265 research outputs found
Fiduciary Principles: Corporate Responsibilities to Stakeholders
The recent corporate scandals and financial crisis has increased demand for accountability in business decisions. Corporate governance reform initiatives designed to increase financial disclosure and responsibility are insufficient to rebuild public trust in business. Corporate boards and officers must comply with the legal norms to which they are already subject; as fiduciaries they have duties of care, loyalty and good faith. This article examines modern fiduciary duties that currently govern corporate conduct and thus severely limit corporate responsibility. Revisiting the historical and religious origins of fiduciaries that shaped the ethical and moral duties gives insight into the true role of a fiduciary. We propose a new, well-defined definition of fiduciary duties that could offer corporate managers guidance in developing new stakeholder relationships
Cancer immunology and canine malignant melanoma: a comparative review
Oral canine malignant melanoma (CMM) is a spontaneously occurring aggressive tumour with relatively few medical treatment options, which provides a suitable model for the disease in humans. Historically, multiple immunotherapeutic strategies aimed at provoking both innate and adaptive anti-tumour immune responses have been published with varying levels of activity against CMM. Recently, a plasmid DNA vaccine expressing human tyrosinase has been licensed for the adjunct treatment of oral CMM. This article reviews the immunological similarities between CMM and the human counterpart; mechanisms by which tumours evade the immune system; reasons why melanoma is an attractive target for immunotherapy; the premise of whole cell, dendritic cell (DC), viral and DNA vaccination strategies alongside preliminary clinical results in dogs. Current âgold standardâ treatments for advanced human malignant melanoma are evolving quickly with remarkable results being achieved following the introduction of immune checkpoint blockade and adoptively transferred cell therapies. The rapidly expanding field of cancer immunology and immunotherapeutics means that rational targeting of this disease in both species should enhance treatment outcomes in veterinary and human clinics
Introductory Chemistry
Teaching and Learning resources for the 1st Year Introductory Chemistry course (Forensic Science). 30 credits. These are Open Educational Resources (OER), made available for re-use under a Creative Commons license
Guided Wave Propagation Modelling to Aid Understanding of Acoustic Emission System Performance on Complex Aerospace Structures
Parents know best: transgenerational predator recognition through parental effects
In highly biodiverse systems, such as coral reefs, prey species are faced with predatory threats from numerous species. Recognition of predators can be innate, or learned, and can help increase the chance of survival. Research suggests that parental exposure to increased predatory threats can affect the development, behaviour, and ultimately, success of their offspring. Breeding pairs of damselfish (Acanthochromis polyacanthus) were subjected to one of three olfactory and visual treatments (predator, herbivore, or control), and their developing embryos were subsequently exposed to five different chemosensory cues. Offspring of parents assigned to the predator treatment exhibited a mean increase in heart rate two times greater than that of offspring from parents in herbivore or control treatments. This increased reaction to a parentally known predator odour suggests that predator-treated parents passed down relevant threat information to their offspring, via parental effects. This is the first time transgenerational recognition of a specific predator has been confirmed in any species. This phenomenon could influence predator-induced mortality rates and enable populations to adaptively respond to fluctuations in predator composition and environmental changes
The forensic analysis of soil by FTIR with multivariate analysis
Over the past few years more and more studies have been carried out in an attempt to utilize chemical profiles
of soil using a wide variety of analytical methods. The value of soil as evidence rests with its prevalence at
crime scenes and its transferability between the scene and the criminal. This can be of value for comparison if
the scene of crime is known, but could also be so in the identification of a scene. The main basis for the
comparison of sites to determine provenance is that soils vary from one place to another. The aim of this work
is to find simple methods to identify soil provenance based on FTIR and multivariate analysi
Henry Sweet's idea of totality : a nineteenth-century philologist's approach to the practical study of language.
Multiscale remote sensing of plant physiology and carbon uptake
This study investigated the use of optical remote sensing for estimating leaf and
canopy scale light use efficiency (LUE) and carbon exchange. In addition, a new
leaf level model capable of predicting dynamic changes in apparent reflectance
due to chlorophyll fluorescence was developed.
A leaf level study was conducted to assess the applicability of passive remote
sensing as a tool to measure the reduction, and the subsequent recovery, of
photosynthetic efficiency during the weeks following transplantation. Spectral
data were collected on newly planted saplings for a period of 8 weeks, as well
as gas exchange measurements of LUE and PAM fluorescence measurements. A
set of spectral indices, including the Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI),
were calculated from the reflectance measurements. A marked depression in
photosynthetic rate occurred in the weeks after outplanting followed by a gradual
increase, with recovery occurring in the later stages of the experimental period.
As with photosynthetic rate, there was a marked trend in PRI values over the
study period but no trend was observed in chlorophyll based indices. The study
demonstrated that hyperspectral remote sensing has the potential to be a useful
tool in the detection and monitoring of the dynamic effects of transplant shock. Relationships between hyperspectral reflectance indices, airborne carbon exchange
measurements and satellite observations of ground cover were then explored
across a heterogeneous Arctic landscape. Measurements were collected
during August 2008, using the University of Edinburghâs research aircraft, from
an Arctic forest tundra zone in northern Finland as part of the Arctic Biosphere
Atmosphere Coupling at Multiple Scales (ABACUS) study. Surface fluxes of CO2
were calculated using the eddy covariance method from airborne data that were
collected from the same platform as hyperspectral reflectance measurements. Airborne
CO2 fluxes were compared to MODIS vegetation indices. In addition, LUE
was estimated from airborne flux data and compared to airborne measurements
of PRI. There were no significant relationships between MODIS vegetation indices
and airborne flux observations. There were weak to moderate (R2 = 0.4 in
both cases) correlations between PRI and LUE and between PRI and incident
radiation.
A new coupled physiological radiative transfer model that predicts changes in the
apparent reflectance of a leaf, due to chlorophyll fluorescence, was developed. The
model relates a physically observable quantity, chlorophyll fluorescence, to the sub
leaf level processes that cause the emission. An understanding of the dynamics
of the processes that control fluorescence emission on multiple timescales should
aid in the interpretation of this complex signal. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo
(MCMC) algorithm was used to optimise biochemical model parameters by fitting
model simulations of transient chlorophyll fluorescence to measured reflectance
spectra. The model was then validated against an independent data set. The
model was developed as a precursor to a full canopy scheme. To scale to
the canopy and to use the model on trans-seasonal time scales, the effects of
temperature and photoinhibition on the model biochemistry needs to be taken
into account, and a full canopy radiative transfer scheme, such as FluorMOD,
must be developed
A multi-objective approach for improving real-time audio peak reduction and speech clarity in a dental drill noise reduction device
Abstract Audio signals typically comprise several characteristics to be improved by signal processing and in practice, each of these characteristics has a unique relationship to the controllable system parameters. Quantifying these relationships in a multiâobjective (MO) approach will enable an improved system setup. This paper determines two novel objective functions of a complex audio signal for the realâtime simultaneous improvement of audio peak reduction and speech clarity in a dental drill noise reduction (DDNR) device. The influence of the DDNR system parameters on the outcome of peak reduction and speech clarity is determined by combining response surface methodology and a desirability function to enable MO optimisation. The results show an average improvement of nearly 30% over the original DDNR device performance. The approach described provides an effective means for addressing MO optimisation of other realâtime audio signal processing applications where the signal has similar peak reduction and speech clarity objectives to be processed, particularly where the physical outcome is not easy to evaluate in a virtual environment
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