Fuels and chemicals from biomass using solar thermal energy

The significant nearer term opportunities for the application of solar thermal energy to the manufacture of fuels and chemicals from biomass are summarized, with some comments on resource availability, market potential and economics. Consideration is given to the production of furfural from agricultural residues, and the role of furfural and its derivatives as a replacement for petrochemicals in the plastics industry

Tending to seeds of civic activity:navigating democratic transformations to sustainability

Calls for societies to become more sustainable are becoming increasingly urgent. Tired of waiting for ‘the market’ or ‘the state’ to solve problems for them, many civic actors are claiming an active role in carving out pathways towards sustainable transformation in practice: finding sustainable ways to meet their daily needs, work, make decisions, and define value together. Driven by the question of what can be done now given the circumstances, and inspired by political ecology’s project of radical democratization, this thesis explores the ways in which existing civic practices, strategies, and imaginaries are contributing to sustainability transformations. The researcher got his hands dirty, both literally and figuratively. Literally, he engaged in ethnographic work alongside small-scale farmers in the Netherlands: pulling weeds and harvesting vegetables while discussing wider possibilities for a regenerative food economy. Figuratively, he attempted the messy task of making his PhD work relevant to civic actors: from small-scale Dutch farmers, to German citizens inventing new spaces of governance in food policy councils, and beyond. Civic activity is conceptualized as a ‘seed’ that stores the potential to grow into a robust plant – here understood as a counter-movement against unsustainable ways of relating to nature and each other. This thesis argues that the seeds of civic activity are being scattered all around. Recognizing and helping them to grow is as good of a place as any to start in finding pathways to truly ‘sustainable’ ways of relating to nature and each other

An Experimental Study of the Relationship BetweenSpatial Ability and the Learning of a Graphical User Interface

The Graphical User Interface (GUI) is one of the most revolutionary changes to occur in the evolution of modern computing systems. ... This revolution has increased the accessibility and usability of computersystems to the general public ... (Mandelkern, 1993, p. 37). In the excitement over Graphical User Interfaces, developers often overlook the fact that they are making assumptions about how users best process information. A key assumption in the GUI is that users are effective processors of spatial information. In fact, there are individual differences in how well people process information spatially. This paper describes an experiment that measures these differences and looks for their effects on users\u27 abilities to learn command line and GUI interfaces for simple file management tasks

The Impact of Hormone Therapy on Cardiovascular and Bone Health in Women with Premature or Early Menopause

The Women\u27s Health Initiative (WHI) studies were a catalyst for the dramatic decline in the number of postmenopausal women being prescribed hormone therapy (HT). The WHI published the largest randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial regarding HT use in postmenopausal women. The WHI studies treated postmenopausal women with HT with a mean age of 63 years. Premature and early menopausal women have frequently not utilized HT based on the results of the WHI studies. The purpose of this literature review was to compare the WHI studies\u27 results to studies that examined coronary heart disease (CHD) and bone health benefits and risks of HT use in premature or early menopause. Articles published in the last 22 years were initially incorporated to include the WHI studies. Articles were then further eliminated if they did not discuss CHD or osteoporosis in postmenopausal women less than 45 years of age. This systematic review recommends individualizing the use of HT in premature and early menopausal women by investigating their risk factors for breast cancer, deep vein thrombosis (DVTs), strokes, and CHD, along with performing a thorough review of their family history. If none of these risk factors exist, premature and early menopausal women should not be denied HT based on the WHI studies\u27 results. Further random controlled trials (RCTs) and longitudinal studies need to be completed specifically on premature and early menopausal women to confidently substantiate the benefits of HT in the prevention of chronic diseases

AN EXPLORATION OF THE ROLE OF DIVERSE CULTURES ON THE INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS DETERMINATION PROCESS

Successfully defining the information requirements for an information system has proven to be a difficult task. It is even more challenging when there are significant differences in the way analysts and users perceive the world, the application, and each other. Major changes in the cultural makeup of the work force have been projected for the next two decades. This paper explores the influences of cultural differences on the requirements determination process. A model is proposed to explain these influences and to identify research opportunities

Reactions of Oxotrichlorobis(triphenylphosphine)rhenium(V)

While sealed tube reactions have been used extensively in the synthesis of other transition metal complexes (1), the method has seen limited use in synthetic rhenium chemistry. The first reaction reported was the preparation of tris (l,1O phenanthroline) rhenium(III) chloride (2). The second reaction was an attempt to isomerize oxotrichlorobis (triphenylphosphine) rhenium(V), ReOCI3-[C65H5) 3P] 2; by refluxing it in chloroform (3). Instead of isomerization, oxodichloro(ethoxy) bis (triphenylphosphine) rhenium(V), ReO(OC2H5 )c12 [C65H5) 3P] was produced; the ethoxy moiety came from an ethanol preservative in commercial chloroform. As temperature was sometimes important, the isomerization was also attempted in chloroform.in a sealed tube at 120°c. The reaction unexpectedly gave compounds identified as tetrachlorobis( triphenylphosphine) rhenium(IV), ReCl4 -[C65H5) 3P]2, andtetrachlorobis (triphenylphosphineoxide) rhenium(IV), ReCl4 [C65H5) 3P]. The unusual behavior of the oxotrichlorobis (triphenylphosphine) rhenium(V) in the sealed tube led to the current work. The purpose of this project was to make a systematic investigation of sealed tube reactions of several rhenium co-ordination compounds in different solvents at variable temperatures. Complications arising in the recrystallization of one of the starting materials, oxotrichlorobis (triphenylphosphine) rheniurn(V), led to an investigation of a series of reactions producing triphenylphosphonium salts of several rhenium anions

The case of the Bangladesh Ready-Made Garment Industry

This study investigates how and why companies engage in private governance in varied ways and the implications thereof. It compares how companies – as ‘political actors’ – engage in private governance differently, even if in response to the same institutional pressures. In doing so, it examines the interplay between context (structure) and choice (agency). Overall, it contributes to our understanding of why companies understand their political roles and responsibilities differently, and the implications of these differences for the private governance of sustainability issues. In doing so, it contributes to our understanding of the organization and dimensions of private governance, the logics of different models of private governance and their potential for addressing different types of sustainability challenges, and the powerful role of actors’ agency in shaping the environments in which companies provide governance. To complete this task, the PhD thesis is based on a comprehensive comparative case study of two competing private governance initiatives that emerged in the aftermath of the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza complex in Bangladesh. The first was the Accord, a substantive and legally enforceable agreement governed equally by business and labor and allowed for NGO members (thereby constituting a multi-stakeholder initiative, MSI). It garnered more than 220+ members during its tenure, including all of the European brands. Some North American companies cited the Accord’s legal provisions and inclusion of labor as intolerable, and therefore walked away and created their own competing initiative, the Alliance, a business-led initiative (BLI) which was softer and principle-based. Both organizations formed during the same period and in response to the same pressures, yet took vastly different approaches to the shared end goal of factory safety. Their membership divide down country (U.S. vs. EU) and configurational lines (MSI vs. BLI) make it a robust case from which to investigate the influence of different institutions and contexts on the resulting private governance choices

Painting Outside the Lines: Transgressing the Managerial University, Avoiding Forced Creativity

This chapter aims to put creative methods into the context of wider trends in university institutions. As managerialism—here understood as the application of corporate values and practices into all sectors of society—continues to play a large role in the production and creation of knowledge, we argue that creative methods have the potential to either subvert or reinforce these trends. We see the entrenchment of managerialism as contradictory to the stated aims of the application of creative methods in knowledge production. In an attempt to avoid this, we provide a picture and discuss the institutional framework in which creative methods are deployed to understand and critique the values and practices of managerialism in academia. We point towards the constraints it places on those who wish to take a creative approach. First, we provide an historical accounting of how managerial values have contributed to de-politicization in the wider public sphere, with a particular focus on academia. Second, we outline the fundamental properties of the managerial university, summarized as: (i) accountability, (ii) competition, and (iii) obedience. Third, we sketch out a definition of forced creativity and illustrate two applied cases of how it might look in practice: “artwashing” and “funding tricks”. This section is meant to contribute to defining “truly” creative methods by spelling out what they are not. Finally, we summarize our main points and provide future directions of discussion.Peer reviewe

Toward the commoning of governance

Conventional political thought and practice continue to be stifled by a dilemma of choosing between the ideal imaginaries of State and/or Market solutions. Widely presupposed as the only valid possibilities in both theory and practice, this stale dilemma covers up a real multitude of actually existing alternative approaches to governance practiced in civil society. State/Market approaches are identical in the way that they construct a ‘spectator’ role for communities, who are left to choose between their preferred set of rules and norms developed elsewhere. The concept of commoning governance offers an opportunity to break free of this stalemate. It creates a new role for citizens and their communities as ‘sparring partners’; who although they operate within the limits of current State/Market institutions, create new norms and rules against and beyond them. In the paper, we first expand on our understanding of commoning governance: re-designing governance arrangements to serve the common good. That is here understood in terms of (radical) democracy, solidarity and sustainable ecological relationships. Second, we illustrate how commoning efforts on the ground contribute to the reclaiming of the democratic imaginary as a political arena by zooming in to a case study of the three cities involved in civic-led network of German Food Policy Councils. Finally, we reflect on the empirical barriers that communities of commoning endure, and call on policymakers, planners and scholars to interrogate their own normative understandings of citizenship and democracy, and begin to recognize theoretical and latent possibilities by enabling commoning with new or re-designed institutions of governance