New global challenges, new knowledge actors, new forms of research: what higher education can learn from the research practices of NGOs

Academic research in the UK is facing an identity crisis. Universities are responding to a national ‘impact agenda’ (HEFCE et al 2011; 2017 Nurse 2015), which calls for the evidencing of applied uses of university research (Bastow et al 2013; Brewer 2013; NESTA/Alliance for Useful Evidence (2016) and the engagement of research users/mediators in research processes (e.g. Rickinson et al 2011; Facer et al 2012; Morton 2015; Wolff 2015), and may blur traditional boundaries around the role of academic research in relation to knowledge produced by other actors (including public-sector think-tanks, private-sector consultancy firms, the media and civil society organisations) (McCormick 2013; Shucksmith 2016)

Book review: 9/11 ten years after: perspectives and problems

Ten years on, what have been the principal impacts of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 on the external policies and international outlooks of the world’s major powers? This book investigates a range of international responses to the events of 9/11, to evaluate their consistency over time; to analyse their long-term significance and to consider both their implications for the international security agenda and the prospects for international cooperation in addressing the challenges posed. Jude Howell believes the breadth of the book will ensure that it provides a useful source for researchers and students in the fields of security studies and international relations

Investigation of K0Σ+K^0\Sigma^+ photoproduction with the CBELSA/TAPS experiment

$\gamma (p,K^0)\Sigma^+$ cross section was measured at the CBELSA/TAPS experiment at the ELSA electron stretcher facility. A cusp-like structure was apparent near the $K^*$ production threshold, where the cross section reduced by a factor of four in the forward direction. It is speculated that t-channel $K^*$ exchange, and meson-hyperon dynamically generated states may have large contributions to the cross section. The motivation for the extraction of the beam-target double polarisation observable, $E$, is discussed, and the new experiment, BGO-OD at the ELSA facility is introduced.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Proceedings of NSTAR201

Co-movements Of Business Cycles In The Maghreb: Does Trade Matter?

Over the past two decades, the Maghreb Countries have initiated a liberalization process characterized by increasing trade flows and they have strengthened economic and financial linkages between their economies. In this paper, we demonstrate how co-movements of outputs would respond to this integration process. The nature of this relationship seems to be important for these countries because the decision to join an economic and monetary union would depend on how the union affects trade and co-movements. To this end, we estimate a panel model describing the effect of trade intensity on business cycles correlation over the period 1980-2005. Thereafter, to check the robustness of the results, we add many control variables commonly described in the literature. We use three estimation techniques: pooled OLS, fixed vs. random effects as well as 2SLS estimations. Our main results suggest that while trade intensity may help to harmonize business cycles in Maghreb countries, the magnitude of this harmonization is lower than for industrial countries. Moreover, intra-industry trade causes a reverse –counterintuitive- effect. Many lessons are thereby learned

Artificial Intelligence and Thomistic Angelology: a Rejoinder

My paper analyses the analogy between Computers and the Thomistic separate substances, and argues that Aquinas' account of angels as cognitively intuitive and non-discursive makes the analogical gap between these impossible to bridge. From there, I point the direction away from computers as the way for us to move up the order of cognitive excellence. Instead, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are the way to go, since by them we participate in this intuitivity. I then lay out the ascetical presuppositions for the successful participation of this gifts, in particular the necessity for the passive purgations, according to the division of the ascetical life into three stages by Garrigou-Lagrange O