349 research outputs found

    Innovation in Energy Security and Long-Term Energy Efficiency Ⅱ

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    The sustainable development of our planet depends on the use of energy. The increasing world population inevitably causes an increase in the demand for energy, which, on the one hand, threatens us with the potential to encounter a shortage of energy supply, and, on the other hand, causes the deterioration of the environment. Therefore, our task is to reduce this demand through different innovative solutions (i.e., both technological and social). Social marketing and economic policies can also play their role by affecting the behavior of households and companies and by causing behavioral change oriented to energy stewardship, with an overall switch to renewable energy resources. This reprint provides a platform for the exchange of a wide range of ideas, which, ultimately, would facilitate driving societies toward long-term energy efficiency

    Semantic Data Management in Data Lakes

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    In recent years, data lakes emerged as away to manage large amounts of heterogeneous data for modern data analytics. One way to prevent data lakes from turning into inoperable data swamps is semantic data management. Some approaches propose the linkage of metadata to knowledge graphs based on the Linked Data principles to provide more meaning and semantics to the data in the lake. Such a semantic layer may be utilized not only for data management but also to tackle the problem of data integration from heterogeneous sources, in order to make data access more expressive and interoperable. In this survey, we review recent approaches with a specific focus on the application within data lake systems and scalability to Big Data. We classify the approaches into (i) basic semantic data management, (ii) semantic modeling approaches for enriching metadata in data lakes, and (iii) methods for ontologybased data access. In each category, we cover the main techniques and their background, and compare latest research. Finally, we point out challenges for future work in this research area, which needs a closer integration of Big Data and Semantic Web technologies

    Yamal on the edge: Arctic Environmental Governance in times of accelerated industrial development

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    The changing landscape and economic relevance of the Arctic present a unique opportunity to monitor the change in interactions between people and the arctic nature as well as to shed light onto the top-down translation of the existing at different scales environmental governance regimes. The Russian Arctic Zone occupies over a third of the total area of the Arctic, yet no Arctic-specific legislation or environmental protection authority exists to oversee the so-called ‘resource base’ of the Russian state. The growing competition for the influence in the Russian Arctic zone of various actors (international Arctic fora, foreign investors and suppliers, hydrocarbon companies, government institutions) already brings issues of ecological impact to the fore, render them visible, and provide space for renegotiating institutional, normative and other conditions. Yet, little is known about how these developments reflect on environmental governance or socioecological relations in the remote corners of the Russian Arctic affected by the new lap of industrialisation. The insight into environmental governance in the Russian Arctic with a case study of the area of Russia’s flagman mega-project on Yamal peninsula, translated from Nenets as the ‘edge of the land’, may reveal the emerging mechanisms for environmental protection as well as ungovernable spaces in the ecologically and socioeconomically challenged area of the Far North. The work done within the framework of Lefebvre’s spatial trialectics superimposed onto the Russian Arctic attempted to understand and map the structure, scope and utility of environmental governance in the region and through socioecological lens to explore ground-scale interactions between human and non-human actants (individual and community-based behaviour that can impact the environment especially if  multiplied) in a case study conducted in Mys Kamenny, Yamal district, Russia in 2017. Yamal peninsula is an area of rapid socioeconomic development undergoing noticeable climatic and geomorphological shifts. Individual and community level relationship with the environment especially of non-indigenous descent is often overlooked in assessments of environmental integrity, yet it holds clues to the feedback loops between climate change, development and society. The study found that using fieldwork-based research to analyse socioecological dynamics along with deep understanding of the Russian political, institutional and cultural context feeding into environmental governance of the Russian Arctic, can help better understand not only local but also generic governance issues of the present day Arctic and draw insights from a close-up view to the environmental governance on a larger scale. The insight from Yamal peninsula largely demonstrated how informal practices of non-indigenous locals and corporations tend to ‘fill gaps’ left by incomplete governance frameworks and capacities, while the outcome of such practices is ambivalent, it reflects that the Arctic industrialisation is predicated on the good will of actors to minimise the inevitable environmental impact. 

    The Role of Internal Legitimacy in Shifting a Large Established Company Towards Sustainability. A Case Study of a Sustainable Transition Shift in the Oil and Gas Industry

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    This thesis is motivated by the need to involve sustainability in the oil and gas industry. This thesis focuses on the sustainable transition in Equinor, the Norwegian oil and gas company. It looks, particularly, at a large established oil and gas company undergoing a sustainable change and how it performs its transition into sustainability. However, this transition poses challenges to a large established company like Equinor where, over 40 years, the petroleum activities were crucial for the country’s economic growth and for funding the Norwegian welfare state. In addition, investing in renewable energy as a clean alternative source of energy requires Equinor to enhance its capabilities, knowledge and competencies outside its boundaries. Legitimacy theory has been applied in this thesis and is considered to be an important mechanism for understanding how a large established company under sustainable change manages its new sustainable investments. However, existing research on sustainability is mainly focused on the role that sustainability plays in triggering new innovations, improving a company’s image and enhancing competitive advantages, but does not necessarily involve how a sustainable transition is carried out in practice. Therefore, this thesis focuses mainly on internal legitimacy, in order to understand what is happening in a large established company undergoing a sustainable change. Thus, this motivates me to investigate the following overall research question ‘What is the role internal legitimacy plays in shifting a large established company towards sustainability?’ This thesis pursues two related objectives. From a practical perspective, it aims to shed light on the role of governments, managers and employees in developing a sustainable change in companies. From a theoretical perspective, it adds more theoretically based approaches and enables us to understand the strategic change process of introducing new sustainable activities in a large established company by using internal legitimacy theory. Consequently, this thesis contributes empirically to the literature of legitimacy, strategy and sustainability, and enables us to understand the role internal legitimacy plays in shifting a company’s strategy towards sustainability. These objectives are addressed through a cover essay and three research papers. The cover essay provides an overarching theoretical framework for the thesis, using the Scott and Suchman legitimacy theory which integrate the concepts of sustainability and strategy change. The cover essay consolidates the three individual research papers in a coherent manner and responds to the dissertation’s overall research question. The empirical research is conducted within interpretivism and positivism perspectives research tradition, and follows a mixed methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative research method designs. First, the qualitative data followed a semi-structured narrative approach collected over a three-year period. In addition, the secondary data were collected through Equinor’s own documentation, such as company webpages, annual reports, sustainability reports, renewable energy reports, energy perspectives’ reports, conferences and presentations. Second, the quantitative data were collected through a survey conducted between 2017-2019, resulting in 91 respondents who fully completed the survey. The first research paper represents a qualitative case study and aims to respond to the lack of literature on the role internal legitimacy plays in developing a new sustainable strategy in a large established company. Thus, this paper synthesises previous literature on internal legitimacy and strategy change, advances our knowledge and forms new ideas about this complex phenomenon in order to understand the important role played by internal legitimacy in creating a shift towards sustainability. It will thereby seek to explain how an oil and gas company strengthens its commitment to the environment and invests in clean alternative sources of energy (renewable energy) in order to develop an all-encompassing energy company. By employing the three types of legitimacy, moral, pragmatic and cognitive, this paper suggests that moral legitimacy plays an essential role in shaping a sustainable strategy shift to the company. This was related to the direct support from the Norwegian government, the board of directors and the top manager. Pragmatic legitimacy shows that most of the company’s stakeholders are engaged in the new transition; however, the translation process of sustainable development will continue within the company until the sustainable transition is complete. Finally, cognitive legitimacy shows us that a majority of employees understand the relevance of this sustainable shift and accept it. The second paper addresses a quantitative case study and aims to fill the gap in the literature concerning measuring sustainability in a large established company. This paper aims to make a methodological contribution to the research of internal legitimacy and strategy change by developing a valid measure of regulative, normative and cognitive pillars. Thus, this paper uses the three mentioned pillars as a lens to understand the factors that legitimise the adoption of new sustainable activities in Equinor. Accordingly, the key findings of this paper reveal that the Equinor case company employs a regulative and normative pillar that play an important role in building Equinor’s internal legitimacy and framing its organisational identity. The regulative pillar is presented as the important carrier of shaping sustainable transition in the company, and the normative pillar plays an essential role in strengthening the sustainability transition. However, cognitive legitimacy was not supported in the study, and this reveals that it would need more time to be achieved so that everybody in the company understands and accepts the sustainable transition that is taking place in the company. The third paper addresses a quantitative case study and aims to fill the lack of quantitative gap in the literature concerning internal legitimacy and sustainable innovation selection. This paper aims to make a methodological contribution by testing and validating a model that enables us to understand how a large established company selects its new sustainable activities. Thus, the three elements of legitimacy (regulative, normative and cognitive) are used as a tool to understand how people in a large established company make their sustainable choices. The key findings of this paper show that the regulative and normative pillars play essential roles in selecting renewable energy activities. However, the normative presents the strongest factor in all pillars. This means that employees play the most essential role in facilitating and implementing new sustainable ideas. Consequently, the results show that sustainability has been embedded in the company where the regulative and normative pillars present the potential carriers of the sustainable selection criteria. Overall, this thesis advances new insights into the literature of organisational studies by understanding how employees in a large established company relate to sustainable challenges. Thus, this thesis advances new insights into the literature of internal legitimacy and strategy change by uncovering the ‘How’ and ‘What’ questions of the meaning of sustainable transition. First, the thesis explores how internal legitimacy is used to understand the introduction of a new strategy in a large established company. Second, it provides empirical evidence and shows what factors that build and manage internal legitimacy during strategy change. Third, it tests the data in a new setting by developing and testing both qualitative (interviews) and quantitative data (survey). Fourth, the thesis develops a conceptual framework that helps researchers understand how a sustainable shift can be implemented in large established companies. Finally, this thesis highlights similarities and disparities among Scott’s and Suchman’s division of legitimacy theory. This is achieved through the three papers, considering that paper 1 aims to explore how internal legitimacy is used in a new setting, and paper 2 and 3 develop and test a survey in a new setting

    CLARIN

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    The book provides a comprehensive overview of the Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure – CLARIN – for the humanities. It covers a broad range of CLARIN language resources and services, its underlying technological infrastructure, the achievements of national consortia, and challenges that CLARIN will tackle in the future. The book is published 10 years after establishing CLARIN as an Europ. Research Infrastructure Consortium

    Governing Knowledge Sharing and Transfer in MNCs by Organizational Mechanisms Enabling Social Interaction

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    This dissertation aims to contribute to the understanding of how multinational companies (MNCs) use organizational mechanisms enabling social interaction to govern knowledge sharing and transfer within the company. The international management literature has, over recent decades, shown an increased interest in the importance of social interaction in the government of knowledge processes and integration of units by MNCs. Even though research provides support for the association between social interaction and the sharing and transfer of knowledge, researchers have neither fully explained how MNCs leverage this association nor identified the underlying mechanisms whereby social interaction positively affects related processes and under what conditions. The dissertation consists of three papers: one literature review and two empirical studies. The literature review investigates how organizational mechanisms enabling social interaction are covered in the international management literature, with a specific focus on the role of socialization and social capital. The review identifies seven main categories covering 35 different mechanisms, which are defined as formal or informal. Additionally, the review proposes a model for how formal and informal mechanisms are connected to socialization and the development of social capital. The empirical papers report two different studies. The first investigates intra-organizational learning structures that enable social interaction among managers across borders and examines the extent of their association with strategic and HRM structures and the institutional context of the subsidiary’s operation. This paper investigates both company-level factors and institutional context as a macro factor influencing the focal subsidiary. The second empirical paper investigates the micro-foundations of knowledge sharing and transfers within formal knowledge networks in an MNC. The focus is on the interaction between knowledge-sharing behavior and knowledge application and how these processes are influenced by network management, structural social capital, and different types of autonomous motivation. Together, these papers contribute to the understanding of how MNCs use organizational mechanisms enabling social interaction to govern knowledge sharing and transfer within the company

    A tetrachotomy of ontology-mediated queries with a covering axiom

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    Our concern is the problem of efficiently determining the data complexity of answering queries mediated by descrip- tion logic ontologies and constructing their optimal rewritings to standard database queries. Originated in ontology- based data access and datalog optimisation, this problem is known to be computationally very complex in general, with no explicit syntactic characterisations available. In this article, aiming to understand the fundamental roots of this difficulty, we strip the problem to the bare bones and focus on Boolean conjunctive queries mediated by a simple cov- ering axiom stating that one class is covered by the union of two other classes. We show that, on the one hand, these rudimentary ontology-mediated queries, called disjunctive sirups (or d-sirups), capture many features and difficulties of the general case. For example, answering d-sirups is Π2p-complete for combined complexity and can be in AC0 or L-, NL-, P-, or coNP-complete for data complexity (with the problem of recognising FO-rewritability of d-sirups be- ing 2ExpTime-hard); some d-sirups only have exponential-size resolution proofs, some only double-exponential-size positive existential FO-rewritings and single-exponential-size nonrecursive datalog rewritings. On the other hand, we prove a few partial sufficient and necessary conditions of FO- and (symmetric/linear-) datalog rewritability of d- sirups. Our main technical result is a complete and transparent syntactic AC0 / NL / P / coNP tetrachotomy of d-sirups with disjoint covering classes and a path-shaped Boolean conjunctive query. To obtain this tetrachotomy, we develop new techniques for establishing P- and coNP-hardness of answering non-Horn ontology-mediated queries as well as showing that they can be answered in NL

    The implementation and application of the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code): Evaluations and considerations addressing this functionbased regulation’s effect on safety and emergency preparedness concerning Arctic shipping

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    PhD thesis in Risk management and societal safetyPeople have sailed in polar waters for decades; more than one hundred years ago, Nansen and Amundsen explored the oceans of the Arctic and Antarctic with their expedition teams, with Amundsen leading the expedition that first reached the South Pole in 1911. A remarkable technological evolution has taken place since those days, bringing along even more astonishing innovations. Wooden ships with sail are replaced by standardized steel-constructed vessels, powered by diesel-electric engines or nuclear reactors, and highly technological satellite navigation and communication systems have replaced the sextant, chronometer, compass and surveyor’s wheel guiding the way at that time. The knowledge and experience concerning risks and hazards associated with shipping in polar waters is outstanding. However, the increase in the shipping activity of various vessels in the Arctic region during recent years has resulted in new risks; consequently, the knowledge, experience and the capacity to handle these are limited. Seen historically, major accidents and events have raised the focus on safety and forced the way for the development, innovation and design of new technology and systems. As a response to the Titanic disaster in 1912, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) was agreed in 1914 and suggested the minimum number of lifeboats and other emergency equipment required to be maintained by merchant ships. Today, the SOLAS Convention is considered the most important of all international treaties concerning the safety of merchant ships and specifies the minimum standards for the construction, equipment and operation of ships. During the last century, several revisions and amendments to this Convention, adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 1960, have strengthened the regulations for ship design and operations. Consequently, the maritime industry is forced to innovate, (re)-design and construct vessels, emergency equipment and systems, to become compliant with the SOLAS Convention. In 2017, the IMO amended the SOLAS Convention, by implementing the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code), providing mandatory rules and requirements applicable to ship operations in defined geographical areas in the waters around the Arctic and Antarctica. The Polar Code supplemented existing IMO conventions and regulations, with the goal of increasing the safety of ship operations and mitigating the impact on the people and environment in the remote, vulnerable, and potentially harsh polar waters. Ship systems and equipment addressed in the Polar Code are required to maintain at least the same performance standards referred to in the SOLAS Convention. The key principle of the regulation is founded on a risk-based approach in determining scope and a holistic approach in reducing identified risks. The Polar Code consists of function-based requirements, i.e., the regulation specifies what is to be achieved without specifying how to be in compliance with its requirements. The requirement to first carry out an operational (risk) assessment of the ship and its equipment, considering the anticipated range of operating and environmental conditions, is essential in the application of the Polar Code. This operational assessment shall guide the way in the establishment of shipspecific procedures and operational limitations, based on related risk factors in operating areas and taking into consideration the anticipated range of operating and environmental conditions: amongst others, operation in low air temperature, as this affects the working environment and human performance, maintenance and emergency preparedness tasks, material properties and equipment efficiency, survival time and performance of safety equipment and systems. The Polar Code requires that a Polar Service Temperature (PST) shall be specified for a ship intended to operate in low air temperature and that the performance standard shall be at least 10°C below the lowest Mean Daily Low Temperature (MDLT) for the intended area and season of operation in polar waters. The MDLT is the mean value of the daily low temperature for each day of the year over a minimum 10-year period. Survival systems and equipment are required by the Polar Code to be fully functional and operational at the PST during the maximum expected rescue time – i.e., the time adopted for the design of equipment and systems that shall provide survival support – which is defined in the Polar Code as never being less than five days. The overall objective of this research is to contribute to the development of new knowledge concerning the implementation and application of the Polar Code and how this function-based regulation, so far, has succeeded in achieving its goal. Two research questions were developed to support the overarching objective, concerning the Polar Code’s applicability as a regulatory instrument in Arctic shipping. The research questions were associated with: (1) the Polar Code’s contribution to enhancing safety for shipping in the Arctic Ocean, considering the risks and hazards associated with activities in these waters, and (2) the identification of key mechanisms to ensure that compliance with the stated goal of the regulation occurs in a satisfactory manner. Individual interviews are conducted with experts in the field, concerning the implementation and application of the Polar Code. Moreover, two controlled experiments are performed, to assess the risk to humans and equipment of low temperature and exposure. The implementation of new regulations can trigger the development of new products, systems and processes, even though, in the early stages, it can be unclear how the development will manifest itself. At the time of the implementation of the Polar Code in 2017 (1st January), there was a lack of guidelines or informative standards providing support to the Polar Code, and a variety of solutions on emergency equipment and systems could comply with the regulation’s function-based requirements. Although the regulation provides additional guidance (in Part II-B) to the mandatory provisions (in Part II-A), this is in many cases general and generic. The operational assessment is required to address both individual (personal survival equipment) and shared (group survival equipment) needs, which shall be provided in the event of an abandonment of ship situation. The Polar Code states that this equipment shall provide effective protection against direct wind chill, sufficient thermal insulation to maintain the core temperature of persons, and sufficient protection to prevent frostbite of all extremities. In the guidance (Part II-B) of the regulation, samples of suggested equipment for personal survival equipment and group survival kits are provided. However, many products will comply with the suggested equipment, regardless of their suitability under real conditions. The protection against wind chill to humans, to prevent frostbite (and to increases the survival time) depends on factors such as time and type of exposure, individual physiological conditions and activity level, rather than just the types of gloves or shoes chosen and their protective status. The sinking of a cruise liner is considered the ultimate challenge for the rescue capability in the Arctic region, and the passengers on cruise ships represent a vulnerable group for several reasons. The average passenger is typically older and less fit and would suffer from discomfort and hypothermia faster than younger persons, in a situation requiring evacuation to lifeboats, life rafts or directly onto ice. For shipowners and operators operating in polar waters and required to comply with the Polar Code, there can be economic incentives for neglecting or not actively taking part in the innovating process of improving and developing new systems and equipment sufficient to withstand low temperatures and the harsh polar conditions. High costs are expected in the work of developing and improving emergency equipment and systems, especially if technical and operational winterization upgrades of older vessels are necessary. Search and Rescue (SAR) exercises conducted in the waters surrounding Svalbard have revealed that the marine industry in general is reactive in the work of implementing the Polar Code’s requirements. Consequently, many vessels are equipped with insufficient survival equipment, including insufficient food and water rations. Great variations are observed in Life-Saving Appliances (LSA) and arrangements, concerning both quality and functionality, approved by flag states and classification societies. There are, unfortunately, examples of tailored operational assessments which support marginal emergency equipment and systems, as the associated cost, weight, volume and capacity puts additional strain and restrictions on shipowners and operators. With limited communication between the suppliers of the development of survival equipment, there are large variations among the functionality of such equipment in polar waters. There is lack of harmonization and standardization amongst the subject groups supposed to comply with the Polar Code, and a common understanding of the most suitable and “stateof- the-art” LSA and arrangements required for an emergency response situation in polar waters seems not to be in reach yet. [...
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