A quantitative approach to nitrogen fixation and the decay of timber in soil contact

Imperial Users onl

On the Coexistence Magnetism/Superconductivity in the Heavy-Fermion Superconductor CePt3_3Si

The interplay between magnetism and superconductivity in the newly discovered heavy-fermion superconductor CePt$_3$Si has been investigated using the zero-field $\mu$SR technique. The $\mu$SR data indicate that the whole muon ensemble senses spontaneous internal fields in the magnetic phase, demonstrating that magnetism occurs in the whole sample volume. This points to a microscopic coexistence between magnetism and heavy-fermion superconductivity.Comment: Final version, new figure structure, references correcte

Network Impact on Business Strategy for Embedded and Peripheral Firms

This paper compares two textile companies, one a central protagonist of the networks of the industry and sited within the main heartland of the cluster (Turnbull & Stockdale Ltd.), the other peripheral both geographically and in network engagement (Ferguson Bros. Ltd.). It considers the difference in their strategy and actions resulting from their central and peripheral positions within the industry structure. The companies examined are British printed textile firms, working in the 1920s and 1930s. The printed textile sector is the focus of study as it was subject to major economic, market, technical and stylistic changes during this period and had a multiplicity of different network organisations active in the industry. Turnbull & Stockdale Ltd. were based in Lancashire near Bury and were integrated into the central Manchester-based cluster of industry organisations, both design-focused and for internal industry policy. Ferguson Bros. Ltd. was a vertically integrated textile firm based in Carlisle. They were a member of the Federation of Calico Printers from 1925 but do not appear to have been actively involved in its committees or in other industry organisations. Did Ferguson Bros. suffer from its peripheral position within industry networks and cluster? Or alternatively, did Turnbull & Stockdale Ltd.’s position embedded within industry networks inhibit their actions or restrict their strategic approach? The paper considers whether the competitive advantage of knowledge distribution (Grant, 2003) from involvement in networks and clusters (Hakansan, 2005; Malmberg & Power, 2005; Eccles & Nohria, 1992) was significant. It will assess the role of different networks – did any provide access to opportunities, flexibility of working and response (Veyrassat, 1997; Capecchi, 1997), skill development and knowledge creation to build industry epistemic clusters? Or did the defensive approach of collective industry associations had an inhibitory effect on the ability to concentrate on building core competences and developing an independent, differentiated range of innovative products from this competence (Prahalad & Hamel, 1990; Johnson & Scholes, 2002)? Casson (2003, pp.25-26) warns against ‘bad networking’, in which entrepreneurs combine to protect weak industries against external competition or inward-looking anti-entrepreneurial regional cliques are formed, which inhibit local development. Hamilton & Feenstra (1998, p.107) argue that ‘In Coase’s vision (1937, pp.403-405), the crucial aspect of the firm is the authoritative ability of ‘some authority’ to direct resources efficiently in the production and marketing of goods.’ So did taking an active role in the networks disperse energies from concentration on the firm or were the collective support and knowledge diffusion benefits of the networks more significant? As network institutions develop, they can have a negative effect in the rigidity and inertia of practices and attitude, described as ‘institutional sclerosis’ by Olsen (1982). This relates to the concept of the life-cycle of a cluster (Swann, 1998), in which there is a transition from the Take-Off stage in which membership of a cluster gives competitive advantage and the Saturation stage in which the benefits are outweighed by the costs of clustering. At the Saturation stage for the British cotton industry, there was horizontal specialisation and increasing scale establishment of industrial cartel firms (the Calico Printers' Association, the Bradford Dyers' Association and Bleachers' Association), with a range of specialist industry associations to fix prices and standardise product types. These organisations tended to a defensive approach, making a collective attempt to provide security to the industry by raising barriers to entry and co-ordinating a common front on price and product types available. As an approach, it is indicative of a Decline stage industry – but is an ineffective method of stemming decline. A more dynamic approach was taken by Ferguson Bros., who diversified and developed new products and product types, with technical and design innovation to achieve new product benefits and achieve affordable price points as well as a proactive promotion strategy. Ferguson Bros. appears to have had a more strategic approach to design as part of wider product development, purchasing and developing particular design styles for targeted product brand ranges. In contrast, Turnbull & Stockdale Ltd. appear to have had a far less entrepreneurial approach (in terms of diversification and product development), although the absence of minutes necessitates a tentative judgement. They combined production of their own range with cheap commission-process printing for merchants and manufacturers – their own range all came under their own brand, but showed a fairly incoherent corporate identity, with a muddle of traditional, modernistic and modern designs in the 1930s, reverting back later to a more traditional style. There was some technical development, with the introduction of screen-printing, but no leading edge innovation in techniques and processes such as was being undertaken at Ferguson Bros. Ltd. Overall, the engagement with industry organisations such as the Federation of Calico Printers seems to have encouraged a negative, anti-entrepreneurial focus on defensive mechanisms such as price setting and industry reorganisation schemes. However, the networking between design organisations by Turnbull & Stockdale Ltd. was beneficial in knowledge creation and distribution for the wider industry. It also helped Turnbull & Stockdale Ltd. by providing links to influential designers and design ideas, but took their focus away from developing their own competencies and product offering. Ferguson Bros. Ltd.’s position on the periphery of the main networks and industry cluster allowed them to take a more radical approach in marketing strategy, developing successful and distinctive product ranges

Concentrating on Fashion: the Home Market Retail and Distribution Structure for British Dress Textiles, 1919-40

This paper will examine changes in the home market retail and distribution structure for British dress fabric. Increasing concentration of retail firms, with a transition to sales of ready-to-wear clothing rather than drapery fabrics for home dressmaking, was combined with challenges to the existing wholesale distribution structure by both manufacturers and retailers. This encouraged the establishment of a volatile fashion-driven consumer market in the interwar period. The retail structure in the home market changed significantly during the period, with the expansion of chain stores, establishment of manufacturers’ brands (supported by fixed retail prices) and broadening of access to consumer goods through the increasing availability of credit. Retailers and wholesalers changed their ordering practices in response to uncertainty of economic conditions and changes in demand, with smaller stocks held and a wider range of lines offered. A concentration of drapery sales in department stores, due to the costs of carrying a wide variety of lines, was intensified by the amalgamation of department stores. Further concentration away from the small independent drapery stores and wholesalers occurred with the establishment of large urban Co-operative retail stores and expansion of multiples that focused on sales of ready-to-wear clothing. A more dynamic competitive environment developed, with forwards integration from producers and backwards integration from retailers. The increase of branded lines by manufacturers and printers demonstrates their emergence in a more active entrepreneurial role rather the usual, passive commission-processing system. Some retail chains initiated controversial direct trading with manufacturers while department stores took on a merchanting role and commissioned textile prints or even produced small experimental ranges themselves. A fundamental shift in the production/ consumption process was the widening of the relevance of fashionability to all classes of textiles and across the social scale, with the consequent displacement of the ideal of durability. These changes led to a disappearance of the trickle-down time lag from couture to mass fashion whilst increasing market volatility. The establishment of the new model of consumption was viewed with concern by print companies due to the unpredictability of demand and higher production and promotion costs. However, the establishment of a fashionability model for all price levels of dress fabric increased personal choice and raised the significance of design in mass-market printed dress fabrics. These changes in the textiles retail and distribution structure indicate the transition to a recognisably modern mass consumer society

Family Firms, Innovation and Networks: the Interwar British Printed Textile Industry

This paper will consider the role of family firms, the Chandlerian ‘modern business enterprise’ and networks in the British printed textile industry during the harsh competitive and macroeconomic conditions of the interwar period. Chandler focuses on economies of scale and scope (in multiunit enterprises managed by an integrated hierarchy of professional middle managers) as the key factor in efficient, profitable production. The Cotton Industry Enquiry of the Economic Advisory Council Committee advanced a similar strategy of increasing scale in 1929-30. It recommended the industry to co-operate under the JCCTO to produce and market standard lines, reduce costs of production and increase efficiency. Lazonick (1986) also argued that the failure to reorganise the industry under vertical schemes of amalgamation, rationalisation and standardisation led to the decline of the industry. However, this paper argues that reliance on strategies for cost reduction through increasing scale was ineffective under these economic conditions – the firms with the strongest competitive advantage were those that focused on innovation to create a differentiated, lower priced product. Furthermore, those companies that were actively involved in industry networks such as the Federation of Calico Printers and Manchester Chamber of Commerce tended to be less successful than those more loosely associated with the networks, as they concentrated on the establishment of cartel price agreements and political pressure to adjust tariff rates to gain market control, rather than establishing individual paths of innovation and strategic development. Chandler’s 7th proposition (1977) that "career managers preferred policies that favoured the long term stability and growth of their enterprises to those that maximised current profits; they were far more willing than were the owners (the stockholders) to reduce or even forgo current dividends in order to maintain the long term viability of their organisations" is undermined by textile industry family firms, in which the owners bore much of the costs of the Depression to their business personally in order to maintain the viability of the organisation, in contrast to the management policy of the CPA as a multiunit firm that closed production units. The view of family firms as inherently conservative in approach (Casson, 1993) and contributing to British industrial decline (Kindleberger, 1964; Wiener, 1981) has been challenged by Miguel A. Saez (2006), who emphasises their strategic flexibility. This is supported In the British printed textile industry, in which family firms that had close control over strategy and financial management by owner-directors could survive the hostile competitive environment of the interwar period more effectively

An experimental study to determine the effect of various practice period patterns on the achievement levels of two motor skills

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University

Hydraulic flow through a channel contraction: multiple steady states

We have investigated shallow water flows through a channel with a contraction by experimental and theoretical means. The horizontal channel consists of a sluice gate and an upstream channel of constant width $b_0$ ending in a linear contraction of minimum width $b_c$. Experimentally, we observe upstream steady and moving bores/shocks, and oblique waves in the contraction, as single and multiple steady states, as well as a steady reservoir with a complex hydraulic jump in the contraction occurring in a small section of the $b_c/b_0$ and Froude number parameter plane. One-dimensional hydraulic theory provides a comprehensive leading-order approximation, in which a turbulent frictional parametrization is used to achieve quantitative agreement. An analytical and numerical analysis is given for two-dimensional supercritical shallow water flows. It shows that the one-dimensional hydraulic analysis for inviscid flows away from hydraulic jumps holds surprisingly well, even though the two-dimensional oblique hydraulic jump patterns can show large variations across the contraction channel

Full report - School break and lunch times and young people's social lives: a follow-up national study

Most primary and secondary schools have a recreational break and these lunch and break times are a significant part of the school day. Two previous surveys conducted by Professor Peter Blatchford and Dr Ed Baines found that school break-times had reduced since 1990. Since then, there are signs of further changes to the nature and length of break times, as well as to school systems and children’s lives outside school. However, there is little up-to-date and systematic information about the nature and organisation of break times and children’s social lives. This new project comprises a follow-up survey of break and lunch times in primary and secondary schools. It will focus on their timing and duration, supervision arrangements, changes to school grounds, rules for pupil movement during break times, views on pupil behaviour at break times, break time management, and the perceived value and function of these times. Combined with the previous surveys, it will provide an analysis of trends in break and lunch times over 26 years. In Phase 1 of the new project, the researchers will conduct a national survey of schools, focusing on their arrangements for break and lunch times and their provision of social-educational opportunities during these times and outside of school hours. In Phase 2 they will carry out case studies of schools to explore different break and lunch time arrangements. They will also conduct a survey of children and young people to examine their social life in and outside of school. The project’s findings will contribute to policy and debate about the role and function of break times in school and in children’s social lives