The following report is a summary of research work carried out at Sheffield Polytechnic and experience in the provision of management training courses specifically for the…
Abstract
The following report is a summary of research work carried out at Sheffield Polytechnic and experience in the provision of management training courses specifically for the managers of small firms in the Sheffield area. Measurements of percentage return on capital and training activities in major industries reveal a strong tendency for firms with a low return on capital to be more involved with management training and also reveal that small firms are more reluctant to become involved than larger firms. Further information is provided concerning the design of management training activities specifically for the managers of small firms, based on experience gained by the Small Firms Management Service at Sheffield Polytechnic.
A previous article on management training described some of the shortcomings in the national provision of management courses specifically for small firms and methods of overcoming…
Abstract
A previous article on management training described some of the shortcomings in the national provision of management courses specifically for small firms and methods of overcoming some of the problems. Many of the findings were based on a detailed survey of 80 small and medium sized manufacturing firms in the Sheffield area carried out by the Small Firms Management Service at Sheffield Polytechnic. The use of management techniques in small and medium sized firms was also extensively investigated during this survey and this report describes some of the findings. It is now well known that small firms with less than 200 employees represent an essential and substantial sector of our national manufacturing capability and are frequently responsible for high financial performance and the introduction of new products and ideas. It is becoming clear, however, that so far as national resources are concerned, such as grants for new buildings and equipment, investment allowances, factory moving grants and management training and consultancy, the bigger firms are getting a disproportionately large share of the money and facilities available. This is mainly due to the fact that the small business has little management time available for information seeking and form filling and also providers of management training and consultancy tend to favour those firms who are most willing and able to pay high fees for extended services. Research at Sheffield has already pointed the way to the creation of better training facilities for small firms, but has also provided data on the extent to which modern management methods are applied in different industries and sizes of firm and related this to return on capital. Small firms are well known for their resistance both to training facilities offered, which they rightly say are inappropriate, and to management help available which is thought to be too costly and disruptive.
Historical research suggests that English monarchs at the start of the early modern era (ca. 1500‐1800) followed a communication model this paper tentatively names…
Abstract
Historical research suggests that English monarchs at the start of the early modern era (ca. 1500‐1800) followed a communication model this paper tentatively names “instructional”, characterised by one‐way communication intended to instruct the public in a correct worldview and to coach proper behaviour. There is evidence that this instructional model segued into recognisably modern models as the English Crown lost power between the reigns of Elizabeth I and George III, suggesting a link between the sender’s power and the communication techniques the sender employed.
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This paper argues that the revolution in intellectual property rights is not forward-looking, but backward looking, and that it is not consonant with the purposes of the patent…
Abstract
This paper argues that the revolution in intellectual property rights is not forward-looking, but backward looking, and that it is not consonant with the purposes of the patent and copyright clause. It is animated by the theory of common law copyright, which deliberately reconceptualizes social relations in order to recast them as property, and which has been with us for centuries. This paper investigates the “mythology of common law copyright,” showing how this reconceptualization has worked both historically and in the present day to push the law in a direction that is ostensibly author-centered, but is actually focused on the rights of intermediaries.
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Emma Derbyshire and Carrie Ruxton
This review aims to evaluate and review literature published in the area of rising concerns that red meat consumption may be associated with risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus…
Abstract
Purpose
This review aims to evaluate and review literature published in the area of rising concerns that red meat consumption may be associated with risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), although there have been discrepancies between study findings, and put the findings into context.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a systematic literature review was undertaken to locate and summarise relevant studies which included epidemiological and clinical studies published between 2004 and 2014.
Findings
A total of 23 studies were found, with 21 epidemiological and two clinical studies meeting the criteria. Overall, the totality of the evidence indicates that while processed meat consumption appears to be associated with T2DM risk, the effect is much weaker for red meat, with some associations attenuated after controlling for body weight parameters. Where studies have considered high intakes in relation to T2DM risk, meat intake has tended to exceed 600 g per week. Therefore, keeping red meat intakes within recommended guidelines of no more than 500 g per week, while opting for lean cuts or trimming fat, would seem to be an evidence-based response.
Research limitations/implications
The majority of studies conducted to date have been observational cohorts which cannot determine cause and effect. Most of these used food frequency questionnaires which are known to be subject to misclassification errors (Brown, 2006). Clearly, more randomised controlled trials are needed to establish whether red meat consumption impacts on markers of glucose control. Until then, conclusions can only be viewed as speculative.
Originality/value
This paper provides an up-to-date systematic review of the literature, looking at inter-relationships between red meat consumption and T2DM risk.
THIS journal is not devoted exclusively to public libraries; they are only part of the library fabric but, because the preponderant number of workers in our craft are in public…
Abstract
THIS journal is not devoted exclusively to public libraries; they are only part of the library fabric but, because the preponderant number of workers in our craft are in public libraries, they and their work naturally occur more often in our pages than do those of others. We have always urged that the profession is indivisable and that a librarian is a person who, in his fundamental training, should be equipped to serve in any kind of library. The tendency to create distinctions, based upon slight—and they usually are slight—differences of work, are unfortunate and have led to bickerings and sometimes recriminations. Even between the two arms of the public library service, the county and the urban, there has been an emphasis on the differences rather than the likenesses; and every wise librarian knows that the services of a fully‐engaged library in a town are exactly the same as those of a county except that the county has to cover longer distances. The emphasis is even stronger where public and nonpublic libraries are in question.
Shellie McMurdo and Wickham Clayton
Roland Joffé, the film-maker behind the significant critical hits The Killing Fields (1984) and The Mission (1986), employed a hypnotic aesthetic, which unflinchingly depicted…
Abstract
Roland Joffé, the film-maker behind the significant critical hits The Killing Fields (1984) and The Mission (1986), employed a hypnotic aesthetic, which unflinchingly depicted violence and brutality within different cultural contexts. In 2007, he used a no less impressive aesthetic in a similar way, although this film, Captivity, was met with public outcry, including from self-proclaimed feminist film-maker Joss Whedon. This was based upon the depiction, in advertisements, of gendered violence in the popularly termed ‘torture porn’ subgenre, which itself has negative gendered connotations.
We aim to revisit the critical reception of Captivity in light of this public controversy, looking at the gendered tensions within considerations of genre, narration and aesthetics. Critics assumed Captivity was an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the torture horror subgenre, and there is evidence that the film-makers inserted scenes of gore throughout the narrative to encourage this affiliation. However, this chapter will consider how the film works as both an example of post-peak torture horror and an interesting precursor to more overtly feminist horror, such as A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) and Raw (2017). This is seen through the aesthetic and narrative centralizing of a knowing conflict between genders, which, while not entirely successful, does uniquely aim to provide commentary on the gender roles which genre criticism of horror has long considered implicit to the genre’s structures and pleasures.
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WE commence a volume of THE LIBRARY WORLD in circumstances which seem more cheerful for libraries than was expected when 1953 began. The community has survived the largest…
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WE commence a volume of THE LIBRARY WORLD in circumstances which seem more cheerful for libraries than was expected when 1953 began. The community has survived the largest increase in local rates that has been imposed for many years with almost equanimity and libraries have not suffered appreciably in their budgets, although many of them suffered cuts which twenty years ago might have been disastrous. So far as library development is concerned we see a few signs that the bleak period of library building may become less rigid. We read of a development scheme of the spread‐over sort for the Surrey County Library that will cost £440,000 approximately. There have been a few libraries restored by the grants of the War Damage Commission; and of these the National Central Library reconstruction which cost over £90,000 is perhaps the chief example. Smaller but quite substantial signs are the new modular branch library, the first of its kind in England, the Manor Branch, Sheffield. This is alleged to be our largest branch library; if this is so, it is larger than the Leith Library at Edinburgh. Anyway, all public librarians will congratulate themselves on having an example in being of the modern flexible plan which must obviously influence the future. Librarians are not always masters of the building situation; they may have to accommodate themselves to town‐planners, local architects, ambitious ward councillors who have a natural desire for a “fine” building for the use of their immediate electors. So they may when the time comes have forced upon them buildings suitable for the hour but of such outer architectural permanence that they cannot be scrapped for a century. A succession of completely adaptable temporary buildings, which need not be expensive or inartistic, is what modern library service seems to demand. As a well‐known librarian asked of a famous architect: “Give us large linear and cubic space, well warmed, lighted and ventilated and no fixed divisions of the apartments in it.” The modular system, as in the Sheffield example alone seems to fulfil this condition at present. Further happy signs are the news that £9,000 is to be spent on improving Fulham Central Library, and the opening of departments such as two children's libraries at Hampstead and temporary branches as at Hull.
THE College of Librarianship is best considered on its own terms, as an institution unique in the history and present pattern of British library education, but its significance…
Abstract
THE College of Librarianship is best considered on its own terms, as an institution unique in the history and present pattern of British library education, but its significance and probable future development can best be assessed if two external factors are kept in mind.
Felicitous writing is enormously important. However, the art of writing well is rarely addressed by marketing scholars. This paper seeks to argue that the marketing academy has…
Abstract
Purpose
Felicitous writing is enormously important. However, the art of writing well is rarely addressed by marketing scholars. This paper seeks to argue that the marketing academy has much to learn from historiography, a sub‐discipline devoted to the explication of historical writing.
Design/methodology/approach
Although it is primarily predicated on published works, this paper is not a conventional literature review. It relies, rather, on the classic historical method of “compare and contrast”. It considers parallels between the paired disciplines yet notes where marketing and history diverge in relation to literary styles and scientific aspirations.
Findings
It is concluded that marketing writing could benefit from greater emphasis on “character” and “storytelling”. These might help humanise a mode of academic communication that is becoming increasingly abstruse and ever‐more unappealing to its readership.
Research implications
If its argument is accepted by the academic community – and, more importantly, acted upon – this paper should transform the writing of marketing. Although the academic reward systems and power structures of marketing make revolutionary change unlikely, a “scholarly spring” is not inconceivable.
Originality/value
The paper's originality rests in the observation that originality is unnecessary. All of the literary‐cum‐stylistic issues raised in this paper have already been tackled by professional historians. Whether marketers are willing to learn from their historical brethren remains to be seen.