A global approach to dissecting lipid-induced impairment of liver gluconeogenesis

This thesis identified: 1) novel aspects of cholesterol metabolism, 2) a novel signalling lipid in the phosphatidylinositol class, and 3) a gene involved in regulating lipid breakdown, as being regulated in the reversal of a fatty acid induced diabetic liver. The identification of these targets may allow for future development of targeted therapies against type 2 diabetes with a specific focus on the liver.

Museum marketing competing in the global marketplace

Museums have moved from a product to a marketing focus within the last ten years. This has entailed a painful reorientation of approaches to understanding visitors as customers; new ways of fundraising and sponsorship as government funding decreases; and grappling with using the internet for marketing. This book brings the latest in marketing thinking to bear on the museum sector taking into account both the commercial issues and social mission it involves. Carefully structured to be highly accessible the book offers:
* A contemporary and relevant and global approach to museum marketing written by authors in Britain, Australia, the United States, and Asia
* An approach that reflects the particular challenges museums of varying sizes face when seeking to market an experience to a diverse set of stakeholders: audience; funders; sponsors and government.
* A particular focus on museum marketing in the 'Information Age'
* Major case studies at the beginning and end of each section of the book, and smaller case studies within chapters The hugely experienced author team, includes both leading academics and practitioners to ensure the book has broad appeal and is both relevant, innovative and progressive in approach. It will be essential reading for students in museum studies, non-profit marketing, and arts management and marketing. It will also be equally relevant for professionals working in and managing museums and galleries, heritage attractions and ministries of arts.
* The most up-to-date treatment of marketing museums with a global approach
* Blend of academic and practitioner expertise to appeal to students and professionals seeking a contemporary and relevant approach
* Features a range of international case studies that demonstrate the museum experience and draw out the particular challenges that museums and galleries of varying sizes and types face in the global marketplace

Determining binding constants from 1H NMR titration data using global and local methods : a case study using [n]polynorbornane-based anion hosts

From data generated using 1H NMR titrations, different methodologies to calculate binding constants are compared. The ‘local’ analysis method that uses only a single isotherm (only one H-bond donor) is compared against the ‘global’ method (that includes many or all H-bond donors). The results indicate that for simple systems both methods are suitable, however, the global approach consistently provides a K a value with uncertainties up to 30% smaller. For more complex binding, the global analysis method gives much more robust results than the local methods. This study also highlights the need to explore several different modes when data do not fit well to a simple 1:1 complexation model and illustrates the need for better methods to estimate uncertainties in supramolecular binding experiments.

Global classrooms : from telling the world to showing the world

Web 2.0 and online participatory media are becoming valuable resources for educators as we become more aware of the flexible and creative nature of such tools. This is opening up further opportunities for collaboration across classes, schools and countries where a global perspective on learning can support students in becoming active participants in the learning process. The purpose of this research study was to explore how social and participatory media could be used safely in the classroom to support a more global approach to learning. The objective was to design a framework for learning that provided students with opportunities to interact and to learn through formal projects, but also informally through online social interaction. This framework valued students’ funds of knowledge (Comber & Kamler, 2005; González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005) and encouraged them to be active participants in their own learning and that of their peers. This article will focus on the global nature of the learning that took place while looking at instructional design and assessment processes. It will also highlight:
• Developing students into responsible global citizens;
• Increasing global awareness and perspectives;
• Building knowledge and understandings of those different to themselves;
• Valuing others and developing key critical skills and processes including empathy, fairness and cooperation.
This research provides a framework that integrates all of these aspects into the day-to-day classroom program within a wide range of curriculum content.

Exporting sports rights to overseas markets : the case of European football

In recent years major European clubs have become conscious of the need to develop a wider, more global approach to their existence in order to increase revenues. There have increasingly been developments involving clubs attempting to forge relationships with major Asian markets. The essay focuses on factors influencing the international trade of input (talent) and output (football TV programmes) – covering both the supply and the demand sides. It illustrates how the development in recent years has widened the revenue gaps between the ‘big five’ European nations and the rest of the world – and its consequences for the distribution of talent in the football world.

An improved model of care for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Recommendations from the 3rd round of the Report of the results for the national clinical audit of adult inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) inpatient care in the UK published earlier this year by UK's Royal College of Physicians and mentioned in the Lancet in March 20121 report improvements in the quality of care (QoC) of patients with IBD since audits began in 2006 but also list improvements yet to be achieved. Importantly, optimising the quality of life (QoL) of sufferers was indicated as deserving greater attention as part of the global approach to improved QoC.

Global profit split: An evolutionary approach to international income allocation

International taxation is concerned mainly with the equitable allocation of cross-border income between countries in which income-earning activities take place. Such allocation has traditionally been governed by the arm’s-length principle, which has been interpreted as requiring a comparable transactional pricing approach. This approach assumes that each member of a multinational enterprise (MNE) group is a separate entity and that the transactions between related parties can be separated and compared with arm’s-length transactions. It has, however, proved difficult to apply comparable transactional pricing to internationally integrated businesses, especially those involving intangibles and services, and formulary apportionment has been suggested as an alternative. Essentially, formulary apportionment treats the MNE group as a single economic entity. The group’s profit is allocated to members according to a formula that reflects the particular member’s contribution to the production of that profit. A rich academic literature exists which either defends or attacks this alternative approach. The OECD and national governments have rejected formulary apportionment mainly on the ground that it violates the arm’s-length principle. This article proposes a global profit split (GPS) method for allocating international income. The GPS would allocate the global profit of an integrated business to each country in accordance with the economic contributions made by components of the business located in that country. The allocation would be based on a formula that would reflect the economic factors that contribute to profit making. While the GPS draws on elements of the traditional formulary apportionment and profit split methods, it also differs from them. The author discusses in detail the key issues involved in designing the GPS. She also presents and evaluates the main policy and pragmatic justifications for the adoption of this innovative approach. The author argues that the GPS is not only theoretically and practically superior to traditional income allocation methods, but also consistent with the arm’s-length principle. On the basis of historical developments, interpretation of article 9 of the OECD model tax convention, and international tax policy considerations, the author establishes that the GPS is not a radical departure from the arm’s-length principle, but rather a natural development in its evolution. She concludes that the law of evolution ison the side of reform because the GPS would provide for a fair and effective allocation of income derived from globally integrated business activities.

Least squares splines with free knots: global optimization approach

Splines with free knots have been extensively studied in regard to calculating the optimal knot positions. The dependence of the accuracy of approximation on the knot distribution is highly nonlinear, and optimisation techniques face a difficult problem of multiple local minima. The domain of the problem is a simplex, which adds to the complexity. We have applied a recently developed cutting angle method of deterministic global optimisation, which allows one to solve a wide class of optimisation problems on a simplex. The results of the cutting angle method are subsequently improved by local discrete gradient method. The resulting algorithm is sufficiently fast and guarantees that the global minimum has been reached. The results of numerical experiments are presented.

Global optimisation of neural networks using a deterministic hybrid approach

Selection of the topology of a neural network and correct parameters for the learning algorithm is a tedious task for designing an optimal artificial neural network, which is smaller, faster and with a better generalization performance. In this paper we introduce a recently developed cutting angle method (a deterministic technique) for global optimization of connection weights. Neural networks are initially trained using the cutting angle method and later the learning is fine-tuned (meta-learning) using conventional gradient descent or other optimization techniques. Experiments were carried out on three time series benchmarks and a comparison was done using evolutionary neural networks. Our preliminary experimentation results show that the proposed deterministic approach could provide near optimal results much faster than the evolutionary approach.

A distributed approach to global feedback control of multi-agent systems

This paper presents a distributed approach to global state feedback control of for multi-agent systems. The proposed solution is obtained from the construction of decentralised functional observers. The required local control signal is generated asymptotically using only corresponding local output information. It is shown that a complete distribution of the control of a decentralised system having N agents can be achieved upon the satisfaction of some necessary conditions, and that the resulting controller can emulate the performance of a global state feedback controller. A step-by-step design algorithm is given. Its simplicity and correctness are illustrated through a numerical example.

Using the sociotechnical approach in global software developments : Is the theory relevant today?

Global software development teams are highly dependent on technology for daily activities and production. Researchers have investigated the areas such as communication and time-zone difficulties when working across global boundaries during the last decade. However, this research explores job satisfaction, efficiency and the quality of working life of people working in a medium sized globally distributed software development organisation. It is assumed that the work structures of organisations of today are influenced by the theories from the past. This paper focus upon the issues that faces an Australian organisation involved in global software development, the research compares and contrasts the feelings of the employees using a Sociotechnical approach. The discussion highlights several problems areas specific to the organisation which will lay the foundation for future research.

Board behaviour and the global financial crisis : time for a holistic approach to governance

The heightened focus on corporate governance in the aftermath of the financial crisis and in particular the failure of boards to protect their corporations indicates the timeliness of this paper. Although corporate governance has been traditionally linked to control and compliance, the complexities of the 21st Century have focused attention on the need for more holistic approaches. This paper picks up these developments and using interpretive research, analyses thirteen in-depth interviews conducted with board members and senior management, before and after the crisis. The longitudinal data provides valuable insight into the role of boards, their behaviour, culture and decision-making structures.

China and technical global internet governance: Beijing’s approach to multi-stakeholder governance within ICANN, WSIS and the IGF

Since the late 1990s, the Chinese government has engaged in a process of attempting to reform the technical global internet governance regime, which is currently dominated by the US government and non-state actors. This article aims to contribute to the literature on Beijing’s approach to this issue by providing a detailed empirical account of its involvement in a few core regime organisations. It argues that Beijing’s reform approach is guided by its domestically derived preferences for strong state authority and expanding China’s global power, but that its reform efforts are unlikely to succeed based on countervailing structural hard- and soft-power factors.