Assessment of Alternative Energy/Environment Futures for Austria: 1977-2015

The Austrian Regional Energy/Environment Study is the fourth in a series of IIASA studies on regional energy and environmental systems. The regions studied previously were the German Democratic Republic, the Rhone-Alpes Region in France and the state of Wisconsin in the U.S.A. The Austrian case study, regional in scope, complements the work of the IIASA Energy Systems Program which focuses primarily on global aspects of energy. This report presents the major results of the l5-month, Austrian case study, which examines alternative energy futures and strategies for Austria and some of their environmental implications. A secondary objective is the development of appropriate concepts and methods for energy/environment management and policy design in Austria

Assessment of Alternative Energy/Environment Futures for Austria, 1977-2015: An Executive Summary

This report was prepared to complement a presentation made October 25, 1977 at IIASA. The presentation, titled "An Executive Briefing Session", was designed to present the final results of a thirteen-month study of the Austrian Energy/Environment System to leaders in Austrian government, industry, and science. This written documentation of the results (of which a German translation is also available) presents in a brief form the final conclusions of this study. The study results provide a comprehensive spatial and sectoral description of Austrian energy consumption, and examine alternative energy and environmental policy strategies. This report, however, is only a summary and a more complete description will appear in Research Report form in 1978

Assessment of Alternative Energy/Environment Futures for Austria 1977-2015: Final Summary Report

This study had two primary objectives: (1) To examine alternative energy futures and strategies for Austria and to consider some of their environmental implications. (2) To investigate and apply appropriate concepts and . methodologies for energy/environment management and policy design in Austria. The establishment of these objectives was based upon the conviction that in Austria, as in most regions and nations of the world, there is an urgent need for the development and application of methods for studying regional energy systems and for testing the impact of alternative policies. In view of the major role which energy plays in the determination of environmental quality, this study was designed to aid in the integration of energy and environmental management from a systems perspective. "Regional," in the context of our previous studies, is not strictly defined as subnational or as a specific class of geographic units; rather, it refers to a region, appropriately bounded so that it is possible to speak of energy and environmental systems from a physical, socioeconomic, or administrative perspective, or from all three. At the beginning of this study, we intended to limit its scope to a selected few Austrian Lander (states); we quickly realized that Austria's size and vigorous interregional links precluded anything less than a national study

Doing Occidentalism in Contemporary Japan: Nation Anthropomorphism and Sexualized Parody in Axis Power Hetalia,

Axis Powers Hetalia (2006–present), a Japanese gag comic and animation series, depicts relations between nations personified as cute boys against a background of World War I and World War II. The stereotypical rendering of national characteristics as well as the reduction of historically charged issues into amusing quarrels between nice-looking but incompetent boys was immensely popular, especially among female audiences in Japan and Asia, and among Euro-American manga, anime, and cosplay fans, but it also met with vehement criticism. Netizens from South Korea, for example, considered the Korean character insulting and in early 2009 mounted a protest campaign that was discussed in the Korean national assembly. Hetalia's controversial success relies to a great extent on the inventive conflation of male-oriented otaku fantasies about nations, weapons, and concepts represented as cute little girls, and of female-oriented yaoi parodies of male-male intimacy between powerful "white" characters and more passive Japanese ones. This investigation of the original Hetalia by male author Hidekaz Himaruya (b. 1985) and its many adaptations in female-oriented dōjinshi (fanzine) texts and conventions (between 2009 and 2011, Hetalia was by far the most adapted work) refers to notions of interrelationality, intersectionality, and positionality in order to address hegemonic representations of "the West," the orientalized "Rest" of the world, and "Japan" in the cross-gendered and sexually parodied mediascape of Japanese transnational subcultures

Economic impacts of the United States of siting decisions for the international thermonuclear experimental reactor: Executive summary

This summary highlights the results of a study that examined and compared the probable short-term economic impacts of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) on the United States (U.S.) if (1) ITER were to be sited in the U.S. or (2) ITER were to be sited in one of the other countries that, along with the U.S., are currently participating in the ITER program. Life-cycle costs associated with ITER construction, operation, and decommissioning were analyzed to assess their economic impact. A number of possible U.S. {open_quotes}host{close_quotes} and U.S. {open_quotes}non-host{close_quotes} technology and cost-sharing arrangements were examined. The study examined both national and local/regional economic impacts, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), regional output, employment, income, and net exports. These impacts represent a portion of the complex, interrelated set of economic considerations that characterize U.S. host and U.S. non-host participation in ITER

The Wisconsin-IIASA Set of Energy/Environment (WISE) Models for Regional Planning and Management: An Overview

This report presents an overview of the analytical framework and quantitative methods used in the IIASA case studies on Regional Energy/Environment Management and Planning. Its purpose is to summarize the structure of the models, to provide a complete listing of the sources of more detailed model and data descriptions, and to indicate how the models are integrated to provide a foundation for regional energy/environment policy maker analysis. The audience for the report includes managers, planners, technical advisors, and modelers. The set of models used in the research project encompasses socioeconomic links to the energy system; energy demand in the residential, industrial, commercial/service, agricultural and transportation sectors; the energy supply sector, environmental impacts associated with the energy system; and policy makers' preferences. The report gives a brief description of the purpose and general structure of each model, data requirements, examples of input and output, and model limitations. As a whole, the models integrate information about energy flows in a region to simulate the energy system and its relationship to other regional variables, e.g., demographic and economic trends and the environment

Contextualizing legal norms: a multi-dimensional view of the 2014 legal capital reform in China

This paper intends to shed light on the contentious theme of the reception of legal transplantation in the host environment, by examining the 2014 legislative reform of legal capital in China, which at least on paper imitates the enabling settings of US Revised Model Business Corporation Act (RMBCA). The paper looks at the interconnections between national-specific contextual elements, the resultant complexities, and the spillover effects of transplanted configurations in the unique Chinese socio-cultural setting, implicating the discrepancy between the ‘law in practice’ and the borrowed words ‘on the books’, and suggesting the importance of gaining a holistic understanding of ‘law’ involving the legal traditions in both the donor country and the recipient nation

Using geologic conditions and multiattribute decision analysis to determine the relative favorability of selected areas for siting a high-level radioactive waste repository

A method is presented for determining the relative favorability of geologically complex areas for isolating high-level radioactive wastes. In applying the method to the northeastern region of the United States, seismicity and tectonic activity were the screening criteria used to divide the region into three areas of increasing seismotectonic risk. Criteria were then used to subdivide the area of lowest seismotectonic risk into six geologically distinct subareas including characteristics, surface-water and groundwater hydrology, potential human intrusion, site geometry, surface characteristics, and tectonic environment. Decision analysis was then used to identify the subareas most favorable from a geologic standpoint for further investigation, with a view to selecting a site for a repository. Three subareas (parts of northeastern Vermont, northern New Hampshire, and western Maine) were found to be the most favorable, using this method and existing data. However, because this study assessed relative geologic favorability, no conclusions should be drawn concerning the absolute suitability of individual subareas for high-level radioactive waste isolation. 34 refs., 7 figs., 20 tabs