An investigation into the notion of "parental responsibility" as it features in the home-based regulation of children's video viewing habits

This thesis focuses on the notion of "parental responsibility" which characterises contemporary concerns over the regulation of children's video viewing in the UK. Previous studies of horne-based regulation have tended to concentrate on television at the expense of video viewing, and most studies employ quantitative methods. This thesis expands the research agenda, challenging the findings of previous research, through the employment of qualitative methods to examine family relationships at the heart of the horne-based regulation of video viewing. The work is based upon interviews with ten families from North London. This analysis is accompanied by an examination of the demands made of parents by agencies outside of the family home who are concerned with video regulation (Parliament, the print news media, the British Board of Film Classification and the video software industry). These expectations have remained unexplored by previous authors. This inquiry is located within an account of teenagers' video viewing habits, derived from a questionnaire survey of approximately five hundred year nine pupils. Central to the theoretical project of the thesis is a distinction between the concept and conceptions of "parental responsibility". It is argued that there is a broad consensus around the concept of "parental responsibility" (the notion that parents ought to have ultimate authority over their children's video viewing habits in the home). However, there is much less agreement about what constitutes responsible action in this regard. There are a variety of conceptions of parental responsibility across the accounts examined. Thus, it is impossible to draw clear distinctions between "responsible" and "irresponsible" parents, although participants in public debates frequently make such judgements. In an attempt to move beyond this impasse, the thesis provides a reconceptualisation of the "problem" of "under-age" video viewing, one which takes into account the ways in which parents currently approach the regulation of their children's video viewing habits in the home

The curious absence of human rights: Can the WIPO Development Agenda transform intellectual property negotiation?

This article examines international negotiation of global intellectual property protection standards. Developing countries favour more flexible international rules, while developed countries push for higher mandatory protection levels. Developing countries base their positions on primary principles of intellectual property law: its public purpose and its commitment to balancing costs and benefits. This negotiating stance has not been effective; developed states counter-argue that stronger protection achieves the same ends. The article examines the resulting circular discussions at the 2001-2003 WTO Doha negotiations on TRIPS and Public Health, and the WIPO Development Agenda talks since 2004. The contention is that the negotiation impasse stems from an inability to move beyond the cost-benefit tension inherent in the patent system. Intellectual property theory cannot provide a bottom line at which short-term costs of patent monopolies must be deemed unacceptable, regardless of anticipated longer-term benefits. Recently, developing countries have celebrated the WIPO Development Agenda as a “paradigm shift” in the approach to international IP protection. The author argues that the Development Agenda will not necessarily change anything, and that developing countries should introduce human rights standards into discussions if they want to move the debate forward. Human rights standards can be used as benchmarks to assess whether IP rules promote public benefit and achieve an acceptable balance between rights of patent-holders and the broader public interest. The article shows how the ICESCR can be used to support a human rights-based argument

Lessons from Bayh-Dole: Reflections on the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act

The Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act 51 of 2008 promotes patenting and commercialisation of state-funded science. The Act is similar in scope and objective to the American Bayh-Dole Act. This article explores some of the problems created or exacerbated by the Bayh-Dole Act. Traditionally, American innovation was based on a philosophy of open science. Universities conducted basic foundational research which was freely available to others who wanted to commercialise and build on it, or use it for further scientific research. The Bayh-Dole Act changed the model of science to a proprietary model. One of the problems this created was increased patenting of foundational research tools such as genes and cell-lines, which follow-on researchers require for their own research. Sometimes, research has been blocked or impeded by an inability to obtain research licences to patented research on reasonable terms. The Act has also had a negative effect on scientific collaboration and publishing. The article examines whether South Africa’s Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act has been able to avoid the most serious of the Bayh-Dole pitfalls

Data and Predictive Analytics Use for Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the social process of Big Data and predictive analytics (BDPA) use for logistics and supply chain management (LSCM), focusing on interactions among technology, human behavior and organizational context that occur at the technology’s post-adoption phases in retail supply chain (RSC) organizations. Design/methodology/approach The authors follow a grounded theory approach for theory building based on interviews with senior managers of 15 organizations positioned across multiple echelons in the RSC. Findings Findings reveal how user involvement shapes BDPA to fit organizational structures and how changes made to the technology retroactively affect its design and institutional properties. Findings also reveal previously unreported aspects of BDPA use for LSCM. These include the presence of temporal and spatial discontinuities in the technology use across RSC organizations. Practical implications This study unveils that it is impossible to design a BDPA technology ready for immediate use. The emergent process framework shows that institutional and social factors require BDPA use specific to the organization, as the technology comes to reflect the properties of the organization and the wider social environment for which its designers originally intended. BDPA is, thus, not easily transferrable among collaborating RSC organizations and requires managerial attention to the institutional context within which its usage takes place. Originality/value The literature describes why organizations will use BDPA but fails to provide adequate insight into how BDPA use occurs. The authors address the “how” and bring a social perspective into a technology-centric area

Exploring Relationships and Information Exchange in Grocery Supply Chains: a Case Study of the Enablers and Inhibitors.

The last decade has seen a growing interest from academics and practitioners in the development of collaborative supply chain relationships based on information exchange. Most of the evidence gathered within this management research area has been biased towards the role of the buyer/supplier dyadic exchange in the integration of the supply chain. The role of the other parties and the systemic nature of supply chain management have been relatively ignored. Previous research in this area has also been biased due to the narrow focus of investigation, with one problem being obtaining access to all parties involved in the supply chain. The purpose of this study was to overcome the aforementioned research biases and therefore, contribute to the understanding of the collaborative relationship development process from a broader supply chain perspective. Open access was gained to six organisations across three tiers of a coffee supply chain in the UK grocery sector. Within this context, a theory building approach was applied to the data collected in the case study. Through constant comparison and coding of data from multiple strategic, tactical, operational, inter- and intra-organisational exchanges within the same context, several findings were made. An interesting finding from the research is the evolving role of the supply chain integrator, whereby the manufacturer seeks to balance the needs of its retail customers with the sourcing and procurement of raw and packaging materials from its suppliers. In terms of the concepts of supply chain relationships and information exchange, there are a number of common enablers and inhibitors. The inter-relationship between the two concepts is however complex and requires further study. The other findings of the research are expressed as a tentative theoretical framework and a series of new emerging enablers and inhibitors to collaborative relationships and information exchange in the supply chain. Finally the enablers and inhibitors grounded from the case study provide a guide to the relational and often context specific factors that can influence the development of collaborative supply chain relationships based on information exchange

Resistivity network and structural model of the oxide cathode for CRT application

In this paper, the electrical properties of oxide cathode and oxide cathode plus, supplied by LG Philips Displays, have been investigated in relation to different cathode activation regimes and methods. Oxide cathode activation treatment for different durations has been investigated. The formations of the compounds associated to the diffusion of reducing elements (Mg, Al, and W) to the Ni cap surface of oxide cathode were studied by a new suggestion method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) was used as analytical techniques. Al, W, and Mg doping elements take place during heating to 1080 K (Ni-Brightness) under a rich controlled Ba–SrO atmosphere through an acceleration life test. The chemical transport of these elements was occurred mainly by the Ni cap grain boundary mechanism with significant pile-up of Mg compounds. Al and W show a superficial concentrations and distribution. A new structural and resistivity network model of oxide cathode plus are suggested. The new structural model shows a number of metallic and metallic oxide pathways are exist at the interface or extended through the oxide coating. The effective values of the resistances and the type of the equivalent circuit in the resistivity network model are temperature and activation time dependent.</p

Observation of b2_2 symmetry vibrational levels of the SO2_2 \tilde{\mbox{C}} 1^1B2_2 state: Vibrational level staggering, Coriolis interactions, and rotation-vibration constants

The $\mathrm{\tilde{C}}$ $^1$B$_2$ state of SO$_2$ has a double-minimum potential in the antisymmetric stretch coordinate, such that the minimum energy geometry has nonequivalent SO bond lengths. However, low-lying levels with odd quanta of antisymmetric stretch (b$_2$ vibrational symmetry) have not previously been observed because transitions into these levels from the zero-point level of the $\mathrm{\tilde{X}}$ state are vibronically forbidden. We use IR-UV double resonance to observe the b$_2$ vibrational levels of the $\mathrm{\tilde{C}}$ state below 1600 cm$^{-1}$ of vibrational excitation. This enables a direct characterization of the vibrational level staggering that results from the double-minimum potential. In addition, it allows us to deperturb the strong $c$-axis Coriolis interactions between levels of a$_1$ and b$_2$ vibrational symmetry, and to determine accurately the vibrational dependence of the rotational constants in the distorted $\mathrm{\tilde{C}}$ electronic state

Lines of Hygiene: Pandemic Border Control in Australia, 1919

 The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis has highlighted the public health history of infectious disease control. Yet while much historiographical focus has been directed to the management of international movement in pandemic times, this has proved insufficient as restrictions on movement have turned inward and become far more domestic and local during COVID-19. We argue for a new significance of, and for, local historical analysis of medico-legal border regulation. We consider Australian responses to the influenza pandemic of 1918–19 in this light, examining three geographies through which movement was restricted – interstate, intrastate, and town and district – and the internal lines of hygiene that were both established and evaded. We analyse the exercise of authority, as much as law, including the micro-authorities claimed by local residents’ groups in 1919. We argue that authority–lawful and sometimes lawless–was both devolved and assumed at a finer scale than historical scholarship has recognised

Safer scoring? Cryptomarkets, social supply and drug market violence

Background: Cryptomarkets are digital platforms that use anonymising software (e.g. Tor) and cryptocurrencies (e.g. Bitcoin) to facilitate trade of goods and services, most notably illicit drugs. Cryptomarkets may reduce systemic violence compared with in-person drug trading because no face-to-face contact is required and disputes can be resolved through a neutral third party. In this paper, we describe the purchasing behaviour of cryptomarket users and then compare the self-reported experiences of threats, violence and other drug-market concerns when obtaining drugs from cryptomarkets with obtaining drugs through friends, known dealers and strangers. Methods: The Global Drug Survey was completed in late 2014 by a self-selected sample who reported accessing drugs through cryptomarkets in the last 12 months (N = 3794). Results: Their median age was 22 years and 82% were male. The drug types most commonly obtained through cryptomarkets were MDMA/Ecstasy (55%), cannabis (43%) and LSD (35%). Cryptomarket users reported using a median of 2 sources in addition to cryptomarkets to access drugs, the most common being in-person friendships (74%), in-person dealers (57%) and open markets/strangers (26%). When asked to nominate the main source they would use if cryptomarkets were unavailable, 49% nominated friends, 34% known dealers and 4% strangers. 'Threats to personal safety' (3%) and 'experiencing physical violence' (1%) were less often reported when using cryptomarkets compared with sourcing through friends (14%; 6%), known dealers (24%; 10%) or strangers (35%; 15%). Concerns about drug impurities and law enforcement were reported more often when using the alternative source, while loss of money, waiting too long and not receiving the product were more often reported when using cryptomarkets. Conclusion: Cryptomarkets are associated with substantially less threats and violence than alternative market types used by cryptomarket customers, even though a large majority of these alternatives were closed networks where violence should be relatively less common

A spontaneous increase in intracellular Ca2+ in metaphase II human oocytes in vitro can be prevented by drugs targeting ATP-sensitive K+ channels

STUDY QUESTION: Could drugs targeting ATP-sensitive K+ (KATP) channels prevent any spontaneous increase in intracellular Ca2+ that may occur in human metaphase II (MII) oocytes under in vitro conditions? SUMMARY ANSWER: Pinacidil, a KATP channel opener, and glibenclamide, a KATP channel blocker, prevent a spontaneous increase in intracellular Ca2+ in human MII oocytes. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: The quality of the oocyte and maintenance of this quality during in vitro processing in the assisted reproductive technology (ART) laboratory is of critical importance to successful embryo development and a healthy live birth. Maintenance of Ca2+ homeostasis is crucial for cell wellbeing and increased intracellular Ca2+ levels is a well-established indicator of cell stress. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: Supernumerary human oocytes (n = 102) collected during IVF/ICSI treatment that failed to fertilize were used from October 2013 to July 2015. All experiments were performed on mature (MII) oocytes. Dynamics of intracellular Ca2+ levels were monitored in oocytes in the following experimental groups: (i) Control, (ii) Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO; used to dissolve pinacidil, glibenclamide and 2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP)), (iii) Pinacidil, (iv) Glibenclamide, (v) DNP: an inhibitor of oxidative phosphorylation, (vi) Pinacidil and DNP and (vii) Glibenclamide and DNP. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS/SETTINGS/METHODS: Oocytes were collected under sedation as part of routine treatment at an assisted conception unit from healthy women (mean ± SD) age 34.1 ± 0.6 years, n = 41. Those surplus to clinical use were donated for research. Oocytes were loaded with Fluo-3 Ca2+-sensitive dye, and monitored by laser confocal microscopy for 2 h at 10 min intervals. Time between oocyte collection and start of Ca2+ monitoring was 80.4 ± 2.1 h. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: Intracellular levels of Ca2+ increased under in vitro conditions with no deliberate challenge, as shown by Fluo-3 fluorescence increasing from 61.0 ± 11.8 AU (AU = arbitrary units; n = 23) to 91.8 ± 14.0 AU (n = 19; P &lt;0.001) after 2 h of monitoring. Pinacidil (100 µM) inhibited this increase in Ca2+ (85.3 ± 12.3 AU at the beginning of the experiment, 81.7 ± 11.0 AU at the end of the experiment; n = 13; P = 0.616). Glibenclamide (100 µM) also inhibited the increase in Ca2+ (74.7 ± 10.6 AU at the beginning and 71.8 ± 10.9 AU at the end of the experiment; n = 13; P = 0.851. DNP (100 mM) induced an increase in intracellular Ca2+ that was inhibited by glibenclamide (100 µM; n = 9) but not by pinacidil (100 µM; n = 5). LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: Owing to clinical and ethical considerations, it was not possible to monitor Ca2+ in MII oocytes immediately after retrieval. MII oocytes were available for our experimentation only after unsuccessful IVF or ICSI, which was, on average, 80.4 ± 2.1 h (n = 102 oocytes) after the moment of retrieval. As the MII oocytes used here were those that were not successfully fertilized, it is possible that they may have been abnormal with impaired Ca2+ homeostasis and, furthermore, the altered Ca2+ homeostasis might have been associated solely with the protracted incubation. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: These results show that maintenance of oocytes under in vitro conditions is associated with intracellular increase in Ca2+, which can be counteracted by drugs targeting KATP channels. As Ca2+ homeostasis is crucial for contributing to a successful outcome of ART, these results suggest that KATP channel openers and blockers should be tested as drugs for improving success rates of ART