Globalisation, labour standards and economic development

In recent years a few advanced countries have been advocating multilateral rules permitting punitive trade measures to be taken against countries not upholding core labour standards. The mainly developing target countries have rebutted these initiatives which they argue are protectionist, in intent and in effect. Whilst closely examining the economic arguments in this controversy, this paper is also concerned with the broader political and moral dimensions. The authors suggest that developing countries are committed to improving core and other labour standards; the reason why they are unable to implement many of these forthwith is not because of the wickedness of their governments, but essentially their economic circumstances and the structure of their economies. The paper concludes that core ILO Conventions 87 and 98 should be re-drafted to take into account the economic conditions of developing countries.Globalisation, Labour Standards, Economic Development

Corporate Governance, Crony capitalism and Economic Crisis: Should the US Business Model replace the Asian Way of 'Doing Business'?

This paper considers the Greenspan/Summers/IMF (GSI) argument that the Asian way of doing business was the deep cause of the Asian crisis. The IMF reform programme for the crisis-affected Asian countries suggested they should abandon the Asian business model and adopt the US corporate model. The main findings are: a) contrary to GSI doctrine, poor corporate governance and lack of competition are not common characteristics of the Asian business model; b) that the stock-market based US business model has severe limitations for developing country corporations, not least because of imperfect share prices and the imperfect market for corporate control.Asian and US corporate models; stock markets; Asian crisis

DIY Makers' Day

Inspire users to actively engage with reducing, reusing, and recycling by hosting a DIY Makers’ Day. Chapter describes how to create this hands-on event that is jam-packed with DIY projects featuring creative reuse and sustainable ingredients. Participants leave with goodies they’ve made and recipes and instructions so they can continue creating at home. This is a great event for showcasing your library’s and community’s green resources

See How Our Garden Grows: Cultivating Community through a Fruit and Veggie Exchange

Celebrate local food, community, and thebounty of harvest as library folks gather toshare fruits, vegetables, seeds, preserves, gardening and food publications, and their own knowledge. Promote sustainability and nurture a robust community by bringing coworkers together to share produce from their own gardens

It Takes a Village Sustainability Starter

We all believe in sustainability and work to be green as individuals, but there’s power insharing our knowledge and values and working together. Grow your sustainability efforts beyond single events by creating an advisory, education, and outreach group

An Examination of Relationships of Reading and Writing Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Standardized Placement Test Scores, and Diverse Community College Students\u27 Perceptions of Those Relationships

Social cognitive theory explains the role that one\u27s level of confidence plays in the accomplishment of a specific task. According to Bandura (1982, 1995), self-efficacy beliefs should align with performance. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs and reading/writing standardized placement test scores of diverse community college freshmen. Additionally, this study sought to understand the sources of these students\u27 reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs through the descriptions of experiences they feel have influenced those beliefs. There were three major research questions: (1) What is the strength of the relationships among reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs and reading/writing standardized placement test scores of diverse community college freshman writers? (2) Is there a difference in the strength of relationships among the scores of reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs and scores on standardized reading/writing placement tests of diverse community college freshman writers? (3) How do diverse community college freshman writers describe the experiences they think explain the relationships among their writing self-efficacy beliefs and their standardized writing placement test scores? The study was conducted in two phases, with quantitative data obtained in the first phase and qualitative data in the second. Variables included race, age, sex, and placement in freshman composition. Among the findings of this study was that African American students in the research sample overestimated their reading and writing self-efficacy beliefs to a greater degree than Caucasian students. Moreover, for Caucasian students, a positive statistically significant relationship existed among their standardized reading/writing placement test scores and their reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs scores. A similar statistical relationship did not exist for African American students. Even for both groups placed into freshman composition without a prerequisite reading or writing course, the dissimilarity in statistical significance was found. Qualitative data obtained from 19 interviewees suggest that a strong difference existed in the relationship of language at home and at school for Caucasian and African American students. For the African Americans in the sample group interviewed, monolingual or bidialectal functioning suggested experiences of identity conflict and stress. Caucasian students, on the other hand, did not share similar experiences of conflict and stress

Shareholder value maximisation, stock market and new technology: should the US corporate model be the universal standard

In 1992 a blue-ribbon group of US economists led by Michael Porter concluded that the US stock market-based corporate model was misallocating resources and jeopardising US competitiveness. The faster growth of US economy since then and the supposed US lead in the spread of information technology has brought new legitimacy to the stock market and the corporate model, which is being hailed as the universal standard. Two main conclusions of the analysis presented here are: (a) there is no warrant for revising the blue-ribbon groupÕs conclusion; and (b) even US corporations let alone developing country ones would be better off not having stock market valuation as a corporate goal.Shareholder wealth, Information technology, Stock-market efficiency

In-Vivo Lipidomics using Single-Cell Raman Spectroscopy

We describe a method for direct, quantitative, in vivo lipid profiling of oil producing microalgae using single-cell laser-trapping Raman spectroscopy (LTRS). This approach is demonstrated in the quantitative determination of the degree of unsaturation and transition temperatures of constituent lipids within microalgae. These properties are important markers for determining engine compatibility and performance metrics of algal biodiesel. We show that these factors can be directly measured from a single living microalgal cell held in place with an optical trap while simultaneously collecting Raman data. Cellular response to different growth conditions is monitored in real time. Our approach circumvents the need for lipid extraction and analysis that is both slow and invasive. Furthermore, this technique yields real-time chemical information in a label-free manner, thus eliminating the limitations of impermeability, toxicity and specificity of the fluorescent probes used in other common protocols. Although the single-cell Raman spectroscopy demonstrated here is focused on the study of the microalgal lipids with biofuel applications, the analytical capability and quantitation algorithms demonstrated are applicable to many different organisms, and should prove useful for a diverse range of applications in lipidomics