Geospatial multi-criteria analysis for identifying high priority clean energy investment opportunities: A case study on land-use conflict in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a globally important emerging economy with rapidly increasing energy demand. The Bangladeshi government's primary capacity expansion plan is to install 13.3 GW of new coal by 2021, including the 1.3 GW Rampal coal power plant to be developed in the Sundarbans. Inadequate geospatial and economic information on clean energy investment opportunities are often a significant barrier for policy makers. Our study helps fill this gap by applying a new method to assess energy investment opportunities, with focus on understanding land-use conflicts, particularly important in this context as Bangladesh is constrained on land for agriculture, human settlements, and ecological preservation. By extending a geospatial multi-criteria analysis model (MapRE) we analyze the cost of various renewable energy generation technologies based on resource availability and key siting criteria such as proximity to transmission and exclusion from steep slopes, dense settlements or ecologically sensitive areas. We find there is more utility-scale solar potential than previously estimated, which can be developed at lower costs than coal power and with minimal cropland tradeoff. We also find significant potential for decentralized roof-top solar in commercial and residential areas. Even with a conservative land use program that reserves maximum land for agriculture and human settlement, there is more renewable energy capacity than needed to support Bangladeshi growth. This study provides critical and timely information for capacity expansion planning in South Asia and demonstrates the use of geospatial models to support decision-making in data-limited contexts

The effect of a visual/motion display mismatch in a single axis compensatory tracking task

The frequency response of visual systems is typically unity from 0 to 20 rad/sec, while that of motion systems typically falls off in the vicinity of 6 rad/sec. The question arises as to what effect, if any, such a difference in servomechanism performance has on the simulation. Is pilot performance reduced by the conflict between displays? Would a more realistic simulation occur if the visual servomechanisms were degraded to match the motion servomechanisms? Does the pilot need and use the higher frequency information present in the visual display? The purpose of the experiment is to take a step forward toward answering these questions. Work already in the literature which bears on these questions is outlined. A description is then given of an experiment used to check for the effects of a difference in the performance of the visual and motion servomechanisms (the experiment uses a single-axis, compensatory, roll-tracking task). The results of the experiment are then presented and analyzed

Multinational tactics in a traditional coal mining community, conflict in Spennymoor

The sociological effects of three multinational corporations on Spennymoor, a former traditional coal mining community in County Durham, is examined. Effects of the multinationals on community life, on the work place environment, and on trade union structures receive particular attention. The study focuses on specific research findings in respect of the Spennymoor community made during 1976-1977 and draws a comparative analysis of the impact of the three multinationals. Two of the companies are English-based multinationals: The Thorn subsidiary Smart and Brown and Courtaulds, Ltd. , whereas, the third, Black and Decker, Ltd. , is an American-based multi national managed by and employing British personnel in Great Britain. The method of data collection used in the study included a combination of in-depth interviews, direct observation and social interaction in Spennymoor. Persons interviewed collectively form a diverse cross-section of male and female subjects. The study presents arguments indicating multinational corporations possess worldwide hegemony outside the rule of effective international law to regulate their actions in the world economy. SiAstantial consideration is given in this work to the Alternational Investment Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises formulated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in an attempt to provide a fair social framework and equitable operating procedures with which multinationals are to abide. This study investigates whether or not the multinationals in Spennymoor have complied with the OECD Guidelines. Four major social conflicts are revealed: the traditional community society in conflict with international corporatism; the conflict of workers versus multinational managers and district governmental bureaucrats; the conflict between female workers and a male dominated society within which sexist discrimination has been reinforced by multinational management practises rather than alleviated; and lastly, but of most pervasive importance, the conflict between multinational industrial strategy and fair collective bargaining by trade unions. The study concludes that a great preponderance of power lies with the multinationals to determine the destiny of the Spennymoor workers and of Spennymoor itself. A need exists for effective international regulation of multinationals and a strong worldwide organisation of workers, such as combine committees, united in their alms to bargain collectively from a position of united power in order for the workers to control their jobs and the destiny of their local communities

Prognostic and Therapeutic Potential of Nuclear Receptors in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas are among the most common neoplasms worldwide and characterized by local tumor aggressiveness, high rate of early recurrences, development of metastasis, and second primary cancers. Despite modern therapeutic strategies and sophisticated surgical management, overall survival-rates remained largely unchanged over the last decades. Thus, the need for novel treatment options for this tumor entity is undeniable. A key event in carcinogenesis is the uncontrolled modulation of genetic programs. Nuclear receptors belong to a large superfamily of transcription factors implicated in a broad spectrum of physiological and pathophysiological processes, including cancer. Several nuclear receptors have also been associated with head and neck cancer. This review will summarize their mode of action, prognostic/therapeutic relevance, as well as preclinical and clinical studies currently targeting nuclear receptors in this tumor entity

Materials for the slow learner in junior high: an annotated bibliography of materials available in language arts, social studies, and home economics

This paper will attempt to survey materials available for a segment of the educational group which has be somewhat neglected until recent years -- slow learner

Differential Hemispheric Specialization and its Relationship to Repression

In Freud’s early formulations regarding a model of the mind, he suggested that repressed material functioned in a separate realm of the mind which was inaccessible to conscious recall or verbal inquiry. Based on studies of split-brain patients and studies of the differential functioning of the cerebral hemispheres, Galin (1977) has suggested that the right cerebral hemisphere may be the locus of unconscious mental contents. Research with patient populations and normals has shown that each cerebral hemisphere is specialized for a different cognitive style. Right hemisphere cognition is similar in many respects to primary process thinking: global, nonverbal, imaginal, nonlinear association, non- propositional speech, less concerned with perception of sequence and time. Other data which suggests that the right hemisphere may be implicated in repressed mental contents comes from research on the dissociation of mental contents of the two hemispheres in commissurotomy (split- brain) patients. Galin (1977) has proposed that in normal intact individuals the mental events of the right hemisphere can become disconnected functionally (repressed) from the left hemisphere by inhibition of neuronal transmission across the cerebral commissures. Recent evidence regarding differential hemispheric functioning during anxiety suggests another mechanism that may result in repression. Tucker, Antes, Stenslie and Barnhardt (1978) have found that when subjects are anxious the left cerebral hemisphere becomes overactive but dysfunctional. The neuropsychological model proposed in the present paper suggests that repression is a function of this restricted perception during anxiety. According to the model, when an unconscious conflict is aroused, the ensuing anxiety serves to overactivate and render dysfunctional the left hemisphere. As a result, perception and processing proceed along right hemisphere lines. Because of their special modes of organization, the knowledge of one hemisphere may not translate readily into the language of the other. Thus, the information stored in the right hemisphere while the left was dysfunctional may not be readily accessible to conscious, verbal left hemisphere thought. As a result, this information may remain repressed in the right hemisphere. The present study attempted a first step in the evaluation of this formulation by evaluating whether left hemisphere perception/ processing is hampered more by anxiety than is right hemisphere perception/processing when material is presented simultaneously to both hemispheres. To evaluate the effects of anxiety high and low trait anxious subjects were employed. The effects of state anxiety were studied by experimentally induced arousal. Subjects were asked to perform tasks which require either predominantly left or predominantly right hemisphere functioning and a task that combines both analytic (left hemisphere) and global (right hemisphere) features. It was hypothesized that under conditions of increased anxiety, performance on left hemisphere tasks would be more negatively affected than would performance on right hemisphere tasks. Contrary to prediction, right hemisphere task performance actually declined significantly more under conditions of increased anxiety than did left hemisphere task performance. Also contrary to prediction, performance on the analytic (left hemisphere) aspect of the combined task improved significantly with increased anxiety whereas there was a nonsignificant decline in performance on the global (right hemisphere) aspect of the task with increased anxiety. Findings are discussed in terms of reciprocal inhibition of hemispheric function, cognitive style and state dependent memory phenomena