Farm Management - Bugger the roots, where is the future?

The Farm Management discipline has long been closely aligned with agricultural economics. The question we raise is not where either discipline came from but where is Farm Management going. The impact of globalisation, the rising tide of deregulation and chain reversal mean that farm management professionals who have traditionally focused on optimisation of activities at a farm level are now commonly expected to use sociology and management science to explain economic organisation and performance on farms. They also are required to look at relationships in the value chain(s) in which the farm sits. This paper will analyse the implications of such change for Farm Management professionals.Farm Management, value chains, Farm Management,

Static, non-SUSY pp-branes in diverse dimensions

We give explicit constructions of static, non-supersymmetric $p$-brane (for $p \leq d-4$, where $d$ is the space-time dimensionality and including $p=-1$ or D-instanton) solutions of type II supergravities in diverse dimensions. A subclass of these are the static counterpart of the time dependent solutions obtained in [hep-th/0309202]. Depending on the forms of the non-extremality function $G(r)$ defined in the text, we discuss various possible solutions and their region of validity. We show how one class of these solutions interpolate between the $p$-brane--anti $p$-brane solutions and the usual BPS $p$-brane solutions in $d=10$, while the other class, although have BPS limits, do not have such an interpretation. We point out how the time dependent solutions mentioned above can be obtained by a Wick rotation of one class of these static solutions. We also discuss another type of solutions which might seem non-supersymmetric, but we show by a coordinate transformation that they are nothing but the near horizon limits of the various BPS $p$-branes already known.Comment: 29 pages, typos corrected, references adde

The servitization of manufacturing:a review of literature and reflection on future challenges

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the state-of-the-art of servitization by presenting a clinical review of literature currently available on the topic. The paper aims to define the servitization concept, report on its origin, features and drivers and give examples of its adoption along with future research challenges. Design/methodology/approach – In determining the scope of this study, the focus is on articles that are central and relevant to servitization within a wider manufacturing context. The methodology consists of identifying relevant publication databases, searching these using a wide range of key words and phrases associated with servitization, and then fully reviewing each article in turn. The key findings and their implications for research are all described. Findings – Servitization is the innovation of an organisation's capabilities and processes to shift from selling products to selling integrated products and services that deliver value in use. There are a diverse range of servitization examples in the literature. These tend to emphasize the potential to maintain revenue streams and improve profitability. Practical implications – Servitization does not represent a panacea for manufactures. However, it is a concept of significant potential value, providing routes for companies to move up the value chain and exploit higher value business activities. There is little work to date that can be used to help practitioners. Originality/value – This paper provides a useful review of servitization and a platform on which to base more in-depth research into the broader topic of service-led competitive strategy by drawing on the work from other related research communities

Determinants of Job Satisfaction across the EU-15: A Comparison of Self-Employed and Paid Employees

Job satisfaction of self-employed and paid-employed workers is analyzed using the European Community Household Panel for the EU-15 covering the years 1994-2001. We distinguish between two types of job satisfaction, i.e. job satisfaction in terms of type of work and job satisfaction in terms of job security. Findings from our generalized ordered logit regressions indicate that self-employed individuals as compared to paid employees are more likely to be satisfied with their present jobs in terms of type of work and less likely to be satisfied in terms of job security. The findings also provide many insights into the determinants of the two types of job satisfaction for both the self-employed and paid employee

Effective R-parity violation from supersymmetry breaking

We present a scenario in which Yukawa-like R-parity violating (RPV) couplings are naturally suppressed. In our framework, RPV is assumed to originate from the SUSY breaking mechanism and then transmitted into the SUSY Lagrangian only through soft SUSY breaking operators in the scalar potential. The RPV Yukawa-like operators of the superpotential, conventionally parametrized by the couplings \lambda, \lambda' and \lambda'', are then generated through loops containing the SUSY scalars, the gauginos and the soft RPV interactions and are, therefore, manifest as effective operators with a typical strength of order 10^{-3}.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Revtex4. Main changes with respect to Version 1 are: improved discussions on RGE effects, discussion added on neutrino masses, a toy model added for the proposed scenario. Conclusions remain unchanged. As will appear in Phys. Rev.

The Heat Flux Method adapted for hybrid iron-methane-air flames

Recently a cyclic energy storage concept was proposed in which metal powders are used as CO2-free energy carrier: the metal fuel cycle. In this cycle, the burning of iron powder is considered as the discharge of the energy carrier. However, for this cycle to be a efficient one, more understanding of the laminar burning velocity of iron powder is needed. Therefore, a new burner - based on the Heat Flux Method (HFM) - is proposed which can measure the burning velocities of flat hybrid iron-methane-air flames. In this paper, this burner is described and a proof of burner is given by first results. Further analysis of these results show that the opportunities for improvement lay in limiting the fluctuations for iron-concentrations on small time scales