging staff, the interactive use of mixed media, and the active solicitation of customer feedback
Social Networking Healthcare
Get PDFThe world of “Social Networking”, a cultural phenomenon of recent years, has evolved an application paradigm, Instant Messaging (IM), into a feature rich, highly interactive and context sensitive service delivery environment. Terms such as buddy lists, presence and IM-bots have emerged as building blocks for services that significantly enhance the user experience. Mapping this paradigm to healthcare can deliver a highly innovative communication platform for information sharing, monitoring and care plan execution. Buddy lists become care groups, presence becomes patient context (e.g. blood sugar level) and IM-bots become E-heathcare services, capable of delivering appropriate contextual information to the care groups. Consider the following scenario: A pharmacist and a local health nurse are both monitoring the blood sugar level for a diabetes patient - the patient appearing as a “buddy” in one of their care groups. Through an IM application, the health nurse first notices a heightened blood sugar level for one of her patients. The nurse messages the patient immediately to ascertain his general status. The pharmacist is also alerted, and the nurse and the pharmacist discuss medication types and levels. A revised prescription is agreed and the patient collects it on his next visit to the pharmacist
The design of multimedia based instruction to support the academic and social development of children with autism
Get PDFThis investigation explores the design of a multimedia-based lesson to enhance the social skills development of young learners with autism. Both interface and web accessibility guidelines are assessed throughout the implementation of the prototype, with particular attention given as to how these guidelines can be improved upon to meet the cognitive needs of our target audience. The Triad of Impairments are a set of common traits that learners with autism exhibit. These include: impairment in social communication; impairment in social interaction; and impairment in imagination. Software designers and researchers are more recently turning to computer-based learning technologies to provide support for these learners. An in-depth requirements analysis study was conducted in local special needs and autism classrooms, in order to create a user profile and design model for the prototype lesson. This ‘user-centred’ design approach was then implemented throughout all phases of prototype development. Thorough evaluations were conducted with tutors and expert users at each stage. During the final phase of development a nationwide online evaluation was conducted with special needs schools in order to consolidate findings. It is concluded that this software could be incorporated into current autism classroom curriculums. The theme of the lesson has an original approach for teaching self-help skills to these young learners. The clear, clutter-free and simple navigation makes the software easily accessible. The additional features of quizzes and Flash games (reinforcers) have been judged as an effective approach for encouraging and rewarding learning. A nationwide survey was conducted to consolidate the design structure of the prototype. A random sample of Irish national special needs schools was chosen to participate in the survey. The survey has resulted in positive findings regarding the prototype lesson’s interface design, accessibility features, computer-based learning support and multimodal components. It is anticipated that these guidelines will contribute to a software design framework that can be used to generate further social scenario lessons
RURAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: PROPOSING AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF RURAL STAKEHOLDER NETWORK RELATIONSHIPS
Get PDFTraditionally agriculture and farming activities have been synonymous with rural areas and have been to the fore of policies to develop the countryside. However, in the last number of years it has been acknowledged that the significance of agriculture to rural development is in decline (Van der Ploeg et al, 2000). Additionally, there has been a shift in focus from what has been termed the ‘modernisation paradigm’ to the development of a ‘new paradigm of rural development’ (Murdoch, 2000). The focus is now firmly on social networks and a more integrated approach to rural development activities. In context, there is a growing consensus of what constitutes rural development activities including nature conservation, region-specific products and rural tourism (Van der Ploeg et al, 2000).This research will, therefore, examine rural development through the medium of rural tourism. Rural tourism fits well with the concept of rural development as it has strong linkages to rural resources, which focus on social networks and take account of the complex linkages among regional stakeholders.
Much emphasis has been placed in recent years on collaborative relations between network partners’ to aid the facilitation of rural tourism development. It is well-documented in the literature that inclusive rural stakeholder networks, involving third level institutions and public-private stakeholders, are considered pivotal to successful and sustainable rural development (Johnson et al., 2000). Yet, it is acknowledged that significant gaps exist on the identification and precise nature of the roles and functions of stakeholders (Pezzini, 2001; McQuaid, 1997), and the content of network interactions and relationships (Jack, 2008), particularly in a rural environment (Murdoch, 2000). As articulated by Van der Ploeg et al. (2000): ‘what we now need are new theories that adequately reflect these new networks, practices and identities’ (p.394). Despite a number of calls to study relationships within networks, these interactions have not been studied to date in a rural network setting to the best of the author’s knowledge.
In response to this research gap in extant literature, this paper seeks to identify and explain the nature and content of the roles and functions of key stakeholders in a rural tourism network. This author will, thus, propose an integrated model of rural stakeholder network relationships, and how these relationships shape collaborative regional network activity, in a rural tourism milieu.
Following this phase of the research study, the proposed model will be applied in a practical setting, a process involving the exploration and analysis of the nature of the roles and functions of regional stakeholders in the south-east region of Ireland. An underlying objective of this research is to identify the inhibitors and facilitators of stakeholder interaction within a rural network, while model refinement will be pursued through multiple case study analysis, to allow for research legitimacy to be strengthened.
This exploratory research addresses significant rural development and tourism literature gaps, and seeks to contribute significantly to academic and practitioner knowledge by developing a rural stakeholder network relationship model
Effect of exercise training on vascular function in active and inactive vascular beds
Get PDFIntroduction: Evidence exists that regular aerobic exercise benefits vascular health. This beneficial effect is potentially related to repeated increases in the flow of blood across endothelial cells during exercise. We hypothesised that any exercise effect on endothelial dependent dilation is localised to vascular beds in the exercised limb. An additional objective was to determine the effects of exercise training on circulating biomarkers of endothelial activation, including soluble adhesion molecules and cellderived microparticles.
Methods: Nine overweight, sedentary men (age 34 ± 4 y (mean ± SD) BMI 29.8 ± 4.3 kg.m-2, VO & 2peak 33.2 ± 4.6 ml.min-1.kg-1, systolic blood pressure 131.8 ± 8.6 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure 82.6 ± 4.6 mmHg) participated in the study. All volunteers underwent a two-week exercise intervention, which comprised of two-legged cycleergometry exercise (30-45 min at 70% VO & 2peak for 5 d of each week) combined with one arm handgrip exercise (one contraction every 2 s at 40% maximum voluntary contraction for half of each exercise session). Allocation of dominant and nondominant arm to handgrip training or control condition was counterbalanced. The control arm remained perfectly still during exercise.
Results: Preliminary work indicated the medium term coefficient of variation for various indices of reactive hyperaemia to be between 10 and 15%. Peak reactive hyperaemia increased in both the handgrip and control arms following training (p<0.05) but the increase in the handgrip-trained arm was considerably greater (48 ± 12% vs. 16 ± 8%, p<0.05 for interaction). The duration of reactive hyperaemia and the total reactive hyperaemia increased in the handgrip-trained arm (p<0.05) but was unchanged in the control arm. With the exception of an increase in soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule, training did not influence soluble adhesion molecules or cell derived microparticle counts.
Conclusions: Short-term exercise training increases vascular function in active vascular beds with little or no change in inactive beds, in sedentary overweight men. Biomarkers of endothelial activation are largely unaffected by short-term exercise training
Inner and Outer Landscapes
Get PDFThis study of John Montague’s poetry takes the reader beyond the family and political
history as subject matter of his poetry to a deeply felt exploration of the landscape.
Montague’s interest in Irish place names and mythological associations with the landscape
are explored. The study deals generally with two of John Montague’s collections of poetry:
The Rough Field and The Dead Kingdom. The fact that Montague’s mother abandoned him
and gave him over to the care of two aunts at the tender age of four is central to this particular
study. The study looks on the landscape as a surrogate mother to the poet and offers possible
connections and reasons why the poet is attracted to this subject of landscape. Where
appropriate, the study shows similarities between the work of John Montague and that of
WilliamCarleton and Patrick Kavanagh
Artists' Books: Conveying meaning in a non-traditional format
Get PDFThis thesis argues that artists‟ books provide the reader/viewer with knowledge and meaning even when the normal expectations of what a book might offer are not met. An examination of the qualities of artists‟ books that differentiate them from traditional books reveals a broad spectrum of concepts being explored by artists working in this medium. In the creation of their books artists consider both the formal components (structure and materials) as well as the conceptual aspects (ideas, meaning, interpretation and sensory responses). The results of these combined investigations provide the reader/viewer with a new interpretation of text, imagery and materials. Together these components present meanings that transcend a literal reading of text. Combining an examination of historical and contemporary precedents with my practice-based research has resulted in the production of a series of artists‟ books responding to four hand-written letters dating from the 1930s. My books reflect a critical exploration of issues surrounding the notions of time, sequence, scale, haptics and the body. They also challenge assumptions about communication, and add to the already-substantial contribution made by women artists in the field of book arts. These books also offer the reader/viewer an opportunity to construct new meaning from the work, unlike that offered by traditional books. This study presents an analysis of the literature related to the on-going debate concerning a definition for artists‟ books. This is followed by a discussion of historical precedents for artists‟ involvement with books. A review of contemporary practices in this field and an investigation of the myriad complex issues addressed by artists in the realization of their work laid the ground work for my own practice-based research. The results of my investigations into this area of study contribute to the existing knowledge suggesting that artists‟ books convey new meaning in a non-traditional format