Clarence Hatry

Hatry was one of those curiously un-English figures with whom the English peiodically find themselves unable to cope. J.K. Galbraith, The Great Crash 1929     

The future of the uplands

Upland areas provide UK society with many important functions, goods and services, but have experienced a number of disturbing trends and face an uncertain future. This paper outlines historic, current and future drivers of environmental, economic, socio-cultural and policy change in UK uplands, and assesses how these have affected or are likely to affect ways in which land is used and the provision of ecosystem services. Information is synthesised into scenarios summarising a range of possible futures anticipated for UK uplands to 2060 and beyond. Finally, innovations in science, technology, governance and policy are evaluated that could enable uplands to continue providing key ecosystem services under a range of scenarios. The paper concludes that many upland areas will need to be prepared for significant reductions in grazing and prescribed burning. Conversely, other areas could experience agricultural intensification, for example significant increases in grazing or an expansion of arable or bioenergy crops into upland valleys, due to anticipated increases in global demand for food and energy. These scenarios will take place in the context of climate change. Many may take place together and may interact with each other, with complex and unpredictable implications for the upland environment, economy and society. In this context, a number of advances are needed in science, technology and policy to maintain viable upland communities and the future provision of ecosystem services. These may include funding for ecological and hydrological restoration via carbon offsetting or other means. It may also involve advances in ecosystem service modelling, mapping and valuation, which through stakeholder participation could facilitate more integrated rural planning. New forms of environmental governance need to be explored that can empower those interested in developing upland economies to maintain thriving upland communities, while managing the ecosystem services they provide as efficiently as possible.     

Diagrammatic Approach to Capacity-Constrained Price Discrimination

This paper presents a diagrammatic solution to the firm's profit-maximizing price discrimination problem in the face of capacity constraints. Airlines, hotels, and other firms practice yield management, allocating fixed capacity to customer groups paying different prices. In these cases, the firm's short-run problem is not a decision about production levels, but it is one of allocating a fixed number of output units among customers. Our diagram shows that the conditions for profit-maximizing price discrimination are very different under these circumstances than in the standard model in which the firm is not constrained by capacity.     

实施西部大开发甘肃的应对思路

在西部大开发中 ,甘肃应结合自己的实际提出发展思路。比如“抓两头带中间” ;唱好“大路歌” ,做好水文章 ;以土地换发展 ;走绿色通道进入国际市场 ;用高新技术改造传统产业 ,变“三优”为“三强” ;“软硬兼施”以软促硬等。     

Cost control for computers: Applying bread-and-butter principles

During the 1960s, when it became clear that computers would establish a foothold in business, executives were urged to ensure that the new machines were used effectively. Applying EDP to critical decision and problem areas is still important. However, because of skyrocketing EDP costs and staggering investments in equipment and systems, it now pays to become equally concerned about EDP productivity. Unfortunately, many executives shy away because they lack technical expertise. This is not justified because familiar approaches to cost control that work in other functional areas can be successfully applied to EDP. The author describes how the executive can begin to cope with improving EDP efficiency without getting bogged down in a morass of technical details.     

DEBT AND TAXES: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

The literature currently proposes several capital structure theories whose predictions are generally mutually exclusive. Empirical testing to date has been subject to serious conceptual and econometric problems. The present study, which is carried out on a cross-section of industrial firms, attempts to overcome several deficiencies in earlier studies. Although the results are more consistent with Miller's 1977 hypothesis that the value of the firm is independent of leverage in the absence of leverage-related costs than they are with those theories which predict a value-maximizing optimum debt level, there is significant evidence that the value of the firm may be negatively related to leverage over a broad range of debt usage.     

A study of co-authorship and collaborative research among Indian space technologists

The paper sets out the methodology adapted and the sample studied, analyses the productivity of space scientists and engineers in terms of number of papers published with full as well as fractional authorship credits, discusses in detail the pattern of collaboration of space technologists in publishing papers, and lastly, identifies nonintersecting informal communication groups and 'communication stars' based on collaboration.