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Key Tasks (key + task)
Selected AbstractsControl and co-ordination in corporate rescueLEGAL STUDIES, Issue 3 2005Vanessa Finch The Enterprise Act 2002 sought to assist troubled companies by enhancing the rescue-friendliness of the UK insolvency regime. Assessing that regime calls for a focus on: the different roles and control powers of the various parties involved with troubled companies; the essential tasks that a rescue regime has to carry out; and the level of co-ordination that is to be expected between different parties. Key tasks in the furtherance of rescue are: the collectiiig of relevant information; the production of sound judgments and strategies; and the taking of timely actions and decisions. The problems of co-ordination, moreover, vary from task to task. For judges, central challenges in coming years will be not only to protect parties'rights within the new rescue regime but also to use judicial oversight powers to encourage co-ordinated action in pursuit of rescue. An appreciation of the co-ordination issue is central to an understanding of the post-Enterprise Act 2002 regime and the potential of the judges to enhance that regime in its furtherance of rescue. [source] Precautionary Maybe, but What's the Principle?JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 3 2005The Precautionary Principle, the Public Domain, the Regulation of Risk The ,precautionary principle', originating in the field of environmental protection but now widely applied, is a major point for discussion in the regulation of risk. Though promising proactive and pre-emptive intervention to prevent potentially irreversible harm, its precise meaning remains somewhat unclear. Legal systems tend to view it as procedural rather than substantive, and debates abound regarding its ,stronger' or ,weaker' versions and, indeed, the very concept of ,risk'. It is also necessary to discuss how the principle operates in varying administrative and constitutional contexts but the key task is to clarify the principle's fundamental value base. If its essentially collective orientation is highlighted, it may better ensure that democratic and non-pecuniary interests are given due prominence in regulatory contexts otherwise dominated by economic interests and technological imperatives, and it may then play an important role in reasserting the values of the public domain in the face of powerful private interests. [source] Law and the demoralisation of medicineLEGAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2006Jonathan Montgomery In his Dimbleby Lecture in December 2002, the Archbishop of Canterbury examined the effect of the emergence of the market state on the legitimacy of government activity in areas of morality. He suggested that, while this is becoming limited, the continuing need to provide a moral context for social life provided an opportunity for religious communities to play a crucial role. This paper suggests that the increasing significance of market concepts in healthcare law poses a similar challenge to the moral basis of medical practice, threatening to drive moral argument outside the scope of the discipline, with the consequent effect of undermining the values that drive good healthcare. Thus, the de-moralisation of medicine is also demoralising for those within the health professions. To counteract this tendency, a strong sense of a common moral community needs to be maintained amongst those engaged with the discipline of healthcare law. This paper also examines the role of law in this area. Traditionally, legal scholars have attacked the reluctance of legislators and the judiciary to wrestle from the grip of doctors the authority to determine ethical issues. The dominant view has been that this was a failure to recognise the fact that society has a stake in these matters and that legal non-intervention was an abdication of responsibility that undermines the rule of law. However, the integration of medical and moral decision making into a collaborative enterprise can also be seen as a more effective defence against the forces of demoralisation than the separation that the orthodox approach implies. If this is correct, then a key task for healthcare lawyers, as yet undeveloped, is to consider how to establish a legitimate common moral community, and what role the law might have to play in that process. [source] A molecular recognition paradigm: promiscuity associated with the ligand,receptor interactions of the activin members of the TGF-, superfamilyJOURNAL OF MOLECULAR RECOGNITION, Issue 5 2005Hooi Hong Keah Abstract The structure,function properties of the pleiotropic activins and their relationship to other members of the transforming growth factor-, superfamily of proteins are described. In order to highlight the molecular promiscuity of these growth factors, emphasis has been placed on molecular features associated with the recognition by activin A and the bone morphogenic proteins of the corresponding extracellular domains of the ActRI and ActRII receptors. The available evidence suggests that the homodimeric activin A in its various functional roles has the propensity to fulfill key tasks in the regulation of mammalian cell behaviour, through coordination of numerous transcriptional and translational processes. Because of these profound effects, under physiologically normal conditions, activin A levels are closely controlled by a variety of binding partners, such as follistatin-288 and follistatin-315, ,2 -macroglobulin and other proteins. Moreover, the subunits of other members of the activin subfamily, such as activin B or activin C, are able to form heterodimers with the activin A subunit, thus providing a further avenue to positively or negatively control the physiological concentrations of activin A that are available for interaction with specific receptors and induction of cell signaling events. Based on data from X-ray crystallographic studies and homology modeling experiments, the molecular architecture of the ternary receptor,activin ligand complexes has been dissected, permitting rationalization in structural terms of the pattern of interactions that are the hallmark of this protein family. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Organizational factors that influence safety,PROCESS SAFETY PROGRESS, Issue 2 2006Patrick Killimett For the past 20 years the author and his associates have worked with over 1600 organizations to improve safety performance. In the course of this work, we have discovered that organizations optimize their efforts when they provide and support strong roles at each of three levels: the front-line employee, supervisory, and senior manager levels. These three roles, when appropriately engaged, make up a cord of three strands that is not easily broken. Of these three areas, the leadership role has proved not only to have the greatest impact on safety improvement but also the most complex to understand and influence. One striking example of this is seen in the study of sites using the same improvement methodology. Even when compared by industry, site size, and systems, some organizations achieve steady improvement whereas others consistently struggle. More than any other factor, the quality of the organization's leadership,in particular its influence on the organizational culture,determined the level of success achieved. By organizational culture we mean the shared common values that drive organizational performance, more commonly defined as "the way we do things here." Culture applies to many areas of functioning, is generally unstated, in the background, and slow to change. Even though it is generally recognized that leadership is important to performance, the "how" of that leadership is often debated. What makes a leader effective at influencing and improving safety? What are the qualities of such a leader? What are the key tasks that a leader must perform to generate desired results? Although this paper focuses on these questions with respect to senior leaders, the principles discussed are applicable to all levels in the organization. © 2006 Behavior Science Technology, Inc. (BST), 2006 [source] The four chambers of the heart of peace: the role of emotional intelligence, counselling skills, and living systems thinking in the transformation of violent conflict: part onePSYCHOTHERAPY AND POLITICS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2006Hilde Rapp Abstract The first half of a longer piece , itself the second of a series of four articles looking at working with conflict , in which a generic ground map is presented signposting four key tasks that peacebuilders need to bear in mind in any conflict transformation work. The four tasks involve mapping the ,what' of peacebuilding: 1 Personal Resources; 2 Interpersonal and Intercultural Issues; 3 Bio-psycho-social Determinants; 4 Organizational and Systemic Dimensions. In the current paper the first two of these are described and discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] |