The relationship between work measurement and management accounting in small businesses

The research starts from the general premise that small firms could benefit from greater combined use of management techniques. Through analyses of the general concepts of two such techniques, management accounting and work measurement, theoretical links based on their various properties are established between them and their relevance to small businesses is assessed. The testing of a hypothesised relationship between the use of work measurement and beneficial output of management accounting information is carried out in small business units of the furniture and timber industry in the North of England. Measures are designed and applied to generate two sample groups of firms which are similar in their use of management accounting but are dichotomous in either using or not using work measurement. Differences between how useful the accounting information on direct labour activity is perceived by managers and supervisors from the two groups are measured. An assessment is made of whether this difference is associated mainly with the use of work measurement, or is influenced by the accounting system itself or by the behavioural aspects of the environment in which it operates. The results show clearly that in the cases researched, the management accounting information is perceived as being more useful by decision makers when it is based on the use of work measurement. Similar perceptions about the usefulness of information are held by accountants. Guide lines are suggested to aid small businesses in general who are not in the furniture and timber industry to assess the relevance of the research results to themselves

Strategic Review of Tropical Fisheries Management

This project addresses the constraints to tropical fisheries development with sustainable exploitation through a strategic assessment of tropical fisheries management with the following purposes: (1) To evaluate relevant research methods for the development of assessment models appropriate to the circumstances of tropical coastal fisheries; and (2) To evaluate the utility of existing strategies for the implementation of management advice. The report consists of three substantive chapters. Chapter 2 contains a detailed socio-economic assessment of various instruments and implementation strategies applicable to tropical capture fisheries. In Chapter 3, a detailed assessment of the fisheries for tropical large marine ecosystems has been conducted using a technique developed by FAO (Granger & Garcia 1996). The data used were the FAO statistics published regularly by FAO. This analysis has been conducted for each of the tropical large marine ecosystems and indicates that there is the potential for increased fishing in a number of these ecosystems. One of the clear requirements identified in Chapter 2 and implicit in Chapter 3, is that there is a significant need for simple and robust fisheries assessment methods which can estimate the potential of a particular resource, its capacity in terms of the level of fishing effort and its current status ie whether it is currently exploited sustainably or not. In Chapter 4, these problems are addressed directly and, using two approaches, significant simplification of fishery methods is developed. In the first approach, simple empirical relationships between the life history parameters of a species are used to develop models of potential yield which can be determined by a simple assessment of fish growth. In the second approach, optimal life history theory is applied to the key demographic parameters of exploited fish populations and using estimates of the Beverton & Holt invariants a significant simplifying of the basic stock assessment equations is developed

Fractionation of human immune γ-globulin

Equine and bovine serum proteins have recently been fractionated by means of a physical method utilizing an electrophoretic adaptation of the principles of the Clusius column (l-4), first described and tested by Kirkwood (5) and Nielsen (6). The method of electrophoresis-convection has now been applied to the fractionation of human γ-globulin. The γ-globulin was prepared by ethanol fractionation (7) from the plasma of individuals hyperimmunized to Hemophilus pertussis organisms. The resulting fractions of γ-globulin have been characterized electrophoretically, and the protective antibody activity and agglutinin titer have been measured

Asymptotic decay of pair correlations in a Yukawa fluid

We analyse the $r \to \infty$ asymptotic decay of the total correlation function, $h(r)$, for a fluid composed of particles interacting via a (point) Yukawa pair potential. Such a potential provides a simple model for dusty plasmas. The asymptotic decay is determined by the poles of the liquid structure factor in the complex plane. We use the hypernetted-chain closure to the Ornstein-Zernike equation to determine the line in the phase diagram, well-removed from the freezing transition line, where crossover occurs in the ultimate decay of $h(r)$, from monotonic to damped oscillatory. We show: i) crossover takes place via the same mechanism (coalescence of imaginary poles) as in the classical one-component plasma and in other models of Coulomb fluids and ii) leading-order pole contributions provide an accurate description of $h(r)$ at intermediate distances $r$ as well as at long range.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Propagation of Exchange Bias in CoFe/FeMn/CoFe Trilayers

CoFe/FeMn, FeMn/CoFe bilayers and CoFe/FeMn/CoFe trilayers were grown in magnetic field and at room temperature. The exchange bias field $H_{eb}$ depends strongly on the order of depositions and is much higher at CoFe/FeMn than at FeMn/CoFe interfaces. By combining the two bilayer structures into symmetric CoFe/FeMn($t_\mathrm{FeMn}$)/CoFe trilayers, $H_{eb}^t$ and $H_{eb}^b$ of the top and bottom CoFe layers, respectively, are both enhanced. Reducing $t_\mathrm{FeMn}$ of the trilayers also results in enhancements of both $H_{eb}^b$ and $H_{eb}^t$. These results evidence the propagation of exchange bias between the two CoFe/FeMn and FeMn/CoFe interfaces mediated by the FeMn antiferromagnetic order

Grey seal tracking reveals different behaviours of resident and transient population components

Grey seals recently recolonised the Dutch coasts. The exponential population growth is fuelled by immigrating grey seals from the UK, who subsequently breed in the Netherlands. In addition, population survey data suggested that a number of grey seals use the Dutch area to forage, but return to the UK to breed. Although such population surveys can provide insight into discrepancies and regional imbalances in the number of seals observed on land, the data are insufficient to measure the actual underlying migration processes. Using an extensive data set on individually tracked grey seals, we study the movement of grey seals in relation to where they forage and breed. The tracked seals of different age and sex classes were recognised to be either resident or transient based on where they went during and outside the breeding season. The grey seals breeding in the Netherlands also only haul-out in the Netherlands throughout the period between the moult and next breeding season. Only animals that bred elsewhere (respectively 50% of the adult females and 67% of the adult males tracked in this study) visited regions other than Dutch waters during the rest of the year. Some however, remained in Dutch waters continuously between the breeding trips to other countries. The tracking data suggest a higher number of grey seals might be visiting the Dutch waters than was estimated in a population analysis based on aerial surveys. These results might also have consequences for the population modelling used to estimate the grey seal population size in the UK. As eastern Atlantic grey seals in the North Sea are a mixed meta-population, coordinated, international collaborations are needed to assess their status and trends. Since transient seals might be driven by intraspecific competition, ecological studies on for example, the role of grey seals as a top predator, need to consider the entire North Sea grey seal population

Private sector expansion and the widening NHS treatment gap between rich and poor in England: Admissions for NHS-funded elective primary hip and knee replacements between 1997/98 and 2018/19

\ua9 2024Parliament has imposed duties on the government and NHS in England aimed at reducing health inequalities. Aim: to understand the effect on inequalities of government policies, which require the NHS in England to outsource elective surgery to the private sector. We analysed the numbers of admissions for hip and knee replacement surgery from the least and most deprived population quintiles in three time periods: before the introduction of the policies (1997/98–2002/03); following the implementation of the independent sector treatment centre programme (2003/04–2006/07); and after the extension of \u27choice at referral’ (2007/08–2018/19). Results: despite admission rates doubling and trebling for hip and knee replacements, respectively, between 1997/98 and 2018/19, inequality grew to the detriment of the most deprived. Inequality grew at the fastest rate during period 3; admission rates to the NHS fell while admissions to the private sector continued to rise. By 2018/19 almost a third of NHS funded procedures were provided privately. In 1997/98, for every 10 patients admitted for hip and knee surgery from the most deprived quintile, 13 and 9, respectively were admitted from the least deprived, by 2018/19 the gap had widened to 19 and 15, respectively. Socio-economic inequalities for hip and knee replacement have widened as outsourcing of NHS treatment to the private sector has increased. The NHS must rebuild in-house capacity and provision instead of outsourcing care