The structural contradictions and constraints on corporate social responsibility: Challenges for corporate social irresponsibility

Purpose - This chapter engages critically with the ideas of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and irresponsibility (CSI) in order to examine their utility for the purposes of realizing more socially just and environmentally sustainable social and economic practices. Methodology/approach - The chapter develops Marx's understanding of the twin pressures of class struggle and inter-capitalist competition in setting the limits of agency for corporate actors. It is thus theoretical and discursive in nature. Findings - The findings of the chapter suggest that the scope for corporate agency in relation to responsibility/irresponsibility is severely limited by inter-capitalist competition and capitalist social relations. It therefore argues that those interested in social justice and environmental sustainability should focus on these structural pressures rather than theorizing corporate agency. Social implications - The research suggests that the focus of academic and government attention should be on resolving the contradictions and exploitative social relations inherent in capitalism. Without this emphasis activism, corporate agency and government action will not eradicate the types of problem that advocates of CSR/CSI are concerned about. Originality/value of paper - The value of the paper is that it contests and engages critically with the utility of the notion of CSR and the emergent concept of CSI. It asks proponents of these concepts to think seriously about the structural pressures and constraints within which business and policy makers act. Copyrightr © 2012 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Metabolism and toxicity of two new benzodiazepine-type antileishmanial agents in hepatocytes and macrophages

With increasing reports of resistance of Leishmania to antimonials (Thakur et al., 2004) and other traditional antileishmanial drugs, the need for the discovery of new antileishmanial agents is rising. In an attempt to find new antileishmanial agents, two new benzodiazepine (BNZ) analogues (7-chloro-4-(cyclohexylmethyl)-1-methyl-3,4-dihydro-1H-1,4-benodiazepine-2,5-dione (BNZ-1) and 4-(cyclohexylmethyl)-1-methyl-3,4-dihydro-1H-1,4-benzodiazepine-2,5-dione (BNZ-2)) were synthesised, and found to be effective against leishmaniasis in mice. This study investigates the metabolism of these two drugs together with the prototype BNZ, flurazepam (FZP), using rat hepatocytes, and investigates their interaction with glutathione in macrophages. Hepatocytes (>80% viability by Trypan Blue exclusion isolated by liver perfusion with collagenase) were prepared from male Sprague-Dawley rats (200-250 g). Drugs (100 μM) were incubated with 2 × 106 viable cells/ml in Krebs-Hepes buffer, pH 7.4, in rotating round bottomed flasks under an atmosphere of 95% O2/5% CO2, at 37 °C for 3 h, and timed samples taken for metabolite measurement. Samples were extracted twice with ethyl acetate at pH 10, the combined organic phases evaporated to dryness and stored at −20 °C until analysis. Metabolites were separated by HPLC using an ACE C18 column (50 mm × 3.0 mm i.d., 5 μm packing), and a solvent gradient consisting of 0.1% formic acid: acetonitrile (starting composition 95:5%, and composition after 25 min 65:35% for FZP and 70:30% for both BNZ 1 and 2). Flow rate was 0.5 ml/min, and detection was at 230 nm. Identification of the metabolites was by mass spectrometry with both positive and negative ion electronspray ionization. The effects of 24 h exposure to the compounds (100 μM) was investigated in the macrophage cell line J774.1 in terms of reduced glutathione content (GSH) and the activity of glutathione reductase (GR). There was no evidence of significant cytotoxicity with any of the compounds at the concentration used. FZP (m/z 388) was metabolised by dealkylation of the two N-1 ethyl substituents (m/z 360 and m/z 332), followed by hydroxylation on the BNZ ring. There was no evidence for either N- or O-glucuronidation of the resulting metabolites. BNZ-1 (m/z 321) was metabolised by N-demethylation (m/z 307) followed by hydroxylation (m/z 323), mono- and di-hydroxylation of the parent (m/z 337 and m/z 353) and by glucuronidation of the mono-hydroxylated metabolite (m/z 513). BNZ-2 (m/z 287) was transformed by N-demethylation (m/z 273) and hydroxylation of the parent (m/z 303), with the latter further metabolised by O-glucuronidation (m/z 479). In addition, the hydroxylated N-demethylated product (m/z 289) was also formed. Macrophages did not produce detectable metabolism of any of the drugs. All the drugs depleted macrophage GSH significantly (p < 0.05 by ANOVA followed by Dunnett's test) with BNZ-1 and BNZ-2 causing greater depletion than FZP (40.6 ± 4.0 and 45.8 ± 8.4, respectively, compared with 55.5 ± 4.9 nmol/mg protein with FZP, n = 3). Control macrophage GSH was 74.1 ± 6.6 nmol/mg protein. The depletion in GSH was not due to inhibition of GR: only FZP caused a significant decrease in macrophage GR activity (28.0 ± 5.9 compared with 42.1 ± 8.0 nmol/ml/min in control cells, p < 0.05 by ANOVA followed by Dunnett's test, n = 3). The marked depletion of macrophage GSH indicates a potential toxic interaction in mammalian cells. The new BNZ analogues were rapidly metabolised by hepatocytes, producing N-dealkylated and multiple hydroxylated phase I metabolites, followed by glucuronidation. This rapid metabolism may limit the therapeutic effect of BNZ 1 and 2 if their metabolites are inactive against leishmaniasis and suggest the need to optimise these lead structures further to obtain compounds with reduced rates and extent of metabolism

Testing minimum energy with powerful radio sources in clusters of galaxies

We analyze ROSAT data for cluster gas surrounding powerful radio galaxies, which is well fitted by a ``beta-model'' gas distribution, after allowing for a compact central source. The cluster thermal pressure at the distance of the radio lobes is typically an order of magnitude larger than the lobe minimum pressure. Since radio lobes are sharply-bounded, the missing pressure is not simply entrained intra-cluster gas. Thus the minimum energy in the lobes is a severe underestimate of the actual energy content. We argue that the extra energy is mostly in the form of particles, so that the magnetic field is below equipartition and thus not a major factor in the lobe dynamics. The large departure from minimum energy has far-reaching implications for the nature of AGN central engines and the supply of mechanical energy to the cluster gas.Comment: 6 pages, including 2 figures, to appear in `Life Cycles of Radio Galaxies', ed. J. Biretta et al., New Astronomy Review

Auditory spatial deficits following hemispheric lesions: Dissociation of explicit and implicit processing.

Auditory spatial deficits occur frequently after hemispheric damage; a previous case report suggested that the explicit awareness of sound positions, as in sound localisation, can be impaired while the implicit use of auditory cues for the segregation of sound objects in noisy environments remains preserved. By assessing systematically patients with a first hemispheric lesion, we have shown that (1) explicit and/or implicit use can be disturbed; (2) impaired explicit vs. preserved implicit use dissociations occur rather frequently; and (3) different types of sound localisation deficits can be associated with preserved implicit use. Conceptually, the dissociation between the explicit and implicit use may reflect the dual-stream dichotomy of auditory processing. Our results speak in favour of systematic assessments of auditory spatial functions in clinical settings, especially when adaptation to auditory environment is at stake. Further, systematic studies are needed to link deficits of explicit vs. implicit use to disability in everyday activities, to design appropriate rehabilitation strategies, and to ascertain how far the explicit and implicit use of spatial cues can be retrained following brain damage

Gravity and Electromagnetism with Y(R)F2Y(R)F^2-type Coupling and Magnetic Monopole Solutions

We investigate $Y(R) F^2$-type coupling of electromagnetic fields to gravity. After we derive field equations by a first order variational principle from the Lagrangian formulation of the non-minimally coupled theory, we look for static, spherically symmetric, magnetic monopole solutions. We point out that the solutions can provide possible geometries which may explain the flatness of the observed rotation curves of galaxies.Comment: 10 page

Student gambling, erroneous cognitions, and awareness of treatment in Scotland

Rates of probable pathological gambling in colleges and universities across Scotland were investigated with a nationally distributed sample consisting of students (n = 1,483) and members of staff (n = 492). Gambling-related erroneous cognitions (Gambling Beliefs Questionnaire [GBQ]) and gambling severity (South Oaks Gambling Screen [SOGS]) were measured, with additional questions enquiring about awareness of treatments available for gambling problems. Rates of past-year problem and probable pathological gambling for students were 4.0% and 3.9%, respectively. An exploratory factor analysis of the GBQ resulted in a 24-item five-factor model, with gambling severity (as indicated by SOGS scores), indices of increasing gambling involvement (gambling frequency and number of gambling activities), and male gender being positively correlated with higher levels of erroneous cognitions, suggesting erroneous cognitions may not be prominent for females with gambling problems. Less than a fifth of students were aware of where to go to receive help for gambling-related problems

Life after charge noise: recent results with transmon qubits

We review the main theoretical and experimental results for the transmon, a superconducting charge qubit derived from the Cooper pair box. The increased ratio of the Josephson to charging energy results in an exponential suppression of the transmon's sensitivity to 1/f charge noise. This has been observed experimentally and yields homogeneous broadening, negligible pure dephasing, and long coherence times of up to 3 microseconds. Anharmonicity of the energy spectrum is required for qubit operation, and has been proven to be sufficient in transmon devices. Transmons have been implemented in a wide array of experiments, demonstrating consistent and reproducible results in very good agreement with theory.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Review article, accepted for publication in Quantum Inf. Pro

Numerical analysis of the radio-frequency single-electron transistor operation

We have analyzed numerically the response and noise-limited charge sensitivity of a radio-frequency single-electron transistor (RF-SET) in a non-superconducting state using the orthodox theory. In particular, we have studied the performance dependence on the quality factor Q of the tank circuit for Q both below and above the value corresponding to the impedance matching between the coaxial cable and SET.Comment: 14 page

A probabilistic model for gene content evolution with duplication, loss, and horizontal transfer

We introduce a Markov model for the evolution of a gene family along a phylogeny. The model includes parameters for the rates of horizontal gene transfer, gene duplication, and gene loss, in addition to branch lengths in the phylogeny. The likelihood for the changes in the size of a gene family across different organisms can be calculated in O(N+hM^2) time and O(N+M^2) space, where N is the number of organisms, $h$ is the height of the phylogeny, and M is the sum of family sizes. We apply the model to the evolution of gene content in Preoteobacteria using the gene families in the COG (Clusters of Orthologous Groups) database