Female Exiles in Language: Reading for New Poetic Subjects in Modern and Contemporary Feminist Experimental Poetry

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Lake Killarney Partnership: Ecological Planning with Roots in Science and Policy

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Making the 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan: A History and Analysis Through the Lens of Coordination and Deferral Theory

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Physical activity and young people: Beyond participation

The quantitative literature on physical activity participation patterns leaves many questions about the place and significance of physical activity in the lives of young people unanswered. This paper begins to address this absence by attempting to understand physical activity from the point of view of young people and in relation to other aspects of their lives. It discusses interviews with 28 female and 34 male students from three Australian high schools chosen because they provided the opportunity to include students from different geographical, social and cultural locations. Students were asked to reflect upon their past and current engagement in physical activity, and the impact of factors such as their location, family, and school in their access and interest. Different spaces and places proved important in the nature of the physical activity available, its significance to young people and the kinds of identities which could be constructed.

Lessons learned . . . about curriculum: Five years on and half a world away

The knowledge, skills, and attitudes manifested in health and physical education school curricula are an arbitrary selection of that which is known and valued at a particular place and time. Bernstein's (2000) theories of the social construction of knowledge offer a way to better understand the relationship among the production, selection, and reproduction of curricular knowledge. This article overviews contemporary knowledge in the primary field (production) on which curriculum writers in the recontextualizing field might draw. It highlights tensions in the knowledge generated within the primary field and, using a case of the USXs National Standards for Physical Education (NASPE), demonstrates how particular discourses become privileged when translated into curriculum documents in the recontextualizing field

Being fit and looking healthy: Young women's and men's constructions of health and fitness

We drew on Foucault's notion of 'practices of the self' to examine how young people take up, negotiate, and resist the imperatives of a public health discourse concerned with the relationships between health, fitness, and the body. We did this through a discussion of the ways young women and men talk about their own and others' bodies, in the context of a number of in-depth interviews conducted for the Life Activity Project, a study of the place and meaning of physical activity in young people's lives, funded by an Australian Research Council Grant. We found that the young women and men in the study engaged the health/fitness discourse very differently: for the young men, health conflated with fitness as an embodied capacity to do physical work; and for the young women, health was a much more difficult and complex project associated with managing and monitoring practices associated with eating and exercise to maintain an 'appropriate' body shape.

Protocol, image, and discourse in political leadership competition:the case of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, 1997-2002

This article examines the relationship between Prime Minister Jospin and President Chirac in the period 1997 to 2002. It is concerned in particular with symbolism, discourse and protocol, and how these have mediated the political competition between Chirac and Jospin. We develop a framework of analysis with several main strands. We consider the effects of the institutions of the Fifth Republic upon the political conduct of Prime Minister and President. We observe the perceived character traits of the individuals concerned, as well as the character traits expected of the offices of President and Prime Minister. We investigate the influence of the past upon the behaviour of Chirac and Jospin in the present, both in terms of notions of regime crisis which configured the institutions in the first place, and in relation to the image of previous holders of the offices (especially Charles de Gaulle and Franois Mitterrand).

Modernisation in small steps? Comparing the organisational reforms of the British Conservative Party and the German CDU

Research on political parties has long identified “environmental” pressures upon parties to undertake organisational and programmatic reforms – this applies in particular to “catch-all” parties or Volksparteien. Changed social and media structures, the decline of organisations traditionally associated with the parties, and the growth in alternative possibilities of political participation create significant organisational – as well as programmatic – challenges. This paper compares the German CDU and the British Conservatives in two respects: in particular it focuses on their organisational responses to the election defeats they suffered at the end of the 1990s, examining those reforms which took place and consider whether these match the expectations of organisational reforms anticipated by proponents of the “cartel party thesis”. While in both cases there are similarities, but (in particular in the German case) it is important not to understate the extent of internal party resistance to reform, and thus the difficulties with which aspiring party reformers are confronted. This conclusion suggests, more broadly, that in reality the process of party change is more than an almost automatic, isomorphic, and inevitable response to a changing environment. Rather it is punctuated, messy, and often contingent on events and agents.

A study of personality and leadership in a technical environment

l, This report presents the findings of a study of individual personalities of Naval Officers, Chief Petty Officers and Petty Officers serving in different environments within the Ministry of Defence and the Fleet. This sample was used to establish norms for the Cattell 16 PF Questionnaire, and these are compared with other occupational norms discussed in the literature. 2. The results obtained on psychometric measures were related to other data collected about the work and the formal organisation. This was in its turn related to problems facing the Navy because of changes in technology which have occurred or which are now taking place and are expected to make an impact in the future. 3. A need is recognised for a way of simulating the effects of proposed changes within the manpower field of the Royal Navy and a simulation model is put forward and discussed. 4. The use of psychometric measures in selection for entry and for special tasks is examined, Particular reference is made to problems of group formation in the context of leadership in a technical environment. 5. The control of the introduction of change is discussed in the recognition that people represent an increasingly important resource which is critical to the continuing life of the total organisation. 6. Conclusions are drawn from the various strands of the research and recommendations are made both for line management and for subsequent research programmes.

Reacting and responding in TESOL Quarterly:a generic analysis of procedure and purpose in intertextual critical exchanges

A key feature of ‘TESOL Quarterly’, a leading journal in the world of TESOL/applied linguistics, is its ‘Forum’ section which invites ‘responses and rebuttals’ from readers to any of its articles. These ‘responses or rebuttals’ form the focus of this research. In the interchanges between readers reacting to earlier research articles in TESOL Quarterly and authors responding to the said reaction I – examine the texts for evidence of genre-driven structure, whether shared between both ‘reaction’ and ‘response’ sections, or peculiar to each section, and attempt to determine the precise nature of the intended communicative purpose in particular and the implications for academic debate in general. The intended contribution of this thesis is to provide an analysis of how authors of research articles and their critics pursue their efforts beyond the research article which precipitated these exchanges in order to be recognized by their discourse community as, in the terminology of Swales (1981:51), ‘Primary Knowers’. Awareness of any principled generic process identified in this thesis may be of significance to practitioners in the applied linguistics community in their quest to establish academic reputation and in their pursuit of professional development. These findings may also be of use in triggering productive community discussion as a result of the questions they raise concerning the present nature of academic debate. Looking beyond the construction and status of the texts themselves, I inquire into the kind of ideational and social organization such exchanges keep in place and examine an alternative view of interaction. This study breaks new ground in two major ways. To the best of my knowledge, it is the first exploration of a bipartite, intertextual structure laying claim to genre status. Secondly, in its recourse to the comments of the writers’ themselves rather than relying exclusively on the evidence of their texts, as is the case with most studies of genre, this thesis offers an expanded opportunity to discuss perhaps the most interesting aspects of genre analysis – the light it throws on social ends and the role of genre in determining the nature of current academic debate as it here emerges.

Realising competitive advantage:bicycle manufacture - manufacturing engineering and management

Students at Cranfield Manufacturing Systems Centre helped Brompton Bikes formulate a strategy to meet rapid sales growth. The students took up Operations Excellence MSc, a two-year part-time programme based on the Cranfield MSc in Engineering and Management of Manufacturing Systems, include the Realising Competitive Manufacture module, which is set out to consolidate and embed the knowledge and skills developed throughout the two-year programme. Guided by StratNav process, the students analysed the product families of Brompton, established the basis on which they compete in the market place, and then benchmarked against key competitors. The top five developments identified to be needed by Brompton are: the formation of group technology cells, creation of a robotic brazing facility, and training and recruitment initiatives for production staff.

Introduction : Islam and human resource management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce this special issue on Islam and human resource management (HRM). Design/methodology/approach – The paper introduces the papers in this special issue, which further current understanding of the association between Islam and HRM, and HRM practices in Islamic countries. The papers debate whether it makes sense to talk about an Islamic HRM, and try to identify the key features of an Islamic HRM model that is substantially distinctive from existing normative models of HRM. Findings – The papers examine the impact of Islamic values on HRM practices and organisational outcomes, but more research is needed to gain a deeper understanding of the role Islam plays at the work place, and specifically how Islamic ideals, culture, values and norms are used in practice and implications thereof on workplace environment and overall organisational performance. Originality/value – The paper introduces the concept of Islam and human resource management.

Risks and benefits of selective (re)presentation of interviewees' talk:some insights from discourse analysis

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the quality of evidence collected during interview. Current UK national guidance on the interviewing of victims and witnesses recommends a phased approach, allowing the interviewee to deliver their free report before any questioning takes place, and stipulating that during this free report the interviewee should not be interrupted. Interviewers, therefore, often find it necessary during questioning to reactivate parts of the interviewee's free report for further elaboration. Design/methodology/approach: The first section of this paper draws on a collection of police interviews with women reporting rape, and discusses one method by which this is achieved - the indirect quotation of the interviewee by the interviewer - exploring the potential implications for the quality of evidence collected during this type of interview. The second section of the paper draws on the same data set and concerns itself with a particular method by which information provided by an interviewee has its meaning "fixed" by the interviewer. Findings: It is found that "formulating" is a recurrent practice arising from the need to clarify elements of the account for the benefit of what is termed the "overhearing audience" - in this context, the police scribe, CPS, and potentially the Court. Since the means by which this "fixing" is achieved necessarily involves the foregrounding of elements of the account deemed to be particularly salient at the expense of other elements which may be entirely deleted, formulations are rarely entirely neutral. Their production, therefore, has the potential to exert undue interviewer influence over the negotiated "final version" of interviewees' accounts. Originality/value: The paper highlights the fact that accurate re-presentations of interviewees' accounts are a crucial tool in ensuring smooth progression of interviews and that re-stated speech and formulation often have implications for the quality of evidence collected during significant witness interviews. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Outsourcing in Ireland:a literature review, survey and case study perspective

Outsourcing, or offshoring as it is now known, has been around for many decades. In the beginning it was only the very peripheral activities that were blue-collar (lower skilled) work outsourced, but this is now all changing with the outsourcing of white-collar jobs. Historically outsourcing was used when organisation could not perform to world-class excellence in all sectors of the organisation due to incompetence of staff and/or management, lack of capacity, financial pressures, and/or technological pressures. The research currently underway is initially focusing on a literature review of current outsourcing applications in the market place and what impact outsourcing has on business performance. This paper will present the findings of the initial literature review. It will also discuss the methodology being followed to explore the Irish Industrial Sector.

A techno-economic comparison of power production by biomass fast pyrolysis with gasification and combustion

This paper presents an assessment of the technical and economic performance of thermal processes to generate electricity from a wood chip feedstock by combustion, gasification and fast pyrolysis. The scope of the work begins with the delivery of a wood chip feedstock at a conversion plant and ends with the supply of electricity to the grid, incorporating wood chip preparation, thermal conversion, and electricity generation in dual fuel diesel engines. Net generating capacities of 1–20 MWe are evaluated. The techno-economic assessment is achieved through the development of a suite of models that are combined to give cost and performance data for the integrated system. The models include feed pretreatment, combustion, atmospheric and pressure gasification, fast pyrolysis with pyrolysis liquid storage and transport (an optional step in de-coupled systems) and diesel engine or turbine power generation. The models calculate system efficiencies, capital costs and production costs. An identical methodology is applied in the development of all the models so that all of the results are directly comparable. The electricity production costs have been calculated for 10th plant systems, indicating the costs that are achievable in the medium term after the high initial costs associated with novel technologies have reduced. The costs converge at the larger scale with the mean electricity price paid in the EU by a large consumer, and there is therefore potential for fast pyrolysis and diesel engine systems to sell electricity directly to large consumers or for on-site generation. However, competition will be fierce at all capacities since electricity production costs vary only slightly between the four biomass to electricity systems that are evaluated. Systems de-coupling is one way that the fast pyrolysis and diesel engine system can distinguish itself from the other conversion technologies. Evaluations in this work show that situations requiring several remote generators are much better served by a large fast pyrolysis plant that supplies fuel to de-coupled diesel engines than by constructing an entire close-coupled system at each generating site. Another advantage of de-coupling is that the fast pyrolysis conversion step and the diesel engine generation step can operate independently, with intermediate storage of the fast pyrolysis liquid fuel, increasing overall reliability. Peak load or seasonal power requirements would also benefit from de-coupling since a small fast pyrolysis plant could operate continuously to produce fuel that is stored for use in the engine on demand. Current electricity production costs for a fast pyrolysis and diesel engine system are 0.091/kWh at 1 MWe when learning effects are included. These systems are handicapped by the typical characteristics of a novel technology: high capital cost, high labour, and low reliability. As such the more established combustion and steam cycle produces lower cost electricity under current conditions. The fast pyrolysis and diesel engine system is a low capital cost option but it also suffers from relatively low system efficiency particularly at high capacities. This low efficiency is the result of a low conversion efficiency of feed energy into the pyrolysis liquid, because of the energy in the char by-product. A sensitivity analysis has highlighted the high impact on electricity production costs of the fast pyrolysis liquids yield. The liquids yield should be set realistically during design, and it should be maintained in practice by careful attention to plant operation and feed quality. Another problem is the high power consumption during feedstock grinding. Efficiencies may be enhanced in ablative fast pyrolysis which can tolerate a chipped feedstock. This has yet to be demonstrated at commercial scale. In summary, the fast pyrolysis and diesel engine system has great potential to generate electricity at a profit in the long term, and at a lower cost than any other biomass to electricity system at small scale. This future viability can only be achieved through the construction of early plant that could, in the short term, be more expensive than the combustion alternative. Profitability in the short term can best be achieved by exploiting niches in the market place and specific features of fast pyrolysis. These include: •countries or regions with fiscal incentives for renewable energy such as premium electricity prices or capital grants; •locations with high electricity prices so that electricity can be sold direct to large consumers or generated on-site by companies who wish to reduce their consumption from the grid; •waste disposal opportunities where feedstocks can attract a gate fee rather than incur a cost; •the ability to store fast pyrolysis liquids as a buffer against shutdowns or as a fuel for peak-load generating plant; •de-coupling opportunities where a large, single pyrolysis plant supplies fuel to several small and remote generators; •small-scale combined heat and power opportunities; •sales of the excess char, although a market has yet to be established for this by-product; and •potential co-production of speciality chemicals and fuel for power generation in fast pyrolysis systems.