Professional closure by proxy: the impact of changing educational requirements on class mobility for a cohort of Big 8 partners

Closure events impacting on class mobility may include mechanisms initiated by bodies other than the professional body. The research examines if the introduction of full-time study requirements at universities for aspiring accountants effectively introduced a closure mechanism in the accounting profession. Data was derived from an Oral History study of partners in large firms. The younger partners (born after the Second World War) completed full-time degree study at university, but did not provide evidence of class mobility into the profession. The older cohort, born between 1928 and 1946, completed part-time studies only, few completed a degree, and, in contrast to the younger cohort, shows a perceptible upward movement from lower socio-economic classes into the professional class. This suggests that changing the preferred educational routes for new accountants entering the large chartered accounting (CA) firms compromised the "stepping stone" function of accounting as a portal into the professional class

Estimating diets of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) using fatty acid signature analyses; validation with controlled feeding studies

Diets incorporating homogeneous binary mixtures of herring or krill oil were fed to Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) for 22 weeks, and belly flap and muscle tissues were then analyzed for fatty acid (FA) composition. Quantitative fatty acid signature analysis (QFASA) was able to estimate proportions of major dietary components within ~10% of actual values, but the accuracy of the estimates depended on the FA set and calibration coefficients (CC) used in the modelling. FAs present at low levels had little influence on estimates, despite having only dietary sources; the FA set used in the modelling must incorporate the major FAs in tissues to ensure accurate estimates of diet. CC, which reflect modifications that consumers make to dietary FAs, were similar in the two tissues but varied with diet. When CC were applied to correct for fish metabolism, QFASA tended to overestimate the dietary component that had been fed to determine the CC. Diet estimates were most accurate when CC that had been developed from feeding the krill oil-based diet were applied. This first application of QFASA to fish therefore establishes a set of FAs and CC to begin to investigate diets of salmonids.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye