The fluctuating record of economic regeneration in England's second-order city regions, 1984-2007

This study examines how far and in what way ‘Our cities are back’, as claimed by England’s Core Cities Group. It focuses on 1984-2007 employment changes for the eight Core Cities and their city regions: Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield. City regions are defined on a consistent functional basis and allowance is made for discontinuities in the jobs time-series. These provincial city regions are found to have suffered relatively less than London in the early 1990s recession, but then recovered more slowly to achieve their greatest rates of growth in 1998- 2002 and only then did the Core Cities outpace the rest of their city regions. Employment growth slowed after this, though their population recovery continued

The scalar politics of economic planning

Across England, modes of governing larger-than-local development strategies are undergoing far-reaching change. In particular, the new government of 2010 has a political and financial mission of rescaling and simplifying sub-national economic planning. Alongside the revocation of myriad and sometimes unpopular regional strategies, their supportive institutional structures are being rapidly disbanded, opening up a strategic leadership gap or fissure between national and local scales of policy. Analysing the theory and processes of spatial rescaling, including the emergence of new geographies of governance at the sub-regional scale, the paper draws attention to some of the key opportunities and dilemmas arising from these ‘scalar shifts’. The economic planning roles of the new, cross-boundary entrepreneurial governance entities – Local Enterprise Partnerships – are explored. A key question is whether these public-private arrangements, across what were intended as ‘functional’ economic areas, present a pragmatic way of resolving the strategic tensions between local authority areas that would otherwise be neglected in a post-regional era. The research is based on national monitoring of policy shifts and draws upon participatory observation as an instrument to enrich more formal policy narratives. The paper finds these new bodies lack powers and funding, and concludes that state-led rescaling in effect provides a new ‘cover’ for some old politics; namely neoliberalism including the deepening of entrepreneurial forms of governance. Key words: Strategic planning, sub-national development, economic planning, entrepreneurial governance and Local Enterprise Partnership

Modernising Planning: Public Participation in the UK Planning System

In the UK the formal land-use planning system is once more at a crossroads with the unprecedented levels of public comment on the recent Governmental Green Paper on Planning. A recent international report on the planning process in Westernised countries highlighted a dearth of public participation in the UK planning system this is despite an obvious undercurrent of concern on environmental issues and the like. The paper sets out to gauge the extent of public interest in the Planning system, in the light of current proposals to revise it. The paper concentrates on the nature of public participation in Planning and to consider whether the public are more satisfied with process, seeing it as fair and robust, if they are more actively involved in the process of consultation. Other aspects to consider are the need to seek consultation from the wider public, not just individuals and special interest groups. There are several forgotten frontiers of the past effort to promote public participation. Theory dating from the 1970s exposed differences between sociological approaches in Planning and solutions tended to be lost in complexity of Local Development Plans. Subsequent theory (Healey 1997) has argued for the need to reconcile plural interests across localities. What is neglected in the research is the fuller appreciation of the actual public interest by those in the Planning system. A recent international report by Heriott-Watt University, Edinburgh and DePaul University, Chicago called for the notion of ‘public participation’ to be turned on its head and instead encourage the practice of ‘participatory planning’- the use of third parties to pre-mediate conflicts between stakeholders before and during the process of an open consultation as opposed to seeking public opinions after the plans have been drawn. This paper aims to review the modernising agenda and set out the case for shifting public participation to participatory planning within the context of the UK. Particularly pertinent due to recent recommendations to increase sustainability communities. It uses several qualitative case studies drawn from urban planning authorities and rural districts from the UK, which reveal Local Planning Authorities may be as yet unprepared to fully grasp the concepts underpinning the notion of participatory planning.

Diversificación de las salidas profesionales para los geógrafos y las geógrafas en el Reino Unido

La geografía británica nace con las necesidades del propio imperio y desde los años treinta del siglo XX ha contribuido a la planificación del territorio británico. A partir de los años setenta tiene lugar un aumento del número de geógrafos que trabajan como planificadores territoriales y en los ochenta y noventa, como consultores e investigadores para diversos organismos semigubernamentales. Los geógrafos han demostrado su capacidad para desarrollar distintas tareas además de la enseñanza. La titulación de primer nivel, que comprende tres años de estudio, es la que tiene más número de estudiantes. A los interesados en dedicarse profesionalmente a la geografía se les recomienda realizar algún tipo de especialización o formación profesional después de la licenciatura. El resto, que son la mayoría, prefieren trabajar en sectores con más proyección de futuro, como el sector financiero y empresarial, aunque pierden más rápidamente su identidad como geógrafos.La geografia britànica neix amb les necessitats del propi imperi i des de la dècada de 1930 ha contribuït a la planificació del territori britànic. A partir de la dècada de 1970 té lloc un augment del nombre de geògrafs que treballen com a planificadors territorials i durant les dècades de 1980 i 1990, com a responsables de la recerca i consultors en diversos organismes semigovernamentals. Els geògrafs han demostrat la seva capacitat per dur a terme diferents tasques, a més de la de docència. La titulació de primer nivell, que consta de tres anys d'estudi, és la que té més estudiants. Als interessats a dedicar-se professionalment a la geografia se'ls recomana dur a terme algun tipus d'especialització o formació professional després de la llicenciatura. La resta, que és la majoria, prefereix treballar en sectors de més projecció de futur, com ara el sector financer i empresarial, però en els quals perden més ràpidament la seva identitat com a geògrafs.La géographie britannique naît avec les besoins de l'empire et après les années 1930 a contribué à l'aménagement du territoire britannique. À la suit des années 70 accroît le nombre de géographes qui travaillent comme aménageurs du territoire et pendant les années 80 et 90 comme chercheurs et consultants dans diverses organisations demi-governamentales. Les géographes ont montré sa capacité pour faire diferents travaux, en plus de l'enseignement. Le diplôme de premier cycle, de trois années de durée, a la plus part des étudiants. Ceux qui veulent devenir des professionnels de la géographie font quelque sorte de spécialisation ou formation professionnalisante après ce premier cycle. Les autres, qui sont les plus nombreux, préfèrent travailler dans d'autres secteurs avec plus expectatives de futur mais où ils perdent son identité comme géographes.British Geography was born out of the needs of the imperial state and has contributed to the internal territorial planning of the country since the 1930s. The employment of geographers as professional planners increased in the 1970s, and as employees and research contractors of a wide range of quasi-government bodies and consultants in the 1980s and 1990s. Geographers have proved their capacity for a wide range of public tasks beyond school-teaching. However, the subject has very large numbers of students for the main degree, which involves only three years study. Geographers with a career interest in the subject are well-advised to take a further specialist or vocational qualification after that period. The others, the majority, find themselves attractive recruits to burgeoning sectors of financial and business services in the economy as a whole, where they lose their identity as Geographers more rapidly

Teacher Job Satisfaction in the Plattsmouth Community Schools as Measured by the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire

Effective education and its relationship to teacher job satisfaction causes administrators and parents to be concerned. When teachers are dissatisfied with their jobs, the education of the children may suffer

Great Britain's second-order city regions in recessions, 1978-2010

While it is now accepted that the 2008-09 recession accentuated regional differences in Britain, it is more difficult to identify the role of major cities, especially over a longer time scale. Using previously established methods focussed on employment, this paper assesses the record of nine city regions in the 2008-09 recession, both in its own right and in comparison with the previous two recessions. The 2008-09 recession is found to have impacted the nine city regions less than the previous ones in absolute terms but not in relative terms compared with the London city region or the rest of Britain. Over the whole period from 1978, the paper has found the city regions to be fairly tightly in the grip of national cyclical trends of recession and recovery, but generally performing less resiliently than Britain as a whole. In comparison, London showed appreciably more cyclical behaviour between 1989 and 2002 than at other times, with the most remarkable recovery from recession in this period. The public sector helped the performance of second-order city regions from 1997 to 2010, including the peak of growth rates in city regions and their cores in 1998-2002, but its employment reductions will dominate the prospects for provincial cities for several years to come

Extracting and re-using research data from chemistry e-theses: the SPECTRa-T project

Scientific e-theses are data-rich resources, but much of the information they contain is not readily accessible. For chemistry, the SPECTRa-T project has addressed this problem by developing data-mining techniques to extract experimental data, creating RDF (Resource Description Framework) triples for exposure to sophisticated Semantic Web searches. We used OSCAR3, an Open Source chemistry text-mining tool, to parse and extract data from theses in PDF, and from theses in Office Open XML document format. Theses in PDF suffered data corruption and a loss of formatting that prevented the identification of chemical objects. Theses in .docx yielded semantically rich SciXML that enabled the additional extraction of associated data. Chemical objects were placed in a data repository, and RDF triples deposited in a triplestore. Data-mining from chemistry e-theses is both desirable and feasible; but the use of PDF, the de facto format standard for deposit in most repositories, prevents the optimal extraction of data for semantic querying. In order to facilitate this, we recommend that universities also require deposition of chemistry e-theses in an XML document format. Further work is required to clarify the complex IPR issues and ensure that they do not become an unwarranted barrier to data extraction and re-use

The Surface Fatigue Life of Contour Induction Hardened AISI 1552 Gears

Two groups of spur gears manufactured from two different materials and heat treatments were endurance tested for surface fatigue life. One group was manufactured from AISI 1552 and was finished ground to a 0.4 micron (16 micro-in.) rms surface finish and then dual frequency contour induction hardened. The second group was manufactured from CEVM AISI 9310 and was carburized, hardened, and ground to a 0.4 micron (16 micro-in.) rms surface finish. The gear pitch diameter was 8.89 cm (3.5 in.). Test conditions were a maximum Hertz stress of 1.71 GPa (248 ksi), a bulk gear temperature of approximately 350 K (170 F) and a speed of 10,000 rpm. The lubricant used for the tests was a synthetic paraffinic oil with an additive package. The test results showed that the 10 percent surface fatigue (pitting) life of the contour hardened AISI 1552 test gears was 1.7 times that of the carburized and hardened AISI 9310 test gears. Also there were two early failures of the AISI 1552 gears by bending fatigue

Tree Species Control Rates of Free-Living Nitrogen Fixation in a Tropical Rain Forest

Tropical rain forests represent some of the most diverse ecosystems on earth, yet mechanistic links between tree species identity and ecosystem function in these forests remains poorly understood. Here, using free-living nitrogen (N) fixation as a model, we explore the idea that interspecies variation in canopy nutrient concentrations may drive significant local-scale variation in biogeochemical processes. Biological N fixation is the largest “natural” source of newly available N to terrestrial ecosystems, and estimates suggest the highest such inputs occur in tropical ecosystems. While patterns of and controls over N fixation in these systems remain poorly known, the data we do have suggest that chemical differences among tree species canopies could affect free-living N fixation rates. In a diverse lowland rain forest in Costa Rica, we established a series of vertical, canopy-to-soil profiles for six common canopy tree species, and we measured free-living N fixation rates and multiple aspects of chemistry of live canopy leaves, senesced canopy leaves, bulk leaf litter, and soil for eight individuals of each tree species. Free-living N fixation rates varied significantly among tree species for all four components, and independent of species identity, rates of N fixation ranged by orders of magnitude along the vertical profile. Our data suggest that variations in phosphorus (P) concentration drove a significant fraction of the observed species-specific variation in free-living N fixation rates within each layer of the vertical profile. Furthermore, our data suggest significant links between canopy and forest floor nutrient concentrations; canopy P was correlated with bulk leaf litter P below individual tree crowns. Thus, canopy chemistry may affect a suite of ecosystem processes not only within the canopy itself, but at and beneath the forest floor as well