The harmony of divine doctrines : demonstrated in sundry declarations on a variety of subjects /

All but the last three works are by William Penn.

The gentle reader /

The gentle reader.--The enjoyment of poetry.--The mission of humor.--Cases of conscience concerning witchcraft.--The honorable points of ignorance.--That history should be readable.--The evolution of the gentleman.--The hinter-land of science.--The gentle reader's friends among the clergy.--Quixotism.--Intimate knowledge and delight.

The determinants of the vertical boundaries of the construction firm

In the last few years, transaction cost economics has become a popular theory within the construction research community. This approach has been singularly applied as a means to explain and predict phenomena concerning the construction firm, including its vertical boundaries. However, this is at a time when the chief proponents of transaction costs are urging researchers to take a pluralistic stance in relation to the theory of the firm. The aim of this paper is to develop a pluralistic approach to the vertical boundaries of the construction firm. In order to achieve this, an integrative framework is described, based on the development of the efficient boundaries problem and the capabilities approach to vertical integration. Specifically, this framework draws on the complementary strengths of transaction cost economics and the resource-based view. It is concluded that the potential relative merits of theoretical pluralism, in terms of the vertical boundaries of the construction firm, are sufficient grounds to motivate empirical testing of the predictions associated with the integrative framework of vertical integration presented

Early combination disease modifying antirheumatic drug treatment for rheumatoid arthritis

Most people presenting with rheumatoid arthritis today can expect to achieve disease suppression, can avoid or substantially delay joint damage and deformities, and can maintain a good quality of life. Optimal management requires early diagnosis and treatment, usually with combinations of conventional disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). If these do not effect remission, biological DMARDs may be beneficial. Lack of recognition of the early signs of rheumatoid arthritis, ignorance of the benefits of early application of modern treatment regimens, and avoidable delays in securing specialist appointments may hinder achievement of best outcomes for many patients. Triage for recognising possible early rheumatoid arthritis must begin in primary care settings with the following pattern of presentation as a guide: involvement of three or more joints; early-morning joint stiffness of greater than 30 minutes; or bilateral squeeze tenderness at metacarpophalangeal or metatarsophalangeal joints.

Dilemmas in Framing Research Studies in Engineering Education

There has been considerable debate about the need for more empirical, evidence based studies of the impact of various interventions and practices in engineering education. A number of resources including workshops to guide engineering faculty in the conduct of such studies have emerged over recent years. This paper presents a critique of the evolution of engineering education research and its underlying assumptions in the context of the systemic reform currently underway in engineering education. This critique leads to an analysis of the ways in which our current understanding of engineering, engineering education and research in engineering education is shaped by the traditions and cultural characteristics of the profession and grounded, albeit implicitly, in a particular suite of epistemological assumptions. It is argued that the whole enterprise of engineering education needs to be radically reconceptualized. A pluralistic approach to framing scholarship in engineering education is then proposed based on the principles of demonstrable practicality, critical interdisciplinarity and holistic reflexivity. This new framework has implications for engaging and developing faculty in the context of new teaching and learning paradigms, for the evaluation of the scholarship of teaching and for the research-teaching nexus.

Por uma cristologia pluralista da libertação: reflexões teológicas a partir de Jacques Dupuis e Jon Sobrino

O objetivo central desta pesquisa é desvendar possibilidades no estabelecimento de prováveis eixos básicos de uma cristologia pluralista da libertação, a partir das reflexões teológicas de Jon Sobrino (1938-) e Jacques Dupuis (1923-2004). Para tanto, se reconhecem cotidianamente os entrecruzamentos de sinais dos tempos, como as diferenças religiosas e as violações de direitos e injustiças sociais. A partir desta problemática, toma-se como hipótese a necessidade de se demonstrar a articulação em andamento entre perspectivas das teologias da libertação com perspectivas das teologias cristãs do pluralismo religioso, sinalizando um novo modo de fazer teologia. O trabalho aqui desenvolvido dialoga com os estudos culturais, especialmente com os conceitos de Homi Bhabha, o referencial teórico desta pesquisa, que possibilitou, criticamente, o entrelaçamento das perspectivas de Jacques Dupuis e Jon Sobrino. Para a construção desta cristologia, seguiu-se um tripé metodológico: revisão, reconstrução e reinvenção. O trabalho buscou revisar os discursos teológicos apresentados por Jon Sobrino e Jacques Dupuis; reconstruir as reflexões teológicas elaboradas por estes autores; e reinventar uma cristologia que se mostre como um terceiro espaço, um entrelugar discursivo, uma cristologia pluralista da libertação, que não é nem o um (a cristologia da libertação) nem o outro (a teologia cristã do pluralismo religioso), mas algo a mais, uma fala híbrida elaborada a partir de determinadas zonas de contato entre os autores. A pesquisa apresenta como eixos: (i) uma cristologia integral: vivenciada nos espaços cotidianos, com uma reflexão a partir das vítimas e do espírito das testemunhas; (ii) uma cristologia trinitária: refletida a partir d@ outr@ e centrada no mistério inesgotável, na humanização do divino e na força do Espírito; e (iii) uma cristologia reinoteocêntrica: vocacionada ao reino de Deus, numa tensão entre a parcialidade com as vítimas e a universalidade da ação de Deus, numa elaboração nas vias da mística e em um discurso cristológico estruturado na (des)missão. Tais eixos possuem implicações políticas, uma vez que esta cristologia se constrói como uma dupla função: é objeto de estudo e é espaço para a atuação política, reconhecendo que novos discursos e linguagens relacionam-se com novas atuações e mobilizações sociais.

NOVAS CONFIGURAÇÕES DAS FAMÍLIAS CONTEMPORÂNEAS: RUPTURAS E/OU CONTINUIDADES NOS DISCURSOS E PRÁTICAS DE METODISTAS E LUTERANOS ACERCA DO DIVÓRCIO E NOVOS CASAMENTOS

Na contemporaneidade, a família tradicional (pai, mãe, filhos) passou por mudanças de paradigmas, gerando novas configurações familiares, mais flexíveis e plurais. Nas novas configurações, o elemento de constituição não é só a partir dos laços de parentesco de nature-za biológica e civil, mas, principalmente, o da afetividade. Nesta dissertação, analisamos as rupturas e/ou continuidades dos discursos institucionais religiosos no protestantismo histórico, mais especificamente nas Igrejas Metodista e Luterana, acerca dos divórcios e novos casa-mentos. O objetivo da pesquisa foi o de identificar em que medida o posicionamento institu-cional religioso e a prática das comunidades de fé são coerentes e/ou dissonantes em relação às transformações experimentadas pela instituição família na contemporaneidade. Os docu-mentos utilizados para as análises foram: pastorais, jornais oficiais, atas, e demais documentos que foram pesquisados nos acervos da biblioteca da UMESP e no Portal Luteranos. A pesqui-sa de campo foi realizada através da aplicação de questionários e entrevistas aos sujeitos reli-giosos no município de Ferraz de Vasconcelos, nas Igrejas Metodista e Luterana. Através da análise documental e da pesquisa de campo, buscamos identificar o impacto que as novas con-figurações familiares causaram sobre o discurso institucional e sobre a prática eclesial.

Doing which work? A practice approach to institutional pluralism

This chapter takes a social theory of practice approach to examining institutional work; that is, how institutions are created, maintained, and disrupted through the actions, interactions, and negotiations of multiple actors. We examine alternative approaches that organizations use to deal with institutional pluralism based on a longitudinal real-time case study of a utility company grappling with opposing market and regulatory logics over time. These two logics required the firm to both mitigate its significant market power and also maintain its commercially competitive focus and responsiveness to shareholders. Institutional theorists have long acknowledged that institutions have a central logic (Friedland & Alford, 1991) or rationality (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Scott, 1995/2001; Townley, 2002), comprising a set of material and symbolic practices and organizing principles that provide logics of action for organizations and individuals, who then reproduce the institutions through their actions (Glynn & Lounsbury, 2005; Suddaby & Greenwood, 2005). Despite a monolithic feel to much institutional theory, in which a dominant institutional logic appears to prevail, institutional theorists also acknowledge the plurality of institutions (e.g. Friedland & Alford, 1991; Kraatz & Block, 2008; Lounsbury, 2007; Meyer & Rowan, 1977; Whittington, 1992). While these pluralistic institutions may be interdependent, they are not considered to coexist in harmony; “There is no question but that many competing and inconsistent logics exist in modern society” (Scott, 1995: 130).

Neo-Nazism in West Germany

The oharaoter of right-wing extremism in the Federal Republic has undergone extensive transformations in the seventies. As electoral support for the extreme Right declined, a whole range of new groupings emerged pursuing a militant extra-parliamentary strategy. Essential charaoteristics are an increasing tendency to use violence and a close ideological affinity to the NSDAP. They attract a growing number of young people. The increasing susceptibility of young people to rightist ideologies coincides with an economic recession of which young people especially are the victims. Widespread ignorance about Nazism and the prevalence of anti-democratic political attitudes constitute important contributary factors and point to a considerable potential for right-extremism in the Federal Republic., This potential can be attributed. to the negative effects of much of the material dealing with the NS past, to serious deficiencies in the area of historical-political education in schools and, above all, to the absence of any :real process of "coming to terms with the past" in the postwar period. Neo-Nazism is not completely isolated from other trends in West German society. Rightist elements within the established party system and broad sections of the population hold similar views and attitudes. This similarity, linked with an over-exaggerated concern with a perceived threat from the extreme Left may explain the absence of any concerted effort to deal with nee-Nazi tendencies. The response of the courts exemplifies a widespread tendency to under-estimate the significance of the extreme Right. Opposition to the Right is restricted primarily to those circles which suffered most under the Nazi regime. The analysis suggests that one must reject the simplistic view that at the present time the Right does not constitute a serious threat to West German democracy. The study evaluates the wide range of views to be found in secondary sources on the subject of neo-Nazism and is :intended, to contribute to the ongoing discussion conceming the potential for right-extremism in West Germany.

Stakeholder accounting : the case of the electricity industry in England and Wales

This thesis proposes to explore the potential for stakeholder based accounting as a means to explain the social performance of organisations. It argues that organisations have a contract with society and as a consequence they must be accountable to that society for their actions. Further, it is suggested that as part of this accountability there is a broader need in the public interest for social accounting. Due to the pluralistic nature of modern societies it is argued that a stakeholder framework is one way in which this accountability can be achieved. In order to consider the nature of such social accounting a case study of the electricity industry in England and Wales is undertaken. This industry is very important to modern society, has significant environment implications and has a recent history of remarkable change. These factors make it an interesting and unique case within which to consider accountability. From the performance measurement and accounting literature and a series of interviews with both stakeholders and privatised companies a model of stakeholder performance is developed. This is then used to analyse the electricity industry in England and Wales since privatisation. The objective is to demonstrate how certain stakeholders have fared, whether they have won or lost. Further, institutional and resource dependency theories are used to consider what factors determine the relative success or failure of the different stakeholder groups. Finally the possible implications of recent developments in Social Accounting Standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), AccountAbility 1000 (AA1000) and Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000), and the potential for Internet reporting are considered.

Informal boundary-spanning links and networks in successful technological innovation

The sources of ideas embodied within successful technological innovation has been a subject of interest in many studies since the 1950s. This research suggests that sources external to the innovating organisation account for between one and two-thirds of the inputs important to the innovation process. In addition, studies have long highlighted the important role played by the personal boundary-spanning relationships of engineers and scientists as a channel for the transference of such inputs. However, research concerning the role and nature of personal boundary-spanning links in the innovation process have either been primarily structurally orientated, seeking to map out the informal networks of scientists and engineers, or more typically, anecdotal. The objective of this research was to reveal and build upon our knowledge of the role, nature and importance of informal exchange activity in the innovation process. In order to achieve this, an empirical study was undertaken to determine the informal sources, channels and mechanisms employed in the development of thirty five award-winning innovations. Through the adoption of the network perspective, the multiple sources and pluralistic patterns of collaboration and communication in the innovation process were systematically explored. This approach provided a framework that allowed for the detailed study of both the individual dyadic links and morphology of the innovation action-sets in which these dyads were embedded. The research found, for example, that the mobilisation of boundary-spanning links and networks was an important or critical factor in nineteen (54%) of the development projects. Of these, informal boundary-spanning exchange activity was considered to be important or critical in eight (23%).

A systems approach to public sector budgeting: the case of the planning, programming, budgeting system for the health and personal social services

The aim of this thesis is to examine the specific contextual factors affecting the applicability and development of the planning, programming, budgeting system (P.P.B.S.) as a systems approach to public sector budgeting. The concept of P.P.B.S. as a systems approach to public sector budgeting will first be developed and the preliminary hypothesis that general contextual factors may be classified under political, structural and cognitive headings will be put forward. This preliminary hypothesis will be developed and refined using American and early British experience. The refined hypothesis will then be tested in detail in the case of the English health and personal social services (H.P.S.S.), The reasons for this focus are that it is the most recent, the sole remaining, and the most significant example in British central government outside of defence, and is fairly representative of non-defence government programme areas. The method of data collection relies on the examination of unpublished and difficult to obtain central government, health and local authority documents, and interviews with senior civil servants and public officials. The conclusion will be that the political constraints on, or factors affecting P.P.B.S., vary with product characteristics and cultural imperatives on pluralistic decision-making; that structural constraints vary with the degree of coincidence of programme and organisation structure and with the degree of controllability of the organisation; and finally, that cognitive constraints vary according to product characteristics, organisational responsibilities, and analytical effort.

Business as usual is not an option

It’s just not an option Sustainability literacy should by now be woven into the fabric of our educational culture. Our present ignorance and lack of engagement is nothing short of shameful, says John Blewitt.

An empirical investigation of audit pricing in the public sector:the case of Greek LGOs

This paper investigates the associations between audit pricing and multidimensional characteristics of local governments by using a sample of Greek municipalities. The Greek institutional setting is interesting because it is politically pluralistic. Moreover, independent auditors appointed through a bid process exclusively perform the audits. Our results suggest a considerable variation on audit fees which is mainly driven by politically related factors indicating the importance of relevant theoretical anticipations in audit pricing in the public sector. Agency costs appear strong enough to explain audit pricing. We also confirm prior findings on the significance of audit complexity and size. Results also suggest that audit fees are reduced when an internal team dedicated to accrual accounting is appointed. Therefore, our conclusions offer practical implications for policy setters and regulators in the public sector in relation to audit quality.

An analysis of users' reactions to an expert advisory system

Ignorance of user factors can be seen as one of the nontechnical issues contributing to expert system failure. An expert advisory system is built for nonexpert users; the users' acceptance is a very important factor for its successful implementation. If an expert advisory system satisfactorily represents the expertise in the domain, there still remains the question: "Will the end-users use the system?" This paper aims to address users' issues by analysing their reactions towards an expert advisory system called ADGAME, developed to help its users make better decisions in playing a competitive business game. Two experiments with ADGAME have been carried out. The research results show that, when the use of the expert advisory system is optional, there is considerable reluctance to use it, particularly amongst the "worst" potential users. Users also doubt the potential benefits in terms of improved learning and confidence in decisions made. Strangely, the one positive expectation that users had, that the system would save them time, proved not to be the case in practice; ADGAME appears to improve the users' effectiveness rather than their efficiency. © 1995.