Company environmental and societal positions as sources of competitive advantage: Implications for sustainable agriculture producers

Use of an environmental positioning strategy can help small-scale agricultural producers present their products to consumers in a more appealing manner

Emerging Issues for Geographical Indication Branding Strategies

Branding strategies centering on the geographical origins of a product can provide a basis for differentiating commodity products. The use of such geographical indications (or GIs) can involve unique quality characteristics associated with a particular location or quality images that are based on the history, tradition, and folklore in a region. In this paper we describe the benefits and pitfalls (such as the threat of new entrants, oversupply, the broadening of boundaries to include more producers, and limiting generic use of such names) of using GI branding strategies. We also focus on trademark issues germane to a company\u27s ability to (1) adopt GI-based trademarks as a means of gaining a competitive advantage and (2) protect the rights associated with such marks in order to sustain this source of competitive advantage

Born-Again RFRA: Will the Military Backslide on its Religious Conversion?

This Article details the importance of religious freedom in the United States and its armed forces, as well as the unfortunate history of non-accommodation that has plagued the Department of Defense (DoD) until recent years. It reviews the jurisprudence surrounding military service member free-exercise claims before and after the landmark Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993, and it analyzes how courts have addressed those claims within the military. It proposes an analysis for handing religious accommodation claims under RFRA in the military, and examines a series of hypotheticals that demonstrate the issues the DoD must confront and accommodate if it is to value its members’ religious liberty

Company environmental and societal positions as sources of competitive advantage: Consumer- and retailer-level effects

Smaller producers need to differentiate themselves from larger operations to ensure their economic survival. One way to do this is to market their products as being environmentally friendly and/or socially responsible

Emerging Forms of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Agricultural Producers

Traditional recommendations for building sustainable competitive advantages revolve around differentiating a product from the competition along attributes that are important and relevant to customers. However, strategic approaches based on such notions do not represent viable options for companies competing in commodity markets characterized by a lack of physical product differentiation. The objective of this paper is to conduct a literature review with the aim of identifying alternative approaches to creating competitive advantage that can be used even under conditions in which no differences in actual quality exist across products. This review of the literature uncovered three non-traditional strategies that provide a basis for perceptually differentiating products in the face of physical homogeneity. Agricultural producers operating in parity markets should consider these recommendations when developing strategies aimed at creating the competitive advantages that drive sales performance in the marketplace

Science of Batteries

Lots of myths and legends are currently surrounding the world of batteries today. This poster gives some insight into this world of batteries in 2019. Our research and findings is both for scientifically engaged individuals working in the battery industry, either in creation or usage, and the general populous alike

Water holding- and drainage capacity in different growing mediums for urban trees : a comparative study

I takt med klimatförändringarnas framfart, med bland annat högre temperaturer och mer extrema skyfall, riktas det alltmer fokus på de reglerande ekosystemtjänster som träden kan erbjuda oss i det urbana landskapet. För att träden ska kunna leverera de ekosystemtjänster som efterfrågas krävs att de når en hög ålder och därmed också större volymer i krona och stam. För att träden ska få chans till en långsiktig utveckling krävs rätt förhållanden, både ovan som under mark. Städernas förtätning skapar platsbrist och för att stadsträdens växtbäddar ska kunna erbjuda rätt markfysikaliska egenskaper och volym behöver de ta plats även under stadens trafik och behöver därför bestå av bärande material som tål stadens påfrestningar. Parallellt med dessa egenskaper ökar efterfrågan på växtbäddar som kan ta emot dagvatten för att avlasta våra VA-ledningar. För att dessa växtbäddar ska vara effektiva behöver de ha en god infiltrationsförmåga, nå fältkapacitet inom rimlig tid för att undvika att skapa syrefattiga miljöer för trädrötterna och samtidigt kunna erbjuda markfukt under en längre period. Växtbäddarnas utformning och innehåll har varierat genom åren och praktikerna provar sig fram utan några egentliga undersökningar på dess effektivitet. Mot bakgrund av detta har denna studie valt att studera vattnets rörelse i de mest förekommande substratblandningarna som används i Sverige idag. För att kunna studera vattnets rörelse har jordfuktmätare samt vattennivåmätare sänkts ner i tre olika IBC tankar, som är 1 m3 vardera, fyllda med tre olika substratblandningar: AMA B-jord, skärv med pimpsten samt skärv med biokol och kompost. Tankarna representerar stora jordprov som ska efterlikna växtbäddar för träd i stadsmiljö. Denna studie har kunnat bekräfta att substratblandningar av material med stora porer, mer specifikt blandningen av skärv och pimpsten hade högst dräneringskapacitet och därmed nådde fältkapacitet först, medan material med mindre porer tog längre tid på sig att nå fältkapacitet, men erhöll ett större vattenmagasin över längre tid under torka. Dessvärre kunde resultaten inte kompletteras med information om substratens fuktighetshållande egenskaper då fuktmätaren inte gav pålitliga data i detta försök.Along with the increasing development of climate change, with its elevating temperatures and more extreme rainfall, there is a growing focus on the regulatory ecosystem services that trees can offer in urban areas. For trees to be able to deliver the ecosystem services that are in demand, they must reach an advanced age and larger volumes in crown and trunk. For trees to have a chance for longterm development, right conditions are required both above and below ground. The densification of cities creates a lack of space and for tree pits to be able to offer the right properties and volume, they need to take up space also underneath paved areas and therefore need to be structural soil. In addition, demand for tree pits that can receive stormwater to relieve our water- and sewer system is increasing. For these tree pits to be effective, they need to have a good infiltration ability, reach field capacity within a reasonable time and at the same time be able to offer soil moisture for a longer period. The design and use of growing mediums in tree pits have varied over the years and the industry is trying out different alternatives without any actual research on its effectiveness. This project has therefore chosen to study the movement of water, in the most common mixtures of growing mediums for tree pits, used in Sweden today. Instrument to measure soil moisture and water levels have been immersed in three different bulk containers. Each bulk container accommodates 1 m3 and are filled with three different mixtures of growing mediums: AMA B-soil, shards of rock with pumice and shards of rock with biochar and compost. Each container represents a large soil sample and mimic city tree pits. The study has been able to confirm that growing mediums with large pores, especially the container with shards of rock and pumice, had a fastest drainage capacity and thus reach field capacity first, while mediums with smaller pores took longer time to reach field capacity, but obtained a larger water reservoir over a longer period with drought. Unfortunately, the study was not able to obtain any insight regarding the moisture-retaining properties of the growing mediums as the instrument to measure soil moisture did not provide reliable data in this experiment

Rotary Drum Separator and Pump for the Sabatier Carbon Dioxide Reduction System

A trade study conducted in 2001 selected a rotary disk separator as the best candidate to meet the requirements for an International Space Station (ISS) Carbon Dioxide Reduction Assembly (CRA). The selected technology must provide micro-gravity gasfliquid separation and pump the liquid from 10 psia at the gasfliquid interface to 18 psia at the wastewater bus storage tank. The rotary disk concept, which has pedigree in other systems currently being built for installation on the ISS, failed to achieve the required pumping head within the allotted power. The separator discussed in this paper is a new design that was tested to determine compliance with performance requirements in the CRA. The drum separator and pump @SP) design is similar to the Oxygen Generator Assembly (OGA) Rotary Separator Accumulator (RSA) in that it has a rotating assembly inside a stationary housing driven by a integral internal motor. The innovation of the DSP is the drum shaped rotating assembly that acts as the accumulator and also pumps the liquid at much less power than its predecessors. In the CRA application, the separator will rotate at slow speed while accumulating water. Once full, the separator will increase speed to generate sufficient head to pump the water to the wastewater bus. A proof-of- concept (POC) separator has been designed, fabricated and tested to assess the separation efficiency and pumping head of the design. This proof-of-concept item was flown aboard the KC135 to evaluate the effectiveness of the separator in a microgravity environment. This separator design has exceeded all of the performance requirements. The next step in the separator development is to integrate it into the Sabatier Carbon Dioxide Reduction System. This will be done with the Sabatier Engineering Development Unit at the Johnson Space Center