Ethnic minority business in the uk: a review of research and policy development

Part of a series produced to support a ESRC/CRE/DTI/emda workshop on ethnic minority entrepreneurship. This paper comprised a review of research literature on ethnic minority enterprise and an overview of UK policy developments

Privatisation in China: softly, softly does it

India’s halting attempts at privatisation and its preference, for the most part, for disinvestment have been roundly criticised by many as being inadequate. A more aggressive privatisation drive, it is contended, would make for superior economic performance. In popular discourse, China’s privatisation efforts are often compared favourably with India’s. This paper examines China’s record of privatisation to see whether it accords with popular perceptions. The record shows that China has been proceeded cautiously in its privatisation efforts. It has privatised – that is, sold off to private owners- only the smaller SOEs. The state retains control over the larger SOEs that dominate industrial output and profits. In respect of these, China has opted for gradual disinvestment with disinvested shares residing mostly with state-owned entities. Over a long period, China has pushed through reforms of SOEs, including conferment of greater autonomy on enterprises and introduction of incentives for workers and managers. The empirical evidence is that performance at SOEs has improved consequent to these reforms. It could be argued that full-blooded privatisation might have produced even better results. However, given the possible implications in terms of job losses as well as the absence of effective governance mechanisms in China’s underdeveloped capital market. China’s rulers may well have been justified in hastening slowly with privatisation.

Commuting families in Hecke and Temperley-Lieb algebras

Abstract We define analogs of the Jucys-Murphy elements for the affine Temperley-Lieb algebra and give their explicit expansion in terms of the basis of planar Brauer diagrams. These Jucys-Murphy elements are a family of commuting elements in the affine Temperley-Lieb algebra, and we compute their eigenvalues on the generic irreducible representations. We show that they come from Jucys-Murphy elements in the affine Hecke algebra of type A, which in turn come from the Casimir element of the quantum group . We also give the explicit specializations of these results to the finite Temperley-Lieb algebra.12

Electrical and magnetic properties of the complete solid solution series between SrRuO3 and LaRhO3: Filling t2g versus tilting

A complete solid solution series between the t2g^4 perovskite ferromagnet SrRuO3 and the diamagnetic t2g^6 perovskite LaRhO3 has been prepared. The evolution with composition x in (SrRuO3)(1-x)(LaRhO3)(x) of the crystal structure and electrical and magnetic properties has been studied and is reported here. As x increases, the octahedral tilt angle gradually increases, along with the pseudocubic lattice parameter and unit cell volume. Electrical resistivity measurements reveal a compositionally driven metal to insulator transition between x = 0.1 and 0.2. Ferromagnetic ordering gives over to glassy magnetism for x > 0.3 and no magnetic ordering is found above 2 K for x > 0.5. M_sat and Theta_CW decrease with increasing x and remain constant after x = 0.5. The magnetism appears poised between localized and itinerant behavior, and becomes more localized with increasing x as evidenced by the evolution of the Rhodes-Wohlfarth ratio. mu_eff per Ru is equal to the quenched spin-only S value across the entire solid solution. Comparisons with Sr(1-x)Ca(x)RuO3 reinforce the important role of structural distortions in determining magnetic ground state. It is suggested that electrical transport and magnetic properties are not strongly coupled in this system

Effect of synthetic graphite and activated charcoal addition on the mechanical, microstructure and wear properties of AZ 81 Mg alloys

AbstractIn the present study, the grain refinement effects of carbon on AZ 81 (Mg–8%Al) alloys were investigated through the addition of synthetic graphite and activated charcoal inoculants. The mechanical and dry sliding wear properties of AZ 81 (Mg–8%Al) alloys with and without grain refiners were studied. The composition, microstructure and wear surface of the cast alloys were analyzed with the aid of atomic absorption spectroscopy, optical and scanning electron microscopes. The wear test was conducted at a speed of 5.37m/s and two loading (20N and 30N) conditions in a pin on disc wear apparatus. The mean grain size of the alloy is significantly reduced from about 185 to 32μm when the carbon content is increased to 0.98% C. Both tensile strength and ductility increase with increasing carbon content. Also, the wear rate decreases with the increase of carbon content in the alloy. The activated charcoal with 0.98wt% C is found to be a better grain refiner in improving the properties of tensile behaviour and wear resistance. The fracture surface morphology shows the brittle intergranular fracture. Analyses of wear surface morphology show that abrasive and delamination wear mechanisms are responsible for the wear loss in the AZ 81 alloy

The Far-Infrared Luminosity Function from GOODS-N: Constraining the Evolution of Infrared Galaxies for z \leq 1

We present the IR luminosity function derived from ultra-deep 70 micron imaging of the GOODS-North field. The 70 micron observations are longward of the PAH and silicate features which complicate work in the MIR. We derive far-infrared luminosities for the 143 sources with S_{70} > 2 mJy (S/N > 3 \sigma). The majority (81%) of the sources have spectroscopic redshifts, and photometric redshifts are calculated for the remainder. The IR luminosity function at four redshifts (z ~ 0.28, 0.48, 0.78, and 0.97) is derived and compared to the local one. There is considerable degeneracy between luminosity and density evolution. If the evolving luminosity function is described as \rho(L, z) = (1 + z)^q \rho(L/(1 + z)^p, 0), we find q = -2.19p + 6.09. In the case of pure luminosity evolution, we find a best fit of p = 2.78^{+0.34}_{-0.32}. This is consistent with the results from 24 micron and 1.4 GHz studies. Our results confirm the emerging picture of strong evolution in LIRGs and ULIRGs at 0.4 < z < 1.1, but we find no evidence of significant evolution in the sub-LIRG (L < 10^{11} L_{\odot}) population for z < 0.4.Comment: accepted by ApJL, 5 page

Wald's entropy is equal to a quarter of the horizon area in units of the effective gravitational coupling

The Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of black holes in Einstein's theory of gravity is equal to a quarter of the horizon area in units of Newton's constant. Wald has proposed that in general theories of gravity the entropy of stationary black holes with bifurcate Killing horizons is a Noether charge which is in general different from the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. We show that the Noether charge entropy is equal to a quarter of the horizon area in units of the effective gravitational coupling on the horizon defined by the coefficient of the kinetic term of specific graviton polarizations on the horizon. We present several explicit examples of static spherically symmetric black holes.Comment: 20 pages ; added clarifications, explanations, new section on the choice of polarizations, results unchanged; replaced with published versio