6,823 research outputs found
The Federalist on Federalism: Neither a National Nor a Federal Constitution, But a Composition of Both
Politicians often claim commitment to decentralising the state, but once in government they are unwilling to relinquish their own power
The nature of the British political system is such that Westminster is a bastion of concentrated power. Martin Smith, Dave Richards and Patrick Diamond argue that whilst politicians may actually call for more localism, they are loath to give up their own power. Any government’s commitment to localism and devolution is undermined where there is no willingness to entertain a new vision of British politics involving a proper re-evaluation of the relationship between the centre and the locality
How to address the pathologies of the British political tradition in an age of disengagement and distrust
There is undoubtedly a major issue of political disengagement between voters and Westminster’s system of government. However, the Westminster political class appears to regard the solution to the current maladies as finding ways to reinforce the existing system, rather than embracing the need to re-think the current nature of politics. It is clear that many of the recommendations offered by the recent PCRC Report chime with the wider response to the UK political crisis. What we need from political leaders is a serious process of engagement with citizens that is capable of stepping beyond vested party interests, argue Martin Smith, Dave Richards and Patrick Diamond
From projects to whole school/college-higher education institution partnerships : identifying the critical success factors under-pinning effective strategic partnerships : report submitted to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) as part of the HEI-School/ College/Academy Links Grant Programme, March 2010
A thin ring model for the OH megamaser in IIIZw35
We present a model for the OH megamaser emission in the starburst galaxy
IIIZw35. The observed diffuse and compact OH maser components in this source
are explained by a single phase of unsaturated clumpy gas distributed in a thin
ring structure and amplifying background continuum. We emphasize the importance
of clumpiness in the OH masing medium, an effect that has not been fully
appreciated previously.
The model explains why multiple bright spots are seen only at the ring
tangents while smoother emission is found elsewhere. Both the observed velocity
gradients and the line to continuum ratios around the ring enquire a geometry
where most of the seed photons come from a continuum emission which lies
outside the OH ring. To explain both the OH and continuum brightness, free-free
absorbing gas is required along the ring axis to partially absorb the far side
of the ring. It is proposed that the required geometry arises from an inwardly
propagating ring of starburst activity
Species' traits predict phenological responses to climate change in butterflies
How do species' traits help identify which species will respond most strongly to future climate change? We examine the relationship between species' traits and phenology in a well-established model system for climate change, the U.K. Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS). Most resident U.K. butterfly species have significantly advanced their dates of first appearance during the past 30 years. We show that species with narrower larval diet breadth and more advanced overwintering stages have experienced relatively greater advances in their date of first appearance. In addition, species with smaller range sizes have experienced greater phenological advancement. Our results demonstrate that species' traits can be important predictors of responses to climate change, and they suggest that further investigation of the mechanisms by which these traits influence phenology may aid in understanding species' responses to current and future climate change
Cosmic Strings from Supersymmetric Flat Directions
Flat directions are a generic feature of the scalar potential in
supersymmetric gauge field theories. They can arise, for example, from D-terms
associated with an extra abelian gauge symmetry. Even when supersymmetry is
broken softly, there often remain directions in the scalar field space along
which the potential is almost flat. Upon breaking a gauge symmetry along one of
these almost flat directions, cosmic strings may form. Relative to the standard
cosmic string picture based on the abelian Higgs model, these flat-direction
cosmic strings have the extreme Type-I properties of a thin gauge core
surrounded by a much wider scalar field profile. We perform a comprehensive
study of the microscopic, macroscopic, and observational characteristics of
this class of strings. We find many differences from the standard string
scenario, including stable higher winding mode strings, the dynamical formation
of higher mode strings from lower ones, and a resultant multi-tension scaling
string network in the early universe. These strings are only moderately
constrained by current observations, and their gravitational wave signatures
may be detectable at future gravity wave detectors. Furthermore, there is the
interesting but speculative prospect that the decays of cosmic string loops in
the early universe could be a source of ultra-high energy cosmic rays or
non-thermal dark matter. We also compare the observational signatures of
flat-direction cosmic strings with those of ordinary cosmic strings as well as
(p,q) cosmic strings motivated by superstring theory.Comment: 58 pages, 16 figures, v2. accepted to PRD, added comments about
baryogenesis and boosted decay products from cusp annihilatio
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