With Biden’s election, Johnson’s Irish border gambles look increasingly risky

What effect might the outcome of the US election have on the current Brexit negotiations? Joe Biden’s victory signals a dramatic shift in American foreign policy. This means that Boris Johnson’s Irish border gambles look increasingly risky, argues Colin Provost (UCL)

Ableism and the Labour Market

In 2016, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Disability commissioned a report that found up to 48,000 disabled people are managed out of their jobs every year. Although the 2010 Equality Act gives disabled workers the right to ask for reasonable adjustments and to challenge unfair dismissal before an employment tribunal, the managing out process continues. This study sought to understand why this process of managing disabled people out of work occurs. It found that the Equality Act and Access to Work are failing to live up to their potential, and that while some employers succeed in institutionalising disability rights into organisational culture, procedures, and routines, many others struggle to do so for a variety of reasons. While it is unrealistic to expect the disability employment gap to disappear overnight, the research argues that changing the frame of reference around disability may go some way towards making workplaces more inclusive

Fluctuation, time-correlation function and geometric Phase

We establish a fluctuation-correlation theorem by relating the quantum fluctuations in the generator of the parameter change to the time integral of the quantum correlation function between the projection operator and force operator of the ``fast'' system. By taking a cue from linear response theory we relate the quantum fluctuation in the generator to the generalised susceptibility. Relation between the open-path geometric phase, diagonal elements of the quantum metric tensor and the force-force correlation function is provided and the classical limit of the fluctuation-correlation theorem is also discussed.Comment: Latex, 12 pages, no figures, submitted to J. Phys. A: Math & Ge

Emotional sensibility and corporate performance in supply chain governance: evidence from the UK Modern Slavery Act

Purpose Emotional capital is increasingly recognised as a valuable asset within organisations. As businesses face growing legal obligations to disclose their efforts to combat modern slavery, significant variation exists in how much emotionally sensitive information companies choose to share. The purpose of this study is to examine why some companies disclose emotionally laden content, while others do not. This study introduces the concept of emotional sensibility, defined as companies’ willingness to address sensitive ethical topics in compliance statements. This study examines its relationship with corporate performance through the dual dimensions of moral reliability (social responsibility) and efficacy (corporate governance) providing a deeper understanding of emotional communication in corporate disclosures. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyse 219 company statements written in compliance with the UK Modern Slavery Act (MSA), coding for the inclusion of emotionally sensitive content. Using descriptive statistics and regression analysis, this study examines how two dimensions of corporate performance – moral reliability (social responsibility) and efficacy (corporate governance) – influence companies’ decision to disclose emotionally laden issues in their compliance statements. This study’s typology of corporate performance guides the analysis, allowing us to determine whether companies with better governance or stronger social responsibility records are more likely to address sensitive ethical issues. Findings This study’s analysis reveals that socially responsible companies (HighMR) are more likely to include emotionally sensitive content in their compliance statements, while companies with strong corporate governance (HighE) alone are less likely to do so. Importantly, governance-driven companies only engage in emotionally charged disclosures when they also exhibit high levels of social responsibility. This suggests that moral reliability, rather than efficacy, drives emotional sensibility in compliance statements. These findings challenge previous research suggesting that governance and social responsibility always reinforce each other, highlighting the more complex relationship between corporate performance and emotional communication in anti-modern slavery disclosures. Research limitations/implications This study shows that morally reliable companies – those with strong social responsibility records – are more likely to refer to emotionally charged issues in compliance statements, reflecting greater emotional sensibility. However, contrary to the existing literature, this study finds that corporate governance (efficacy) alone is insufficient to drive such disclosures. This challenges prior research suggesting that governance and social responsibility reinforce one another in driving corporate social responsibility performance. The findings of this study emphasize the need for nuanced analyses of the interaction between governance and social responsibility, particularly regarding emotionally laden topics. Future studies should explore whether specific governance practices influence emotional sensibility in organizational disclosures. Practical implications Efforts to combat modern slavery increasingly focus on transparency legislation, but compliance statements often fall short of expectations. The findings of this study suggest that companies committed to social responsibility are more likely to provide the detailed disclosures that non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders’ demand. By including emotionally charged content, such companies may foster positive emotional responses from the public, enhancing trust and corporate legitimacy. This underscores the strategic value of integrating emotional sensibility into compliance disclosures. Businesses aiming to strengthen stakeholder relationships should recognise the importance of emotional communication, using compliance statements for not just regulatory compliance but also reputation management. Social implications Negative emotions such as anger and outrage often drive protests and boycotts, pressuring companies to improve their social performance. Simultaneously, companies increasingly include emotional narratives in disclosures, including in financial and sustainability reports. This study highlights the importance of emotional communication in compliance statements, suggesting that emotionally aware messaging can mitigate stakeholder concerns. Future research should explore how feedback loops operate between companies and stakeholders, focusing on how companies adjust their disclosures in response to public criticism or reports of human rights violations. Understanding this dynamic could improve how companies manage emotional risks through transparent and thoughtful communication. Originality/value While prior research has examined how emotions influence public policy and government actions, this study extends this focus to the business context, emphasizing how companies communicate emotions through corporate social responsibility disclosures. The authors provide a novel framework linking emotional sensibility to corporate performance distinguishing between moral reliability (social responsibility) and efficacy (corporate governance). By investigating which performance dimensions predict emotionally laden disclosures, the authors offer new insights into how businesses respond to compliance laws while managing stakeholder expectations. The findings enhance theoretical understanding on corporate emotional communication and suggest practical ways to improve compliance statement transparency in an increasingly regulated global market

Ingredients of Institutional Reputations and Citizens’ compliance with agency recommendations

The purpose of this study is to examine the link between the reputational components of efficacy and moral reliability of institutions, and citizens' compliance with institutional recommendations. Research on bureaucratic reputations highlights the significance of positive political reputations based on credibility and legitimacy, but the impact of these components is not systematically isolated and studied. We draw insights from political psychology to move beyond a positive-negative valence-based approach of reputation, and highlight the different effect of efficacy and moral reliability components of reputation on citizens' cooperation, engagement in water saving activities, and levels of complaints. We use the Cypriot Water Authority as a case study and inquire how its institutional reputation influences Cypriot citizens' behavior regarding water use. Our data was collected via a representative national survey administered to a random sample of 800 Cypriots in the spring of 2009 and show that favorable perceptions of particular components of institutional reputation shape the levels of satisfaction with specific organizational outputs.</p

Change and Continuity in the Role of State Attorneys General in the Obama and Trump Administrations

During the Trump Administration, state attorneys general (AGs) have become entrenched as integral policymaking actors in the United States. Their expanding policymaking role fits broader patterns of polarized politics, as partisan coalitions of AGs are increasingly willing to sue the federal government, a trend that gathered steam in the Obama Administration and has reached a crescendo in Trump’s first year. However, state AGs do cooperate, particularly in corporate litigation to address allegedly widespread, illegal behavior. Utilizing a comprehensive dataset of multi-state lawsuits and Supreme Court amicus briefs, we identify continuity and change in how AGs have employed their powers, by examining their activities during the first year of the Trump presidency and placing these activities in the context of previous administrations. This analysis is accompanied by a pair of case studies, one on conflictual AG environmental litigation and another on bipartisan efforts to address the opioid epidemic. Both demonstrate AG’s prominent policymaking power, a power unlikely to abate anytime soon

Pharmacogenomics of the efficacy and safety of Colchicine in COLCOT

© 2021 The Authors. Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine is published on behalf of the American Heart Association, Inc., by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.Background: The randomized, placebo-controlled COLCOT (Colchicine Cardiovascular Outcomes Trial) has shown the benefits of colchicine 0.5 mg daily to lower the rate of ischemic cardiovascular events in patients with a recent myocardial infarction. Here, we conducted a post hoc pharmacogenomic study of COLCOT with the aim to identify genetic predictors of the efficacy and safety of treatment with colchicine. Methods: There were 1522 participants of European ancestry from the COLCOT trial available for the pharmacogenomic study of COLCOT trial. The pharmacogenomic study's primary cardiovascular end point was defined as for the main trial, as time to first occurrence of cardiovascular death, resuscitated cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, stroke, or urgent hospitalization for angina requiring coronary revascularization. The safety end point was time to the first report of gastrointestinal events. Patients' DNA was genotyped using the Illumina Global Screening array followed by imputation. We performed a genome-wide association study in colchicine-treated patients. Results: None of the genetic variants passed the genome-wide association study significance threshold for the primary cardiovascular end point conducted in 702 patients in the colchicine arm who were compliant to medication. The genome-wide association study for gastrointestinal events was conducted in all 767 patients in the colchicine arm and found 2 significant association signals, one with lead variant rs6916345 (hazard ratio, 1.89 [95% CI, 1.52-2.35], P=7.41×10-9) in a locus which colocalizes with Crohn disease, and one with lead variant rs74795203 (hazard ratio, 2.51 [95% CI, 1.82-3.47]; P=2.70×10-8), an intronic variant in gene SEPHS1. The interaction terms between the genetic variants and treatment with colchicine versus placebo were significant. Conclusions: We found 2 genomic regions associated with gastrointestinal events in patients treated with colchicine. Those findings will benefit from replication to confirm that some patients may have genetic predispositions to lower tolerability of treatment with colchicine.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

When to Befriend the Court? Examining State Amici Curiae Participation Before the U.S. Supreme Court

AbstractOver the past 30 years, the U.S. states have increased their participation as amici curiae significantly, in addition to winning more of their cases as direct parties. However, little attention has been paid to the factors that cause amici participation rates to vary among the states. The author examines the decision of state attorneys general (AGs) to initiate or join amicus curiae briefs in all 253 U.S. Supreme Court criminal procedure cases from 1990 through 2001. He hypothesizes that AGs are motivated largely by their own policy preferences and by their motivation to get reelected. Because amicus briefs are not particularly high-profile policy tools, reelection motivations ought to be demonstrated through responsiveness to elites in state government. The findings provide less support for this idea and more support for the idea that state AGs follow their own policy preferences through amicus participation.</jats:p