What about local climate governance? A review of promise and problems

A large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions is produced in urban areas, particularly in high income countries. Cities are also vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and particularly so in developing countries. Therefore, local climate policies for mitigation and adaptation have to play an important role in any effective global climate protection strategy. Based upon a systematic literature review, this article gives a comprehensive overview of motivation and challenges for local climate governance. A large part of the literature focuses on mitigation and cities in industrialized countries. The review also includes the smaller and emerging body of literature on adaptation and cities in developing or industrializing countries. Motivations and challenges we find fall into broad categories like ‘economic’, ‘informational’, ‘institutional’, ‘liveability’ or ‘political/cultural’. We conclude that the mix of motivation and challenges is city-specific, and that the national framework conditions are important. It matters, whether cities engage in mitigation or adaptation policies, whether they are located in developing, industrializing or industrialized countries, and at which stage of climate policy-making cities are. For many cities, cost savings are a primary motivation for local mitigation policies, while perceived vulnerability and a commitment to development is the primary motivator for adaptation policies. The collective action problem of climate protection (also known as ‘Tragedy of the Commons’) and inappropriate legal frameworks are key barriers to mitigation policies. Challenges for adaptation include financial constraints, and a lack of expertise, cooperation, leadership and political support. Understanding their specific motivation and challenges may support cities in developing appropriate local climate action plans. Furthermore, the understanding of motivation and challenges can inform other policy levels that want to help realize the local climate protection potential.Climate policy, local authorities, cities, mitigation, adaptation, energy, local climate governance

A Qualitative Analysis of Motivation of Elite Female Triathletes

The multidimensional theoretical framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has gained prominence in the sport and exercise field to assist in understanding human motivation. While there is extensive research on motivation of recreational athletes, no study has qualitatively examined the motivation of elite female triathletes. The primary purpose of this research was to determine how motivation to train and compete is maintained at the elite level using the Basic Needs Theory. The participants were eight elite female triathletes who competed in International Triathlon Union (ITU) draft-legal Olympic distance, Half- Ironman, and Ironman triathlons. Results from the semi-structured interviews revealed that challenges, love of the sport, and togetherness enhanced motivation to persist in this demanding sport. Several similarities with Deci and Ryan\u27s (2000) Basic Needs Theory were found. Directions for future research using SDT within the sport of triathlon were discussed

Learning to Play and Playing to Learn: Organized Sports and Educational Outcomes

Based on a literature review and interviews, explores how participation in organized sports affects children's academic achievement. Examines its benefits, including motivation, life skills, and peer networks, as well as challenges and recommendations

Performance Metamorphic Testing: Motivation and Challenges

Performance testing is a challenging task mainly due to the lack of test oracles, that is, mechanisms to decide whether the performance of a program under a certain workload is either acceptable or poor due to a performance bug. Metamorphic testing enables the generation of test cases in the absence of an oracle by exploiting the relations (so–called metamorphic relations) between the inputs and outputs of multiple executions of the program under test. In the last two decades, metamorphic testing has been successfully used to detect functional faults in a variety of domains, ranging from web services to simulators. However, the applicability of metamorphic testing to detect performance bugs is a topic that remains unexplored. In this vision paper, we introduce Performance Metamorphic Relations (PMRs) as expected relations between the performance measurements of multiple executions of the program under test. We hypothesize that these relations can be turned into assertions for the automated detection of performance bugs removing the need for complex benchmarks and domain experts guidance. As a further benefit, PMRs can be turned into fitness functions to guide search-based techniques on the generation of test data that violate the relations, revealing bugs. This novel idea is motivated with examples and an overview of some of the challenges in this promising topic.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2015-70560-RMinisterio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad TIN2015-71841-REDJunta de Andalucía P12-TIC-186

Guest Editorial - Macro-micro analytics: background, motivation, advantages and remaining challenges

Guest editorial special issue on CGE and microsimulation

An Exploratory Study of the Women Entrepreneurial Motivation in the South-west Nigeria

Women entrepreneurial motivation is a function of variables that are subject to authors and researchers’ opinions and views. These variables can be classified based on their impact on women entrepreneurial performance, behavior and challenges. This paper is therefore focused on examining the factors that affect women entrepreneurial motivation in the South-West Nigeria. The data used for the study was obtained through primary source. The data gathered was analyzed using the model of correlation analysis. Recommendations were made based on the result obtained from the testing of the hypothesi

Student experiences and perceptions of compulsory research projects: a veterinary perspective

Background Although research underpins clinical work, many students training to be clinicians are not inherently interested in developing research skills. Aim To characterise and understand veterinary student experiences and perceptions of compulsory research projects. Methods This was an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study, with a questionnaire survey of an entire cohort informing purposive selection for focus group discussions. Student views were triangulated with staff questionnaire data. Results About a third of the cohort felt that the project had not been worthwhile or had not fostered useful skills. Focus group data analysis identified fragility of motivation and lack of clear schemata for the research process as key themes. Students were easily demotivated by typical research challenges and lack of schemata contributed to a poor understanding of the rationale for the project, encouraging highly extrinsic forms of motivation. Triangulation with staff questionnaire data indicated that staff understood students’ challenges, but were more likely than students to consider it to be a valuable learning experience. Conclusions Findings support ongoing curriculum development and emphasise that, to optimise motivation, engagement and learning, students training to be clinicians need a clear rationale for research, based on development of critical inquiry skills as a core clinical competency

Pros and cons gamification and gaming in classroom

The aim of the current work is to assess the challenges that gamification in education are facing nowadays. Benefits and disadvantages of using gamification in classroom are both discussed to offer a clearer view on the impact of using gamification within learning process. Exploratory study cases are provided to investigate the relation between motivation and engagement of the students and gamification in training. Following this idea, a survey was conducted to assess how students behavior and motivation is affected by introducing a single, specific gamification element during a semester learning process. To stimulate competition among students, a ranking type plugin was introduced within the university learning management system used for extramural education. The results prove that motivation decreases by comparison to the previous semester.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Autonomy and the Ethics of Biological Behaviour Modification

Much disease and disability is the result of lifestyle behaviours. For example, the contribution of imprudence in the form of smoking, poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, and drug and alcohol abuse to ill-health is now well established. More importantly, some of the greatest challenges facing humanity as a whole – climate change, terrorism, global poverty, depletion of resources, abuse of children, overpopulation – are the result of human behaviour. In this chapter, we will explore the possibility of using advances in the cognitive sciences to develop strategies to intentionally manipulate human motivation and behaviour. While our arguments apply also to improving prudential motivation and behaviour in relation to health, we will focus on the more controversial instance: the deliberate targeted use of biomedicine to improve moral motivation and behaviour. We do this because the challenge of improving human morality is arguably the most important issue facing humankind (Persson and Savulescu, forthcoming). We will ask whether using the knowledge from the biological and cognitive sciences to influence motivation and behaviour erodes autonomy and, if so, whether this makes it wrong