Developing a sustainable nation brand: a study of Sri Lanka

This study examines the degree to which the Earth Lung Project, a carbon mitigation initiative in Sri Lanka has developed a coherent nation brand. Findings indicate that a shared sense of national identity amongst all stakeholder groups is critical in the development of a national brand. However, whilst concern for the environment was found to be an embedded aspect of national identity within Sri Lanka, conflicting stakeholder perspectives reveal a lack of belief amongst private sector stakeholders in the ELP. Thus there are doubts over the degree to which the ELP is currently capable of generating a sustainable national brand

Coastal tourism: the response of Indian Ocean island tourism destinations to climate change

This research examines tourism within developing island states in the Indian Ocean that will be at extreme risk from the impacts of climate change. Many have a high economic reliance upon tourism and yet will be adversely affected by both higher sea levels and raised water temperatures. However, many developing islands utilise tourism as a vector for economic growth and ironically they too tend to be some of the first destinations to observe possible impacts of climate change like the disappearance of beaches and the greater intensity of storms. Destinations in the developing world are extremely concerned that tourists from developed countries will reduce the number of long haul flights they take to ameliorate their carbon footprint

Islands in the energy stream: regional cooperation in the Indian Ocean tourism sector

Aim: This article considers the need to move away from a dependency on fossil fuels towards more sustainable renewable sources of energy production. The focus is on the tourism sector in two Indian Ocean destinations, Mauritius and the Seychelles. The broader aim, however, is to highlight the interconnectedness between public and private stakeholders and how lessons learned from these case studies could have broader applicability elsewhere. Design/research methods: A case study approach has been taken drawing on data supplied by both the private tourism sector in the destinations under consideration and relevant government and regional reports. Conclusions/findings: Progress has been made in the shift towards decarbonisation policies and practices in these destinations. This has been achieved via a cooperative approach between public and private stakeholders, extending the development of renewable energy infrastructure and supply to include sustainable education policies supported by both governments' education departments and vocational programmes implemented by the larger hotels in these destinations. Originality/value of the article: Although there have been other studies conducted on the promotion of renewable energy in small island states, there is a paucity of such research looking specifically at the tourism sector and the role of public/private partnerships in developing broader education for sustainable development programmes. Implications: The case studies focus on highlighting how governments and tourism businesses can work towards shared goals, in this case decarbonisation and education for sustainability. The implication is that such a model could be applied elsewhere with equally positive results

Beyond Coady: Adult Education and the End of Utopian Modernism

No abstract available

The role of special events in personalising higher education in business

Personalisation of education is high on the political agenda within the United Kingdom (UK), having entered the educational policy debate at the turn of the millennium through the inception of the Children’s Plan (DfES, 2004). The principles of this early vision being to give, "every single child the chance to be the best they can be, whatever their talent or background" (Miliband, 2006). However, to date, there remains a lack of insight into how personalisation is interpreted and practiced within a higher education setting (Becket and Brookes, 2012), resulting in a definitional fuzziness (Hartley, 2008) and multiple manifestations of the application of personalisation. Existing knowledge of how higher education in business is personalised is particularly sparse. Notably the role that initiatives such as alumni mentoring and special events can play in the personalisation of business students' education. Within Nottingham Business School, personalisation covers a broad remit from the use of diagnostics in understanding learning styles to many targeted skills and employability events to help our students explore and reach their full potential. This research draws upon current practice within the Personalisation project of Nottingham Business School, with the aim of proposing an effective model of what personalisation of undergraduate international business curriculum might look like "on the ground" from an academic and student perspective. The research also assesses the potential of several specific initiatives, such as, an alumni language mentoring scheme and bespoke special events, upon building the aspirations of students and helping them to reach their potential

Quantized Friction across Ionic Liquid Thin Films

Ionic liquids, salts in the liquid state under ambient conditions, are of great interest as precision lubricants. Ionic liquids form layered structures at surfaces, yet it is not clear how this nano-structure relates to their lubrication properties. We measured the friction force between atomically smooth solid surfaces across ionic liquid films of controlled thickness in terms of the number of ion layers. Multiple friction-load regimes emerge, each corresponding to a different number of ion layers in the film. In contrast to molecular liquids, the friction coefficients differ for each layer due to their varying composition

Mouse adenovirus type 1 infection of natural killer cell-deficient mice

AbstractNatural killer (NK) cells contribute to the initial nonspecific response to viral infection, and viruses exhibit a range of sensitivities to NK cells in vivo. We investigated the role of NK cells in infection of mice by mouse adenovirus type 1 (MAV-1) using antibody-mediated depletion and knockout mice. MAV-1 causes encephalomyelitis and replicates to highest levels in brains. NK cell-depleted mice infected with MAV-1 showed brain viral loads 8–20 days p.i. that were similar to wild-type control non-depleted mice. Mice genetically deficient for NK cells behaved similarly to wild-type control mice with respect to brain viral loads and survival. We conclude that NK cells are not required to control virus replication in the brains of MAV-1-infected mice

Evaluating Light Rain Drop Size Estimates from Multiwavelength Micropulse Lidar Network Profiling

This paper investigates multiwavelength retrievals of median equivolumetric drop diameter D(sub 0) suitable for drizzle and light rain, through collocated 355-/527-nm Micropulse Lidar Network (MPLNET) observations collected during precipitation occurring 9 May 2012 at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) project site. By applying a previously developed retrieval technique for infrared bands, the method exploits the differential backscatter by liquid water at 355 and 527 nm for water drops larger than approximately 50 micrometers. In the absence of molecular and aerosol scattering and neglecting any transmission losses, the ratio of the backscattering profiles at the two wavelengths (355 and 527 nm), measured from light rain below the cloud melting layer, can be described as a color ratio, which is directly related to D(sub 0). The uncertainty associated with this method is related to the unknown shape of the drop size spectrum and to the measurement error. Molecular and aerosol scattering contributions and relative transmission losses due to the various atmospheric constituents should be evaluated to derive D(sub 0) from the observed color ratio profiles. This process is responsible for increasing the uncertainty in the retrieval. Multiple scattering, especially for UV lidar, is another source of error, but it exhibits lower overall uncertainty with respect to other identified error sources. It is found that the total error upper limit on D(sub 0) approaches 50%. The impact of this retrieval for long-term MPLNET monitoring and its global data archive is discussed