Trapped Fermi gases

We study the properties of a spin-polarized Fermi gas in a harmonic trap, using the semiclassical (Thomas-Fermi) approximation. Universal forms for the spatial and momentum distributions are calculated, and the results compared with the corresponding properties of a dilute Bose gas.Comment: 6 pages, LaTex, revtex, epsf, submitted to Phys. Rev. A, 6 December 199

Target company cross-border effects in acquisitions into the UK

We analyse the abnormal returns to target shareholders in crossborder and domestic acquisitions of UK companies. The crossborder effect during the bid month is small (0.84%), although crossborder targets gain significantly more than domestic targets during the months surrounding the bid. We find no evidence for the level of abnormal returns in crossborder acquisitions to be associated with market access or exchange rate effects, and only limited support for an international diversification effect. However, the crossborder effect appears to be associated with significant payment effects, and there is no significant residual crossborder effect once various bid characteristics are controlled for

Regulating Clothing Outwork: A Sceptic's View

By applying the strategies of international anti-sweatshop campaigns to the Australian context, recent regulations governing home-based clothing production hold retailers responsible for policing the wages and employment conditions of clothing outworkers who manufacture clothing on their behalf. This paper argues that the new approach oversimplifies the regulatory challenge by assuming (1) that Australian clothing production is organised in a hierarchical ‘buyer-led’ linear structure in which core retail firms have the capacity to control their suppliers’ behaviour; (2) that firms act as unitary moral agents; and (3) that interventions imported from other times and places are applicable to the contemporary Australian context. After considering some alternative regulatory approaches, the paper concludes that the new regulatory strategy effectively privatises responsibility for labour market conditions – a development that cries out for further debate

Crossing disciplines: do architecture and planning course leaders see value in a Public Health Practitioner in Residence programme?

Highlights• We study a public health residency in a university architecture and planning department.• We assess the benefits of the residency from the perspective of the teaching staff.• The residency was successful at introducing public health issues and concepts to students.• There appeared to be a gap in the staff's understanding of public health concerns

The quality of different types of child care at 10 and 18 months. A comparison between types and factors related to quality.

The quality of care offered in four different types of non-parental child care to 307 infants at 10 months old and 331 infants at 18 months old was compared and factors associated with higher quality were identified. Observed quality was lowest in nurseries at each age point, except that at 18 months they offered more learning activities. There were few differences in the observed quality of care by child-minders, grandparents and nannies, although grandparents had somewhat lower safety and health scores and offered children fewer activities. Cost was largely unrelated to quality of care except in child-minding, where higher cost was associated with higher quality. Observed ratios of children to adults had a significant impact on quality of nursery care; the more infants or toddlers each adult had to care for, the lower the quality of the care she gave them. Mothers' overall satisfaction with their child's care was positively associated with its quality for home-based care but not for nursery settings

Facilitating child witness interviews\u27 understanding of evidential requirements through prosecutor instruction

Prosecutors report that the evidential usefulness of child witness statements about abuse is often limited by unnecessary interview content and excessive length. Prior research indicates that this limitation may be attributed to a mismatch between interviewers\u27 and prosecutors\u27 understandings of the legal requirements of an interview. The aim of this study is to examine whether differences in the evidential qualities that are perceived as important by prosecutors and interviewers can be reduced through simple instruction. Five prosecutors and 33 interviewers completed a written exercise wherein participants were required to identify what aspects of information required follow-up in five hypothetical narrative accounts of abuse. Twenty of the interviewers had (prior to completing the exercise) received prosecutor instruction on the requirements of interviews in terms of the elements and particulars of sexual offences, and the manner in which necessary information is best elicited in an interview (from a legal perspective). The responses to the exercise of interviewers who had and had not received prosecutor instruction were compared. The results indicated that interviewers who had received instruction were more consistent with prosecutors in their responses to the exercise. The importance of these findings, and directions for future research, are discussed

Comparing research investment to United Kingdom institutions and published outputs for tuberculosis, HIV and malaria: A systematic analysis across 1997-2013

Background: The "Unfinished Agenda" of infectious diseases is of great importance to policymakers and research funding agencies that require ongoing research evidence on their effective management. Journal publications help effectively share and disseminate research results to inform policy and practice. We assess research investments to United Kingdom institutions in HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and analyse these by numbers of publications and citations and by disease and type of science. Methods: Information on infection-related research investments awarded to United Kingdom institutions across 1997-2010 were sourced from funding agencies and individually categorised by disease and type of science. Publications were sourced from the Scopus database via keyword searches and filtered to include only publications relating to human disease and containing a United Kingdom-based first and/or last author. Data were matched by disease and type of science categories. Investment (United Kingdom pounds) and publications were compared to generate an 'investment per publication' metric; similarly, an 'investment per citation' metric was also developed as a measure of the usefulness of research. Results: Total research investment for all three diseases was £1.4 billion, and was greatest for HIV (£651.4 million), followed by malaria (£518.7 million) and tuberculosis (£239.1 million). There were 17,271 included publications, with 9,322 for HIV, 4,451 for malaria, and 3,498 for tuberculosis. HIV publications received the most citations (254,949), followed by malaria (148,559) and tuberculosis (100,244). According to UK pound per publication, tuberculosis (£50,691) appeared the most productive for investment, compared to HIV (£61,971) and malaria (£94,483). By type of science, public health research was most productive for HIV (£27,296) and tuberculosis (£22,273), while phase I-III trials were most productive for malaria (£60,491). According to UK pound per citation, tuberculosis (£1,797) was the most productive area for investment, compared to HIV (£2,265) and malaria (£2,834). Public health research was the most productive type of science for HIV (£2,265) and tuberculosis (£1,797), whereas phase I-III trials were most productive for malaria (£1,713). Conclusions: When comparing total publications and citations with research investment to United Kingdom institutions, tuberculosis research appears to perform best in terms of efficiency. There were more public health-related publications and citations for HIV and tuberculosis than other types of science. These findings demonstrate the diversity of research funding and outputs, and provide new evidence to inform research investment strategies for policymakers, funders, academic institutions, and healthcare organizations.Infectious Disease Research Networ

Public sector restructuring and regional development: the impact of compulsory competitive tendering in the UK

This paper contributes to the analysis of contemporary public sector restructuring in the UK through an evaluation of the impact of the introduction of compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) for the provision of local public services. Public services play an important stabilizing role in regional economic development but the introduction of CCT has undermined that role. Public service workers have suVered deteriorating levels of pay and conditions of service, and the capacity of local authorities to act to support local economic development has been reduced. Thus the introduction of CCT has undermined the contribution of local public services to the maintenance of interregional economic stability and to regional development

Family day care educators : an exploration of their understanding and experiences promoting children\u27s social and emotional wellbeing

This study aimed to explore family day care (FDC) educators&rsquo; knowledge of child social and emotional wellbeing and mental health problems, the strategies used to promote children&rsquo;s wellbeing, and barriers and opportunities for promoting children&rsquo;s social and emotional wellbeing. Thirteen FDC educators participated in individual semi-structured interviews. FDC educators were more comfortable defining children&rsquo;s social and emotional wellbeing than they were in identifying causes and early signs of mental health problems. Strategies used to promote children&rsquo;s mental health were largely informal and dependent on educator skills and capacities rather than a systematic scheme-wide approach. Common barriers to mental health promotion were limited financial resources, a need for more training and hesitance raising child mental health issues with parents. There is a need to build FDC educators&rsquo; knowledge of child social and emotional wellbeing and for tailored mental health promotion strategies in FDC.<br /

Field Theoretical Quantum Effects on the Kerr Geometry

We study quantum aspects of the Einstein gravity with one time-like and one space-like Killing vector commuting with each other. The theory is formulated as a \coset nonlinear $\sigma$-model coupled to gravity. The quantum analysis of the nonlinear $\sigma$-model part, which includes all the dynamical degrees of freedom, can be carried out in a parallel way to ordinary nonlinear $\sigma$-models in spite of the existence of an unusual coupling. This means that we can investigate consistently the quantum properties of the Einstein gravity, though we are limited to the fluctuations depending only on two coordinates. We find the forms of the beta functions to all orders up to numerical coefficients. Finally we consider the quantum effects of the renormalization on the Kerr black hole as an example. It turns out that the asymptotically flat region remains intact and stable, while, in a certain approximation, it is shown that the inner geometry changes considerably however small the quantum effects may be.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX. The hep-th number added on the cover, and minor typos correcte