Strategic Assessment of Near Coastal Waters: Northeast Case Study

The Northeast Case Study has been undertaken to illustrate how data being developed in NOAA\u27s program of strategic assessments can be used for resource assessments of estuaries and near coastal waters throughout the contiguous USA. It was designed as a pilot project to assist the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in developing its Strategic Initiative for the Management of Near Coastal Waters. As part of this initiative, the coastal states and EPA are to identify estuarine and coastal waters that require management action. The project began in June 1987 as a cooperative effort by NOAA\u27s Office of Oceanography and Marine Assessment and EPA\u27s Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation and Office of Marine and Estuarine Protection. The Northeast was selected because NOAA\u27s data bases were more complete for the estuaries of this region at the time. Offshore areas are not included since information to characterize them has not been organized for a consistently defined set of spatial units. Preliminary and interim case study reports were completed in September and November 1987. In these reports, information was compiled by estuary for seven themes: (1) physical and hydrologic characteristics; (2) land use and population; (3) nutrient discharges; (4) classified shellfish waters; (5) toxic discharges and hazardous waste disposal sites; (6) coastal wetlands; and (7) public outdoor recreation facilities. Most of the information was compiled from NOAA\u27s National Coastal Pollutant Discharge Inventory, National Estuarine Inventory (Volumes 1 and 2), National Coastal Wetlands Inventory, and Public Outdoor Recreational Facilities Inventory. However, with the exception of the toxic discharges chapter in the interim report, only cursory explanations of the data and no data analyses were provided in the previous reports. Two chapters, nutrient and toxic discharges to estuaries, will be completed to illustrate fully the extent of available data, the methods used to develop the data, and the types of analyses that are possible. The data bases used to compile the information in the report are constantly being updated and improved. For example, during the course of the project, NOAA analyzed the susceptibility and status of all estuaries identified in its National Estuarine Inventory to nutrient and toxic discharges. This information, not in the preliminary and interim drafts of the case study, is emphasized in the chapters on nutrient and toxic discharges with special attention given to the estuaries in the Northeast. Case studies for other regions may be completed in the future depending on interest and available resources

Feasibility Study: Vertical Farm EDEN

Hundreds of millions of people around the world do not have access to sufficient food. With the global population continuing to increase, the global food output will need to drastically increase to meet demands. At the same time, the amount of land suitable for agriculture is finite, so it is not possibly to meet the growing demand by simply increasing the use of land. Thus, to be able to feed the entire global population, and continue to do so in the future, it will be necessary to drastically increase the food output per land area. One idea which has been recently discussed in the scientific community is called Vertical Farming (VF), which cultivates food crops on vertically stacked levels in (high-rise) buildings. The Vertical Farm, so it is said, would allow for more food production in a smaller area. Additionally, a Vertical Farm could be situated in any place (e.g. Taiga- or desert regions, cities), which would make it possible to reduce the amount of transportation needed to deliver the crops to the supermarkets. The technologies required for the Vertical Farm are well-known and already being used in conventional terrestrial greenhouses, as well as in the designs of bioregenerative Life Support Systems for space missions. However, the economic feasibility of the Vertical Farm, which will determine whether this concept will be developed or not, has not yet been adequately assessed. Through a Concurrent Engineering (CE) process, the DLR Institute for Space Systems (RY) in Bremen, aims to apply its know-how of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Technologies in space systems to provide valuable spin-off projects on Earth and to provide the first engineering study of a Vertical Farm to assess its economic feasibility

Agriinovation system formation in northern regions of Russia: food security and rural development implications

The article examines development of food security for the population of northern regions in Russia. To reach the goal of regional food security and to change the declining trends in production, it is necessary to develop in-novative agrifood system model to ensure the priority of social goals over economic development, because providing higher standards of rural liveli-hood will inevitably lead to sustainable development of agricultural pro-duction. The agriinnovation system model should be viewed as a model for the provision of public goods or services. Public goods or services have no value, they are consumed for free; but they do have a cost, since the terri-torial government spends a certain amount of its resources on creating public goods. The article describes a conceptual model of the agri-innovation system developed for Russian northern regions, which would stimulate quality food production. To reach the goal of maintaining re-gional food security and to address the issue of the downward trend in food production it is necessary to ensure the priority of social goals over economic development. Providing higher standards of rural livelihood will inevitably lead to the sustainable development of agricultural production. Our study determined the conceptual foundations of sustainable develop-ment of rural localities of the Russian Arctic regions, to be accomplished through the creation of decent living conditions and the participation of the rural population in quality food production.Статья подготовлена при финансовой поддержке программы УрО РАН №14 «Фундаментальные проблемы региональной экономики», проект №15-14-7-13 «Сценарные подходы к реализации уральского вектора освоения и развития российской Арктики в условиях мировой нестабильности

ILR Faculty Publications 2003-04

The production of scholarly research continues to be one of the primary missions of the ILR School. During a typical academic year, ILR faculty members published or had accepted for publication over 25 books, edited volumes, and monographs, 170 articles and chapters in edited volumes, numerous book reviews. In addition, a large number of manuscripts were submitted for publication, presented at professional association meetings, or circulated in working paper form. Our faculty's research continues to find its way into the very best industrial relations, social science and statistics journals.Faculty_Publications_2003_04.pdf: 30 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Competitive Priorities and Competitive Advantage in Jordanian Manufacturing

The purpose of this research was to explore and predict the relationship between the competitive priorities (quality, cost, flexibility and delivery) and the competitive advantage of firms in the Jordanian Industrial Sector. A population of 88 Jordanian manufacturing firms, registered on the Amman Stock Exchange, was targeted using a cross-sectional survey employing a questionnaire method of data collection. The results of the data analysis indicate a significant relationship between competitive priorities and competitive advantage. The research suggests that recognising and nurturing this relationship provides the master key for a firm to survive in a turbulent environment. Therefore, operational and marketing strategies should place emphasis on competitive priorities such as quality, cost, flexibility and delivery to achieve, develop and maintain competitive advantage. This study is one of the first to examine the relationship between the competitive priorities of Jordanian manufacturing firms and their competitive advantage

Continuous maintenance and the future – Foundations and technological challenges

High value and long life products require continuous maintenance throughout their life cycle to achieve required performance with optimum through-life cost. This paper presents foundations and technologies required to offer the maintenance service. Component and system level degradation science, assessment and modelling along with life cycle ‘big data’ analytics are the two most important knowledge and skill base required for the continuous maintenance. Advanced computing and visualisation technologies will improve efficiency of the maintenance and reduce through-life cost of the product. Future of continuous maintenance within the Industry 4.0 context also identifies the role of IoT, standards and cyber security

The potential of additive manufacturing in the smart factory industrial 4.0: A review

Additive manufacturing (AM) or three-dimensional (3D) printing has introduced a novel production method in design, manufacturing, and distribution to end-users. This technology has provided great freedom in design for creating complex components, highly customizable products, and efficient waste minimization. The last industrial revolution, namely industry 4.0, employs the integration of smart manufacturing systems and developed information technologies. Accordingly, AM plays a principal role in industry 4.0 thanks to numerous benefits, such as time and material saving, rapid prototyping, high efficiency, and decentralized production methods. This review paper is to organize a comprehensive study on AM technology and present the latest achievements and industrial applications. Besides that, this paper investigates the sustainability dimensions of the AM process and the added values in economic, social, and environment sections. Finally, the paper concludes by pointing out the future trend of AM in technology, applications, and materials aspects that have the potential to come up with new ideas for the future of AM explorations

ILR Faculty Publications 2015-2016

The production of scholarly research continues to be one of the primary missions of the ILR School. During a typical academic year, ILR faculty members published or had accepted for publication over 25 books, edited volumes, and monographs, 170 articles and chapters in edited volumes, numerous book reviews. In addition, a large number of manuscripts were submitted for publication, presented at professional association meetings, or circulated in working paper form. Our faculty's research continues to find its way into the very best industrial relations, social science and statistics journals.FacultyPublications_2015_16.pdf: 21 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020