Who would want to live in a world made up entirely of scientists? Australia’s chief scientist calls for cooperation

Reporting on a recent workshop where Australia’s Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb outlined the key priorities for research and funding, Jacqui Hoepner discusses the long-term future of Australian research. Professor Chubb stressed the importance of having a broader national conversation about how they will achieve societal change and how researchers should work to meet those ends

OS DESAFIOS PARA A FORMAÇÃO PROFISSIONAL EM SERVIÇO SOCIAL EM TEMPOS DE REORDENAMENTO DA EDUCAÇÃO SUPERIOR

O presente artigo objetiva analisar os impactos da adoção de medidas neoliberais na política de educação superior e, consequentemente, na formação profissional em Serviço Social especialmente a partir da década de 1990, no Brasil. Verifica-se que, a educação vem perdendo sua condição de direito social e passa a ser vista na perspectiva de um serviço altamente rentável para o mercado o que corrobora para a precarização da formação dos profissonais, dentre eles os Assistentes Sociais. A partir da dédada de 1990 tem-se um aumento significativo de cursos de Serviço Social de natureza privada assim como, na década seguinte, a expansão de cursos de Serviço Social na modalidade a distância, acarretando em um desafio para o Serviço Social em dar continuidade às conquistas da categoria profissional ao longo das últimas décadas

The effects of corporate and country sustainability characteristics on the cost of debt : an international investigation

We investigate the relationship between corporate and country sustainability on the cost of bank loans. We look into 470 loan agreements signed between 2005 and 2012 with borrowers based on 28 different countries across the world and operating in all major industries. Our principal findings reveal that country sustainability related to both social and environmental frameworks has a statistically and economically impactful effect on direct financing of economic activity. An increase of one unit in country sustainability scores is associated with an average decrease in the costs of debt by 64 basis points. Our analysis shows that the environmental dimension of a country’s institutional framework is approximately two times as impactful as the societal dimension when it comes to determining the cost of corporate loans. On the other hand, we find no conclusive evidence that firm-level sustainability influences the interest rates charged to borrowing firms by banks

The output and productivity benefits of fintech collaboration : Scotland and Ireland

This paper is a thought piece on the impact of joint collaboration in fintech on output and productivity. It identifies a distinct fintech sector from both the Scottish and Irish financial and technology related industrial groupings and maps the largest employers amongst the fintech start ups. The multiplier effect of this subgrouping and the sectors productivity enhancing nature are used to forecast the job impact of such collaboration. Our analysis of the Scottish and Irish fintech sub-sector shows that joint collaboration in fintech will increase output and labour productivity, outpacing Scottish and Irish GDP growth and labour productivity. The key conclusion is that collaboration could be net positive for employment assuming no exogenous shocks caused by the new technology from other geographies

Does stakeholder pressure influence corporate GHG emissions reporting? Empirical evidence from Europe

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to seek to shed light on the practice of incomplete corporate disclosure of quantitative Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and investigates whether external stakeholder pressure influences the existence, and separately, the completeness of voluntary GHG emissions disclosures by 431 European companies. Design/methodology/approach – A classification of reporting completeness is developed with respect to the scope, type and reporting boundary of GHG emissions based on the guidelines of the GHG Protocol, Global Reporting Initiative and the Carbon Disclosure Project. Logistic regression analysis is applied to examine whether proxies for exposure to climate change concerns from different stakeholder groups influence the existence and/or completeness of quantitative GHG emissions disclosure. Findings – From 2005 to 2009, on average only 15 percent of companies that disclose GHG emissions report them in a manner that the authors consider complete. Results of regression analyses suggest that external stakeholder pressure is a determinant of the existence but not the completeness of emissions disclosure. Findings are consistent with stakeholder theory arguments that companies respond to external stakeholder pressure to report GHG emissions, but also with legitimacy theory claims that firms can use carbon disclosure, in this case the incomplete reporting of emissions, as a symbolic act to address legitimacy exposures. Practical implications – Bringing corporate GHG emissions disclosure in line with recommended guidelines will require either more direct stakeholder pressure or, perhaps, a mandated disclosure regime. In the meantime, users of the data will need to carefully consider the relevance of the reported data and develop the necessary competencies to detect and control for its incompleteness. A more troubling concern is that stakeholders may instead grow to accept less than complete disclosure. Originality/value – The paper represents the first large-scale empirical study into the completeness of companies’ disclosure of quantitative GHG emissions and is the first to analyze these disclosures in the context of stakeholder pressure and its relation to legitimation

Potential of heat pipe technology in nuclear seawater desalination

The official published version of this article can be found at the link below.Heat pipe technology may play a decisive role in improving the overall economics, and public perception on nuclear desalination, specifically on seawater desalination. When coupled to the Low-Temperature Multi-Effect Distillation process, heat pipes could effectively harness most of the waste heat generated in various types of nuclear power reactors. Indeed, the potential application of heat pipes could be seen as a viable option to nuclear seawater desalination where the efficiency to harness waste heat might not only be enhanced to produce larger quantities of potable water, but also to reduce the environmental impact of nuclear desalination process. Furthermore, the use of heat pipe-based heat recovery systems in desalination plant may improve the overall thermodynamics of the desalination process, as well as help to ensure that the product water is free from any contamination which occur under normal process, thus preventing operational failure occurrences as this would add an extra loop preventing direct contact between radiation and the produced water. In this paper, a new concept for nuclear desalination system based on heat pipe technology is introduced and the anticipated reduction in the tritium level resulting from the use of heat pipe systems is discussed

Climate change and asset prices: are corporate carbon disclosure and performance priced appropriately?

This paper empirically assesses the value relevance of information on corporate climate change disclosure and performance to asset prices, and discusses whether this information is priced appropriately. Findings indicate that corporate disclosures of quantitative GHG emissions and, to a lesser extent, carbon performance are value relevant. We use hand-collected information on quantitative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 433 European companies and build portfolios based on GHG disclosure and performance. We regress portfolios on Carhart (1997) four factor models extended for industry effects over the years 2005 to 2009. Results show that investors achieved abnormal risk-adjusted returns of up to 13.05% annually by exploiting inefficiently priced positive effects of (complete) GHG emissions disclosure and good corporate climate change performance in terms of GHG efficiency. Results imply that, firstly, information costs involved in carbon disclosure and management do not present a burden on corporate financial resources. Secondly, investors should not neglect carbon disclosure and performance when making investment decisions. Thirdly, during the period analysed financial markets were inefficient in pricing publicly available information on carbon disclosure and performance. Mandatory and standardised information on carbon performance would consequently not only increase market efficiency but result in better allocation of capital within the real economy

Prenatal Insecticide Exposures and Birth Weight and Length among an Urban Minority Cohort

We reported previously that insecticide exposures were widespread among minority women in New York City during pregnancy and that levels of the organophosphate chlorpyrifos in umbilical cord plasma were inversely associated with birth weight and length. Here we expand analyses to include additional insecticides (the organophosphate diazinon and the carbamate propoxur), a larger sample size (n = 314 mother–newborn pairs), and insecticide measurements in maternal personal air during pregnancy as well as in umbilical cord plasma at delivery. Controlling for potential confounders, we found no association between maternal personal air insecticide levels and birth weight, length, or head circumference. For each log unit increase in cord plasma chlorpyrifos levels, birth weight decreased by 42.6 g [95% confidence interval (CI), −81.8 to −3.8, p = 0.03] and birth length decreased by 0.24 cm (95% CI, −0.47 to −0.01, p = 0.04). Combined measures of (ln)cord plasma chlorpyrifos and diazinon (adjusted for relative potency) were also inversely associated with birth weight and length (p < 0.05). Birth weight averaged 186.3 g less (95% CI, −375.2 to −45.5) among newborns with the highest compared with lowest 26% of exposure levels (p = 0.01). Further, the associations between birth weight and length and cord plasma chlorpyrifos and diazinon were highly significant (p ≤ 0.007) among newborns born before the 2000–2001 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory actions to phase out residential use of these insecticides. Among newborns born after January 2001, exposure levels were substantially lower, and no association with fetal growth was apparent (p > 0.8). The propoxur metabolite 2-isopropoxyphenol in cord plasma was inversely associated with birth length, a finding of borderline significance (p = 0.05) after controlling for chlorpyrifos and diazinon. Results indicate that prenatal chlorpyrifos exposures have impaired fetal growth among this minority cohort and that diazinon exposures may have contributed to the effects. Findings support recent regulatory action to phase out residential uses of the insecticides