The impact of FE / HE mergers : interim findings

"This paper outlines the results of an analysis of the curriculum offer and student numbers at former further education colleges who have transferred to the higher education sector following mergers with higher education institutions. It also includes some brief background information on the situation with regard to the FE asset base in the new institutions" -- [page 2]

Changes in Public Sector Employment with a Focus on Wisconsin 1993 to 2004

This study examines patterns of total employment growth and growth in the public sector. We use data from the 50 states with a focus on the 1993 to 2004 time period. We define the public sector with respect to state government as well as local government with the latter including counties, municipalities, K-12 public schools and special districts. We maintain that given the labor intensive nature of the public sector we can assess the size of the government by monitoring public sector employment. The results clearly suggest that Wisconsin's public sector, as measured by employment, is not "out of control" and growth in the public sector is a natural by-product of growth in the overall economy.

Secure and Verifiable Electronic Voting in Practice: the use of vVote in the Victorian State Election

The November 2014 Australian State of Victoria election was the first statutory political election worldwide at State level which deployed an end-to-end verifiable electronic voting system in polling places. This was the first time blind voters have been able to cast a fully secret ballot in a verifiable way, and the first time a verifiable voting system has been used to collect remote votes in a political election. The code is open source, and the output from the election is verifiable. The system took 1121 votes from these particular groups, an increase on 2010 and with fewer polling places

The Craftsmen's Spectacle: Labour Day Parades in Canada, the Early Years

Labour Day became a statutory holiday in Canada in 1894, but labour days and craftsmen’s parades had been summer events in several Canadian cities and towns for a number of years. Its creation as an official holiday responded to two demands: one for public recognition of organized labour and its important role, and another for release from the pressures of work in capitalist industry. It was up to unions, however, to produce the parades and shape the day’s events, and this task could prove to be too much for local workers’ movements with limited resources. The tension between celebration and leisure eventually undermined the original grand ideals, as wage-earners and their families began to spend Labour Day pursuing private pleasures rather than participating in a display of cultural solidarity.Lorsque la fête du Travail devint un jour férié au Canada en 1894, il y avait déjà plusieurs années que plusieurs villes et villages du Canada tenaient,l’été, des fêtes du travail et des parades d’artisans. La création d’une fête du Travail officielle répondait à deux demandes : la reconnaissance publique du syndicalisme et de son rôle important et l’allégement des pressions du travail en régime capitaliste. Il appartenait cependant aux syndicats d’organiser les parades et les activités de la journée, une tâche parfois trop lourde pour des syndicats locaux aux ressources limitées. La tension entre le goût de célébrer et celui de se divertir en vint à miner les grands idéaux de départ de la fête du Travail, les salariés et leurs familles commençant à consacrer ce congé à des activités de loisir privées plutôt qu’à une manifestation de solidarité

International Tourism Potential in Inner Mongolia: A Marketing Appraisal

This report focuses on the likely tourism potential Inner Mongolia possesses for international visitors to the area. Visitors to any area or region can be divided into domestic visitors who originate from within the same country and international visitors who have crossed an international border to reach their destination. In this sense Inner Mongolia is no different from anywhere else but for the purposes of this report it is useful to divide international visitors into those who originate from within Asia and those who originate from outside Asia (the majority of whom come from either Europe, North America or Australia and New Zealand). The reason for doing this is not to draw any artificial divisions between visitors of European decent and those from the rest of the world but as the majority or world travellers outside China today are of European decent it is prudent to pay particular attention to the behaviour and characteristics of this segment. Furthermore, the authors of this report are more qualified to provide expert advice and opinion on the characteristics and behaviour of "Western Travellers" than they are on the likes and dislikes of the Asian segment of the market