Putting Community First: A Promising Approach to Federal Collaboration for Environmental Improvement: An Evaluation of the Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) Demonstration Program

This report is an independent evaluation of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) Demonstration Program, a community-driven process that uses the best available data to help communities set priorities and take action on their greatest environmental risks. CARE fosters local partnerships that seek participation from business, government, organizations, residents and EPA staff. It also supports a public, transparent planning and implementation process based on collaborative decision-making and shared action.Key FindingsThe National Academy Panel overseeing this effort was impressed by the dedication of the EPA staff to this unique initiative and commended the EPA for its efforts to partner with communities in achieving important long-term and sustainable environmental improvements at the local level. Recommended actions for the CARE Program include: (1) develop and implement a multifaceted information sharing approach; (2) coordinate and refine internal program management activities; and (3) develop a strategic plan and a business plan for CARE

Software agents in music and sound art research/creative work: Current state and a possible direction

Composers, musicians and computer scientists have begun to use software-based agents to create music and sound art in both linear and non-linear (non-predetermined form and/or content) idioms, with some robust approaches now drawing on various disciplines. This paper surveys recent work: agent technology is first introduced, a theoretical framework for its use in creating music/sound art works put forward, and an overview of common approaches then given. Identifying areas of neglect in recent research, a possible direction for further work is then briefly explored. Finally, a vision for a new hybrid model that integrates non-linear, generative, conversational and affective perspectives on interactivity is proposed

(Re)counting love: Martin Arnold's pièce touchée

Martin Arnold’s film pièce touchée takes possession of a pre-existing film and applies a strategy of re-counting frames through duplication and re-ordering. The sequential progression of the multiplied frames is metaphorically re-counted as the film is run backwards and forwards. As Arnold describes it: ‘I start with frame x, go forward to frame x+1 and then from x+1 back again through x to x-1.’ From the original’s order of 1–2–3 with pièce touchée we arrive at a new count, something like 1–2–1–0. This paper will argue that there are three modes of love present in this filmic recount. First, the normative love presented in the original’s scene, a husband returning home to a wife. The second love is that of the (mis)identification with an ideal image, an ambivalent scene of narcissism and aggressivity: what Jacques Lacan terms ‘hainamoration’. Such a condition is demonstrated through Arnold’s re-arrangement, which lingers over the filmic body whilst doing violence to its narrative unity. The final form of love under discussion will be what Alain Badiou terms ‘the scene of the Two’: a disjunctive scene that refuses the fusional ideal, posing love as a shared investigation of the universe

Pan-European backcasting exercise, enriched with regional perspective, and including a list of short-term policy options

This deliverable reports on the results of the third and final pan-European stakeholder meeting and secondly, on the enrichment with a Pilot Area and regional perspective. The main emphasis is on backcasting as a means to arrive at long-term strategies and short-term (policy) actions

International governance and local resistance in Kosovo: The thin line between ethical, emancipatory and exclusionary politics

This paper examines the emergence and implications of local resistance against the practice of liberal peace-building in post-conflict Kosovo, as pursued by the international community and local authorities. Exploring the prospects and limitations of local resistance, as articulated through social movements and institutionalised forms of politics, enables us to examine the applicability and potential implications of post-liberal and emancipatory peace, approaches recently propogated by critical approaches to peace-building. Drawing on an original analysis of the discourse and affirmative action of local resistance against the international governance of Kosovo, this paper will argue that different types of local resistance articulate a thin line between ethical, emancipatory and exclusionary practices. Due to the inherent contradictions of resistance movements, the challenges associated with local ownership, grassroots democratisation, and the emancipation and empowerment of local agency cannot be resolved entirely. Indeed, there is a persistent danger that subalterns articulate their needs and interests not only according to an acceptable public transcript for the group’s inner dynamics, but also in relation to the dominant authority, whether it is local or international. This paper illustrates that where there is power there will be resistance, and where there is resistance there will be exclusion and further subordination

Recent developments in the application of risk analysis to waste technologies.

The European waste sector is undergoing a period of unprecedented change driven by business consolidation, new legislation and heightened public and government scrutiny. One feature is the transition of the sector towards a process industry with increased pre-treatment of wastes prior to the disposal of residues and the co-location of technologies at single sites, often also for resource recovery and residuals management. Waste technologies such as in-vessel composting, the thermal treatment of clinical waste, the stabilisation of hazardous wastes, biomass gasification, sludge combustion and the use of wastes as fuel, present operators and regulators with new challenges as to their safe and environmentally responsible operation. A second feature of recent change is an increased regulatory emphasis on public and ecosystem health and the need for assessments of risk to and from waste installations. Public confidence in waste management, secured in part through enforcement of the planning and permitting regimes and sound operational performance, is central to establishing the infrastructure of new waste technologies. Well-informed risk management plays a critical role. We discuss recent developments in risk analysis within the sector and the future needs of risk analysis that are required to respond to the new waste and resource management agenda

Further improvement of the implementation of the Aarhus convention in Malta : a review

Chapter 2Th e Twinning project MT/06/IB/EN/01 “Further Institution Building in the Environment Sector” aimed at supporting the Maltese Government in improving the implementation of the Aarhus Convention on public access to environmental information, public participation in environmental decision making and access to justice in environmental matters. Th e project was carried out by MEPA as Benefi ciary Institution and the Austrian Environment Agency as Lead Member State Partner. Th e project duration was 15 months as from 16th April 2008. Th e project was co-funded by the European Union and the Maltese Government under the 2006 Transition Facility Programme for Malta. Th e project consisted of four components: • Component 1: Assessment of the current situation and development of recommendations, • Component 2: Implementation of recommendations, • Component 3: Development of guidance documents, • Component 4: Training and awareness-raising. In Component 1, the legal instruments and institutional arrangements in place for the implementation of the Aarhus Convention in Malta were assessed, and recommendations were drawn up on how to improve the existing situation with regard to public access to environmental information, public participation in environmental decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. In Component 2, the recommendations were discussed with a wide range of stakeholders, and consequently applied in the practice, establishing an effi cient and eff ective administrative system to implement the Aarhus Convention. Amongst other measures, its implementation formulated a series of agreements between the benefi ciary and key holders of environmental information in Malta, with the aim of securing the availability, timeliness and quality of environmental data, supported by effi cient information management systems. In Component 3, guidelines were produced addressing the public authorities, the industry and the general public in Malta. Component 4 provided training for public offi cers and awareness-raising for key stakeholders and the general public. The most relevant project results are summarised in this chapter, as achieved under each Component.peer-reviewe

The use of the concept of event in enterprise ontologies and requirements engineering literature.

The concept of event is used in a lot of meanings. It can be the possible outcome of doing something (probability theory), it can be a business transaction (accounting), or just a plain happening. In software engineering, the concept of event is also used a lot. It is used to accomplish loose coupling between software components or to realise interaction between different services. There is however not a consensus on the meaning of `an event'. In enterprise ontologies, an event is defined as a happening at one point in time, or as an activity which takes time to complete. In requirement engineering, the same different uses can be found, together with an event as a request for something that needs to be done. These differences can also be found in implementation. All these distinct purposes of the word event make it difficult to integrate and use different requirement engineering techniques. Comparison or transformations between models drawn in different grammars is impossible because of the ambiguity of the concept of event. We define three meanings for an event that are used by enterprise ontologies and requirement engineering techniques: an achievement (happening at one point in time), an activity (happening over time) and a request (a demand for something that needs to be done). We also identify a missing link between real economic events, the events defined in the requirements model and the events used in implementation.Requirements modelling; Enterprise ontology; Process modelling; Dynamic; Event;

Physical processes, their life and their history

Here, I lay the foundations of a high-level ontology of particulars whose structuring principles differ radically from the 'continuant' vs. 'occurrent' distinction traditionally adopted in applied ontology. These principles are derived from a new analysis of the ontology of “occurring” or “happening” entities. Firstly, my analysis integrates recent work on the ontology of processes, which brings them closer to objects in their mode of existence and persistence by assimilating them to continuant particulars. Secondly, my analysis distinguishes clearly between processes and events, in order to make the latter abstract objects of thought (alongside propositions). Lastly, I open my ontological inventory to properties and facts, the existence of which is commonly admitted. By giving specific roles to these primitives, the framework allows one to account for static and dynamic aspects of the physical world and for the way that subjects conceive its history: facts account for the life of substances (physical objects and processes), whereas events enable cognitive subjects to account for the life story of substances