Scholarly journal access in academic libraries:issues for future development

As academia progresses towards the 21st century, increases in student numbers, distance learning, changes in copyright licensing and lack of funding means that academic institutions have to look more closely at the use of electronic resources in order to meet these challenges. The "wired campus" and "virtual university" mean more users looking for electronic resources and increased pressure on libraries to provide these services. The development of electronic journals in the early 1990s and the onset of electronic publishing appeared to be a solution to the problem. Journals could be stored electronically thereby saving space, the risk of lose, theft or damage is lessened and costs where significantly reduced. Electronic journals have become an increasingly important part of academic library collections, however they have not proved to be the panacea the profession hoped for. Electronic journal useage has created a new set of issues such as archiving, copyright, cataloguing, site licensing, remote access, hardware requirements and journal design. There are many stakeholders involved in the selection of electronic journals within academic libraries from librarians, to users and publishers. This paper attempts to raise awareness of some of the issues which will have to be considered if scholarly electronic journal publishing is to develop over the next decade. The content and ideas presented in the paper are derived from research undertaken in the area for a student Masters dissertation

Transition from Ekman flow to Taylor vortex flow in superfluid helium

By numerically computing the steady axisymmetric flow of helium II confined inside a finite aspect ratio Couette annulus, we determine the transition from Ekman flow to Taylor vortex flow as a function of temperature and aspect ratio.We find that the low-Reynolds number flow is quite different to that of a classical fluid, particularly at lower temperatures.At high aspect ratio our results confirm the existing linear stability theory of the onset of Taylor vortices, which assumes infinitely long cylinders.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures; submitte

The distance selling directive: consumer champion or complete irrelevance?

This paper investigates the origins, significant content, UK and EU implementation and outcomes of Directive 97/7/EC on distance selling, hereafter referred to as the Distance Selling Directive (DSD). The DSD has been implemented in national legislation by all EU Member States. In the UK this legislation was the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 (SI 2000 No. 2334), hereafter referred to as the CPDSR

An action research approach to developing psychological support to increase wellbeing in student scholarship athletes

Research suggests athletes have an equivalent, possibly higher, likelihood of developing mental ill-health to the general population, however they underutilize the services provided. An action research methodology was employed (over three phases), with the overall aim to improve the provision of psychological support for scholarship athletes. Phase1 explored experiences of mental health, from the views of seven scholarship athletes and two scholarship mentors. Phase 2 used a focus group to discuss and elaborate on the themes from phase one and phase 3, developed a list of recommendations for services. Thematic analysis was used to analyse information from the individual interviews, the findings of which emphasized the impact of transitions and demands on the athlete’s mental health. Mental health within this group continued to be entwined with stigma, denial and misjudgements and a lack of established conceptualisation. Clinical implications were explored and suggestions for future research were presented

Platinum(II), palladium(II), nickel(II), and gold(I) complexes of the “electrospray-friendly” thiolate ligands 4-SC₅H₄N- and 4-SC₆H₄OMe-

The series of platinum(II), palladium(II), and nickel(II) complexes [ML₂(dppe)] [M = Ni, Pd, Pt; L = 4-SC₅H₄N or 4-SC₆H₄OMe; dppe = Ph₂PCH₂CH₂PPh₂] containing pyridine-4-thiolate or 4-methoxybenzenethiolate ligands, together with the corresponding gold(I) complexes [AuL(PPh3)], were prepared and their electrospray ionization mass spectrometric behavior compared with that of the thiophenolate complexes [M(SPh)₂(dppe)] (M = Ni, Pd, Pt) and [Au(SPh)(PPh₃)]. While the pyridine-4-thiolate complexes yielded protonated ions of the type [M + H]+ and [M + 2H]²+ ions in the Ni, Pd, and Pt complexes, an [M + H]+ ion was only observed for the platinum derivative of 4-methoxybenzenethiolate. Other ions, which dominated the spectra of the thiophenolate complexes, were formed by thiolate loss and aggregate formation. The X-ray crystal structure of [Pt(SC₆H₄OMe-4)₂(dppe)] is also reported

The Marginal Excess Burden of Different Capital Tax Instruments

Marginal excess burden, defined as the change in deadweight loss for an additional dollar of tax revenue, has been measured for labor taxes, output taxes, and capital taxes generally. This paper points out that there is no we1 1-defined way to raise capital taxes in general, because the taxation of income from capital depends on many different policy instruments including the statutory corporate income tax rate, the investment tax credit rate, depreciation lifetimes, declining balance rates for depreciation allowances, and personal tax rates on noncorporate income, interest receipts, dividends, and capital gains. Marginal excess burden is measured for each of these different capital tax instruments, using a general equilibrium model that encompasses distortions in the allocation of real resources over time, among industries, between the corporate and noncorporate sectors, and among diverse types of equipment, structures, inventories, and land. Although numerical results are sensitive to specifications for key substitution elasticity parameters, important qualitative results are not. We find that an increase in the corporate rate has the highest marginal excess burden, because it distorts intersectoral and interasset decisions as well as intertemporal decisions. At the other extreme, an investment tax credit reduction has negative marginal excess burden because it raises revenue while reducing interasset distortions more than it increases intertemporal distortions. In general, we find that marginal excess burdens of different capital tax instruments vary significantly. They can be more or less than the marginal excess burden of the payroll tax or the progressive personal income tax.

A Disaggregate Equilibrium Model of the Tax Distortions Among Assets, Sectors, and Industries

This paper encompasses multiple sources of inefficiency introduced by the U.S. tax system into a single general equilibrium model. Using disaggregate calculations of user cost, we measure interasset distortions from the differential taxation of many types of assets. Simultaneously, we model the intersectoral distortions from the differential treatment of the corporate sector, noncorporate sector, and owner-occupied housing. Industries in the model have different uses of assets and degrees of incorporation. Results indicate that distortions between sectors are much smaller than those of the Harberger model. Distortions among industries arealso much smaller than those in models using average effective tax rates. Distortions among assets are larger, but the total of all these welfare costs is still below one percent of income.

Long-Run Effects of the Accelerated Cost Recovery System

Much of the debate surrounding the enactment of President Reagan's tax plan was concerned with the short run effects of macroeconomic stimulation. Now that the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 has become law, it is appropriate to look again at the long run effect of these tax cuts. This paper measures, for 37 different assets and for 18 different industries, the reduction in effective corporate tax rates that result from the acceleration of depreciation allowances and the expansion of the investment tax credit. It also uses a detailed dynamic general equilibrium model of the U.S. economy to simulate the effects of the new Accelerated Cost Recovery System (ACRS) on revenues, investment, long run growth, and capital allocation among industries. We find significant welfare gains from ACRS, but we find larger welfare gains from alternative plans that were not adopted.