The Use of Market Mechanisms in Higher Education Finance and State Control: Ontario Considered

Marketization has been so liberally applied to understanding higher education finance policy change that it has become a less potent conceptual tool. Through its evolution as a conceptual tool, the relationship between state control and market control has become an either/or proposition. In Ontario, state control over higher education has been strengthened with the use of market mechanisms, particularly as they have been utilized in resource allocation. This article outlines seven major higher education policy changes that make use of market mechanisms while enhancing state control. It is argued that marketization is a compromise between privatization, academic autonomy, and blatant state control in the face of the backlash against government intrusion in western socio- economic life.La mise en marché en éducation, ou l'emploi des mécanismes du marché, a été appliquée si libéralement pour comprendre les décisions financières en éducation qu'elle s'est rendue inutile pour décrire l'évolution ou les changements de la politique actuelle. En plus, elle a évolué d'une telle façon que le rapport entre le contrôle de l'État et celui du marché est devenu une proposition de l'un ou l'autre. En Ontario, le contrôle de l'État en éducation a été renforcé avec l'emploi des mécanismes du marché, surtout dans le domaine de l'allocation des ressources. Ce document brosse un tableau sur les sept changements les plus importants qui ont utilisé les mécanismes du marché tout en améliorant le contrôle de l'État. On discute la mise en marché comme un compromis entre la privatisation, l'autonomie scolaire, et l'étatisation devant les répercussions contre l'imposition gouvernementale dans la vie socioéconomique de l'Occident

The Refined Approach to Punishment in Section 11 of the Charter

In R. v. K.R.J. (“K.R.J.”) the Supreme Court acknowledged what is intuitive but was not explicit in section 11(i) Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (“Charter”) jurisprudence: determining if something is punishment requires consideration of the impact it has on an offender. The critical question in K.R.J. was whether a section 161 Criminal Code (“Code”) prohibition order constituted punishment within the meaning of section 11(i) of the Charter. Section 161(1) orders restrict the liberty interest of convicted sexual offenders who pose an ongoing risk of committing a sexual offence against a child. These orders restrict the ability of offenders to attend places where children are present, or have unsupervised contact with children, in person or through electronic means. The provisions are intended to protect children from abuse by repeat offenders. In K.R.J. the Supreme Court of Canada found the consequences of a sanction on the offender need to be considered in order to give a purposive interpretation to the Charter protection when determining whether a sanction amounts to punishment. In other words, it is not just the reason why a sanction is imposed that matters, its impact is also important. Both purpose and effect must be considered. This modified the previous test. In carving out “a clearer and more meaningful role for the consideration of the impact of a sanction” the court continued the trend towards greater acknowledgement of the consequences on an offender. The reformulation of the test invites further litigation and has the potential to affect all manner of ancillary orders. For example, while orders for forfeiture or fine in lieu of forfeiture for proceeds of crime are not likely to be affected, forfeiture of offence-related property may now qualify as punishment

Philosophy of pasture-based dairying (2012)

"Agriculture.""Dairy grazing.""Dairy grazing publication series : This publication is one in a series about operating and managing a pasture-based dairy. Although these publications often refer to conditions in Missouri, many of the principles and concepts described may apply to operations throughout the United States. ""Revised from M168, Dairy Grazing Manual, by Stacey A. Hamilton, Dairy Specialist, Southwest Region."New 3/12/Web

eGovernment Transformation: Understanding Customer Value at Marlborough District Council

The drive continues around the world for eGovernment and the New Zealand public sector is no different. The public sector continue to develop and evolve their eGovernment solutions yet eGovernment maturity has not progressed significantly nor are eGovernment solutions evaluated, specifically not from a customer perspective. eGovernment has been defined as the process of delivering information and services electronically using technology to customers of the public sector. The transitional stages of maturity going from a basic digital presence to more complex interactive environments describes eGovernment transformation. eServices are a subset of the many functions that eGovernment can deliver and provides the online interactive information and customer service component. There have been many benefits and challenges to eGovernment and these are mainly targeting the customer with: increasing access to information; increasing access to public officials; new opportunities for customer collaboration. Internal benefits are enhancing efficiency; and reduced costs. Yet academic research in evaluating eServices is limited and mainly applied from an internal perspective not from the perspective of the customers who are using these eServices and where the majority of benefits are focused. The customer value is defined as what these services are worth to customers. The setting for the case study is a local government organisation, the Marlborough District Council (MDC), which undertakes district and regional council functions. Marlborough District Council plays a pivotal role in the community, providing essential services including core infrastructure, regulatory functions, public information, community facilities and services, environmental management and information management, with a diverse range of information to be made publically available electronically. Marlborough District Council is developing its eGovernment transformation and must understand the value of its eServices to its customers and how these eServices can be successfully evaluated for prioritisation and funding. It is difficult without understanding the value of these eServices to get organisational priority and budgets even though these are promoted throughout the world. The case study evaluated two specific eServices, Property Files Online and Smart Maps. Prior to the case study little was known of the success of these services other than usage growth and anecdotal feedback. The methodology consisted of interviews with internal and external customers using various professions and perspectives. Google analytical data was collected from these specific eServices and collated with the interview data to provide an objective perspective. The framework chosen for evaluating these eServices is the IS success model. The IS success model has been successfully applied academically to evaluate the success of IT systems and has been previously adapted for measuring eCommerce and static websites. The proposed model for evaluating these eServices was from academic literature to derive at an appropriate model with key attributes assigned to assist with evaluation. The IS success model constructs were: Trust in MDC; trust in technology; trust in eServices; information quality; system quality; service quality; usage/continued use; user satisfaction; and net benefit customer value. The data collected was applied to the constructs of the model and evaluated against the attributes and overall findings summarised. The findings were: The value in evaluating eServices; customer dependency on MDC; the value in engaging with customers; and the benefits to a knowledge society. The evaluation of these eServices validated the IS success model with a variation of the model produced based on the analysis. The new IS success constructs removed the trust in technology and included: Information quality; system quality; service quality; trust in eServices; usage/continued use; user satisfaction; net benefit – customer value and knowledge society; trust in MDC. The recommendations identified to address the findings for MDC to consider: Creating a digital strategy with supporting eServices roadmap; setting up a program to evaluate eServices – using the adapted IS SUCCESS model; set up an eServices risk management framework; establish an eService customer engagement programme; and to build a Community Smart Map

Earth Matter Effects in Detection of Supernova Neutrinos

We calculated the matter effect, including both the Earth and supernova, on the detection of neutrinos from type II supernovae at the proposed Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment. It is found that apart from the dependence on the flip probability P_H inside the supernova and the mass hierarchy of neutrinos, the amount of the Earth matter effect depends on the direction of the incoming supernova neutrinos, and reaches the biggest value when the incident angle of neutrinos is around 93^\circ. In the reaction channel \bar{\nu}_e + p --> e^+ + n the Earth matter effect can be as big as about 12%. For other detection processes the amount of the Earth matter effect is a few per cent.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

An analytic model of the Gruneisen parameter at all densities

We model the density dependence of the Gruneisen parameter as gamma(rho) = 1/2 + gamma_1/rho^{1/3} + gamma_2/rho^{q}, where gamma_1, gamma_2, and q>1 are constants. This form is based on the assumption that gamma is an analytic function of V^{1/3}, and was designed to accurately represent the experimentally determined low-pressure behavior of gamma. The numerical values of the constants are obtained for 20 elemental solids. Using the Lindemann criterion with our model for gamma, we calculate the melting curves for Al, Ar, Ni, Pd, and Pt and compare them to available experimental melt data. We also determine the Z (atomic number) dependence of gamma_1. The high-compression limit of the model is shown to follow from a generalization of the Slater, Dugdale-MacDonald, and Vashchenko-Zubarev forms for the dependence of the Gruneisen parameter.Comment: 14 Pages, LaTeX, 5 eps figues; changes in the tex