Exploring the use of online corporate sustainability information

Whilst the supply, exclusivity and prominence of online corporate sustainability information has increased in recent years, comparatively little is known about what information is used by whom. This paper explores which user groups access online corporate sustainability information, and assesses the relative use of sustainability reports and other forms of social and environmental information disseminated on corporate Websites. To collect the necessary empirical data, the paper analyses 4,652,471 successful requests for information made by the users of 10 UK FTSE 350 corporate websites. \ud \ud The paper finds that the majority of requests for online sustainability information originate from the reporting company indicative of an inward focus to sustainability reporting. In examining access to different online information sets, distinct profiles of corporate Website users begin to emerge. Requests from employees, private individuals, ISPs and consultants represent the vast majority of the online sustainability reporting audience and the corporate website in general. Contrastingly, a professional financially-orientated profile of users characterised by professional investors, creditors, accounting firms and lawyers make significantly more use of the Annual Report but significantly less use of sustainability reporting information and other online disclosures. Although prior literature notes how companies have yet to utilise the potential of the online medium in disseminating corporate sustainability information, disclosures are found to attract approximately a tenth of all corporate website requests. Environmental and ethical disclosures outside the Annual Report are the most popular sources of online corporate sustainability information whilst ‘standalone’ Sustainability and/or Ethics Reports attract comparatively few requests

Challenges and Solutions in Constructing a Microsimulation Model of the Use and Costs of Medical Services in Australia

This paper describes the development of a microsimulation model =HealthMod‘ which simulates the use and costs of medical and related services by Australian families. Australia has a universal social insurance scheme known as =Medicare‘ which provides all Australians with access to free or low-cost essential medical services. These services are provided primarily by general practitioners as well as specialist doctors but also include diagnostic and imaging services. Individuals may pay a direct out-of pocket contribution if fees charged for services are higher than the reimbursement schedule set by government. HealthMod is based on the Australian 2001 National Health Survey. This survey had a number of deficiencies in terms of modelling the national medical benefits scheme. The article outlines three major methodological steps that had to be taken in the model construction: the imputation of synthetic families, the imputation of short-term health conditions, and the annualisation of doctor visits and costs. Some preliminary results on the use of doctor services subsidised through Australia‘s Medicare are presented.Economic microsimulation modelling, medical services, use and costs, Australia

Predicting the need for aged care services at the small area level: the CAREMOD spatial microsimulation model

Most industrialised societies face rapid population ageing over the next two decades, including sharp increases in the number of people aged 85 years and over. As a result, the supply of and demand for aged care services has assumed increasing policy prominence. The likely spatial distribution of the need for aged care services is critical for planners and policy makers. This article describes the development of a regional microsimulation model of the need for aged care in New South Wales, a state of Australia. It details the methods involved in reweighting the 1998 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, a national level dataset, against the 2001 Census to produce synthetic small area estimates at the statistical local area level. Validation shows that survey variables not constrained in the weighting process can provide unreliable local estimates. A proposed solution to this problem is outlined, involving record cloning, value imputation and alignment. Indicative disability estimates arising from this process are then discussed.Disability, ageing, spatial analysis, aged care, cloning; imputation; alignment; NATSEM

Developments in Internet financial reporting : review and analysis, across five developed countries

Internet based corporate reporting is wide spread amongst companies of all sizes in most countries around the world. The development of online reporting practice has been rapid, largely mirroring, and motivated by, the development of the world-wide-web since 1994, being the primary Internet medium for online reporting. A number of studies of these developments have occurred over this time seeking to plot how companies are exploiting the media of the Internet and how they are developing their reporting practices in response to this ubiquitous route to current and potential investors, and other stakeholders. In this paper, we develop this literature further by extending the benchmarks that have been created to monitor this activity since the mid 1990s. This study focuses on the very largest companies in five countries around the world. It examines online reporting practices of 250 companies at the end of 2001 and in early 2002 by creating a detailed attribute analysis of common factors across the companies examined. In addition to illustrating developments in online reporting practices since the previous extensive studies were conducted in 1999 and early 2000, the results provide new insight into recent changes in this domain. It particularly illustrates how newer, more interactive, aspects of Internet technologies are now being exploited to enable us to benchmark these activities to follow their use in the near future. The paper then addresses the relationship between the size of companies and its level of reporting practices, and the differences between reporting practices of large companies listed primarily in the different countries examined. These results illustrate that reporting practices differ significantly between companies in different domains.La investigación de corporaciones basada en internet está muy extendida entre compañías de todos los tamaños en la mayoría de países del mundo. El desarrollo de la investigación online ha sido rápido, prácticamente imitando (y motivado por) el desarrollo del mundo online desde 1994, siendo la fuente de principal para este medio. Se han llevado a cabo numerosos estudios acerca de estos desarrollos, buscando trazar cómo las compañías están explotando este recurso de internet y cómo están desarrollando sus procedimientos en la búsqueda de potenciales inversores y otros activistas. En este artículo, desarrollamos esta literatura más allá extendiendo los límites que han sido creados para monitorizar esta actividad desde mediados de los 90. Este estudio se centra en las compañías más grandes a lo largo del mundo. Examina prácticas de investigación online de 250 compañías al final de 2001 y principios de 2002, creando un análisis detallado de los factores comunes que comparten estas compañías. En adición a ilustrar estos desarrollos desde los estudios previos, los resultados proporcionan una nueva visión en los cambios recientes en este dominio. Particularmente ilustra cómo los aspectos de internet más recientes están siendo explotados para permitirnos marcar estas actividades para seguir su uso en el futuro cercano. El artículo hace referencia también a la relación entre el tamaño de las compañías y su nivel de búsqueda, y con respecto a las primeras compañías en los listados de cada país. Los resultados nos muestran que estas prácticas difieren significativamente entre compañías pertenecientes a diferentes campos

Enhancing the Australian National Health Survey Data for Use in a Microsimulation Model of Pharmaceutical Drug Usage and Cost

While static microsimulation models of the tax-transfer system are now available throughout the developed world, health microsimulation models are much rarer. This is, at least in part, due to the difficulties in creating adequate base micro-datasets upon which the microsimulation models can be constructed. In sharp contrast to tax-transfer modelling, no readily available microdata set typically contains all the health status, health service usage and socio-demographic information required for a sophisticated health microsimulation model. This paper describes three new techniques developed to overcome survey data limitations when constructing \'MediSim\', a microsimulation model of the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Comparable statistical matching and data imputation techniques may be of relevance to other modellers, as they attempt to overcome similar data deficiencies. The 2001 national health survey (NHS) was the main data source for MediSim. However, the NHS has a number of limitations for use in a microsimulation model. To compensate for this, we statistically matched the NHS with another national survey to create synthetic families and get a complete record for every individual within each family. Further, we used complementary datasets to impute short term health conditions and prescribed drug usage for both short- and long-term health conditions. The application of statistical matching methods and use of complementary data sets significantly improved the usefulness of the NHS as a base dataset for MediSim.Base Data, Drug Usage, Microsimulation, Pharmaceutical Benefits, Scripts, Statistical Matching

Double minimum in the surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal switching response

A double minimum has recently been observed in the time–voltage switching response for a smectic C* liquid crystal layer in the surface stabilized geometry (“Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Device,” K. P. Lymer and J. C. Jones, U.K. Patent No. GB2338797, 17th June 1999). Liquid crystal continuum theory is used to demonstrate that this unusual switching behavior arises if the equilibrium orientation of the molecular director rotates around the smectic cone as a function of distance through one half of the layer only. The double minimum is shown to evolve for large differences between the ε2 and ε1 components of the smectic C biaxial permittivity tensor

Seeing ethnographically: teaching ethnography as part of CSCW

While ethnography is an established part of CSCW research, teaching and learning ethnography presents unique and distinct challenges. This paper discusses a study of fieldwork and analysis amongst a group of students learning ethnography as part of a CSCW & design course. Studying the students’ practices we explore fieldwork as a learning experience, both learning about fieldsites as well as learning the practices of ethnography. During their fieldwork and analysis the students used a wiki to collaborate, sharing their field and analytic notes. From this we draw lessons for how ethnography can be taught as a collaborative analytic process and discuss extensions to the wiki to better support its use for collaborating around fieldnotes. In closing we reflect upon the role of learning ethnography as a practical hands on – rather than theoretical – pursuit

Two-dimensional spectroscopy of γ-aminobutyric acid on a clinical MRI scanner

Measurement of the cerebral metabolite y-aminobutyric acid (GABA) has been performed on clinical MRI scanners using a variety of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) techniques. MRS studies of GABA are difficult, especially at 1.5T due to low in-vivo concentrations and overlapping of higher concentration metabolites. Unlike spectral editing methods, two-dimensional (2D) MRS allows the simultaneous measurement of GABA and other, more traditional metabolites. This work evaluates three implementations of 2D MRS for both in-vitro and in-vivo GABA measurement on a clinical MRI scanner.Existing spectroscopy sequences were used to develop a protocol for performing 2D Jresolved MRS without a dedicated sequence. GABA was measured in-vitro at concentrations approaching normal physiological levels and volunteer results allowed assignment of the 3.01ppm GABA resonance at its J-coupling frequency (7.4Hz). However, the prolonged scan time of over two hours prevented practical application of this approach.A far more efficient method of acquiring 2D J-resolved spectra is achieved with a dedicated 2D J-resolved sequence. An optimised set of acquisition parameters was produced to allow GABA measurement with maximum SNR, and without macromolecule contamination, in 35 minutes. Since the reproducibility of the sequence must be sufficient to detect physiological changes, a formal reproducibility study was performed acquiring three measures of reproducibility at six concentrations of GABA, using a standard volume head coil, 3"- and 5"- surface coils. To our knowledge, this is the first such reproducibility study dedicated to 2D J-resolved GABA measurement, and as such, could have significant implications on the interpretation of in-vivo results. In-vivo 2D J-resolved spectra were acquired and compared well to the published results, allowing assignment of the 3.0Ippm GABA (plus macromolecule) peak (J = 7.4Hz). In the first reported 2D J-resolved spectra specifically designed to reduce the macromolecule contribution by optimising the echo time range, assignment of the in-vivo 3.01 ppm GABA peak was less convincing.As an alternative to 2D J-resolved spectroscopy, preliminary testing of 2D correlation spectroscopy (COSY) showed that it was not as sensitive or robust for either in-vitro or invivo GABA measurement. Although provisional assignment of the 3.01 ppm GABA peak was made, in their current form, neither technique is suitable for pure GABA measurement at 1.5T

Griffins, Myths and Religion: A review of the archaeological evidence from ancient Greece and the early nomads of Central Asia

Classical writers have provided us with marvelous tales of strange hybrid creatures known as griffins that dwelt along the peripheries of their known world. These fabulous beasts with raptor heads and winged feline bodies have captured the Western imagination and have been referred to in literary works since medieval times. Dante Alighieri, for example, encountered a chariot being pulled by a griffin in the earthly Paradise of his 14th-century work the Divine Comedy. A few centuries later, the renowned story of griffins guarding gold stolen by Arimaspian thieves was incorporated into John Milton’s 17th-century epic poem Paradise Lost. Much attention has been devoted to the earliest mentions of griffins in Classical Greek texts that associate them with the mysterious Arimaspians. Their geographic origin has been a source of much scholarly debate and the proposal of the eastern edges of Central Asia has come to the fore with the discoveries of frozen tombs belonging to an early nomadic culture in the Altai mountains. One theory, though, which has gained prominence in recent years, argues the griffin was a legendary monster based on folkloric accounts of ancient sightings of dinosaur bones found in the Gobi desert that lies further beyond the Altai. A re-examination of griffin imagery in the art and archaeology of Archaic Greece and early nomadic Central Asia, however, presents a different picture. Moreover, as opposed to being mere creatures of folklore and myth, there is significant evidence for the griffin being embedded in the religious worldviews of the early nomads of the Altai