17,619 research outputs found
Creeping conditionality in the UK: from welfare rights to conditional entitlements
Full text linkA widely recognised central tenet of New Labour’s ‘Third Way’ is no rights without responsibilities. The extent to which this idea underpins the British government’s approach to welfare reform has been extensively commented upon. Initially, the article places the UK reforms in the context of wider theoretical debates about welfare reform in Western states. It then highlights the ways in which a principle of conditionality is being practically applied in a wide range of sectors in the UK including; social security, housing, education, and health. The details and impact of recent relevant legislation and initiatives are discussed. It is argued that as policies based on conditional entitlement become central to the ongoing process of welfare reform the very idea of ‘welfare rights’ is systematically undermined
Ewe-lamb bonding behaviours at birth are affected by maternal undernutrition in pregnancy
Get PDFMaternal undernutrition in pregnancy results in low birth-weights and impaired postnatal survival in sheep. Largely anecdotal evidence suggests that the expression of appropriate maternal and neonate behaviours may also be disrupted by undernutrition. In the present study, we investigated the effect of a moderate (35 %) reduction in ewe nutritional intake in pregnancy on the expression of ewe-lamb bonding behaviours in primiparous Scottish Blackface ewes. Low-intake (L) ewes had significantly higher plasma progesterone than high-intake (H) ewes from mid-gestation onwards (e.g. plasma progesterone at 20 weeks (ng/ml): H 15.72, L 22.38, SED 1.80, P</p
The effects of restrictive business practices on Australian inbound package tourism
No full textInternational visitors to Australia on package tours have expressed concern about aspects of their holiday experience. These aspects relate to restrictive business practices on the part of inbound tour operators. The origin markets most affected are China, Korea and Taiwan in particular, and, to a lesser extent, Japan. This paper first sets out the nature of the restrictive business practices and then discusses their underlying causes. It then estimates their effects on visitor satisfaction and the impact of this on future package tourism flows to Australia from the identified markets. Finally, some estimates are made of the economic costs of the practices. It is argued that Australia will benefit from the development of quality tours rather than persisting with the price driven tours currently on offer within these market
Wide Open Road
No full textA 4-part radio documentary series(4 x 58-53 ) and interactive website about the relationship between Australian popular music and the landscape. Co-produced with Cath Dwyer, Wide Open Road consists of 4 parallel narratives about the development of Australian popular music from the 1970s to the early 21st century, and the way in which themes of place and identity are reflected and articulated in popular music from punk to hip-hop. Broadcast on Into the Music on ABC Radio National, JJJ and ABC Local Radio, November 2008. Each episode is organized around a central image or metaphor 'Road, Suburbs, Carpet and Coast - and explores how songwriters and musicians responded imaginatively to the natural and urban Australian landscape. The series is based on approximately 50 original audio interviews conducted by the producers in 2008, and extensive research in the audio archives of the ABC. An academic article based on the series, âWide Open Road: Radio as Cultural Historyâ , will be published in April 2012 in an edited volume entitled: Radio and Society: New thinking for an old media, (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012
The politics and economics of regulatory impact assessment
Full text linkThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the link in this record
Phase Distribution Efficiency of cm-Scale Ultrasonically Powered Receivers
No full textIn the domain of ultrasonically powered biomedical implants, there is an increasing interest in cm-scale ultrasonic receivers (RX). However, when a single-element transducer is used as the RX transducer, an uneven phase distribution across the RX area can significantly reduce the harvestable power. In this paper, we investigate the impact of lateral and angular misalignment on the acoustic field phase distribution across the RX surface. We show that, for a single-element RX transducer, lateral misalignment has minimal effect on the harvestable power, whereas even small angular misalignments can cause a considerable reduction, especially for larger RX sizes. We present a potential solution that consists of subdividing a large RX transducer (e.g. 20 × 20mm2) into smaller elements, which significantly improves power transfer efficiency by taking advantage of the smaller phase variation across the surface of each element. The trade-offs between achieving a minimum acceptable power transfer efficiency and managing the increased complexity in packaging and matching circuitry are also discussed.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Electronic Components, Technology and MaterialsBio-Electronic
Highly efficient laser-driven Compton gamma-ray source
Full text linkThe recent advancement of high-intensity lasers has made all-optical Compton scattering become a promising way to produce ultrashort brilliant gamma-rays in an ultra-compact system. However, so far achieved Compton gamma-ray sources are limited by low conversion efficiency and spectral intensity. Here we present a highly efficient gamma photon emitter obtained by irradiating a high-intensity laser pulse on a miniature plasma device consisting of a plasma lens and a plasma mirror. This concept exploits strong spatiotemporal laser-shaping process and high-charge electron acceleration process in the plasma lens, as well as an efficient nonlinear Compton scattering process enabled by the plasma mirror. Our full three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate that in this novel scheme, brilliant gamma-rays with very high conversion efficiency (higher than 10(-2)) and spectral intensity (similar to 10(9) photons/0.1%BW) can be achieved by employing currently available petawatt-class lasers with intensity of 10(21) W cm(-2). Such efficient and intense gamma-ray sources would find applications in wide-ranging areas. ©2019 The Author(s)
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