Tactics, traditions, and opportunities:British and French crop-trashing actions in comparative perspective

This article compares the tactic of trashing genetically modified crops in activist campaigns in Britain and France. In Britain, most crop trashing was carried out covertly, while in France most activists undertook open, public actions. In seeking an explanation for this, the article shows that the analysis of political opportunities, dominant in comparative studies of social movements, can only take us so far. While it helps explain the occurrence of direct action, it is much less useful in explaining the tactical differences between each country. It is argued that a fuller explanation requires an understanding of how action was shaped by different activist traditions. In France, action was staged as a demonstration of serious, responsible, collective Republican citizenship; in the United Kingdom, activists combined a sceptical view of legality developing from anarchist individualism with an explicitly non-threatening, playful, ethos. The article concludes that a focus on activist traditions can provide an effective bridge between structural and cultural approaches to understanding the determinants of social movement action.

Visual hallucinations in the psychosis spectrum and comparative information from neurodegenerative disorders and eye disease

Much of the research on visual hallucinations (VHs) has been conducted in the context of eye disease and neurodegenerative conditions, but little is known about these phenomena in psychiatric and nonclinical populations. The purpose of this article is to bring together current knowledge regarding VHs in the psychosis phenotype and contrast this data with the literature drawn from neurodegenerative disorders and eye disease. The evidence challenges the traditional views that VHs are atypical or uncommon in psychosis. The weighted mean for VHs is 27% in schizophrenia, 15% in affective psychosis, and 7.3% in the general community. VHs are linked to a more severe psychopathological profile and less favorable outcome in psychosis and neurodegenerative conditions. VHs typically co-occur with auditory hallucinations, suggesting a common etiological cause. VHs in psychosis are also remarkably complex, negative in content, and are interpreted to have personal relevance. The cognitive mechanisms of VHs in psychosis have rarely been investigated, but existing studies point to source-monitoring deficits and distortions in top-down mechanisms, although evidence for visual processing deficits, which feature strongly in the organic literature, is lacking. Brain imaging studies point to the activation of visual cortex during hallucinations on a background of structural and connectivity changes within wider brain networks. The relationship between VHs in psychosis, eye disease, and neurodegeneration remains unclear, although the pattern of similarities and differences described in this review suggests that comparative studies may have potentially important clinical and theoretical implications. © 2014 The Author.

How does globalisation interact with higher education? The continuing lack of consensus:The continuing lack of consensus

This essay attempts to ascertain whether a particular meaning of globalisation, and view on its effects and the appropriate response to it, are becoming standardised across academia. To do so, it content-analyses a representative sample of new scholarship, mapping the various approaches of current researchers towards globalisation. The essay shows how globalisation remains a contested concept within studies of higher education, as in many other fields. Rather than globalisation being taken to refer unambiguously to global flows, pressures or trends, its meaning continues to depend on the particular perspective adopted by contemporary researchers. The same conflict is apparent concerning the impacts which are reputed to globalisation and with regard to the appropriate response to globalisation amongst academics and higher education institutions (HEIs) more generally. Perhaps the only apparent point of consensus amongst contemporary researchers is the claim that globalisation affects HEIs, rather than HEIs themselves being implicated in the promotion of globalisation. This position underplays the often important role of HEIs in encouraging cross-border flows and pressures, and global trends such as marketisation.

Lithium-aluminium casting alloys and their associated metal-mould reactions

Aluminium - lithium alloys are specialist alloys used exclusively by the aerospace industry. They have properties that are favourable to the production of modern military aircraft. The addition of approximately 2.5 percent lithium to aluminium increases the strength characteristics of the new alloys by 10 percent. The same addition has the added advantage of decreasing the density of the resulting alloy by a similar percentage. The disadvantages associated with this alloy are primarily price and castability. The addition of 2.5 weight percent lithium to aluminium results in a price increase of 100% explaining the aerospace exclusivity. The processability of the alloys is restricted to ingot casting and wrought treatment but for complex components precision casting is required. Casting the alloys into sand and investment moulds creates a metal - mould reaction, the consequences of which are intolerable in the production of military hardware. The primary object of this project was to investigate and characterise the reactions occurring between the newly poured metal and surface of the mould and to propose a method of counteracting the metal - mould reaction. The constituents of standard sand and investment moulds were pyrolised with lithium metal in order to simplify the complex in-mould reaction and the products were studied by the solid state techniques of powder X-Ray diffraction and magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The results of this study showed that the order of reaction was: Organic reagents> > Silicate reagents> Non silicate reagents Alphaset and Betaset were the two organic binders used to prepare the sand moulds throughout this project. Studies were carried out to characterise these resins in order to determine the factors involved in their reaction with lithium. Analysis revealed that during the curing process the phenolic hydroxide groups are not reacted out and that a redox reaction takes place between these hydroxides and the lithium in the molten alloys. Casting experiments carried out to assess the protection afforded by various hydroxide protecting agents showed that modern effective, protecting chemicals such as bis-trimethyl silyl acetamide and hexamethyldisilazane did not inhibit the metal - mould reaction to a sufficiently high standard and that tri-methylchlorosilane was consistently the best performer. Tri-methyl chlorosilane has a simple functionalizing mechanism compared to other hydroxide protecting reagents and this factor is responsible for its superior inhibiting qualities. Comparative studies of 6Li and 7Li N.M.R. spectra (M.A.S. and `off angle') establish that, for solid state (and even solution) analytical purposes 6Li is the preferred nucleus. 6Li M.A.S.N.M.R. spectra were obtained for thermally treated laponite clay. At temperatures below 800oC both dehydrated and rehydrated samples were considered. The data are consistent with mobility of lithium ions from the trioctahedral clay sites at 600oC. The superior resolution achievable in 6Li M.A.S.N.M.R. is demonstrated in the analysis of a microwave prepared lithium exchanged clay where 6Li spectroscopy revelaed two lithium sites in comparison to 7Li M.A.S.N.M.R. which gave only a single lithium resonance.

Induction by a Hilbert hypercube representation

This thesis describes a novel connectionist machine utilizing induction by a Hilbert hypercube representation. This representation offers a number of distinct advantages which are described. We construct a theoretical and practical learning machine which lies in an area of overlap between three disciplines - neural nets, machine learning and knowledge acquisition - hence it is refered to as a "coalesced" machine. To this unifying aspect is added the various advantages of its orthogonal lattice structure as against less structured nets. We discuss the case for such a fundamental and low level empirical learning tool and the assumptions behind the machine are clearly outlined. Our theory of an orthogonal lattice structure the Hilbert hypercube of an n-dimensional space using a complemented distributed lattice as a basis for supervised learning is derived from first principles on clearly laid out scientific principles. The resulting "subhypercube theory" was implemented in a development machine which was then used to test the theoretical predictions again under strict scientific guidelines. The scope, advantages and limitations of this machine were tested in a series of experiments. Novel and seminal properties of the machine include: the "metrical", deterministic and global nature of its search; complete convergence invariably producing minimum polynomial solutions for both disjuncts and conjuncts even with moderate levels of noise present; a learning engine which is mathematically analysable in depth based upon the "complexity range" of the function concerned; a strong bias towards the simplest possible globally (rather than locally) derived "balanced" explanation of the data; the ability to cope with variables in the network; and new ways of reducing the exponential explosion. Performance issues were addressed and comparative studies with other learning machines indicates that our novel approach has definite value and should be further researched.

Ionic and molecular diffusion in cementitious materials

The work described in this thesis is an attempt to provide improved understanding of the effects of several factors affecting diffusion in hydrated cement pastes and to aid the prediction of ionic diffusion processes in cement-based materials. Effect of pore structure on diffusion was examined by means of comparative diffusion studies of quaternary ammonium ions with different ionic radii. Diffusivities of these ions in hydrated pastes of ordinary portland cement with or without addition of fly ash were determined by a quasi-steady state technique. The restriction of the pore geometry on diffusion was evaluated from the change of diffusivity in response to the change of ionic radius. The pastes were prepared at three water-cement ratios, 0.35, 0.50 and 0.65. Attempts were made to study the effect of surface charge or the electrochemical double layer at the pore/solution interface on ionic diffusion. An approach was to evaluate the zeta potentials of hydrated cement pastes through streaming potential measurements. Another approach was the comparative studies of the diffusion kinetics of chloride and dissolved oxygen in hydrated pastes of ordinary portland cement with addition of 0 and 20% fly ash. An electrochemical technique for the determination of oxygen diffusivity was also developed. Non-steady state diffusion of sodium potassium, chloride and hydroxyl ions in hydrated ordinary portland cement paste of water-cement ratio 0.5 was studied with the aid of computer-modelling. The kinetics of both diffusion and ionic binding were considered for the characterization of the concentration profiles by Fick's first and second laws. The effect of the electrostatic interactions between ions on the overall diffusion rates was also considered. A general model concerning the prediction of ionic diffusion processes in cement-based materials has been proposed.

Background synaptic activity in rat entorhinal cortex shows a progressively greater dominance of inhibition over excitation from deep to superficial layers

The entorhinal cortex (EC) controls hippocampal input and output, playing major roles in memory and spatial navigation. Different layers of the EC subserve different functions and a number of studies have compared properties of neurones across layers. We have studied synaptic inhibition and excitation in EC neurones, and we have previously compared spontaneous synaptic release of glutamate and GABA using patch clamp recordings of synaptic currents in principal neurones of layers II (L2) and V (L5). Here, we add comparative studies in layer III (L3). Such studies essentially look at neuronal activity from a presynaptic viewpoint. To correlate this with the postsynaptic consequences of spontaneous transmitter release, we have determined global postsynaptic conductances mediated by the two transmitters, using a method to estimate conductances from membrane potential fluctuations. We have previously presented some of this data for L3 and now extend to L2 and L5. Inhibition dominates excitation in all layers but the ratio follows a clear rank order (highest to lowest) of L2>L3>L5. The variance of the background conductances was markedly higher for excitation and inhibition in L2 compared to L3 or L5. We also show that induction of synchronized network epileptiform activity by blockade of GABA inhibition reveals a relative reluctance of L2 to participate in such activity. This was associated with maintenance of a dominant background inhibition in L2, whereas in L3 and L5 the absolute level of inhibition fell below that of excitation, coincident with the appearance of synchronized discharges. Further experiments identified potential roles for competition for bicuculline by ambient GABA at the GABAA receptor, and strychnine-sensitive glycine receptors in residual inhibition in L2. We discuss our results in terms of control of excitability in neuronal subpopulations of EC neurones and what these may suggest for their functional roles. © 2014 Greenhill et al.

Corporate governance and compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs):evidence from two MENA stock exchanges

This study examines the influence of corporate governance structures on the levels of compliance with IFRSs disclosure requirements by companies listed on the stock exchanges of two leading MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries, Egypt and Jordan. This study employs a cross-sectional analysis of a sample of non-financial companies listed on the two stock exchanges for the fiscal year 2007. Using an unweighted disclosure index, the study measures the levels of compliance by companies listed on the two stock exchanges investigated.Univariate and multivariate regression analyses are used to estimate the relationships proposed in the hypotheses. In addition, the study uses semi-structured interviews in order to supplement the interpretation of the findings of the quantitative analyses. An innovative theoretical foundation is deployed, in which compliance is interpretable through three lenses - institutional isomorphism theory, secrecy versus transparency (one of Gray’s accounting sub-cultural values), and financial economics theories. The study extends the financial reporting literature, cross-national comparative financial disclosure literature, and the emerging markets disclosure literature by carrying out one of the first comparative studies of the above mentioned stock exchanges. Results provide evidence of a lack of de facto compliance (i.e., actual compliance) with IFRSs disclosure requirements in the scrutinised MENA countries. The impact of corporate governance mechanisms for best practice on enhancing the extent of compliance with mandatory IFRSs is absent in the stock exchanges in question. The limited impact of corporate governance best practice is mainly attributed to the novelty of corporate governance in the region, a finding which lends support to the applicability of the proposed theoretical foundation to the MENA context. Finally, the study provides recommendations for improving de facto compliance with IFRSs disclosure requirements and corporate governance best practice in the MENA region and suggests areas for future research.

A comparative study of 'joined-up' working in three regeneration programme case studies

This research concerns the development of coordination and co-governance within three different regeneration programmes within one Midlands city over the period from 1999 to 2002. The New Labour government, in office since 1997, had an agenda for ‘joining-up’ government, part of which has had considerable impact in the area of regeneration policy. Joining-up government encompasses a set of related activities which can include the coordination of policy-making and service delivery. In regeneration, it also includes a commitment to operate through co-governance. Central government and local and regional organisations have sought to put this idea into practice by using what may be referred to as network management processes. Many characteristics of new policies are designed to address the management of networks. Network management is not new in this area, it has developed at least since the early 1990s with the City Challenge and Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) programmes as a way of encouraging more inclusive and effective regeneration interventions. Network management theory suggests that better management can improve decision-making outcomes in complex networks. The theories and concepts are utilised in three case studies as a way of understanding how and why regeneration attempts demonstrate real advances in inter-organisational working at certain times whilst faltering at others. Current cases are compared to the historical case of the original SRB programme as a method of assessing change. The findings suggest that: The use of network management can be identified at all levels of governance. As previous literature has highlighted, central government is the most important actor regarding network structuring. However, it can be argued that network structuring and game management are both practised by central and local actors; Furthermore, all three of the theoretical perspectives within network management (Instrumental, Institutional and Interactive), have been identified within UK regeneration networks. All may have a role to play with no single perspective likely to succeed on its own. Therefore, all could make an important contribution to the understanding of how groups can be brought together to work jointly; The findings support Klijn’s (1997) assertion that the institutional perspective is dominant for understanding network management processes; Instrumentalism continues on all sides, as the acquisition of resources remains the major driver for partnership activity; The level of interaction appears to be low despite the intentions for interactive decision-making; Overall, network management remains partial. Little attention is paid to the issues of accountability or to the institutional structures which can prevent networks from implementing the policies designed by central government, and/or the regional tier.

A comparative study of cationic liposome and niosome-based adjuvant systems for protein subunit vaccines:characterisation, environmental scanning electron microscopy and immunisation studies in mice

Vesicular adjuvant systems composing dimethyldioctadecylammonium (DDA) can promote both cell-mediated and humoral immune responses to the tuberculosis vaccine fusion protein in mice. However, these DDA preparations were found to be physically unstable, forming aggregates under ambient storage conditions. Therefore there is a need to improve the stability of such systems without undermining their potent adjuvanticity. To this end, the effect of incorporating non-ionic surfactants, such as 1-monopalmitoyl glycerol (MP), in addition to cholesterol (Chol) and trehalose 6,6′-dibehenate (TDB), on the stability and efficacy of these vaccine delivery systems was investigated. Differential scanning calorimetry revealed a reduction in the phase transition temperature (T c) of DDA-based vesicles by ∼12°C when MP and cholesterol (1:1 molar ratio) were incorporated into the DDA system. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed the addition of MP to DDA vesicles resulted in the formation of multi-lamellar vesicles. Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) of MP-Chol-DDA-TDB (16:16:4:0.5 μmol) indicated that incorporation of antigen led to increased stability of the vesicles, perhaps as a result of the antigen embedding within the vesicle bilayers. At 4°C DDA liposomes showed significant vesicle aggregation after 28 days, although addition of MP-Chol or TDB was shown to inhibit this instability. Alternatively, at 25°C only the MP-based systems retained their original size. The presence of MP within the vesicle formulation was also shown to promote a sustained release of antigen in-vitro. The adjuvant activity of various systems was tested in mice against three subunit antigens, including mycobacterial fusion protein Ag85b-ESAT-6, and two malarial antigens (Merozoite surface protein 1, MSP1, and the glutamate rich protein, GLURP). The MP- and DDA-based systems induced antibody responses at comparable levels whereas the DDA-based systems induced more powerful cell-mediated immune responses. © 2006 The Authors.

Management of universities in a period of rapid change: comparative case studies

DUE TO COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION AT ASTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES WITH PRIOR ARRANGEMENT

THOMAS NIEHR AND KARIN BÖKE (eds), Einwanderungsdiskurse. Vergleichende diskurslinguistische Studien. [Immigration Discourses: Comparative Discourse Studies.] Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 2000. 241 pp. DM 56.00 (pbk). ISBN 3–5311–3307–1

Book review

Strategies for sustaining manufacturing competitiveness:comparative case studies in Australia and Sweden

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report an investigation of local sustainable production in Australia and Sweden aimed at exploring the factors contributing to survival and competitiveness of manufacturing companies. Design/methodology/approach - In Australia, six companies were studied in 2010, with comparisons being made with three of them from earlier projects. In Sweden, eight manufacturing companies were studied on two occasions 30 years apart, in 1980 and 2010. To provide a valid comparative perspective a common format for data collection and analysis was used. Findings - There has been a shift in the nature of competition in both Sweden and Australia due to an increasing complexity of the global business environment as well as changes in technology and customer expectations. Despite the differences in country context, the findings suggest that all the manufacturing companies have a good awareness of the elements of the market environment and the relationships with their competitive strategy. However, in general, the Swedish companies have more experience of managing the risks and benefits from operating in the international environment. Research limitations/implications - The results of the research are based on a relatively small sample of case companies in a limited number of industrial sectors. There are methodology implications for future research in the area. Practical implications - The research results have practical implications for the manufacturing industry, especially for companies operating in a competitive international environment. Originality/value - The paper is based on original case research and comparative analysis of data from different geographical contexts. It contributes to both theory and management practice about the strategic resources, decision choices, competitive environments and firm values needed to address external market demands as well as in building internal capabilities.