The “new managerialism”: Experiences of introducing formal management education into the public sector through the mechanism of the MBA dissertation

Paper presented at the 3rd international Integrating for Excellence conference at Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, UK, 27-28 June 2007.This paper reflects upon the authors' experience of supervising dissertations on a public sector executive MBA programme run for a large metropolitan council. The research method is based on participant observation and reflection whilst directing the work undertaken by the MBA students in carrying out their dissertation. We assess the benefits that accrue to staff teaching on the programme and reflect on the new opportunities, in terms of career development and better management practice afforded to executives who have participated in the programme. Academic staff benefits include: interesting and stimulating work which sometimes leads to refereed publications at conferences and in journals; consultancy & significant applied teaching materials and improvements to the applied knowledge base of teaching staff. Lessons have also been learned about good practice in supervising dissertations. Executive benefits include progression to promoted posts & gaining new insights into better or best working practices. Organisational benefits include cross fertilisation of ideas produced through interaction between programme members. This paper discusses how the MBA programme meets the demands of various interested parties

Atollscape: Simulating freshwater management in Pacific Atolls. Spatial processes and time dependence issues

Groundwater has long been ranked as a high priority research area by small island nations in the Pacific. It is the major source of freshwater on the atoll of Tarawa (Rep.of Kiribati) and its availability, quality, management and allocation are central to the atoll¿s sustainable development and poverty alleviation. From a modeling perspective, simulating freshwater lens behavior represents a challenge, as it requires sophisticated numerical models. Such models can hardly fit within an integrated management framework taking into account spatially distributed water use (e.g. wells, trees) and social interactions. Simple analytical solutions exist but they apply for steady-state conditions, verified only on an annual basis. Recent advances in the field of Distributed Artificial Intelligence have permitted the development of a Multi Agent System (MAS) approach, closely related to the problem of complexity. AtollScape uses MAS techniques to simulate water management and freshwater lens behavior on the Tarawa atoll. A distributed and nested structure is used to represent local inputs and uptakes, along with freshwater lens adjustments on a 10 day time steps. (Résumé d'auteur

A study into the factors influencing the choice-making process of Indian students when selecting an international university for graduate studies using grounded theory

Paper presented at the conference in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, July 2007.Universities operate in an increasingly competitive market place facing new and complex socio-technical and economical challenges. For many universities international student recruitment is desirable and necessary for survival. Universities knowledge in this area is often an imperfect tool as the changing environment and diversity of cultures with which it must interact challenge previous assumptions and common wisdom. The overall goal of this study is to identify those factors responsible for influencing Indian students’ choice of international university for graduate studies. The results are based on a longitudinal study that was carried out using the Grounded Theory research method. This qualitative methodology provides a good framework for rigorous and relevant research of emerging phenomena in student mobility. Primary data consisted of unstructured interviews, focus groups and questionnaire surveys among participants of the sample population. The literature was used as a source of secondary data. A narrative style and thick description were used to report the research findings. Four major influencers emerged from the analysis, which are referred to as programme content, international reputation, funding and job prospects and quality. Drawing together these findings the study examines the implications for recruiting graduate students from India and reveals that there are a number of ways in which the university can influence the choice-making process. The results clearly provide a sound basis for future study

Instability of Extremal Relativistic Charged Spheres

With the question, ``Can relativistic charged spheres form extremal black holes?" in mind, we investigate the properties of such spheres from a classical point of view. The investigation is carried out numerically by integrating the Oppenheimer-Volkov equation for relativistic charged fluid spheres and finding interior Reissner-Nordstr\"om solutions for these objects. We consider both constant density and adiabatic equations of state, as well as several possible charge distributions, and examine stability by both a normal mode and an energy analysis. In all cases, the stability limit for these spheres lies between the extremal ($Q = M$) limit and the black hole limit ($R = R_+$). That is, we find that charged spheres undergo gravitational collapse before they reach $Q = M$, suggesting that extremal Reissner-Nordtr\"om black holes produced by collapse are ruled out. A general proof of this statement would support a strong form of the cosmic censorship hypothesis, excluding not only stable naked singularities, but stable extremal black holes. The numerical results also indicate that although the interior mass-energy $m(R)$ obeys the usual $m/R < 4/9$ stability limit for the Schwarzschild interior solution, the gravitational mass $M$ does not. Indeed, the stability limit approaches $R_+$ as $Q \to M$. In the Appendix we also argue that Hawking radiation will not lead to an extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole. All our results are consistent with the third law of black hole dynamics, as currently understood

Muntries: the domestication and improvement of Kunzea pomifera

The Australian flora contains a number of species related to current crop species (Brown and Brubaker 2000) and a large number of species with edible fruit, seed, leaf and roots, which provided, sustenance to, and were highly valued by, Aboriginal peoples (Low 1991). The little work, undertaken to domesticate Australian edible plant species in recent history, may reflect our failure to, appreciate the value of such species, rather than a deficiency in the species amenability for, domestication. Thus present day challenges appear to be offered to the agriculturalist and, horticulturalist to evaluate the potential for, and possibly effect, domestication of certain species of, the Australian flora. Of particular interest in this undertaking, is the possibility for domestication of, species that have the potential to broaden the culinary and nutritional composition of the human diet, both in Australia and worldwide. It is in this context that the present study was undertaken, to, examine the potential for the domestication of Kunzea pomifera (muntries) by providing a detailed, knowledge of aspects of the species such as its breeding system, plant morphological and molecular, variation and the potential for successful vegetative propagation, which were considered relevant to, evaluating the feasibility for its domestication

History of use and trade of agarwood

Aromatics originating from the resin-infused infected wood of the Aquilaria and Gyrinops genera have distinct and valued fragrances. Resin formation occurs as a response to internal injury and/or infections in the stems of the agarwood tree. The incenses and perfumes that are produced from agarwood have been valued for centuries and used by many cultures for spiritual, opulent, and aphrodisiac purposes. Agarwood is highly revered in the seminal texts of Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam. As early as 1400 B.C.E., agarwood was described as a fragrant product in Sanskrit texts, and in 65 B.C.E., Dioscorides detailed several medical applications for agarwood. Knowledge of human-induced agarwood formation was recorded in China as early as 300 C.E., where it was known that cutting into a tree would lead to a color change in its internal tissues within a year of the injury as a consequence of resin development. There is historical evidence of international trade in agarwood between the producing (tropical southeastern Asia) and consuming (Middle East, India, China, and Japan) regions of the world. Agarwood has been consumed primarily as incense with the burning of wood chips directly or as an important ingredient for powdered incense blends. The aromatic qualities of agarwood are influenced by the species and variety of the two genera, geographic location, its branch, trunk and root origin, length of time since infection, and methods of harvesting and processing. The subtle but numerous variations in agarwood properties led to the development of systems for product classification and description in several consumer countries. This paper reviews the uses and trade of agarwood and its social, political, and economic significance in human history

A specific group of genes respond to cold dehydration stress in cut Alstroemeria flowers whereas ambient dehydration stress accelerates developmental senescence expression patterns

Petal development and senescence entails a normally irreversible process. It starts with petal expansion and pigment production, and ends with nutrient remobilization and ultimately cell death. In many species this is accompanied by petal abscission. Post-harvest stress is an important factor in limiting petal longevity in cut flowers and accelerates some of the processes of senescence such as petal wilting and abscission. However, some of the effects of moderate stress in young flowers are reversible with appropriate treatments. Transcriptomic studies have shown that distinct gene sets are expressed during petal development and senescence. Despite this, the overlap in gene expression between developmental and stress-induced senescence in petals has not been fully investigated in any species. Here a custom-made cDNA microarray from Alstroemeria petals was used to investigate the overlap in gene expression between developmental changes (bud to first sign of senescence) and typical post-harvest stress treatments. Young flowers were stressed by cold or ambient temperatures without water followed by a recovery and rehydration period. Stressed flowers were still at the bud stage after stress treatments. Microarray analysis showed that ambient dehydration stress accelerates many of the changes in gene expression patterns that would normally occur during developmental senescence. However, a higher proportion of gene expression changes in response to cold stress were specific to this stimulus and not senescence related. The expression of 21 transcription factors was characterized, showing that overlapping sets of regulatory genes are activated during developmental senescence and by different stresses

An inventory of wild sandalwood stocks in Vanuatu

Characterizing sandalwood (S. austrocaledonicum) abundance in Vanuatu is challenging due to the broad, discontinuous yet highly modified distribution of sandalwood and the lack of systematic historical inventories or detailed harvest documentation. The preliminary distribution has been estimated from anecdotal ranges provided by the Vanuatu Department of Forests (VDoF), GIS spatial analyses and recorded sandalwood locations collected during the Oil Quality Survey (Page, 2005) and during the 2007 sandalwood inventory survey conducted for this project. Historic densities have been estimated from anecdotal descriptions and harvest data records. Current densities are based on the 2007 field survey of sandalwood populations on four Vanuatu islands. The surveys were conducted in regions of known sandalwood populations. The low aggregated density (0.4 trees/ha) of commercially sized trees found in these surveyed populations is a cause for concern. Based on the field data, we estimate that the current resource on the four islands surveyed is approximately 210 tonnes, with another 80 tonnes estimated on other islands of Vanuatu. At current harvest rates this resource may be quickly depleted and there will be a shortfall until plantation sandalwood is available in 10-15 years. Consideration should therefore be given to reducing the quota for wild sandalwood harvest to a sustainable level

Excess cholesterol induces mouse egg activation and may cause female infertility

The HDL receptor scavenger receptor, class B type I (SR-BI) controls the structure and fate of plasma HDL. Female SR-BI KO mice are infertile, apparently because of their abnormal cholesterol-enriched HDL particles. We examined the growth and meiotic progression of SR-BI KO oocytes and found that they underwent normal germinal vesicle breakdown; however, SR-BI KO eggs, which had accumulated excess cholesterol in vivo, spontaneously activated, and they escaped metaphase II (MII) arrest and progressed to pronuclear, MIII, and anaphase/telophase III stages. Eggs from fertile WT mice were activated when loaded in vitro with excess cholesterol by a cholesterol/methyl-β-cyclodextrin complex, phenocopying SR-BI KO oocytes. In vitro cholesterol loading of eggs induced reduction in maturation promoting factor and MAPK activities, elevation of intracellular calcium, extrusion of a second polar body, and progression to meiotic stages beyond MII. These results suggest that the infertility of SR-BI KO females is caused, at least in part, by excess cholesterol in eggs inducing premature activation and that cholesterol can activate WT mouse eggs to escape from MII arrest. Analysis of SR-BI KO female infertility raises the possibility that abnormalities in cholesterol metabolism might underlie some cases of human female infertility of unknown etiology.National Institutes of Health (U.S.)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Pre-doctoral Training Grant T32GM007287)Massachusetts Institute of Technology (International Science and Technology Initiatives Chile Cooperative Grant