A Comparative Picture of Corporate Social Responsibility Approaches by Leading Companies in the United Kingdom and Brazil

Purpose - This paper compares CSR strategy, stakeholder engagement and overseas approaches of six leading companies which have large potential environmental and social impacts, influential stakeholders and notable CSR actions. Design/methodology/approach - It is an exploratory survey based on interviews of senior executives from British and Brazilian companies operating in the steel, petroleum and retail sectors and makes comparisons between and within them. Findings - British companies interviewed are more rule-based, adopt an implicit CSR approach; react to stakeholder’s demands based on moral motives and focus on environmental issues. The Brazilian companies, reviewed in this study, adopt an explicit CSR approach, have relational motives to engage with stakeholders and are more concerned with building a responsible image and narrowing social gaps. Research limitations/implications - The survey is based on perceptions of senior executives interviewed which may or may not correspond to actual practices. The sample size restricts generalization of results and specific firms interviewed may not represent the prevailing CSR business strategy in their respective countries. Practical implications - British companies can learn from the Brazilian experience how to become more innovative in a broader approach to CSR. Brazil should reinforce its legal framework to provide a more systematic and rule-based approach to CSR close to the UK experience. Originality/value - The way CSR is conceived and implemented depends on the ethical, socioeconomic, legal and institutional environment of the country in which the firm operates

Quantitative approaches for characterising fibrillar protein nanostructures

Polypeptide sequences have an inherent tendency to self-assemble into filamentous nanostructures commonly known as amyloid fibrils. Such self-assembly is used in nature to generate a variety of functional materials ranging from protective coatings in bacteria to catalytic scaffolds in mammals. The aberrant self-assembly of misfolded peptides and proteins is also, however, implicated in a range of disease states including neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. It is increasingly evident that the intrinsic material properties of these structures are crucial for understanding the thermodynamics and kinetics of the pathological deposition of proteins, particularly as the mechanical fragmentation of aggregates enhances the rate of protein deposition by exposing new fibril ends which can promote further growth. We discuss here recent advances in physical techniques that are able to characterise the hierarchical self-assembly of misfolded protein molecnles and define their properties. © 2010 Materials Research Society.

Monte Carlo approaches to nonlinear optimal control

This paper explores the use of Monte Carlo techniques in deterministic nonlinear optimal control. Inter-dimensional population Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques are proposed to solve the nonlinear optimal control problem. The linear quadratic and Acrobot problems are studied to demonstrate the successful application of the relevant techniques.