14,686 research outputs found
Environmentally sustainable practices at UK airports
In response to growing concerns about rising energy bills, long-term energy security and the environmental impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, airport operators worldwide are increasingly implementing new sustainable practices to help reduce costs, increase efficiency and reduce their environmental impacts. These initiatives include the installation of on-site wind turbines, biomass plants, and ‘smart' heating and lighting systems as well as other ‘green' initiatives including rainwater harvesting initiatives, improved recycling facilities and financial incentives to encourage staff to travel to work by modes other than the private car. Drawing on specific examples, this paper examines the ways in which UK airports have responded to the challenge of reducing the environmental impacts of operations for which they are directly responsible by implementing green and sustainable energy and working practices. The paper concludes by discussing the importance of sustainable airport practices in light of future growth in key emerging aviation markets
The Design and Performance of the MINERvA Detector
The MINERvA experiment is designed to make precision measurements of various
neutrino cross sections in the low energy regime. We describe the detector and
give the performance of some of the measured quantities.Comment: 4 pages, 4 pages, 3 figures, DPF04 proceeding
Winding of simple walks on the square lattice
A method is described to count simple diagonal walks on with a
fixed starting point and endpoint on one of the axes and a fixed winding angle
around the origin. The method involves the decomposition of such walks into
smaller pieces, the generating functions of which are encoded in a commuting
set of Hilbert space operators. The general enumeration problem is then solved
by obtaining an explicit eigenvalue decomposition of these operators involving
elliptic functions. By further restricting the intermediate winding angles of
the walks to some open interval, the method can be used to count various
classes of walks restricted to cones in of opening angles that
are integer multiples of .
We present three applications of this main result. First we find an explicit
generating function for the walks in such cones that start and end at the
origin. In the particular case of a cone of angle these walks are
directly related to Gessel's walks in the quadrant, and we provide a new proof
of their enumeration. Next we study the distribution of the winding angle of a
simple random walk on around a point in the close vicinity of
its starting point, for which we identify discrete analogues of the known
hyperbolic secant laws and a probabilistic interpretation of the Jacobi
elliptic functions. Finally we relate the spectrum of one of the Hilbert space
operators to the enumeration of closed loops in with fixed
winding number around the origin.Comment: 46 pages, 16 figures. Version accepted for publicatio
Post-bureaucracy and reanimating public governance: A discourse and practice of continuity?
Purpose 'Seeks to examine changes in the environment in which public policy and public management operate and the claim that bureaucracy has been replaced by post-bureaucracy as a result of these changes.
Design/methodology/approach – It proposes reanimated public governance as a concept that occupies the space between public administration and restructured public governance (including reinvented government and New Public Management (NPM). Rather than accepting the existence of post-bureaucracy, per se, the paper argues that there has been a process of extending bureaucracy that cuts across public and non-public boundaries rather than the development of post-bureaucracy per se.
Findings – In examining the claims for post-bureaucracy, we are witnessing a discourse and practice of continuity rather than difference. The need for economies of scale and scope, standardisation and the existence of indivisibilities in public services suggest that public sector reforms and proposals for new governance models establish extended or flexible forms of bureaucracy rather than post-bureaucratic organisational forms. Attempts to introduce ICT-based services and the need for regulatory agencies to oversee the contracts with private and non-profit service providers reinforce these findings.
Research limitations/implications – The arguments in this paper are based on marshalling the literature and debates surrounding public sector reform to advance a central thesis. It draws on real world examples but does not advance direct empirical evidence. There is scope for internationally comparative case-studies of different public service functions and discourses and practices in different countries
Practical implications – Policy makers and managers should treat the clarion call of post-bureaucracy as a way of liberating public services from a lack of creativity, innovation and accountability with healthy scepticism. In particular, the view that public sector reforms through post-bureaucratic re-organisation will lead to efficiencies is one to be challenged. Reforms in any service driven organisations are not zero-cost and any implied operational cost saving should be considered against increased transaction costs.
Originality/value – There have been heroic claims made for post-bureaucracy in many organisations enabled by developments associated with the concepts of information society and knowledge society. By locating public sector reforms under the rubric of 'restructured public governance' a deeper investigation of the implications for the discourses and practices associated with public sector reform is advanced
ASEAN: perspectives on economic integration: the EU experience of the process of economic integration: successes, failures and challenges
The peeling process of infinite Boltzmann planar maps
We start by studying a peeling process on finite random planar maps with
faces of arbitrary degrees determined by a general weight sequence, which
satisfies an admissibility criterion. The corresponding perimeter process is
identified as a biased random walk, in terms of which the admissibility
criterion has a very simple interpretation. The finite random planar maps under
consideration were recently proved to possess a well-defined local limit known
as the infinite Boltzmann planar map (IBPM). Inspired by recent work of Curien
and Le Gall, we show that the peeling process on the IBPM can be obtained from
the peeling process of finite random maps by conditioning the perimeter process
to stay positive. The simplicity of the resulting description of the peeling
process allows us to obtain the scaling limit of the associated perimeter and
volume process for arbitrary regular critical weight sequences.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, several improvement
Pledge Your Body for Your Bread: Welfare, Drug Testing, and the Inferior Fourth Amendment
Proposals to subject welfare recipients to periodic drug testing have emerged over the last three years as a significant legislative trend across the United States. Since 2007, over half of the states have considered bills requiring aid recipients to submit to invasive extraction procedures as an ongoing condition of public assistance. The vast majority of the legislation imposes testing without regard to suspected drug use, reflecting the implicit assumption that the poor are inherently predisposed to culpable conduct and thus may be subject to class-based intrusions that would be inarguably impermissible if inflicted on the less destitute. These proposals are gaining increasingly substantial political support, suggesting that the enactment of drug testing legislation is now a real and immediate prospect. Given the gravity of the suspicionless searches at issue, the proposals raise serious concerns under conventional Fourth Amendment doctrine. Nevertheless, there is considerable doubt whether the federal courts will accede to that authority and prohibit the proposed intrusions, given the long tradition of relegating the privacy rights of the poor to inferior and indifferent enforcement. This Article explores these legislative developments and the constitutional context within which they arise, and makes the case for using the impending battle over suspicionless drug testing to reclaim for the indigent the full reach of the Fourth Amendment’s privacy right
Employment with a Human Face: Balancing Efficiency, Equity, and Voice
John W. Budd contends that the turbulence of the current workplace and the importance of work for individuals and society make it vitally important that employment be given a human face. Contradicting the traditional view of the employment relationship as a purely economic transaction, with business wanting efficiency and workers wanting income, Budd argues that equity and voice are equally important objectives. The traditional narrow focus on efficiency must be balanced with employees\u27 entitlement to fair treatment (equity) and the opportunity to have meaningful input into decisions (voice), he says. Only through a greater respect for these human concerns can broadly shared prosperity, respect for human dignity, and equal appreciation for the competing human rights of property and labor be achieved. Budd proposes a fresh set of objectives for modern democracies—efficiency, equity, and voice—and supports this new triad with an intellectual framework for analyzing employment institutions and practices. In the process, he draws on scholarship from industrial relations, law, political science, moral philosophy, theology, psychology, sociology, and economics, and advances debates over free markets, globalization, human rights, and ethics. He applies his framework to important employment-related topics, such as workplace governance, the New Deal industrial relations system, comparative industrial relations, labor union strategies, and globalization. These analyses create a foundation for reforming employment practices, social norms, and public policies. In the book\u27s final chapter, Budd advocates the creation of the field of human resources and industrial relations and explores the wider implications of this renewed conceptualization of industrial relations
- …