Financing Options for Devolved Government in the UK

This study provides a comprehensive overview of the financing options for devolved government in the UK. Starting with a discussion of the present situation, the consequences and the possible future of the Barnett formula, the key economic and political principles for devolution finance are examined and then applied to possible financing options. The conclusion draws together the main points of the analysis and comments on the alternatives for funding the devolved administrations. While currently there appears to be considerable cross-party support for the Barnett system, it continues to be a contentious arrangement, with some observers even talking of a “fiscal crisis” (McLean (2005)). The paper therefore reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the present system, together with suggestions for possible changes.

Construct validity, dimensionality and factorial invariance of the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale: A bifactor modelling approach among children of prisoners

The Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1989) has traditionally been conceptualised as a unidimensional measure of self-esteem but empirical evidence is equivocal, with some studies supporting a one-factor solution and others favouring multidimensional models. The aim of this study was to examine the factor structure, factorial invariance and composite reliability of the RSES within a European sample of children affected by parental imprisonment (N = 724). The study specified and tested six alternative factor models using conventional confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) techniques and a confirmatory bifactor modelling approach. The RSES was most effectively represented by a bifactor model including a general self-esteem factor comprising of all ten scale items and separate method effects for the positively and negatively phrased items. This model was found to be factorially invariant among boys and girls. Composite reliability indicated good internal consistency for the general self-esteem dimension but slightly less so for the positive and negative methods effects. Results are discussed in terms resolving the debate surrounding the appropriate factor structure and scoring of the RSES

FACETS OF THE UNION-CLOSED POLYTOPE

In the haze of the 1970s, a conjecture was born to unknown parentage...the union-closed sets conjecture. Given a family of sets \FF, we say that \FF is union-closed if for every two sets S, T \in \FF, we have S \cup T \in \FF. The union-closed sets conjecture states that there is an element in at least half of the sets of any (non-empty) union-closed family. In 2016, Pulaj, Raymond, and Theis reinterpreted the conjecture as an optimization problem that could be formulated as an integer program. This thesis is concerned with the study of the polytope formed by taking the convex hull of the integer points satisfying the integer program. We find several facets and describe some small cases of this complicated polytope in full

Impact on voting behavior of the move to suburbia

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Surface Acoustic Wave Devices as Chemical Vapor Sensors

In order to effectively neutralize non-traditional threats to US forces and population such as improvised explosive devices (IED) and chemical, biological, radio- logical, nuclear, and explosive (CBNRE) weapons, a flexible vapor sensor platform is proposed. This work involves the design, fabrication, and testing of coated surface acoustic wave devices for vapor sensing ability. Devices were fabricated in-house using MEMS fabrication techniques, then coated with a thin layer of a Nafion polymer. The frequency response of coated devices displayed 2 MHz frequency shifts around the resonance frequency upon introduction of ethanol vapors into the nitrogen vapor stream. This indicates strong sensing ability based upon the viscoelastic changes in the polymer film. Further work should include new coating layers such as biological molecule self-assembled monolayers, circuitry to allow portability, and a preconcentrator to increase sensitivity

Ultra-wideband Spread Spectrum Communications using Software Defined Radio and Surface Acoustic Wave Correlators

Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication technology offers inherent advantages such as the ability to coexist with previously allocated Federal Communications Commission (FCC) frequencies, simple transceiver architecture, and high performance in noisy environments. Spread spectrum techniques offer additional improvements beyond the conventional pulse-based UWB communications. This dissertation implements a multiple-access UWB communication system using a surface acoustic wave (SAW) correlator receiver with orthogonal frequency coding and software defined radio (SDR) base station transmitter. Orthogonal frequency coding (OFC) and pseudorandom noise (PN) coding provide a means for spreading of the UWB data. The use of orthogonal frequency coding (OFC) increases the correlator processing gain (PG) beyond that of code division multiple access (CDMA); providing added code diversity, improved pulse ambiguity, and superior performance in noisy environments. Use of SAW correlators reduces the complexity and power requirements of the receiver architecture by eliminating many of the components needed and reducing the signal processing and timing requirements necessary for digital matched filtering of the complex spreading signal. The OFC receiver correlator code sequence is hard-coded in the device due to the physical SAW implementation. The use of modern SDR forms a dynamic base station architecture which is able to programmatically generate a digitally modulated transmit signal. An embedded Xilinx Zynq ™ system on chip (SoC) technology was used to implement the SDR system; taking advantage of recent advances in digital-to-analog converter (DAC) sampling rates. SDR waveform samples are generated in baseband in-phase and quadrature (I & Q) pairs and upconverted to a 491.52 MHz operational frequency. The development of the OFC SAW correlator ultimately used in the receiver is presented along with a variety of advanced SAW correlator device embodiments. Each SAW correlator device was fabricated on lithium niobate (LiNbO3) with fractional bandwidths in excess of 20%. The SAW correlator device presented for use in system was implemented with a center frequency of 491.52 MHz; matching SDR transmit frequency. Parasitic electromagnetic feedthrough becomes problematic in the packaged SAW correlator after packaging and fixturing due to the wide bandwidths and high operational frequency. The techniques for reduction of parasitic feedthrough are discussed with before and after results showing approximately 10:1 improvement. Correlation and demodulation results are presented using the SAW correlator receiver under operation in an UWB communication system. Bipolar phase shift keying (BPSK) techniques demonstrate OFC modulation and demodulation for a test binary bit sequence. Matched OFC code reception is compared to a mismatched, or cross-correlated, sequence after correlation and demodulation. Finally, the signal-to-noise power ratio (SNR) performance results for the SAW correlator under corruption of a wideband noise source are presented

Culture in Mind - An Enactivist Account: Not Cognitive Penetration But Cultural Permeation

Advancing a radically enactive account of cognition, we provide arguments in favour of the possibility that cultural factors permeate rather than penetrate cognition, such that cognition extensively and transactionally incorporates cultural factors rather than there being any question of cultural factors having to break into the restricted confines of cognition. The paper reviews the limitations of two classical cognitivist, modularist accounts of cognition and a revisionary, new order variant of cognitivism – a Predictive Processing account of Cognition, or PPC. It argues that the cognitivist interpretation of PPC is conservatively and problematically attached to the idea of inner models and stored knowledge. In abandoning that way of understanding PPC, it offers a radically enactive alternative account of how cultural factors matter to cognition – one that abandons all vestiges of the idea that cultural factors might contentfully communicate with basic forms of cognition. In place of that idea, the possibility that culture permeates cognition is promoted

Remaking Downtown Toronto: Politics, Development, and Public Space on Yonge Street, 1950-1980

This study explores the history of Torontos iconic downtown Yonge Street and the people who contested its future, spanning a period from the 1950s through to 1980 when the street was seldom out of the news. Through detailed analysis of a range of primary sources, it explores how the uses and public meanings of this densely-built commercial strip changed over time, in interaction with the city transforming around it. What emerges is a street that, despite fears for its future, remained at the heart of urban life in Toronto, creating economic value as a retail centre; pushing the boundaries of taste and the law as a mass-entertainment destination; and drawing crowds as a meeting place, pedestrian corridor, and public space. Variously understood as an historic urban landscape and an embarrassing relic, a transportation route and a people place, a bastion of Main Street values and a haven for big-city crime and sleaze, from the 1950s through the 1970s Yonge was at the centre of efforts to improve or reinvent the central city in ways that would keep pace with, or even lead, urban change. This thesis traces the history of three interventionsa pedestrian mall, a clean-up campaign aimed at the sex industry, and a major redevelopment schemetheir successes and failures, and the larger debates they triggered. The result is a narrative that ranges widely in theme: planning, automobility, and youth culture; vice, moral regulation, and citizen activism; capitalism, corporate power, and urban renewal. Engaging with the North American and international historiographies of these topics, it places the politics of downtown in Toronto in larger historical context. It offers an account of urban transformation that emphasizes complexity in the interaction between ideas, structures of power, and the often idiosyncratic decisions of a range of downtown actors. An increasingly interventionist local state, dynamic capital investment in retail and real estate, and diverse citizen mobilizations all contributed to transforming Yonge Street, helping to create the modern, globalized downtown shopping street and public space we know today

Applying Organizational Learning Theories to Continuous Improvement Practices Through Self-Study Methodology to Better Reflect upon and Understand Factors that Influence School Improvement Efforts

The purpose of this self-study is to better understand and address the factors that influence continuous improvement efforts led by the researcher/practitioner. To this end, this study applies Bolman and Deal’s 4-frame model of organizational learning lenses to school improvement indicators on the Illinois 5Essentials Survey. Through taking Bolman and Deal’s Online 4-frame Self-assessment, I am able to identify the organizational learning lens least integrated into my own leadership worldview. The organizational learning lenses that comprise Bolman and Deal’s 4-frame model are the structural, symbolic, human resource, and political lenses. I then apply core tenets of my least integrated lens to low-performing school improvement efforts through reflective journaling on prompts derived from a summation of core attributes of the identified lens to low-performing school improvement indicators of the 5Essentials Survey. After collecting the journaling data, it is coded to determine the prevalence of the different organizational learning theories that underpin the least integrated lens in my leadership approach to school improvement. From there, the following broader research questions are considered:How do the most prevalent organizational learning theories from my least integrated 4-frame-lens inform continuous improvement efforts in regard to this 5Essentials survey topic? Based upon identified theories and concepts from my lowest percentile Bolman and Deal lens, what factors am I considering or not considering when engaging in continuous improvement concerning this 5Essential survey topic? By deliberately applying under-considered principles to self-study reflection on continuous improvement efforts, I can more holistically articulate and understand factors that influence these efforts