The ‘transaction X-ray’: understanding construction procurement

This paper presents the results of a case study, the Construction Case, which examines procurement practices within the UK construction supply chain and compares these with a more general UK sample taken from non-construction sectors. Using a qualitative methodology, the approaches to relationship management and buyer value perception are graphically mapped, using an innovative ‘transaction X-ray’ technique. The Construction Case considers procurement transactions conducted at various points along the construction value chain: the client, the construction firm and the specialist contractor. Recognising that the research design favours a small sample size, and thus limits generalisability beyond the boundaries of the case, the paper finds that construction industry procurement operates in an adversarial and largely arm’s-length manner. While procurement practice is found to share common aspects with other industrial sectors, the case demonstrates that the construction industry is more adversarial and less collaborative than is the average found across the other sectors examined. The paper outlines a useful framework whereby construction practitioners can evaluate elements of procurement practice within their own organisations, and also signposts the required direction for future research in order to reflect the gap, suggested by the case, between current normative theory and construction procurement practice

Professional buyers and the value proposition

Lusch (2011) considers Service-Dominant Logic (S-DL) to be an appropriate lens through which to view supply chain research, and suggests it be used to better understand value. The authors, accepting a founding premise of S-DL that value is phenomenologically determined by the recipient, adopt a qualitative methodology to penetrate the inherent complexity and commercial confidentiality of the buyer-seller relationship. In particular the authors make a comparative evaluation as to how the wider, psychological needs of the buyer interact with the effects of the organisational goals of their businesses. The study uses a longitudinal research design, involving web-based diaries and follow-up interviews to develop the empirical understanding of the dominant patterns of buyer value perception that, within the context of the investigation, both challenge extant thinking and informs the debate regarding the approaches to combining value creation and value capture (Skilton, 2014). The explanations offered suggest that exchange value achieves a greater buyer focus than utility value, and acknowledges the relative importance of buyer value perceptions that are not directly aligned with organisational objectives. These findings, it is argued, may cause organisations to reflect on their procurement policies and procedures as they seek to engage with potential suppliers

Specimens as research objects: reconciliation across distributed repositories to enable metadata propagation

Botanical specimens are shared as long-term consultable research objects in a global network of specimen repositories. Multiple specimens are generated from a shared field collection event; generated specimens are then managed individually in separate repositories and independently augmented with research and management metadata which could be propagated to their duplicate peers. Establishing a data-derived network for metadata propagation will enable the reconciliation of closely related specimens which are currently dispersed, unconnected and managed independently. Following a data mining exercise applied to an aggregated dataset of 19,827,998 specimen records from 292 separate specimen repositories, 36% or 7,102,710 specimens are assessed to participate in duplication relationships, allowing the propagation of metadata among the participants in these relationships, totalling: 93,044 type citations, 1,121,865 georeferences, 1,097,168 images and 2,191,179 scientific name determinations. The results enable the creation of networks to identify which repositories could work in collaboration. Some classes of annotation (particularly those regarding scientific name determinations) represent units of scientific work: appropriate management of this data would allow the accumulation of scholarly credit to individual researchers: potential further work in this area is discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 1 table, 3 figure

Study of pseudomonas, with special reference to species pathogenic to stone-fruit trees

The object of the work reported here was threefold, the aim was, firstly, to examine the relationship of two species of bacteria pathogenic to stone-fruit trees, namely, Pseudomonas mors-prunorum Wormald and Pseudomonas syringae van Hall; secondly, to compare these organisms and some other pathogens with a series of pseudomonads isolated from plants and soil, with a view to improving the methods by which the pathogens may be isolated and identified; and thirdly, to investigate a possible means of controlling the disease on stone-fruit trees. A brief account is given of the nature and incidence of bacterial canker of plum trees in Scotland. . A procedure for chelating heavy metals in culture media was found to promote the appearance of the fluorescent pigment produced by the pseudomonads. Traces of iron in the media were shown to interfere with the production of the pigment. A medium was described whereby the pigment was more readily detected. The action of the organisms on various sugars was investigated. No significant differentiation was found on the basis of acid production from sugars but the utilisation of sucrose as the sole source of carbon was considered to be a significant differential character. Levan production from sucrose and the copper-reducing properties of sucrose cultures were studied. The two properties, although both were often found in one organism, were shown to be independent of each other. An investigation was made of the production of 2 -keto-gluconate from glucose and related compounds. The majority, of the plant pathogens tested did not produce the keto-acid which was, however, commonly a product of the other organisms. The lipolytic activity of the organisms was examined using an improved method for its detection. This property was found to be less common among the plant pathogens than the other organisms tested. Observations on the stability of the colonial characters led to the conclusion that little reliance can be placed on the features of the colony as an aid to the identification of the organisms. The strains of Ps. mors-prunorum examined in this work could not be distinguished, by the laboratory methods applied, from the strains of Ps. syringae. The grounds on which these species are separated appear, therefore, to be questionable. In the whole series of pseudomonads examined the laboratory examination did bring out one line of division which could be related to the sources of the organisms: the strains isolated from plants (including the pathogens) could be separated from those from the soil by the possession of the following characters by the plant organisms, viz., (a) The utilisation of sucrose with or without the production of acid. (b) The formation of levan from sucrose. (c) No copper- reducing action from gluconate. In view of this finding it may be suggested that the plant pathogens in this genus may be regarded as more or less specialised members of a larger group of Pseudomonas, which normally live in association with plants. Work was done on methods of isolating pseudomonads from diseased plant tissue. Of the techniques tried the most promising was one involving the use of sodium gluconate as the sole source of carbon. The information derived from the above studies was of assistance in the conduct of two field experiments. These were designed to test the value of streptomycin in the control of bacterial canker of stone-fruit trees. In one the streptomycin is applied as a spray with the object of destroying organisms on the external surfaces of the trees. In the other experiment, in which the streptomycin is applied as a paint, the object was to prevent infection where the bark was subject to abrasion

The pregnant man: race, difference and subjectivity in Alan Paton’s Kalahari writing

In South African imaginative writing and scholarly research, there is currently an extensive and wide-ranging interest in the ‘Bushman’, either as a tragic figure of colonial history, as a contested site of misrepresentation, or even as an exemplary model of environmental consciousness. Writing and research about ‘Bushmen’ has not only become pervasive in the academy, but also a site of controversy and theoretical contestation. It is in this context that this paper investigates the meaning and significance of ‘Bushmen’ for Alan Paton, one of South Africa’s most well-known writers. Paton’s writing is not usually associated with ‘Bushman’ studies, yet this article shows that the ‘Bushman’ became a highly charged and ambivalent figure in his imagination. Paton’s problematic ideas are contextualised more carefully by looking at the broader context of South African letters. The article initially analyses Paton’s representation of ‘Bushmen’ in his Lost City of the Kalahari travel narrative (1956, published in 2005. Pietermaritzburg: KZN Press), and also discusses unpublished archival photographs. A study of the figure of the ‘Bushman’ throughout the entire corpus of his writing, ranging from early journalism to late autobiography, allows us to trace the shift of his views, enabling us to reflect not only on Paton’s thinking about racial otherness, but also gauge the extent to which his encounter with the Kalahari Bushmen destabilised his sense of self, finally also preventing the publication of the travelogueDepartment of HE and Training approved lis

Phylogenetic study of Plectranthus, Coleus and allies (Lamiaceae): taxonomy, distribution and medicinal use

Lamiaceae subtribe Plectranthinae, a palaeotropical group of just over 450 species with mainly zygomorphic flowers and stamens that are contiguous at the point of insertion at the base of the lower corolla lip, include the medicinally and horticulturally important genus Plectranthus. Plectranthus currently includes the formerly recognized Coleus and Solenostemon. A phylogenetic analysis of the group is presented based on rps16, trnL-F and trnS-G regions of the plastid genome. Plectranthus as currently recognized is paraphyletic; a clade containing the type of Coleus and including Solenostemon, Pycnostachys and Anisochilus is sister to the rest of the group. Three endemic and monotypic Madagascan genera, Dauphinea, Madlabium, Perrierastrum and the Madagascan Capitanopsis belong to a single clade and are recognized under Capitanopsis; the new combinations are made here. Plectranthus s.s. is sister to a clade comprising Thorncroftia and Tetradenia. Tetradenia, unlike any other members of Plectranthinae, has actinomorphic corollas and is usually dioecious. A group of other species previously recognized as Plectranthus form a clade separate from Plectranthus s.s. and is recognized as Equilabium gen. nov. Estimates of clade age suggest that the genera begin to diversify from the mid to late Miocene. Plectranthinae are found in dry woodlands, montane grasslands and evergreen forest margins. Shifts between habitats occur in most clades, although significantly fewer than if the changes were random. The distribution of the clades in the major habitats is examined. Migration in Plectranthinae was from Africa to Madagascar and Asia, and there is no evidence of migration back to Africa. The phylogenetic pattern of medicinal use in Plectranthinae is weak, and issues surrounding this are discussed

Respiratory modulated sympathetic activity:a putative mechanism for developing vascular resistance?

Sympathetic activity exhibits respiratory modulation that is amplified in hypertensive rats. Respiratory modulated sympathetic activity produces greater changes in vascular resistance than tonic stimulation of the same stimulus magnitude in normotensive but not hypertensive rats. Mathematical modelling demonstrates that respiratory modulated sympathetic activity may fail to produce greater vascular resistance changes in hypertensive rats because the system is saturated as a consequence of a dysfunctional noradrenaline reuptake mechanism. Respiratory modulated sympathetic activity is an efficient mechanism to raise vascular resistance promptly, corroborating its involvement in the ontogenesis of hypertension