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Measuring the impact of occupancy numbers on energy consumption in a high-density building
No full textBuildings significantly impact the environment, accounting for 36% of global final energy consumption and 37% of total carbon emissions. Therefore, reducing energy consumption and mitigating carbon emissions in the building sector is of paramount importance. To achieve this, several factors should be considered. Among them, building occupants are key drivers in the operation of building services that directly influence energy consumption and energy-related emissions. In this paper, one year of raw energy consumption data from a high-density higher education building in the UK was processed to study the correlation between energy consumption and occupancy level. Additionally, a simulation model was developed to measure the impact of occupancy numbers on building energy consumption. Various data analyses were performed, including correlation, regression, and sensitivity analysis. The results demonstrate a strong correlation between occupancy numbers and electricity consumption of 71.5%. Conversely, 18% was found between occupancy numbers and heat energy consumption, indicating no correlation. The sensitivity analysis results on the impact of changing occupancy numbers in the simulated model, ranging from –30% to +30%, aligned with the results of the analyses performed
Civil false claims act: an effective anti‑corporate fraud remedy?
No full textThis book chapter analyses the effectiveness of the US Civil False Claims Act (FCA) as a remedy for combating corporate fraud, a historical problem that causes significant global financial losses. The chapter details the crucial role of whistle-blowers in uncovering fraud, specifically through the FCA's qui tam provisions, which allow private citizens to sue on the government’s behalf for fraudulent claims involving federal funds. Significant attention is paid to the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 (FERA), which expanded FCA liability to increase corporate accountability. However, the chapter also critically assesses the limitations of qui tam suits, citing challenges like the FCA's narrow scope to industries where the government is a major buyer, the harsh retaliation faced by employee whistle-blowers, and the strict pleading standards required to file a successful claim. Ultimately, the chapter concludes that while the FCA and FERA have enhanced whistle-blowing, the current legal framework fails to adequately protect and compensate employee whistle-blowers, hindering its overall effectiveness against corporate fraud
Power play: how bank market power shapes earnings management in European SMEs
No full textThis study examines the effects of bank market power on borrowing firms’ earnings management. Through the lens of banking relationships, we use uniquely matched data on a one-to-one banking relationship between 64,635 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and 471 banks across 17 European countries between 2007 and 2015. We measure bank market power at a disaggregated level, and find an unfavourable effect of bank market power on SME earnings management where SMEs tend to engage in more earnings management when their primary bank possesses a greater level of market power. Such effects are more prominent for firms that are smaller in size, more illiquid, grow more slowly, and over the financial crisis period during which credit supply reduced and SMEs were less incentivised to manage earnings. Our findings contrast with recent empirical evidence from listed firms and bank market deregulation at an aggregated level in the US market. Our results shed new light on supporting evidence for the market power hypothesis
MD&A disclosure and investment efficiency: evidence from Chinese listed firms
Get PDFPurpose: In the context of Chinese listed firms, this study aims to test the relationship between a firm’s Management Discussions and Analysis (MD&A) forward-looking tone with its subsequent investment efficiency.
Design/methodology/approach: This study constructed a sentiment dictionary on the basis of the BosonNLP semantic sentiment dictionary, negative word dictionary and degree adverb dictionary.
Findings: The main findings show that firms with more optimistic MD&A tone tend to present higher subsequent investment efficiencies. This study further finds that this positive link is stronger in firms that disclose higher text quality of MD&A, is non-state owned and has fewer common owners. This study also discovers that, compared to their rival firms, firms with more optimistic MD&A tone show higher investment efficiency. However, their investment efficiency is not affected by rival firms’ MD&A tone.
Research limitations/implications: First, the empirical results should be carefully interpreted as they can only infer association instead of causality between forward-looking MD&A tones and subsequent investment efficiencies. Second, previous studies have criticised the low power of dictionary-based tone measures (Li, 2010). Therefore, similar to other studies that apply natural language text analysis techniques, the selection of MD&A tone measures and their reliability may affect empirical results. Finally, in the depth in this paper, this study did not further examine the effect of managerial characteristics and corporate governance mechanisms on the relationship between forward-looking MD&A tones and subsequent investment efficiencies.
Originality/value: Few studies have identified the relationship between firms’ forward-looking textual disclosures and their investment efficiency. The focus on MD&A tone provides an interesting yet underexplored perspective to the current literature
A systematic literature review of artificial intelligence (AI) in coaching: insights for future research and product development
No full textPurpose
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to dramatically change the human approaches to work, and specifically to learning and development. While AI coaching can reduce costs and increase accessibility, it also presents both opportunities and threats to human coaches. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed research on the use of AI in coaching.
Design
A SLR method was used to search eight databases for articles produced up to March 2024. Data extraction was conducted, with Quality Assessment undertaken independently, in parallel, using two researchers and a third arbiter. The ROBINS-I tool was used to assess risk of bias in the included studies. A narrative synthesis of a total of 16 quantitative, qualitative or mixed-methods studies covering n = 2312.
Findings
The SLR identified four key themes: Research design and AI integration, AI usefulness in coaching, impact of AI coaching, and ethical considerations. The findings suggest that AI coaches can be effective, accepted, useful and match human coaches in competence for specific tasks.
Practical Implications
AI coaching is a growing area of practice and research. This paper brings together the literature and identifies future research priorities and potential next steps in AI Coach development.
Originality
The paper uses clinical research SLR methods applying these robust processes to the field of organisational research, to set a new standard through the use of a pre-determined research protocol, quality assessment and ROB, well providing a comprehensive literature review of AI coaching
Techno-legal geographies: consumer drone misuse and harms
Get PDFDrones increasingly feature beyond battlefields, deployed across civil, commercial and hobbyist applications and contexts. So too are off-the-shelf consumer drones increasingly being misused. From their outfitting with improvised weapons to the deployment of drones to harass individuals, both incidents involving consumer drones and the (potential) harms accompanying them, have diversified. Interested in emerging techno-legal geographies of consumer drone misuse, this paper deploys a feminist analytic to interrogate drone-enabled harms. It brings drone geographies into dialogue with feminist legal and digital geographies, to interrogate the drone as a technology encountered and interpreted in legal terms and accompanied by gendered impacts. Responding to calls for the expansion of the methodological toolkit underpinning the drone’s study while also affording geolegal attention to the drone, the paper draws upon focus groups designed in collaboration by a geographer and barrister and bringing together lawyers across diverse specialisms in an exploration of drone misuse and harm. Through analysis of examples of drone misuse and the legal process accompanying its investigation, we underscore both that drones can introduce novel as well as extend existing technology-enabled harms, and that such harms exceed the confines of aviation law, cutting across multiple areas of law. Collectively, we argue that employing a feminist approach in the drone’s critical analysis acts to foreground diversified drone harms and their uneven impacts
Association of dementia diagnosis, cognitive impairment levels, and their combination with care costs among publicly funded long-term care recipients
Get PDFBackground and Objectives: Most people with dementia are undiagnosed and rely heavily on long-term care. Little is known about the relationship between dementia diagnosis and care costs, and inconsistent evidence exists on the cost implications of cognitive impairment severity. We examined how formal and informal care costs are associated with a dementia diagnosis and cognitive impairment levels across care settings. Research Design and Methods: We used representative data from publicly funded long-term care recipients in residential care settings and community care settings in Hong Kong (n = 1603). Staff time measurement was used to capture service utilization of both formal and informal care. Generalized linear model (log-link and gamma distribution) was used to estimate long-term care costs, controlling for covariates. Results: A dementia diagnosis is associated with an additional 13% and 23% care costs in residential and community care settings, respectively. People with more severe cognitive impairment incur greater long-term care costs; the highest difference (a 168% increase) was found in informal care costs in community care settings among those with very severe cognitive impairment. In community care settings, formal care costs were insensitive to cognition status but were consistently higher with a dementia diagnosis; in contrast, informal care costs were less associated with a diagnosis but increased with cognitive impairment severity. Discussion and Implications: Having a diagnosis of dementia and poorer cognition are associated with higher long-term care costs in both residential and community care settings. A dementia diagnosis is potentially a more important driver of formal care costs than cognitive impairment levels within the current care system, in contrast to what is observed with informal care costs. Practitioners and policymakers need to ensure that individuals with cognitive impairment without a dementia diagnosis receive the appropriate level of care
A new mouse model of thrombopoietin deficiency arising from a spontaneous single base pair mutation.
Get PDFThrombopoietin (TPO) is the principal regulator of bone marrow platelet production and plays an important role in maintaining hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Predominantly produced in the liver, circulating TPO levels are primarily modulated through receptor-mediated clearance of TPO by target cells such as platelets. However, there is an additional component of TPO regulation at the transcriptional level, which may be affected in the setting of platelet-associated diseases. Current TPO knockout mouse models partially limit the study of transcriptional regulation because of disruption of the TPO genomic locus. Here, we describe a novel mouse model of TPO deficiency arising from a spontaneous mutation in a single base pair within exon 5 of the TPO gene. The resulting amino acid change (leucine to histidine at position 121) predicts a dramatic alteration in protein structure, ultimately resulting in a ~ 95% decrease of circulating TPO. The hematological phenotype of this new C57Bl/6(IMPC)J-TPOL121H strain mimics that of other mouse models of TPO deficiency, but the genomic locus remains intact and therefore preserves normal TPO transcriptional regulation. We characterize the hematological phenotype of this new strain and discuss its applications as a model of transcriptional TPO regulation and clinical thrombocytopenia. Our findings highlight the theoretical possibility that TPO protein destabilizing mutations may explain rare cases of patient thrombocytopenia
Reporting innovations in pharmacology and drug development, upholding excellence and improving author experience at the British Journal of Pharmacology in 2024
No full textFlower margins support natural enemies adjacent to apple orchards but evidence of spill-over is mixed
Get PDFPerennial flower margins next to apple orchards can reduce the spread of aphid pests on apple trees and reduce the percentage of trees with fruit damage. To explore the mechanism behind this, we compared the vegetation community in three orchard habitats (flower margins, headlands, and alleyways) to determine whether the presence of a flower margin changed the diversity, abundance, and community of natural enemies of rosy apple aphid (Dysaphis plantaginea) in orchard ground vegetation and apple trees. Despite no evident spill-over of plant species into orchards, there was an increased Shannon diversity of natural enemies in the ground vegetation of flower margin orchards compared with controls. This suggests spill-over of natural enemies from the flower margins can reach up to 50 m from the orchard edge. However, we did not find evidence of broad differences between natural enemy taxa abundance, diversity, or community structure on the apple trees themselves. The mechanism behind improved pest control by flower margins is unclear but could be linked to the mobility of certain natural enemy groups or mutualistic relationships with ants. A better understanding of this mechanism would help to optimise the use of flower margins for sustainable pest suppression