Has there been an economic dividend from devolution?

It is now over twelve years since the restoration of Scotland's parliament, after a hiatus of almost three centuries. Sufficient time has therefore elapsed that it is possible to provide some evidence on whether Scotland's economy has indeed performed better under devolution. Thus we look at productivity, GVA per head, employment, and R&D to see if there has been any relative improvement post-1999. Having done this, two of the channels through which devolution may affect these variables will be discussed: the composition of expenditure and policy innovation2. This is particularly timely given that the UK and Scottish parliaments are currently considering proposals which will give further fiscal powers to the Scottish parliament, and the Scottish government is planning to hold a referendum on full independence in the autumn of 2014

The relationship between and among policy variables, type of institution, and perceptions of academic administrators with regard to post- tenure review

This study was designed to examine the relationship between and among post-tenure review policy variables and types of institutions, as perceived by chief academic administrators at colleges and universities across the United States. Chief academic administrators at 680 randomly selected accredited institutions were mailed the Post-tenure Review Survey, an instrument designed by the researcher. A total of 347 (51%) administrators returned the survey. Demographic data indicated that tenure was operative at 67.4 percent of the institutions. Tenured faculty evaluation was reported by 87.2 percent of the institutions where tenure was operative. Formal, written post-tenure review policies were in effect at 61.1 percent of the institutions. Data were analyzed using the General Linear Model of the Statistical Analysis System (SAS). Analysis of the data provided the following major findings: No significant differences were found among types of institutions regarding the stated primary purpose of post-tenure review. Faculty growth and development was both the stated and desired purpose of tenured faculty evaluation. No significant differences were found among types of institutions regarding the following processes: individuals involved in the development u policies, individuals involved in the development of improvement plans, and use of follow-up. Significant differences were determined among types of institutions for the following processes: methods of selection, timeframes, and use of improvement plans. No significant differences were identified among types of institutions in use of the following teaching components of post-tenure review: student I evaluations, self-evaluations, administrator evaluations, classroom observation by peers, and peer review committees. Significant differences were found in all components related to scholarship and service. Significant differences were found between actual and desired use of the following processes: individuals involved in development of policies, timeframes, individuals involved in development of improvement plans, use of follow-up. Significant differences were found between actual and desired use of the following components: all types of evaluations to assess teaching, research activities, publications, creative endeavors, professional service and community service. Significant differences were identified among types of institutions for the following problems: the process is viewed as a threat to tenure, difficulty in measurement of competence, and lack of training for evaluators. Significant differences were determined among types of institutions for the following benefits: information acquired from the review can be used in personnel decisions such as promotion and merit pay, increased faculty participation in institutional and public service activities, increased faculty activity in research, and improved collegiality among faculty. The study concluded that variations occur by type of institution in post-tenure review policy purposes, processes, and components. Philosophy and mission of an institution should provide the framework for post-tenure review policy variables

Curwen Best. 2012. The Popular Music and Entertainment Culture of Barbados: Pathways to Digital Culture.

Resumen

afPE's position on health

afPE's position on healt

Association for Physical Education Health Position Paper [2015]

Association for Physical Education Health Position Paper [2015

Association for Physical Education Health Position Paper [2013]

Association for Physical Education Health Position Paper [2013

Weibull-type limiting distribution for replicative systems

The Weibull function is widely used to describe skew distributions observed in nature. However, the origin of this ubiquity is not always obvious to explain. In the present paper, we consider the well-known Galton-Watson branching process describing simple replicative systems. The shape of the resulting distribution, about which little has been known, is found essentially indistinguishable from the Weibull form in a wide range of the branching parameter; this can be seen from the exact series expansion for the cumulative distribution, which takes a universal form. We also find that the branching process can be mapped into a process of aggregation of clusters. In the branching and aggregation process, the number of events considered for branching and aggregation grows cumulatively in time, whereas, for the binomial distribution, an independent event occurs at each time with a given success probability.Comment: 6 pages and 5 figure