Showing papers by "Lancaster University published in 1988"

Modernism, Postmodernism and Organizational Analysis: An Introduction

Abstract: The paper introduces the current debate in the human sciences between the opposing conceptual positions of 'modernism' and 'postmodernism' and discusses its implications for organizational analysis. The debate focusses on the nature of 'discourse' (information, knowledge, communication) and its role in social systems. The discourse of modernism rests on transcendent yet anthropocentric criteria such as 'progress' and 'reason' which are varyingly exemplified in the work of Bell, Luhmann and Habermas. In contrast, postmodern discourse (represented here mainly by the work of Lyotard, Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari) analyzes social life in terms of paradox and indeterminacy, thus rejecting the human agent as the centre of rational control and understanding. The paper then considers two contrasting views of the organizing process which follow from these opposing approaches to discourse. In the modernist model, organization is viewed as a social tool and an extension of human rationality. In the postmo...

Movement and working memory: Patterns and positions in space

Abstract: Five experiments are reported in which subjects were asked to remember short, visually presented sequences of whole body movement patterns, words, and spatial positions. The items were recalled in order in a memory span paradigm. During presentation of the items to be remembered subjects simply watched, or they carried out a concurrent activity involving articulatory suppression, movement to external spatial targets, or body-related movement. When the movement patterns to be remembered were familiar to subjects, movement span was not disrupted by articulatory suppression or movement to spatial targets but was disrupted by body-related movement. This movement suppression task, however, did not interfere with performance on a spatial span task or on verbal span. It is concluded that the memory for patterns of limb movement differs from memory for movement to spatial targets and that accounts of visuo-spatial processes in working memory involve the latter type of movement.

Sulphuric acid at grain boundaries in Antarctic ice

Abstract: It has been suggested1,2 that acids in the cold polar ice sheets may exist as aqueous mixtures at grain boundaries. This assumption can correctly predict the d.c. conductivity of polar ice2, but this does not prove the existence of acids or liquid veins at grain boundaries, and this remains controversial3–5. In this study we used a scanning electron microscope (SEM), equipped with a cold stage and an energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis facility, to determine the location of sulphur in ice from the Antarctic Peninsula. As expected, sulphur was undetectable in the bulk of the ice. However, at the junctions where three grains met (triple-junctions), sulphur was found in concentrations greater than 1 M in areas of < 1 μm2. Calculations show that between 40 and 100% of the sulphuric acid present in this ice was found at the triple-junctions, and would have been liquid at ice-sheet temperatures. This finding, if general, has considerable implications for many of the physical properties of polar ice.

Gas sensitivity of some metal phthalocyanines

Abstract: Previous studies of the gas sensitivity of CuPC (copper phthalocyanine) and ZnPC have been extended to include CoPC and NiPC, with particular reference to ammonia detection. Ammonia sensitivity is found to depend on the crystal structure of the films, ammonia concentration and temperature. The alpha - beta phase transition is found to give different film morphologies for ZnPC and NiPC. alpha -NiPC is the only PC studied that shows an increase in resistance on exposure to air. The other PCs show enhanced conductivity resulting from hole injection associated with oxygen adsorption. Surface conduction dominates bulk properties for all the PCs. Ammonia adsorption decreases conductivity due to the catalytic removal of surface oxygen but the response of the various PCs varies by two orders of magnitude. The low response of ZnPC is thought to be associated with the formation of a ZnPC-NH3 surface complex. CoPC and NiPC offer the highest response for low ammonia concentrations in air and the improved linearity of the response-concentration characteristics with SiO2 sublayers suggests that these may be viable materials for the fabrication of an integrated NH3 detector.

Theoretical and Methodological Problems Within Occupational Stress and Burnout Research

Abstract: This article examines the implicit assumptions underlying current research into occupational stress and burnout. It argues that the two fields utilize similar theoretical models and research techniques and therefore have a number of problems in common. These problems arise from their common tendency to adopt a psychological perspective which pays insufficient attention to the complexity of the interrelationship between social conditions and subjective experience. The article suggests that both fields could be strengthened by incorporating more sociological concepts and developing analyses of the effects which discrepancies between the manifest and latent functions and surface and deep structures of organizations have on the individual's subjective experiences of work. The value of such analyses is illustrated with three examples of empirical research utilizing this perspective.

Cross-domain semantic priming in normal subjects and a prosopagnosic patient.

Abstract: Cross-domain semantic priming of person recognition (from face primes to name targets at 500msecs SOA) is investigated in normal subjects and a brain-injured patient (PH) with a very severe impairm...

Stratigraphy, geochronology and volcano-tectonic evolution of the Kedong–Naivasha–Kinangop region, Gregory Rift Valley, Kenya

Abstract: Twenty-two new K-Ar dates allow reorganization of the volcano-stratigraphy of the Kedong–Kinangop region on the east side of the central Kenya rift for the most recent 4 Ma, during which time most of the structural features evolved. Four principal phases of volcanic eruption were: widespread Kinangop tuff ash flows (3.7–3.4 Ma), Limuru flood trachytes (2.0–1.8 Ma), basalts and flood trachytes of the rift floor (1.65–0.9 Ma), Quaternary salic caldera volcanoes (0.4–0 Ma). K-Ar dating allows recognition of the Cobb Mountain normal polarity event at about 1.18 Ma, and dating of the Kedong flood at about 0.1 Ma. Major faulting occurred at 4–3 Ma, converting an early half-graben to a graben. Fault zones then migrated inwards progressively forming step-fault platforms at 3–2 Ma and 1.7 Ma, such that the graben narrowed with time. Extensive minor faulting of the rift floor occurred during the most recent 0.8 Ma. The average extension rate across the central rift was 3 mm a −1 for the last 7 Ma, and is close to plate tectonic estimates. Individual fault strain rates are estimated at 0.1–0.4 mm a −1 . Faulting was episodic rather than continuous, and some episodes affected both sides of the rift. Volumes of magma erupted during 4–0 Ma require generation of at least 1.2 × 10 5 km 3 of primary magma in the 200 km length of the south–central rift if fractional crystallization is the dominant differentiation mechanism. This volume implies mantle upflow either as an asthenosphere ‘plume’, or as the result of lithosphere extension. The tectonic and magmatic sequence of events is proposed to result from lithosphere thinning, emplacement of large magma bodies in or near the lower crust, regional uplifts and superimposed limited lateral separation of the lithosphere as a result of plate motions.

Statistical analysis and control of dynamic systems

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Invention and Evolution:Design in Nature and Engineering

Abstract: 'Preface to the second edition Preface to the first edition Acknowledgements 1. The designed world 2. Energy 3. Materials 4. Mechanism 5. Structures 6. Systems 7. The practice, principles and philosophy of design 8. Economy, form and beauty 9. Production, reproduction, evolution and design 10. Designing and inventing 11. Some case studies Questions Answers Suggestions for further reading Index.

The value of mutants unable to carry out photorespiration.

Abstract: Manipulation of the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere allows the selection of photorespiratory mutants from populations of seeds treated with powerful mutagens such as sodium azide. So far, barley lines deficient in activity of phosphoglycollate phosphatase, catalase, the glycine to serine conversion, glutamine synthetase, glutamate synthase, 2-oxoglutarate uptake and serine: glyoxylate aminotransferase have been isolated. In addition one line of pea lacking glutamate synthase activity and one barley line containing reduced levels of Rubisco are available. The characteristics of these mutations are described and compared with similar mutants isolated from populations of Arabidopsis. As yet, no mutant lacking glutamine synthetase activity has been isolated from Arabidopsis and possible reasons for this difference between barley and Arabidopsis are discussed. The value of these mutant plants in the elucidation of the mechanism of photorespiration and its relationships with CO2 fixation and amino acid metabolism are highlighted.

Public understanding of science: from contents to processes

Abstract: Public understanding of science is commonly seen in terms of lay persons' understanding of the contents of science. This article argues that it may be more salient to consider public understanding of the internal processes of science ‐ of the nature of scientific knowledge and of the sorts of information that science can reasonably be expected to provide. Drawing on the reported statements of non‐scientists in the media following the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident, the article argues that the view of scientific knowledge that many people appear to hold is not one that can help them interpret and cope successfully with sts issues. The role that formal science education plays in sustaining this unhelpful view of science is discussed and some implications for practice are considered.

Growth responses and delayed winter hardening in Sitka spruce following summer exposure to ozone

Abstract: Two-year-old seedlings of Sitka spruce [Picea sitchensis (Bong) Cart.] were exposed to < 5, 70, 120 and 170 nl l−1 O3 for 7 h day−1 in large ventilated glasshouses during the summer of 1986. Relative growth rates (RGR) were calculated at intervals throughout the summer and autumn using a non-destructive technique in which measurements of stem height and diameter were used to estimate above-ground biomass. No statistically significant effects of the ozone on growth were apparent during or after the period of fumigation, and growth of the seedlings had largely been completed by the end of August. The winter hardiness of these plants was subsequently tested on 10 November and 8 December by subjecting detached shoots to a range of carefully regulated freezing temperatures in controlled environment chambers. The results for the samples taken on the earlier date suggested that plants exposed to ozone were more sensitive to frost than the controls, and that this effect was dependent on the concentration of the pollutant. In the samples taken later, all the shoots appeared to have hardened equally to freezing temperatures in excess of about –20 °C. The results suggest that early autumn frosts might be damaging to Sitka spruce after exposure to high ozone concentrations in summer.

Boundaries of covert recognition in prosopagnosia

Abstract: Since a severe closed head injury PH has been unable to recognise familiar faces overtly, but he shows a normal pattern of influences of face familiarity in matching, learning, and interference tasks which do not demand that the faces used are identified explicitly. In this paper we investigate the boundaries of these covert recognition effects. We show that PH cannot achieve overt access to any sense of a face's familiarity in forced-choice tasks (Tasks 1 and 2) and that in learning tasks he does not show evidence of covert access to names (Task 3) or to precise semantic information (Tasks 4 and 5) from the faces he sees. We suggest that covert recognition effects in prosopagnosia can thus be considered to reflect the operation of a partially isolated face recognition system.

Effects of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide on the control of water loss by birch (Betula spp.).

Abstract: SUMMARY The effects of SO2 and NO2 on the control of water loss by birch trees were investigated using clonal populations of both Betula pendula Roth, (silver birch) and Betula pubescens Khr. (downy birch). Plants were grown in controlled environments and were fumigated in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with 65 nl l-1 SO2 and/or NO2, or with equal concentrations of both SO2 and NO2 in four treatments, namely zero, 20, 40 and 60 nl l-1. Excised leaves showed in increased rate of water loss approximately corresponding to the concentration of pollutant to which they had been previously exposed. When petroleum jelly was applied to the abaxial epidermal surface of polluted leaves the increased rate of water loss was not found, strongly implying that the damage had occurred only at this site, and not on the adaxial epidermis, which is virtually devoid of stomata. Measurements of gas exchange were made on B. pubescens exposed to the four doses of the mixture of the two gases. The rate of transpiration was approximately doubled as a result of the two higher pollution treatments, judging from measurements made later in clean air. When transpiration was measured in high and low CO2 concentrations, polluted plants had a slightly reduced and more variable response to the change in CO2 concentration. Both clones were also exposed first to the four doses of the gas mixture, and then to drought. There was a more rapid onset of water stress, accompanied by an earlier decrease in effective leaf area in the polluted plants, when compared with the unpolluted plants. The abaxial surface of frozen hydrated leaves of the Betula pubescens clone were examined at low temperature with a scanning electron microscope. Damaged epidermal cells were clearly visible on the polluted leaves and thought to be responsible for areas of wide open stomata. It is concluded that leaves of these species are less efficient in the utilization of water after a period of exposure to pollution and are less able to restrict water loss in a time of shortage.

Accessing stored information about familiar people

Abstract: Two experiments investigating access to occupations and names of familiar people are reported, in which the response requirements of occupation and name-categorization tasks were made equivalent. In Experiment 1 matching tasks were used, in which subjects were required to determine whether simultaneously presented pairs of faces, surnames, or full names were those of people with the same or different occupations (politician or nonpolitician) or with same or different first names (Michael or David). Experiment 2 required binary classification of individual faces or surnames in terms of the bearer's occupation (politician or nonpolitician) or first name (Michael or David). In both experiments responses to faces were faster in tasks involving access to occupations than in tasks involving access to first names, whereas for surnames there was no difference in reaction times between occupations and first names in matching or classification tasks. These findings are consistent with the idea that identity-specific semantic codes and name codes are accessed sequentially from faces, but in parallel from written names.