Colorado State incorporated: a critical university study

2012 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.This critical university study examines the neo-liberal agenda's influence on Colorado State University. This study challenges the policies and decisions made by Colorado's legislation that have brought forth the need for outside interest like private corporations to cover the state's financial short comings. This study seeks to scrutinize the actions that institutions of higher learning like Colorado State make in order to administer public, non-profit universities like a privatized for-profit business. Furthermore, this thesis looks at the privatization of services, commoditization of students, the dismantling of tenured faculty and how neo-liberalism and market forces affect Colorado State University's students, faculty, and state-classified employees

The Cultural Foundations of Family Business Management: Evidence from Ukraine

This study empirically examines what makes Ukrainian family-firm culture unique by comparing the values and beliefs of Ukrainian family-business members with that of professional bank managers within Ukraine. Morck and Yeung (2003) suggest that the implications of family business are especially relevant for former planned economies such as Ukraine in that government’s social policy on the encouragement or discouragement of privately-held sectors of the economy is yet to be fully formed. Ukraine’s future course in this regard is particularly sensitive as the pre-Soviet Ukrainian economy was almost entirely held in private hands while the Soviet-era economy was almost entirely state-controlled. Family-firm literature stresses the differences between family-firm and professional management in terms of culture, goal-setting, and strategy. Family-firm culture is said to be a resource leading to competitive advantage. This study is based on a survey comparing 76 family-firm members and 99 professional managers. Statistically significant differences between the culture of members of family-owned firms and professional managers were found within Ukraine. Family-firm membership had a significant effect in five culture constructs. We can conclude that differences in Power Distance, Social Cynicism, Social Flexibility, Spirituality and Fate Control describe fundamental aspects of family-firms in Ukraine and may possibly contribute to family-firm competitive advantage as discussed in management literature

Givetian

The Givetian Stage in the Givet area is represented by the main part of the Hanonet Fm, the Trois-Fontaines Fm, the Terres d'Haurs Fm, the Mont d'Haurs Fm, the Fromelennes Fm and the lowest part of the Nismes Fm. During Eifelian-Givetian transition, the sedimentary systems evolved from a mixed siliciclastic-carbonate ramp to a carbonate platform dominated by cyclic tidal-flat and lagoonal wackestones with local patch reefs or coralgal banks. The shelf had an ESE-WNW trend and extended from the Avesnois basin (northern France) in the west to Aachen (western Germany). The sedimentation in the Ardennes consists of shallow water regressive metric (around 5 m or less) cycles. Stromatopores, corals, brachiopods, algae and cyanobacteria are abundant. Due to this general shallow water setting, the base of the Givetian Stage has been defined by the IUGS Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy in a GSSP in southern Morocco referring to the first occurence of the condodont species Polygnathus hemiansatus. The conodont species Icriodus obliquimarginatus appears approximately at the same level in Belgium

Analyzing large-scale conservation interventions with Bayesian hierarchical models: a case study of supplementing threatened Pacific salmon.

Myriad human activities increasingly threaten the existence of many species. A variety of conservation interventions such as habitat restoration, protected areas, and captive breeding have been used to prevent extinctions. Evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions requires appropriate statistical methods, given the quantity and quality of available data. Historically, analysis of variance has been used with some form of predetermined before-after control-impact design to estimate the effects of large-scale experiments or conservation interventions. However, ad hoc retrospective study designs or the presence of random effects at multiple scales may preclude the use of these tools. We evaluated the effects of a large-scale supplementation program on the density of adult Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha from the Snake River basin in the northwestern United States currently listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. We analyzed 43 years of data from 22 populations, accounting for random effects across time and space using a form of Bayesian hierarchical time-series model common in analyses of financial markets. We found that varying degrees of supplementation over a period of 25 years increased the density of natural-origin adults, on average, by 0-8% relative to nonsupplementation years. Thirty-nine of the 43 year effects were at least two times larger in magnitude than the mean supplementation effect, suggesting common environmental variables play a more important role in driving interannual variability in adult density. Additional residual variation in density varied considerably across the region, but there was no systematic difference between supplemented and reference populations. Our results demonstrate the power of hierarchical Bayesian models to detect the diffuse effects of management interventions and to quantitatively describe the variability of intervention success. Nevertheless, our study could not address whether ecological factors (e.g., competition) were more important than genetic considerations (e.g., inbreeding depression) in determining the response to supplementation

A Newly Designed Baggage Transfer System Implemented Using Event-Based Simulations

This paper proposes a newly designed system for baggage transfer, which utilises the Nexus Metro system in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne by running a pendulum freight train system between the Haymarket and Newcastle Airport to carry travellers’ baggage. This system is capable of serving all passengers departing from Newcastle Airport in a day, with a capacity of 9750 bags across 26 freight train journeys. Following the initial solution two more solutions were designed with the aims of maximising the utilisation of the metro tracks by saturating the system with freight trains on a 24 hour system. All solutions have been replicated using models designed and validated by event based simulation using SIMUL8, a simulation modelling software package

Dipeptidyl peptidase 1 inhibition as a potential therapeutic approach in neutrophil-mediated inflammatory disease

Neutrophils have a critical role in the innate immune response to infection and the control of inflammation. A key component of this process is the release of neutrophil serine proteases (NSPs), primarily neutrophil elastase, proteinase 3, cathepsin G, and NSP4, which have essential functions in immune modulation and tissue repair following injury. Normally, NSP activity is controlled and modulated by endogenous antiproteases. However, disruption of this homeostatic relationship can cause diseases in which neutrophilic inflammation is central to the pathology, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, bronchiectasis, and cystic fibrosis, as well as many non-pulmonary pathologies. Although the pathobiology of these diseases varies, evidence indicates that excessive NSP activity is common and a principal mediator of tissue damage and clinical decline. NSPs are synthesized as inactive zymogens and activated primarily by the ubiquitous enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase 1, also known as cathepsin C. Preclinical data confirm that inactivation of this protease reduces activation of NSPs. Thus, pharmacological inhibition of dipeptidyl peptidase 1 potentially reduces the contribution of aberrant NSP activity to the severity and/or progression of multiple inflammatory diseases. Initial clinical data support this view. Ongoing research continues to explore the role of NSP activation by dipeptidyl peptidase 1 in different disease states and the potential clinical benefits of dipeptidyl peptidase 1 inhibition.</p

Glaciology in Aberdeen

Thanks to David Sugden, Doug Benn, Nick Spedding, Doug Mair, Alastair Dawson, Rob Bingham and Tim Lane for providing photographs and images.Peer reviewedPostprin