Power and control: managing agents for international student recruitment in higher education

This multiple case-based study investigates the relationship between recruiting agents and the UK universities who act as their principals. The current extensive use of agents in UK higher education may be seen as an indicator of the financial impact made by international students. The study analyses the practice of agent management and explores the manner in which power and control interact. The study employed semi-structured interviews and group discussions involving up to 6 respondents from each of the 20 UK case institutions. The qualitative data reveal a considerable variation in the manner in which the universities manage their agency relationships. Through the joint consideration of control measures and use of power, five distinctive approaches have been identified. The study also reveals that over-dependence on agents reduces the power of the principal, and consequently, the principal’s ability to exercise control, particularly in highly competitive global and national markets.

African easterly wave variability and its relationship to Atlantic tropical cyclone activity

Automatic tracking of vorticity centers in European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts analyses has been used to develop a 20-yr climatology of African easterly wave activity. The tracking statistics at 600 and 850 mb confirm the complicated easterly wave structures present over the African continent. The rainy zone equatorward of 15 degreesN is dominated by 600-mb activity, and the much drier Saharan region poleward of 15 degreesN is more dominated by 850-mb activity. Over the Atlantic Ocean there is just one storm track with the 600- and 850-mb wave activity collocated. Based on growth/decay and genesis statistics, it appears that the 850-mb waves poleward of 15 degreesN over land generally do not get involved with the equatorward storm track over the ocean. Instead, there appears to be significant development of 850-mb activity at the West African coast in the rainy zone around (10 degreesN, 10 degreesW), which, it is proposed, is associated with latent heat release. Based on the tracking statistics, it has been shown that there is marked interannual variability in African easterly wave (AEW) activity. It is especially marked at the 850-mb level at the West African coast between about 10 degrees and 15 degreesN, where the coefficient of variation is 0.29. For the period between 1985 and 1998, a notable positive correlation is seen between this AEW activity and Atlantic tropical cyclone activity. This correlation is particularly strong for the postreanalysis period between 1994 and 1998. This result suggests that Atlantic tropical cyclone activity may be influenced by the number of AEWs leaving the West African coast, which have significant low-level amplitudes, and not simply by the total number of AEWs.

West African storm tracks and their relationship to Atlantic tropical cyclones

The automatic tracking technique used by Thorncroft and Hodges (2001) has been used to identify coherent vorticity structures at 850hPa over West Africa and the tropical Atlantic in the ECMWF 40-year reanalysis. The presence of two dominant source regions, north and south of 15ºN over West Africa, for storm tracks over the Atlantic was confirmed. Results show that the southern storm track provides most of the storms that reach the main development region where most tropical cyclones develop. There exists marked seasonal variability in location and intensity of the storms leaving the West African coast, which may influence the likelihood of downstream intensification and longevity. There exists considerable year-to-year variability in the number of West African storm tracks, both in numbers over the land and continuing out over the tropical Atlantic Ocean. While the low-frequency variability is well correlated with Atlantic tropical cyclone activity, West African rainfall and SSTs, the interannual variability is found to be uncorrelated with these. In contrast, variance of the 2-6-day-filtered meridional wind, which provides a synoptic-scale measure of African Easterly Wave activity, shows a significant, positive correlation with tropical cyclone activity at interannual timescales.

A description of the FAMOUS (version XDBUA) climate model and control run

FAMOUS is an ocean-atmosphere general circulation model of low resolution, capable of simulating approximately 120 years of model climate per wallclock day using current high performance computing facilities. It uses most of the same code as HadCM3, a widely used climate model of higher resolution and computational cost, and has been tuned to reproduce the same climate reasonably well. FAMOUS is useful for climate simulations where the computational cost makes the application of HadCM3 unfeasible, either because of the length of simulation or the size of the ensemble desired. We document a number of scientific and technical improvements to the original version of FAMOUS. These improvements include changes to the parameterisations of ozone and sea-ice which alleviate a significant cold bias from high northern latitudes and the upper troposphere, and the elimination of volume-averaged drifts in ocean tracers. A simple model of the marine carbon cycle has also been included. A particular goal of FAMOUS is to conduct millennial-scale paleoclimate simulations of Quaternary ice ages; to this end, a number of useful changes to the model infrastructure have been made.

Biodegradation of the herbicide mecoprop-p with soil depth and its relationship with class III tfdA genes

Mecoprop-p [(R)-2-(4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy) propanoic acid) is widely used in agriculture and poses an environmental concern because of its susceptibility to leach from soil to water. We investigated the effect of soil depth on mecoprop-p biodegradation and its relationship with the number and diversity of tfdA related genes, which are the most widely known genes involved in degradation of the phenoxyalkanoic acid group of herbicides by bacteria. Mecoprop-p half-life (DT50) was approximately 12 days in soil sampled from <30 cm depth, and increased progressively with soil depth, reaching over 84 days at 70–80 cm. In sub-soil there was a lag period of between 23 and 34 days prior to a phase of rapid degradation. No lag phase occurred in top-soil samples prior to the onset of degradation. The maximum degradation rate was the same in top-soil and sub-soil samples. Although diverse tfdAα and tfdA genes were present prior to mecoprop-p degradation, real time PCR revealed that degradation was associated with proliferation of tfdA genes. The number of tfdA genes and the most probable number of mecoprop-p degrading organisms in soil prior to mecoprop-p addition were below the limit of quantification and detection respectively. Melting curves from the real time PCR analysis showed that prior to mecoprop-p degradation both class I and class III tfdA genes were present in top- and sub-soil samples. However at all soil depths only tfdA class III genes proliferated during degradation. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis confirmed that class III tfdA genes were associated with mecoprop-p degradation. Degradation was not associated with the induction of novel tfdA genes in top- or sub-soil samples, and there were no apparent differences in tfdA gene diversity with soil depth prior to or following degradation.

Influence of temperature on the motility of Pseudomonas oryzihabitans and control of Globodera rostochiensis

The motility and efficacy of Pseudomonas oryzihabitans as a biocontrol agent against the potato cyst nematode Globodera rostochiensis were studied with respect to temperature. The influence of soil moisture on bacterial movement was also tested. In a closed container trial, P. oryzihabitans significantly reduced invasion of second stage juveniles (J2) of G. rostochiensis in potato roots, its effect being more marked at 25 and 21 degreesC than at 17 degreesC. P. oryzihabitans motility in vitro was optimal at 26 degreesC and inhibited at temperatures below 18 degreesC. In soil, both temperature and matric potential affected bacterial movement. At 16 degreesC its movement and survival were suppressed, but they were unaffected at 25 degreesC. At both temperatures the biocontrol agent moved faster in the wetter (- 0.03 MPa) than in the drier soil (- 0.1 MPa). These results suggest that temperature is a key factor in determining the potential of P. or.yzihabitans as a biocontrol agent. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Object displays and control of dynamic systems

Recent work has suggested that for some tasks, graphical displays which visually integrate information from more than one source offer an advantage over more traditional displays which present the same information in a separated format. Three experiments are described which investigate this claim using a task which requires subjects to control a dynamic system. In the first experiment, the integrated display is compared to two separated displays, one an animated mimic diagram, the other an alphanumeric display. The integrated display is shown to support better performance in a control task, but experiment 2 shows that part of this advantage may be due to its analogue nature. Experiment 3 considers performance on a fault detection task, and shows no difference between the integrated and separated displays. The paper concludes that previous claims made for integrated displays may not generalize from monitoring to control tasks.

Does the regional nature of multinationals affect the multinationality and performance relationship?

The traditional independent variable in the multinationality and performance literature is the ratio of foreign (F) to total (T) sales, (F/T). This can now be supplemented by a new regional variable, the ratio of regional (R) to total (T) sales, i.e. (R/T). Data are presented on both (F/T) and (R/T) for both sales and assets for a 5-year period, 2001–2005. New tests are reported on (R/T) as it affects a financial measure of performance, the Tobin's Q. Implications are drawn for future research on the S-curve relationship between multinationality and performance in the light of this regional phenomenon.

Perturbations in the infrared spectrum of monofluoroacetylene, and their relationship to intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution

Several high-order vibration-rotation perturbations in the high-resolution infrared spectrum of monofluoroacetylene, HCCF, are assigned and analyzed in detail. They result in avoided crossings in the rotational structure of several bands, and precise values for the effective high-order terms in the Hamiltonian have been determined. The significance of these results for intramolecular vibrational redistribution is discussed.

Influence of temperature on the motility of Pseudomonas oryzihabitans and control of Globodera rostochiensis

The motility and efficacy of Pseudomonas oryzihabitans as a biocontrol agent against the potato cyst nematode Globodera rostochiensis were studied with respect to temperature. The influence of soil moisture on bacterial movement was also tested. In a closed container trial, P. oryzihabitans significantly reduced invasion of second stage juveniles (J2) of G. rostochiensis in potato roots, its effect being more marked at 25 and 21 degreesC than at 17 degreesC. P. oryzihabitans motility in vitro was optimal at 26 degreesC and inhibited at temperatures below 18 degreesC. In soil, both temperature and matric potential affected bacterial movement. At 16 degreesC its movement and survival were suppressed, but they were unaffected at 25 degreesC. At both temperatures the biocontrol agent moved faster in the wetter (- 0.03 MPa) than in the drier soil (- 0.1 MPa). These results suggest that temperature is a key factor in determining the potential of P. or.yzihabitans as a biocontrol agent. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The value of badger populations and control of tuberculosis in cattle in England and Wales: A note

This note reports on the results of a choice experiment survey of 400 people in England and Wales, conducted to estimate the value that society places on changes to the size of the badger population. The study was undertaken in the context of the possible need to reduce the badger population by culling to help control bovine tuberculosis in cattle. The study found that people were concerned about the problem of bovine tuberculosis in cattle, which was reflected in their willingness to pay to control the disease, and gave a relatively low value to changes in the size of the badger population (within limits). However, people did not like the idea of a policy that intentionally killed large numbers of badgers and had a relatively very high willingness to pay not to have such a policy.

Analysis of Pan-European attitudes to the eradication and control of bovine viral diarrhoea

At present, national-level policies concerning the eradication and control of bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) differ widely across Europe. Some Scandinavian countries have enacted strong regulatory frameworks to eradicate the disease, whereas other countries have few formal policies. To examine these differences, the attitudes of stakeholders and policy makers in 17 European countries were investigated. A web-based questionnaire was sent to policy makers, government and private sector veterinarians, and representatives of farmers' organisations. On total, 131 individuals responded to the questionnaire and their responses were analysed by applying a method used in sociolinguistics: frame analysis. The results showed that the different attitudes of countries that applied compulsory or voluntary frameworks were associated with different views about the attribution or blame for BVD and the roles ascribed to farmers and other stakeholders in its eradication and control.

Modelling disease spread and control in networks: implications for plant sciences

Networks are ubiquitous in natural, technological and social systems. They are of increasing relevance for improved understanding and control of infectious diseases of plants, animals and humans, given the interconnectedness of today's world. Recent modelling work on disease development in complex networks shows: the relative rapidity of pathogen spread in scale-free compared with random networks, unless there is high local clustering; the theoretical absence of an epidemic threshold in scale-free networks of infinite size, which implies that diseases with low infection rates can spread in them, but the emergence of a threshold when realistic features are added to networks (e.g. finite size, household structure or deactivation of links); and the influence on epidemic dynamics of asymmetrical interactions. Models suggest that control of pathogens spreading in scale-free networks should focus on highly connected individuals rather than on mass random immunization. A growing number of empirical applications of network theory in human medicine and animal disease ecology confirm the potential of the approach, and suggest that network thinking could also benefit plant epidemiology and forest pathology, particularly in human-modified pathosystems linked by commercial transport of plant and disease propagules. Potential consequences for the study and management of plant and tree diseases are discussed.

Acquiring, managing and applying knowledge for environmental conservation

We are experiencing an explosion of knowledge with relevance to conserving biodiversity and protecting the environment necessary to sustain life on earth. Many science disciplines are involved in generating this ne, knowledge and real progress can be made when scientists collaborate across disciplines to generate both macro- and micro-environmental knowledge and then communicate and interact with specialists in sociology, economics and public policy. An important requirement is that the often complex scientific concepts and their voluminous supporting data are managed in such ways as to make them accessible across the many specializations involved. Horticultural science has much to contribute to the knowledge base for environmental conservation. While it seems that production horticulture has been slow to embrace knowledge and concepts that would reduce the heavy reliance on agricultural chemicals, the use of peat as a growing medium, and lead to more sustainable use of water and other resources, environmental horticulture is providing valuable opportunities to rescue or protect endangered species, educate the public about plants and plant science, and demonstrate environmental stewardship and sustainable production practices. Likewise, social horticulture is drawing, attention to the many contributions of horticultural foods and parks and gardens to human health and welfare. Overall, horticulture has a vital role to play in integrating, knowledge from other scientific, social, economic and political disciplines.