Contextualising Social Work Education in India

Professional Social Work Education is commemorating 75 years of its contribution in addressing social problems and social welfare in India. While engaging layers of social realities, social work tries to create academic rigour, tests out new models and demands a statutory professional regulatory system. This article provides an overview on the issues, challenges and concerns of social work education in India. The first part details the historical development, the second part brings out various debates, the third part discusses the future concerns and challenges for social work education in India and it ends with a discussion.

Behaviours, Processes and Probabilistic Environmental Functions in H-Open Systems

The Patten’s Theory of the Environment, supposes an impotent contribution to the Theoretical Ecology. The hypothesis of the duality of environments, the creaon and genon functions and the three developed propositions are so much of great importance in the field of the Applied Mathematical as Ecology. The authors have undertaken an amplification and revision of this theory, developing the following steps: 1) A theory of processes. 2) A definition of structural and behavioural functions. 3) A probabilistic definition of the environmental functions. In this paper the authors develop the theory of behavioural functions, begin the theory of environmental functions and give a complementary focus to the theory of processes that has been developed in precedent papers.

Evaluating Taphonomic Bias in a Storm-Disturbed Carbonate Platform: Effects of Compositional and Environmental Factors in Lower Jurassic Brachiopod Accumulations (Eastern Subbetic Basin, Spain)

In order to evaluate taxonomic and environmental control on the preservation pattern of brachiopod accumulations, sedimentologic and taphonomic data have been integrated with those inferred from the structure of brachiopod accumulations from the easternmost Lower Jurassic Subbetic deposits in Spain. Two brachiopod communities (Praesphaeroidothyris and Securina communities) were distinguished showing a mainly free-lying way of life in soft-bottom habitats. Three taphofacies are discriminated based on proportion of disarticulation, fragmentation, packing, and shell filling. Taphofacies 1 is represented by thinly fragmented, dispersed brachiopod shells in wackestone beds. Taphofacies 2 is spatially restricted to small lenses where shells are poorly fragmented, rarely disarticulated, usually void filled, and highly packed. Taphofacies 3 is represented by mud or cement filled, loosely packed, articulated brachiopods forming large pocket-like structures. Temporal and spatial averaging were minimally involved in taphofacies 2 and 3. It is interpreted that patchy preservation implies preservation of primary original patchiness of brachiopod communities on the seafloor. The origin of shell-rich taphofacies (2 and 3) is related to rapid burial due to episodic storm activity, while shell-poor taphofacies 1 records background conditions. The nature and comparative diversity of these taphofacies underscores the importance of rapid burial for shell beds preservation. Differences in preservation between taphofacies 2 and 3 are mainly related to environmental criteria, most importantly storm energy and water depth. In contrast, the taxonomic-specific pattern of the communities is a subordinate element of control, controlling only minor within-taphofacies differences in preservation.

Impedance spectroscopy study of the effect of environmental conditions in the microstructure development of OPC and slag cement mortars

In this work, the microstructure of mortars made with an ordinary Portland cement and slag cement has been studied. These mortars were exposed to four different constant temperature and relative humidity environments during a 180-day period. The microstructure has been studied using impedance spectroscopy, and mercury intrusion porosimetry as a contrast technique. The impedance spectroscopy parameters make it possible to analyze the evolution of the solid fraction formation for the studied mortars and their results are confirmed with those obtained using mercury intrusion porosimetry. The development of the pore network of mortars is affected by the environment. However, slag cement mortars are more influenced by temperature while the relative humidity has a greater influence on the OPC mortars. The results show that slag cement mortars hardened under non-optimal environments have a more refined microstructure than OPC mortars for the studied environmental conditions.