Company offenders, can we control them? : a look at the Commercial Affairs Division : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies in Accounting and Finance at Massey University

In July 1984, the Securities Commission published their Report which reviewed the effectiveness of the resources that were available for corporate fraud investigations. The Government's response to the public's concern regarding corporate crime was to allocate additional resources to the Commercial Affairs Division of the Department of Justice, and confirm that the investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences by companies should continue to be "the shared responsibility" of the Police, and the Commercial Affairs Division. The injection of the additional resources to combat corporate crime is in danger of being viewed as a "political sop" by the public, if these resources are not effectively deployed. This study attempts to address this question by reviewing the structure and operational capability of the Commercial Affairs Division, with particular regard to its effectiveness to provide measures to monitor and regulate company offenders. A secondary aim was to ascertain what the concept of shared responsibility means to the investigative officers, and how it operates in practice. It was also envisaged that the study could establish a base for further research by providing the mechanism for a "before" and "after" comparison. A detailed descriptive analysis of the role, function, structure and legal authority of the Commercial Affairs Division was undertaken. Two questionnaires were developed. The first was directed at the investigative officers to provide information on the operational capability of the Division to combat corporate crime. The second questionnaire was directed at the controlling officer of each of the district offices to ascertain the effectiveness of the Division in terms of the number of complaints, follow-up investigations, and prosecutions. The concept of shared responsibility was dealt with by a three-pronged approach. The originators of the term were interviewed to establish what they meant by this concept and how it "should" operate. The official head of the Commercial Affairs Division was then interviewed in respect of how the concept was "thought" to operate, and finally the investigative officers themselves were surveyed as part of the questionnaire, to find out how it "did" operate. The results of the questionnaire survey revealed that the operating capability of the. investigative officers was seriously inhibited by internal problems such as lack of staff, lack of training, and a lack of resources generally. As a result of the magnitude of these inhibiting factors it was difficult to establish a clear cut finding beyond this. As you would expect, the above problems also seriously undermined the effectiveness of the Division in terms of completed investigations and prosecutions. The study found that the perceptions held by the originator's and the official head, on how the concept of shared responsibility should operate bears very little resemblance to reality. It was concluded that at the present time the Commercial Affairs Division has serious internal problems that were hindering the effective monitoring and regulating of company offenders

Experiences of Jordanian Mothers and Fathers of Children with Cancer

Previous studies investigating psychological stress of parents of a child with cancer have shown inconsistent findings about parental perceived stress whose children have cancer and most of these studies were established in Western communities (with none in the Arab world). Additionally, the majority of published research focused on mothers. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore perceived stress in mothers and fathers (couples) parenting a child with cancer in Jordan. Such an exploration may contribute to the existing literature and improve overall family survivorship experiences following childhood cancer in Jordan. This qualitative study used semistructured interviews of 12 mothers and 12 fathers parenting a child with cancer in Jordan. Parents of children of various cancer diagnoses were interviewed and the ages of children were between six months and 14 years. Most mothers admitted that being with the ill child most of the time and therefore away from other healthy children, relatives and friends was the main cause of stress. However, most fathers said that employment status and financial burden were their main causes of stress after their child’s health status. Most of the interviewed couples commented that they were sharing the life situation with their partners, helping and supporting each other to overcome the challenges. Results of this study highlight the importance of recognizing the psychological needs of Jordanian mothers and fathers of a child with cancer not only at the time of diagnosis but also during the cancer journey

Cultivation of Oleaginous Microorganism Consortium on Municipal Wastewater for the Production of Lipids

Alternative fuels are necessary to meet the increasing demands for fuels. Alternative fuels such as biodiesel are produced using vegetable oils, which are prominentt in the food industry. An alternate feedstock could be oil-producing microorganisms. These oleaginous microorganisms are defined as accumulating more than 20% of their weight in oil as lipids. Cultivating these microorganisms for oil production is not economical due to the high production costs from the sugars in the culture medium. Municipal wastewater could be a potential growth medium that has not previously been considered for cultivating oleaginous microorganisms. However, municipal wastewater contains a low concentration of carbon, which does not promote oil accumulation in the oleaginous microorganisms. To increase the carbon concentration in the wastewater, lignocellulosic sugars could be added to the municipal wastewater. These sugars are a potential alternative to sugars that are in the food industry. The goal of this research is to determine the efficacy of using municipal wastewater to cultivate a consortium of oleaginous microorganisms, thus, producing oil for biodiesel production. First, a consortium of oleaginous microorganisms was cultivated on autoclaved wastewater to determine if the wastewater contains any inhibiting substances for the microorganisms. In addition to the substances in the wastewater, indigenous microorganisms are possible inhibitors to the consortium. Therefore, to determine the effect these indigenous microorganisms have on the oleaginous microorganisms, the consortium was cultivated on raw municipal wastewater amended with varying amounts of sugar. Since the municipal wastewater can be used as a cultivation medium, the effect of the addition of lignocellulosic sugars was determined. During the production of lignocellulosic sugars, furfural and acetic acid, known microbial inhibitors, are formed. The effect of these inhibitors on the consortium’s growth and oil accumulation ability was ascertained, and inhibition models were developed to describe their impact. With these results, SuperPro Designer v6.0 was used to perform simulations and economic analyses to determine the efficacy of incorporating an oleaginous microorganism consortium in a wastewater treatment facility

Securing the future: competitive but "fair" A critical exploration of the tangible and intangible push-pull factors for fair trade SME success

There is no moral pedestal for being a fair trade SME, when it comes to building value or competitiveness. The original concept of fair trade may not have changed, but today it has evolved beyond simply ‘black and white/in or out’. Indeed, the UK SME, just as their larger competitors, may not be Fairtrade© exclusive, whether that be in niche or mainstream markets. Furthermore, to trade using fair trade credentials alone will be insufficient, when their larger rivals can achieve economies of scale and through availability and convenience, target the ‘feel good’ consumer. Whilst Fairtrade© brings the poor farmer and shopper together and arguably ticks the box for large retailers, it is less clear ‘what is in it’ for the UK fair trade SME. The purpose of this thesis is to critically explore the tangible and intangible push-pull factors that enable them to grow and build resilience within a dynamic, but highly competitive ‘virtuous’ market. It will consider how SMEs balance their human, values based decisions with the pressure to remain viable and whether in reality, they simply make pragmatic mental trade-offs to secure their future. The research is exploratory, inductive and qualitative from the epistemological and ontological position of interpretivism and social constructivism; drawing upon grounded theory to support data coding and analysis. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 13 SMEs in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and London between December 2012 and June 2013. A coding framework was designed to classify those significant and interconnected factors and a typology of fair trade SMEs that reflects that one size ‘does not fit all’, within this growing and strategic market. Furthermore, through a values based orientation which extends across the supply chain, it will also show how ‘responsible business’ is a reality, through the creation of ‘shared value’

Children’s experience and attitudes towards the police, personal safety and public spaces: findings from the 2009/10 British Crime Survey interviews with children aged 10 to 15, supplementary volume 3 to Crime in England and Wales 2009/10

The British Crime Survey (BCS) is a face-to-face victimisation survey of around 46,000 adults resident in households in England and Wales. The survey has been carried out since 19821, asking adults aged 16 or over about their experiences of crime in the 12 months prior to interview as well as their attitudes towards different crime-related issues such as the police, criminal justice system, and perceptions of crime and anti-social behaviour. One of the key recommendations of crime statistics reviews carried out in 2006 was that the BCS should be extended to include populations currently not covered by the survey, for example, people aged under 16 (Smith, 2006; Statistics Commission, 2006). An announcement was made in May 2008 that the BCS would be extended to include children aged 10 to 15 following independent expert advice (Pickering et al., 2008). After a period of testing, development and consultation, data collection began in January 2009. A methodological report detailing all aspects of this process was published on 21 October 2010 (see Fitzpatrick et al., 2010)

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy-Integration of Canonical Traumatic Brain Injury Secondary Injury Mechanisms with Tau Pathology

In recent years, a new neurodegenerative tauopathy labeled Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), has been identified that is believed to be primarily a sequela of repeated mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), often referred to as concussion, that occurs in athletes participating in contact sports (e.g. boxing, football, football, rugby, soccer, ice hockey) or in military combatants, especially after blast-induced injuries. Since the identification of CTE, and its neuropathological finding of deposits of hyperphosphorylated tau protein, mechanistic attention has been on lumping the disorder together with various other non-traumatic neurodegenerative tauopathies. Indeed, brains from suspected CTE cases that have come to autopsy have been confirmed to have deposits of hyperphosphorylated tau in locations that make its anatomical distribution distinct for other tauopathies. The fact that these individuals experienced repetitive TBI episodes during their athletic or military careers suggests that the secondary injury mechanisms that have been extensively characterized in acute TBI preclinical models, and in TBI patients, including glutamate excitotoxicity, intracellular calcium overload, mitochondrial dysfunction, free radical-induced oxidative damage and neuroinflammation, may contribute to the brain damage associated with CTE. Thus, the current review begins with an in depth analysis of what is known about the tau protein and its functions and dysfunctions followed by a discussion of the major TBI secondary injury mechanisms, and how the latter have been shown to contribute to tau pathology. The value of this review is that it might lead to improved neuroprotective strategies for either prophylactically attenuating the development of CTE or slowing its progression

Effectiveness of Aquatic Physiotherapy in Clinical Practice

Current healthcare provision demands evidence of clinical effectiveness. Since 2007, The Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile (MYMOP2) questionnaire has been used in the Aquatic Physiotherapy (AP) Department at the Brighton and Sussex Universitiy Hospitals NHS trust since 2007. This service evaluation presents a snapshot of pre- and post- MYMOP2 scores for a 3-month period. All patients (n = 125) attending for AP between January and March 2012 completed a MYMOP2 before and after treatment. AP was given as per Aquatic Therapy Association of Chartered Physiotherapists Guidance on Good practice in Hydrotherapy. The MYMOP2 Profile score was calculated from the mean of the prepost differences of 4 item scores. The majority of patients had musculoskeletal conditions; mean age 56.8 years (SD: 16.5) and mean number of treatments was 5.21 (SD: 1.6). MYMOP2 profile score decreased in 90.8% of patients, signifying improvement. In real terms, there was a median and significant improvement of 1.5 points (IQR:-1.5) on the 7 point MYMOP2 profile score (p=0.0001). The majority of patients 77.3% met or exceeded “the index of responsiveness, relating to the minimal clinically important difference” of 0.85 Paterson (1996). The results demonstrate clinical effectiveness of AP for patients, who present with a diversity of conditions and provides real-world evidence of outcome. The MYMOP2 tool has been shown to be a feasible and responsive measure for use in AP