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This study explores the association between institutional investors’ stewardship activity, disclosed under Japan’s Stewardship Code, and the R&D investments of their investee companies.

Recognizing the pivotal role of R&D investment in long-term value creation, this study uses comprehensive data from institutional investor disclosures to assess the impact of stewardship activity on their investee companies.

The findings show that investor stewardship activity is a factor that influences strategic R&D investment. Specifically, a positive association is found between code-compliant institutional investor shareholding and R&D investment, contingent on high levels of stewardship activity.

By using stewardship disclosures to measure stewardship activity, this study sheds new light on institutional investors’ role in promoting R&D investment. The findings suggest that stewardship regulation is a valid governance policy mechanism to the extent that it promotes stewardship activity. Moreover, the findings show that stewardship disclosures provide valuable information about the potential value enhancement associated with institutional shareholding.

Business ethics is an area growing in importance for business managers. Research in the USA suggests that three‐quarters of major corporations have specific codes of ethics, and in the UK some 40 per cent (and increasing) of major organisations have codes of ethics. This article explains a survey on corporate ethics undertaken in the UK and points to some reasons why firms choose to have codes of ethics, and why some firms do not. It concludes by suggesting that further research is needed, especially on the perceived benefits of a corporate code of ethics to organisations.

Focuses on the status of ethics in the larger and more significant Australian business corporations, using a survey instrument. The findings cover the origins of Australian enterprise codes, their implementation, the use of comprehensive strategies to support them, the sanctions imposed for their breach and the level of ongoing review and reporting. Uses these as criteria of “mainstreaming” ‐ the establishment of a company’s ethics function as a major and central focus of management activities, systems and procedures. Suggests that the extent of “proprietary interest” afforded addressees of codes is an element of code effectiveness and ethics mainstreaming.

Growing needs for identification of small items for tracking and traceability purposes have led to the development of encoding structures known as matrix codes, capable of containing machine‐readable data. Describes practical applications for two particular types of high‐density code, the Data Matrix code and the DMT code. The applications relate to needs within the electronics industry, the automotive industry, and the aerospace industry. Through these examples an approach is presented for selecting appropriate codes and marking methods for given applications. The two codes considered, although both high‐density structures, exhibit different features. These are examined as a basis for considering their suitability for the various applications. Later in the paper the codes are discussed, along with the methods of printing and/or realising them in direct‐marking form.

The purpose of this paper is to explore methods of producing Quick Response (QR) Code, its customization, artistic look and applications and elaborate the technique of generating QR Code for library bibliographic records.

Through literature review, the study explored methods of generating QR Code and its applications in academic libraries. Based on research work and implementation experience, an efficient procedure for generating QR Code for bibliographic records was developed.

The study identified methods of generating QR Code, its customization and applications, and established the technique of generating QR Code for library bibliographic records.

The study is expected to facilitate the growth of QR Code’s visibility and success, and its mainstream adoption. The technique of generating QR Code for library bibliographic records in the study should be instructive for similar projects.

FOR CATALOGUERS, and librarians generally, 1967 will prove to be a vintage year, the annus mirabilis for the cataloguer, with the publication in January of the American text of the new Anglo‐American Code. The British text is expected to be published in November. The availability in this country of the American text gives some little time for a preview of the British version. The profession has had ample warning; the new code has had a long gestation period. For the Americans, especially, it is the culmination of many years of effort, from their preliminary second edition of the 1908 code in 1941, through the second edition of 1949, the Library of Congress Rules for Descriptive Cataloging of the same year, the Lubetzky Report of 1953, the Draft Code of 1960, to the Paris Principles of 1961. The present code owes very much to its predecessors, particularly the Paris Principles, which were in effect a set of guidelines agreed on internationally to ensure broad international consistency between any future national codes without spelling out the detailed rules. Except for one or two instances the new code follows the Paris Principles closely.

In order to ensure the health and safety of occupants, buildings must be inspected to check their compliance to current regulatory requirements prompted by occupancy changes, renovations and building code revisions. Recent inspections conducted by Public Works Canada have identified about 1700 occurrences of code violations in 19 buildings. There is an enormous amount of information that can be extracted from the study mentioned above to implement a knowledge‐based expert system to assist in future building inspections. The philosophy of this expert system is to integrate both knowledge‐based and hypertext representation techniques to enable building inspectors to quickly identify code violations, refer to the code text and provide case study information that can assist in resolving a problem. The present paper describes the development framework and details of a prototype implementation known as the Health and Safety Expert System (HASES). The HASES currently addresses the requirements of ‘Section 3.4: Requirements for Exits’ of the 1990 National Building Code of Canada. The software architecture consists of an external database of building details, an object hierarchy and a rule‐base representing the code requirements, hypertext user‐interface for code text and case study information. The ultimate objective is to make this system available for field inspections using notepad computers.

Clinical coding is a process of accurate translation of written medical terms into codes. The Payment by Results initiative has focused attention on the quality of clinical coded data as all income for in patient services is derived from coded clinical data. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of clinical coded data by making comparisons between the information held on the dialect encoder system and the information recorded in the clinical case notes.

The 50 episodes for this study were randomly selected from a list of all episodes ending August 2005 within the ENT specialty in a teaching hospital.

There were only 17 (34 per cent) episodes with a structured summary within the case notes. Of the 50 recorded primary diagnoses 42 (84 per cent) were correctly coded. Of the 43 recorded primary procedures, 37 (86 per cent) were correctly coded.

This study promotes a better awareness of the impact of poor coding and gives recommendations that will be helpful to those involved in coding processes.

The evolution of bar code standards is briefly discussed. The two standards most frequently adopted by libraries, Code‐A‐Bar and CODE 39, are described in detail. The format of the codes, as used in many library applications, is illustrated. Definitions of terminology employed in the article are appended.

Considers the use of bar and matrix codes in assembly operations and after‐sales part tracking.

Reviews the marking methods, the types of codes employed in different industries, and the machine vision equipment used to read them.

Matrix codes are being widely adopted as a means of improving the efficiency and quality of production, and as a way of achieving traceability, for the appropriate handling of any faults that appear during usage. Equipment for marking and reading the codes is available from several suppliers, and can be integrated into the production line.

Shows the power and versatility of matrix code labelling for the manufacturer.