Social indicators for use with multi-regional input-output analysis

Accounting for social impacts in supply chain analysis is of increasing importance. Global trade has increased significantly since 1970, as has inequality. As global supply chains have become more prevalent, the need to understand and analyse these supply chains has also grown. Excellent work on quantitative analysis of environmental impacts in supply chains has taken place in the past two decades. However, relatively few methodologies have been applied to quantitative analysis of social impacts in supply chains. This thesis considers how social indicators for supply chain analysis can be developed through the use of socially extended multi-regional input-output analysis. Chapter 1 provides an introduction and context. Chapter 2 considers the history of social accounting. Chapter 3 looks at quantitative accounting for social-economic indicators and the development of national accounts, particularly in reference to standardised collection of data for social-economic indicators and socially-extended input- output analysis. Chapter 4 presents a case study of coltan mining and methodological analysis using deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a social indicator for the electronics supply chain. Chapter 5 analyses the results of the same case study and considers how enumerating social impacts in upstream supply chains can influence environmental and social justice actions in downstream supply chains. Chapter 6 provides a review of input-output analysis used as a tool for analysing consumption since 2010. Chapter 7 proposes the use of a suite of quantitative social indicators for analysis in the form of a social footprint. Chapter 8 provides a conclusion. This thesis tracks the author’s interest in understanding social impacts in global supply chains and proposes a social footprint for supply chain analysis using the multi-regional input output methodology

Dynamic Remodeling of Dendritic Arbors in GABAergic Interneurons of Adult Visual Cortex

Despite decades of evidence for functional plasticity in the adult brain, the role of structural plasticity in its manifestation remains unclear. To examine the extent of neuronal remodeling that occurs in the brain on a day-to-day basis, we used a multiphoton-based microscopy system for chronic in vivo imaging and reconstruction of entire neurons in the superficial layers of the rodent cerebral cortex. Here we show the first unambiguous evidence (to our knowledge) of dendrite growth and remodeling in adult neurons. Over a period of months, neurons could be seen extending and retracting existing branches, and in rare cases adding new branch tips. Neurons exhibiting dynamic arbor rearrangements were GABA-positive non-pyramidal interneurons, while pyramidal cells remained stable. These results are consistent with the idea that dendritic structural remodeling is a substrate for adult plasticity and they suggest that circuit rearrangement in the adult cortex is restricted by cell type–specific rules

Evolving Perspectives of Stewardship in the Seafood Industry

Humanity has never benefited more from the ocean as a source of food, livelihoods, and well-being, yet on a global scale this has been accompanied by trajectories of degradation and persistent inequity. Awareness of this has spurred policymakers to develop an expanding network of ocean governance instruments, catalyzed civil society pressure on the public and private sector, and motivated engagement by the general public as consumers and constituents. Among local communities, diverse examples of stewardship have rested on the foundation of care, knowledge and agency. But does an analog for stewardship exist in the context of globally active multinational corporations? Here, we consider the seafood industry and its efforts to navigate this new reality through private governance. We examine paradigmatic events in the history of the sustainable seafood movement, from seafood boycotts in the 1970s through to the emergence of certification measures, benchmarks, and diverse voluntary environmental programs. We note four dimensions of stewardship in which efforts by actors within the seafood industry have aligned with theoretical concepts of stewardship, which we describe as (1) moving beyond compliance, (2) taking a systems perspective, (3) living with uncertainty, and (4) understanding humans as embedded elements of the biosphere. In conclusion, we identify emerging stewardship challenges for the seafood industry and suggest the urgent need to embrace a broader notion of ocean stewardship that extends beyond seafood

Drivers and barriers to environmental supply chain management practices: lessons from the public and private sectors

This study explores the factors that drive or hinder organisations to implement green supply chain management initiatives. A literature review identifies the main categories of internal and external drivers of green supply chain management practices, including organisational factors, regulation, customers, competitors and society, but there is little indication of suppliers as drivers for green supply chain management. Internal barriers include cost and lack of legitimacy, whereas external barriers include regulation, poor supplier commitment and industry specific barriers. An explorative study is conducted based on interviews from seven different private and public sector organisations. Encouragingly, across the organisations, more drivers than barriers to environmental supply chain management are identified. Organisations seem to be more influenced by external rather than internal drivers. The barriers to environmental supply chain management experienced by organisations tend to be both internal and external

Greening operations management: an online sustainable procurement course for practitioners.

In the Operations Management field, sustainable procurement has emerged as a way to green the purchasing and supply process. This paper explores issues in sustainable procurement training. The authors formed an interdisciplinary team to design, deliver and evaluate a training programme to promote and develop sustainable procurement in the United Kingdom health sector. Particular features of the project were its engagement with evolving and contested understandings of sustainable procurement and of the underlying concept of sustainable development and its recognition that relevant knowledge in the field is both incomplete and widely diffused through the procurement community. Eight practitioner groups worked together on themes to develop their understanding of sustainable procurement using the Blackboard virtual learning environment. Group interviews were conducted upon completion of the course and again three months later to explore qualitatively participants' experience of learning and implementing sustainable procurement. Although the course was delivered to practitioners, it might be modified for undergraduate and graduate students as it comprised the use of online activities in virtual learning environments, case studies and a broad range of literature. The course was also particularly significant in the context of contemporary policy moves in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to promote the role of higher education institutions in delivering workplace-based, high-skills education consistent with strategic policy considerations (see, for example, DIUS, 2008)

Selective presynaptic terminal remodeling induced by spatial, but not cued, learning: A quantitative confocal study

The hippocampal mossy fibers (MFs) are capable of behaviorally-selective, use-dependent structural remodeling. Indeed, we previously observed a new layer of Timm’s staining induced in the stratum oriens (SO) in CA3 after spatial but not cued water maze learning (Rekart et al., Learn. Mem. 2007; 14:416–421). This led to the prediction that there is a learning-specific induction of presynaptic terminal plasticity of MF axons. The present study confirms this prediction demonstrating, at the confocal level of analysis, terminal-specific and behavior-selective presynaptic structural plasticity linked to long-term memory. Male adult Wistar rats were trained for 5d to locate a hidden or visible platform in a water maze and a retention test was performed 7d later. MF terminal subtypes, specifically identified by an antibody to zinc transporter 3 (ZnT3), were counted from confocal z-stacks in the stratum lucidum (SL) and the SO. In hidden platform trained rats there was a significant increase in the number of large MF terminals (LMTs, 2.5–10µm diameter, >2µm(2) area) compared to controls both in the proximal SL (p <0.05) and in the SO (p < 0.01). Surprisingly, there was no detectable increase in small MF terminals (SMTs, 0.5–2µm diameter, <2µm(2) area) in either SL or SO as a consequence of training. This distinction of the two MF terminal types is functionally important as LMTs synapse on CA3 pyramidal neurons, while SMTs are known to target inhibitory interneurons. The present findings highlight the pivotal role in memory of presynaptic structural plasticity. Because the ‘sprouting’ observed is specific to the LMT, with no detectable change in the number of the SMT, learning may enhance net excitatory input to CA3 pyramidal neurons. Given the sparse coding of the MF-CA3 connection, and the role that granule cells play in pattern separation, the remodeling observed here may be expected to have a major impact on the long-term integration of spatial context into memory