The strategic impact of airline group diversification: the cases of Emirates and Lufthansa

The airline industry is a diverse sector, requiring the support of a varied range of ancillary businesses such as maintenance, catering and travel agencies to carry out its activities. Many of these supporting businesses demonstrate the potential to drive wider profit margins despite generating lower revenues than the airlines themselves, making them attractive investment opportunities in a sector prone to volatile and often lacklustre trading. This study investigates two of the largest diversified airline groups, Germany's Lufthansa Group and Dubai's Emirates Group, each adopting a distinct approach towards diversification that may serve as a model for airline groups worldwide. The areas investigated were Cargo, Maintenance, Catering and Travel Services. The research found that whilst diversification may not always present the most attractive option financially, strategic factors can often outweigh such concerns. Business units studied were found to have variable prospects; particularly in the case of Catering, a sector on the rise – versus in-house Maintenance, which for airlines, is likely to see decline. The pursuit of third party revenue streams to offset weak internal trading and growth in competencies were found to be the key drivers of success. Interplay between segments was also apparent, showing that a well-organised diversification strategy can achieve robust cross-functional benefits and deliver significant value to the parent organisation

Calculation of the Coherent Synchrotron Radiation Impedance from a Wiggler

Most studies of Coherent Synchrotron Radiation (CSR) have only considered the radiation from independent dipole magnets. However, in the damping rings of future linear colliders, a large fraction of the radiation power will be emitted in damping wigglers. In this paper, the longitudinal wakefield and impedance due to CSR in a wiggler are derived in the limit of a large wiggler parameter $K$. After an appropriate scaling, the results can be expressed in terms of universal functions, which are independent of $K$. Analytical asymptotic results are obtained for the wakefield in the limit of large and small distances, and for the impedance in the limit of small and high frequencies.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Creating the ‘ethics industry': Mary Warnock, in vitro fertilization and the history of bioethics in Britain

Recent decades have seen a shift in the management and discussion of biomedicine. Issues once considered by doctors and scientists are now handled by a diverse array of participants, including philosophers, lawyers, theologians and lay representatives. This new approach, known as ‘bioethics', has become the norm in regulatory committees and public debate. In this article, I argue that bioethics emerged as a valued enterprise in Britain during the 1980s because it fulfilled, and linked, the concerns of several groups. My analysis centres on the moral philosopher Mary Warnock, who chaired a government inquiry into human fertilization and embryology between 1982 and 1984, and became a strong advocate of bioethics. I detail how Warnock's promotion of bioethics tallied with the Conservative government's desire for increased surveillance of hitherto autonomous professions – while fulfilling her own belief that philosophers should engage in public affairs. And I also show that Warnock simultaneously promoted bioethics to doctors and scientists as an essential safeguard against declining political and public trust. This stance, I argue, framed bioethics as a vital intermediary between politics, the public, and biomedicine, and explains the growth and endurance of what the Guardian identified as an ethics industry

Academic freedom in Europe: time for a Magna Charta?

This paper is a preliminary attempt to establish a working definition of academic freedom for the European Union states. The paper details why such a definition is required for the European Union and then examines some of the difficulties of defining academic freedom. By drawing upon experience of the legal difficulties beset by the concept in the USA and building on previous analyses of constitutional and legislative protection for academic freedom, and of legal regulations concerning institutional governance and academic tenure, a working definition of academic freedom is then derived. The resultant definition which, it is suggested, could form the basis for a European Magna Charta Libertatis Academicae, goes beyond traditional discussions of academic freedom by specifying not only the rights inherent in the concept but also its accompanying duties, necessary limitations and safeguards. The paper concludes with proposals for how the definition might be tested and carried forward

Differentiation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells into Endoderm without Embryoid Body Formation

Pluripotent embryonic stem cells hold a great promise as an unlimited source of tissue for treatment of chronic diseases such as Type 1 diabetes. Herein, we describe a protocol using all-trans-retinoic acid, basic fibroblast growth factor and dibutyryl cAMP (DBcAMP) in the absence of embryoid body formation, for differentiation of murine embryonic stem cells into definitive endoderm that may serve as pancreatic precursors. The produced cells were analyzed by quantitative PCR, immunohistochemistry and static insulin release assay for markers of trilaminar embryo, and pancreas. Differentiated cells displayed increased Sox17 and Foxa2 expression consistent with definitive endoderm production. There was minimal production of Sox7, an extraembryonic endoderm marker, and Oct4, a marker of pluripotency. There was minimal mesoderm or neuroectoderm formation based on expression levels of the markers brachyury and Sox1, respectively. Various assays revealed that the cell clusters generated by this protocol express markers of the pancreatic lineage including insulin I, insulin II, C-peptide, PDX-1, carboxypeptidase E, pan-cytokeratin, amylase, glucagon, PAX6, Ngn3 and Nkx6.1. This protocol using all-trans-retinoic acid, DBcAMP, in the absence of embryoid bodies, generated cells that have features of definitive endoderm that may serve as pancreatic endocrine precursors

Comparison of nonculture blood-based tests for diagnosing invasive Aspergillosis in an animal model

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"I am your mother and your father!": In vitro derived gametes and the ethics of solo reproduction

In this paper, we will discuss the prospect of human reproduction achieved with gametes originating from only one person. According to statements by a minority of scientists working on the generation of gametes in vitro, it may become possible to create eggs from men’s non-reproductive cells and sperm from women’s. This would enable, at least in principle, the creation of an embryo from cells obtained from only one individual: ‘solo reproduction’. We will consider what might motivate people to reproduce in this way, and the implications that solo reproduction might have for ethics and policy. We suggest that such an innovation is unlikely to revolutionise reproduction and parenting. Indeed, in some respects it is less revolutionary than in vitro fertilisation as a whole. Furthermore, we show that solo reproduction with in vitro created gametes is not necessarily any more ethically problematic than gamete donation—and probably less so. Where appropriate, we draw parallels with the debate surrounding reproductive cloning. We note that solo reproduction may serve to perpetuate reductive geneticised accounts of reproduction, and that this may indeed be ethically questionable. However, in this it is not unique among other technologies of assisted reproduction, many of which focus on genetic transmission. It is for this reason that a ban on solo reproduction might be inconsistent with continuing to permit other kinds of reproduction that also bear the potential to strengthen attachment to a geneticised account of reproduction. Our claim is that there are at least as good reasons to pursue research towards enabling solo reproduction, and eventually to introduce solo reproduction as an option for fertility treatment, as there are to do so for other infertility related purposes

Ultrafast optical generation of coherent phonons in CdTe1-xSex quantum dots

We report on the impulsive generation of coherent optical phonons in CdTe0.68Se0.32 nanocrystallites embedded in a glass matrix. Pump probe experiments using femtosecond laser pulses were performed by tuning the laser central energy to resonate with the absorption edge of the nanocrystals. We identify two longitudinal optical phonons, one longitudinal acoustic phonon and a fourth mode of a mixed longitudinal-transverse nature. The amplitude of the optical phonons as a function of the laser central energy exhibits a resonance that is well described by a model based on impulsive stimulated Raman scattering. The phases of the coherent phonons reveal coupling between different modes. At low power density excitations, the frequency of the optical coherent phonons deviates from values obtained from spontaneous Raman scattering. This behavior is ascribed to the presence of electronic impurity states which modify the nanocrystal dielectric function and, thereby, the frequency of the infrared-active phonons

The Fossil Calibration Database—A New Resource for Divergence Dating

Fossils provide the principal basis for temporal calibrations, which are critical to the accuracy of divergence dating analyses. Translating fossil data into minimum and maximum bounds for calibrations is the most important—often least appreciated—step of divergence dating. Properly justified calibrations require the synthesis of phylogenetic, paleontological, and geological evidence and can be difficult for nonspecialists to formulate. The dynamic nature of the fossil record (e.g., new discoveries, taxonomic revisions, updates of global or local stratigraphy) requires that calibration data be updated continually lest they become obsolete. Here, we announce the Fossil Calibration Database (http://fossilcalibrations.org), a new open-access resource providing vetted fossil calibrations to the scientific community. Calibrations accessioned into this database are based on individual fossil specimens and follow best practices for phylogenetic justification and geochronological constraint. The associated Fossil Calibration Series, a calibration-themed publication series at Palaeontologia Electronica, will serve as a key pipeline for peer-reviewed calibrations to enter the databas

International Stem Cell Collaboration: How Disparate Policies between the United States and the United Kingdom Impact Research

As the scientific community globalizes, it is increasingly important to understand the effects of international collaboration on the quality and quantity of research produced. While it is generally assumed that international collaboration enhances the quality of research, this phenomenon is not well examined. Stem cell research is unique in that it is both politically charged and a research area that often generates international collaborations, making it an ideal case through which to examine international collaborations. Furthermore, with promising medical applications, the research area is dynamic and responsive to a globalizing science environment. Thus, studying international collaborations in stem cell research elucidates the role of existing international networks in promoting quality research, as well as the effects that disparate national policies might have on research. This study examined the impact of collaboration on publication significance in the United States and the United Kingdom, world leaders in stem cell research with disparate policies. We reviewed publications by US and UK authors from 2008, along with their citation rates and the political factors that may have contributed to the number of international collaborations. The data demonstrated that international collaborations significantly increased an article's impact for UK and US investigators. While this applied to UK authors whether they were corresponding or secondary, this effect was most significant for US authors who were corresponding authors. While the UK exhibited a higher proportion of international publications than the US, this difference was consistent with overall trends in international scientific collaboration. The findings suggested that national stem cell policy differences and regulatory mechanisms driving international stem cell research in the US and UK did not affect the frequency of international collaborations, or even the countries with which the US and UK most often collaborated. Geographical and traditional collaborative relationships were the predominate considerations in establishing international collaborations