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Selected AbstractsComparing in-work benefits and the reward to work for families with children in the US and the UKFISCAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2001Mike Brewer Abstract The income transfer systems for low-income families in the US and the UK try both to reduce poverty and to encourage work. In-work benefits are a key part of both countries' strategies through the earned income tax credit and the working families' tax credit (and predecessors) respectively. But tax credits are only one part of the whole tax and welfare system. In-work benefits, taxes and welfare benefits combine in both countries to provide good financial incentives for lone parents to do minimum-wage work, but poorer incentives to increase earnings further. But direct comparisons of budget constraints hide important points of detail. First, not enough is known about what determines take-up of in-work benefits. Second, the considerable differences in assessment and payment mechanisms and frequency between EITC and WFTC mean that low-income families in the US and the UK may respond very differently to apparently similar financial incentives. [source] Developing organizational learning in the NHSMEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 1 2001Sandra M Nutley Learning has been identified as a central concern for a modernized NHS. Continuing professional development has an important role to play in improving learning but there is also a need to pay more attention to collective (organizational) learning. Such learning is concerned with the way organizations build and organize knowledge. Recent emphasis within the NHS has been on the codification of individual and collective knowledge , for example, guidelines and National Service Frameworks. This needs to be balanced by more personalized knowledge management strategies, especially when dealing with innovative services that rely on tacit knowledge to solve problems. Having robust systems for storing and communicating knowledge is only one part of the challenge. It is also important to consider how such knowledge gets used, and how routines become established within organizations that structure the way in which knowledge is deployed. In many organizations these routines favour the adaptive use of knowledge, which helps organizations to achieve incremental improvements to existing practices. However, the development of organizational learning in the NHS needs to move beyond adaptive (single loop) learning, to foster skills in generative (double loop) learning and meta-learning. Such learning leads to a redefinition of the organization's goals, norms, policies, procedures or even structures. This paper argues that moving the NHS in this direction will require attention to the cultural values and structural mechanisms that facilitate organizational learning. [source] Quercitol and osmotic adaptation of field-grown Eucalyptus under seasonal drought stressPLANT CELL & ENVIRONMENT, Issue 7 2008STEFAN K. ARNDT ABSTRACT This study investigated the role of quercitol in osmotic adjustment in field-grown Eucalyptus astringens Maiden subject to seasonal drought stress over the course of 1 year. The trees grew in a native woodland and a farm plantation in the semi-arid wheatbelt region of south Western Australia. Plantation trees allocated relatively more biomass to leaves than woodland trees, but they suffered greater drought stress over summer, as indicated by lower water potentials, CO2 assimilation rates and stomatal conductances. In contrast, woodland trees had relatively fewer leaves and suffered less drought stress. Plantation trees under drought stress engaged in osmotic adjustment, but woodland trees did not. Quercitol made a significant contribution to osmotic adjustment in drought-stressed trees (25% of total solutes), and substantially more quercitol was measured in the leaves of plantation trees (5% dry matter) than in the leaves of woodland trees (2% dry matter). We found no evidence that quercitol was used as a carbon storage compound while starch reserves were depleted under drought stress. Differences in stomatal conductance, biomass allocation and quercitol production clearly indicate that E. astringens is both morphologically and physiologically ,plastic' in response to growth environment, and that osmotic adjustment is only one part of a complex strategy employed by this species to tolerate drought. [source] Commitment to change: Exploring its role in changing physician behavior through continuing educationTHE JOURNAL OF CONTINUING EDUCATION IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS, Issue 4 2004Dr. Jacqueline G. Wakefield MD Abstract Statements of commitment to change are advocated both to promote physician change and to assess interventions designed to promote change. Although commitment to change is only one part of a complex process of change, recent progress has established a solid theoretical and research base to support this approach. Studies have demonstrated that it can be used effectively with many different types of educational activities and that statements of "plans to change" practice can predict actual changes. The importance of follow-up as part of the commitment to change model is becoming clearer, although questions remain about the most effective process is accomplishment this and the optimal timing. Further research is needed to establish the effectiveness of the commitment-to-change approach itself, as well as to better understand the functions (and thus the forms) of the different components of the commitment-to-change model. [source] Distributed intelligence in an astronomical Distributed Sensor NetworkASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 3 2008R.R. White Abstract The Telescope Alert Operations Network System (TALONS) was designed and developed in the year 2000, around the architectural principles of a distributed sensor network. This network supported the original Rapid Telescopes for Optical Response (RAPTOR) project goals; however, only with further development could TALONS meet the goals of the larger Thinking Telescope Project. The complex objectives of the Thinking Telescope project required a paradigm shift in the software architecture , the centralised intelligence merged into the TALONS network operations could no longer meet all of the new requirements. The intelligence needed to be divorced from the network operations and developed as a series of peripheral intelligent agents, distributing the decision making and analytical processes based on the temporal volatility of the data. This paper is presented as only one part of the poster from the workshop and in it we will explore the details of this architecture and how that merges with the current Thinking Telescope system to meet our project goals. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] | ||||||||||