795 research outputs found
The system crisis 2020: The end of neoliberal higher education in the UK?
In this paper, we draw on previous conceptual work and theories pertaining to historical waves of reform, in order to reflect upon and locate the recent and current changes in the UK Higher Education (HE) landscape. Moreover, we consider the potentially catastrophic outcomes and consequences facing some HE institutions, and the sector as a whole, arising from the short-sighted and dogged pursuit of neoliberal policies â policies still being followed, we posit, at the precise moment when the current predominant neoliberal wave of reform nears its end. Thus, we present the case that as neoliberalism is confronted with a terminal crisis of legitimacy âfrom withinâ (a system crisis), so too are universities. We therefore ask: What next for the HE sector and Universities? Will HE institutions âcarry on regardlessâ pursuing exploitative, ecocidal, meaningless fiscal growth policies that inexorably risk their legitimacy; their very existence? Or will universities turn away from their generative role in this crisis and authentically begin to reclaim, imagine and practise another educational mission
A Buffer Stocks Model for Stabilizing Price of Staple Food with Considering the Expectation of Non Speculative Wholesaler
This paper is a study of price stabilization in the
staple food distribution system. All stakeholders experience
market risks due to some possibility causes of price volatility.
Many models of price stabilization had been developed by
employing several approaches such as floor-ceiling prices,
buffer funds, export or import taxes, and subsidies. In the
previous researches, the models were expanded to increase the
purchasing price for producer and decrease the selling price
for consumer. Therefore, the policy can influence the losses for
non-speculative wholesaler that is reflected by the descending
of selling quantity and ascending of the stocks. The objective of
this model is not only to keep the expectation of both producer
and consumer, but also to protect non-speculative wholesaler
from the undesirable result of the stabilization policy. A
nonlinear programming model was addressed to determine the
instruments of intervention program. Moreover, the result
shows that the wholesaler behavior affects the intervention
costs.
Index Terms Buffer stocks, Price stabilization, Nonlinear
programming, Wholesaler behavior
THE EFFECT OF PERSONAL AND FARM CHARACTERISTICS UPON GRAIN MARKETING PRACTICES
A survey of Kansas, Texas, and Iowa agricultural producers was taken to examine the factors affecting their grain marketing practices. Sales indices models and models of qualitative choice are used to determine whether marketers' choices of cash market, forward contract, or futures and options oriented marketing practices are significantly affected by their personal farm business characteristics. Results indicate that geographic location, farm size, grain enterprise specialization, farming experience, use of grain storage, and use of crop insurance have significant effects upon the respondents' choice of grain marketing practices.agricultural options, cash marketing, futures, grain marketing practices, multinomial logit, Tobit, Marketing,
Elm Farm Research Centre Bulletin with Technical Updates from the Organic Advisory Service 80
A collection of technical, policy and research articles on organic food and food system
Initial-final mass relation from white dwarfs within 40 pc
We present an initial-final mass relation derived from the
spectroscopically-complete volume-limited 40 pc sample of white dwarfs. The
relation is modelled using population synthesis methods to derive an initial
stellar population which can be fit to the observed mass distribution of white
dwarfs. The population synthesis accounts for binary evolution, where
higher-mass white dwarfs are more likely to be merger products than their
lower-mass counterparts. Uncertainties are accounted from the initial mass
function, stellar metallicity and age of the Galactic disc. We also consider
biases induced by the spectral type of the white dwarf where pure-hydrogen
atmosphere white dwarfs are likely to have more accurate masses, whilst the
full white dwarf sample will have fewer biases arising from spectral evolution.
We provide a four-piece segmented linear regression using Monte Carlo methods
to sample the 1- range of uncertainty on the initial stellar
population. The derived initial-final mass relation provides a self-consistent
determination of the progenitor mass for white dwarfs in the Solar
neighbourhood which will be useful to study the local stellar formation
history.Comment: Eleven pages. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Radio Frequency Models of Novae in eruption. I. The Free-Free Process in Bipolar Morphologies
Observations of novae at radio frequencies provide us with a measure of the
total ejected mass, density profile and kinetic energy of a nova eruption. The
radio emission is typically well characterized by the free-free emission
process. Most models to date have assumed spherical symmetry for the eruption,
although it has been known for as long as there have been radio observations of
these systems, that spherical eruptions are to simplistic a geometry. In this
paper, we build bipolar models of the nova eruption, assuming the free-free
process, and show the effects of varying different parameters on the radio
light curves. The parameters considered include the ratio of the minor- to
major-axis, the inclination angle and shell thickness (further parameters are
provided in the appendix). We also show the uncertainty introduced when fitting
spherical model synthetic light curves to bipolar model synthetic light curves.
We find that the optically thick phase rises with the same power law () for both the spherical and bipolar models. In the bipolar case
there is a "plateau" phase -- depending on the thickness of the shell as well
as the ratio of the minor- to major-axis -- before the final decline, that
follows the same power law () as in the spherical case.
Finally, fitting spherical models to the bipolar model synthetic light curves
requires, in the worst case scenario, doubling the ejected mass, more than
halving the electron temperature and reducing the shell thickness by nearly a
factor of 10. This implies that in some systems we have been over predicting
the ejected masses and under predicting the electron temperature of the ejecta.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, accompanying
movie to figure 3 available at
http://www.ast.uct.ac.za/~valerio/papers/radioI
Mesenchymal stem cells expressing TRAIL lead to tumour growth inhibition in an experimental lung cancer model
AbstractLung cancer is a major public health problem in the western world, and gene therapy strategies to tackle this disease systemically are often impaired by inefficient delivery of the vector to the tumour tissue. Some of the main factors inhibiting systemic delivery are found in the blood stream in the form of red and white blood cells (WBCs) and serum components. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to home to tumour sites and could potentially act as a shield and vehicle for a tumouricidal gene therapy vector. Here, we describe the ability of an adenoviral vector expressing TRAIL (Ad.TR) to transduce MSCs and show the apoptosisâinducing activity of these TRAILâcarrying MSCs on A549 lung carcinoma cells. Intriguingly, using MSCs transduced with Ad.enhancedâgreenâfluorescentâprotein (EGFP) we could show transfer of viral DNA to cocultured A549 cells resulting in transgenic protein production in these cells, which was not inhibited by exposure of MSCs to human serum containing high levels of adenovirus neutralizing antibodies. Furthermore, Ad.TRâtransduced MSCs were shown not to induce Tâcell proliferation, which may have resulted in cytotoxic Tâcellâmediated apoptosis induction in the Ad.TRâtransduced MSCs. Apoptosis was also induced in A549 cells by Ad.TRâtransduced MSCs in the presence of physiological concentrations of WBC, erythrocytes and sera from human donors that inhibit or neutralize adenovirus alone. Moreover, we could show tumour growth reduction with TRAILâloaded MSCs in an A549 xenograft mouse model. This is the first study that demonstrates the potential therapeutic utility of Ad.TRâtransduced MSCs in cancer cells and the stability of this vector in the context of the blood environment.</jats:p
The Distance to Nova V959 Mon from VLA Imaging
Determining reliable distances to classical novae is a challenging but
crucial step in deriving their ejected masses and explosion energetics. Here we
combine radio expansion measurements from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array
with velocities derived from optical spectra to estimate an expansion parallax
for nova V959 Mon, the first nova discovered through its gamma-ray emission. We
spatially resolve the nova at frequencies of 4.5-36.5 GHz in nine different
imaging epochs. The first five epochs cover the expansion of the ejecta from
2012 October to 2013 January, while the final four epochs span 2014 February to
2014 May. These observations correspond to days 126 through 199 and days 615
through 703 after the first detection of the nova. The images clearly show a
non-spherical ejecta geometry. Utilizing ejecta velocities derived from 3D
modelling of optical spectroscopy, the radio expansion implies a distance
between 0.9 +/- 0.2 and 2.2 +/- 0.4 kpc, with a most probable distance of 1.4
+/- 0.4 kpc. This distance implies a gamma-ray luminosity much less than the
prototype gamma-ray-detected nova, V407 Cyg, possibly due to the lack of a red
giant companion in the V959 Mon system. V959 Mon also has a much lower
gamma-ray luminosity than other classical novae detected in gamma-rays to date,
indicating a range of at least a factor of 10 in the gamma-ray luminosities for
these explosions.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, submitted to ApJ 2015-01-21, under
revie
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