Understanding the role of local safety groups in managing safety practices between micro construction firms and principal contractors

Construction projects incorporate the input of a range of tradesmen and different sized firms, ranging from micro to large organisations. Working practices of micro construction firms are carried out in an informal manner while larger organisations tend to adopt more formal on-site management techniques. Many micro firms seek to develop long-term relationships with large principal contractors and a major strain on their relationships stem from the difference in safety management techniques they employ. Faced with a fundamental shift in their style of safety management, workers of micro construction firms must successfully negotiate this challenge. Against this background, records from the Health and Safety Executives show year on year reductions in accident and incident rates in the East Midlands, an indication that the safety practices on projects are being implemented more effectively. Some of this success has been attributed to the efforts of local safety groups, such as Nottinghamshire Occupational Safety and Health Association (NOSHA). As such, it is important that the interdependencies between large principal contractors and micro firms, and the role that safety groups such as NOSHA play in managing this relationship are better understood. This paper presents interviews conducted with some members of NOSHA. This is the first of two phases of empirical work. The roles that the members of the local safety group perform have been found to go beyond simply promoting safety awareness and safety knowledge on site. They have been found to help in conflict resolution among the various construction parties. Such practices help create a harmonious working environment and subsequently lead to long-term working relations

Fuelling Active Galactic Nuclei

We suggest that most nearby active galactic nuclei are fed by a series of small--scale, randomly--oriented accretion events. Outside a certain radius these events promote rapid star formation, while within it they fuel the supermassive black hole. We show that the events have a characteristic time evolution. This picture agrees with several observational facts. The expected luminosity function is broadly in agreement with that observed for moderate--mass black holes. The spin of the black hole is low, and aligns with the inner disc in each individual feeding event. This implies radio jets aligned with the axis of the obscuring torus, and uncorrelated with the large--scale structure of the host galaxy. The ring of young stars observed about the Galactic Centre are close to where our picture predicts that star formation should occur.Comment: MNRAS, in pres

Littlest Inverse Seesaw Model

We propose a minimal predictive inverse seesaw model based on two right-handed neutrinos and two additional singlets, leading to the same low energy neutrino mass matrix as in the Littlest Seesaw (LS) (type I) model. In order to implement such a Littlest Inverse Seesaw (LIS) model, we have used an $S_{4}$ family symmetry, together with other various symmetries, flavons and driving fields. The resulting LIS model leads to an excellent fit to the low energy neutrino parameters, including the prediction of a normal neutrino mass ordering, exactly as in the usual LS model. However, unlike the LS model, the LIS model allows charged lepton flavour violating (CLFV) processes and lepton conversion in nuclei within reach of the forthcoming experiments.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures. Published versio

Instability of human societies as a result of conformity

We introduce a new model that mimics the strong and sudden effects induced by conformity in tightly interacting human societies. Such effects range from mere crowd phenomena to dramatic political turmoil. The model is a modified version of the Ising Hamiltonian. We have studied the properties of this Hamiltonian using both a Metropolis simulation and analytical derivations. Our study shows that increasing the value of the conformity parameter, results in a first order phase transition. As a result a majority of people begin honestly to support the idea that may contradict the moral principles of a normal human beings though each individual would support the moral principle without tight interaction with the society. Thus, above some critical level of conformity our society occurs to be instable with respect to ideas that might be doubtful. Our model includes, in a simplified way, human diversity with respect to loyalty to the moral principles.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted in Int. journ of modern physics section

Enablers and barriers in adopting a reablement model of domiciliary care

Purpose This paper explores the effectiveness of reablement as an outcome-focussed commissioning model within the English domiciliary care market from the perspective of two private domiciliary care agency (PDCA) managers/owners within one Local Authority (LA) in the North West of England. Specifically, it focusses on owner/managers’ perceived ability to effect change from a dependency to a reablement model within the English domiciliary care market. Design/ methodology/ approach Qualitative interviews with 2 contrasting owners/managers of PDCAs within one LA in the North West of England were carried out. Explorative analysis followed a constructionist grounded theory methodology. Findings Findings revealed how two main factors interacted to effect change from a dependency model to a reablement model of domiciliary care: internal organisational structure and individual emotional investment of the owners/managers. Additionally, fiscal and external organisational systems impact on these drivers, and are perceived to act as potential barriers to the adoption of a reablement model of domiciliary care by PDCAs. Originality/value Although based on only two idiographic accounts, the findings shed light on the policy and practice of commissioning models of domiciliary care within England and suggest further studies in this area of practice