6,079 research outputs found
Exploring the impact of stakeholder pressure on environmental management strategies at the plant level: What does industry have to do with it?
Stakeholder theory and empirical evidence confirm the positive relationship between stakeholder pressure and the implementation of environmental practices and strategies. However, the specific mechanisms and impact of selected stakeholder groups on environmental management strategies are relatively underexplored. In this paper, this shortcoming is addressed by exploring the impact of selected stakeholder groups on environmental management strategies taking the contingency factor industry into consideration (i.e., dynamic vs. static industries). Basing the arguments primarily on stakeholder theory, it is suggested that stakeholder pressures are perceived differently in plants in dynamic versus static industries. Similarly, it is suggested that the influence of stakeholder pressures on the implementation of environmental strategies is influenced by industry type. To test the proposed research model, primary survey data from 502 plants collected in the United States across multiple industries is used. Thus, this paper contributes to the sustainability operations management literature through exploring the relationship between stakeholder pressure, environmental strategy implementation and contextual factors (i.e., industry type) through hypotheses testing. Results indicate that industry type does indeed affect stakeholder pressure, and the relationship between stakeholder pressure and environmental strategy implementation. Plants situated in dynamic industries experience a significantly higher level of stakeholder pressures as opposed to plants situated in static industries across an array of environmental strategies
Interaction effects and quantum phase transitions in topological insulators
We study strong correlation effects in topological insulators via the Lanczos
algorithm, which we utilize to calculate the exact many-particle ground-state
wave function and its topological properties. We analyze the simple,
noninteracting Haldane model on a honeycomb lattice with known topological
properties and demonstrate that these properties are already evident in small
clusters. Next, we consider interacting fermions by introducing repulsive
nearest-neighbor interactions. A first-order quantum phase transition was
discovered at finite interaction strength between the topological band
insulator and a topologically trivial Mott insulating phase by use of the
fidelity metric and the charge-density-wave structure factor. We construct the
phase diagram at as a function of the interaction strength and the
complex phase for the next-nearest-neighbor hoppings. Finally, we consider the
Haldane model with interacting hard-core bosons, where no evidence for a
topological phase is observed. An important general conclusion of our work is
that despite the intrinsic nonlocality of topological phases their key
topological properties manifest themselves already in small systems and
therefore can be studied numerically via exact diagonalization and observed
experimentally, e.g., with trapped ions and cold atoms in optical lattices.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures. Published versio
Lattice Kinetics of Diffusion-Limited Coalescence and Annihilation with Sources
We study the 1D kinetics of diffusion-limited coalescence and annihilation
with back reactions and different kinds of particle input. By considering the
changes in occupation and parity of a given interval, we derive sets of
hierarchical equations from which exact expressions for the lattice coverage
and the particle concentration can be obtained. We compare the mean-field
approximation and the continuum approximation to the exact solutions and we
discuss their regime of validity.Comment: 24 pages and 3 eps figures, Revtex, accepted for publication in J.
Phys.
Adolescents' experiences of street harassment: creating a typology and assessing the emotional impact
Purpose: Research examining young people's experiences of harassment has tended to focus on the school and digital environment. Despite street harassment being identified as a common experience for adult women, very few studies have explored adolescents' experiences of street harassment.
Methodology: A person centred analytical approach, based on experienced reporting, was used to create a typology of street harassment. Reports of street harassment were received from 118 (68 female, 43 male, 7 no gender reported) 11- to 15-year-olds over a 6 to 8 week period.
Findings: Cluster analysis revealed four distinct groups: "predominately verbal", "non-verbal/non-direct", "other incident", and "all forms". Young women and those in the "all forms" group reported experiencing greater negative emotions following the episode of street harassment. Young men were equally as likely as young women to report experiencing street harassment.
Value: The findings uniquely highlight that adolescents experience distinct types of street harassment and some of which are associated with negative emotions
Transnationalism and Social Work Education
Transnational movements, networks, and relationships are everywhere in this âworld on the moveâ (Williams & Graham, 2014, p. i1). Transnational peoples maintain relationships of interdependence and support with families and communities in their places of origin, often returning regularly, while starting new lives and making new connections. Transnationalism is characterized by mobilities and networks, by social integration, and by extended and extensive relationship ties of family, neighborhood, religious faith, or combinations thereof (Valtonen, 2008). While disciplines across the world including sociology, human geography, and cultural anthropology engage with the implications of transnationalism (BaubĂśck & Faist, 2010), social work in England and mainland Europe has not achieved similar levels of engagement. As Cox and Geisen state: âthe social world is being transformed by migration and social work is playing catch-upâ (2014, p. i162)
GPUVerify: A Verifier for GPU Kernels
We present a technique for verifying race- and divergence-freedom of GPU kernels that are written in mainstream ker-nel programming languages such as OpenCL and CUDA. Our approach is founded on a novel formal operational se-mantics for GPU programming termed synchronous, delayed visibility (SDV) semantics. The SDV semantics provides a precise definition of barrier divergence in GPU kernels and allows kernel verification to be reduced to analysis of a sequential program, thereby completely avoiding the need to reason about thread interleavings, and allowing existing modular techniques for program verification to be leveraged. We describe an efficient encoding for data race detection and propose a method for automatically inferring loop invari-ants required for verification. We have implemented these techniques as a practical verification tool, GPUVerify, which can be applied directly to OpenCL and CUDA source code. We evaluate GPUVerify with respect to a set of 163 kernels drawn from public and commercial sources. Our evaluation demonstrates that GPUVerify is capable of efficient, auto-matic verification of a large number of real-world kernels
Fully automated deep learning-based localization and segmentation of the locus coeruleus in aging and Parkinson's disease using neuromelanin-sensitive MRI
Purpose:
Development and performance measurement of a fully automated pipeline that localizes and segments the locus coeruleus in so-called neuromelanin-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging data for the derivation of quantitative biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimerâs disease and Parkinsonâs disease.
Methods:
We propose a pipeline composed of several 3D-Unet-based convolutional neural networks for iterative multi-scale localization and multi-rater segmentation and non-deep learning-based components for automated biomarker extraction. We trained on the healthy aging cohort and did not carry out any adaption or fine-tuning prior to the application to Parkinsonâs disease subjects.
Results:
The localization and segmentation pipeline demonstrated sufficient performance as measured by Euclidean distance (on average around 1.3mm on healthy aging subjects and 2.2mm in Parkinsonâs disease subjects) and Dice similarity coefficient (overall around 71% on healthy aging subjects and 60% for subjects with Parkinsonâs disease) as well as promising agreement with respect to contrast ratios in terms of intraclass correlation coefficient of âĽ0.80 for healthy aging subjects compared to a manual segmentation procedure. Lower values (âĽ0.48) for Parkinsonâs disease subjects indicate the need for further investigation and tests before the application to clinical samples.
Conclusion:
These promising results suggest the usability of the proposed algorithm for data of healthy aging subjects and pave the way for further investigations using this approach on different clinical datasets to validate its practical usability more conclusively
How much dystrophin is enough: the physiological consequences of different levels of dystrophin in the mdx mouse
Splice modulation therapy has shown great clinical promise in Duchenne muscular dystrophy, resulting in the production of dystrophin protein. Despite this, the relationship between restoring dystrophin to established dystrophic muscle and its ability to induce clinically relevant changes in muscle function is poorly understood. In order to robustly evaluate functional improvement, we used in situ protocols in the mdx mouse to measure muscle strength and resistance to eccentric contraction-induced damage. Here, we modelled the treatment of muscle with pre-existing dystrophic pathology using antisense oligonucleotides conjugated to a cell-penetrating peptide. We reveal that 15% homogeneous dystrophin expression is sufficient to protect against eccentric contraction-induced injury. In addition, we demonstrate a >40% increase in specific isometric force following repeated administrations. Strikingly, we show that changes in muscle strength are proportional to dystrophin expression levels. These data define the dystrophin restoration levels required to slow down or prevent disease progression and improve overall muscle function once a dystrophic environment has been established in the mdx mouse model
The role of parental alcohol use, parental discipline and antisocial behaviour on adolescent drinking trajectories
Backgrounds: : Parental drinking, harsh parental discipline and adolescent antisocial behaviour have been independently implicated in adolescent alcohol use. Robust prospective studies are required to examine developmental relationships between these factors and their effect on trajectories of alcohol use across adolescence
Scalar arguments of the mathematical functions defining molecular and turbulent transport of heat and mass in compressible fluids
The advectionâdiffusion equations defining control volume conservation laws in micrometeorological research are analysed to resolve discrepancies in their appropriate scalar variables for heat and mass transport. A scalar variable that is conserved during vertical motions enables the interpretation of turbulent mixing as âdiffusionâ. Gas-phase heat advection is shown to depend on gradients in the potential temperature (θ), not the temperature (T). Since conduction and radiation depend on T, advectionâdiffusion of heat depends on gradients of both θ and T. Conservation of θ (the first Law of Thermodynamics) requires including a pressure covariance term in the definition of the turbulent heat flux. Mass advection and diffusion are universally agreed to depend directly on gradients in the gas âconcentrationâ (c), a nonetheless ambiguous term. Depending upon author, c may be defined either as a dimensionless proportion or as a dimensional density, with non-trivial differences for the gas phase. Analyses of atmospheric law, scalar conservation and similarity theory demonstrate that mass advectionâdiffusion in gases depends on gradients, not in density but rather in a conserved proportion. Flux-tower researchers are encouraged to respect the meteorological tradition of writing conservation equations in terms of scalar variables that are conserved through simple air motions.The authors received funding support from Andalusian regional
government project GEOCARBO (P08-RNM-3721),
the National Institute for Agrarian Research and Technology
(INIA; SUM2006â00010-00â00), the Spanish flux-tower network
CARBORED-ES (Science Ministry project CGL2010-
22193-C04â02), and the European Commission collaborative
project GHG Europe (FP7/2007-2013; grant agreement
244122)
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