Freedom of information and ‘vexatious’ requests — The case of Scottish local government

This paper investigates the cost and incidence of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests within local authorities in Scotland and in particular, the cost and incidence of requests which have been defined as ‘vexatious’ in order to investigate if the negative perceptions surrounding the cost and misuse of the legislation are justified. Additionally, the criteria and guidelines that local authorities are using to define ‘vexatious’ are also examined. The approach taken to the research in this study is a survey of the 32 local authorities in Scotland using freedom of information requests as the data collection method. The findings from the survey revealed that none of the local authorities were keeping records of costs relating to FOI requests. However, 80% were keeping records of numbers of requests. One third of authorities that kept records of ‘vexatious’ requests had experienced such a request. However, the actual number of ‘vexatious’ requests received were extremely low. The findings highlight the difficulties in recording cost data and the general lack of record keeping within organisations. The findings also indicate a very low incidence of ‘vexatious’ requests and suggest that the ‘vexatious’ definition may be applied inappropriately by public authorities

The electric commons: A qualitative study of community accountability

This study explores how energy might be conceptualised as a commons, a resource owned and managed by a community with a system of rules for production and consumption. It tests one aspect of Elinor Ostrom's design principles for successful management of common pool resources: that there should be community accountability for individual consumption behaviour. This is explored through interviews with participants in a community demand response (DR) trial in an urban neighbourhood in the UK. Domestic DR can make a contribution to balancing electricity supply and demand. This relies on smart meters, which raise vertical (individual to large organisation) privacy concerns. Community and local approaches could motivate greater levels of DR than price signals alone. We found that acting as part of a community is motivating, a conclusion which supports local and community based roll out of smart meters. Mutually supportive, voluntary, and anonymous sharing of information was welcomed. However, mutual monitoring was seen as an invasion of horizontal (peer to peer) privacy. We conclude that the research agenda, which asks whether local commons-based governance of electricity systems could provide social and environmental benefits, is worth pursuing further. This needs a shift in regulatory barriers and ‘governance-system neutral’ innovation funding

Analysis of ground-source heat pumps in north-of-England homes

YesThe performance of Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) systems for domestic use is an increasing area of study in the UK. This paper examines the thermal performance of three bespoke shallow horizontal GSHP systems installed in newly built residential houses in the North of England against a control house which was fitted with a standard gas boiler. A total of 350 metres of High Density Polyethylene pipe with an external diameter of 40 mm was used for each house as a heat pump loop. The study investigated (i) the performance of a single loop horizontal Ground Heat Exchanger (GHE) against a double loop GHE and (ii) rainfall effects on heat extraction by comparing a system with an infiltration trench connected to roof drainage against a system without an infiltration trench above the ground loops. Parameters monitored for a full year from October 2013 to September 2014. Using the double GHE has shown an enhanced performance of up to 20% compared with single GHE. The infiltration trench is found to improve performance of the heat pumps; the double loop GHE system with an infiltration trench had a COP 5% higher than that of the double loop GHE system without a trench

Embedding arts and humanities in the creative economy: the role of graduates in the UK

The recent change in funding structure in the UK higher education system has fuelled an animated debate about the role that arts and humanities (A&H) subjects play not only within higher education but more broadly in the society and the economy. The debate has engaged with a variety of arguments and perspectives, from the intrinsic value of A&H, to their contribution to the broader society and their economic impact, particularly in relation to the creative economy, through knowledge exchange activities. The paper argues that in the current debate very little attention has been placed on the role that A&H graduates play in the economy, through their work after graduation, and specifically in the creative economy. Using Higher Education Statistical Agency data, we analyse the performance of A&H graduates (compared with other graduates) and particularly explore how embedded they are with the creative economy and its associated industries. The results highlight a complex intersection of different subdisciplines of the A&H with the creative economy but also reveal the salary gap and unstable working conditions experienced by graduates in this field

Neither an Authentic Product nor a Counterfeit: The Growing Popularity of Shanzhai Products in Global Markets

Counterfeits have been a longstanding concern to global brand manufactures. However, recently, a new product category that partly imitates and partly innovates under the term shanzhai has entered into market. Shanzhai products mimic original leading brands through visual or functional similarities and may also provide additional features. Given this new copycat phenomenon, our study for the first time conceptually distinguishes shanzhai products from counterfeits, theoretically compares the values of consumers choosing shanzhai products versus counterfeits, and empirically tests such differences in one integrative model. Specifically, shanzhai buyers value product functional benefits more than counterfeit buyers, while counterfeit buyers value status consumption, yet experience less self‐clarity than shanzhai buyers. Our findings offer important implications for imitative innovation literature as well as for practitioners.RésuméDe tout temps, la contrefaçon a toujours été une source de préoccupation pour les fabricants de marques mondiales. Cependant, récemment, une nouvelle catégorie de produits basée partiellement sur l’imitation et partiellement sur l’innovation et baptisée shanzhai a fait son entrée sur le marché. Les produits shanzhai imitent les marques phares d’origine avec lesquels ils comportent des similitudes visuelles ou fonctionnelles et peuvent exhiber des caractéristiques supplémentaires. Les auteurs de la présente étude s’appuient sur cette nouvelle forme de copisme pour d’une part, distinguer, pour la première fois, conceptuellement, les produits shanzhai des contrefaçons, d’autre part, comparer théoriquement les valeurs des consommateurs qui choisissent les produits shanzhai par rapport aux contrefaçons, et, enfin, tester empiriquement ces différences dans un modèle d’intégration. Leurs analyses montrent que les acheteurs de shanzhai apprécient davantage les avantages fonctionnels des produits que les acheteurs de contrefaçons, tandis que les acheteurs de contrefaçons apprécient la consommation de statut, tout en étant moins sûrs d’eux‐mêmes que les acheteurs de shanzhai. Les résultats comportent d’importantes implications pour la littérature sur l’innovation imitative et pour les praticiens.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151355/1/cjas1501.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151355/2/cjas1501_am.pd

Gas generation and wind power: A review of unlikely allies in the United Kingdom and Ireland

No single solution currently exists to achieve the utopian desire of zero fossil fuel electricity generation. Until such time, it is evident that the energy mix will contain a large variation in stochastic and intermittent sources of renewable energy such as wind power. The increasing prominence of wind power in pursuit of legally binding European energy targets enables policy makers and conventional generating companies to plan for the unique challenges such a natural resource presents. This drive for wind has been highly beneficial in terms of security of energy supply and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, it has created an unusual ally in natural gas. This paper outlines the suitability and challenges faced by gas generating units in their utilisation as key assets for renewable energy integration and the transition to a low carbon future. The Single Electricity Market of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the British Electricity Transmission Trading Agreement Market are the backdrop to this analysis. Both of these energy markets have a reliance on gas generation matching the proliferation of wind power. The unlikely and mostly ignored relationship between natural gas generation and wind power due to policy decisions and market forces is the necessity of gas to act as a bridging fuel. This review finds gas generation to be crucially important to the continued growth of renewable energy. Additionally, it is suggested that power market design should adequately reward the flexibility required to securely operate a power system with high penetrations of renewable energy, which in most cases is provided by gas generation

Advancing nursing practice : the emergence of the role of Advanced Practice Nurse in Saudi Arabia

Background: The roots of advanced practice nursing can be traced back to the 1890s, but the Nurse Practitioner (NP) emerged in Western countries during the 1960s in response to the unmet health care needs of populations in rural areas. These early NPs utilized the medical model of care to assess, diagnose and treat. Nursing has since grown as a profession, with its own unique and distinguishable, holistic, science-based knowledge, which is complementary within the multidisciplinary team. Today Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) demonstrate nursing expertise in clinical practice, education, research and leadership, and are no longer perceived as “physician replacements” or assistants. Saudi Arabia has yet to define, legislate or regulate Advanced Practice Nursing. Aims: This article aims to disseminate information from a Saudi Advanced Practice Nurse thought leadership meeting, to chronicle the history of Advanced Practice Nursing within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, while identifying strategies for moving forward. Conclusion: It is important to build an APN model based on Saudi health care culture and patient population needs, while recognizing global historical underpinnings. Ensuring that nursing continues to distinguish itself from other health care professions, while securing a seat at the multidisciplinary health care table will be instrumental in advancing the practice of nursing

End-user centred infrastructure operation: Towards integrated end-use service delivery

Reliable provision of water, energy and transportation, all supplied through infrastructure, is necessary for the most basic human and economic development to occur. Such development however, is not enabled by specific end-use products (e.g. litres of water, kWh of electricity, litres of diesel and petrol), or by infrastructure itself (i.e. the systems of energy, transport, digital information, water, waste and flood protection assets), but rather through the infrastructure end-use services (e.g. hygiene, thermal comfort, communication, or accessibility). The present form of infrastructure operation consists of supply systems provisioning unconstrained demand of end-use products, with larger consumption volumes corresponding to higher economic revenue. Providing infrastructure capacity to meet unmanaged growing demand is ultimately unsustainable, both in environmental and economic terms. Past research has focused on physical infrastructure assets on the one hand, and sustainable consumption and production on the other, often neglecting infrastructure end-use services. An important priority for sustainable infrastructure operation is therefore to analyse the infrastructure end-use service demands, and the variety of end-users’ wants and behaviours. This paper outlines the key aspects of an end-user and service-centred approach to infrastructure operation. It starts with an overview of relevant research areas and literature. It then describes the infrastructure end-use services provided by different infrastructure streams quantitatively, with the UK domestic sector as an illustration. Subsequently, insights into infrastructure integration at the end-user level are presented. Finally, the infrastructure end-use service perspective is described as a holistic framework for intervention: understanding technological changes in context, acting directly on end-use demand, and including social implications of service-based solutions

“It’s a Tug of War Between the Person I Used To Be and the Person I Want To Be” The Terror, Complexity, and Limits of Leaving Crime Behind

This article draws upon an ethnographic study of peer mentoring in the United Kingdom criminal justice system. It examines how people attempting to desist from criminal lifestyles often experience a period of crisis, characterized by unsettling practical and personal losses. Through interviews with peer mentors and mentees, and observations of mentoring practices, this study renders this sense of adversity visible. It also reveals the ways in which peer mentors may alleviate the weight of the crisis, by providing a blueprint of change, while appearing to be nonauthoritarian. These are important components given that mentees often feel untethered from known ways of being and describe their interactions with authority figures as embattled. An interesting secondary effect which emerges here is that peer mentors appear to shift the perceptions of external observers. This is a vital feature, given that sustained desistance from crime requires contexts conducive to such changes