The customer is always right? Assessing the value of Patron Driven Acquisition at the University of Huddersfield

This article discusses a small scale Patron Driven Acquisition (PDA) study at the University of Huddersfield. The authors briefly describe the background to PDA at Huddersfield before discussing data from the 2014 PDA pilot with the e-book supplier EBL. The pilot produced two sets of data, usage reports using COUNTER statistics and a short questionnaire designed by the library. These results led to a major alteration to the collection management and development policy where PDA is now embedded into the library bookfund

Finite Products are Biproducts in a Compact Closed Category

If a compact closed category has finite products or finite coproducts then it in fact has finite biproducts, and so is semi-additive.Comment: 9 pages. Introduction further expanded, minor errors correcte

Higher education means business: a summary of the economic impact of Scottish higher educaton institutions

This study examined key economic features of the Scottish higher education institutions (HEIs) in the academic and financial year 2004 -2005 together with those aspects of their contribution to the economy that can be readily measured. The Scottish HEIs included in the study are the 20 institutions for which data is provided by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Major economic characteristics of the HEIs were examined, including their revenue, expenditure and employment. The study also included modelled analysis of the economic activity generated in other sectors of the economy through the secondary or 'knock-on' effects of the expenditure of the institution, its staff and international students. Overall this summary presents an up-to-date examination of the quantifiable contribution of Scottish HEIs to the economy

Food, passion and marginalised young people : technologies of the self in Jamie\u27s kitchen

A passion for food that is understood in certain ways – slow, organic, not industrialised – plays a central role in the drama of the successful and popular Jamie’s Kitchen (2002) and Jamie’s Kitchen Australia (2006). Large parts of the drama in these shows revolve around an apparent lack of passion that is displayed by the marginalised, unemployed young people that are the central characters in this story. In this paper I examine the ways in which these accounts of food, passion, and the training of marginalised young people expose some of the challenges and opportunities faced by marginalised young people as they seek to transition into the uncertain and risky labour markets of 21st century capitalism. I argue that Michel Foucault’s (1988) concept of technologies of the self enables us to understand passion, and its particular manifestations in Jamie’s Kitchen, and in the training of marginalised young people, as a powerful technology of self transformation. The drama of Jamie’s Kitchen suggests that as a technology of the self passion for food promises to provide precarious, possibly temporary, forms of salvation, meaning and purpose for the young people engaged in the Fifteen Foundation’s social enterprise transitional labour market program

Assessment of coronary artery outward remodeling in consequence of excision of epicardial adipose tissue in Ossabaw swine

Background Coronary artery disease (CAD) results from the buildup of cholesterol, inflammatory factors, and proliferating smooth muscle cells within a vessel wall. This plaque impedes on the vessel lumen, decreasing the space through which blood can flow, leading to an array of complications in the human body. To offset these effects, the arterial wall undergoes outward remodeling, a compensatory physiologic phenomenon that blood vessels undertake when burdened with a blockage, such as CAD. In a previously conducted study, a coronary epicardial adipose tissue excision (cEATx) surgery was performed above the left anterior descending (LAD) in Ossabaw swine to investigate the effects of local adipose on the progression of CAD. Compared to the sham control group, pigs that underwent the adipectomy procedure revealed focal attenuation of disease progression at the surgical site within the LAD. Unlike, the previous research question, this current study aims to determine if there was an additional global outward remodeling effect by investigating disease progression in the right coronary artery (RCA) of the same animals. By comparing the two sites, we are able to determine whether the outward remodeling observed in the LAD was due to the local surgical procedure or a physiologic compensation for limitations caused by CAD progression. Methods Images of the RCA lumen were collected using intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). Measurements of the external elastic lamina and lumen area were taken of each collected still-frame image. For each pig, the data were averaged across the proximal 15 mm of the RCA at two separate time points (pre- and post-surgery). Pre-surgery measures were obtained the day the surgery took place while post-surgery measures were obtained 3 months later. Percent stenosis, plaque area, outward remodeling, and lumen area were all assessed. Results Progression of CAD in the RCA, represented by percent stenosis, was not significantly slowed in the adipectomy pigs compared to the control group. Outward remodeling in the RCA, represented by an increase in external elastic lamina circumference, was not significantly higher in the adipectomy pigs compared to the control group. Conclusions These data indicate that the cEATx procedure at the LAD did not attenuate CAD progression in the RCA