2,578 research outputs found
Actions speak louder than words: designing transdisciplinary approaches to enact solutions
Sustainability science uses a transdisciplinary research process in which academic and non-academic partners collaborate to identify a common problem and co-produce knowledge to develop more sustainable solutions. Sustainability scientists have advanced the theory and practice of facilitating collaborative efforts such that the knowledge created is usable. There has been less emphasis, however, on the last step of the transdisciplinary process: enacting solutions. We analyzed a case study of a transdisciplinary research effort in which co-produced policy simulation information shaped the creation of a new policy mechanism. More specifically, by studying the development of a mechanism for conserving vernal pool ecosystems, we found that four factors helped overcome common challenges to acting upon new information: creating a culture of learning, co-producing policy simulations that acted as boundary objects, integrating research into solution development, and employing an adaptive management approach. With an increased focus on these four factors that enable action, we can better develop the same level of nuanced theoretical concepts currently characterizing the earlier phases of transdisciplinary research, and the practical advice for deliberately designing these efforts
Turning Contention into Collaboration: Engaging Power, Trust, and Learning in Collaborative Networks
Given the complexity and multiplicity of goals in natural resource governance, it is not surprising that policy debates are often characterized by contention and competition. Yet at times adversaries join together to collaborate to find creative solutions not easily achieved in polarizing forums. We employed qualitative interviews and a quantitative network analysis to investigate a collaborative network that formed to develop a resolution to a challenging natural resource management problem, the conservation of vernal pools. We found that power had become distributed among members, trust had formed across core interests, and social learning had resulted in shared understanding and joint solutions. Furthermore, institutions such as who and when new members joined, norms of inclusion and openness, and the use of small working groups helped create the observed patterns of power, trust, and learning
Effective interactions in the colloidal suspensions from HNC theory
The HNC Ornstein-Zernike integral equations are used to determine the
properties of simple models of colloidal solutions where the colloids and ions
are immersed in a solvent considered as a dielectric continuum and have a size
ratio equal to 80 and a charge ratio varying between 1 and 4000. At an infinite
dilution of colloids, the effective interactions between colloids and ions are
determined for ionic concentrations ranging from 0.001 to 0.1 mol/l and
compared to those derived from the Poisson-Boltzmann theory. At finite
concentrations, we discuss on the basis of the HNC results the possibility of
an unambiguous definition of the effective interactions between the colloidal
molecules.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figure
The impact of mass-loss on the evolution and pre-supernova properties of red supergiants
The post main-sequence evolution of massive stars is very sensitive to many
parameters of the stellar models. Key parameters are the mixing processes, the
metallicity, the mass-loss rate and the effect of a close companion. We study
how the red supergiant lifetimes, the tracks in the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram
(HRD), the positions in this diagram of the pre-supernova progenitor as well as
the structure of the stars at that time change for various mass-loss rates
during the red supergiant phase (RSG), and for two different initial rotation
velocities. The surface abundances of RSGs are much more sensitive to rotation
than to the mass-loss rates during that phase. A change of the RSG mass-loss
rate has a strong impact on the RSG lifetimes and therefore on the luminosity
function of RSGs. At solar metallicity, the enhanced mass-loss rate models do
produce significant changes on the populations of blue, yellow and red
supergiants. When extended blue loops or blue ward excursions are produced by
enhanced mass-loss, the models predict that a majority of blue (yellow)
supergiants are post RSG objects. These post RSG stars are predicted to show
much smaller surface rotational velocities than similar blue supergiants on
their first crossing of the HR gap. The position in the HRD of the end point of
the evolution depends on the mass of the hydrogen envelope. More precisely,
whenever, at the pre-supernova stage, the H-rich envelope contains more than
about 5\% of the initial mass, the star is a red supergiant, and whenever the
H-rich envelope contains less than 1\% of the total mass the star is a blue
supergiant. For intermediate situations, intermediate colors/effective
temperatures are obtained. Yellow progenitors for core collapse supernovae can
be explained by the enhanced mass-loss rate models, while the red progenitors
are better fitted by the standard mass-loss rate models.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy
and Astrophysic
Molecular Density Functional Theory for water with liquid-gas coexistence and correct pressure
The solvation of hydrophobic solutes in water is special because liquid and
gas are almost at coexistence. In the common hypernetted chain approximation to
integral equations, or equivalently in the homogenous reference fluid of
molecular density functional theory, coexistence is not taken into account.
Hydration structures and energies of nanometer-scale hydrophobic solutes are
thus incorrect. In this article, we propose a bridge functional that corrects
this thermodynamic inconsistency by introducing a metastable gas phase for the
homogeneous solvent. We show how this can be done by a third order expansion of
the functional around the bulk liquid density that imposes the right pressure
and the correct second order derivatives. Although this theory is not limited
to water, we apply it to study hydrophobic solvation in water at room
temperature and pressure and compare the results to all-atom simulations. With
this correction, molecular density functional theory gives, at a modest
computational cost, quantitative hydration free energies and structures of
small molecular solutes like n-alkanes, and of hard sphere solutes whose radii
range from angstroms to nanometers. The macroscopic liquid-gas surface tension
predicted by the theory is comparable to experiments. This theory gives an
alternative to the empirical hard sphere bridge correction used so far by
several authors.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure
Rotational Diffusion in a Chain of Particles
We study the coupled rotational diffusion in a two-particle chain on the
basis of a Smoluchowski equation and calculate time-correlation functions that
are measurable in an experiment. This might be used to explore hydrodynamic
interactions in the limit where lubrication theory is valid.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, to be published in J. Phys.: Condens. Matte
Planning for Sustainability in Small Municipalities: The Influence of Interest Groups, Growth Patterns, and Institutional Characteristics
How and why small municipalities promote sustainability through planning efforts is poorly understood. We analyzed ordinances in 451 Maine municipalities and tested theories of policy adoption using regression analysis.We found that smaller communities do adopt programs that contribute to sustainability relevant to their scale and context. In line with the political market theory, we found that municipalities with strong environmental interests, higher growth, and more formal governments were more likely to adopt these policies. Consideration of context and capacity in planning for sustainability will help planners better identify and benefit from collaboration, training, and outreach opportunities
Molecular Density Functional Theory of Water describing Hydrophobicity at Short and Long Length Scales
We present an extension of our recently introduced molecular density
functional theory of water [G. Jeanmairet et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 4, 619,
2013] to the solvation of hydrophobic solutes of various sizes, going from
angstroms to nanometers. The theory is based on the quadratic expansion of the
excess free energy in terms of two classical density fields, the particle
density and the multipolar polarization density. Its implementation requires as
input a molecular model of water and three measurable bulk properties, namely
the structure factor and the k-dependent longitudinal and transverse dielectric
susceptibilities. The fine three-dimensional water structure around small
hydrophobic molecules is found to be well reproduced. In contrast the computed
solvation free-energies appear overestimated and do not exhibit the correct
qualitative behavior when the hydrophobic solute is grown in size. These
shortcomings are corrected, in the spirit of the Lum-Chandler-Weeks theory, by
complementing the functional with a truncated hard-sphere functional acting
beyond quadratic order in density. It makes the resulting functional compatible
with the Van-der-Waals theory of liquid-vapor coexistence at long range.
Compared to available molecular simulations, the approach yields reasonable
solvation structure and free energy of hard or soft spheres of increasing size,
with a correct qualitative transition from a volume-driven to a surface-driven
regime at the nanometer scale.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure
- …