The Leader as Moral Agent: Praise, Blame, and the Artificial Person

The leader as the moral agent can be both a singular and a collective entity. Regardless, that individual or group of individuals must establish and live by a moral paradigm where self-respect and respect for co-workers is paramount. In essence, the moral agent must lead by example. And it is not simply sufficient to choose the correct pathway but to care about choosing the correct pathway, stripping the decision-making process of disingenuous or superficial motives and injecting heart, concern, and passion for doing what is right

Harmonising extended measures of parental childcare in the time-diary surveys of four countries – Proximity versus responsibility

Measures of childcare drawn from time-diary data are commonly based on the specific childcare activities a parent engages in throughout the day. This emphasis on activities has been criticised as it ignores the large quantity of time parents spend supervising their children. In order to provide more accurate estimates of childcare that incorporate supervisory childcare, researchers have turned to extended measures of care based on being i) in proximity to children or ii) responsible for children. There has been debate about the extent to which these approaches each measure the same aspect of childcare. In addition, it is thought they may be sensitive to the way surveys have been designed, which can affect the extent to which they can be compared crossnationally. We argue that measures of proximity and responsibility are conceptually interchangeable, and demonstrate that they can be harmonised and compared cross-nationally. Finally, we suggest ways in which these extended measures of childcare can be made increasingly comparable cross-nationally.Time-diary data, measurement of parental childcare, cross-national harmonisation of measures of childcare, time geography

URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN ZIMBABWE: A HUMAN SETTLEMENT PERSPECTIVE

This paper examines and analyses the historical development of Zimbabwean towns and cities with a view to tracing and understanding policy directions, urban spatial development trends and other factors such as population dynamics that may have led to the development of the present-day urban settlements in the country. The paper observes that whilst pre-colonial cities existed during the golden age of the Munhumutapa dynasty and empire, these had no influence on the modern town and city because they were too distant and their experiences had long been lost by the time the colonial town was introduced in the country, some four centuries later. Furthermore the paper observes that whilst policy may easily be changed or even reversed, it is a near impossibility to do the same with the spatial physical developments such as buildings and infrastructure – roads, water reticulation, sewerage reticulation and treatment works, railway lines, telecommunication lines and power lines. As a result of these realities the form and structure of our cities has remained to a large extent as originally conceived, designed and developed with perhaps some cosmetic changes in the form of redevelopments and densification of certain sectors or areas and sprawling expansion. This has also led to the many challenges of urban poverty, inadequate housing, inadequate provision of serves (potable clean water, energy, and garbage collection) and environmental quality - issues of pollution- the towns and cities are grappling with today typified by Harare and Chitungwiza, which are sited upstream of their water supply sources and as a result pollute them. The paper also notes that the socio-economic policies and political expedience by both the colonial and independent governments have had significant impacts on the morphology (shape, structure and population distribution) of towns and cities of Zimbabwe.urban, development, human settlement, population, colonial, services, morphology, demography.

COMPARING TWO TRANSECT METHODS FOR THE DETECTION OF RED-BACKED SALAMANDERS

Typical monitoring methods for terrestrial salamanders are subject to extensive variation, driven by the environmental conditions in effect during sampling. As rigorous salamander sampling methods are needed to monitor populations, there is a need to assess commonly used methods under a variety of environmental conditions. We hypothesized that of two methods used for capturing red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus), leaf litter searches and natural cover searches, the latter would perform best for adults and in situations where moisture was limiting. We compared captures for paired transect surveys: one a leaf litter search and the other a natural cover search, relative to age, proximity to streams, rainfall events, vapor pressure deficit and season. We found that natural cover searches outperformed leaf litter searches when conducted away from streams and in the absence of rainfall. Natural cover searches performed better regardless of vapor pressure deficit and season (spring or fall). Natural cover searches detected more adults than juveniles. We recommend natural cover searches as more efficient than leaf litter searches

Theory and Evidence on Mergers and Acquisitions by Small and Medium Enterprises

The theory of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) has been developed almost exclusively from the study of large deals by large firms. In this paper we argue that the behaviour and success of M&As by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) may be significantly different. Accordingly, we revisit established M&A theories, and develop a theoretical framework, and several testable hypotheses, regarding the distinctive features of SME M&As. Our empirical results support our expectations and show that, compared to large firms, acquiring SMEs: rely more intensively on external growth via M&As; are more likely to be withdrawn, suggesting that SMEs are more flexible, and more able to avoid deals that turn sour; and, finally, SME M&As are more likely to be financed with equity rather than debt, indicating that the influential financial pecking order theory is of less relevance to SMEs.mergers, acquisitions, small and medium sized enterprises

The evolution of benefit sharing agreements in Papua New Guinea : what are the lessons learnt and what are the prospects for the future? : a research presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Development in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

With an abundance of natural resources, the extractive and fishery exploitation at a developed stage, Papua New Guinea (PNG) should have been at the top end of the developing world, however, this has not materialised. PNG is going through the dilemmas of development through high rate of resource exploitation and unequal distribution of benefits that is having detrimental effect on the economy and general living standard. Many have questioned why this situation has existed without being addressed. It is also acknowledged here that there has been much literature that has been written on the environment and social impacts of resource project, however, there has been little written on the benefits flowing through to those people affected by resource developments. This report attempts to address those benefit sharing issues. A review of past and current projects and how they distributed benefits has provided a baseline from which the most important elements for future benefit sharing have been identified. These are that BSA are negotiated, legally binding agreements that recognise property rights, are internationally recognised, they allocate and demarcate responsibilities and ensure development coherence. Using these characteristics, a fair and equitable benefit sharing could then be developed for resource projects in Papua New Guinea

Ground and excited energy levels can be extracted exactly from a single ensemble density-functional theory calculation

Gross-Oliveira-Kohn density-functional theory (GOK-DFT) for ensembles is the DFT analog of state-averaged wavefunction-based (SA-WF) methods. In GOK-DFT, the state-averaged (so-called ensemble) exchange-correlation (xc) energy is described by a single functional of the density which, for a fixed density, depends on the weights assigned to each state in the ensemble. We show that, if a many-weight-dependent xc functional is employed, then it becomes possible to extract, in principle exactly, all individual energy levels from a single GOK-DFT calculation, exactly like in a SA-WF calculation. More precisely, starting from the Kohn-Sham energies, a global Levy-Zahariev-type shift as well as a state-specific (ensemble-based) xc derivative correction must be applied in order to reach the energy level of interest. We illustrate with the asymmetric Hubbard dimer the importance and substantial weight dependence of both corrections. A comparison with more standard extraction procedures, which rely on a sequence of ensemble calculations, is made at the ensemble exact exchange level of approximation.Comment: 11 pages and 4 figure