Showing papers by "Lancaster University published in 1998"

Local Literacies: Reading and Writing in One Community

Abstract: Local Literacies is a unique detailed study of the role of reading and writing in people’s everyday lives. By concentrating on a selection of people in a particular community in Lancaster, England, the authors analyse how they use literacy in their day-to-day lives. It follows four people in detail examining how they use local media, their participation in public life, the role of literacy in family activities and in leisure pursuits. Links are made between everyday learning and education. The study is based on an ethnographic approach to studying everyday activities and is framed in the theory of literacy as a social practice. This Routledge Linguistics Classic includes a new foreword by Deborah Brandt and a new framing chapter, in which David Barton and Mary Hamilton look at the connections between local and global activities, interfaces with institutional literacies, and the growing significance of digital literacies in everyday life. A seminal text, Local Literacies provides an explicit usable methodology for both teachers and researchers, and clear theorising around a set of six propositions. Clearly written and engaging, this is a deeply absorbing study and is essential reading for all those involved in literacy and literacy education.

Writing and identity

Abstract: Writing is not just about conveying ‘content’ but also about the representation of self. (One of the reasons people find writing difficult is that they do not feel comfortable with the ‘me’ they are portraying in their writing. Academic writing in particular often poses a conflict of identity for students in higher education, because the ‘self’ which is inscribed in academic discourse feels alien to them.) The main claim of this book is that writing is an act of identity in which people align themselves with socio-culturally shaped subject positions, and thereby play their part in reproducing or challenging dominant practices and discourses, and the values, beliefs and interests which they embody. The first part of the book reviews recent understandings of social identity, of the discoursal construction of identity, of literacy and identity, and of issues of identity in research on academic writing. The main part of the book is based on a collaborative research project about writing and identity with mature-age students, providing: • a case study of one writer’s dilemmas over the presentation of self; • a discussion of the way in which writers’ life histories shape their presentation of self in writing; • an interview-based study of issues of ownership, and of accommodation and resistance to conventions for the presentation of self; • linguistic analysis of the ways in which multiple, often contradictory, interests, values, beliefs and practices are inscribed in discourse conventions, which set up a range of possibilities for self-hood for writers. The book ends with implications of the study for research on writing and identity, and for the learning and teaching of academic writing. The book will be of interest to students and researchers in the fields of social identity, literacy, discourse analysis, rhetoric and composition studies, and to all those concerned to understand what is involved in academic writing in order to provide wider access to higher education.

Action Research: Its Nature and Validity

Abstract: The process of knowledge acquisition which has the strongest truth claim is the research process of natural science, based on testing hypotheses to destruction. But the application of this process to phenomena beyond those for which it was developed, namely, the natural regularities of the physical universe, is problematical. For research into social phenomena there is increasing interest in “action research” in various forms. In this process the researcher enters a real-world situation and aims both to improve it and to acquire knowledge. This paper reviews the nature and validity of action research, arguing that its claim to validity requires a recoverable research process based upon a prior declaration of the epistemology in terms of which findings which count as knowledge will be expressed.

Tree and forest functioning in an enriched CO2 atmosphere

Abstract: Forests exchange large amounts of CO2 with the atmosphere and can influence and be influenced by atmospheric CO2. There has been a recent proliferation of literature on the effects of atmospheric CO2 on forest trees. More than 300 studies of trees on five different continents have been published in the last five years. These include an increasing number of field studies with a long-term focus and involving CO2×stress or environment interactions. The recent data on long-term effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on trees indicate a potential for a persistent enhancement of tree growth for several years, although the only relevant long-term datasets currently available are for juvenile trees. The current literature indicates a significantly larger average long-term biomass increment under elevated CO2 for conifers (130%) than for deciduous trees (49%) in studies not involving stress components. However, stimulation of photosynthesis by elevated CO2 in long-term studies was similar for conifers (62%) and deciduous trees (53%). Recent studies indicate that elevated CO2 causes a more persistent stimulation of biomass increment and photosynthesis than previously expected. Results of seedling studies, however, might not be applicable to other stages of tree development because of complications of age-dependent and size-dependent shifts in physiology and carbon allocation, which are accelerated by elevated CO2. In addition, there are many possible avenues to down-regulation, making the predicted canopy CO2 exchange and growth of mature trees and forests in a CO2-rich atmosphere uncertain. Although, physiological down-regulation of photosynthetic rates has been documented in field situations, it is rarely large enough to offset entirely photosynthetic gains in elevated CO2. A persistent growth stimulation of individual mature trees has been demonstrated although this effect is more uncertain in trees in natural stands. Resource interactions can both constrain tree responses to elevated CO2 and be altered by them. Although drought can reduce gas-exchange rates and offset the benefits of elevated CO2, even in well watered trees, stomatal conductance is remarkably less responsive to elevated CO2 than in herbaceous species. Stomata of a number of tree species have been demonstrated to be unresponsive to elevated CO2. We conclude that positive effects of CO2 on leaf area can be at least as important in determining canopy transpiration as negative, direct effects of CO2 on stomatal aperture. With respect to nutrition, elevated CO2 has the potential to alter tree–soil interactions that might influence future changes in ecosystem productivity. There is continued evidence that in most cases nutrient limitations diminish growth and photosynthetic responses to elevated CO2 at least to some degree, and that elevated CO2 can accelerate the appearance of nutrient limitations with increasing time of treatment. In many studies, tree biomass responses to CO2 are artefacts in the sense that they are merely responses to CO2-induced changes in internal nutritional status of the tree. There are numerous interactions between CO2 and factors of the biotic and abiotic environment. The importance of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations for productivity is likely to be overestimated if these are not taken into account. Many interactions, however, are simply additive rather than synergistic or antagonistic. This appears to hold true for many parameters under elevated CO2 in combination with temperature, elevated O3, and other atmospheric pollutants. However, there is currently little evidence that elevated CO2 will counteract O3 damage. When the foliage content of C, mineral nutrients and secondary metabolites is altered by elevated CO2, tree×insect interactions are modified. In most trees, mycorrhizal interactions might be less important for direct effects of CO2 than for alleviating general nutrient deficiencies. Since many responses to elevated CO2 and their interactions with stress show considerable variability among species/genotypes, one principal research need is for comparative studies of a large variety of woody species and ecosystems under realistic conditions. We still need more long-term experiments on mature trees and stands to address critical scaling issues likely to advance our understanding of responses to elevated CO2 at different stages of forest development and their interactions with climate and environment. The only tools available at present for coping with the consequences of rising CO2 are management of resources and selection of genotypes suitable for the future climate and environment.

'New managerialism' and higher education: The management of performances and cultures in universities in the United Kingdom

Abstract: The paper examines the applicability of recent theories positing the existence of new approaches to the management of public sector institutions, to current organisational forms and management strategies in universities in the United Kingdom. The term 'new managerialism' is generally used to refer to the adoption by public sector organisations of organisational forms, technologies, management practices and values more commonly found in the private business sector. Particular attention is paid to the writings of John Clarke and Janet Newman. Their discussion of organisational forms (including Newman's attention to the gendering of such forms), technologies and narratives under 'new managerialist' regimes and of the tensions between managing cultures and performances in organisations operating under 'new managerial' regimes, are then drawn upon to analyse two different instances of organisational regimes and management practices in universities. The first of these is based on an exploratory study of a small...

Response of antioxidant enzymes to transfer from elevated carbon dioxide to air and ozone fumigation, in the leaves and roots of wild-type and a catalase-deficient mutant of barley

Abstract: A catalase-deficient mutant (RPr 79/4) and the wild-type (cv. Maris Mink) barley (Hordeum vu/gare L.) counterpart, were grown for 3 weeks in high CO 2 (0.7%) and then transferred to air and ozone (120 nl 1 -1 ) in the light and shade for a period of 4 days. Leaves and roots were analysed for catalase (CAT, EC 1.11.1.6), superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1) and glutathione reductase (GR, EC 1.6.4.2) activities. CAT activity in the leaves of the RPr 79/4 catalase-deficient mutant was around 5 -10% of that determined in Maris Mink, but in the roots, both genotypes contained approximately the same levels of activity. CAT activity in Maris Mink increased in the leaves after transferring plants from 0.7% CO 2 to air or ozone, reaching a maximum of 5-fold, after 4 days in shade and ozone. For the catalase-deficient mutant, only small increases in CAT activity were observed in light/air and light/ ozone treatments. In the roots, CAT activity decreased consistently in both genotypes, after plants were transferred from 0.7% CO 2 . The total soluble SOD activity in the leaves and roots of both genotypes increased after plants were transferred from 0.7% CO 2 . The analysis of SOD isolated from leaves following non-denaturing PAGE, revealed the presence of up to eight SOD isoenzymes classified as Mn-SOD or Cu/Zn-SODs; Fe-SOD was not detected. Significant changes in Mn- and Cu/Zn-SOD isoenzymes were observed; however, they could not account for the increase in total SOD activity. In leaves, GR activity also increased in Maris Mink and RPr 79/4, following transfer from 0.7% CO 2 : however, no constant pattern could be established, while in roots, GR activity was reduced after 4 days of the treatments. The data suggest that elevated CO 2 decreases oxidative stress in barley leaves and that soluble CAT and SOD activities increased rapidly after plants were transferred from elevated CO 2 , irrespective of the treatment (light, shade, air or ozone).

Reflection and critical reflection in management learning

Abstract: There is growing interest in Management Learning literature in a more critical perspective than has usually been the case in either management education or management development. This article cont...

Sexual dimorphism in birds : Why are there so many different forms of dimorphism?

Abstract: Variation in the extent of sexual dimorphism among bird species is traditionally attributed to differences in social mating system. However, there are many different forms of dimorphism among birds, and not all of them show an obvious correlation with social mating system. For example, recent work has shown that many highly polygamous species are, in fact, monomorphic, whereas many putatively monogamous species are dimorphic. In this paper we break up sexual dimorphism into subcomponents and then use comparative analyses to examine the pattern of covariation between these subcomponents and various aspects of sexual, social, and par ental behaviour. Our first finding is that size dimorphism and plumage-colour dimorphism do not show the same pattern of covariation. Differences in size dimorphism are associated with variation in social mating system and sex differences in parental care, whereas differences in plumage-colour dimorphism are associated with variation in the frequency of extra-bond paternity. These results suggest that size dimorphism is associated with the sort of intrasexual competition described by traditional classifications of social mating system, whereas plumage-colour dimorphism is associated with cryptic female choice. However, when we break up plumage-colour dimorphism according to whether it is due to melanins, carotenoids or structural colours, we find that each category of plumage-colour dimorphism shows a different pattern of covariation. The correlation between overall plumage-colour dimorphism and the rate of extra-bond paternity is due to structural colours, whereas melanin-based dimorphism is associated with sex differences in parental care. The former result is particularly interesting given that new work suggests structural colours are associated with active sexual displays and the reflection of ultraviolet light.

Theorising inequalities in health : the place of lay knowledge.

Abstract: This paper contributes to the development of theory and research on inequalities in health. Our central premise is that these are currently limited because they fail adequately to address the relationship between agency and structure, and that lay knowledge in the form of narrative has a significant contribution to make to this endeavour. The paper is divided into three sections. In the first section we briefly review the existing, largely quantitative research on inequalities in health. We then move on to consider some of the most significant critiques of this body of work highlighting three issues: the pursuit of overly simple unidimensional explanations within 'risk factor' epidemiology and the (probably inevitable) inability of this research tradition to encompass the full complexity of social processes; the failure to consider the social context of individual behaviour and, in particular, the possibility for, and determinants of, creative human agency; and, thirdly, the need for 'place' and 'time' (both historical and biographical) to be given greater theoretical prominence. In the final section of the paper the potential theoretical significance of 'place' and 'lay knowledge', and the relationship between these concepts, in inequalities research is explored. Here we suggest three developments as a necessary condition for a more adequate theoretical framework in this field. We consider first the need for the conceptualisation and measurement of 'place' within a historical context, as the location in which macro social structures impact on people's lives. Second, we argue for a re-conceptualisation of lay knowledge about everyday life in general and the nature and causes of health and illness in particular, as narratives which have embedded within them explanations for what people do and why – and which, in turn, shape social action. Finally, we suggest that this narrative knowledge is also the medium through which people locate themselves within the places they inhabit and determine how to act within and upon them. Lay knowledge therefore offers a vitally important but neglected perspective on the relationship between social context and the experience of health and illness at the individual and population level.

Organizational Learning: Diverging Communities of Practice?

Abstract: This article provides an overview of current debates in the field of organizational learning through the device of examining key `divergencies' within the literature. Clear divergencies are noted in two areas: first, between the practitioner literature which is primarily engaged in creating learning organizations and the academic literature which is engaged in the study of learning processes in organizations; and, second, in the views of both academics and practitioners about the nature and essence of organizational learning. In addition, but with somewhat less significance, divergencies are noted in the preferred ways of investigating and researching into organizational learning, and ways of improving the ability of organizations to learn. The article then identifies power as an issue that has received limited attention in the literature, but which appears to underlie many of the above divergencies.

In Situ Measurements of Solution Concentrations and Fluxes of Trace Metals in Soils Using DGT

Abstract: Assessments of the availability of toxic or nutrient metals in soils need to consider solution speciation, mobility, and the kinetics of exchange between solution and solid phase. The newly developed technique of diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) accumulates metals in a well-defined geometry that allows quantification of their supply from the solid phase. DGT was used to measure potential maximum fluxes of available metals in old arable and ex-woodland soils variously treated with sewage sludge with and without metal amendments. The flux increased with increas ing sludge application. The results suggest that for Zn and Cd there are two separate pools of metal associated with the solid phase. In untreated soils or those with 100 m3 ha-1 yr-1 sludge treatments, Zn and Cd appear to have higher resupply rate constants from the solid phase than in soils with 300 m3 ha-1 yr-1 sludge treatments (assuming the ratio of labile solid-phase metal to soil solution metal does not change). However, the actual rate...

Abscisic Acid-Induced Stomatal Closure Mediated by Cyclic ADP-Ribose

Abstract: Abscisic acid (ABA) is a plant hormone involved in the response of plants to reduced water availability. Reduction of guard cell turgor by ABA diminishes the aperture of the stomatal pore and thereby contributes to the ability of the plant to conserve water during periods of drought. Previous work has demonstrated that cytosolic Ca2+ is involved in the signal transduction pathway that mediates the reduction in guard cell turgor elicited by ABA. Here we report that ABA uses a Ca2+-mobilization pathway that involves cyclic adenosine 5′-diphosphoribose (cADPR). Microinjection of cADPR into guard cells caused reductions in turgor that were preceded by increases in the concentration of free Ca2+ in the cytosol. Patch clamp measurements of isolated guard cell vacuoles revealed the presence of a cADPR-elicited Ca2+-selective current that was inhibited at cytosolic Ca2+ ≥ 600 nM. Furthermore, microinjection of the cADPR antagonist 8-NH2-cADPR caused a reduction in the rate of turgor loss in response to ABA in 54% of cells tested, and nicotinamide, an antagonist of cADPR production, elicited a dose-dependent block of ABA-induced stomatal closure. Our data provide definitive evidence for a physiological role for cADPR and illustrate one mechanism of stimulus-specific Ca2+ mobilization in higher plants. Taken together with other recent data [Wu, Y., Kuzma, J., Marechal, E., Graeff, R., Lee, H. C., Foster, R. & Chua, N.-H. (1997) Science 278, 2126–2130], these results establish cADPR as a key player in ABA signal transduction pathways in plants.

Data-based mechanistic modelling of environmental, ecological, economic and engineering systems.

Abstract: Mathematical modelling in the natural and engineering sciences is most often dominated by a philosophy of deterministic reductionism. Moreover, many of the `simulation' models that emerge from this approach to modelling are very large and so difficult to identify, estimate (i.e. calibrate) and validate in rigorous statistical terms. In this situation, it seems sensible to consider alternative modelling strategies which overtly acknowledge these data-based modelling difficulties and address the very real problems of calibration and validation associated with the dynamic modelling of complex systems from time series data. This paper outlines a Data-Based Mechanistic (DBM) modelling philosophy which attempts to address some of these problems and illustrates its wide-ranging practical utility through seven examples in areas ranging from the natural environment, through ecology and macro-economics to engineering.

Regulation of Leaf Senescence by Cytokinin, Sugars, and Light: Effects on NADH-Dependent Hydroxypyruvate Reductase

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the interactions between cytokinin, sugar repression, and light in the senescence-related decline in photosynthetic enzymes of leaves. In transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants that induce the production of cytokinin in senescing tissue, the age-dependent decline in NADH-dependent hydroxypyruvate reductase (HPR), ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, and other enzymes involved in photosynthetic metabolism was delayed but not prevented. Glucose (Glc) and fructose contents increased with leaf age in wild-type tobacco and, to a greater extent, in transgenic tobacco. To study whether sugar accumulation in senescing leaves can counteract the effect of cytokinin on senescence, discs of wild-type leaves were incubated with Glc and cytokinin solutions. The photorespiratory enzyme HPR declined rapidly in the presence of 20 mM Glc, especially at very low photon flux density. Although HPR protein was increased in the presence of cytokinin, cytokinin did not prevent the Glc-dependent decline. Illumination at moderate photon flux density resulted in the rapid synthesis of HPR and partially prevented the negative effect of Glc. Similar results were obtained for the photosynthetic enzyme ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase. It is concluded that sugars, cytokinin, and light interact during senescence by influencing the decline in proteins involved in photosynthetic metabolism.

Displaying opinions: Topics and disagreement in focus groups

Abstract: Focus group discussions are now widely used for gathering data, in social science as well as in commercial marketing and public opinion research. One appeal of focus groups is that in some ways they seem like everyday talk, but their effectiveness depends on a tension between the moderator's constraints and participants' interaction. The moderator introduces and defines topics, but participants can shift, close, and interpret them. The moderator elicits disagreement in a way specific to focus groups, but participants manage their disagreement. Thus we see not simple control by the moderator, but a complex collaborative project operating under the shared assumption that the purpose of the discussion is to display opinions to the moderator. These findings extend the analysis of conversation in institutional settings and contribute to a methodological critique of the reification of attitudes and opinions in some social science research. (Focus group techniques, conversation, discourse analysis, interaction, agreement, topic, laughter, environment.)

Implicit Rating and Filtering

Abstract: Social filtering systems that use explicit ratings require a large number of ratings to remain viable. The effort involved for a user to rate a document may outweigh any benefit received, leading to a shortage of ratings. One approach to this problem is to use implicit ratings: where user actions are recorded and a rating is inferred from the recorded data. This paper discusses the costs and benefits of using implicit ratings for information filtering applications.

Fashion involvement, self‐monitoring and the meaning of brands

Abstract: This study considers the importance of fashion involvement in the interpretation of brands of jeans as measured by Snyder’s revised self‐monitoring scale, which discriminates between people who are highly motivated to respond to social cues and those who remain “true to themselves”. Over 650 people in the UK aged 14‐34 were shown either a branded or unbranded stimulus. They were asked to record their attitude to 27 pairs of bipolar adjectives using a semantic differential scale. At the same time they completed Snyder’s scale. It was found that self‐monitoring is a significant mediator of meaning with regard to unbranded, but not branded, jeans. A model of choice by elimination of the unacceptable is suggested by high self‐monitoring responses. It has implications for the amount of advertising required to support a fashion brand.

Uncertainty, Complexity and Concepts of Good Science in Climate Change Modelling: Are GCMs the Best Tools?

Abstract: In this paper we explore the dominant position of a particular style of scientific modelling in the provision of policy-relevant scientific knowledge on future climate change. We describe how the apical position of General Circulation Models (GCMs) appears to follow ‘logically’ both from conventional understandings of scientific representation and the use of knowledge, so acquired, in decision-making. We argue, however, that both of these particular understandings are contestable. In addition to questioning their current policy-usefulness, we draw upon existing analyses of GCMs which discuss model trade-offs, errors, and the effects of parameterisations, to raise questions about the validity of the conception of complexity in conventional accounts. An alternative approach to modelling, incorporating concepts of uncertainty, is discussed, and an illustrative example given for the case of the global carbon cycle. In then addressing the question of how GCMs have come to occupy their dominant position, we argue that the development of global climate change science and global environmental ‘management’ frameworks occurs concurrently and in a mutually supportive fashion, so uniting GCMs and environmental policy developments in certain industrialised nations and international organisations. The more basic questions about what kinds of commitments to theories of knowledge underpin different models of ‘complexity’ as a normative principle of ‘good science’ are concealed in this mutual reinforcement. Additionally, a rather technocratic policy orientation to climate change may be supported by such science, even though it involves political choices which deserve to be more widely debated.

On constraining the predictions of a distributed model: the incorporation of fuzzy estimates of saturated areas into the calibration process.

Abstract: Distributed hydrological models are generally overparameterized, resulting in the possibility of multiple parameterizations from many areas of the parameter space providing acceptable fits to observed data. In this study, TOPMODEL parameterizations are conditioned on discharges, and then further conditioned on estimates of saturated areas derived from ERS-I synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images combined with the In (α/tan β) topographic index, and compared to ground truth saturation measurements made in one small subcatchment. The uncertainty associated with the catchment-wide predictions of saturated area is explicitly incorporated into the conditioning through the weighting of estimates within a fuzzy set framework. The predictive uncertainty associated with the parameterizations is then assessed using the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) methodology. It is shown that despite the uncertainty in the predictions of saturated area the methodology can reject many previously acceptable parameterizations with the consequence of a marked reduction in the acceptable range of a catchment average transmissivity parameter and of improved predictions of some discharge events.

Impacts of ozone on forests: a European perspective

Abstract: In comparison with the effects of extended drought periods or severe nutrient stress, those of ozone are generally much milder, at least with respect to growth. However, there is substantial evidence from experiments, in the main using young saplings, that O 3 does impose a stress on forest trees under European conditions. Decreased chlorophyll contents and photosynthetic rates, changes in carbon allocation, increased antioxidant activity, and reductions in biomass due to O 3 have often been recorded, particularly in fast-growing species. Furthermore, O 3 appears to weaken the trees' resilience to a range of biotic and abiotic stresses. Interactions between O 3 and climatic stress, in particular drought and frost hardiness, are likely to result in potentially detrimental effects. A link between the occurrence of O 3 and forest damage is not unequivocally established in Europe, and the problem remains of extrapolating and/or scaling up from studies on seedlings to predict responses to O 3 of mature trees and forest stands, because we know so little about acclimation to O 3 . An accurate assessment is also lacking of the magnitude of the O 3 effect on European trees both in terms of the forest areas affected and its extent. In this review we suggest that C allocation is the key factor underlying the responses of trees to O 3 . Stomata also play a key role, since the acquisition of C must be achieved while an effective control over water consumption is retained.