Evaluating a best practice model for an economic development agency

This thesis is concerned with evaluating effectiveness and performance in economic development agencies. Development agencies are typically quasi- public bodies that operate at metropolitan, sub-regional and local scales with the purpose of promoting and realising economic development in their areas. The aim of this thesis is to develop a best practice model for such agencies. The institutions that were studied as part of this project included a wide range of different economic development organisations located in Belfast, Berlin, Glasgow and London. Initially, the thesis discusses the history of economic development activity at sub-national scales in the UK and internationally, and explores the role that such agencies play. Aspects of organisational performance and effectiveness in the context of economic development agencies are further discussed. The research proceeds according to a framework of organisational analysis, describing and analysing the environment that agencies operate in, the most influential characteristics and factors for agency performance, and features of operational design and implementation. The basis for the original research in this thesis is data from a substantial number of qualitative interviews with individuals from development agencies and other interest groups. The thesis argues that there are a wide range of characteristics and factors that contribute to agency effectiveness and performance, and that these have been insufficiently explored in past research. Economic development agencies are also significantly influenced by the environment which they operate in. Overall, it is argued that in order to be successful at their task, economic development agencies need to be truly excellent organisations. This includes developing effective mechanisms for corporate management, staff development, and a market-led rationale for organisational philosophy and action. The concluding chapter of this thesis develops a framework for creating and sustaining excellence in economic development organisations

Photometry Results for the Globular Clusters M10 and M12: Extinction Maps, Color-Magnitude Diagrams, and Variable Star Candidates

We report on photometry results of the equatorial globular clusters (GCs) M10 and M12. These two clusters are part of our sample of GCs which we are probing for the existence of photometrically varying eclipsing binary stars. During the search for binaries in M10 and M12, we discovered the signature of differential reddening across the fields of the clusters. The effect is stronger for M10 than for M12. Using our previously described dereddening technique, we create differential extinction maps for the clusters which dramatically improve the appearance of the color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). Comparison of our maps with the dust emissivity maps of Schlegel, Finkbeiner, & Davis (SFD) shows good agreement in terms of spatial extinction features. Several methods of adding an E_{V-I} zero point to our differential maps are presented of which isochrone fitting proved to be the most successful. Our E_{V-I} values fall within the range of widely varying literature values. More specifically, our reddening zero point estimate for M12 agrees well with the SFD estimate, whereas the one for M10 falls below the SFD value. Our search for variable stars in the clusters produced a total of five variables: three in M10 and two in M12. The M10 variables include a binary system of the W Ursa Majoris (W UMa) type, a background RR Lyrae star, and an SX Phoenicis pulsator, none of which is physically associated with M10. M12's variables are two W UMa binaries, one of which is most likely a member of the cluster. We present the phased photometry lightcurves for the variable stars, estimate their distances, and show their locations in the fields and the CMDs of the GCs.Comment: 22 pages, 21 figures, to be published in AJ October 2002. For a higher-resolution version of this paper, please visit http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/~kaspar/M10_M12_photometry.ps.gz (gzipped postscript) or http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/~kaspar/M10_M12_photometry.pdf (pdf file

X-ray Spectral Properties of Low-Mass X-ray Binaries in Nearby Galaxies

We investigated the X-ray spectral properties of a collection of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) within a sample of 15 nearby early-type galaxies observed with Chandra. We find that the spectrum of the sum of the sources in a given galaxy is remarkably similar from galaxy to galaxy when only sources with X-ray luminosities less than 10^39 ergs/s (0.3-10 keV) are considered. Fitting these lower luminosity sources in all galaxies simultaneously yielded a best-fit power law exponent of Gamma = 1.56 +/- 0.02 (or kT_brem = 7.3 +/- 0.3 keV). This is the tightest constraint to date on the spectral properties of LMXBs in external galaxies. There is no apparent difference in the spectral properties of LMXBs that reside inside and outside globular clusters. We demonstrate how the uniformity of the spectral properties of LMXBs can lead to more accurate determinations of the temperature and metallicity of the hot gas in galaxies. Although few in number in any given galaxy, sources with luminosities of 1-2 x 10^39 ergs/s are present in 10 of the galaxies. The spectra of these luminous sources are softer than the spectra of the rest of the sources, and are consistent with the spectra of Galactic black hole X-ray binary candidates when they are in their very high state. The spectra of these sources are very different than those of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) found within spiral galaxies, suggesting that the two populations of X-ray luminous objects have different formation mechanisms. The number of sources with apparent luminosities above 2 x 10^39 ergs/s is equal to the number of expected background AGN and thus appear to not be associated with the galaxy, indicating that very luminous sources are absent or very rare in early-type galaxies. (Abridged)Comment: 11 pages in emulateapj5 style with 4 embedded Postscript figures; to be accepted by Ap

The signalling effect of eco-labels in modern coastal tourism

As the demand for environmentally sustainable tourism grows, eco-labels are becoming increasingly popular as a signal of environmental quality. However, the existence of a causal link between awarding a seaside eco-label and the increase in tourism flows is still under discussion in the literature. In this article, we gauge the signalling impact of a specific eco-label, the Blue Flag award, using detailed data on tourism flows to seaside Italian destinations during the period 2008-2012. We adopt a recent econometric modelling strategy - the synthetic control method - in shaping estimation results and testing the sensitivity and robustness of our results. We find that being awarded the Blue Flag increases the flow of domestic tourists for up to three seasons after assignment. However, we find no effect for the flow of international tourists. Investigating the mechanisms driving the results, we find that the award of a Blue Flag only positively affects the flow of domestic tourists when it is used as a driver of organisation, coordination and integrated management of the tourism supply

Effect of Cigarette Smoke Exposure and Mutant Kras Overexpression on Pancreatic Cell Proliferation

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer‑associated mortality. The major risk factor for pancreatic cancer is cigarette smoking. Kras mutations are commonly observed in human pancreatic cancers. The present study examined the hypothesis that exposure to cigarette smoke and overexpression of a mutant Kras gene in the pancreas affects pancreatic cell proliferation in mice. Mice overexpressing the mutant Kras gene (KRasG12D) in the pancreas as well as wild‑type mice were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke for 2 weeks. Overexpression of mutant Kras increased cell proliferation in pancreatic ductal, acinar and islet cells. Notably, cigarette smoke exposure decreased cell proliferation in pancreatic ductal and acinar cells, and had no effect in islet cells. Cigarette smoke did not affect pancreatic protein levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α, p53, or cyclin D1, but mutant Kras overexpression slightly decreased TNFα and p53 protein levels. Therefore, pancreatic cell proliferation in mice overexpressing mutant Kras is associated with the later development of pancreatic tumors, but effects of cigarette smoke on pancreatic cell proliferation do not provide a good model for human pancreatic carcinogenesis

MiSearch adaptive pubMed search tool

Summary: MiSearch is an adaptive biomedical literature search tool that ranks citations based on a statistical model for the likelihood that a user will choose to view them. Citation selections are automatically acquired during browsing and used to dynamically update a likelihood model that includes authorship, journal and PubMed indexing information. The user can optionally elect to include or exclude specific features and vary the importance of timeliness in the ranking

Ground-layer wavefront reconstruction from multiple natural guide stars

Observational tests of ground layer wavefront recovery have been made in open loop using a constellation of four natural guide stars at the 1.55 m Kuiper telescope in Arizona. Such tests explore the effectiveness of wide-field seeing improvement by correction of low-lying atmospheric turbulence with ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO). The wavefronts from the four stars were measured simultaneously on a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (WFS). The WFS placed a 5 x 5 array of square subapertures across the pupil of the telescope, allowing for wavefront reconstruction up to the fifth radial Zernike order. We find that the wavefront aberration in each star can be roughly halved by subtracting the average of the wavefronts from the other three stars. Wavefront correction on this basis leads to a reduction in width of the seeing-limited stellar image by up to a factor of 3, with image sharpening effective from the visible to near infrared wavelengths over a field of at least 2 arc minutes. We conclude that GLAO correction will be a valuable tool that can increase resolution and spectrographic throughput across a broad range of seeing-limited observations.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures, to be published in Astrophys.

US NRC emergency response dose assessment model

A new IBM PC-based dose assessment model has been written to replace the IRDAM model for use during response to emergencies. It is fast, very simple to use, and easy to modify, with separate modules of the source term, atmospheric transport, and dose models. The source term can be estimated based on isotopic ratios or on recently developed procedures that depend only on gross plant conditions. The atmospheric transport and dose models have been adapted from MESORAD. The transport model is a combination of a Lagrangian puff and Gaussian plume dispersion models. Doses are computed for whole body, lung, and thyroid for each grid location. 8 refs

Monitoring and Pay: An Experiment on Employee Performance under Endogenous Supervision

We present an experimental test of a shirking model where monitoring intensity is endogenous and effort a continuous variable. Wage level, monitoring intensity and consequently the desired enforceable effort level are jointly determined by the maximization problem of the firm. As a result, monitoring and pay should be complements. In our experiment, between and within treatment variation is qualitatively in line with the normative predictions of the model under standard assumptions. Yet, we also find evidence for reciprocal behavior. Our data analysis shows, however, that it does not pay for the employer to solely rely on the reciprocity of employees