A high-altitude snow chemistry record from Amundsenisen, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

In this paper a detailed record of major ions from a 20 m deep firn core from Amundsenisen, western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, is presented. The core was drilled at 75° S, 2° E (2900 m a.s.l.) during austral summer 1991/92. The following ions were measured at 3 cm resolution: Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl−, NO3−, S04 2− and CH3SO3H (MSA). The core was dated back to 1865 using a combination of chemical records and volcanic reference horizons. The volcanic eruptions identified in this core are Mount Ngauruhoe, New Zealand (1974–75), Mount Agung, Indonesia (1963), Azul, Argentina (1932), and a broad peak that corresponds in time toTarawera, New Zealand (1886), Falcon Island, South Shetlands, Southern Ocean (1885), and Krakatau, Indonesia (1883). There are no trends in any of the ion records, but the annual to decadal changes are large. The mean concentrations of the measured ions are in agreement with those from other high-altitude cores from the Antarctic plateau. At this core site there may be a correspondence between peaks in the MSA record and major El Niño–Southern Oscillation events

Corporate social responsibility: Why bother?

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not a new concept, but unfortunately has been defined in so many ways, it is often misinterpreted. In fact it has had 40 years to evolve from a somewhat infant concept to a successful managerial tool to build a company's reputation in the global market arena. Corporate social responsibility has become corporate strategic responsibility - an imperative element of corporate global business strategies. Many leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, executives and politicians now recognize CSR's potential for differentiation and positioning in the global marketplace. In the 21st century, we find CSR to have a remarkable acceptance among practicing managers; publicly traded corporations especially label CSR an essential tool for their long-term legitimacy and profitability. CSR has matured from its infancy, becoming a corporate reputational adding value strategy for firms

Designing Multi-Technological Resilient Objects in Product Platforms

Uncertainty about the market, environment, and technological landscape of the future challenges the ways companies utilize the notion of “product platforms” to gain efficiency during development and production. This paper reviews design approaches to cope with uncertainties and highlights the benefit of designing a platform to enable “resilience” to deal with uncertain situation without the need to change the structure or configuration of the product platform. To achieve resilience, the paper proposes to introduce “resilient objects” in regions of the product platform that are likely to be most affected by change. Resilient design objects are already common in practice, such as a spring-damper system in mechanical systems. However, since product platform are multi-technological, this paper proposes a way of representing generic resilient objects (along five different design domains) for multi-technological systems. This proposal is supported by illustrative examples. Future research opportunities are identified around extending the matrix of generic multi-technological resilient objects, and defining a systematic method to design, select and evaluate which resilient objects are more valuable to be inserted in specific regions of the product platform

Interactive model-based decision-making tools in early product platform design

Integrating new technologies in existing product platforms presents challenges not only when the decision of going ahead with the integration is taken, but also in the earlier design of the platform structure to accommodate hypothetical changes in the future. Common heuristics do no guarantee that the optimum solution can be found to these kinds of problems, and biases lead to systematic distortions in decision-making. Additionally with the global zeitgeist around sustainable development, decision makers will increasingly ask for paths to many different versions of success, not just the traditional profit maximization one. A set of common models that accompanies the product platform all through its lifecycle to support decision makers can enable better fulfilment of the expectations of all stakeholders. But it is difficult to unify and objectively gather the views of multiple stakeholder simultaneously. An interactive modelbased decision making support system is proposed as a tool to solve the mentioned challenges. In this paper we describe and experiment with the main technological foundations of such a tool. These include an web-based front end, and a real-Time NoSQL database in the back end. The client web application (webapp) enables user inputs, runs quantitative models, and visualizes results. The database records results and enables the use of common inputs and common visualization of the results. The models that run directly in the client are developed offline and can be continuously deployed with no downtime for concurrent users. The technology stack used demonstrates that rapid prototyping of tools using state-of-The-Art web technologies provides quick results and enables researchers to make quick iterations that can be easily deployed in industrial use cases. The presented method is a new approach to providing digital support to the design process, by enabling better informed decisions during the product development process early phases. In this paper, an introduction and background to the problem and current state of the art is summarized, a method to approaching the topic is described, an experiment performed in front of a life audience is presented, and hints for future developments are considered in the discussion and conclusion sections

Identification of Technology Integration Challenges at Two Global Automotive OEMs

Platform design has been firmly established in the automotive industry as a strategy to provide wider product variety while maintaining cost effective production. But this strategy can struggle to keep up with the pace and nature of emerging technologies. This paper reviews the existing approaches to modelling product platforms, and showcases the challenges at OEMs introducing new technological innovations in their platforms. A gap is identified in the methods to assess the ability of existing platforms to integrate new technologies whenever they become available

Spatial variability of snow chemistry in western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

During the austral summer of 1993-94 a number of 1-2 m deep snow pits were sampled in connection with firn-coring in western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The traverse went from 800 to about 3000 m a.s.l. upon the high-altitude plateau. Profiles of cations (Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+), anions (Cl−, NO3-, SO4 2- , CH3SO3 −) and stable oxygen isotopes (δ18O) from 11 snow pils are presented here. Close to the coast 2 m of snow accumulates in about 2-3 years, whilst at sites on the high-altitude plateau 2 m of snow accumulates in 10—14 years. The spatial variation in ion concentrations shows that the ions can be divided into two groups, one with sea-salt elements and methane sulfonate and the other with nitrate and sulfate. For the sca-salt elements and methane sulfonate the concentrations decrease with increasing altitude and increasing distance from the coast, as well as with decreasing temperature and decreasing accumulation rate. For nitrate and sulfate the concentrations are constant or increase with respect to these parameters. This pattern suggests that the sources for sca-salt elements and methane sulfonate are local, whereas the sources for nitrate and sulfate are a mixture of local and long-range transport

Emission Scenarios for Methane and Nitrous Oxides from the Agricultural Sector in the EU-25

This report presents three emission scenarios of non-CO2 greenhouse gases from the agricultural sector of the EU-25 until 2020. These scenarios explore the likely implications of changes in agricultural production due to the - implementations of the EU Agenda 2000 CAP Reform of 1999 and the EU Nitrates Directive of 1991 (as used for the analyses of the EU Clean Air for Europe (CAFE) programme), - the implementation of the 2003 Mid-term review of the CAP reform and from anticipated impacts on fertilizer use of the reform of the EU sugar sector agreed in 2005, - and compare them with the agricultural projections provided by the EU Member States to IIASA for the preparations of the revision of the EU Emission Ceilings Directive in 2005. The emission scenarios have been developed with IIASA's Greenhouse and Air pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model (www.iiasa.ac.at/gains), which constitutes an extension of the Regional Air Pollution Information and Simulation (RAINS) model (www.iiasa.ac.at/rains) to greenhouse gases. All scenarios suggest for the EU-25 a significant decline of agricultural non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and future years, mainly as a consequence of declining cattle numbers due to productivity increases in milk and beef production and more efficient application of fertilizers. For the first scenario (i.e., CAFE projections reflecting the impacts of the Agenda 2000 CAP reform and the Nitrates Directive), an 11-13 percent decline of emissions from the EU-25 is estimated for the period 1990 to 2010, depending on the calculation methodology. The changes in livestock numbers and fertilizer use implied by the 2003 Mid-term review of the CAP reform and the EU sugar reform would reduce non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions further by approximately four percentage points. Based on the national projections of livestock numbers and fertilizer use as provided in 2005 by the Member States for the NEC revision, agricultural non-CO2 greenhouse gases are computed to decline by approximately 16 percent up to 2010. These trends show significant variations across Member States. Emissions from the old Member States (EU-15) are calculated to decline by between 7 to 13 percent, depending on the agricultural scenario and calculation method. For the new Member States (NMS-10), reductions between 32 and 35 percent are estimated. More than half of these reductions have occurred between 1990 and 1995, mainly due to the structural changes in the New Member States. Scenario 1 results in four percent additional emission reductions between 1995 and 2010, while the Mid-term CAP review Scenario 2 and the national projections suggest an eight percent further decline by approximately two percentage points

Flagging greens: hydrobiid snails as substrata for the development of green algal mats (Enteromorpha spp.) on tidal flats of North Atlantic coasts

During the past 3 decades, dense mats of green algae (especially Enteromorpha spp.) have been recorded regularly from tidal flats worldwide. The development of green algal mats on tidal flats may be initiated by overwintering and regrowth of adult plants or by the formation and release of small propagules, i.e. vegetative fragments, zoospores and zygotes. On soft sediments, macroinvertebrates may constitute prime substrata for germination of algal spores. Hydrobud (mud-) snails are widespread along North Atlantic soft sediment shores and were identified previously as important substrata for Enteromorpha spp. germlings in 1 of our study areas. To test the generality of this phenomenon, we investigated the presence of Enteromorpha spp. gerrnlings attached to hydrobud snails from November 1995 to December 1996 on 6 tidal flats of North Atlantic coasts (Tralebergslule, Sweden; Konigshafen Bay, Germany; Mondego Estuary, Portugal; Ria Formosa, Portugal; Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada; Lowes Cove, Maine, USA). With 1 exception, hydrobiid snails were present in all areas studied, and intensive growth of Enteromorpha spp. occurred during summer. Throughout winter 1995/96, hardly any Enteromorpha spp. gerrnlings were found on snail shells, but over the following months germlings developed on up to 60% of the hydrobiid snails present. In 2 areas (Konigshafen, Germany; Lowes Cove, USA), germhng abundance on hydrobuds began to rise before the peak of green algal mat development. In Tralebergskile, Sweden, high mat abundance occurred simultaneous to and after increased germling abundance on Hydrobia ulvae. Densities of snails were very low, however, and hydrobuds appeared to be unimportant as substratum. No clear temporal pattern between high germling abundance on snails followed by mat development was found in the other 3 study areas (Ria Formosa, Portugal; Mondego Estuary, Portugal; Cole Harbour, Canada). In Lowes Cove, USA, gerrnlings and juveniles of Enteromorpha spp. first grew at the site with high Hydrobia abundance and were subsequently drifted to another site where they developed into full mats. We conclude that initiation of green algal mats by germination on Hydrobia spp. may be a general phenomenon, but that other modes of development also occur frequently. Pelagic dnft of overwintering thalli to new sites, followed by prolific growth, might be of similar or greater importance

INCORPORATING FIELD EFFECTS INTO THE DESIGN OF MODULAR PRODUCT FAMILIES

With advancing digitalization, new technologies with more and more digital components make it necessary to integrate new components into current and future products. Sensors and actuators, such as motors, emit electromagnetic and thermal fields that can greatly affect product performance. Recent work has considered fields at the functional level using functional structures and at the system level using DSM. In this paper, the effects of fields on product architecture are investigated at the component level. Using an appropriate visualization, the impact of fields on the product structure is considered. Architectural guidelines are then used to develop suitable product structures. The methodological approach is then applied to a product family of vacuum cleaner robots. The overlaid field information helps to gain deeper insights into the product architecture. The approach is useful for representing alternative structures. The new mapping of functional and structural relationships by moving module boundaries against fields can help promote architectural innovation