Ethics and Business

To many, the old adage that business and ethics never mix, has been reinforced by the constant revelations of the various tribunals set up since the early 1990’s. Laura Nash, Associate Professor at Boston University Graduate School of Management has stated “Many an executive today voices cynicism at the relevance of moral inquiry to managerial practice. For many reasons from the external fact of greed to the very different ways in which we tend to think about managing and morality, ethics and business have often seemed if not downright contradictory, at least several worlds apart” Commentators on Irish business practice might tend to agree with Nash as Irish company law has been characterised, by a culture of non compliance with only 13% of companies filing returns on time in 1997 to the Companies Office. Persistent breaches of the Companies Act, banking scandals, alleged payments to politicians, and company non compliance with many regulatory bodies, would lead most observers to believe that the question of business ethics has never been high on the agenda of certain Irish companies and entrepreneurs

Mapping the Sensitive Volume of an Ion-Counting Nanodosimeter

We present two methods of independently mapping the dimensions of the sensitive volume in an ion-counting nanodosimeter. The first method is based on a calculational approach simulating the extraction of ions from the sensitive volume, and the second method on probing the sensitive volume with 250 MeV protons. Sensitive-volume maps obtained with both methods are compared and systematic errors inherent in both methods are quantified.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to JINST, Jan. 16 200

Ring laser angle encoder

Ring laser angle encoder with a scanning photometer autocollimator and an isolation axis, provides continuous digital readout. It measures the angular difference in inertial attitudes of target /any phenomena generating or reflecting a light beam/ two at a time relative to target one at a time

Stimulation of partially purified adenylate cyclase from bull sperm by bicarbonate

AbstractSolubilized and partially purified adenylate cyclase from bull sperm was found to be specifically activated (up to 6-fold) by sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) and to a lesser extent by NANO3. Other sodium salts were either ineffective (e.g. NaCOOH) or inhibitory (e.g. NaHSO3, NaHSO4 and Na2B4O7). Stimulation by NaHCO3 was dose-dependent in the range of 0–40 mM and was greater when enzyme activity was assayed in the presence of magnesium as compared with manganese ions. Bicarbonate seems to affect maximal enzyme velocity (Vmax) and has no effect on the Km of adenylate cyclase for Mn-ATP. Stimulation of adenylate cyclase by NaHCO3 coincided with the elution pattern of the enzyme as recorded following chromatography on DEAE-cellulose or gel filtration on BioGel P-100. These results suggest that in the course of stimulation of sperm adenylate cyclase, bicarbonate is likely to interact directly with the enzyme. Furthermore, this intrinsic and unique property of sperm adenylate cyclase may explain results reported by others on the stimulation of cAMP production by bicarbonate in intact and broken sperm preparations and suggest a biochemical basis for enhanced sperm motility associated with high bicarbonate concentrations

Interactionist Qualitative Research as a Semiotic Mediation Activity

In this article, we introduce qualitative research from an interactionist perspective. We specifically explore qualitative research itself as a semiotic process with associated actions. This enables researchers to make sense of human interactions in the world rather than solely focusing on semiotic analysis of qualitative data. We introduce Peirce’s semiotics and Vygotsky’s mediated action as tools for conceptualizing qualitative research in a semiotic mediation process. Understanding qualitative research as a semiotic mediation can help social scientists better understand their own role in research, while vicariously gaining experiences about human interactions that they later present to others