North Tyneside Printing Sector Training Needs Analysis

The printing sector in this region has a proportionately low level of employment compared to the UK as a whole. North Tyneside provides the location for some 36 print-based firms, which account for only 11% of Tyne & Wear’s total print employment. However, this survey indicates that the official data significantly under-estimates the employment size of the sector in North Tyneside

Scalar-tensor theories of gravitation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Mathematics

The problem the writer wishes to consider here is essentially one related to the classical field description of Nature. The framework of General Relativity provides a theory for the geometry of the four dimensional space-time manifold and at the same time gives a description of the gravitational field in terms of the metric tensor, while the electromagnetic field can be interpreted in terms of a particular second rank, skew-symmetric tensor — the covariant curl of a vector field defined on the manifold. However the scalar field, the simplest geometric object that could be defined on the manifold, does not seem to be experimentally evident when it is interpreted as a third, classical long range field. In spite of this lack of experimental evidence and as there appears to be no theoretical objection to the existence of such a long range field, the problem is to introduce the scalar field into the classical scheme of things and to construct a viable theory containing all three long range fields. [From Introduction

Cascading Power Outages Propagate Locally in an Influence Graph that is not the Actual Grid Topology

In a cascading power transmission outage, component outages propagate non-locally, after one component outages, the next failure may be very distant, both topologically and geographically. As a result, simple models of topological contagion do not accurately represent the propagation of cascades in power systems. However, cascading power outages do follow patterns, some of which are useful in understanding and reducing blackout risk. This paper describes a method by which the data from many cascading failure simulations can be transformed into a graph-based model of influences that provides actionable information about the many ways that cascades propagate in a particular system. The resulting "influence graph" model is Markovian, in that component outage probabilities depend only on the outages that occurred in the prior generation. To validate the model we compare the distribution of cascade sizes resulting from $n-2$ contingencies in a $2896$ branch test case to cascade sizes in the influence graph. The two distributions are remarkably similar. In addition, we derive an equation with which one can quickly identify modifications to the proposed system that will substantially reduce cascade propagation. With this equation one can quickly identify critical components that can be improved to substantially reduce the risk of large cascading blackouts.Comment: Accepted for publication at the IEEE Transactions on Power System

New Proposal to Iran: Will It Be Enough to Defuse the Nuclear Crisis?

This BASIC Note assesses the progress of transatlantic diplomacy toward Iran on nuclear issues. On June 6, Iran was presented with a revised package of incentives to persuade it to curb its uranium enrichment program. The authors argued previously that the earlier E3/EU proposal was vague on incentives and heavy on demands. (See BASIC Note, August 11, 2005 at http://www.basicint.org/pubs/Notes/BN050811-IranEU.htm). In this article, the authors suggest that if the June 6 proposal had been offered a year ago (or better still two years ago), much of the recent damage to diplomatic relations between Iran and the West could have been avoided

An institutional perspective on managing migrant workers in the North of England

Despite advances made in our understanding of migrant worker issues, analysis of the literature reveals disconnections between the policy and practice of 'managed migration' across three fundamental levels of the state (e.g. public institutions at the EU, national and regional levels), corporate (e.g. employers and unions) and community (e.g. migrant social networks) levels. Consequently, this has implications on corporate and community aspects that often escape deeper analytical scrutiny. Concomitantly, the literature often assumes that policy decisions at the state level are necessarily homogeneous, and fails to account for the local specificities that could exist in this area. This research therefore sought to investigate the interplay between state, corporate and community levels in managing migrant workers across three regions in the North of England, and explore its implications on managing migrant worker employment in construction. The key research questions examined include the critical issues confronted by state, corporate and community actors in terms of framing migrant worker issues, and the nature of existing interactions between these stakeholders in terms of managing migrant workers in each of the three regions. Cross-regional comparisons were also considered in this research. Through interviewing key participants, it was found that subtle differences exist in regional government actors' response to the impacts of migration through their policy formation. It was also noted that interactions between the three levels vary substantially cross the three regions, and the tendency for stronger relationships to be forged between government and corporate actors where economic imperatives are concerned, with weaker and more ad hoc connections made between stakeholders across the three levels where social policy is concerned. It was concluded that any migration policy cannot be viewed as stand-alone, since empirical analysis across the three regions demonstrate the intertwining dimensions of linking migration policy with social and employment concerns

Knowledge Management Activities and Strategic Planning Capability Development

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.While the strategic management literature extols the virtues of engaging in strategic planning for superior performance, how a dynamic strategic planning capability can be developed remains underexplored; a knowledge void addressed by the paper through applying knowledge-based theory. A mail survey was sent to high technology firms randomly sampled from the Kompass Directory of UK businesses. Firms were sampled at the SBU level, given the focus on strategic planning capability. An organization’s strategic planning capability derives from extensive information distribution and organizational memory. While learning values is non-significant, symbolic information use degrades the development of a strategic planning capability. By investigating the contributory activities that lead to strategic planning capability development, the findings establish how strategic planning materializes in organizations. Further, the differential effects found for knowledge management activities on strategic planning capability development extends empirical studies that suggest knowledge is always a central tenet of strategic planning. A set of key knowledge activities are identified that managers must address for strategic planning capability development: strategic planning routines and values of search, analysis, and assessment should be appropriately informed by investments in knowledge dissemination and memory on a continual basis. Meanwhile, information misuse compromises strategic planning capabilities and managers must protect against out-of-context or manipulated information from infiltrating into organizational memory. Despite the advent of the Knowledge-Based Theory and its core premise that capabilities derive from knowledge management activities, little research has been conducted into demonstrating the knowledge-based antecedents of a strategic planning capability

Imputation Methods for Incomplete Dependent Variables in Finance

Missing observations in dependent variables is a common feature of many financial applications. Standard ad hoc missing value imputation methods invariably fail to deliver efficient and unbiased parameter estimates. A number of recently developed classical and Bayesian iterative methods are evaluated for the treatment of missing dependent variables when the independent variables are completely observed. These methods are compared by simulation to commonly applied alternative missing data methodologies in the finance literature. The methods are then applied to a system of simultaneous equations modelling the maturity, secured status, and pricing of U.S. bank revolving loan contracts. Two of the four dependent variables in this application are characterised by severe missingness. The system of equations approach allows us to also exploit the additional information contained in the interdependencies among these features. The results indicate that proper treatment of missingness can be important for many financial applications.