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Quality Environment (quality + environment)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

An environment for prosperity and quality living accommodating growth in the Thames Valley

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2004
Hugh Howes
The Thames Valley is seen as the powerhouse of the British economy, and one of the best performing regions in Europe. This economic base offers opportunities for expansion with the potential for it to become the knowledge capital of Europe. Business interests view the area as a highly desirable location, not only because of its markets, skills and proximity to the City and Heathrow but also because of its high quality environment. Companies, however, complain of skills shortages, traffic congestion, lack of suitable premises and housing that is affordable to the workforce. Much of the Thames Valley is either Green Belt or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Furthermore, the availability of future water supplies, the maintenance of the quality of water in the rivers and managing flood risk are also likely to act as constraints on development in the future. How economic growth is to be achieved with minimal additional development and without detriment to the environment is the central question that is likely to dominate planning in the this region over the next few years. Is it possible to achieve more with existing resources? Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]

An examination of the relationships between leadership style, quality, and employee satisfaction in R&D versus administrative environments

R & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2005
Yair Berson
Academics and executives argue that effective leadership is a key predictor of R&D success as well as quality management. Recent research highlights transformational leadership as a highly effective style shown to predict performance in organizations. However, no study examined the role of transformational and transactional leadership in building quality climate in R&D versus non-R&D settings. We examined the relationship between leadership style and the establishment of a quality environment in an R&D setting based on an empirical study of 511 research engineers and scientists. It is found that both transformational leadership and transactional contingent-reward leadership are related to the establishment of a quality environment in the R&D part of a telecommunications firm. However, the impact of transactional contingent-reward leadership ceases to be significant once both leadership styles are considered simultaneously using structural equations. A transformational leadership style was also found to be related to employee satisfaction. [source]

Policy profile: addressing environmental inequalities through UK research and policy

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 6 2005
Helen Chalmers
Abstract In the United Kingdom, political and governmental attention is being paid to the growing evidence that shows that the poorest people live in the worst quality environments. This paper will describe the development of work within the Environment Agency over the past three years to help understand such environmental inequalities, and how these can be addressed through UK policy for sustainable development. This paper will examine the following key areas of this work. iHow have we used the research process to understand environmental inequalities and develop evidence based policy? iiWhat progress have we made in shaping the Environment Agency's role, and ensuring that its environmental policies do not contribute to further environmental inequalities? iiiHow have we worked to ensure that environmental inequalities are addressed through wider government sustainable development policy? It concludes by exploring how research and policy development to address environmental inequalities requires integration across at least three fields of practice: different types of evidence; research and policy; and environment and social policy for sustainable development. © Crown copyright 2005. Reproduced with the permission of Her Majesty's Stationary Office. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]

Sex-related effects of maternal egg investment on offspring in relation to carotenoid availability in the great tit

JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2008
Anne Berthouly
Summary 1Maternal carotenoids in the egg yolk have been hypothesized to promote maturation of the immune system and protect against free radical damages. Depending on availability, mothers may thus influence offspring quality by depositing variable amounts of carotenoids into the eggs. Sex allocation theory predicts that in good quality environments, females should invest into offspring of the sex that will provide larger fitness return, generally males. 2In a field experiment we tested whether female great tits bias their investment towards males when carotenoid availability is increased, and whether male offspring of carotenoid-supplemented mothers show higher body condition. We partially cross-fostered hatchlings to disentangle maternal effects from post-hatching effects, and manipulated hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae infestation to investigate the relationship between carotenoid availability and resistance to ectoparasites. 3As predicted, we found that carotenoid-supplemented mothers produced males that were heavier than their sisters at hatching, while the reverse was true for control mothers. This suggests that carotenoid availability during egg production affects male and female hatchlings differentially, possibly via a differential allocation to male and female eggs. 4A main effect of maternal supplementation became visible 14 days after hatching when nestlings hatched from eggs laid by carotenoid-supplemented mothers had gained significantly more mass than control nestlings. Independently of the carotenoid treatment, fleas impaired mass gain of nestlings during the first 9 days in large broods only and reduced tarsus length of male nestlings at an age of 14 days, suggesting a cost to mount a defence against parasites. 5Overall, our results suggest that pre-laying availability of carotenoids affects nestling condition in a sex-specific way with potentially longer-lasting effects on offspring fitness. [source]