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'But why are you so foreign?': Blyton and Blighty
No full textThe word ‘chum’ is, according to the OED, frequently linked with ‘chamber’; that is, a chum is someone with whom one might share sleeping quarters. Certainly, for many adventurous Blyton heroes, this is the case: the Famous Five, the four Adventure series children, the Adventurous four, the Secret Island four and other Blytoneers all share caves, cellars and other locked rooms, let alone trees and camp-fires. However, one also finds, included in these spaces, those who, superficially, would not seem to qualify. Thus, in The Secret Mountain (set in Africa), we find Mafumu, a ‘black boy,’ ‘snuggled down beside Jack, who did not even wake when the black boy lay almost on top of him’ (92); or Ragamuffin Jo, a gypsy waif, sharing the Famous Five’s sleeping quarters. In this chapter, these unlikely bedfellows will be considered alongside other foreigners in Blyton’s work; for, more than most writers, she has been accused of xenophobia and outright racism — accusations that, I will suggest, are based on rather uninformed and selective readings of her work
Management of the E-retail supply and distribution network: a resource-based view of the UK grocery sector.
No full textThe motivation of this research emerged as a reaction to imbalances in the UK grocery retailing market. In 2012-2013, total grocery retail sales amounted to £163.2 billion (bn), of which £5.6bn (3%) was generated through the online channel. Offline sales which amounted to £157.6bn are greater than all total combined non-grocery retail sales for the same period. Notably, online grocery sales of 3.4% posted the lowest percentage compared to all other segments of non-grocery e-retailing. The problem lies with challenges associated with managing supply and distribution of e-groceries, which constitute one of the greatest barriers to grocery e-retailing. These challenges led Somerfield to close its e-operations. This further heightens the online-offline grocery imbalances as only few grocery retailers are able to sustain their online operation. Of the 24 grocery e-retailers with more than ten stores in the UK, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and Waitrose (ASTW) continue to stamp their authority in the market. Studies that examined the e-operations of ASTW attribute their cutting edge practice in grocery e-retailing to an overwhelming difference in resources (stores). It is the fundamental principles such as store assets that have seen Tesco’s pioneering in-store model outperform rivals in penetrating the market. These findings more than anything, have galvanized this research interest into deeper understanding of stores and managerial capabilities from a resource-based view (RBV).The study examines the four case studies (ASTW) using a mixed method approach to reduce the methodological challenges inherent in the RBV theory. Respondents were purposively sampled and responses were elicited using semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal the value of the resources from RBV perspective, and the prominence and interdependence of chain resources in creating sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). The study developed a resource-based strategy that may minimise some of the challenges, especially the cost of supply and distribution. Although the findings provide a RBV of stores and managerial capabilities in grocery e-retailing, the extent of value is limited to access and disclosure of sensitive information. Future studies must assess SCA, in partnership with the organisation to avoid the latter limitations. It is anticipated that the findings will pave the way for future research in e-retailing through contribution to both knowledge and practice. From the perspective of knowledge contribution, the research empirically tested the robustness of RBV using mixed method in the context of the grocery sector. Meanwhile, the developed strategy is also highly valuable in practice, in that it could offer useful insights for practitioners to better improve the efficiency and resilience of their e-retailing adoption
Course notes: constitutional and administrative law
No full textCourse Notes is designed to help you succeed in your law examinations and assessments. Each guide supports revision of an undergraduate and conversion GDL/CPE law degree module by demonstrating good practice in creating and maintaining ideal notes. Course Notes will support you in actively and effectively learning the material by guiding you through the demands of compiling the information you need
Combustion processes of textile fibres
No full textThis chapter reviews the current knowledge of the processes involved in the combustion behaviour of textiles and approaches to their flame retardant protection. Synthetic fibre-forming polymers, both thermoplastic and high temperature resistant, as well as naturally occurring fibre types are discussed. The combustion process is described with reference to the thermal stability, degradation and oxidative degradation various individual polymer types. The significance of textile structure is considered with respect to the textile flammability. The mechanisms of the different flame retardant systems applied to various textiles are discussed as well as the more recent application of nano-composites. Finally, a prediction of potential future developments is presented
On optical reflection at heterojunction interface of thin film solar cells
No full textHeterojunction is an important structure for the development of photovoltaic solar cells. In contrast to homojunction structures, heterojunction solar cells have internal crystalline interfaces, which will reflect part of the incident light, and this has not been considered carefully before though many heterostructure solar cells have been commercialized. This paper discusses the internal reflection for various material systems used for the development of heterostructure-based solar cells. It has been found that the most common heterostructure solar cells have internal reflection less than 2%, while some potential heterojunction solar cells such as ITO/GaAs, ITO/InP, Si/Ge, polymer/semiconductors and oxide semiconductors may have internal reflection as high as 20%. Also it is worse to have a window layer with a lower refractive index than the absorption layer for solar cells. Ignorance of this strong internal reflection will lead to severe deterioration and reduction of conversion efficiency, therefore measures have to be taken to minimize or prevent this internal reflection
Employability: is it myth or rhetoric?
No full textThere are suggestions that employers are dissatisfied with the levels of skills graduates have prior to entering employment. There also appears to be some conflict between what various stakeholders require of the Higher Education curriculum and how teaching and learning institutions prepare graduates for ‘employment’. The aim of this paper is to identify what employers, students and academic staff perceives employability to mean and the appropriate workplace skills commensurate with it. An empirical analysis was carried out with Business Management graduates, University tutors and local employers to determine which employability skills they believe were important. The results indicate that while employability skills might be identifiable, there was not complete reconciliation between what employers, graduates, and university academics believe they need to provide in order for graduates to gain meaningful employment. The findings suggest that while the stakeholders are concerned that graduates entering employment lack certain employment skills, they still base their decisions to take on graduates upon an historical perspectives of employment skills developed overtime, without perhaps taking into account the future requirements of ‘employment’, the possible challenges of an increasingly globalised economy and other possible societal changes which could be considerable and as yet, very much unknown. This study attempts to make a contribution to research on employability by identifying the gaps that may exist between employers, graduates and universities and any disparity in understanding of what ‘employability’ means and which employability skills might take priority
