Servitization 2.0: The significance of product and service dominant logics for public service organisations

This conceptual paper explores servitization as significant to public service organisations (PSOs) within which there is a requirement to administer lean and sustainable provision. It specifically appreciates that the digital transformation of services has embraced customer processing machine technologies that facilitate volume growth alongside information sharing; thus, fostering co-operation within collaborative network systems whilst pro-actively operating as elements of the product-service system (PSS). It demonstrates the significance of good-dominant logic (GDL) and service-dominant logic (SDL) perspectives when considering servitization within specific PSOs, and therefore seeks to better understand the strategic and operational realities for the era of Servitization 2.0

Cosmic Needles versus Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

It has been suggested by a number of authors that the 2.7K cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation might have arisen from the radiation from Population III objects thermalized by conducting cosmic graphite/iron needle-shaped dust. Due to lack of an accurate solution to the absorption properties of exceedingly elongated grains, in existing literature which studies the CMB thermalizing process they are generally modelled as (1) needle-like spheroids in terms of the Rayleigh approximation; (2) infinite cylinders; and (3) the antenna theory. We show here that the Rayleigh approximation is not valid since the Rayleigh criterion is not satisfied for highly conducting needles. We also show that the available intergalactic iron dust, if modelled as infinite cylinders, is not sufficient to supply the required opacity at long wavelengths to obtain the observed isotropy and Planckian nature of the CMB. If appealing to the antenna theory, conducting iron needles with exceedingly large elongations (10^4) appear able to provide sufficient opacity to thermalize the CMB within the iron density limit. But the applicability of the antenna theory to exceedingly thin needles of nanometer/micrometer in thickness needs to be justified.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures; submitted to ApJ

Cech cover of the complement of the discriminant variety. Part I: Goresky--MacPherson stratification

Interest in Conformal Field Theories and Quantum Field Theory lead physicists to consider configuration spaces of marked points on the complex projective line, $Conf_{0,d}(\mathbb{P})$. We investigate the moduli space $\mathcal{M}_{0,[d]}(\mathbb{C})$, of Riemann surfaces of genus 0, with $n$ unordered marked points, in the framework of real geometry. A decomposition of this moduli space, relying on Gauss drawings - objects being reminiscent of Grothendieck's dessin d'enfants, is presented. The main result of the paper is that this decomposition forms a (real) topological stratification, which can be subtly modified so as to form a good Aleksandrov-Cech cover. This approach provides a new very rich and detailed geometric description of this space, and in the panorama of results concerning $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0,[d]}(\mathbb{C})$ and $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0,[d]}(\mathbb{R})$, this approach fills in the gap between the two different methods employed to study the real and complex part of this moduli space. The results can be extended to calculate explicitly the Aleksandrov-Cech cohomology of braids with values of any sheaf

Crystallization and preliminary diffraction studies of morphinone reductase, a flavoprotein involved in the degradation of morphine alkaloids

Morphinone reductase from Pseudomonas putida M10, a flavoprotein involved in the degradation of morphine alkaloids, was purified from an overexpressing strain of Escherichia coli and crystallized using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method. Diffraction data were collected to 2.5 Å. The I-centred orthorhombic cell has a monomer in the asymmetric trait. Preliminary molecular replacement calculations have been performed using Old Yellow Enzyme as the search model

Sandwich placements in law: academic tourism or a form of clinical legal education?

Whether or not education at the higher level can be integrated with practical experience has preoccupied educationalists in Europe and North America for a considerable time. There are some disciplines in which the existence of laboratory practice or simulated work experience can be used to assist the process of learning-by-doing quite efficiently. In other areas, learning from experience may be best carried out in the employment environment itself. Historically, in the UK this was the pattern for the traditional professions of law, accountancy, medicine and architecture. More recently in the UK, sandwich courses, predominantly a 'new' university contribution to higher education, have been developed to give students a balance between academic theory and practical professional experience. This article attempts a re-evaluation of the sandwich placement model of legal education in law in the light of the skills debate, and the clinical legal education movement.</p