The Development Of Small Craft-Based Businesses In Scotland

As it had been found that there was little authoritative published evidence regarding the crafts in Scotland, this research programme was initiated in 1975 to rectify that situation. The subjects were broadly defined as being self-employed, engaged in all aspects of the craft business and within the range of skills and creativity which combine to form the commonly accepted basis of a craft. Within the overall objective, emphasis was placed on the identification of the craftsmen and craft businesses, of the influences upon them and on the general trends. From the combined results it was anticipated that development potential might be assessed. The co-operation of bodies such as the Scottish Development Agency was sought and received, providing invaluable source material, and leading to the development of an index of craft businesses. That index, up-dated annually throughout the four-year period of research, was the basis for analysis of elements such as the movements in craft population, physical distribution and the numerical strengths of the individual crafts. Such analysis established a clear relationship between the location of craft businesses and population density, found the largest craft groups to be ceramics, silversmithing and jewellery and weaving, and identified an increase in the craft business population between 1975 and 1977 and a decrease in 1978. A pilot survey in 1976 confirmed the feasibility of a survey which was conducted in 1977. The survey results established the importance of these businesses in terms of employment and contribution, and identified the strong characteristics of independence and personal association with the craft on the part of the proprietors. The principal influences externally were found to be those exerted by market forces, the attitudes adopted by the retail trade, the policies adopted by government agencies responsible for the crafts, and internally by the background training, experience and motivation of the proprietor. It was found, despite the rich variety of backgrounds and the lack of training and experience of many, that there were insufficient features which could adequately distinguish the performance potential in a business at this point in time. The strategy being adopted by the Scottish Development Agency, as one of the principal planners and administrators for the crafts, of directing assistance towards entrants with assessable levels of training and of exerting pressure towards improved standards, was noted. It was therefore concluded that an alternative staged strategy should be adopted - of improving basic knowledge of factors such as the reasons for failure in business; of providing a broad base of assistance in the initial stages of a business with more specialised and appropriate assistance being made available as the business develops according to the capability and motivation of the proprietor

Livelihood strategies in the rural Kenyan highlands

The concept of a livelihood strategy has become central to development practice in recent years. Nonetheless, precise identification of livelihoods in quantitative data has remained methodologically elusive. This paper uses cluster analysis methods to operationalize the concept of livelihood strategies in household data and then uses the resulting strategy-specific income distributions to test whether the hypothesized outcome differences between livelihoods indeed exist. Using data from Kenya’s central and western highlands, we identify five distinct livelihood strategies that exhibit statistically significant differences in mean per capita incomes and stochastic dominance orderings that establish clear welfare rankings among livelihood strategies. Multinomial regression analysis identifies geographic, demographic and financial determinants of livelihood choice. The results should facilitate targeting of interventions designed to improve household livelihoods.Livelihood strategy, Kenya, Smallholder agriculture, Cluster analysis, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Building capacity for dissemination and implementation research: One university’s experience

Abstract Background While dissemination and implementation (D&I) science has grown rapidly, there is an ongoing need to understand how to build and sustain capacity in individuals and institutions conducting research. There are three inter-related domains for capacity building: people, settings, and activities. Since 2008, Washington University in St. Louis has dedicated significant attention and resources toward building D&I research capacity. This paper describes our process, challenges, and lessons with the goal of informing others who may have similar aims at their own institution. Activities An informal collaborative, the Washington University Network for Dissemination and Implementation Research (WUNDIR), began with a small group and now has 49 regular members. Attendees represent a wide variety of settings and content areas and meet every 6 weeks for half-day sessions. A logic model organizes WUNDIR inputs, activities, and outcomes. A mixed-methods evaluation showed that the network has led to new professional connections and enhanced skills (e.g., grant and publication development). As one of four, ongoing, formal programs, the Dissemination and Implementation Research Core (DIRC) was our first major component of D&I infrastructure. DIRC’s mission is to accelerate the public health impact of clinical and health services research by increasing the engagement of investigators in later stages of translational research. The aims of DIRC are to advance D&I science and to develop and equip researchers with tools for D&I research. As a second formal component, the Washington University Institute for Public Health has provided significant support for D&I research through pilot projects and a small grants program. In a third set of formal programs, two R25 training grants (one in mental health and one in cancer) support post-doctoral scholars for intensive training and mentoring in D&I science. Finally, our team coordinates closely with D&I functions within research centers across the university. We share a series of challenges and potential solutions. Conclusion Our experience in developing D&I research at Washington University in St. Louis shows how significant capacity can be built in a relatively short period of time. Many of our ideas and ingredients for success can be replicated, tailored, and improved upon by others

A Property Law Reader: Cases, Questions, and Commentary, 5th ed., Preface and Table of Contents

Nobody has been more influential over the past generation in the teaching of property law in Canada than Bruce Ziff. His Principles of Property Law is the foundational textbook on the subject. A Property Law Reader: Cases, Questions, and Commentary, which he first published as a sole author in 2004, has become, over three subsequent editions, the most widely used teaching material for property law in the country. Bruce retired from teaching property law in 2019. His retirement left major holes not only at the University of Alberta, where he taught for decades, but also throughout Canada in terms of guiding students, mentoring professors, and developing teaching materials and other resources for property law. Bruce had brought in Jeremy de Beer, Douglas Harris, and Margaret McCallum to collaborate with him on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of A Property Law Reader, but with his retirement, and also with Margaret’s, after years at the University of New Brunswick, the 5th edition is the product of a new scholarly collaboration with Tenille Brown and Patricia Farnese joining Jeremy and Doug. Although Bruce has stepped aside entirely from this 5th edition, his intellectual contributions remain profound. Much of the material within chapters has been updated or replaced, but the 5th edition retains the structure and organization that Bruce initially conceived. It also retains many of Margaret’s contributions to the selection of material and the commentary. The preface of the 4th edition began with this statement: “Property law—that body of rules which describes and defines relationships between people with respect to things—involves many choices.” The opening paragraphs continued by emphasizing that these choices, explicit or implicit, involve important decisions about the allocation of resources, and further, that we needed to interrogate the justifications for these decisions. The materials in the 4th edition, and in this 5th edition, return repeatedly to the justifications for particular rules and to ask whether they remain convincing. Indeed, the collection of materials was designed to enable an investigation of property law rules, and of the justifications for them

Study of aluminoborane compound AlB_4H_(11) for hydrogen storage

Aluminoborane compounds AlB_4H_(11), AlB_5H_(12), and AlB_6H_(13) were reported by Himpsl and Bond in 1981, but they have eluded the attention of the worldwide hydrogen storage research community for more than a quarter of a century. These aluminoborane compounds have very attractive properties for hydrogen storage: high hydrogen capacity (i.e., 13.5, 12.9, and 12.4 wt % H, respectively) and attractive hydrogen desorption temperature (i.e., AlB_4H_(11) decomposes at ~125 °C). We have synthesized AlB_4H_(11) and studied its thermal desorption behavior using temperature-programmed desorption with mass spectrometry, gas volumetric (Sieverts) measurement, infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Rehydrogenation of hydrogen-desorbed products was performed and encouraging evidence of at least partial reversibility for hydrogenation at relatively mild conditions is observed. Our chemical analysis indicates that the formula for the compound is closer to AlB_4H_(12) than AlB_4H_(11)

Configuration Effects on Acoustic Performance of a Duct Liner

Continued success in aircraft engine noise reduction necessitates ever more complete understanding of the effect that flow path geometry has on sound propagation in the engine. The Curved Duct Test Rig (CDTR) has been developed at NASA Langley Research Center to investigate sound propagation through a duct of comparable size (approximately the gap of GE90) and physical characteristics to the aft bypass duct of typical aircraft engines. The liner test section is designed to mimic the outer/inner walls of an engine exhaust bypass duct that has been unrolled circumferentially. Experiments to investigate the effect of curvature along the flow path on the acoustic performance of a test liner are performed in the CDTR and reported in this paper. Flow paths investigated include both straight and curved with offsets from the inlet to the discharge plane of and 1 duct width, respectively. The test liners are installed on the side walls of the liner test section. The liner samples are perforate over honeycomb core, which design is typical of liners installed in aircraft nacelles. In addition to fully treated side walls, combinations of treated and acoustically rigid walls are investigated. While curvature in the hard wall duct is found not to reduce the incident sound significantly, it does cause mode scattering. It is found that asymmetry of liner treatment causes scattering of the incident mode into less attenuated modes, which degrades the overall liner attenuation. It is also found that symmetry of liner treatment enhances liner performance by eliminating scattering into less attenuated modes. Comparisons of measured liner attenuation with numerical results predicted by an analytic model based on the parabolic approximation (CDUCT-LaRC) have also been made and are reported in this paper. The effect of curvature in the rigid wall configuration estimated by CDUCT-LaRC is similar to the observed results, and the mode scattering seen in the measurements also occurs in the analytic model results. The analytic model and experiment show similar differences of overall attenuation between one wall treated and both walls treated

Wet Gasification of Ethanol Residue: A Preliminary Assessment

A preliminary technoeconomic assessment has been made of several options for the application of catalytic hydrothermal gasification (wet gasification) to ethanol processing residues