Freshwater transport in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system: a passive ocean

Conservation of water demands that meridional ocean and atmosphere freshwater transports (FWT) are of equal magnitude but opposite in direction. This suggests that the atmospheric FWT and its associated latent heat (LH) transport could be thought of as a \textquotedblleft coupled ocean/atmosphere mode\textquotedblright. But what is the true nature of this coupling? Is the ocean passive or active? Here we analyze a series of simulations with a coupled ocean-atmosphere-sea ice model employing highly idealized geometries but with markedly different coupled climates and patterns of ocean circulation. Exploiting streamfunctions in specific humidity coordinates for the atmosphere and salt coordinates for the ocean to represent FWT in their respective medium, we find that atmospheric FWT/LH transport is essentially independent of the ocean state. Ocean circulation and salinity distribution adjust to achieve a return freshwater pathway demanded of them by the atmosphere. So, although ocean and atmosphere FWTs are indeed coupled by mass conservation, the ocean is a passive component acting as a reservoir of freshwater

Trust and the Governance of Higher Education: The Introduction of Chancellor System in Hungarian Higher Education

Trust plays a vital role in the cooperation of social actors. While researching trust becomes important in public management, the impact of trust on higher education policy and management has drawn less attention. This chapter analyses the introduction of the chancellor system in Hungarian higher education from the perspective of trust. In this new governance model, chancellors, who are appointed by the government, became responsible for the administration and budgets of higher institutions (HEIs), while rectors kept their prerogatives only on academic issues. The success of an institution now depends on the cooperation of its two interdependent leaders. Trust plays an especially critical role in such leadership constellation. The study is based on empirical data collected through two surveys conducted in 2015 and 2016 among academic leaders of Hungarian higher education institutions and uses Hurley’s decision-to-trust-model (Hurley 2012) as an analytic framework

Lagrangian ocean analysis: fundamentals and practices

Lagrangian analysis is a powerful way to analyse the output of ocean circulation models and other ocean velocity data such as from altimetry. In the Lagrangian approach, large sets of virtual particles are integrated within the three-dimensional, time-evolving velocity fields. Over several decades, a variety of tools and methods for this purpose have emerged. Here, we review the state of the art in the field of Lagrangian analysis of ocean velocity data, starting from a fundamental kinematic framework and with a focus on large-scale open ocean applications. Beyond the use of explicit velocity fields, we consider the influence of unresolved physics and dynamics on particle trajectories. We comprehensively list and discuss the tools currently available for tracking virtual particles. We then showcase some of the innovative applications of trajectory data, and conclude with some open questions and an outlook. The overall goal of this review paper is to reconcile some of the different techniques and methods in Lagrangian ocean analysis, while recognising the rich diversity of codes that have and continue to emerge, and the challenges of the coming age of petascale computing

Den kvalificerande erfarenheten Lärande vid störningar i automatiserad produktion

Technical development and new organizational solutions have given rise to changed demands on operators as handlers of disturbances in modern industrial production. This thesis is concerned with learning in relation to the management of disturbances at automated machines. Its main purpose is to contribute to theoretical development in the arena of individual learning by, on the basis of empirically founded analyses, understanding, conceptualizing and illustrating the learning of the individual in relation to a specific work task. The task is one that is both complex and complicated, and is strongly linked to modern production technology. It arises suddenly, or at least apparently so, and imposes immediate demands for action. It is not determined in advance : with regard to time, place or accomplishment. What is deviant or normal in the task is dependent on whose perspective it is viewed from. This thesis can be regarded as both a journey of discovery and a generator of theory: the study of learning in relation to a specific work task is designed to provide a basis for understanding and discussing learning-related inferences at a more general level. A subordinate purpose is to describe how operators in modern manufacturing relate to and handle disturbances to production. Accidents as a point of departure Over a decade of conducting accident research (Backström and Döös, 1996; Döös and Backström, 1993), I have learned that undisturbed production is the exception rather than the rule. Dealing with deviations from how production is envisaged to function is a quite normal work task, and thereby forms part of the everyday working life of the machine operator. However, in occupational-accident research, attention is seldom explicitly directed at the normal situation. For natural reasons, albeit not out of necessity, the concentration is on deviations. The concepts of disturbance and deviation are closely related. They occupy a central position in the field of accident and safety research in that, in many contexts, disturbances/deviations have been demonstrated to be significant to accident occurrence (Faverge, 1967; Kjellén, 1983). Disturbance to production is an early occurrence in the chain of events leading to an automation accident (Backström and Döös, 1997, in press). In focusing on disturbances as normal and everyday phenomena, the intention here is also to make a contribution to accident research. My study of learning in relation to production disturbances represents a different kind of initial analysis than that which has been customarily performed in the field of occupational-accident research. From previous research, there has emerged an image of operators as actors dealing with symptoms and not causes; the operator has appeared as a "fixer" of immediate problems, rather than a devisor of long-term solutions to production problems. Such an image prompts questions concerning how operators handle disturbances to production, and how learning in relation to this task can be understood. This gave rise to ideas concerned with a learning-related qualitative dimension to the handling of production disturbances : a dimension where unskilled casual fixing "on the spur of the moment" contrasts with the qualified devising of durable solutions. In this context, I speculated on the problematic tension that I had perceived between accident research on the one hand and qualification research on the other. We, in the accident-research field, had tended to regard disturbance as a negative risk that should be avoided to the greatest extent possible. Indeed, some accident researchers have seen both variation and autonomy at work as safety risks (Saari and Lahtela, 197). By contrast, qualification researchers have regarded disturbances as providing opportunities for interesting and personally developing problem-solution, i.e. as offering a task that enhances operators' knowhow and enriches their job content (Nemitz, 1983). Desires for extended occupational tasks and richer job content appeared to come into conflict with requirements of safety. Development work on the risk-analysis method known as Riv (performed in this specific context by myself and a colleague in Sweden) showed how operators were involved in the identification of hazards and in finding permanent solutions to disturbance problems. Enriching work tasks and work for the promotion of safety seemed to go hand in hand. Production disturbances could be handled in a manner that promoted development and learning for operators, while, at the same time, safety remained in focus (Backström and Döös, Accepted, Döös and Backström, 1993). A recent paper presents empirical support for there being a positive relationship between safety initiatives and complexity/autonomy in work tasks (Simard and Marchand, Accepted). Theoretical frame of reference Through this study, I have attempted to investigate and demonstrate how everyday learning is built up in connection with a specific work task : seen from the horizon of operators, in their eyes, and in terms of how they think. The kind of learning under study is experiential by nature : "in which the learner is directly in touch with the realities being studied" (Keeton and Tate, 1978). The study is founded on the perspective of contextual didactics, within which constructivism, action theory and the concept of affordance constitute the essential points of departure (Löfberg, 1994; Piaget, 1947 and 1981, 1974 and 1980; Reed, 1993). This is a perspective in accordance with which the individual constructs knowledge on the basis of his interpretation of the conditions afforded by the surrounding environment. In other words, the environment, as also the task and the situation, cannot be regarded as purely and objectively true, predetermined and fixed, but is perceived and given meaning by each individual. Action, both as doing and as reflection, emerges as a precondition for task-related learning to take place. It links the individual and the situation in a specific context. From the theory originally emanating from Piaget (1947 and 1981, 1974 and 1980) and further developed by neo-Piagetians such as Basseches (1984,1986) and Kegan (1982,1994), I have utilized the fundamental ideas of the individual as an active constructor of knowledge and expertise, and of there being two stages to the adaptation process (assimilation and accommodation); further, I have made use of neo-Piagetian ideas concerning cognitive structures and their development during adulthood (especially in relation to work), the subject-object balance, of embeddedness in the self-evident, and of intrinsic stage imbalance. For me, conceptualization of these stages has offered an opportunity to view the learning process. Kolb (1984) also builds further on Piaget, as too on Dewey and Lewin. Like Kolb, I see knowledge as a result of the combination of apprehending experience and of transforming it. In his or her learning process, a person moves, in varying degrees, from actor to observer, and from specific involvement to general analytical seclusion. Concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation constitute, on Kolb's view of the learning process, a cyclical movement between doing and thinking. The four adaptive learning modes make up two dimensions: prehension and transformation. The prehension dimension is represented by the dialectic between the concrete and the abstract. The transformation dimension represents two ways in which experience is re-molded: by inner reflection (intention), and by actively dealing with the external world (extension). Intention and extension can just as well be applied to concrete apprehension of the world via the senses as to symbolic comprehension. In Kolb's view, the two dimensions make an equal contribution to the learning process. From action theory I have taken, above all, the model of hierarchically ordered levels of regulations of action (Frese and Zapf, 1994; Rasmussen, 1982). These are important for understanding the preconditions for and results of learning. In some parts of action theory, a distinction is made between the result of an action and its consequences, and I have found this fruitful. Given the increasing cognitive demands that are imposed on operators in modern industrial production, it becomes necessary to develop a "theoretical" conceptualizing approach : one that is abstracted from the immediate, concrete apprehension-experience, i.e. that which is perceived directly by the senses and has been traditionally linked to the practice of an occupation. To an increasing extent, it is essential for operators (and others) to construct their own generalizations and concepts in order to be able to manage occupational practice, and continually to learn and develop. Tools, in the form of concepts, are needed, both to conceptualize and to enable the posing of relevant task-related questions. Method The study was conducted at a large company within the Swedish engineering industry. It covered two production lines for the manufacture of vehicle-transmission shafts and the 14 operators who worked there. Each line contained ten to twelve computer-controlled, automated items of machining equipment. Data were gathered in case-study form (Westlander, 1991; Yin, 1989). The methodological approach is qualitative, and data have been acquired in stages by means of abductive inference (Fann, 1970). In the selection of methods, the idea of triangulation has been employed. Data have been gathered using interviews and observations, supplemented by questionnaires, disturbance-reporting and shop-floor conversations. Some statistical information has also been utilized. I do not regard data analysis as a separate, narrowly demarcated task to be performed after field work and data collection are completed. Rather, on the approach to the research process I chose to adopt, analysis was embarked upon even in the course of data collection, continued during data processing, and was completed during final writing. The final stage constituted a more concentrated and pure form of analyzing. The generalizing that I wished to undertake, in accordance with the main purpose of the thesis, is not statistical : to make an inference from a sample to a population : but analytical (Firestone, 1993, Yin, 1989). In analytical generalization there is a striving to test whether results can provide a supplementary input of empirical data into a certain theoretical domain, and thereby act as an aid to theory extension. The kind of theory that I am referring to, as mentioned above, is one that is based on an approach that treats learning from a perspective that is constructivist, action-oriented and contextually didactic, and characterized by the view that the encounter with situation and task in a specific context is of significance. With regard to the thesis's subordinate, more descriptive aim, generalizing is more to be regarded as what has been called "case-to-case transfer" (Firestone, 1993), where thorough description of context enables the reader to determine whether results obtained in any one context may be utilizable in others. Results and conceptual discussions with an empirical foundation The results of this thesis are reported in part in a purely empirical section under three main headings: "Operators define and handle production disturbances"; "Proceeding in small incremental steps" ; and "Knowhow grows in its context". In part also, they are presented by means of a conceptual discussion with an empirical foundation under the headings: "Conceptual network and dimensional stance"; "Making the commonplace available : learning as a process of contextualization". The reasoning presented under these latter two headings should be regarded as contributions made "along the way", arrived at on empirical grounds and proposed as possible ways of understanding and conceptualizing learning in relation to a specific and complex work task. Operators define and handle production disturbances. How far a person, as an operator, develops the task of disturbance handling seems to be related to his stance towards the normal and the deviant. When an operator envisages his basic task as that of managing ongoing production, of maintaining normality, the work task comes across as essentially different and considerably more limited than when it is conceived in terms of dealing with and remedying the faults and problems that arise. In the latter case, the deviant can be said to have been integrated into the normal, which can be supposed to be of particular relevance in the kind of production in which machine operators are involved. Production halts, problems and disturbances are commonplace. How the task is envisaged by operators is dependent upon how the situation appears to them. Operators state that they have to weigh matters up and make their own judgments. Decisions on how to handle a fault are by no means self-evident. Ad-hoc fixing "for the time being" is something performed by all operators. Situations that prompt this type of action include running behind schedule, needing to get production going quickly, and the appearance of unclear faults, those that arise irregularly, do not cause much bother, or disappear anyway on re-rigging. Situations that prompt permanent solutions are related to recurring troublesome faults : those that are intolerable, or those giving rise to a risk of machine malfunction or poor machining quality. It is part of a skilled operator's occupational expertise to know in which situations it is alright to effect a temporary solution and keep production running. To treat every fault as the same, in the sense that production must be halted and the fault remedied, is not regarded as reasonable among machine operators. A perspective that operators have in common is expressed in the following chain of actions and decisions: fix it oneself; get help from/consult workmate(s) on the line; (consult team leader); finally, summon maintenance personnel. The contents of each link in the chain, however, are not commonly shared; rather, they vary considerably. That there were major differences between what was referred to in the chain emerged in the course of data collection and interactive analysis. Thus, it is in this chain and in the expression "It all depends" that dissimilarities start to emerge : dissimilarities that are clearly linked to both the person and the situation. It is in this context that the operator's way of relating to normality and deviation both obtain and reveal their significance. Proceeding in small incremental steps & Knowhow grows in its context. Learning in an occupational task takes place in small steps where the everyday experience is needed as a basis for being attentive to, understanding, and remedying disturbances. What becomes ingrained has an important function. Quality in particular experiences is of importance for learning in the task. Qualifying disturbance handling is characterized by ramification, cyclical completeness, and having questions of one's own at hand. Among that which is essential to learning is to seek faults with the normal as a point of departure and to "converse" with the machine, thereby being "in dialogue" with one's own expertise. Such conversations can continue for shorter or longer periods, be brought to a conclusion or interrupted, never finished, or taken up later Disturbances to production offer occasions for communication, collaboration and collective learning : sometimes in the acute situation itself, sometimes by virtue of being subjects of later conversation. Shift work on automated lines creates partially contradictory preconditions for joint work; on the one hand, linkage is created and there are common tasks; on the other, there are interruptions to experiences and the taking of responsibility. The learning that takes place in the occupational task is linked to both utility and use, which at a minimum level lies in keeping the production line in operation. Operators require knowhow for the line to function, and they need experience to be able to control its operation. The value of knowhow lies in use. Use is a superordinate driving force in learning. For several reasons, it proves that regular experiences are of key importance. Everyday knowledge must constantly be maintained. Learning in the work task naturally has consequences in terms of how the task is performed. Knowhow can be regarded as the product of what one has learnt. Through study of the immediate performance of a work task, a link can therefore be made to the learning process. It becomes possible to understand how operators generalize experiences into something that goes beyond simply running or handling the machine, i.e. to move from operation to what might be called "direction and control". There are two key types of generalization: first, generalized understanding, making it possible to apply knowledge in new contexts; second, a generalized method can be applied. Individually designed methods and work principles can, for example, be employed to break down the problem into its component parts, to proceed on the basis of what exists, not to be locked-in by the rule, to isolate a fault, or to go back to an earlier point in the process so as to be able to move forwards again. Attentiveness is central in several respects to both qualified and unqualified disturbance handling. This is a matter of various aspects of discerning details in everyday activities. It can apply to immediate concentration on what one is working with, to knowing what one should be looking for, or to an openness or alertness to indications that something is not quite as it should be. That sense-based experience is also used in the task emerges in relation to attentiveness. Questioning and attentiveness are closely related. In my view, they also presuppose each other. The questions of the individual are decisive to learning. The pedagogically relevant question has been traced to dissonance. It is there where it seems to have its roots. By this I mean that it finds expression in puzzlement and consequent wondering arising in response to the operator perceiving something to be deviant. What has happened is not truly compatible with what has been previously assimilated. And if experiences, e.g. in the form of dialogue with the machine, continue to be out of line for a while, this provides an opportunity for, or invitation to, learning on the part of the operator. Genuine wondering on the part of the person prompts a search for answers among his own experiences, a search for links to contexts that have explanatory value. It is here, in my view, that the ramifications of previous experiences are put to use. When methods and work principles are generalized, the genuine question is at the fore. Thought networks and dimensional stances & Making the commonplace available. Learning can be understood as a contextualization process in which everyday experience is transformed by means of situations appearing as normal, typical or exceptional. The building of knowhow is based on discerning and utilizing everyday details. The commonplace becomes available when details and events appear as normal, typical or exceptional. As conceivable structural concepts to operationalize the individual's encounter with practice and learning in a specific, situation-related and complex work task, thought networks and dimensional stances are proposed. The concepts have their foundation in empirical observations, but also have points of contact with other concepts in their field (such as cognitive structures, schemata, patterns, and mental models). I regard thought networks as a dynamic conceptual concept. These are mobile structures, but not within a learning process from A to B; there are many movements that go in different directions, which jointly build up an integrated contemporaneous context, and also knowhow within this context. Thought networks are situationally related. I regard them as controllers of what one experiences; they characterize both the situation and specific paths of action, thereby linking factors in the situation with personal action alternatives. To learn a new task involves, among other things, building up cognitive structures, thought networks, in small steps. In the case of operators, part of such a network consists of production disturbances. Such a network is a kind of living reconstruction which the operator builds upon and then re-shapes. How, in which direction, and with what qualities are dependent on the experiences of the operator and aspects of these. It is via conceptual networks that situationally related principles enabling the taking of an overview are built up. The person involved in the process of learning and developing adopts a succession of thought networks. They are open to change by virtue of the particular questions posed and through the actions that the work task demands. The question makes a contribution to learning every time an already devised construction is not simply applied or re-used. In this situation, previous experiences of similar situations are re-constructed in thoughts through the using of experiences. When, by contrast, learning comes into abeyance, already existent structures are employed in a mechanical manner. Through frequent use and as a result of the operator employing them without reconstruction, they become a kind of petrifying network. In accordance with this, data have indicated the appearance of two kinds of thought networks: mobile, living reconstructions; and fixed constructions, petrified networks, punched out historically and applied to a situation without the presence of thought. The

Beyond being present : Learning oriented leadership in the daily work of middle managers

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of learning-oriented leadership as being integrated in managers’ daily work. The particular focus is on managers’ efforts to change how work is carried out through indirect acts of influence. In their daily work, managers influence the organisation’s learning conditions in ways that go beyond face-to-face interaction. Neither the influencer nor those influenced are necessarily aware that they are engaged in learning processes. Design/methodology/approach – The research was part of a larger case study. The data set comprised interviews with nine middle managers about ways of working during a period of organisational change. A learning-theoretical analysis model was used to categorise managerial acts of influence. The key concept concerned pedagogic interventions. Findings – Two qualitatively different routes for indirect influence were identified concerning social and organisational structures: one aligning, that narrows organisational members’ discretion, and one freeing, that widens discretion. Alignment is built on fixed views of objectives and on control of their interpretation. The freeing of structures is built on confidence in emerging competence and involvement of others. Research limitations/implications – The study was limited to managers’ descriptions in a specific context. An issue for future research is to see whether the identified categories of learning-oriented leadership are found in other organisations. Practical implications – The learning-oriented leadership categories cover a repertoire of acts of influence that create different learning conditions. These may be significant for the creation of a learning-conducive environment. Originality/value – Managerial work that creates conducive conditions for learning does not need to be a specific task. Learning-oriented elements are inherent in aspects of managerial work, and managers’ daily tasks can be understood as expressions of different kinds of pedagogic intervention

Observed and Modeled Global Ocean Turbulence Regimes as Deduced from Surface Trajectory Data

A large-scale tool for systematic analyses of the dispersal and turbulent properties of ocean currents and the subsequent separation of dynamical regimes according to the prevailing trajectories taxonomy in a certain area was proposed by Rupolo. In the present study, this methodology has been extended to the analysis of model trajectories obtained by analytical computations of the particle advection equation using the Lagrangian open-source software package Tracing the Water Masses of the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean (TRACMASS), and intercomparisons have been made between the surface velocity fields from three different configurations of the global Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) ocean/sea ice general circulation model. Lagrangian time scales of the observed and synthetic trajectory datasets have been calculated by means of inverse Lagrangian stochastic modeling, and the influence of the model field spatial and temporal resolution on the analyses has been investigated. In global-scale ocean modeling, compromises are frequently made in terms of grid resolution and time averaging of the output fields because high-resolution data require considerable amounts of storage space. Here, the implications of such approximations on the modeled velocity fields and, consequently, on the particle dispersion, have been assessed through validation against observed drifter tracks. This study aims, moreover, to shed some light on the relatively unknown turbulent properties of near-surface ocean dynamics and their representation in numerical models globally and in a number of key regions. These results could be of interest for other studies within the field of turbulent eddy diffusion parameterization in ocean models or ocean circulation studies involving long-term coarse-grid model experiments

Last Glacial Maximum world ocean simulations at eddy-permitting and coarse resolutions: do eddies contribute to a better consistency between models and palaeoproxies?

Most state-of-the-art climate models include a coarsely resolved oceanic component, which hardly captures detailed dynamics, whereas eddy-permitting and eddy-resolving simulations are developed to reproduce the observed ocean. In this study, an eddy-permitting and a coarse resolution numerical experiment are conducted to simulate the global ocean state for the period of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ~26 500 to 19 000 yr ago) and to investigate the improvements due to taking into account the smaller spatial scales. The ocean state from each simulation is confronted with a data set from the Multiproxy Approach for the Reconstruction of the Glacial Ocean (MARGO) sea surface temperatures (SSTs), some reconstructions of the palaeo-circulations and a number of sea-ice reconstructions. The western boundary currents and the Southern Ocean dynamics are better resolved in the high-resolution experiment than in the coarse simulation, but, although these more detailed SST structures yield a locally improved consistency between model predictions and proxies, they do not contribute significantly to the global statistical score. The SSTs in the tropical coastal upwelling zones are also not significantly improved by the eddy-permitting regime. The models perform in the mid-latitudes but as in the majority of the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project simulations, the modelled sea-ice conditions are inconsistent with the palaeo-reconstructions. The effects of observation locations on the comparison between observed and simulated SST suggest that more sediment cores may be required to draw reliable conclusions about the improvements introduced by the high resolution model for reproducing the global SSTs. One has to be careful with the interpretation of the deep ocean state which has not reached statistical equilibrium in our simulations. However, the results indicate that the meridional overturning circulations are different between the two regimes, suggesting that the model parametrizations might also play a key role for simulating past climate states

Estimating ventilation time scales using overturning stream functions

10.1007/s10236-014-0726-5Ocean Dynamic