5,211 research outputs found
The new resilience of emerging and developing countries: systemic interlocking, currency swaps and geoeconomics
The vulnerability/resilience nexus that defined the interaction between advanced and developing economies in the post-WWII era is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Yet, most of the debate in the current literature is focusing on the structural constraints faced by the Emerging and Developing Countries (EDCs) and the lack of changes in the formal structures of global economic governance. This paper challenges this literature and its conclusions by focusing on the new conditions of systemic interlocking between advanced and emerging economies, and by analysing how large EDCs have built and are strengthening their economic resilience. We find that a significant redistribution of âpolicy spaceâ between advanced and emerging economies have taken place in the global economy. We also find that a number of seemingly technical currency swap agreements among EDCs have set in motion changes in the very structure of global trade and finance. These developments do not signify the end of EDCsâ vulnerability towards advanced economies. They signify however that the economic and geoeconomic implications of this vulnerability have changed in ways that constrain the options available to advanced economies and pose new challenges for the post-WWII economic order
The Nature of Parallax Microlensing Events Towards the Galactic Bulge
Perhaps as many as 30 parallax microlensing events are known, thanks to the
efforts of the MACHO, OGLE, EROS and MOA experiments monitoring the bulge.
Using Galactic models, we construct mock catalogues of microlensing light
curves towards the bulge, allowing for the uneven sampling and observational
error bars of the OGLE-II experiment. The fraction of parallax events with
delta chi^2 > 50 in the OGLE-II database is around ~1%, though higher fractions
are reported by some other surveys. This is in accord with expectations from
standard Galactic models. The fraction of parallax events depends strongly on
the Einstein crossing time (t_E), being less than 5% at t_E = 50 days but
rising to 50% at t_E > 1 yr. We find that the existence of parallax signatures
is essentially controlled by the acceleration of the observer normalised to the
projected Einstein radius on the observer plane divided by t_E^2. The
properties of the parallax events - time-scales, projected velocities, source
and lens locations - in our mock catalogues are analysed. Typically, ~38% of
parallax events are caused by a disk star microlensing a bulge source, while
\~33% are caused by a disk star microlensing a disk source (of these disk
sources, one sixth are at a distance of 5 kpc or less). There is a significant
shift in mean time-scale from 32 d for all events to ~130d for our parallax
events. There are corresponding shifts for other parameters, such as the
lens-source velocity projected onto the observer plane (~1110 km/s for all
events versus ~80 km/s for parallax events) and the lens distance (6.7 kpc
versus 3.7 kpc). We also assess the performance of parallax mass estimators and
investigate whether our mock catalogue can reproduce events with features
similar to a number of conjectured `black hole' lens candidates.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, MNRAS (in press
Walking and the social life of solar charging in rural Africa
We consider practices that sustain social and physical environments beyond those dominating sustainable HCI discourse. We describe links between walking, sociality, and using resources in a case study of community-based, solar, cellphone charging in villages in South Africaâs Eastern Cape. Like 360 million rural Africans, inhabitants of these villages are poor and, like 25% and 92% of the world, respectively, do not have domestic electricity or own motor vehicles. We describe nine practices in using the charging stations we deployed. We recorded 700 people using the stations, over a year, some regularly. We suggest that the way we frame practices limits insights about them, and consider various routines in using and sharing local resources to discover relations that might also feature in charging. Specifically, walking interconnects routines in using, storing, sharing and sustaining resources, and contributes to knowing, feeling, wanting and avoiding as well as to different aspects of sociality, social order and perspectives on sustainability. Along the way, bodies acquire literacies that make certain relationalities legible. Our study shows we cannot assert what sustainable practice means a priori and, further, that detaching practices from bodies and their paths limits solutions, at least in rural Africa. Thus, we advocate a more âalonglyâ integrated approach to data about practices.Web of Scienc
Multi-performance optimisation framework for the selection of structural alternatives based on sustainable qualities
In recent years, the increasing demand for innovative sustainable policies in building engineering has shifted the decision rationale from traditional performance-based systems towards systems augmented by life-cycle sustainability notions. This paper investigates a novel optimisation framework, which supports the selection of buildingsâ structural alternatives at concept stage by applying multiple performance, sustainable requirements. The established model explores ways to effectively compute and process expert knowledge across different stakeholders groups into a consolidated decision-making platform supported by Lean Theory. A systematic procedure based on the Quality Function Deployment is utilised to successfully translate 16 sustainability requirements into 27 corresponding engineering design requirements. The theoretical and mathematical principles of Analytic Network Process are applied on a pilot study to build general decision clusters, identify feedback links amongst the various engineering criteria and determine their inner dependences
Understanding Urban Demand for Wild Meat in Vietnam: Implications for Conservation Actions
Vietnam is a significant consumer of wildlife, particularly wild meat, in urban restaurant settings. To meet this demand, poaching of wildlife is widespread, threatening regional and international biodiversity. Previous interventions to tackle illegal and potentially unsustainable consumption of wild meat in Vietnam have generally focused on limiting supply. While critical, they have been impeded by a lack of resources, the presence of increasingly organised criminal networks and corruption. Attention is, therefore, turning to the consumer, but a paucity of research investigating consumer demand for wild meat will impede the creation of effective consumer-centred interventions. Here we used a mixed-methods research approach comprising a hypothetical choice modelling survey and qualitative interviews to explore the drivers of wild meat consumption and consumer preferences among residents of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Our findings indicate that demand for wild meat is heterogeneous and highly context specific. Wild-sourced, rare, and expensive wild meat-types are eaten by those situated towards the top of the societal hierarchy to convey wealth and status and are commonly consumed in lucrative business contexts. Cheaper, legal and farmed substitutes for wild-sourced meats are also consumed, but typically in more casual consumption or social drinking settings. We explore the implications of our results for current conservation interventions in Vietnam that attempt to tackle illegal and potentially unsustainable trade in and consumption of wild meat and detail how our research informs future consumer-centric conservation actions
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