7,740 research outputs found
Promoting decentralised and flexible budgets in England: Lessons from the past and future prospects
The UK has traditionally been viewed as a classic example of a unitary state in which central institutions dominate decision making. The recent Labour Government sought to counter this convention through devolution to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London and administrative decentralization to the English regions. This article examines New Labour’s efforts to promote sub-national policy discretion and fiscal autonomy via the Regional Funding Allocations (RFA) process. Findings are subsequently drawn upon to offer insights into the difficulties the Coalition Government is likely to face in its endeavor to decentralize functions and budgets to local authorities and communities. The paper addresses two central questions (i) Can New Labour’s attempt to promote decentralized and flexible budgets in England be viewed asevidence of a transition to a more fluid, multi-level form of governance? (ii)What lessons can be harnessed from the RFA experience in taking forward the Coalition government’s plans to promote fiscal discretion at the sub-national tier? It concludes that there are deep-rooted barriers in Whitehall that may limitthe freedoms and flexibilities pledged to local government and could undermine efforts to decentralize
Deal Making in Whitehall: competing and complementary motivations behind the Review of Sub-national Economic Development and Regeneration'
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore Whitehall motivations underpinning the Sub-national Review of Economic Development and Regeneration.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on interviews conducted with senior Whitehall officials involved in regional working.
Findings – The Sub-national Review seeks to streamline regional structures and provide regions with enhanced autonomy. However, findings indicate that there are distinct differences of opinion across Whitehall departments regarding the future trajectory of English regionalism and what powers and functions regional bodies should acquire. These contradictory positions raise questions about the implementation and effectiveness of the proposals.
Originality/value – An examination of these phenomena is intended to provide greater clarity regarding the opportunities and constraints presented by the latest phase of regional restructuring
Coherent Magnetotransport Through an Artificial Molecule
The conductance in an extended multiband Hubbard model describing linear
arrays of up to ten quantum dots is calculated via a Lanczos technique. A
pronounced suppression of certain resonant conductance peaks in an applied
magnetic field due to a density-dependent spin-polarization transition is
predicted to be a clear signature of a coherent ``molecular'' wavefunction in
the array. A many-body enhancement of localization is predicted to give rise to
a {\em giant magnetoconductance} effect in systems with magnetic scattering.Comment: 4 pages, REVTEX 3.0, 5 figures included as postscript file
Quantum-Dot Cascade Laser: Proposal for an Ultra-Low-Threshold Semiconductor Laser
We propose a quantum-dot version of the quantum-well cascade laser of Faist
et al. [Science {\bf 264}, 553 (1994)]. The elimination of single phonon decays
by the three-dimensional confinement implies a several order-of-magnitude
reduction in the threshold current. The requirements on dot size (10-20nm) and
on dot density and uniformity [one coupled pair of dots per (180nm)^3 with 5%
nonuniformity] are close to current technology.Comment: 8 pages, REVTEX 3.0, 3 compressed postscript figure
Some determinants of organizational success
Organizational efficiency and productivity determined by variables associated with economics, psychology, and sociolog
Noncommutative Blowups of Elliptic Algebras
We develop a ring-theoretic approach for blowing up many noncommutative
projective surfaces. Let T be an elliptic algebra (meaning that, for some
central element g of degree 1, T/gT is a twisted homogeneous coordinate ring of
an elliptic curve E at an infinite order automorphism). Given an effective
divisor d on E whose degree is not too big, we construct a blowup T(d) of T at
d and show that it is also an elliptic algebra. Consequently it has many good
properties: for example, it is strongly noetherian, Auslander-Gorenstein, and
has a balanced dualizing complex. We also show that the ideal structure of T(d)
is quite rigid. Our results generalise those of the first author. In the
companion paper "Classifying Orders in the Sklyanin Algebra", we apply our
results to classify orders in (a Veronese subalgebra of) a generic cubic or
quadratic Sklyanin algebra.Comment: 39 pages. Minor changes from previous version. The final publication
is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10468-014-9506-
Naive Noncommutative Blowing Up
Let B(X,L,s) be the twisted homogeneous coordinate ring of an irreducible
variety X over an algebraically closed field k with dim X > 1. Assume that c in
X and s in Aut(X) are in sufficiently general position. We show that if one
follows the commutative prescription for blowing up X at c, but in this
noncommutative setting, one obtains a noncommutative ring R=R(X,c,L,s) with
surprising properties. In particular:
(1) R is always noetherian but never strongly noetherian.
(2) If R is generated in degree one then the images of the R-point modules in
qgr(R) are naturally in (1-1) correspondence with the closed points of X.
However, both in qgr(R) and in gr(R), the R-point modules are not parametrized
by a projective scheme.
(3) qgr R has finite cohomological dimension yet H^1(R) is infinite
dimensional.
This gives a more geometric approach to results of the second author who
proved similar results for X=P^n by algebraic methods.Comment: Latex, 42 page
Controlling quantum transport through a single molecule
We investigate multi-terminal quantum transport through single monocyclic
aromatic annulene molecules, and their derivatives, using the nonequilibrium
Green function approach in the self-consistent Hartree-Fock approximation. A
new device concept, the Quantum Interference Effect Transistor (QuIET) is
proposed, exploiting perfect destructive interference stemming from molecular
symmetry, and controlling current flow by introducing decoherence and/or
elastic scattering that break the symmetry. This approach overcomes the
fundamental problems of power dissipation and environmental sensitivity that
beset many nanoscale device proposals.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
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