An industry in crisis : risk, reflexivity, sub-politics and accountability processes in salmon farming

This paper draws upon an arena study on the accounting and accountability processes used within a business sector, under intense public and regulatory scrutiny in terms of its social, economic and ecological risks. Georgakopoulos and Thomson (2004, 2005) report on an absence of environmental accounting within the salmon farming organizations for management planning and control processes. This paper extends this analysis by attempting to theorise the social and environmental accounting observed by these organizations discharging these accountability duties using insights from the risk society literature. The interviews and documentary analysis revealed the existence of an active accountability network. However, Social and Environmental Accounting techniques did not feature in the engagement processes. We observed the existence of fragmented accountability networks, and evidence of a struggle for domination of a techno-scientific accountability process. Within these discourses, business and cost issues were evident, but they were not formally quantified or systematically integrated. We find that the accountability processes observed in our arena study, were consistent with Beck's (and others) analysis of reflexive modernity and the Risk Society Thesis This paper by evaluating accounting and accountability processes within a specific context, demonstrates the importance of locating social and environmental accounting processes within wider accountability discourses. These societal accountability discourses extend beyond social and environmental as well as conventional accounting practices. It is suggested that all accounting practices should become more reflexive in nature if they are to remain relevant in these wider societal accountability discourses

No accounting for risk

At the present time, the relation between accounting praxis and risk is not well understood. Accounting praxis does not appear to regard the risk it identifies with its activities as being different from 'objective risk' - the concept of risk found in positive financial and accounting research. Instead accounting praxis (as reflected in case studies, surveys and other empirical studies) reveal a collection of different, sometimes contradictory, conceptions and 'taken for granted' understandings of risk that are invoked and applied on an ad hoc, case by case basis. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the conceptual disarray in accounting for risk is both costly and unnecessary. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to risk research, the authors review developments in risk thinking at the end of the 20th Century and highlight a way forward for accounting through New Paradigm Risk (NPR). Various illustrations and case study examples are drawn upon to reflect the relevance of NPR to accounting praxis

Public Health. A guide to information sources on Public Health in the European Union, the wider Europe and the countries of Europe

No abstract

The influence of thermal storage on microgeneration flexibility

In a future power system, the ability to manipulate generation and load will be a critical factor in providing a secure and stable supply of electrical energy to consumers. Using a simulation-based approach, this study assesses the ability of thermal storage to help deliver flexibility in the operation of domestic micro-generation technologies without sacrificing householder comfort and convenience. A typical UK detached dwelling is modelled along with its heating system, which features a retro-fitted air source heat pump (ASHP). The model is used to determine the maximum possible temporal shift for different capacities and configurations of thermal storage, taking into account the influence of climate, building fabric, control settings and occupancy. The limits of time shifting are dictated by the living space temperature and the hot water temperature delivered to the occupants. The storage mechanisms examined are: the basic thermal inertia of the building fabric; increasing the space heating set point temperatures to increase fabric storage and inserting a dedicated thermal buffer between the ASHP and the heat distribution system. The simulation results indicate that back-shifting of the ASHP start/stop times of between one and two hours are possible without causing serious discomfort or inconvenience to the occupants

The influence of thermal storage on microgeneration flexibility

In a future power system, the ability to manipulate generation and load will be a critical factor in providing a secure and stable supply of electrical energy to consumers. Using a simulation-based approach, this study assesses the ability of thermal storage to help deliver flexibility in the operation of domestic micro-generation technologies without sacrificing householder comfort and convenience. A typical UK detached dwelling is modelled along with its heating system, which features a retro-fitted air source heat pump (ASHP). The model is used to determine the maximum possible temporal shift for different capacities and configurations of thermal storage, taking into account the influence of climate, building fabric, control settings and occupancy. The limits of time shifting are dictated by the living space temperature and the hot water temperature delivered to the occupants. The storage mechanisms examined are: the basic thermal inertia of the building fabric; increasing the space heating set point temperatures to increase fabric storage and inserting a dedicated thermal buffer between the ASHP and the heat distribution system. The simulation results indicate that back-shifting of the ASHP start/stop times of between one and two hours are possible without causing serious discomfort or inconvenience to the occupants

The acceptance of a national policy for physical education in Scotland, 1872-1908

This study considers the origins of physical education as a subject in State Schools in Scotland, and relates its growth to wider social issues. It suggests that between the Education Acts of 1872 and 1908, physical education developed as a response to particular problems in schools and society rather than as an intrinsic part of a Platonic view of education stressing the unity of body and mind. The body was regarded separately from the mind and the main function of physical education, defined in a variety of different ways, was to try to ensure that children were fit to profit from the academic instruction offered in Scottish schools. The acceptance of physical education rested on the convergence of a number of different steams of thought. Starting from different premises, with different objectives, and often with different views on the form of physical education which was desirable, all streams helped to some degree to move official and public opinion towards the acceptance of physical education in the schools. Three streams can be identified, though they overlap and do not exclude others: the advocacy of drill to improve discipline; of Swedish or German gymnastics to cure health disorders; of drill and gymnastics to improve military potential

Efficient, high-power operation of CW Yb:YAG and Q-switched Nd:YAG planar waveguide lasers

The planar waveguide gain medium o ers a good approach to creating a high- power lasers. Excellent thermal properties allow for lasers with good beam-quality and high-e ciency. A Neodymium doped YAG planar waveguide laser was actively Q-switched using a hybrid unstable resonator and acousto-optic modulator. A Yt- terbium doped YAG planar waveguide laser was side-pumped using two laser diode stacks with a total of 800 W incident pump power. The Nd:YAG planar waveguide laser has a core 200 um thick and was face pumped with ten laser diode bars. Q-switching was achieved through the use of a new hybrid unstable resonator con guration providing high-speed modulation of the laser cavity. The laser produced 100 W of average power with a pulse repetition rate of 100 kHz, giving 1 mJ pulses with 50 ns duration. Shorter 15 ns pulses were achieved with 4.5 mJ pulse energy at lower pulse repetition rates. The Yb:YAG planar waveguide laser has a 150 um core thickness, side pumped by two 430 W, six-bar diode laser stacks. Each diode stack has a custom phase- plate, correcting for collimation errors and lens aberrations. These gave a line focus matching the dimensions of the waveguide core with an incident intensity on each side of approximately 22 kWcm-2. Ray tracing of spontaneous emission within the waveguide core shows side facet angles of 7 and 20 were required to minimise ASE and parasitic oscillations within the waveguide core. A technique to image the uorescence from the Yb:YAG waveguide core has been developed. This technique allows for easy alignment of the pump lasers to the waveg- uide core and measurement of the pump intensity pro le throughout the planar waveg- uide. This technique showed single-sided pumping to follow Beer's law, and with double-sided pumping considerably improved the pump uniformity. A diode laser probe was used to measure the gain present within the waveguide. The small signal gain coe cient was shown to be 1 cm-1 with a uniform pro le across the width of the waveguide when pumped to saturation. This highlights the potential of operating the planar waveguide laser as an e cient ampli er. High-power high-e ciency operation of the Yb:YAG planar waveguide laser was achieved through the use of a hybrid stable waveguide resonator. Output power of 400 W was extracted in a multi-mode beam with a slope e ciency of 75%. This result represents the highest output power from a diode-pumped solid-state planar waveguide laser to date

Chiral Polymer Electrodes

When (+/-)-[Ru(bipy)2(vbpy)]2+ is electrochemically scanned through the potentials -1.00V to -2.05V vs. Ag/AgNO3 in acetonitrile, electropolymerisation occurs and a polymer layer is formed on the working electrode of the electrochemical cell. This polymer modified electrode can be immersed in a solution of tartaric acid in water and conditioned so that subsequent immersions will produce (a) peaks immediately when the tartaric acid is of the same "hand", (b) no peaks immediately when the tartaric acid is of the opposite hand (although peaks will gradually appear over time and the electrode system will now behave with the opposite handed characteristics), or (c) reduced peaks immediately when the tartaric acid has partially the hand used in the conditioning process (In this system, as with (b), the electrode will behave as if it was conditioned with this solution if it is left to soak too long). If the polymer grown is poly-(-)-[Ru(bipy)2(vbpy)]2+ then the above results do not hold. This polymer will have a fixed helicity and as such will be unable to have further chiral structuring induced in it. Since this further chiral structuring is the prerequisite for the chiral sensing, these electrodes can not be used for such processes. The peaks at +0.45V and +0.65V vs. SSCE still show up with this system since loose bonding (although no restructuring) occurs. The actual chemical process involved is as follows: (i) The RuII of the polymer is oxidised to RuIII. (ii) This catalyses the oxidation of the tartrate. (iii) The tartrate or the tartrate oxidation product exchanges with the PF6- or the BF4- of the polymer. (iv) This results in the peaks at +0.65V and +0.45V. For poly-(+/-)-[Ru(bipy)2(vbpy)]2+, reaction (iii) induces chiral structuring whereas in poly-(-)-[Ru(bipy)2(vbpy)]2+, reaction (iii) does not induce chiral structuring and in fact occurs less strongly for this reason