Flooding and the Role of Planning in England and Wales: A Critical Review

In this paper the authors raise some important questions about the extent to which planning is fostering an environment susceptible to flooding. They argue that severe UK flooding incidents in recent years should result in the government re-examining the planning system to ensure relevancy and effectiveness in dealing with such problems in the future. They identify where the current policy and practice weaknesses lie in planning to limit both flood source and flood impact areas and suggest ways in which the government and the profession could take remedial steps to increase local and regional sustainability.     

Barnacles: Possible indicators of zinc pollution?

Barnacles [Balanus balanoides (L.), Elminius modestus Darwin, Lepas anatifera (L.)] from several different sites were found to accumulate the heavy metal zinc. The majority of the zinc was deposited in the tissues associated with the gut, and the level of zinc in soft body tissue generally reflected well the level of zinc in the immediate sea-water environment. The zinc accumulated in the gut tissues was in the form of discrete granules, mainly within the parenchyma cells which surround the gut. These granules probably exist as an insoluble zinc salt. A comparison of the zinc level in barnacles with those recorded for some other marine organisms indicates the possible usefulness of barnacles as indicators of zinc pollution.     

Efficiency of energy delivery systems: II. Estimating energy costs of capital equipment

Procedures are developed and summarized that allow the calculation of the energy required to manufacture and install capital equipment, such as the material needed for a coalfired power plant. Three methods are available, each with certain strengths and weaknessess The first uses both literature value and national manufacturing statistics, the second uses a previously developed technique that disaggregates energy use according to how much each industry buys from all other industries, and the third technique is based on the average national relation between energy use and dollar flow. The most important differences between estimates of energy use by the different techniques relates to the inclusion or exclusion of labor and indirect expenditures rather than to differences in the data bases of the three techniques.     

Cracking the code: the genesis, use and future of the Code of Conduct

This paper reflects on the genesis of the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Disaster Relief, on the tenth anniversary of its adoption. The origins, usage and future of the code are examined with respect to three debates, current at the time of its inception, namely: the debate about the core content of humanitarianism; the debate about coherence and the consensual nature of the humanitarian community; and the debate about the need for, and the ability to demonstrate, accountability. The paper concludes that although the Code of Conduct was very much a product of its time, its content remains relevant today. However, its future application hinges on the capacity of those who purport to follow it to realise true accountability, and on proving that the code, written essentially for natural disasters, is relevant to contemporary complex emergencies.     

The application of the psychological contract to workplace safety

INTRODUCTION: Psychological contracts of safety are conceptualized as the beliefs of individuals about reciprocal safety obligations inferred from implicit or explicit promises. Although the literature on psychological contracts is growing, the existence of psychological contracts in relation to safety has not been established. The research sought to identify psychological contracts in the conversations of employees about safety, by demonstrating reciprocity in relation to employer and employee safety obligations. The identified safety obligations were used to develop a measure of psychological contracts of safety. METHOD: The participants were 131 employees attending safety training sessions in retail and manufacturing organizations. Non-participant observation was used to collect the data during safety training sessions. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Categories for coding were established through identification of language markers that demonstrated contingencies or other implied obligations. RESULTS: Direct evidence of reciprocity between employer safety obligations and employee safety obligations was found in statements from the participants demonstrating psychological contracts. A comprehensive list of perceived employer and employee safety obligations was compiled and developed into a measure of psychological contracts of safety. A small sample of 33 safety personnel was used to validate the safety obligations. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Implications of these findings for safety and psychological contract research are discussed.     

Gender and career success: A typology and analysis of dual paradigms

Despite women's advancements in the workplace, gender inequality persists. We classify and test two frameworks used to explain gender differences in career success: unequal attributes and unequal effects. The unequal attributes framework suggests that gender is related to other attributes, which result in unequal career outcomes for men and women (i.e., a mediated effect). The unequal effects framework suggests that even when men and women share the same attribute or circumstances, they are rewarded differently, such that individual attributes have unequal effects on career outcomes for men and women (i.e., a moderated effect). We collected survey data from a gender‐balanced sample of 394 business school alumni. Using structural equation modeling to test the unequal attributes framework, we found that work hours, career orientation, having a nonemployed spouse, and working in a predominantly female job were unequal attributes that explained gender differences in career success. Using multigroup path analysis to examine unequal effects, we found that being agentic, married, having children at home, and working in a predominantly female workplace had unequal effects in relation to career success for men and women. We find support for both models across three categories of career success antecedents (i.e., personal, family, and job attributes).     

Achieving environmental standards with stochastic discharges

The inherent stochastic nature of the levels and composition of environmental waste discharges are well known to environmental control agencies, who recognize that realistically environmental quality constraints must be formulated in probabilistic terms. Given the specification of environmental constraints in such terms, it is shown that the set of activity vectors which satisfy the constraint will, in general, be nonconvex. This militates against the determination of an efficient solution. A means of avoiding the potentially high computational and informational costs associated with the determination of an efficient solution in such cases is proposed.     

Zinc phosphate granules in tissue surrounding the midgut of the barnacle Balanus balanoides

The chemical composition of inorganic granules found in parenchyma cells surrounding the midgut of adult Balanus balanoides (L.) was determined. X-ray microanalysis indicated the presence of magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron and zinc in the granules. A quantitative analysis of granule-rich pellets isolated from the midguts of adult barnacles showed that the granules were composed mainly of zinc phosphate, the remaining elements being minor constituents only.