Searching for trust in the voluntary carbon markets

Voluntary carbon markets are growing rapidly but where credits or the claims made by buyers lack integrity and quality, this could undermine global climate action and development. Rob Macquarie explains how companies and policymakers who want VCMs to succeed can make them a meaningful contribution to sustainable development and a just global transition

Populism, nationalism, and the elite: A weekend at Cumberland Lodge

MSc student Rob Macquarie reflects on the Department of Government’s annual visit to Cumberland Lodge from the 28-30 April 2017, with the theme ‘‘The Rise of Populism? Resurgent Nationalism in an Internationalised World’

Avian responses to fire regimes in montane dry sclerophyll forests of south-eastern Australia

Wildfires are becoming larger and more frequent in forests under climate change, with corresponding increases in area burnt recently and at high-severity. Australian fire regimes are changing rapidly, but the implications for fauna are poorly understood. The first of two overarching aims of this research was to increase understanding of the mechanisms and processes that underpin avian responses to fire regimes in montane dry sclerophyll forests of south-eastern Australia. The second was to investigate the implications of altered fire regimes for birds through evaluation of their responses where fire activity is currently high

Durability properties of high volume fly ash concretes containing nano particles

This study presents the effect of nano silica (NS) and nano calcium carbonate (NC) on the compressive strength and durability properties of concretes containing high volume fly ash (HVFA). Results show that nanoparticles accelerate the hydration process and improves the microstructure of the cement and HVFA concretes for better mechanical and durability properties

AAF Shibboleth operational requirements: Implications for enterprise identity management. Workshop presentation 19 Aug 2008

Presentation at the MAPS/QUESTnet identity management workshop, Emmanuel College, The University of Queensland, 18-19 August 2008

How to select a chiropractor for the management of athletic conditions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chiropractors are an integral part of the management of musculoskeletal injuries. A considerable communication gap between the chiropractic and medical professions exists. Subsequently referring allopathic practitioners lack confidence in picking a chiropractic practitioner with appropriate management strategies to adequately resolve sporting injuries. Subsequently, the question is often raised: "how do you find a good chiropractor?".</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Best practice guidelines are increasingly suggesting that musculoskeletal injuries should be managed with multimodal active and passive care strategies. Broadly speaking chiropractors may be subdivided into "modern multimodal" or "classical" (unimodal) in nature. The modern multimodal practitioner is better suited to managing sporting injuries by incorporating passive and active care management strategies to address three important phases of care in the continuum of injury from the acute inflammation/pain phase to the chronic/rehabilitation phase to the injury prevention phase. In contrast, the unimodal, manipulation only and typically spine only approach of the classical practitioner seems less suited to the challenges of the injured athlete. Identifying what part of the philosophical management spectrum a chiropractor falls is important as it is clearly not easily evident in most published material such as Yellow Pages advertisements.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>Identifying a chiropractic practitioner who uses multimodal treatment of adequate duration, who incorporates active and passive components of therapy including exercise prescription whilst using medical terminology and diagnosis without mandatory x-rays or predetermined treatment schedules or prepaid contracts of care will likely result in selection of a chiropractor with the approach and philosophy suited to appropriately managing athletic conditions. Sporting organizations and associations should consider using similar criteria as a minimum standard to allow participation in health care team selections.</p

Dataset supporting the paper: Truth table invariant cylindrical algebraic decomposition

The files in this data set support the following paper: ########################################################################################## Truth table invariant cylindrical algebraic decomposition. Russel Bradford, James H. Davenport, Matthew England, Scott McCallum and David Wilson. http://opus.bath.ac.uk/38146/ ########################################################################################## Please find included the following: ############################## 1a) A Maple worksheet: Section1to7-Maple.mw 1b) A pdf printout of the worksheet: Section1to7-Maple.pdf 1c) A Maple Library file: ProjectionCAD.mpl These files concern the Maple results for the worked examples throughout Sections 1-7 of the paper. To run the Maple worksheet you will need a copy of the commercial computer algebra software Maple. This is currently available from: http://www.maplesoft.com/products/maple/ The examples were run in Maple 16 (released Spring 2012). It is likely that the same results would be obtained in Maple 17, 18, 2015 and future versions, but this cannot be guaranteed. An additional code package, developed at the University of Bath, is required. To use it we need to read the Maple Library file within Maple as follows: >>> read("ProjectionCAD.mpl"): >>> with(ProjectionCAD): More details on this Maple package are available in the technical report at http://opus.bath.ac.uk/43911/ and in the following publication: M. England, D. Wilson, R. Bradford and J.H. Davenport. Using the Regular Chains Library to build cylindrical algebraic decompositions by projecting and lifting. Proc ICMS 2014 (LNCS 8593). DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-44199-2_69 If you do not have a copy of Maple you can still read the pdf printout of the worksheet. ############################## 2) A zipped directory WorkedExamples-Qepcad.zip This directory also concerns the worked examples from Sections 1-7 of the paper, this time when studied with Qepcad-B. Qepcad-B is a free piece of software for Linux which can be obtained from: http://www.usna.edu/CS/qepcadweb/B/QEPCAD.html All the files in the zipped directory end in either "-in.txt" or "-out.txt". The former give input for Qepcad and the latter record output. Hence readers without access to Qepcad (e.g. on a Windows system) can still observe the output in the latter files. To verify the output readers should use the following bash command to run a Qepcad input file "Ex-in.txt" and record the output in "Ex-out.txt". >>> qepcad +N500000000 +L200000 Ex-out.txt Windows users without Linux access can still read the existing output files in the folder. ############################## 3a) The text file: Section82-ExampleSet.txt 3b) A Maple worksheet: Section82-ExampleSet.mw 3b) A pdf printout of the worksheet: Section82-ExampleSet.pdf The textfile defines the example set which is the subject of the experiments in Section 8.2, whose results were summarised in Table 2. Within the file the 29 examples are defined in the following syntax: (a) First a line starting with "#" giving the full example name followed in brackets by the shortened name used in Table 2. (b) Then a second line in which the example is defined as a list of two sublists: i) The first sublist defines the polynomials used. They are sorted into further lists, one for each formulae in the example. Each of these has two entries: --- The first is either a polynomial defining an equational constraint (EC); a list of polynomials defining multiple ECs; or an empty list (signalling no ECs). --- The second is a list of any non ECs. ii) The second sublist is the variable ordering from highest (eliminate first in projection) to lowest. Note that Maple algorithms use this order by Qepcad the reverse. This is the syntax used by the TTICAD algorithm that is the subject of the paper. The text file doubles as a Maple function definition. When read into Maple the command GenerateInput is defined which can provide the input in formats suitable for the three Maple algorithms tested. An example is given in the Maple worksheet / pdf. We note that the timings reported in the paper were from running Maple in command line mode. See also the notes for files (1) above. The same example set was tested in Qepcad. Here explicit ECs for a parent formula were entered in dynamically as products of the individual sub-formulae ECs, in cases where an explicit EC exists. See also Qepcad notes for file (2) above. Finally, the example set was also tested in Mathematica. Mathematica's CAD command does not return cell counts - these were obtained upon request to a Mathematica developer. Hence they are not recreatable using the information here (something outside the control of the present authors). ############################## 4a) A Maple worksheet: Section83-Maple.mw 4b) A pdf printout of the worksheet: Section83-Maple.pdf This shows how the numbers in Table 3 from Maple were obtained. See also notes for files (1) above. ############################## 5a) A zipped directory Section83-Qepcad.zipped This shows how the numbers in Table 3 from Qepcad were obtained. See also notes for file (2) above.Cell counts and timings of various CAD algorithms

Conceptualizing a Social Sustainability Framework for Energy Infrastructure Decisions

The concept of social sustainability is discussed in a wide range of literatures, from urban planning to international development. Authors agree a notion of social sustainability is difficult to define, comprising numerous component parts (criteria), such as community cohesion, human wellbeing, effective dialogue and the access that citizens have to those that make important decisions on their behalf. The definition and measurement of these criteria and the role of social sustainability in energy decision making is a contentious issue. We argue that a community led, asset based approach is required to achieve any sense of how social sustainability can be defined in a community setting within the context of energy developments. We propose a conceptual framework based on a process of community group prioritization and visioning. Our earlier research on public participation and the role of dialogue for nuclear energy development in the UK, US and Japan is used to demonstrate barriers to be overcome if our systemic model of social sustainability is to become a reality. We highlight the importance of fairness and justice, place based approaches and socio-energy systems, concluding that these are necessary to promote a community and institutional awareness of social sustainability for large energy developments