Living with contradictions: the dynamics of senior managers in relation to sustainability

In this article, we investigate how senior managers located in Northern Europe in the energy and power industry coordinate their recognition of sustainability challenges with other things they say and do. Identity theory is used to examine the fine-grained work through which the managers navigate identities and potentially competing narratives. In contrast with other studies we find that pursuing cohering identities and resolving potential tensions and contradictions does not appear to matter for most of the managers. We explore the dynamics of how managers live with apparent contradictions and tensions without threat to their narrative coherence. We extend existing research into managerial identities and sustainability by: showing how managers combine different potentially contrasting identity types; identifying nine discursive processes through which the majority of managers distance and deflect sustainability issues away from themselves and their companies; and, showing the contrasting identity dynamics in the case of one manager to whom narrative coherence becomes important and prompts alternative action

Fostering Transformative Learning, Self-reflexivity and Medical Citizenship Through Guided Tours of Disadvantaged Neighborhoods

Background and objectives: Medical school curricula increasingly seek to promote medical students’ commitment to redressing health disparities, but traditional pedagogical approaches have fallen short of this goal. The objective of this work was to assess the value of using community-based guided tours of disadvantaged neighborhoods to fill this gap. Methods: A total of 50 second-year medical students participated in a guided tour of disadvantaged public housing neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia. Students completed self-reflexive writing exercises during a post-tour debriefing session. Student writings were analyzed to assess the tour’s effect on their awareness of poverty’s impact on vulnerable populations’ health and wellbeing, and their personal reactions to the tour. Results: Student writings indicated that the activity fostered transformative learning experiences around the issue of poverty and its effects on health and stimulated a personal commitment to working with underserved populations. Themes from qualitative analysis included: increased awareness of the extent of poverty, enhanced self-reflexive attitude towards personal feelings, biases and misperceptions concerning the poor, increased intentional awareness of the effects of poverty on patient health and well-being, and, encouragement to pursue careers of medical service. Conclusions: This pilot demonstrated that incorporating self-reflexive learning exercises into a brief community-based guided tour can enhance the social consciousness of medical students by deepening understandings of health disparities and promoting transformative learning experiences

Interacting with heritage: On the use and potential of IoT within the cultural heritage sector

This paper discusses the potential for the use of IoT technologies within cultural heritage, including the creation of new interactive experiences, visit personalisation, visitor data analysis, connected and distributed museum visits and the provision of pre- and post-visit experiences. We argue that cultural heritage offers a key opportunity for the development and deployment of new IoT systems, with potential benefits both for the cultural heritage domain and the IoT community. We present a number of areas of potential work for IoT researchers that are applicable to the heritage domain and to the broader IoT context, including challenges around poor connectivity, identifying and tracking visitors, and providing systems that are easily installed configured and maintained in environments with minimal infrastructure and poor technical support

Infrared spectrum and stability of a π-type hydrogen-bonded complex between the OH and C2H2 reactants

A hydrogen-bonded complex between the hydroxyl radical and acetylene has been stabilized in the reactant channel well leading to the addition reaction and characterized by infrared action spectroscopy in the OH overtone region. Analysis of the rotational band structure associated with the a-type transition observed at 6885.53(1) cm−1 (origin) reveals a T-shaped structure with a 3.327(5) Å separation between the centers of mass of the monomer constituents. The OH (v = 1) product states populated following vibrational predissociation show that dissociation proceeds by two mechanisms: intramolecular vibrational to rotational energy transfer and intermolecular vibrational energy transfer. The highest observed OH product state establishes an upper limit of 956 cm−1 for the stability of the π-type hydrogen-bonded complex. The experimental results are in good accord with the intermolecular distance and well depth at the T-shaped minimum energy configuration obtained from complementary ab initio calculations, which were carried out at the restricted coupled cluster singles, doubles, noniterative triples level of theory with extrapolation to the complete basis set limit

Atomic spectrometry update. Clinical and biological materials, foods and beverages

This review discusses developments in elemental mass spectrometry, atomic absorption, emission and fluorescence, XRF and LIBS, as applied to the analysis of specimens of clinical interest, foods and beverages. Sample preparation procedures and quality assurance are also included.</p