Sunderland Software City: The Impact of a Collaborative Project to Develop the Software Industry within the North East of England

This paper uses a case study approach to evaluate the impact of a collaborative initiative within the North East of England which sets out to grow and sustain a software industry, based on the strengths of regional players. The project Sunderland Software City has the ambitious aim of developing the people, the infrastructure and the business and enterprise culture to create and sustain a software industry. This paper focuses upon the impact of the project, and presents some lessons learned to date

La Voluntat de comunicar-se en una segona llengua: la presa de decisions individual en un context social

Aquest text de Peter MacIntyre exposa els seus punts de vista sobre la voluntat de comunicar centrant-se en la presa de la decisió individual de cada parlant en un context social determinat. Aquesta decisió es produeix al final d'un temps o procés en el qual influeixen una diversitat de factors, que exposa detalladament el model gràfic de la voluntat de comunicar. En contextos socials com ara el de Nova Escòcia o Catalunya, la suma de les decisions individuals de comunicar, respectivament, en gaèlic o en català té una influència directa en el futur d'aquestes llengües.This text of Peter MacIntyre presents his views on willingness to communicate focusing in the individual decision making of each speaker in a given social context. This decision arrives at the end of a process in time, where a variety of factors have an important influence: the WTC model shows their interrelations in an integrated way. In social contexts like those of Nova Scotia or Catalonia, the sum of individual decisions to communicate, respectively, in Gaelic or Catalan, have a direct effect on the future of these languages

Fabrication of submicron planar Gunn diode

We present, for the first time, the fabrication process for a submicron planar Gunn diode in In<sub>0.53</sub>Ga<sub>0.47</sub>As on an InP substrate operating at 265 GHz. A novel two stage lift off method has been developed to achieve a submicron gaps between contacts down to 135 nm with widths up to 120 μm

Do residents’ perceptions of being well-placed and objective presence of local amenities match? A case study in West Central Scotland, UK

Background:<p></p> Recently there has been growing interest in how neighbourhood features, such as the provision of local facilities and amenities, influence residents’ health and well-being. Prior research has measured amenity provision through subjective measures (surveying residents’ perceptions) or objective (GIS mapping of distance) methods. The latter may provide a more accurate measure of physical access, but residents may not use local amenities if they do not perceive them as ‘local’. We believe both subjective and objective measures should be explored, and use West Central Scotland data to investigate correspondence between residents’ subjective assessments of how well-placed they are for everyday amenities (food stores, primary and secondary schools, libraries, pharmacies, public recreation), and objective GIS-modelled measures, and examine correspondence by various sub-groups.<p></p> Methods:<p></p> ArcMap was used to map the postal locations of ‘Transport, Health and Well-being 2010 Study’ respondents (n = 1760), and the six amenities, and the presence/absence of each of them within various straight-line and network buffers around respondents’ homes was recorded. SPSS was used to investigate whether objective presence of an amenity within a specified buffer was perceived by a respondent as being well-placed for that amenity. Kappa statistics were used to test agreement between measures for all respondents, and by sex, age, social class, area deprivation, car ownership, dog ownership, walking in the local area, and years lived in current home.<p></p> Results:<p></p> In general, there was poor agreement (Kappa <0.20) between perceptions of being well-placed for each facility and objective presence, within 800 m and 1000 m straight-line and network buffers, with the exception of pharmacies (at 1000 m straight-line) (Kappa: 0.21). Results varied between respondent sub-groups, with some showing better agreement than others. Amongst sub-groups, at 800 m straight-line buffers, the highest correspondence between subjective and objective measures was for pharmacies and primary schools, and at 1000 m, for pharmacies, primary schools and libraries. For road network buffers under 1000 m, agreement was generally poor.<p></p> Conclusion:<p></p> Respondents did not necessarily regard themselves as well-placed for specific amenities when these amenities were present within specified boundaries around their homes, with some exceptions; the picture is not clear-cut with varying findings between different amenities, buffers, and sub-groups

Managerial Work in a Practice-Embodying Institution - The role of calling, the virtue of constancy

What can be learned from a small scale study of managerial work in a highly marginal and under-researched working community? This paper uses the ‘goods-virtues-practices-institutions’ framework to examine the managerial work of owner-directors of traditional circuses. Inspired by MacIntyre’s arguments for the necessity of a narrative understanding of the virtues, interviews explored how British and Irish circus directors accounted for their working lives. A purposive sample was used to select subjects who had owned and managed traditional touring circuses for at least 15 years, a period in which the economic and reputational fortunes of traditional circuses have suffered badly. This sample enabled the research to examine the self-understanding of people who had, at least on the face of it, exhibited the virtue of constancy. The research contributes to our understanding of the role of the virtues in organizations by presenting evidence of an intimate relationship between the virtue of constancy and a ‘calling’ work orientation. This enhances our understanding of the virtues that are required if management is exercised as a domain-related practice

Marxism Lost and Found: Alasdair MacIntyre and the Contemporary Debate

This paper examines the changing nature of debates that focus on the philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre. Whilst outlining the history of MacIntyre’s engagement with Marxism and some of his key ideas, it argues that it is only recently that such debates have begun to rightfully recognise the continued relevance of Marxism to such discussions. I note that crucial aspects of MacIntyre’s politics and philosophy, particularly his opposition to capitalism, are now integral to the contemporary debate which helps in generating a shared vision of radical politics. Nevertheless, I point out that key disagreements still remain as to the role of Marxism within such debates, the validity of MacIntyre’s critique of Marxism, as well as the potentially problematic post-Marxist practice that MacIntyre advocates in After Virtue and beyond

180nm metal gate, high-k dielectric, implant-free III--V MOSFETs with transconductance of over 425 μS/μm

Abstract: Data is reported from 180 nm gate length GaAs n-MOSFETs with drive current (Ids,sat) of 386 μA/μm (Vg=Vd =1.5 V), extrinsic transconductance (gm) of 426 μS/μm, gate leakage ( jg,limit) of 44 nA/cm2, and on resistance (Ron) of 1640 Ω μm. The gm and Ron metrics are the best values reported to date for III-V MOSFETs, and indicate their potential for scaling to deca-nanometre dimensions

Electron mobility in surface- and buried- channel flatband In_0.53Ga_0.47As MOSFETs with ALD Al₂O₃ gate dielectric.

In this paper, we investigate the scaling potential of flatband III-V MOSFETs by comparing the mobility of surface and buried In<sub>0.53</sub>Ga<sub>0.47</sub>As channel devices employing an Atomic Layer Deposited (ALD) Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> gate dielectric and a delta-doped InGaAs/InAlAs/InP heterostructure. Peak electron mobilities of 4300 cm<sup>2</sup>/V·s and 6600 cm<sup>2</sup>/V·s at a carrier density of 3×1012 cm<sup>-2</sup> for the surface and buried channel structures respectively were determined. In contrast to similarly scaled inversion-channel devices, we find that mobility in surface channel flatband structures does not drop rapidly with electron density, but rather high mobility is maintained up to carrier concentrations around 4x10<sup>12</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup> before slowly dropping to around 2000 cm<sup>2</sup>/V·s at 1x10M<sup>13</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup>. We believe these to be world leading metrics for this material system and an important development in informing the III-V MOSFET device architecture selection process for future low power, highly scaled CM

Predicting language learners' grades in the L1, L2, L3 and L4: the effect of some psychological and sociocognitive variables

This study of 89 Flemish high-school students' grades for L1 (Dutch), L2 (French), L3 (English) and L4 (German) investigates the effects of three higher-level personality dimensions (psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism), one lower-level personality dimension (foreign language anxiety) and sociobiographical variables (gender, social class) on the participants' language grades. Analyses of variance revealed no significant effects of the higher-level personality dimensions on grades. Participants with high levels of foreign language anxiety obtained significantly lower grades in the L2 and L3. Gender and social class had no effect. Strong positive correlations between grades in the different languages could point to an underlying sociocognitive dimension. The implications of these findings are discussed