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The purpose of this paper is to present details of a large-scale experiment that evaluated the impact of communicating two types of feedback to householders regarding their domestic electricity consumption: feedback on their own consumption and feedback of both their own consumption and that of others in their locality.

Digital technologies were used to automatically measure and communicate the electricity consumption of 316 UK residents for a period of 16 weeks. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: one involving no feedback; one involving feedback about a household's own usage, and one involving a household's own usage plus social norms feedback (the average consumption of others in the locality). At the end of the study, a selection of participants took part in interviews or focus groups.

Both types of feedback (individual and individual-plus-social-norms) led to reductions in consumption of about 3 per cent. Those receiving social norms feedback were significantly more likely to engage with the information provided. However, the social norms information had no additional impact on consumption. Survey and interview data confirmed that participants from both conditions had been encouraged to adopt new energy-saving practices. The study concludes that near real-time individual feedback can be sufficient for usage reduction if it is provided in a historical format. It also suggests that the impact of social norms information may previously have been confounded with that of individual feedback.

This is the first time that a controlled experiment in the field of domestic electricity consumption has compared the impact of real-time social norm information with that of information that only contains individual household usage.

A recently published survey found that slightly over 14 million persons age 16 or over hunted in the United States in 1991 and spent over $12 billion on hunting. By comparison, the same survey determined there are over 35 million anglers. Another source estimates that nearly 18 million participants age seven and older hunted with firearms in 1992. That ranks hunting well below the participatory sports of swimming, bicycling, and bowling in popularity, but ahead of football, skiing, tennis, and target shooting. Estimates vary, and while these numbers are substantial, they indicate that hunters comprise well under ten percent of the total U.S. population. Hunters have come under increasing fire from animal rightists and others who claim the sport is cruel and unnecessary. Hundreds of articles and a number of books have been written in recent years on both sides of the issue, or, more accurately, all sides. Many writers as well as the population at large see hunting as not entirely “good” or “bad” but some of each, depending upon the context.

The UK Government-funded National Health Service (NHS) is experiencing significant pressures because of the complexity of challenges to, and demands of, health-care provision. This situation has driven government policy level support for transformational change initiatives, such as value-based health care (VBHC), through closer alignment and collaboration across the health-care system-life science sector nexus. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the necessary antecedents to collaboration in VBHC through a critical exploration of the existing literature, with a view to establishing the foundations for further development of policy, practice and theory in this field.

A literature review was conducted via searches on Scopus and Google Scholar between 2009 and 2019 for peer-reviewed articles containing keywords and phrases “Value-based healthcare industry” and “healthcare industry collaboration”. Refinement of the results led to the identification of “guiding conditions” (GCs) for collaboration in VBHC.

Five literature-derived GCs were identified as necessary for the successful implementation of initiatives such as VBHC through system-sector collaboration. These are: a multi-disciplinarity; use of appropriate technological infrastructure; capturing meaningful metrics; understanding the total cycle-of-care; and financial flexibility. This paper outlines research opportunities to empirically test the relevance of the five GCs with regard to improving system-sector collaboration on VBHC.

This paper has developed a practical and constructive framework that has the potential to inform both policy and further theoretical development on collaboration in VBHC.

Since the late 1970s, research in accounting has been colonized by positive accounting theory (PAT) despite strong claims that it is fundamentally flawed in terms of epistemology and methodology. This paper aims to offer new insights to PAT by critically examining its basic tenets.

The paper subjects the language of the Rochester School to a deconstruction that is a transformational reading. This uncovers rhetorical operations and unveils hidden associations with other texts and ideas.

A new interpretation of the Rochester School discourse is provided. To afford scientific credibility to deregulation within the accounting field, Watts and Zimmerman used supplements and missing links to enhance the authority of PAT. They placed supplements inside their texts to provide a misleading image of PAT. These supplements rest on von Hayek's long‐term shaping blueprint to defeat apostles of the welfare state. Yet, to set PAT apart from normative theories that Watts and Zimmerman claimed were contaminated by value judgments, they made no reference in their text to the tight links between the Rochester School and the libertarian project initiated by von Hayek.

Any reading of PAT cannot present the infinite play of meaning that is possible within a text. Deconstruction involves a commitment to on‐going, eternal questioning.

The paper provides evidence of the relation between PAT and the neoliberal (libertarian) project of von Hayek. PAT is viewed as part of the institutional infrastructure and ideological apparatus that legitimates the hegemony of markets.

The non‐destructive inspection of large concrete walls (e.g. dams, bridge pylons) with autonomous systems is still an unsolved problem. One of the main difficulties is to develop a very flexible platform, which is able to move and inspect horizontal and vertical surfaces safely, and which is fast and cost‐efficient. The purpose of this paper is to present a climbing robot designed with these attributes in mind.

This paper presents the Climbing RObot with Multiple Sucking Chambers for Inspection, which is designed for inspection of concrete walls. The propulsion system consists of three omnidirectional‐driven wheels for high maneuverability. The adhesion is performed by a vacuum system of seven controllable vacuum chambers and one large reservoir chamber. Pressure sensors and valves are integrated for controlling, which allows fast reaction on changing conditions.

The comparison of simulated results and a simple prototype indicates that the developed physical model is exact enough to estimate the efficiency of the proposed adhesion mechanism. The propulsion system has been tested extensively and allows high maneuverability on reasonably flat ground.

This paper introduces a climbing robot which will allow higher objectivity and reproducibility of inspections as well as safe working conditions for technicians. With such a machine one can check the building via remote control or semi‐autonomously.

Examines the thirteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.