Sustainable deathstyles? The geography of green burials in Britain

In the context of a wider literature on ‘deathscapes’, we map the emergence of a new mode of burial and remembrance in Britain. Since a ‘green’ burial ground was established in Carlisle in 1993, sites for so-called ‘green, ‘natural’ or ‘woodland’ funerals have proliferated. There are now over 270 such sites in Britain. Drawing on a postal and email survey sent to all managers/owners and visits to 15 green burial grounds (enabling observations and semi-structured interviews with their managers), we chart their growth, establishment and regulation and describe the landscapes associated with them. This requires, and leads to, wider reflections on nature, capital, consumption, culture and the body

The auditor’s response to fraud in the client organisation: The impact of corporate governance, internal controls and auditor industry specialisation on audit pricing.

The primary aim of this study is to determine the extent to which external auditors, in exercising their responsibilities under the Australian Auditing Standards, conduct additional audit work (proxied by audit fees) when audit clients have experienced known misappropriation of assets (MOA) fraud. The research is motivated by three key factors. The first being the mounting concerns by the Australian government and others in relation to audit quality. The second being the significant public concern related to fraud within organisations, and the increasingly sophisticated methods used to commit such crimes. Third being the potential to investigate the link, if any, between audit pricing and MOA fraud. This potential relationship is inherently under-researched globally reflecting a lack of access to data on MOA. This study employed a sample of 60 Australian listed companies that have experienced known MOA fraud in the period from 2002-2010, as well as 60 control companies which have been individually matched to the fraud companies by industry and size. I investigated in a fraud context whether corporate governance, internal control factors and auditor industry specialisation impact on the extent of any additional audit work undertaken by the auditor when their client has experienced known MOA fraud. The research makes a unique theoretical contribution by examining how the substitution effect, role-conflict theory and signalling theory interconnect within an agency framework in the context of known fraud. Employing a quantitative approach to research design and analysis, a deductive approach is used to draw hypotheses from agency theory, substitution, role conflict and signalling theories which seeks to explain the relationships between fraud, auditor specialisation, corporate governance, internal control and audit fees. Four empirical models are presented based on these hypotheses, and data is collected and statistically analysed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to test the models, hypotheses and the theories which underpin them. This study found that companies with higher losses from MOA fraud paid significantly higher audit fees than those companies with lower losses from MOA fraud. This suggests that auditors expend additional audit effort, and this additional effort translates into higher audit fees. This contributes to the audit quality debate amongst regulators, researchers, the accounting profession and the public by confirming that the auditor is acting (at least in part) in response to their responsibilities pertaining to fraud as required by Australian Auditing Standards. This finding has an associated theoretical contribution, since MOA fraud can be considered an agency problem, and these additional audit fees can be regarded as an additional external monitoring cost under agency theory. The study does not find a significant relationship between corporate governance characteristics or prevention-focused fraud-related internal controls and audit fees. However, evidence is presented that detection-focused fraud-related internal controls reduce the additional audit work undertaken by the auditor in response to MOA fraud. This provides regulators with greater insights into the factors that auditors consider when deciding how to respond to MOA fraud in discharging their responsibilities under ASA 240 'The Auditor's Responsibilities Relating to Fraud in an Audit of a Financial Report'. These findings also provide a theoretical contribution by developing a greater understanding of which factors do, and do not, produce a substitution effect in relation to external monitoring conducted by auditors in response to MOA fraud. This study also examined auditor industry specialisation using both the joint firm national-city framework and the joint partner national-city framework. The findings provide evidence that the choice to engage an industry specialist auditor (under either framework) impacted on the audit fees paid by those companies that have experienced known MOA fraud and adds a further dimension to the audit quality discussion. This study makes several contributions to the extant literature and the theories which underpin the research. As previously noted, misappropriation of assets is under-researched globally due to the difficulty of obtaining sufficient data for a large-scale analysis. The select number of other studies which have examined MOA fraud have focussed on the relationship between MOA fraud and internal characteristics/processes rather than an examination of the external auditor and their response to MOA fraud. Given the growing concerns in relation to audit quality, the increasingly complex means by which fraud is perpetrated and the lack of research in this area, the present study investigated how auditors respond when their client has experienced known MOA fraud. These findings have implications for regulators, researchers, the accounting profession and the public. For example, the 2019-2020 Australian Federal Budget has allocated additional taxpayers' funds towards improving audit quality over a period of three years (Commonwealth of Australia 2019). An examination of the extent to which auditors discharge their responsibilities in accordance with the requirements of Australian Auditing Standards can ensure that resources are allocated to address those areas most in need of improvement. In this way, the research has implications for both regulators and the tax-paying public. A further example is the evidence provided in this study that industry specialisation is assessed by the market at a partner level (as opposed to only the national level or office level). This has implications for accounting firms and may impact the marketing strategies they choose to adopt. More specifically, campaigns to promote local partner expertise may prove to be more effective in gaining and retaining clients compared to a focus on only the promotion of national and even international reputation. Further, this same finding has implications for researchers. Currently, there are only a limited number of studies which examine auditor industry specialisation at the partner level. The evidence of fee premiums charged by industry specialist partners provided by the present study may encourage researchers to further examine auditor industry specialisation at the partner level

Evaluation of bioluminescence-based assays of anti-malarial drug activity

Transgenic Plasmodium falciparum expressing luciferase offers an attractive bioluminescence-based assay platform for the investigation of the pharmacological properties of anti-malarial drugs. Here a side-by-side comparison of bioluminescence and fluorescence-based assays, utilizing a luciferase reporter cassette that confers a strong temporal pattern of luciferase expression during the S-phase of intraerythrocytic development, is reported

Understanding European cross-border cooperation: a framework for analysis

European integration has had a dual impact on border regions. On the one hand, borders were physically dismantled across most of the EU’s internal territory. On the other hand, they have become a fertile ground for territorial co-operation and institutional innovation. The degree of cross-border co-operation and organization achieved varies considerably from one region to another depending on a combination of various facilitating factors for effective cross-border co-operation, more specifically, economic, political leadership, cultural/identity and state formation, and geographical factors. This article offers a conceptual framework to understand the growth and diversity of cross-border regionalism within the EU context by focusing on the levels of and drives for co-operation

Introduction

What are the strategies, modalities and aspirations of island-based, stateless nationalist and regionalist parties in the twenty-first century? Political independence is now easier to achieve, even by the smallest of territories; yet, it is not so likely to be pursued with any vigour by the world's various persisting sub-national (and mainly island) jurisdictions. Theirs is a pursuit of different expressions of sub-national autonomy, stopping short of independence. And yet, a number of independence referenda are scheduled, including one looming in Scotland in autumn 2014

The effect of distance on reaction time in aiming movements

Target distance affects movement duration in aiming tasks but its effect on reaction time (RT) is poorly documented. RT is a function of both preparation and initiation. Experiment 1 pre-cued movement (allowing advanced preparation) and found no influence of distance on RT. Thus, target distance does not affect initiation time. Experiment 2 removed pre-cue information and found that preparing a movement of increased distance lengthens RT. Experiment 3 explored movements to targets of cued size at non-cued distances and found size altered peak speed and movement duration but RT was influenced by distance alone. Thus, amplitude influences preparation time (for reasons other than altered duration) but not initiation time. We hypothesise that the RT distance effect might be due to the increased number of possible trajectories associated with further targets: a hypothesis that can be tested in future experiments

Indigenous knowledges and development: a postcolonial caution

As a result of the failure of formal top-down development, there has recently been increased interest in the possibilities of drawing upon the indigenous knowledges of those in the communities involved, in an attempt to produce more effective development strategies. The concept of indigenous knowledge calls for the inclusion of local voices and priorities, and promises empowerment through ownership of the process. However, there has been little critical examination of the ways in which indigenous knowledges have been included in the development process. Drawing upon postcolonial theory, this article suggests that indigenous knowledges are often drawn into development by both theorists and development institutions in a very limited way, failing to engage with other ways of perceiving development, and thus missing the possibility of devising more challenging alternatives

A different appetite for sovereignty? Independence movements in subnational island jurisdictions

Local autonomy in a subnational jurisdiction is more likely to be gained, secured or enhanced where there are palpable movements or political parties agitating for independence in these smaller territories. A closer look at the fortunes, operations and dynamics of independence parties from subnational island jurisdictions can offer some interesting insights on the appetite for sovereignty and independence, but also the lack thereof, in the twenty-first century.peer-reviewe

Innovative organotypic in vitro models for safety assessment: aligning with regulatory requirements and understanding models of the heart, skin, and liver as paradigms

The development of improved, innovative models for the detection of toxicity of drugs, chemicals, or chemicals in cosmetics is crucial to efficiently bring new products safely to market in a cost-effective and timely manner. In addition, improvement in models to detect toxicity may reduce the incidence of unexpected post-marketing toxicity and reduce or eliminate the need for animal testing. The safety of novel products of the pharmaceutical, chemical, or cosmetics industry must be assured; therefore, toxicological properties need to be assessed. Accepted methods for gathering the information required by law for approval of substances are often animal methods. To reduce, refine, and replace animal testing, innovative organotypic in vitro models have emerged. Such models appear at different levels of complexity ranging from simpler, self-organized three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures up to more advanced scaffold-based co-cultures consisting of multiple cell types. This review provides an overview of recent developments in the field of toxicity testing with in vitro models for three major organ types: heart, skin, and liver. This review also examines regulatory aspects of such models in Europe and the UK, and summarizes best practices to facilitate the acceptance and appropriate use of advanced in vitro models