Fiscal Decentralisation and Economic Growth: A Bayesian Model Averaging Approach

This article re-examines the relationship between fiscal decentralisation and economic growth by employing Bayesian model averaging (BMA). BMA enables the consideration of a range of measures of fiscal decentralisation and allows the incorporation of model uncertainty into the empirical methodology. Posterior coefficient estimates suggest that not straightforward relationship exists between fiscal decentralisation and economic growth based on time-series data for Australia.

Young, Broke and Fabulous: Budgeting and the College Student

Budgeting and the importance of money management are important issues plaguing college campuses today. Many students begin college in debt and do not know how to manage their finances accordingly due to lack of knowledge and/or family history of poor money management. Moving away from home and handling money on their own can be a very daunting task for many college students as they juggle the other responsibilities that come with beginning college life. This video and pamphlet will offer college students and prospective college students some insight on the imperativeness of good finances and maintaining good monetary habits for a lifetime

Fiscal Decentralisation, Macroeconomic Conditions and Economic Growth in Australia

This paper analyses the impact of fiscal decentralisation on the Australian economy at both the aggregate and state levels. Attention is given not only to economic growth but also to a number of important macroeconomic variables which may influence growth. The results suggest that there is no straightforward impact of fiscal decentralisation on the Australian economy. At the aggregate level, when measured through expenditure shares, decentralisation is found to decrease medium-term economic growth, worsen the budget balance and increase the size of the public sector. No statistically significant effects of decentralisation are found on price stability, physical capital investment or short-term economic growth. Alternatively, revenue decentralisation is found to increase medium-term economic growth, improve the budget balance and have a stabilising effect on prices, but no relationship is found with the size of the public sector. At the state level, decentralisation is generally found to have no significant impact on the distribution of income but a weak negative effect on economic growth. In obtaining these results, special consideration is given to variable measurement, model specification, estimation technique and sample coverage. The findings highlight the importance of understanding more than just the effect of decentralisation on any one facet of an economy.

The Development and Use of A Piloted Flight Simulation Environment for Rotary-Wing Operation to the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers

Flight simulation is being used to inform the First of Class Flight Trials for the UK’s new Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) aircraft carriers. The carriers will operate with the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II fighter aircraft, i.e. the Advanced Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing variant of the F-35. The rotary wing assets that are expected to operate with QEC include Merlin, Wildcat, Chinook and Apache helicopters. An F-35B flight simulator has been developed and is operated by BAE Systems at Warton Aerodrome. The University of Liverpool is supporting this project by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to provide the unsteady air flow field that is required in a realistic flight simulation environment. This paper is concerned with a research project that is being conducted using the University’s research simulator, HELIFLIGHT-R, to create a simulation environment for helicopter operations to the QEC. The paper briefly describes how CFD has been used to model the unsteady airflow over the 280m long aircraft carrier and how this is used to create a realistic flight simulation environment. Results are presented from an initial simulation trial in which test pilots have used the HELIFLIGHT-R simulator to conduct simulated helicopter landings to two landing spots on the carrier, one in a disturbed air flow and the other in clean air. As expected, the landing to the spot in disturbed air flow requires a greater pilot workload, shows greater deviation in its positional accuracy and requires more control activity. This initial trial is the first of a planned series of simulated helicopter deck landings for different wind angles and magnitudes

Campus STEM Innovation from a Foothold in Mathematics: Lessons Learned from a Place Where it Happened

A metropolitan university, has had a productive journey in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), which eventually led to a campus STEM priority, endowed STEM Community Chairs, an increase in external grants, disciplinary degree pathways for high school teachers and even a Citywide STEM Ecosystem organization. Much of this journey surfaced from collaborations originating in mathematics education, which then synergized into campus wide efforts. This article describes one campus’ journey into STEM and how transforming the mathematics teacher education program represented a “springboard” for formalizing STEM collaboration and innovation. It is offered to aid other institutions who want to make STEM more of a priority on campus and to assist in their institutional journey toward a collaborative STEM effort both on and off campus

The Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers: Airwake Modelling and Validation for ASTOVL Flight Simulation

This paper outlines progress towards the development of a high-fidelity piloted flight simulation environment for the UK’s Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) aircraft carriers which are currently under construction. It is intended that flight simulation will be used to de-risk the clearance of the F-35B Lightning-II to the ship, helping to identify potential wind-speeds/directions requiring high pilot workload or control margin limitations prior to First of Class Flight Trials. Simulated helicopter launch & recovery trials are also planned for the future. The paper details the work that has been undertaken at the University of Liverpool to support this activity, and which draws upon Liverpool’s considerable research experience into simulated launch and recovery of maritime helicopters to single-spot combat ships. Predicting the unsteady air flow over and around the QEC is essential for the simulation environment; the very large and complex flow field has been modelled using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and will be incorporated into the flight simulators at the University of Liverpool and BAE Systems Warton for use in future piloted simulation trials. The challenges faced when developing airwake models for such a large ship are presented together with details of the experimental setup being prepared to validate the CFD predictions. Finally, the paper describes experimental results produced to date for CFD validation purposes and looks ahead to the piloted simulation trials of aircraft launch and recovery operations to the carrier

Learning Assistantships in College Mathematics: Value for Preservice Teacher Development

Increasing the participation and achievement of students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) from early grades to college coursework continues to be at the forefront of educational transformations and research. Faculty members at Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) plan, implement, and investigate how program structures might aid in the development, retention, and overall success of undergraduate students in STEM. Active learning classrooms, especially in mathematics, are one way IHE are reforming student learning experiences, and these environments also provide a unique opportunity to engage undergraduate learning assistants with faculty to support near - peer students and deepen their own learning. Identifying aspects of undergraduate learning assistants’ experiences that they find most valuable and interrogating how those are linked to their development can help IHE faculty better understand and plan for how to support undergraduate students in particular fields, such as STEM and STEM teaching. In particular, this paper examines scholarship participants serving as learning assistants in active learning college mathematics classrooms to see where and how they find value in their experience. Implications of this research can inform faculty and university programs on how they might prioritize and transform learning opportunities for students to impact their current and future development in STEM and beyond

Isoprenoid biosynthesis inhibition disrupts Rab5 localization and food vacuolar integrity in Plasmodium falciparum

The antimalarial agent fosmidomycin is a validated inhibitor of the nonmevalonate isoprenoid biosynthesis (methylerythritol 4-phosphate [MEP]) pathway in the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Since multiple classes of prenyltransferase inhibitors kill P. falciparum, we hypothesized that protein prenylation was one of the essential functions of this pathway. We found that MEP pathway inhibition with fosmidomycin reduces protein prenylation, confirming that de novo isoprenoid biosynthesis produces the isoprenyl substrates for protein prenylation. One important group of prenylated proteins is small GTPases, such as Rab family members, which mediate cellular vesicular trafficking. We have found that Rab5 proteins dramatically mislocalize upon fosmidomycin treatment, consistent with a loss of protein prenylation. Fosmidomycin treatment caused marked defects in food vacuolar morphology and integrity, consistent with a defect in Rab-mediated vesicular trafficking. These results provide insights to the biological functions of isoprenoids in malaria parasites and may assist the rational selection of secondary agents that will be useful in combination therapy with new isoprenoid biosynthesis inhibitors

Mentoring Future Mathematics Teachers: Lessons Learned from Four Mentoring Partnerships

Mentoring is an important aspect of mathematics teacher education, and in particular, pre-service teacher education. Faculty at a large Midwestern university developed and refined a mentoring program designed to help pre-service secondary mathematics teachers, called Scholars, become future leaders in mathematics education. This paper describes how faculty mentors leveraged challenges in the mentoring program’s early stages based on their reflections and initial mentee outcomes to create a more effective mentoring program. Recommendations based on research and practice are provided for other university programs interested in mentoring future mathematics teachers