Shining a spotlight on small rural businesses: How does their performance compare with urban?

Rural enterprises play an important economic role, contributing to national prosperity and wellbeing but are often a blind spot within rural development and wider economic policies and evidence. This paper presents an urban-rural analysis of a large scale survey of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). It applies Propensity Score Matching to allow for an assessment of the effects of rurality on business performance. Results show that England's rural firms have similar levels of turnover to their urban counterparts, but are more likely to report a profit. The analysis also reveals rural firms to be significantly stronger exporters of goods and services and to have goods or services suitable for exporting. However, there are some weaknesses and obstacles to business success that concern significantly more rural than urban firms, that vary with the rurality of local districts, and which require the attention of policy makers and support providers seeking to achieve spatially-balanced and more equitable economic development

Classification of Hybrid Quantum-Classical Computing

As quantum computers mature, the applicability in practice becomes more important. Many uses of quantum computers will be hybrid, with classical computers still playing an important role in operating and using the quantum computer. The term hybrid is however diffuse and multi-interpretable. In this work we define two classes of hybrid quantum-classical computing: vertical and horizontal. The first is application-agnostic and concerns using quantum computers. The second is application-specific and concerns running an algorithm. For both, we give a further subdivision in different types of hybrid quantum-classical computing and we coin terms for them

“It’s the economy, stupid” (President Clinton) – eller har den sproglige mangfoldighed en chance?

I Sprogforum 13 (1999) skrev jeg at Danmark “burde sætte en række undersøgelser i gang for at afklare i hvilken retning sprogpolitikker udvikler sig nationalt og inter- nationalt, og hvordan danske interesser bedst varetages på kort og lang sigt. Det er et område som karakteriseres af uvidenhed og myter”. Siden hen er der sket en del faglig planlægning, men grundige ‘undersøgelser’ kan jeg ikke få øje på. Markeds- kræfterne (Clinton’s economy) har haft frit spil, hvilket betyder at engelsk styrkes på bekostning af alle andre sprog, inklusiv dansk. En række udfordringer og trusler er synlige. (...

English in the Geopolitics of Knowledge

The role of English in constituting and dominating the geopolitics of knowledge is ex- plored in three fields: scholarly writing in the USA, trends in the generation and marketing of encyclopedias, reference works and electronic databases of “global” reach and the selec- tion processes that influence knowledge production and serve to maintain hierarchies of language; ongoing analysis of whether Nordic languages are being eclipsed by English, as well as the nature of western academic discourse dominance for the vitality of other cul- tures and languages. These instances show how global scholarship is being constrained through an English filter that amounts to epistemic symbolic violence. These examples are linked to current pressures to quantify the utility of university “productivity,” and the need for more proactive strategies to ensure the diversity of knowledge communities, which is necessary for the continuation of humanity.Se explora el papel del inglés en la constitución y dominio de la geopolítica del conocimiento en tres campos: la escritura académica en los EE.UU., los patrones y modas en la producción y mercadeo de enciclopedias, libros de referencia y bancos de datos electrónicos con alcance “global” y los procesos de selección que influencian la producción de conocimiento y mantienen las jerarquías de lenguajes. Se analiza también el eclipsamiento de las lenguas nórdicas por parte del inglés. Por otro lado, se estudia el carácter y consecuencias del dominio occidental en la academia para la vitalidad de otras culturas y lenguas. Estos ejemplos demuestran como la producción académica global está constreñida por un filtro inglés, una forma de violencia epistémica y simbólica. Además, están ligados a las demandas de cuantificar la utilidad de la productividad de las universidades y a la necesidad de estrategiasproactivas para asegurar la diversidad de las comunidades de conocimiento indispensables para la preservación y futuro de la humanidad

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Implications for Rural Economies

This paper presents a rapid assessment of current and likely future impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on rural economies given their socio-economic characteristics. Drawing principally on current evidence for the UK, as well as lessons from the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak and the 2007/8 financial crises, it outlines the likely key demand and supply effects, paying attention to the situation for agriculture as well as discussing the implications for rural communities. A distinction is made between the effects on businesses offering goods and services for out-of-home as opposed to in-home consumption. Gendered dimensions are also noted as likely business and household strategies for coping and adaptation. The paper concludes with a brief mapping of a research agenda for studying the longer-term effects of COVID-19 on rural economies

“I don’t want to live too long!”: Successful ageing and the failure of longevity in Japan

This chapter examines ‘successful aging’ through its impacts on formal care workers in Japan. It is based on one year of fieldwork conducted in urban Japan and examines the affective, ethical, and cultural forces that result at times in resilience, compassion, and intimacy between carers and elderly clients, and at other times, in violence, abuse, and abandonment. I argue that locating the source of this divergence in individuals (i.e., adverse coping strategy) reproduces the same neoliberal model of success for care workers as it does for the elderly. Instead, care and abuse in formal care settings can be seen as symptoms of broader political and economic transformations that have been occurring in Japan since the 1990s

Locomotor changes in length and EMG activity of feline medial gastrocnemius muscle following paralysis of two synergists

The mechanism of the compensatory increase in electromyographic activity (EMG) of a cat ankle extensor during walking shortly after paralysis of its synergists is not fully understood. It is possible that due to greater ankle flexion in stance in this situation, muscle spindles are stretched to a greater extent and, thus, contribute to the EMG enhancement. However, also changes in force feedback and central drive may play a role. The aim of the present study was to investigate the short-term (1- to 2-week post-op) effects of lateral gastrocnemius (LG) and soleus (SO) denervation on muscle fascicle and muscle–tendon unit (MTU) length changes, as well as EMG activity of the intact medial gastrocnemius (MG) muscle in stance during overground walking on level (0%), downslope (−50%, presumably enhancing stretch of ankle extensors in stance) and upslope (+50%, enhancing load on ankle extensors) surfaces. Fascicle length was measured directly using sonomicrometry, and MTU length was calculated from joint kinematics. For each slope condition, LG-SO denervation resulted in an increase in MTU stretch and peak stretch velocity of the intact MG in early stance. MG muscle fascicle stretch and peak stretch velocity were also higher than before denervation in downslope walking. Denervation significantly decreased the magnitude of MG fascicle shortening and peak shortening velocity during early stance in level and upslope walking. MG EMG magnitude in the swing and stance phases was substantially greater after denervation, with a relatively greater increase during stance of level and upslope walking. These results suggest that the fascicle length patterns of MG muscle are significantly altered when two of its synergists are in a state of paralysis. Further, the compensatory increase in MG EMG is likely mediated by enhanced MG length feedback during downslope walking, enhanced feedback from load-sensitive receptors during upslope walking and enhanced central drive in all walking conditions