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A broader corporate purpose? Evidence from UK public companies, 2000–2016
Get PDFThis paper examines the extent to which corporate leaders have discursively embraced the logic of stakeholder theory. Using textual analysis of chairperson and CEO letters to shareholders of public companies in the UK during the 2000–2016 period, we find that, over time, attention to shareholders declined and attention to customers, society and CSR increased. These shifts were more pronounced during the financial crisis. Chairpersons and CEOs also appear to exhibit different loci of attention. Our findings indicate that corporate purpose did become “broader” in recent years; however, despite this trend, attention to employees did not increase
Understanding farmer preferences to guide crop improvement: The case of grasspea in Ethiopia
Get PDFBuilding climate resilience in agriculture may usefully rely on crop improvement informed by social science studies of farmer preferences. Here, we present the case of grasspea in Ethiopia, a resilient and nutritious legume that can survive conditions where many other crops fail. Excessive consumption however carries the risk of an irreversible, crippling disease, this is possible in the future since the weather extremes that climate change is predicted to bring will create the conditions in which grasspea is one of the food sources that will likely see increased consumption. Crucially, farmers are not fully aware of this risk and may therefore not adopt the low-toxin grasspea that crop scientists have developed and that is about to enter the breeding pipeline. In this study we use focus group discussions, key informant interviews and choice experiments to investigate farmer preferences for grasspea improvement. We confirm that farmers do not place much value on reduced toxicity. Instead, they have strong preferences for other improvements, such as resistance to pests. This suggests that improvements that are needed in future but not yet preferred (i.e. reduced toxicity) should be bundled with improvements that farmers already prefer
Complexity of the lichen symbiosis revealed by metagenome and transcriptome analysis of Xanthoria parietina
Get PDFLichens are composite, symbiotic associations of fungi, algae, and bacteria that result in large, anatomically complex organisms adapted to many of the world’s most challenging environments. How such intricate, self-replicating lichen architectures develop from simple microbial components remains unknown because of their recalcitrance to experimental manipulation. Here, we report a metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analysis of the lichen Xanthoria parietina at different developmental stages. We identified 168 genomes of symbionts and lichen-associated microbes across the sampled thalli, including representatives of green algae, three different classes of fungi, and 14 bacterial phyla. By analyzing the occurrence of individual species across lichen thalli from diverse environments, we defined both substrate-specific and core microbial components of the lichen. Metatranscriptomic analysis of the principal fungal symbiont from three different developmental stages of a lichen, compared with axenically grown fungus, revealed differential gene expression profiles indicative of lichen-specific transporter functions, specific cell signaling, transcriptional regulation, and secondary metabolic capacity. Putative immunity-related proteins and lichen-specific structurally conserved secreted proteins resembling fungal pathogen effectors were also identified, consistent with a role for immunity modulation in lichen morphogenesis
The politics of pageantry: Royal tours and imperial pomp on the periphery of empire
Get PDFRoyal tours are years in the making and the co-ordination between the Royal Household and the British representatives on the ground is vital. The work undertaken by mid-level administrators within the Royal Tour party itself or as a British Representative on the ground is critical to achieving the objectives of the tour. After the cataclysm of the First World War and the growth of nationalist movements across the British Empire, it was even more important that the Royal Tour serve as a political assertion of Britain’s presence and its dominance over colonial subjects. The financial constraints that resulted from the four years of warfare also made Britain’s projection of power though military methods alone more difficult. The Royal Tour was seen as a means by which Britain could assert its soft power and reaffirm imperial links with messages of thanks for the colonial efforts during the First World War. Within the ritual space of the Royal Tour, it also permitted nationalist actors the platform to challenge the political and cultural aims of imperial rule. The Duke of Connaught’s and the Prince of Wales’s tour to the subcontinent between 1921 and 1922 are examples of how nationalist agitators could disrupt these displays of British dominance. Royal tours are long in the making but their objectives can be undermined in a matter of hours. Their successful execution required agile responses from the political and military secretaries accompanying the tour party alongside a thorough and deep understanding of circumstances on the ground by the man-on-the-spot
The relationships between youth homelessness and offending: A systematic review of the UK literature
Get PDFInternational research has demonstrated that homeless youth are more likely to engage in offending behaviours. This systematic review collates, synthesises, and appraises the academic and grey literature on UK studies reporting associations between youth homelessness and offending behaviours. MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, Social Policy and Practice, Social Care Online, OpenGrey and Google Scholar were searched from 1969 until May 2020. Twenty-two studies met inclusion criteria. Findings indicate that mental illness, having disrupted family relationships, substance misuse, trauma, being a care leaver and gang involvement influence the relationship between youth homeless and offending. Family mediation and supported accommodation were highlighted as useful interventions. It is recommended that local authority provision and accommodation options work in partnership and improve their offer for this population
Hidden, scattered and reconstructed: Indigenous lifeways, knowledges and intergenerational learning
Get PDFThis article is concerned with diverse ways in which indigenous people learn, engage with and construct knowledge in their everyday lives and livelihoods. Drawing on the concepts of lifeways it explores the nature of the shared values, meaningful social interactions and multiple forms of communication–including interactions with human, non-human entities and the spirit world–of indigenous peoples of the Southeast Peruvian Amazon. Indigenous Arakbut knowledges and ways of knowing are the basis of their ‘education system’ and emerge from their history and vision of the world. However, their lifeways and education system have become fragmented, scattered and go unrecognised in the context environmental destruction from gold mining and lack of territorial control. The article draws on indigenous perspectives and ethnographic research to demonstrate the importance of indigenous education systems for the maintenance and continuing transformation of vigorous place-based lifeways attuned to 21st century visions for the future
College of Occupational Therapy - Research Priority 10: What is the cost-effectiveness of Occupational therapy services? Making the economic case for Occupational Therapy
No full textSymmetry-breaking charge-separation in a subphthalocyanine dimer resolved by two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy
Get PDFUnderstanding the role of structural and environmental dynamics in the excited state properties of strongly coupled chromophores is of paramount importance in molecular photonics. Ultrafast, coherent, and multidimensional spectroscopies have been utilized to investigate such dynamics in the simplest model system, the molecular dimer. Here, we present a half-broadband two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (HB2DES) study of the previously reported ultrafast symmetry-breaking charge separation (SB-CS) in the subphthalocyanine oxo-bridged homodimer μOSubPc2. Electronic structure calculations and 2D cross-peaks reveal the dimer’s excitonic structure, while ultrafast evolution of the multidimensional spectra unveils subtle features of structural relaxation, solvation dynamics, and inhomogeneous broadening in the SB-CS. Analysis of coherently excited vibrational motions reveals dimer-specific low-frequency Raman active modes coupled to higher-frequency vibrations localized on the SubPc cores. Finally, beatmap amplitude distributions characteristic of excitonic dimers with multiple bright states are reported and analyzed