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Towards the Natural Environment Agency Theory (NEAT)
Get PDFConference paper presented at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Chicago, IL, USA, 9-14 August 2024. A preprint version is available at SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4519832. Date Written: May 28, 2024.JEL Classification: G3, G39, M4, M41, Q5.Drawing on insights from theories in management, economics, finance, and accounting, we develop the natural environment agency theory (NEAT) to study the agency relation between business and society in the context of natural environment. Based on public property rights to clean air, water, and land, we argue that a business (agent) has an implicit contract with society (principal). Under this contract, it agrees not to impose on society natural environmental agency costs (NEACs) of pollution, depletion, and degradation while producing and selling goods/services in return for its license to operate. Drawing on stakeholder and agency related concepts, we propose and test the effectiveness of NEAC-reducing mechanisms, including monitoring, bonding, and incentives. We find support for NEAT predictions. Our findings open novel directions for future research and inform policy and practice
Migrant communities, intimate partner violence against women and the law - the attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of Zimbabwean migrants in the UK
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThis thesis reports on an exploratory phenomenological study investigating the attitudes, beliefs and perceptions about Intimate Partner Violence (IPVAW) and the law that are held by Zimbabwean migrants living in the UK. The aim of this study was to explore participants’ subjective explanations of their perceptions, beliefs and attitudes to the phenomenon of IPVAW. The study explored participants’ understanding of IPVAW, knowledge of UK domestic abuse law and their perceptions of whether the law sufficiently protects migrant women. The role of the law in addressing IPVAW and changing people’s attitudes was also explored. The research employed a qualitative framework with a socio-legal approach underpinned by feminist –phenomenology standpoint epistemology in an attempt to gain a richer and deeper understanding of the human lived experience. Empirical data was collected using two components of data collection, an anonymous qualitative online survey questionnaire with 58 respondents exploring the views of a larger sample of participants followed by individualised semi-structured interviews with twelve participants.
Findings suggest participants within the Zimbabwean community welcomed the opportunity to talk about their experiences of the phenomenon of IPVAW within their community. Since moving to the UK, participants reported that their knowledge and awareness of IPVAW has significantly increased. The study equally revealed that participants’ attitudes to IPVAW perpetration and tolerance has been shaped by both their lives in Zimbabwe prior to migration as well their new lives settled in the UK and that culture, religion and spirituality also have a major role in understanding, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions about IPVAW. Findings also revealed participants’ awareness and perceptions of the effectiveness of domestic abuse law which was seen as having limited impact and usefulness for migrant women. Recommendations made from the study related to the importance of friends and family as a resource for victims of IPVAW, the need to incorporate meaningful religious and cultural perspectives within IPVAW awareness campaigns, involvement of men as part of the solution and a need for better dissemination and implementation of the available legislation and domestic abuse policies
Noninterest Income, Macroprudential Policy and Bank Performance
Get PDFJEL Classification: E44, E58, G21, G28Macroprudential policies have become crucial tools for maintaining financial stability, but their effect on banks’ noninterest income has not yet been examined. This is a paradox in light of results in the literature linking noninterest income to bank performance indicators such as risk and profitability. Using a global sample of 7,368 banks over 1990-2022, we find macroprudential policies have a significant positive effect on noninterest income. Similar results are found for disaggregated samples by type of noninterest income, country development, bank size and pre and post the Global Financial Crisis, and in three robustness checks. However, the extent to which such positive effects feed through to overall profitability depends on the type of noninterest income. Furthermore, stimulus from macroprudential policies to noninterest income, and especially its nonfee component, is found to affect bank risk adversely. Our findings have important implications for central bankers, regulators and commercial bank management
Respiratory bioenergetics is enhanced in human, but not bovine macrophages after exposure to M. bovis PPD: Exploratory insights into overall similar Cellular Metabolic Profiles
Get PDFSupplementary Material is available online under a Creative Commons License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17534259241296630#supplementary-materials .The role of macrophage (MØ) cellular metabolism and reprogramming during TB infection is of great interest due to the influence of Mycobacterium spp. on MØ bioenergetics. Recent studies have shown that M. tuberculosis induces a TLR2-dependent shift towards aerobic glycolysis, comparable to the established LPS induced pro-inflammatory M1 MØ polarisation. Distinct differences in the metabolic profile of murine and human MØ indicates species-specific differences in bioenergetics. So far, studies examining the metabolic potential of bovine MØ are lacking, thus the basic bioenergetics of bovine and human MØ were explored in response to a variety of innate immune stimuli. Cellular energy metabolism kinetics were measured concurrently for both species on a Seahorse XFe96 platform to generate bioenergetic profiles for the response to the bona-fide TLR2 and TLR4 ligands, FSL-1 and LPS respectively. Despite previous reports of species-specific differences in TLR signalling and cytokine production between human and bovine MØ, we observed similar respiratory profiles for both species. Basal respiration remained constant between stimulated MØ and controls, whereas addition of TLR ligands induced increased glycolysis, as measured by the surrogate parameter ECAR. In contrast to MØ stimulation with M. tuberculosis PPD, another TLR2 ligand, M. bovis PPD treatment significantly enhanced basal respiration rates and glycolysis only in human MØ. Respiratory profiling further revealed significant elevation of ATP-linked OCR and maximal respiration suggesting a strong OXPHOS activation upon M. bovis PPD stimulation in human MØ. Our results provide an exploratory set of data elucidating the basic respiratory profile of bovine vs. human MØ that will not only lay the foundation for future studies to investigate host-tropism of the M. tuberculosis complex but may explain inflammatory differences observed for other zoonotic diseases.The project was funded by a Bloomsbury PhD studentship to AG, SW and DW, as well as BBSRC grant BB/P008461/1 to DW. Part of the work was also supported by BBSRC grant BB/N004590/1 (DW, SW)
Protocol-Based PID Control for Stochastic Multiagent Systems Under Deception Attacks: Handling Quasi-Consensus in Probability
No full textData Availability Statement:
The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.In this paper, we investigate the problem of observer-based proportional-integral-derivative (PID) quasi-consensus control for a specific class of stochastic multi-agent systems (MASs) subject to deception attacks. This study is driven by practical engineering challenges where communication networks are vulnerable to attacks and resource constraints. We consider the scenario where the relative output vector of each agent, after being uniformly quantized and managed through a Round-Robin scheduling protocol, is exposed to deception attacks. To address these challenges, we develop a novel distributed observer-based PID control strategy tailored for stochastic MASs. This strategy effectively accounts for system randomness and defenses against deception attacks. Using matrix inequality and stochastic analysis techniques, we establish a framework of sufficient conditions for achieving quasi-consensus in probability and derive the corresponding gain matrices. The proposed approach is validated through numerical simulations, demonstrating its effectiveness in maintaining consensus despite deception attacks and quantization effects.This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 61773013, the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant No. 820776 (INTEGRADDE), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK, the Royal Society of the UK, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany
Engineering biomass combustion fly-ash derived zeolites for post-combustion CO₂ capture
Get PDFThis thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonMitigation of CO₂ emissions through the use of carbon removal technologies is widely recognised as a
pivotal tool on the path to net-zero GHG emissions. Beyond these targets, net-negative emissions will
be essential to stabilise global temperatures. Technologies such as bioenergy with carbon capture and
storage, considered a net-negative emission technology is therefore poised for a significant share in the
power generation mix. However, this is associated with the production of a significant quantity of waste
ash residues such as fly ash. Valorisation of this waste stream provides an opportunity to simultaneously
mitigate the requirement for waste disposal (i.e. landfilling) and provide a pathway to value-added
products, zeolites. In this thesis, industrially produced biomass combustion fly ashes have been
comprehensively characterised and subsequently investigated for their potential as zeolite precursors.
Suitable design of experiment techniques have been employed to systematically assess the influence of
various factors on the alkaline fusion assisted hydrothermal synthesis to maximise the CO₂ equilibrium
adsorption capacity. The bulk biomass combustion fly ash has been shown to present a CO₂ adsorption
capacity of over 1.8 mmol·g⁻¹ at 50 °C and 1 bar, with a stable capacity of 87% of that after 40 cycles.
This adsorbent was then produced at a larger scale to facilitate breakthrough performance assessments
in a fixed-bed temperature swing adsorption system designed and built during this research. The process
was optimised via Taguchi design of experiment to reveal the influential factors on the bed utilisation
efficiency. The results indicate a usable bed capacity of approximately 0.6 mmol·g⁻¹ corresponding to
a bed utilisation efficiency of 62% under the optimal factor and level configuration. These findings
underscore the feasibility of industrial biomass combustion fly ashes as feedstocks in the preparation of
zeolitic adsorbents/catalyst for post-combustion CO₂ capture.UKCCSRC for their unwavering support of this researc
Everyday places to get away – Lessons learned from Covid-19 lockdowns
Get PDFHighlights:
• During Covid-19 people visited a wide range of nearby places to get away from everyday demands, without needing to travel.
• People engaged with a wide range of activities in those places, but many activities were place dependent.
• All place visits benefitted hedonic and eudemonic wellbeing, but outdoor activities were more beneficial than indoor activities.
• Place and activity choices varied between people. Younger people and those living in urban areas visited less outdoor places.
• To support wellbeing for all it is important to identify the variety of nearby places people visit and manage access and provision of such places.Data availability:
Data will be made available on request.Being able to get away from everyday stressors and demands, even if close to home and just for a few minutes, is important for wellbeing. During the Covid-19 lockdown periods, people’s ability to get away changed significantly. An increase in visits to nearby natural places is well documented. Little is known about other types of places people visited to get away. An online UK survey was conducted in 2020 (N = 850) investigating what places people visited to get away during the pandemic, what they did in those places, how place and activity choices were related to each other and to demographic variables, and to recalled hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing during those visits. Participants visited a rich array of places and engaged in a variety of activities that supported their hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing needs. Responses were grouped into four types of places (at home outdoors, at home indoors, away from home outdoors, and away from home indoors) and seven activity types (cognitive, walks, nature engagement, social activities, technology use, relaxing, and exercise). Place and activity choices were strongly linked. Visiting outdoor places was most beneficial for wellbeing (and most common), especially when it involved mindful engagement with nature (bird watching, gardening) or exercise. Staying indoors, engaging with technologies (computers, television) was least beneficial and more common among those with no degree or job, living in urban areas, and identifying as male. The findings demonstrate the importance of understanding place-activity interactions to support the wellbeing benefits derived from visits to places to get away.The research that this paper is based upon is funded by UKRI under Ideas to Address COVID-19 grant call. Nature Engagement and Wellbeing Pre-, During and Post Covid-19: Supporting the UK (Green) Recovery. Grant number ES/V005464/1
Evaluating Assistive Product With Designers: How To Understand And Address User Stigma Around Visible And Invisible Disability
Get PDFAt the DRS conversation held on June 24, 2024, in Boston, researchers from
Brunel University engaged in a discourse with ten audience members from diverse
global backgrounds on the issue of user stigma in assistive product design. The purpose of this conversation was to delve into the potential challenges faced by disabled users when utilizing assistive products and to propose innovative design strategies aimed at eliminating stigma, fostering social inclusion, enhancing understanding of people with disabilities, and ultimately promoting the construction of a more barrier-free and equitable living environment. Through this discussion, participants gained a deeper understanding of the concept of disability and how design can effectively intervene to mitigate the associated stigma
The provision and circulation of credit in the British Atlantic trading world, 1739-1776
Get PDFClosed access will be available 12 months after publication (date to be confirmed) to students and staff on request, for private research and study only. See: The final publication is available at Brill Academic Publishers through https://doi.org/10.1163/TBC-TBC. See: https://brill.com/page/RightsPermissions/rights-and-permissions...
Wastewater Reuse in the EU and Southern European Countries: Policies, Barriers and Good Practices
Get PDFData Availability Statement:
This study reanalyse predominantly the existing publicly available data as cited in the “References” section. Further information can also be accessed from iWAYS web-site: iWays—Water closed loop in industrial processes—iWays.Ensuring sustainable consumption of water, which is essential for human development, is not sufficient, therefore, there is an urgent need to improve reuse of treated wastewater. This paper reviews the newest EU legislation related to reclaimed water reuse, which is the main driver for change. While there are some positive developments in the EU, the paper argues that the current EU legislation does not sufficiently encourage circular solutions, especially on how to deal with any bottleneck effects, which prevent to fully utilise wastewater. This reflection is noted based on the national and regional developments in Italy with some comparison with other Southern countries, such as Greece and Spain in attempt to identify good practices as well as any barriers for the reclaimed water to be reused.This research was funded by the European Commission grant number 958274 (iWAYS, iWays—Water closed loop in industrial processes—iWays). The APC was funded by MDPI Sustainability. W. G. acknowledges funding obtained from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA program and the Consolidated Research Group program (SGR-Cat2021_TECH, Codi ajut: 2021 SGR 01283
Data sources:
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