Search

Lack of disease surveillance in small companion animals worldwide has contributed to a deficit in our ability to detect and respond to outbreaks. In this paper we describe the first real-time syndromic surveillance system that conducts integrated spatio-temporal analysis of data from a national network of veterinary premises for the early detection of disease outbreaks in small animals. We illustrate the system's performance using data relating to gastrointestinal disease in dogs and cats. The data consist of approximately one million electronic health records for dogs and cats, collected from 458 UK veterinary premises between March 2014 and 2016. For this illustration, the system predicts the relative reporting rate of gastrointestinal disease amongst all presentations, and updates its predictions as new data accrue. The system was able to detect simulated outbreaks of varying spatial geometry, extent and severity. The system is flexible: it generates outcomes that are easily interpretable; the user can set their own outbreak detection thresholds. The system provides the foundation for prompt detection and control of health threats in companion animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present new evidence on the relation between idiosyncratic risk and mutual fund performance using asset pricing models. We use a unique data set containing monthly returns of 949 UK equity mutual funds over a 28-year period to measure fund performance. We find that idiosyncratic risk cannot be eliminated in UK mutual funds. We show that idiosyncratic risk is negatively related to returns for all funds investment style categories. We present evidence that the inclusion of idiosyncratic risk significantly increases the number of funds showing statistically significant and positive selectivity skills (alpha). Furthermore, all equity mutual funds turn to show significant volatility timing performance when idiosyncratic risk is considered. Finally, we find that idiosyncratic risk can forecast fund returns after controlling for macroeconomic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ambient population, i.e. the demographics and volume of people in a particular location throughout the day, has been studied less than the night-time residential population. Although the spatio-temporal behaviour of some groups, such as commuters, are captured in sources such as population censuses, much less is known about groups such as retired people who have less documented behaviour patterns. This paper uses agent-based modelling to disaggregate some ambient population data to estimate the size and demographics of the constituent populations during the day. This is accomplished by first building a model of commuters to model typical 9–5 workday patterns. The differences between the model outputs and real footfall data (the error) can be an indication of the contributions that other groups make to the overall footfall. The research then iteratively simulates a wider range of demographic groups, maximising the correspondence between the model and data at each stage. An application of this methodology to the town centre of Otley, West Yorkshire, UK, is presented. Ultimately this approach could lead to a better understanding about how town- and city-centres are used by residents and visitors, contributing useful information in a situation where raw data on the populations do not exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper forms the United Kingdom's contribution to the International Banking Research Network's project examining the impact of liquidity shocks on banks' lending behavior, using proprietary bank-level data available to central banks. Specifically, we examine the impact of changes in funding conditions on U.K.-resident banks' domestic and external lending from 2006 to 2012. The results suggest that, following a rise in the funding shock measure, U.K.-resident banks that grew their balance sheets quicker relative to their peers precrisis decreased their external lending by more relative to other banks, and increased their domestic lending. When the paper accounts for country of ownership, it finds that the same pattern was true for both U.K.-owned and foreign-owned banks, but more pronounced for U.K.-owned banks' domestic and foreign-owned banks' external lending. These results are robust to splitting the data into real and financial sector lending, the use of more granular bilateral country loan data and controlling for government interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses time series data on UK book sales to establish what correlation exists between the national income of a country and its sales of books. This is tested by comparing series data in real terms for GDP per capita and for various data series for the UK market, including sales invoiced by publishers and point of sale data on consumer purchasing. The first period, from 1985 to 1999, shows a strong relationship between total sales and GDP per capita. In the second period, from 2001 to 2015, the link appears to disappear when we examine invoiced sales from publishers, even before the impact of the 2008 crisis. This is also including the growth of digital sales towards the end of the period. The direct consumer data shows sales tracking GDP until the onset of the financial crisis; thereafter the only trade sector to have kept pace with GDP is children's, and this contrasts with the areas of adult fiction and non-fiction. Have we therefore seen a structural shift in the book market? If we have passed peak book, what has brought about this uncoupling of book sales from economic growth? Factors are considered including changes in retail, competition from other media, and a prioritization of experience over the accumulation of stuff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the question of how the high non-completion rates found amongst ethnic minority students in UK higher education should be interpreted. US studies examining the nexus between academic performance, ethnicity and social background have concluded that ethnicity-related performance differences are not just the by-product of social class. This study examines the nature of these linkages in the UK where the composition of the ethnicity mix and the nature of the socioeconomic environment are both markedly different from the US. The paper is based on a detailed case study of a cohort from a UK university that recruits a high proportion of its students from ethnic minority backgrounds. Prima facie evidence is found which questions the assumption that the under-performance of minorities should be treated predominantly as an ethnicity issue. It is found that after controlling for socioeconomic background, minority student non-completion rates are found to be very similar to those of their White peers. Further evidence is also uncovered which suggests that in practice there are considerable complexities in the ways in which ethnic differences impact on non-completion rates. From an educational policy perspective, it is argued that more effective results might be obtained if student support initiatives aimed at reducing the non-completion rates among minority student place a greater emphasis on issues relating to their socioeconomic background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the under-emphasised connection between theoretical conceptualisations and empirical operationalisations in the field of trust research. The paper proposes a matching of specific surveys measures with conceptualisations in order to work towards a more theoretically-informed empirical study of interpersonal trust. The work examines five widely-used survey measures of trust, and considers whether they are likely to operationalise conceptualisations of trust that are broadly more 'strategic' or more 'moralistic' in nature. It is argued that these trust questions, which are frequently used interchangeably, are likely to differ substantially from each other in terms of their conceptual underpinnings. This expectation is tested by examining the association between interpersonal trust and gender across seven UK social surveys. Findings indicate that the trust questions indeed have different associations with gender, providing support for the idea that some questions map more closely onto 'strategic' conceptualisations of trust, whilst others map more closely onto 'moralistic' conceptualisations. Implications of these findings are explored in the context of the search for construct validity in trust research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines and portrays the production side of the custom publishing field with a primary focus on the UK, especially Greater London. Despite its prevalence, custom publishing has not received the same attention from media scholars, which is mirrored by the sometimes inappropriate, and even confusing terminologies attached to it. Hence, this paper aims to offer definitions characterizing the custom publishing branch whilst assessing the weaknesses and ambiguities in current definitions used in marketing and communications literature. Whereas a number of themes emerge from the study, the main focus is to locate the industry within the broader field of cultural production. Based on sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, the study looks at the heteronomous-and hence externally determined-principle inherent in the relationship between the contracting companies and the contracted writers. Furthermore, the research details the resources or capital, which form the basis of the publishers' work, and how the struggle between the economic and symbolic capitals is manifested in the three pillars (the account managers, the editorial, and the design teams). Finally, it is argued that despite displaying many of the traits Bourdieu's associates with a heteronomous field, custom publishers rely on an important degree of autonomy, which is institutionalized within the field itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the initiatives by the Associated Booksellers of Great Britain and Ireland between 1920 and 1930 to formalise training for booksellers, reflecting on the current moves to reinstate some kind of bookselling qualification through the partnership of Waterstones with the University of Derby. It uses as primary sources the trade papers of The Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record and The Bookseller, both key narrative repositories for histories of this nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Sen's Capability Approach (CA) well-being can be defined as the freedom of choice to achieve the things in life which one has reason to value most for his or her personal life. Capabilities are in Sen's vocabulary therefore the real freedoms people have or the opportunities available to them. In this paper we examine the impact of capabilities alongside choices on well-being. There is a lot of theoretical work on Sen's capability framework but still a lack of empirical research in measuring and testing his capability model especially in a dynamic perspective. The contribution of the paper is first to test Sen's theoretical CA approach empirically using 25 years of German and 18 years of British data. Second, to examine to what extent the capability approach can explain long-term changes in well-being and third to view the impact on subjective as well as objective well-being in two clearly distinct welfare states. Three measures of well-being are constructed: life satisfaction for subjective well-being and relative income and employment security for objective well-being. We ran random and fixed effects GLS models. The findings strongly support Sen's capabilities framework and provide evidence on the way capabilities, choices and constraints matter for objective and subjective well-being. Capabilities pertaining to human capital, trust, altruism and risk taking, and choices to family, work-leisure, lifestyle and social behaviour show to strongly affect long-term changes in subjective and objective well-being though in a different way largely depending on the type of well-being measure used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of moorland management on the release of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from blanket peat is currently a topic of great interest in the UK. A recent paper by Chapman et al. (Biogeochemistry, doi:, 2010) reports on changes in humic colour/DOC concentrations in surface waters draining 15 upland peat catchments in the North Pennines (UK) over two decades, and examines the possible underlying drivers of those changes. Chapman et al. identify significant variation in water colour between adjacent catchments and over time. One potential driver of changes in DOC is managed moorland burning, and Chapman et al. state that their study provides evidence that burning has no effect on colour in upland catchment drainage waters. This observation counters a recent series of papers showing strong links between new moorland burn management on blanket peat soils and colour/DOC in catchment drainage waters. We have reviewed the methodological approach and results presented by Chapman et al. that relate to the assessment of managed burning, and show significant errors in the data used in their analysis. This has resulted in conclusions being drawn about the role of managed burning in DOC release that are not supported by evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an application of extended goal programming in the field of offshore wind farm site selection. The strategic importance of offshore shore wind farms is outlined, drawing on the case of the United Kingdom proposed round three sites as an example. The use of multi-objective modelling methodologies for the offshore wind farm sector is reviewed. The technique of extended goal programming is outlined and its flexibility in combining different decision maker philosophies described. An extended goal programming model for site selection based on the United Kingdom future sites is then developed and a parametric analysis undertaken at the meta-objective level. The results are discussed and conclusions are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite electronic book (e-book) piracy being viewed by many rightsholders as the greatest contemporary challenge to the publishing industry, there is little research evaluating different anti-piracy methods, and explaining how they work. This paper explores the technological methods that United Kingdom and United States publishers, and their representative bodies, are using to tackle the growing challenge of e-book piracy. Through interviews with industry experts (including consultants, publishers and representatives) and publishing case studies, this paper brings together knowledge previously published and considered separately. The systems considered include The Publishers Association Copyright Infringement Portal, and Digital Rights Management in its various forms. Through these systems, we can reveal a lack of nuanced understanding in the motivations and methods of illegal file sharing, which have led to unsuccessful blanket solutions to a complex problem. By teasing out these problems, this paper will act as a point of reference for current anti-piracy measures, and consider the future options for an industry increasingly using the World Wide Web to distribute content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years questions concerning the impact of public research funding have become the preeminent site at which struggles over the meanings and value of science are played out. In this paper we explore the 'politics of impact' in contemporary UK science and research policy and, in particular, detail the ways in which UK research councils have responded to and reframed recent calls for the quantitative measurement of research impacts. Operating as 'boundary organisations' research councils are embroiled in what might be characterised as the 'politics of demarcation' in which competing understandings of the cultural values of science are traded, exchanged and contested. In this paper we focus on the way the UK's 'Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council' (EPSRC) has responded to contemporary policy discourses concerning the impacts of public research expenditure. We argue that, in response to the shifting terms of contemporary science policy, the EPSRC has adopted three distinct strategies. Firstly, in collaboration with other research councils the EPSRC have emphasised the intellectual and metrological challenge presented by attempts to quantify the economic impact of public research expenditure, emphasising instead the cumulative impacts of a broad portfolio of 'basic science'. Secondly, the EPSRC has sought to widen the discursive meaning of research impacts - specifically to include societal and policy impacts in addition to economic ones. Thirdly, the EPSRC has introduced a new framing into the 'impact agenda', preferring to talk about 'pathways to impact' rather than research impacts per se. In responding to government priority setting, we argue that the EPSRC has sought to exploit both the technical fragility of auditing techniques and the discursive ambiguity of notions of impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine the role of the built environment as a tool of nineteenth-century British colonial expression within the Red Sea island town of Suakin, Sudan. Within Suakin and its environs, four major European focal points were examined through the use of archaeological survey and excavation. These were; (1) waterfront development (2) centers of colonial management, (3) terrestrial and maritime communication and (4) defense. The central argument of the paper is that economic and social control was maintained through the creation of new urban morphologies and European domination of existing urban space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indicators and indices (a collection of indicators into a single value) have been promoted for some time as convenient devices for the presentation of complex datasets to a more general audience. Examples of indices are the corruption perception index (CPI), human development index (HDI) and ecological footprint (EF). The research reported in this paper was designed to explore the extent to which the CPI, HDI and EF have been reported in UK national newspapers between January 1990 and December 2009, and whether there are differences between the indices in the pattern of reporting. Results suggest that reporting of the CPI was linked to the timing of reports issued by Transparency International. The same was partly true of reporting of the HDI and timing of release of Human Development Reports s by the UNDP. The EF has more reports than the CPI and HDI, and this is related in part to its greater flexibility and adaptability at more local (intra-UK) scales. The paper recommends that those creating such indices look beyond the methodological dimension and consider how best to make the index resonate with the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global community, from UNESCO to NGOs, is committed to promoting the status of women in science, engineering and technology, despite long-held prejudices and the lack of role models. Previously, when equality was not firmly established as a key issue on international or national agendas, women's colleges played a great role in mentoring female scientists. However, now that a concerted effort has been made by governments, the academic community and the private sector to give women equal opportunities, the raison d'être of women's universities seems to have become lost. This paper argues otherwise, by demonstrating that women's universities in Japan became beneficiaries of government initiatives since the early 2000s to reverse the low ratio of women in scientific research. The paper underscores the importance of the reputation of women's universities embedded in their institutional foundations, by explaining how female scientific communities take shape in different national contexts. England, as a primary example of a neoliberal welfare regime, with its strong emphasis on equality and diversity, promoted its gender equality policy under the auspices of the Department of Trade and Industry. By contrast, with a strong emphasis on family values and the male-breadwinner model, the Japanese government carefully treated the goal of supporting female scientists from the perspective of the equal participation of both men and women rather than that of equality. Following this trend, rather contradictorily, women's universities, with their tradition of fostering a 'good wife, wise mother' image, began to be highlighted as potential gender-free institutions that provided role models and mentoring female scientists. By drawing on the cases of England and Japan, this paper demonstrates how the idea of equality can be framed differently, according to wider institutional contexts, and how this idea impacts on gender policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores conceptions of curricular and extracurricular in UK higher education. Reporting on a case study of staff understandings of the extracurricular we argue that our data highlight the lack of debate about curricular matters. We found that there was considerable blurring of boundaries in conceptions of the curricular and extracurricular and argue that this is related to the lack of any stable or explicit conception of the curriculum in UK higher education. The paper highlights issues of recognition and non-recognition of the sorts of cultural capital which flow from traditional and other forms of extracurricular activities (ECA) and points to the continued gendering of caring and its valuing. Recognition of capital from within diverse communities and derived from activities which have not been traditionally conceptualised as ECA might contribute to graduate outcomes, but there are limitations to a politics of recognition. We argue that account also needs to be taken of the materiality of student lives and the constraints they face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the current state of cultural diversity education for undergraduate medical students in three English-speaking countries: the United Kingdom (U.K.), United States (U.S.) and Canada. We review key documents that have shaped cultural diversity education in each country and compare and contrast current issues. It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the varied terminology that is immediately evident. Suffice it to say that there are many terms (e.g. cultural awareness, competence, sensitivity, sensibility, diversity and critical cultural diversity) used in different contexts with different meanings. The major issues that all three countries face include a lack of conceptual clarity, and fragmented and variable programs to teach cultural diversity. Faculty and staff support and development, and ambivalence from both staff and students continue to be a challenge. We suggest that greater international collaboration may help provide some solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recovering the life and work of Ellis Abraham Davidson (1828–1878), this paper draws attention to a Victorian who expands our understanding of Anglo-Jewry as he does not fit the occupational stereotypes. Unusually, he contributed to education, more specifically to the socially-important but frequently neglected topic of technical education. He taught the “lowly” arts, generally known in the nineteenth century as “arts and manufactures”, or the “useful arts”, or “art and design”. Thus although he did not become an artisan or tradesman himself, through his teaching others acquired the requisite skills to become artisans and tradesmen. Moreover, drawing on his experience teaching practical subjects he lectured to Jewish artisans and advised the Board of Guardians on the best way to support apprentices. Finally, and most importantly, this study of Davidson sheds new light on the relations between science, technology, and Judaism in the mid-Victorian period. Thus the final two sections of this paper will examine his commitment to a form of natural theology that set him against Darwin’s theory of evolution and also informed his only book directed specifically at the Anglo-Jewish community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Plymouth Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (1884) was founded in 1888. In addition to conducting morphological and other biological research, the founders of the laboratory aimed at promoting research in experimental zoology which will be used in this paper as a synonym for e.g. experimental embryology, comparative physiology or general physiology. This dream was not fully realized until 1920. The Great War and its immediate aftermath had a positive impact on the development of the Plymouth Laboratory. The war greatly upset the operation of the Zoological Station in Naples and the ensuing crisis in its operations was closely related to the establishment of the physiological department in Plymouth in 1920. Two other key factors in the Plymouth story were the establishment of the Development Fund in 1909, which began contributing funds to the Plymouth Laboratory in 1912, and the patronage of the Cambridge zoologist George P. Bidder (1863–1954). This paper will focus on the combined influence of the Development Fund and Bidder on the development of the Plymouth Laboratory from around 1902 through the early 1920s, and the important role the laboratory played in promoting experimental zoology in Britain in the 1920s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Kingdom, there has been a resurgence of interest in philanthropy amongst the media, policymakers, and scholars alike. In this context, the analysis of new and innovative forms of philanthropy is paramount. This paper focuses on an innovation in the philanthropic form: the community foundation. The success of community foundations in the United States provided the impetus for the establishment of community foundations in the UK in the 1980s. This paper examines how the community foundation form has been adapted to the UK and the factors which have influenced the development and roles of British community foundations. It is argued that this study is both timely and important for three reasons. First, the analysis of new structures through which people give furthers our understanding of Britain’s culture of giving. Second, the paper examines the role of community-based philanthropy in the civil renewal of Britain’s communities. Finally, the study makes an important contribution to efforts to promote the community foundation form worldwide as it highlights the challenges of transferring philanthropic forms from one context to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined cancer research stories on the BBC web archive (July 1998-June 2006). There were about 260 BBC stories per year, of which about 170 were classed as relevant to reports of cancer research. The stories focused heavily on breast cancer, and over one-third of them mentioned this (compared with a cancer disease burden of 13%); the next most covered sites were lung and prostate cancers, although the former was much less mentioned than its cancer disease burden of almost 20% would have suggested. The focus of the stories was often on new or improved drugs or vaccines (20% of stories), with lifestyle choices (12%), genetic developments (9%), and food and drink (8%) also featuring fairly prominently. The BBC stories cited about 1380 research papers that could be identified as journal articles. About three-quarters of the cited papers were in the field of cancer. The papers of these authors came from over 60 countries, and 40% were from the United Kingdom and 36% from the United States. UK cancer research was heavily overcited, by about 6:1, relative to its presence in world oncology research and US research was cited about in proportion. That of most other countries, especially Japan, Germany, and Austria, was relatively undercited. These cited papers also acknowledged more funding bodies. Most of the BBC stories were put in context by external commentators, of whom the large majority was from the UK's cancer research charities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a substantially increased interest in biomedical research impact assessment over the past 5 years. This can be studied by a number of methods, but its influence on clinical guidelines must rank as one of the most important. In cancer, there are 43 UK guidelines (and associated Health Technology Assessments) published (up to October 2006) across three series, each of which has an evidence base in the form of references, many of which are papers in peer-reviewed journals. These have all been identified and analysed to determine their geographical provenance and type of research, in comparison with overall oncology research published in the peak years of guideline references (1999-2001). The UK papers were cited nearly three times as frequently as would have been expected from their presence in world oncology research (6.5%). Within the United Kingdom, Edinburgh and Glasgow stood out for their unexpectedly high contributions to the guidelines' scientific base. The cited papers from the United Kingdom acknowledged much more explicit funding from all sectors than did the UK cancer research papers at the same research level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a generic technique for the evaluation and comparison of the capability of manufacturing systems as a decision-making aid. It provides a methodical approach for extracting key capability factors (CF) and their degree of fulfilment by the institutes. The capability factors and their priorities are determined by experts in the related industry. By adopting this approach, a “ capability index” for each institute will be derived. This will be the basis for capability comparison. The proposed method applies fuzzy relations and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) techniques to calculate capability indices. The case study discussed in this paper is the result of a project commissioned by a prominent UK based company (UBC) to consolidate its EU operations. The results illustrate the effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed methodology for a wide range of applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article questions the assumption that increasing competition among higher education institutions is the best method of achieving a strong higher education sector in developing countries. It notes that there has been increasing emphasis on the importance of higher education institutions for sustainable development, particularly because of their importance to the global knowledge economy. For the same reason, the appropriate management of the relationship between the state and higher education institutions is vital to a strong and dynamic future for these institutions. This paper proposes a menu of options for higher education governance, grouped around ‘state-centric’ and ‘neo-liberal’ models of development. The ‘state-centric’ model proposed is based on a variety of examples of high performing Asian economies, in particular, while the ‘neo-liberal’ model is based on emerging trends in higher education management in countries such as Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. The paper suggests that despite pressure across the globe to encourage a market among universities, this may not always be the most efficient use of resources, or the best way to integrate universities in a country’s drive for economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘independent learner’ is a key construct within discourses of educational policy and practice in the UK. Government policy statements stress the importance of developing learner independence, and higher education pedagogical practices tend to rest on the assumption that students are independent learners. This paper draws on research with undergraduate students in a post-1992 university to offer a critical appraisal of the discourse of the independent learner. The paper examines students’ perceptions of independence in both their first year of undergraduate study, and in the later years of their degree courses. Support for learning and issues related to asking for help are discussed. Whilst students tend to both expect and want to be independent, it is suggested that dominant constructions of the independent learner are gendered and culturally specific, and as such are inappropriate for the majority of students in a mass higher education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper scrutinises organisational change in Japanese and UK universities which are engaged in entrepreneurial activities. The study focuses on recent changes in governance, management, leadership, and funding in these universities. The paper argues there are convergent trends between Japanese and UK universities in terms of increasing entrepreneurial activities, a review of institutional strategies, a review of the organisation, the application of market-oriented institutional policy, links with the industrial sector, the notion of a public financial crisis and changing external environment, strong leadership of the university President or Vice-Chancellor, and the notion of the accountability of the university to society as a whole. However, the application of particular institutional strategies, entrepreneurial culture, and the way in which an institution relates itself to the private sector significantly differs among institutions. The paper suggests that those differences are related to different institutional history and characteristics – including those between national and private universities in Japan, and old and new universities in the UK – as well as different government policies between Japan and the UK. The paper first proposes a theoretical model for the five types of entrepreneurial culture of the institutions. It then examines the model by using case studies: Nottingham Trent University (UK), University of Surrey (UK), University of Tokyo (Japan), and Waseda University (Japan). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the dynamics of competition in higher education. National competition and global competition are distinct, but feed into each other. Higher education produces ‘positional goods’ (Hirsch 1976) that provide access to social prestige and income-earning. Research universities aim to maximise their status as producers of positional goods. This status is a function of student selectivity plus research performance. At system-level competition bifurcates between exclusivist elite institutions that produce highly value positional goods, where demand always exceeds supply and expansion is constrained to maximise status; and mass institutions (profit and non-profit) characterised by place-filling and expansion. Intermediate universities are differentiated between these poles. In global competition, the networked open information environment has facilitated (1) the emergence of a world-wide positional market of elite US/UK universities; and (2) the rapid development of a commercial mass market led by UK and Australian universities. Global competition is vectored by research capacity. This is dominated by English language, especially US universities, contributing to the pattern of asymmetrical resources and one-way global flows. The paper uses Australia as its example of system segmentation and global/national interface. It closes by reflecting on a more balanced global distribution of capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress files, involving personal development planning (PDP), are becoming a feature of many higher education systems internationally. In the UK they will become mandatory for all undergraduate students from 2005. This presents a major implementation challenge, because while reflection has been a cornerstone of practice in some areas of higher education for a considerable time, its generalisation as national policy changes its discursive location. The paper presents findings from a case study of the implementation of PF in one UK Higher Education Institution (HEI). It reports on how staff in one institution understand PF in the context of national policy, and on how they interpret the challenges they face in facilitating reflection for all students. The paper argues that pedagogical innovations take on a different meaning when applied to the system as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In western capitalist societies the state has become increasingly criticized for its inadequacy as a mechanism for distributing welfare inclusively. In particular, it has been criticized for its lack of flexibility in meeting the needs of increasingly plural populations, and for being too distant to enable service users to participate in the meeting of their welfare needs. Consequently, in many countries, including the United Kingdom, voluntary and community associations have been used to distribute welfare with the belief that it can remedy the defects of universal state provision. This paper suggests the voluntary and community sector can only achieve this if the organizations are democratically organized, ensuring participation from staff and users. Moreover, participation should be based around the norms of deliberative democracy. The paper argues that this form of participation will best ensure that the needs, preferences, and interests of subordinate groups are included in social policy delivery, due to the fostering of public reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to revisit the debate concerning the nature and timing of the British Agricultural Revolution. Specifically, it considers how zooarchaeological evidence can be employed to investigate later-medieval and post-medieval “improvements” in animal husbandry. Previous studies of animal bone assemblages have indicated that the size of many domestic species in England increases from the fifteenth century—an observation that has been used to support the writings of those historians that have argued that the Agricultural Revolution occurred several centuries prior to the traditionally ascribed date of 1760–1840. Here, zooarchaeological data are presented which suggest that the size of cattle, sheep, pig and domestic fowl were increasing from as early as the fourteenth century. However, it is argued that the description of these changes as revolutionary is misleading and disguises the interplay of factors that influenced agricultural practice in the post-Black Death period. This paper concludes with a plea for greater awareness of the value of collecting and analysing faunal data from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to enable the historically attested productivity increases of the traditionally dated Agricultural Revolution to be examined archaeologically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New developments in e-learning and increasingly sophisticated learning technologies are beginning to make a major impact in U.K. universities. It is clear that universities need to change to accommodate the impact of technology on learning. Communication technologies that are free from time or place constraints provide new challenges to universities on how they should be organised. The paper reflects on the university's strategic planning process and outlines the development process of an e-learning initiative. Examples of the emergent change agenda are identified and finally possibilities for future development are explored. It is clear that the impact of e-learning will require universities to re-think fundamentally their thinking and therefore their strategies in a whole range of areas. There has been much focus on technological advancement but much less on how technology impacts on strategic planning. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by examining one university's strategic responses to this challenge of e-learning. The learning attached to this case study could be used to help other universities respond to the change agenda brought about by e-learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on European Control Conferences that took place during 1991-2001. First European Control Conference was held in Grenoble, France in July 1991. Noteworthy is a high percentage of screened papers, which seems to be due to the fact that this was the first conference and a substantial part of papers were preplanned to some extent because they were presented at the 28 so-called invited sessions. The Seventh European Control Conference took place in Cambridge, Great Britain on September 14, 2003. The European Union recently pays much attention to increasing the standing of the European researchers in the international science and engineering. This was the main goal of organizing in 1990 the European Union Control Association.

This paper focuses upon ways in which National Lottery funding impacts upon aspects of identity for small- to medium-sized organizations in the United Kingdom, and highlights some of the less-anticipated difficulties that groups may experience after receipt of a grant. A large Lottery grant can facilitate rapid expansion and may necessitate a degree of organizational learning for which groups are often unprepared. The paper suggests that a Lottery grant may lead to changes in the ways in which an organization identifies itself, or is identified by stakeholders. However, these changes may not be accompanied by a corresponding change in the organization's capacity or underlying cultural ethos. On the basis of the primary research carried out in 2003, the paper examines the implications of these changes for individual organizations and for the sector more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the legitimacy of third sector organizations in the policy process in the United Kingdom. It draws on empirical research to examine how legitimacy is defined, both by third sector organizations and by those they target within government. The paper argues that while many third sector organizations give high priority to political forms of legitimacy—in the sense of participatory structures and accountability to members and beneficiaries—government is generally more likely to give priority to technical forms of legitimacy, e.g., the quality of research and the ability to implement policy. Nonetheless, political legitimacy is still important, first because this is the form of legitimacy that third sector organizations claim for themselves and second because, as government gives way to governance with an increase in partnerships and collaboration, the dilemmas faced by third sector organizations in achieving political legitimacy are being faced on a broader canvas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to provide insights into the process that has been adopted to enable faculty and support staff (course administrators and technicians) to identify and enhance the quality of educational provision in a large UK Business School. The concern to address this issue was motivated initially by the demands of external subject review. There was a realisation by senior managers within the School that what was required was the embedding and sharing of good practice and continuous improvement of the provision: in short, an application of the concept of a learning organisation. The paper may assist others engaged in the task of enhancing the quality of student learning in their faculties or schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses approaches to global education in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. The paper begins by looking at movements that preceded global education, such as education for international understanding, development education, multicultural education, and peace education. The rise and fall of these earlier movements is analysed in terms of the interplay between the international and domestic politics of particular countries. To identify the world views which underpinned these pedagogic forms, the author discusses various discontinuities between the period up to the 1990s and thereafter. It is suggested that fresh forms of global education are emerging in — and because of — the changed world of the late 20th and early 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports results of `insider research' at a UK college of higher education (NewColl). In drawing on a `ground-level' approach, and building on earlier work (Newton 1999a,b), it provides insights into `front-line' academics' views and perspectives on organisational change and the implementation of quality policy, and points to challenges for institutional leadership. The paper begins by considering the impact of the quality revolution on the academic community and its relationships, and then looks at how policy implementation, leadership, and the management of change can be conceptualised. The case study element consists of profiles of two academic departments which, in the main body of the research, displayed markedly more negative responses to organisational change and the implementation of revised quality assurance arrangements than other academic units. Drawing on interview data which provide `thick description' (Geertz 1973), a set of explanatory concepts is presented which help to explain why the two schools show themselves to be divergent in comparison with others. These concepts centre on issues around `psychological contracts' (Handy 1984, 1993); leadership, communication and the management of change; collegialism and professional accountability; and reciprocal accountability and mutual trust. The paper goes on to consider the importance of `the discretion debate' (Lipsky 1976, 1980; Prottas 1978) and proposes that, by stressing `ownership', `professional autonomy', and `self-assessment', quality assurance systems and quality management in higher education run the risk of exposing or exacerbating the `problem' of discretion for institutional managers and leaders. The paper concludes by identifying a number of lessons which can be drawn from the case study for quality managers and academic administrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the potential for, and the contradictions inherent in, voluntary sector health service providers acting as consumer representatives. The paper examines a U.K. gay men's HIV prevention organization to consider whether members are united by their experiences of using services, whether their work involves consumerist strategies, if so whether these are influential, and what tensions emerge from the dual provider/consumer role. Fieldwork was carried out in 1997–98, examining, via documents and interviews, activity between 1992 and 1997. Qualitative analysis was performed. Consumer action is shown to emerge not so much from abstract constructions of consumer interest, but more from the particularities of consumption, which become politicized more powerfully through their attachment to other interests and ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative analysis of giving ethos and behavior in the United States and the United Kingdom, in particular the relationship of giving to civic life. Obvious disparities between the two countries exist when overall levels of giving are considered. In the United States, individual giving as a percentage of gross national or domestic product has consistently hovered around 2% of Gross Domestic Product. By contrast, charitable giving in the United Kingdom has yet to reach 1% of GDP. The paper identifies the differences in giving ethos and behavior in the two countries in relation to the complexity of the differences between the political structures, social attitudes, and the role of charitable giving in the two countries. In particular, the paper postulates a set of models—generosity and altruism—for explaining the differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about income and poverty dynamics and their socioeconomic correlates. The first half of the paper aims to establish some of the salient facts for Britain, applying the pioneering methods of Bane and Ellwood (1986). Important for poverty dynamics are changes in labour earnings from persons other than the household head, changes in non-labour income (including benefits), and changes in household composition, in addition to changes in the heads' labour earnings. The second half of the paper is a review and critique of the multivariate modelling frameworks which might be used to explain and forecast these salient facts for Britain or elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a research project which examines the opportunities for and barriers to workplace learning amongst low-grade staff in the UK public sector. It examines the key role of managers and supervisors, who make many of the decisions about individuals' access to learning opportunities. Their perception of staff's willingness and need to learn is influenced by factors such as age, gender or the likelihood of career development. It is these managers who control the immediate work environment and the flow of information about learning opportunities. Innovative examples of workplace learning are described, yet the paper concludes that the reality for many low grade manual and routine clerical staff continues to be one of limited opportunities for workplace learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demands for greater accountability, global competition, and concern about standards have all contributed to the increasing interest in evaluation in universities in the UK. At the same time, both pedagogic research and teacher development in higher education are gaining prominence. This paper describes the initial development of a programme of systematic curriculum evaluation research within a `new' university. The focus of the research is a new undergraduate curriculum which emphasises graduate outcomes and incorporates the development of core `capabilities' within the subject context. Our task has been to develop a longitudinal programme of research that will combine both a summative evaluation of educational outcomes with formative evaluation of learning processes to inform continued curriculum development. Questions of performance indicators, measurement, and educational outcomes all come under scrutiny in a context of multiple purposes and stakeholders, the micropolitics of the university and wider debates about the purpose and effectiveness of undergraduate education. This paper explores these issues and their implications for the development of a curriculum evaluation strategy, describing the initial stages of the multi-level longitudinal design that is emerging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the membership of the professional association of chemical engineering in Britain – the Institution of Chemical Engineers – during its first three decades. Using collective methods of biography, it explores how long it took for clear boundaries to develop between this membership and the wider chemical community. Delineation was linked to the development of an academic discipline. This paper argues that the indeterminate constituency of the IChemE delayed growth, but allowed it to play a key role in shaping the development of the new profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring patient access to genomic information in the face of increasing demand requires clinicians to develop innovative ways of working. This paper presents the first empirical prospective observational cohort study of UK multi-disciplinary genetic service delivery. It describes and explores collaborative working practices including the utilisation and role of clinical geneticists and non-medical genetic counsellors. Six hundred and fifty new patients referred to a regional genetics service were tracked through 850 clinical contacts until discharge. Referral decisions regarding allocation of lead health professional assigned to the case were monitored, including the use of initial clinical contact guidelines. Significant differences were found in the cases led by genetic counsellors and those led by clinical geneticists. Around a sixth, 16.8% (109/650) of referrals were dealt with by a letter back to the referrer or re-directed to another service provider and 14.8% (80/541) of the remaining patients chose not to schedule an appointment. Of the remaining 461 patients, genetic counsellors were allocated as lead health professional for 46.2% (213/461). A further 61 patients did not attend. Of those who did, 86.3% (345/400) were discharged after one or two appointments. Genetic counsellors contributed to 95% (784/825) of total patient contacts. They provided 93.7% (395/432) of initial contacts and 26.8% (106/395) of patients were discharged at that point. The information from this study informed a planned service re-design. More research is needed to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of different models of collaborative multi-disciplinary working within genetics services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the measurement of individual welfare in labour supply models which allow for the impact of income taxation and income support schemes on labour supply decisions. The paper is motivated by the concern over the need to have measures which can be interpreted easily, which can be compared with net income, and which can be meaningfully aggregated. To illustrate the issues we use estimates of a discrete choice model of labour supply for United Kingdom lone mothers to compute alternative welfare measures which might be considered as having intuitive appeal to policy-makers. We compute welfare change based on these measures arising from a recent reform of the child support payments system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an attempt to ensure high quality cancer treatment for all patients in the UK, care is being centralized in specialist centres and units. For patients in outlying areas, however, access problems may adversely affect treatment. In an attempt to assess alternative methods of delivering cancer care, this paper reviews published evidence about programmes that have set out to provide oncology services in remote and rural areas in order to identify evidence of effectiveness and problems. Keyword and textword searches of on-line databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, HEALTHSTAR and CINAHL) from 1978 to 1997 and manual searches of references were conducted. Fifteen papers reported evaluations of oncology outreach programmes, tele-oncology programmes and rural hospital initiatives. All studies were small and only two were controlled, so evidence was suggestive rather than conclusive. There were some indications that shared outreach care was safe and could make specialist care more accessible to outlying patients. Tele-oncology, by which some consultations are conducted using televideo, may be an acceptable adjunct. Larger and more methodologically robust studies are justified and should be conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a theoretical perspective on the ways in which children progress in learning mathematics. It suggests that there is a difficulty in associating teaching discourses with the mathematics they locate. This can result in an incommensurability between alternative perspectives being offered. The paper resists attempts to privilege any particular account but rather demands an analysis of these discourses and their presuppositions. In developing these themes the paper invokes Ricoeur‘s analysis of time and narrative as an analytical approach to treating notions such as transition, development and progression in mathematical learning. His notion of semantic innovation is introduced. This embraces both the introduction of a new metaphor into a sentence or the creation of a new narrative which reorganises events into a new ’plot‘. The notion is utilised in arguing that the shift in the student‘s mathematical development from arithmetic to first order linear equations with unknowns reconfigures the contextual parameters governing the understanding of these mathematical forms. It is also utilised in showing how alternative approaches to accounting for such transitions suit different and perhaps conflicting outcomes. For example, demonstrating awareness of generality or performing well in a diagnostic test featuring the solution of linear equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been three major analytical reviews that have examined the voluntary–statutory relationship during the 1990s, one undertaken by government in 1990 and the other two independently in 1993 and 1996. This article suggests that an historical understanding of this relationship (especially in terms of its sociopolitical dimensions) is crucial, but was missing from the 1990 review and misrepresented by the 1993 review. The 1996 document has been subjected to harsh criticism, but it was arguably sounder in its understanding of this fundamental issue. The national compact between representatives of the voluntary sector and the state, launched at the end of 1998, has built upon the arguments put forward in 1996. However, the paper suggests that given the vexed history of “partnership” between the sectors and the extent to which the statutory sector has become the dominant partner at the end of the 20th century, it would be premature to be overly optimistic. The paper examines three major shifts in the voluntary–statutory relationship during the 20th century, before reviewing the 1990s' documents in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]