843 research outputs found
Ethical and compliance-competence evaluation: a key element of sound corporate governance
Motivated by the ongoing post-Enron refocusing on corporate governance and the shift by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK to promoting compliance- competence within the financial services sector, this paper demonstrates how template analysis can be used as a tool for evaluating compliance-competence. Focusing on the ethical dimension of compliance-competence, we illustrate how this can be subjectively appraised. We propose that this evaluation technique could be utilised as a starting point in informing senior management of corporate governance issues and be used to monitor and demonstrate key compliance and ethical aspects of an institution to external stakeholders and regulators
Women, know your limits: Cultural sexism in academia
Despite the considerable advances of the feminist movement across Western societies, in Universities women are less likely to be promoted, or paid as much as their male colleagues, or even get jobs in the first place. One way in which we can start to reflect on why this might be the case is through hearing the experiences of women academics themselves. Using feminist methodology, this article attempts to unpack and explore just some examples of
âcultural sexismâ which characterise the working lives of many women in British academia.This article uses qualitative methods to describe and make sense of just some of those experiences. In so doing, the argument is also made that the activity of academia is profoundly gendered and this explicit acknowledgement may contribute to our
understanding of the under-representation of women in senior positions
Bolometric correction and spectral energy distribution of cool stars in Galactic clusters
We have investigated the relevant trend of the bolometric correction (BC) at
the cool-temperature regime of red giant stars and its possible dependence on
stellar metallicity. Our analysis relies on a wide sample of optical-infrared
spectroscopic observations, along the 3500A-2.5micron wavelength range, for a
grid of 92 red giant stars in five (3 globular + 2 open) Galactic clusters,
along the -2.2<[Fe/H]<+0.4 metallicity range. Bolometric magnitudes have been
found within an internal accuracy of a few percent. Making use of our new
database, we provide a set of fitting functions for the V and K BC vs. Teff and
broad-band colors, valid over the interval 3300K<Teff<5000K, especially suited
for Red Giants. No evident drift of both BC(V) and BC(K) with [Fe/H] is found.
Things may be different, however, for the B-band correction, given a clear
(B-V) vs. [Fe/H] correlation in place for our data, with metal-poor stars
displaying a "bluer" (B-V) with respect to the metal-rich sample, for fixed
Teff. Our empirical bolometric scale supports the conclusion that (a) BC(K)
from the most recent studies are reliable within <0.1 mag over the whole
color/temperature range considered in this paper, and (b) the same conclusion
apply to BC(V) only for stars warmer than ~3800K. At cooler temperatures the
agreement is less general, and MARCS models are the only ones providing a
satisfactory match to observations.Comment: 18 pages with 12 color figures and 12 tables. To appear in the MNRAS.
Full spectral catalog of stars available at
http://www.bo.astro.it/~eps/home.htm
Sociological stalking? Methods, ethics and power in longitudinal criminological research
Scholarship on criminal careers and desistance from crime employing longitudinal
methodologies has paid scant attention to sociological and anthropological debates
regarding epistemology, reflexivity and researcher positionality. This is surprising in
light of a recent phenomenological turn in desistance research wherein (former)
lawbreakersâ identity, reflexivity, and self-understanding have become central
preoccupations. In this article I interrogate aspects of the methodological âundersideâ
(Gelsthorpe, 2007) of qualitative longitudinal research with criminalised women
through an examination of the surveillant position of the researcher. Focusing on
methods, ethics and power, I examine some contradictions of feminist concerns to
âgive women voiceâ in research involving re-tracing an over-surveilled and highly
stigmatised population. I reflect on the effects of researcher positionality through a
conceptualisation of re-tracing methods as, at worst, a form of sociological stalking
Mass-loss rates of Very Massive Stars
We discuss the basic physics of hot-star winds and we provide mass-loss rates
for (very) massive stars. Whilst the emphasis is on theoretical concepts and
line-force modelling, we also discuss the current state of observations and
empirical modelling, and address the issue of wind clumping.Comment: 36 pages, 15 figures, Book Chapter in "Very Massive Stars in the
Local Universe", Springer, Ed. Jorick S. Vin
3-D Inlet Shock-Boundary Layer Interactions - PIV Database for the Second SBLI Workshop
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97090/1/AIAA2012-3214.pd
An automated quasi-continuous capillary refill timing device
Capillary refill time (CRT) is a simple means of cardiovascular assessment which is widely used in clinical care. Currently, CRT is measured through manual assessment of the time taken for skin tone to return to normal colour following blanching of the skin surface. There is evidence to suggest that manually assessed CRT is subject to bias from ambient light conditions, a lack of standardisation of both blanching time and manually applied pressure, subjectiveness of return to normal colour, and variability in the manual assessment of time. We present a novel automated system for CRT measurement, incorporating three components: a non-invasive adhesive sensor incorporating a pneumatic actuator, a diffuse multi-wavelength reflectance measurement device, and a temperature sensor; a battery operated datalogger unit containing a self contained pneumatic supply; and PC based data analysis software for the extraction of refill time, patient skin surface temperature, and sensor signal quality.
Through standardisation of the test, it is hoped that some of the shortcomings of manual CRT can be overcome. In addition, an automated system will facilitate easier integration of CRT into electronic record keeping and clinical monitoring or scoring systems, as well as reducing demands on clinicians.
Summary analysis of volunteer (n = 30) automated CRT datasets are presented, from 15 healthy adults and 15 healthy children (aged from 5 to 15 years), as their arms were cooled from ambient temperature to 5°C. A more detailed analysis of two typical datasets is also presented, demonstrating that the response of automated CRT to cooling matches that of previously published studies
Searching for links between magnetic fields and stellar evolution. II. The evolution of magnetic fields as revealed by observations of Ap stars in open clusters and associations
The evolution of magnetic fields in Ap stars during the main sequence phase
is presently mostly unconstrained by observation because of the difficulty of
assigning accurate ages to known field Ap stars.
We are carrying out a large survey of magnetic fields in cluster Ap stars
with the goal of obtaining a sample of these stars with well-determined ages.
In this paper we analyse the information available from the survey as it
currently stands.
We select from the available observational sample the stars that are probably
(1) cluster or association members and (2) magnetic Ap stars. For the stars in
this subsample we determine the fundamental parameters T_eff, log(L/L_o), and
M/M_o. With these data and the cluster ages we assign both absolute age and
fractional age (the fraction of the main sequence lifetime completed). For this
purpose we have derived new bolometric corrections for Ap stars.
Magnetic fields are present at the surfaces of Ap stars from the ZAMS to the
TAMS. Statistically for the stars with M > 3 M_o the fields decline with
advancing age approximately as expected from flux conservation together with
increased stellar radius, or perhaps even faster than this rate, on a time
scale of about 3 10^7 yr. In contrast, lower mass stars show no compelling
evidence for field decrease even on a timescale of several times 10^8 yr.
Study of magnetic cluster stars is now a powerful tool for obtaining
constraints on evolution of Ap stars through the main sequence. Enlarging the
sample of known cluster magnetic stars, and obtaining more precise RMS fields,
will help to clarify the results obtained so far. Further field observations
are in progress.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic
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