University of Bath

About: University of Bath is a education organization based out in Bath, Bath and North East Somerset, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Photonic-crystal fiber. The organization has 15830 authors who have published 39608 publications receiving 1358769 citations. The organization is also known as: Bath University.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Western Europe: An Institutional Mirror or Substitute?

Abstract: In spite of extensive research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its link with economic and social performance, few studies have investigated the institutional determinants of CSR. This article draws upon neo-institutional theory and comparative institutional analysis to compare the influence of different institutional environments on CSR policies of European firms. On the basis of a dataset of European firms, we find that firms from the more liberal market economies of the Anglo-Saxon countries score higher on most dimensions of CSR than firms in the more coordinated market economies (CMEs) in Continental Europe. This result lends support to the view of voluntary CSR practices in liberal economies as being a substitute for institutionalized forms of stakeholder participation. Meanwhile, CSR tends not to mirror more institutionalized forms of stakeholder coordination. Instead, in CMEs, CSR often takes on more implicit forms. Our analysis also shows that national institutional and sectoral-level factors have an asymmetric effect – strongly influencing the likelihood of firms adopting ‘minimum standards’ of CSR, but having little influence on the adoption of ‘best practices’.

Multilevel Monte Carlo methods and applications to elliptic PDEs with random coefficients

Abstract: We consider the numerical solution of elliptic partial differential equations with random coefficients Such problems arise, for example, in uncertainty quantification for groundwater flow We describe a novel variance reduction technique for the standard Monte Carlo method, called the multilevel Monte Carlo method, and demonstrate numerically its superiority The asymptotic cost of solving the stochastic problem with the multilevel method is always significantly lower than that of the standard method and grows only proportionally to the cost of solving the deterministic problem in certain circumstances Numerical calculations demonstrating the effectiveness of the method for one- and two-dimensional model problems arising in groundwater flow are presented

Vascular pericytes express osteogenic potential in vitro and in vivo.

Abstract: At postconfluence, cultured bovine pericytes isolated from retinal capillaries form three-dimensional nodule-like structures that mineralize. Using a combination of Northern and Southern blotting, in situ hybridization, and immunofluorescence we have demonstrated that this process is associated with the stage-specific expression of markers of primitive clonogenic marrow stromal cells (STRO-1) and markers of cells of the osteoblast lineage (bone sialoprotein, osteocalcin, osteonectin, and osteopontin). To demonstrate that the formation of nodules and the expression of these proteins were indicative of true osteogenic potential, vascular pericytes were also inoculated into diffusion chambers and implanted into athymic mice. When recovered from the host, chambers containing pericytes were found reproducibly to contain a tissue comprised of cartilage and bone, as well as soft fibrous connective tissue and cells resembling adipocytes. This is the first study to provide direct evidence of the osteogenic potential of microvascular pericytes in vivo. Our results are also consistent with the possibility that the pericyte population in situ serves as a reservoir of primitive precursor cells capable of giving rise to cells of multiple lineages including osteoblasts, chondrocytes, adipocytes, and fibroblasts.