Parton Distributions

I present an overview of some current topics in the measurement of Parton Distribution Functions.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. Plenary talk presented at the XIII International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS 2005), Madison WI USA, April 27--May 1, 200

Michael Porter's Cluster Theory as a local and regional development tool – the rise and fall of cluster policy in the UK

There has been much written on industrial agglomeration, but it is Michael Porter’s cluster theory, above all others, which has come to dominate local and regional economic development policy. His work has been adopted by the OECD, EU, national and local governments the world over. He and his consultancy group have led reviews of national economic growth strategies in dozens of countries. This rise to prominence, however, is in the face of widespread critique from academics. Cluster theory’s theoretical foundations, its methodological approach and practical implementation have all been unpicked, leading some to label little more than a successful brand riding the wave of new regionalist fashions. Despite libraries of incredibly useful books and articles on clusters, there remains an absence of work which interrogates the translation of clusters into, and then through local and national policy. The aim of this article is to go some way to remedying the situation by examining the influence of Porter’s cluster theory charted through an examin- ation of UK regional development policy in the 1990s and 2000s. To help map the journey of clusters into and through UK economic development policy actor-network theory is adopted as an explanatory framework

Workers researching the workplace using a work based learning framework: Developing a research agenda for the development of improved supervisory practice

This is a preprint of an article which later appeared in Impact: Journal of Applied Research in Workplace E-learning.The article is case study of academic practice in respect of the supervision of research in the workplace by distance learners using a Work Based Learning (WBL) framework. Key aspects of the WBL are described including the role of technology in delivery. Drawing upon tutor experience at one institution and knowledge of practice elsewhere several conceptual and practical issues are raised as the basis for a planned research exercise to identify commonalities and differences in approach among practitioners. Ultimately, the purpose is to improve the relevance and application of workplace research by practitioners

“So agreeable and suitable a place”: a late eighteenth-century suburban villa

The suburban villa rose to prominence in the eighteenth century. Burlington, Pope and others built large houses on the outskirts of London as expressions of their wealth and taste, using them to showcase collections, entertain friends or escape from the gaze of the city. Many others acquired rather more modest houses which they used as a convenient and comfortable base for engaging in London life. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these smaller villas have attracted relatively little attention: overshadowed by the grandeur of their rural, and the showiness of their metropolitan, counterparts they contained few artistic treasures or architectural innovations. Yet they were an important element of elite life and material culture. This paper explores one such house in detail: Grove House in Kensington Gore, the property of the Honourable Mary Leigh. Drawing on a large collection of bills, I examine the processes of decorating, furnishing and supplying Grove House around the turn of the nineteenth century. This provides insights into the operation of the suburban villa and the ways in which its material culture and habitation were linked to its country equivalent

The K-band luminosity function of nearby field galaxies

We present a measurement of the K-band luminosity function (LF) of field galaxies obtained from near-infrared imaging of a sample of 345 galaxies selected from the Stromlo-APM Redshift Survey. The LF is well-fitted over the ten magnitude range -26 < M_K < -16 by a Schechter function with parameters alpha = -1.16 +- 0.19, M* = -23.58 +- 0.42, phi* = 0.012 +- 0.008 Mpc^-3 assuming a Hubble constant of H_0 = 100 km/s/Mpc. We have also estimated the LF for two subsets of galaxies subdivided by the equivalent width of the Halpha emission line at EW(Halpha) = 10A. There is no significant difference in LF shape between the two samples, although there is a hint (~1 sigma significance) that emission line galaxies (ELGs) have M* roughly one magnitude fainter than non-ELGs. Contrary to the optical LF, there is no difference in faint-end slope alpha between the two samples.Comment: 10 pages, 9 embedded figures, MNRAS, in press. Minor changes to correspond to accepted versio