Fundamental studies on a heat driven lamp

A detailed theoretical study of a heat-driven lamp has been performed. This lamp uses a plasma produced in a thermionic diode. The light is produced by the resonance transition of cesium. An important result of this study is that up to 30% of the input heat is predicted to be converted to light in this device. This is a major improvement over ordinary thermionic energy converters in which only approx. 1% is converted to resonance radiation. Efficiencies and optimum inter-electrode spacings have been found as a function of cathode temperature and the radiative escape factor. The theory developed explains the operating limits of the device

Wage Setting and Wage Flexibility in Ireland:Results from a Firm-level Survey

This paper investigates the wage-setting behaviour of Irish firms. We place particular emphasis on the use of flexible pay components and examine how these allow firms to deal with shocks requiring a reduction in costs without having to cut base wages. The results presented in this paper are based on a survey of Irish firms undertaken as part of the Wage Dynamics Network (WDN), which is a Euro-system research network. Our main findings are that almost two-thirds of firms applied at least some elements of the national wage agreement in place at the time of the survey (Towards 2016). Wage cuts or freezes were reported by a very small percentage of firms but changes in bonuses and other flexible pay components were relatively common if the firm needed to reduce labour costs. When asked about the relevance of different explanations for avoiding cuts in base wages, worker morale and loss of experienced workers were the main concerns. Regulatory or collective bargaining obstacles to wage cuts were the lowest ranked.

Amino acids in a Fischer Tropsch type synthesis

One postulation is described for the presence of organic compounds in meteorites which states that they were formed during the condensation of the solar nebula. A viable laboratory simulation of these conditions can be modeled after the industrial Fischer Tropsch reaction, which is known to produce organic compounds called hydrocarbons. In this simulation, a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and ammonia is heated in the presence of iron meteorite. The reaction products for amino acids, a class of organic compounds important to life, were examined. A large number of these compounds is found in meteorites and other chemical evolution experiments, but only small quantities of a few amino acids were found in the present simulation work. These results are at odds with the existing literature in which many amino acids were reported

Face-to-face or distance training? Two different approaches to motivate SMEs to learn - an update

In the past, too many government-sponsored initiatives have presented learning resources that have been wasted because the target small business audience has failed to make use of them. This paper explores the issue of offering learning materials to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a manner that recognizes their working environment, mode of operation and preferred learning methods. It then outlines methods currently being tested in the UK and Ireland, and indicates preliminary findings. The two methodologies are different in that the UK (LSSB - Learning Support for Small Businesses) programme is aimed at distance learning in primarily small businesses, whilst the Irish (University of Limerick and Limerick City Enterprise Board) programme is aimed at face-to-face learning primarily in micro-enterprises. Preliminary findings are presented

Attacks on midwives, attacks on women’s choices

Nadine Edwards, Jo Murphy-Lawless, Mavis Kirkham and Sarah Davies ask whether recent attacks on midwives are a Human Rights issu

How Do Firms Set Prices? Survey Evidence from Ireland

Despite the importance of understanding and estimating the “stickiness” of prices of goods and services, empirical assessment of price setting behaviour by firms has remained relatively limited. This is the first paper to provide detailed information on the pressures, manner and frequency with which Irish firms adjust their output prices. Using survey information from almost a thousand Irish firms, we present a number of stylised facts on price setting behaviour. One of the first of these relates to the level of control firms have over their pricing strategy – the most common approach for firms is to set a price based on costs and a self-determined profit margin. However, one-third of firms said that their price was set primarily by following that of their closest competitors. The perceived intensity of competition was found to be one of the most significant factors in determining the price-setting approach and is also a central factor in determining price changes

Fast Bayesian parameter estimation for stochastic logistic growth models

The transition density of a stochastic, logistic population growth model with multiplicative intrinsic noise is analytically intractable. Inferring model parameter values by fitting such stochastic differential equation (SDE) models to data therefore requires relatively slow numerical simulation. Where such simulation is prohibitively slow, an alternative is to use model approximations which do have an analytically tractable transition density, enabling fast inference. We introduce two such approximations, with either multiplicative or additive intrinsic noise, each derived from the linear noise approximation of the logistic growth SDE. After Bayesian inference we find that our fast LNA models, using Kalman filter recursion for computation of marginal likelihoods, give similar posterior distributions to slow arbitrarily exact models. We also demonstrate that simulations from our LNA models better describe the characteristics of the stochastic logistic growth models than a related approach. Finally, we demonstrate that our LNA model with additive intrinsic noise and measurement error best describes an example set of longitudinal observations of microbial population size taken from a typical, genome-wide screening experiment.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures and 2 table

The Process of Decision-Making in Universities

Canadian universities are considered by some in the public and private sector to be inefficient organizations, largely because of the inability to make decisions related to cost effectiveness. There is a threat to introduce other control mechanisms into the decision-making autonomy of the universities. In fact, universities are very complex organizations and comparable with other complex systems. They are probably as effective in their operation as other organizations in the public and private sector when they are examined according to a set of criteria of effectiveness. They could be compared on these criteria but full data are lacking. In terms of their autonomy Canadian universities enjoy a greater amount of local decision-making than universities in many other countries. British and German universities, although they are quite different, achieve high standards without the same autonomy as Canadian universities. But are they really as efficient and should we allow ourselves to be pushed in the direction of control to which they are subject or should we resist it?Les universités canadiennes sont considérées par certains membres des secteurs publique et privé comme des organisations inefficaces, en grande partie à cause de leur incapacité à prendre des décisions concernant l'efficacité des dépenses. L'introduction d'autres mécanismes de contrôle dans l'autonomie des universités en ce qui concerne leurs prises de décisions pèse comme une menace. En fait, les universiti'es sont des organisations très complexes et comparables à d'autres système complexes. Elles sont probablement aussi efficaces dans leur fonctionne-ment que d'autres organisations des secteurs publique et privé lorsqu 'on les évalue d'après un ensemble de critères d'efficacité. On pourrait les évaluer d'après ces critères, mais des données complètes manquent. En ce qui concerne leur auto-nomie, les universités canadiennes bénéficient plus du privilège de prendre des décisions locales que les universités de bien d'autres pays. Les universités anglaises et allemandes, quoique très différentes, obtiennent des résultats très satisfaisants sans avoir la même autonomie que les universités canadiennes. Mais sont-elles vraiment aussi efficaces? Devrions-nous nous laisser pousser dans la direction du contrôle ququel elles sont soumises ou bien devrions-nous y résister