Polanyi's presagement of the incommensurability concept

Kuhn and Feyerabend have little to say about the thought of Michael Polanyi, and the secondary literature on Polanyi's relation to them is meagre. I argue that Polanyi's view, in Personal knowledge and in other writings, of conceptual frameworks ‘segregated’ by a ‘logical gap’ as giving rise to controversies in science foreshadowed Kuhn and Feyerabend's theme of incommensurability. The similarity between the thinkers is, I suggest, no coincidence.

Application of the fair-value concept : evidence from Australian legal decisions

The concept of "fair value" is increasingly being incorporated into Australian and international accounting standards and pronouncements. The fair-value concept has also been established and developed in Australian legal cases, and an examination of pertinent court decisions is of interest to accountants. By examining and analysing relevant cases, the paper highlights some of the principles and difficulties involved in operationalising the fair-value concept for accounting and legal purposes, particularly in situations where the asset being valued is subject to imperfect or incomplete markets.

Intra-organisational marketing culture and market orientation: a case study of the implementation of the marketing concept in a public library

The measurement of both marketing culture and behaviour provides the opportunity to gain more insight into the overall market focus of organisations. This article seeks to determine the market orientation and marketing culture of all staff within organisations, to ascertain to what extent other members of an organisation support or create barriers to the successful implementation of the marketing concept. This paper will provide a brief overview of the existing literature in the field of market orientation and marketing culture. After detailing the research design and methodology, a summary developed from 11 focus group sessions - consisting of all staff in one public library service in Victoria, Australia - is presented. The findings indicate that while all areas within this organisation are committed to marketing, there are various interpretations of marketing and how it should be implemented. In addition, the research finds a number of factors that could be instrumental in the successful implementation of the marketing concept in public libraries.

Combining extension matrix and integer programming for optimal concept learning

This paper proposes two integer programming models and their GA-based solutions for optimal concept learning. The models are built to obtain the optimal concept description in the form of propositional logic formulas from examples based on completeness, consistency and simplicity. The simplicity of the propositional rules is selected as the objective function of the integer programming models, and the completeness and consistency of the concept are used as the constraints. Considering the real-world problems that certain level of noise is contained in data set, the constraints in model 11 are slacked by adding slack-variables. To solve the integer programming models, genetic algorithm is employed to search the global solution space. We call our approach IP-AE. Its effectiveness is verified by comparing the experimental results with other well- known concept learning algorithms: AQ15 and C4.5.

Integrated health impact assessment into the triple bottom line concept

This theoretical study explores the links between the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) concept and the principles of HIA and considers the potential role of HIA to provide a mechanism for integrating health concerns within a broader agenda of government and business. TBL is a framework linked to the broader sustainability agenda that underpins and reviews environmental, economic and social performance of organizations. In its simplest form, TBL acts as a tool for reporting to stakeholders/shareholders organizational performance and the nature of the impacts on the community. The links to HIA are clear as both seek to determine the impact (potential and actual) on the health and well-being of the population.

The study found that TBL can operate at four levels within organizations ranging from reporting through to full integration with the organization's goals and practices. Health is narrowly defined and there are tensions about how to undertake the social accountability functions. The study shows the potential role for HIA within the broader policy and accountability agenda. As health is one of the main outcomes of an organization's activities it needs to be taken into account at all levels of activity.

Financial reporting for environmental and social responsibility: a normative strategic concept

Corporate responsibility demands that firms address environmental and social values in their firms' policy and key performance indicators. These are integrated through strategic planning and require firms to merge the long-term environmental and social values with short-term economic objectives and performance measures. Each firm's strategy will differ. This paper provides a normative reporting concept to connect the financial implications associated with long-term planning for environmental and social values, with short-term accounting reports. Reporting variants adapted from total cost assessment, life cycle costing and variable costing are integrated to offer upstream information based on a product segment view.

Development of a cooling fabric from conducting polymer coated fibres: proof of concept

It is supposed that there should be a thermal electric effect if a dc current is applied across two dissimilar conducting polymers, similar to so called “Peltier effect” in metals or semiconductors. However, this hypothesis has not been tested on conducting polymers and using these materials to make cooling fabrics has never been attempted before. Polypyrrole coated fabrics were used to test the hypothesis in this preliminary study. Seebeck and the Peltier effects were proven to exist. However, thermoelectricity effect between two conducting polymer coated fabric samples was only about 10 μV/°C. Cooling effect by conductive polymer powder was achieved but performance was unsteady due to electrical degradation of the conducting polymer. Nevertheless, the concept was demonstrated and the development of a cooling fabric is possible.

Moving from the quality of life concept to a theory

BACKGROUND: The Special Interest Quality of Life Group has updated its set of statements defining the quality of life (QOL) construct to reflect emerging areas of agreement and the framework for understanding better the QOL construct.
METHOD: This article examines the major areas currently under discussion involving the objective-subjective dichotomy, needs, and core domains.
RESULTS: It is concluded that while the new statements constitute a significant advance, further progress requires testable theory. In order to facilitate such future research, a conceptual model is proposed that distinguishes causal and indicator variables within the framework of a homeostatic management system.
CONCLUSION: Several lines of empirical investigation are suggested to test this and similar theoretical models with a view to taking our conceptualization of QOL to the next level.

Hegemony of printed books in Australian tertiary education a concept under challenge

This paper is about challenges to the hegemony of printed books in Australian tertiary education and the potential demise of that hegemony. Not because the book in its traditional form is considered by some to be outdated and not because ofcompeting products that might put the use of the traditional book under threat - our Australian 'book-industry' might well rise to such challenges given that competitiveness is a driving feature of business. This paper is about challenges to the hegemony of printed books in tertiary education because of forces entirely outside the 'book-industry's' control.

The function of traditional printed books within tertiary education is changing. Education is a user-pays product, and competitive pressures ensure students are given greater voice in the types of learning resources provided, with the evolution of electronic and communication technologies allowing student learning resources to be made available in a myriad of ways. Thus a traditional printed book may be an inflexible tool in a dynamic environment.