Effective risk governance for environmental policy making: a knowledge management perspective

Effective risk management within environmental policy making requires knowledge on natural, economic and social systems to be integrated; knowledge characterised by complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. We describe a case study in a (UK) central government department exploring how risk governance supports and hinders this challenging integration of knowledge. Forty-five semi-structured interviews were completed over a two year period. We found that lateral knowledge transfer between teams working on different policy areas was widely viewed as a key source of knowledge. However, the process of lateral knowledge transfer was predominantly informal and unsupported by risk governance structures. We argue this made decision quality vulnerable to a loss of knowledge through staff turnover, and time and resource pressures. Our conclusion is that the predominant form of risk governance framework, with its focus on centralised decision-making and vertical knowledge transfer is insufficient to support risk-based, environmental policy making. We discuss how risk governance can better support environmental policy makers through systematic knowledge management practices

How can firms in the UK be encouraged to create more value? A discussion and review paper

This paper investigates how firms in the UK might be encouraged to create more value through strategic innovation. Our approach is an integrative one, drawing on both the extant literature - covering the value chain, innovation and the low skill/low quality equilibrium debate - and the two systematic reviews completed by the AIM Scholars - covering promising practices and networks. In the paper we argue that there are three basic strategies that firms can adopt to create more value through strategic innovation: Increasing efficiency and effectiveness through the adoption of better practices; Innovating to produce products or services that generate more revenue — through either higher prices or larger volumes — but realised while remaining at the same position in the value chain. Fundamentally changing position in the value chain and moving to a position where the products and services that are being delivered inherently generate more value. We contend that increased value is likely to be created if firms adopt one or more of these three strategies. However, adoption is likely to represent significant challenges to management. Such challenges are linked to the levels of firm competency and their ability to construct, acquire and communicate knowledge during the innovation and subsequent implementation process. Addressing these challenges form the basis of our policy and research implications

A Novel Algorithm for Human Fall Detection using Height, Velocity and Position of the Subject from Depth Maps

Human fall detection systems play an important role in our daily life, because falls are the main obstacle for elderly people to live independently and it is also a major health concern due to aging population. Different approaches are used to develop human fall detection systems for elderly and people with special needs. The three basic approaches include some sort of wearable devices, ambient based devices or non-invasive vision-based devices using live cameras. Most of such systems are either based on wearable or ambient sensor which is very often rejected by users due to the high false alarm and difficulties in carrying them during their daily life activities. This paper proposes a fall detection system based on the height, velocity and position of the subject using depth information from Microsoft Kinect sensor. Classification of human fall from other activities of daily life is accomplished using height and velocity of the subject extracted from the depth information. Finally position of the subject is identified for fall confirmation. From the experimental results, the proposed system was able to achieve an average accuracy of 94.81% with sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 93.33%

Formation of the Stomatal Outer Cuticular Ledge Requires a Guard Cell Wall Proline-Rich Protein

Stomata are formed by a pair of guard cells which have thickened, elastic cell walls to withstand the large increases in turgor pressure that have to be generated to open the pore that they surround. We have characterised FOCL1, a guard cell-expressed, secreted protein with homology to hydroxyproline-rich cell wall proteins. FOCL1-GFP localises to the guard cell outer cuticular ledge and plants lacking FOCL1 produce stomata without a cuticular ledge. Instead the majority of stomatal pores are entirely covered-over by a continuous fusion of the cuticle, and consequently plants have decreased levels of transpiration and display drought tolerance. The focl1 guard cells are larger and less able to reduce the aperture of their stomatal pore in response to closure signals suggesting that the flexibility of guard cell walls is impaired. FOCL1 is also expressed in lateral root initials where it aids lateral root emergence. We propose that FOCL1 acts in these highly specialised cells of the stomata and root to impart cell wall strength at high turgor and/or to facilitate interactions between the cell wall and the cuticle

More than sense of place? Exploring the emotional dimension of rural tourism experiences

It is widely suggested that participation in rural tourism is underpinned by a sense of rural place or “rurality”. However, although nature and the countryside have long been recognised as a source of spiritual or emotional fulfilment, few have explored the extent to which tourism, itself often claimed to be a sacred experience, offers an emotional/spiritual dimension in the rural context. This paper addresses that literature gap. Using in-depth interviews with rural tourists in the English Lake District, it explores the extent to which, within respondents’ individual understanding of spirituality, a relationship exists between sense of place and deeper, emotional experiences and, especially, whether participation in rural tourism may induce spiritual or emotional responses. The research revealed that all respondents felt a strong attachment to the Lake District; similarly, and irrespective of their openness to spirituality, engaging in rural tourism activities resulted in highly emotive experiences for all respondents, the description/interpretation of such experiences being determined by individual “beliefs”. However, sense of place was not a prerequisite to emotional or spiritual experiences. Being in and engaging with the landscape � effectively becoming part of it � especially through physical activity is fundamental to emotional responses

Host plant quality, spatial heterogeneity, and the stability of mite predator–prey dynamics

Population dynamics models suggest that both the over-all level of resource productivity and spatial variability in productivity can play important roles in community dynamics. Higher productivity environments are predicted to destabilize consumer–resource dynamics. Conversely, greater heterogeneity in resource productivity is expected to contribute to stability. Yet the importance of these two factors for the dynamics of arthropod communities has been largely overlooked. I manipulated nutrient availability for strawberry plants in a multi-patch experiment, and measured effects of overall plant quality and heterogeneity in plant quality on the stability of interactions between the phytophagous mite Tetranychus urticae and its predator Phytoseiulus persimilis. Plant size, leaf N content and T. urticae population growth increased monotonically with increasing soil nitrogen availability. This gradient in plant quality affected two correlates of mite population stability, population variability over time (i.e., coefficient of variation) and population persistence (i.e., proportion of plant patches colonized). However, the highest level of plant quality did not produce the least stable dynamics, which is inconsistent with the “paradox of enrichment”. Heterogeneity in plant productivity had modest effects on stability, with the only significant difference being less variable T. urticae densities in the heterogeneous compared to the corresponding homogeneous treatment. These results are generally congruent with metapopulation theory and other models for spatially segregated populations, which predict that stability should be governed largely by relative movement rates of predators and prey—rather than patch quality

Traits associated with innate and adaptive immunity in pigs: heritability and associations with performance under different health status conditions

There is a need for genetic markers or biomarkers that can predict resistance towards a wide range of infectious diseases, especially within a health environment typical of commercial farms. Such markers also need to be heritable under these conditions and ideally correlate with commercial performance traits. In this study, we estimated the heritabilities of a wide range of immune traits, as potential biomarkers, and measured their relationship with performance within both specific pathogen-free (SPF) and non-SPF environments. Immune traits were measured in 674 SPF pigs and 606 non-SPF pigs, which were subsets of the populations for which we had performance measurements (average daily gain), viz. 1549 SPF pigs and 1093 non-SPF pigs. Immune traits measured included total and differential white blood cell counts, peripheral blood mononuclear leucocyte (PBML) subsets (CD4+ cells, total CD8α+ cells, classical CD8αβ+ cells, CD11R1+ cells (CD8α+ and CD8α-), B cells, monocytes and CD16+ cells) and acute phase proteins (alpha-1 acid glycoprotein (AGP), haptoglobin, C-reactive protein (CRP) and transthyretin). Nearly all traits tested were heritable regardless of health status, although the heritability estimate for average daily gain was lower under non-SPF conditions. There were also negative genetic correlations between performance and the following immune traits: CD11R1+ cells, monocytes and the acute phase protein AGP. The strength of the association between performance and AGP was not affected by health status. However, negative genetic correlations were only apparent between performance and monocytes under SPF conditions and between performance and CD11R1+ cells under non-SPF conditions. Although we cannot infer causality in these relationships, these results suggest a role for using some immune traits, particularly CD11R1+ cells or AGP concentrations, as predictors of pig performance under the lower health status conditions associated with commercial farms

Understanding the factors that determine workplace coaching effectiveness: a systematic literature review

Meta-analytic results have established that workplace coaching is effective, however, little is known about the determinants of coaching effectiveness. This paper reports an inclusive systematic literature review, covering the quantitative and qualitative research on workplace coaching. We focus on seven promising areas in the current workplace coaching literature that emerged by the synthesis of 117 empirical studies: self-efficacy, coaching motivation, goal orientation, trust, interpersonal attraction, feedback intervention, and supervisory support. The major contribution of our paper is the systematic integration of well-established theoretical constructs in the workplace coaching context and the new insights we provide in the synthesis of these literatures. Based on our review we provide specific recommendations to be addressed in future research, including recommended research methodologies, which we propose will significantly progress the field of workplace coaching theory and practice