The economic regeneration of London docklands: a labour market analysis

PhDIn 1980 the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was designated as the organisation responsible for the physical, economic and social regeneration of the area in East London known as London Docklands. It-is argued that an evaluation of LDDC policy impact on the labour market will be useful for two reasons. First, it will make a contribution to the academic discussion on the causes of economic and social change in this part of London. This is made all the more necessary because much previous research has concentrated on political issues, whilst paying only lip-service to many of the other economic and social forces that cause change. Second, at a practical level, the controversial nature of LDDC initiatives necessitates a detailed study of policy impact. A conceptual model of the labour market is developed based on segmented labour market theory. It includes the key influences on the demand and supply side of the labour market and the interaction process between demand and supply. This allows the evaluation of LDDC policy to take account of other forces that cause change in the labour market. The broad conclusion is that LDDC policy has had a very limited impact on the local labour market and an explanation of change in London Docklands must include other economic and social forces

Low-Mass X-ray Binaries and Globular Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies. I. Chandra Observations

We present a Chandra survey of LMXBs in 24 early-type galaxies. Correcting for detection incompleteness, the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of each galaxy is consistent with a powerlaw with negative logarithmic differential slope, beta~2.0. However, beta strongly correlates with incompleteness, indicating the XLF flattens at low-Lx. The composite XLF is well-fitted by a powerlaw with a break at 2.21(+0.65,-0.56)E38 erg/s and beta=1.40(+0.10,-0.13) and 2.84(+0.39,-0.30) below and above it, respectively. The break is close to the Eddington limit for a 1.4Msun neutron-star, but the XLF shape rules out its representing the division between neutron-star and black-hole systems. Although the XLFs are similar, we find evidence of some variation between galaxies. The high-Lx XLF slope does not correlate with age, but may correlate with [alpha/Fe]. Considering only LMXBs with Lx>1E37 erg/s, matching the LMXBs with globular clusters (GCs) identified in HST observations of 19 of the galaxies, we find the probability a GC hosts an LMXB is proportional to LGC^alpha ZFe^gamma} where alpha=1.01+/-0.19 and gamma=0.33+/-0.11. Correcting for GC luminosity and colour effects, and detection incompleteness, we find no evidence that the fraction of LMXBs with Lx>1e37 erg/s in GCs (40%), or the fraction of GCs hosting LMXBs (~6.5%) varies between galaxies. The spatial distribution of LMXBs resembles that of GCs, and the specific frequency of LMXBs is proportional to the GC specific luminosity, consistent with the hypothesis that all LMXBs form in GCs. If the LMXB lifetime is tau and the duty cycle is Fd, our results imply ~1.5 (tau/1E8 yr)^-1 /Fd LMXBs are formed per Gyr per GC and we place an upper limit of 1 active LMXB in the field per 3.4E9Lsun of V-band luminosity.Comment: 24 pages, 17 figures and 6 tables. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Expanded discussion and various minor revisions to improve robustness of results. Conclusions unchange

Selected approaches and frameworks to carry out genomic data provision and analysis on the cloud

While High Performance Computing clouds allow researchers to process large amounts of genomic data, complex resource and software configuration tasks must be carried out beforehand. The current trend exposes applications and data as services, simplifying access to clouds. This paper examines commonly used cloud-based genomic analysis services, introduces the approach of exposing data as services and proposes two new solutions (HPCaaS and Uncinus) which aim to automate service development, deployment process and data provision. By comparing and contrasting these solutions, we identify key mechanisms of service creation, execution and data access required to support non-computing specialists employing clouds

Deciding When and How to Impair Goodwill: The Case of Enervate Inc.

Constituents to the accounting profession recommend that educators teach critical thinking skills, thus improving accounting graduates’ abilities to achieve long-term career success. Students in upper division accounting courses possess the basic understanding of accounting principles and are provided new content requiring analysis and evaluation, which makes these courses a good setting for motivating students to develop critical thinking skills. This paper discusses an exercise for upper division accounting courses that provide students the opportunity to examine the challenging concept of goodwill impairment for a parent company with three separate subsidiaries. The suggested exercise requires students to research, properly cite, and apply the impairment standards under both U.S. GAAP and IFRS, to analyze the differences between the two standards, to write a business letter summarizing the findings, and to consider the ethical issues involved in earnings management

Simplifying gene expression microarray comparative analysis.

Gene Expression Comparative Analysis allows bioinformatics researchers to discover the conserved or specific functional regulation of genes. This is achieved through comparisons between quantitative gene expression measurements obtained in different species on different platforms to address a particular biological system. Comparisons are made more difficult due to the need to map orthologous genes between species, pre-processing of data (normalization) and post-analysis (statistical and correlation analysis). In this paper we introduce a web-based software package called EXP-PAC which provides on line interfaces for database construction and query of data, and makes use of a high performance computing platform of computer clusters to run gene sequence mapping and normalization methods in parallel. Thus, EXP-PAC facilitates the integration of gene expression data for comparative analysis and the online sharing, retrieval and visualization of complex multi-specific and multi-platform gene expression results.<br /

Briefing: UK Ministry of Defence Force Protection Engineering Programme

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory sponsored, QinetiQ-led Force Protection Engineering Research Programme has two main strands, applied and underpinning research. The underpinning strand is led by Blastech Ltd. One focus of this research is into the response of geomaterials to threat loading. The programme on locally won fill is split into four main characterisation strands: high-stress (GPa) static pressure–volume; medium-rate pressure–volume (split Hopkinson bar); high-rate (flyer plate) pressure–volume; and unifying modelling research at the University of Sheffield, which has focused on developing a high-quality dataset for locally won fill in low and medium strain rates. With the test apparatus at Sheffield well-controlled tests can be conducted at both high strain rate and pseudo-static rates up to stress levels of 1 GPa. The University of Cambridge has focused on using one-dimensional shock experiments to examine high-rate pressure–volume relationships. Both establishments are examining the effect of moisture content and starting density on emergent rate effects. Blastech Ltd has been undertaking carefully controlled fragment impact experiments, within the dataspace developed by the Universities of Sheffield and Cambridge. The data from experiments are unified by the QinetiQ-led modelling team, to predict material behaviour and to derive a scalable locally won fill model for use in any situation

Problems Associated with Making Mechanical Measurements on Water–Ice at Quasistatic and Dynamic Strain Rates

Abstract: Space penetrators are a potential method of inserting instrumentation onto ice-covered bodies in the solar system. Part of a study to see whether this is feasible involves numerically simulating impact of the penetrator into ice at impact velocities of a few 100 m/s. In order to do this accurately, it is necessary to have a constitutive model for water ice that is valid at the strain rates and temperatures relevant to impact in the Outer Solar System. This paper reports certain issues and difficulties that arose during a study to obtain this data

The Commission to Philip Phelps from the Board of Missions of the General Synod of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church and a Letter from John Garretson to Philip Phelps

April 5, 1859; The Commission to Philip Phelps from the Board of Missions of the General Synod of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church for the term of 12 months to serve as missionary at Holland. The Board would support him in the amount of $400. April 12, 1859; A letter to Phelps from John Garretson, Corresponding Secretary of the Board, about the call to serve the Academy.https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/vrp_1850s/1096/thumbnail.jp