The Legacy of ERA, Privatization and the Policy Ratchet

This article explores the ways in which the neo-liberal impetus toward the privatization of state schooling signalled in the Education Reform Act 1988 (ERA) has become embedded in the English school system. Four main points are made. First, that ERA itself was of huge strategic rather than substantive importance as far as privatization is concerned. Second, by tracing the lineage of privatization from ERA onwards a 'ratchet' effect of small and incremental policy moves can be identified, which have disseminated, embedded and naturalized privatization within public sector provision. Third, that while privatization has been taken up and taken much further by New Labour than it had been by the Conservatives there are differences between the two sets of governments in the role of privatization in education policy and the role of the state. Fourth, the participation of private providers in the planning and delivery of state services has put the private sector at the very heart of policy. At points the article draws upon interviews conducted with private sector providers. © 2008 Sage Publications

Analysis of the B→K2∗(1430),a2(1320),f2(1270)B \to K^*_2(1430), a_2(1320), f_2(1270) form-factors with light-cone QCD sum rules

In this article, we study the $B \to K^*_2(1430)$, $a_2(1320)$, $f_2(1270)$ form-factors with the light-cone QCD sum rules, where the $B$-meson light-cone distribution amplitudes are used. In calculations, we observe that the line-shapes of the $B$-meson light-cone distribution amplitude $\phi_+(\omega)$ have significant impacts on the values of the form-factors, and expect to obtain severe constraints on the parameters of the $B$-meson light-cone distribution amplitudes from the experimental data in the future.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, slight revisio

Photocurrent in conjugated polymers

Nonlinear photocurrent carriers in conjugated polymers, such as polarons, bipolarons and solitons, are considered at low photon energies where a tunnelling process is necessary. We show that polarons usually dominate the photocurrent I due to a novel electric field assisted tunnelling for which ln(I) ~ -E^{-2/3}. For near degenerate polymers an electric field E which exceeds the confinement potential and frequencies above twice the soliton energy, soliton tunnelling is favored. Photocurrent data can then be used to identify the remarkable phenomenon of soliton conduction.Comment: 4 pages, 2 eps figures, Revte

Renormalizability of Effective Scalar Field Theory

We present a comprehensive discussion of the consistency of the effective quantum field theory of a single $Z_2$ symmetric scalar field. The theory is constructed from a bare Euclidean action which at a scale much greater than the particle's mass is constrained only by the most basic requirements; stability, finiteness, analyticity, naturalness, and global symmetry. We prove to all orders in perturbation theory the boundedness, convergence, and universality of the theory at low energy scales, and thus that the theory is perturbatively renormalizable in the sense that to a certain precision over a range of such scales it depends only on a finite number of parameters. We then demonstrate that the effective theory has a well defined unitary and causal analytic S--matrix at all energy scales. We also show that redundant terms in the Lagrangian may be systematically eliminated by field redefinitions without changing the S--matrix, and discuss the extent to which effective field theory and analytic S--matrix theory are actually equivalent. All this is achieved by a systematic exploitation of Wilson's exact renormalization group flow equation, as used by Polchinski in his original proof of the renormalizability of conventional $\varphi^4$-theory.Comment: 80 pages, TeX, OUTP-93-23P, CERN-TH.7067/93. Many minor revisions, and several new paragraph