R&D Investment Level and Environment as Predictors of Firm Acquisition

R&D investments contribute to the development of firm technology resources, and the possession of such resources often increases a firm’s attractiveness as a potential acquisition target. However, the value ascribed to a firm’s technology resources by would-be acquirers may be moderated by its industry’s environmental characteristics. Using data from 2886 firms, we find that investments in R&D predict acquisition likelihood and that R&D investments are most strongly associated with acquisition of firms under conditions of high environmental munificence and dynamism. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed

1986 : a significant year of change for tourism organisation in Scotland?

Developing from the impetus provided by the last Government review of tourism, the results of which were announced by Norman Lamont in November 1983, last year witnessed a flurry of official reports and initiatives. For the first time since the 1969 Development of Tourism Act became law, the issue of governmental tourist organisation was clearly on the decision making agenda. The New Year has now opened with the publication of a Select Committee enquiry into the organisation of Government involvement in tourism. The events of 1985 and the far reaching reforms proposed in the Select Committee Report suggest that a possible centralisation of official UK/GB tourism responsibilities is in the offing. This would strip the Scottish Office of its Ministerial oversight of Scottish tourism and lead to the scrapping of the Scottish Tourist Board (STB). This Perspective outlines the main events of 1985 and the principal proposals contained in the recently published Select Committee report before discussing some of the more important implications for Scotland and its tourist industry

Resurrection, renaissance, rebirth: religion, psychology and politics in the life and works of Daphne du Maurier

This thesis looks at the life and works of Daphne du Maurier in the context of the inter-related ideas of religion, psychology and politics. Throughout, I use a methodology based on the concept of the palimpsest. But I also use theory provided by Jung, Plato and Nietzsche – all of which were known to du Maurier to a greater or lesser degree. Other theory is used occasionally, but only as it suggests itself in the context under consideration. The ideas of ‘Resurrection, Renaissance and Rebirth’ give the thesis a structure and a theme. The interaction of Christianity and Paganism is also examined. Section One, ‘Introduction – Resurrecting Texts/Lives’, introduces the idea of the palimpsest. In reality, this is a twice-written document frequently containing a Christian text which is written over a Pagan one, with the Pagan text resurrecting itself over time. In theory, the palimpsest is a textual space where disparate texts collide and collude in an involuted manner. Section Two, ‘Life and Text – Renaissance Inspired Men’, looks at two men who drew their inspiration from the Renaissance as either age or idea - the socialist Victor Gollancz and the conservative Frank Buchman - and to what degree du Maurier interacted with both the people and their conceptual framework. Section Three, ‘Life into Text – Renaissance Men’, concerns itself with du Maurier’s biographies of two Renaissance brothers, Anthony and Francis Bacon, and how their lives have been read, gnostically, by herself and others, notably The Francis Bacon Society and Nietzsche. Section Four, ‘Spectralised Lives in Text - Rebirthing’, examines how the foregoing discussion plays itself out in two of du Maurier’s novels, Jamaica Inn (1936) and The Flight of the Falcon (1965). The chapter on Jamaica Inn looks at Celtic Revivalism and how the Celtic gods spectralise the characters of the novel leading to a rebirthing experience for the protagonist Mary Yellan – implicit in this is the concept of the Renaissance-as-idea. The chapter on The Flight of the Falcon shows how the Renaissance-as-age daimonises characters of the twentieth-century. The palimpsest as either a document or a theoretical perspective weaves itself in and out of all my chapters. Section Five, ‘Concluding Remarks’, leads to two related conclusions, firstly that du Maurier has been spectralised by the Renaissance, and secondly that du Maurier’s life and works, taken together, can be read as an involuted palimpsest

FIBRE OPTIC COUPLED, INFRARED THERMOMETERS FOR PROCESSES INCURRING HARSH CONDITIONS

This study undertook the development and testing of fibre optic coupled infrared thermometers (IRTs) that could substitute for thermocouples in harsh conditions that would affect contact temperature measurements deleteriously. The IRTs have been configured without photodiode cooling and signal chopping but achieved low minimum measurable temperatures, fast responses and good sensitivities. IRTs were configured with mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) photodiodes, to measure over different temperature ranges. The thermometers had small footprints, therefore could be installed into constrained spaces and not cause interference with the process. The MWIR thermometers were substituted for thermocouples in high temperature conditions in end milling tool temperature measurements and reactive electrochemical conditions in Lithium-ion cell temperature measurements. The conditions into which the fibre optics were embedded would lead to inaccurate measurements from thermocouples, whereas the fibre optic and remotely positioned IRT offered immunity against these errors. Calibration drift is a major problem that afflicts thermocouple temperature measurements. There has been progress towards addressing this weakness with improved thermocouples. The SWIR thermometer used a zero drift operational amplifier to minimise offset voltage, drift and noise. The IRT was coupled to a sapphire fibre optic probe that had tin deposited onto the core to form an integral fixed point temperature calibration cell. This low drift IRT provided an increment towards creating a drift-free, self-calibrating IRT that would substitute for thermocouples with integral calibration capabilities. The feasibility of substituting thermocouples with embedded fibre optics coupled to IRTs has been demonstrated and potential improvements of these thermometers have been identified

Perceptions of risk: understanding cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still the leading cause of death and disability worldwide despite the availability of well-established and effective preventive options. Accurate perception of a patient’s risk by both the patient and the doctors is important as this is one of the components that determine health-related behavior. Doctors tend to not use cardiovascular (CV) risk calculators and underestimate the absolute CV risk of their patients. Patients show optimistic bias when considering their own risk and consistently underestimate it. Poor patient health literacy and numeracy must be considered when thinking about this problem. Patients must possess a reasonably high level of understanding of numerical processes when doctors discuss risk, a level that is not possessed by large numbers of the population. In order to overcome this barrier, doctors need to utilize various tools including the appropriate use of visual aids to accurately communicate risk with their patients. Any intervention has been shown to be better than nothing in improving health understanding. The simple process of repeatedly conveying risk information to a patient has been shown to improve accuracy of risk perception. Doctors need to take responsibility for the accurate assessment and effective communication of CV risk in their patients in order to improve patient uptake of cardioprotective lifestyle choices and preventive medications

The Glasgow Garden Festival : making Glasgow miles better?

This paper discusses the Glasgow Garden Festival (GGF), which, opened its gates to the general public on April 28, 1988 and represented a crucial step in Glasgow's development as a tourism destination. The Festival, alongside Glasgow's designation as the European City of Culture in 1990 can be seen as the basis of a strong events-led tourism development strategy. The sponsors and organisers of the Festival had set a target of 3 million visitors through the gates by the time the Festival closed on September 26, 1988. In fact, the Festival has achieved a throughput of 4.25 million people

Central Amino Acid Sensing in the Control of Feeding Behavior.

Dietary protein quantity and quality greatly impact metabolic health via evolutionary-conserved mechanisms that ensure avoidance of amino acid imbalanced food sources, promote hyperphagia when dietary protein density is low, and conversely produce satiety when dietary protein density is high. Growing evidence supports the emerging concept of protein homeostasis in mammals, where protein intake is maintained within a tight range independently of energy intake to reach a target protein intake. The behavioral and neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying these adaptations are unclear. While peripheral factors are able to signal amino acid deficiency and abundance to the brain, the brain itself is exposed to and can detect changes in amino acid concentrations, and subsequently engages acute and chronic responses modulating feeding behavior and food preferences. In this review, we will examine the literature describing the mechanisms by which the brain senses changes in amino acids concentrations, and how these changes modulate feeding behavior

To (B)oldly Go: a study of older people's usage of ICT and its implications for thinking about (digital) identity

The demographic time bomb means that older people will become a major part of tomorrow's society. This has become an increasingly pressing issue for older people and government policy alike. ONS (2009) statistics suggest that past retirement age, the sense of quality of life (QoL) experienced by older people begins to decrease, with the fastest decline occurring after the age of 70. This research therefore began by investigating how ICT could be implicated in the social life of the older person and thus improve their QoL. Literature reviews of the field of older people's involvement with ICT indicated that there was very little research between the more general studies of ICT involvement (which include far more than the purely social aspects) and the very specific (which involve examining the social impact of just one piece of technology). This study therefore aimed to fill the gap between the two extremes. It also aimed to generate theory in an under-theorised area. The study began with a focus group and interviews asking questions around how people thought social life had changed with the advent of new technologies, how they experienced the technology, and how things could be improved in the future. The study was qualitative in nature and adopted a grounded theory approach in order to inductively generate theory. The study of the lived experience of ICT also contributed to a phenomenological approach. Comparative analysis of transcripts obtained in Phase One (Year One) enabled a set of Grounded Theory Categories to be created which accounted for what was happening in the data. A core category of identity was identified which influenced subsequent data collection in Phase Two (Year Two). Phase Two participants were then involved in more focused interviews around identity concepts. Further analysis in Year Two enabled a Schema of Subject Positions to be created concerning (digital) identities which accounted for all of the participants in the study and the ways in which they viewed and interacted with technology. The Categories were also subsumed within a Grounded Theory Model involving a tripartite identity schema aligned with Giddens theory of the reflexive project of the self. Findings suggest that participants are implicated in methods of identity involvement which can be playful or pragmatic; can be viewed in moral, immoral and amoral ways (leading to ideas of the authentic and the inauthentic); and can represent the individual or explore new identities. Identity construction can ultimately be implicated positively with the use of ICT, and may lead to a virtuous cycle of ICT usage which can improve quality of life by affirming better self-views or enabling the testing of new views of selfhood. Positive technology identities can be offered as identity role models for other older people to follow

The Macrame 1024 node switching network

The work reported involves the construction of a large modular testbed using IEEE 1355 DS link technology. A thousand nodes will be interconnected by a switching fabric based on the STC104 packet switch. The system has been designed and constructed in a modular way in order to allow a variety of different network topologies to be investigated. Network throughput and latency have been studied for different network topologies under various traffic conditions

Zero drift infrared radiation thermometer using chopper stabilised pre-amplifier

A zero-drift, mid–wave infrared (MWIR) thermometer constructed using a chopper stabilised operational amplifier (op-amp) was compared against an identical thermometer that utilised a precision op-amp. The chopper stabilised op-amp resulted in a zero-drift infrared radiation thermometer (IRT) with approximately 75% lower offset voltage, 50% lower voltage noise and less susceptibility to perturbation by external sources. This was in comparison to the precision op-amp IRT when blanked by a cover at ambient temperature. Significantly, the zero-drift IRT demonstrated improved linearity for the measurement of target temperatures between 20 °C and 70 °C compared to the precision IRT. This eases the IRT calibration procedure, leading to improvement in the tolerance of the temperature measurement of such low target temperatures. The zero-drift IRT was demonstrated to measure a target temperature of 40 °C with a reduction in the root mean square (RMS) noise from 5 K to 1 K compared to the precision IRT