3,557 research outputs found
Are 'soft' policy instruments effective? The link between environmental management systems and the environmental performance of companies
Based on the analysis of a large dataset on the environmental performance of European companies in selected industrial sectors, the paper examines the question of whether the presence of an environmental management system (EMS) has a positive impact on the ecoefficiency of companies. It begins with a review of current evidence about the link between EMS and environmental performance, finding that despite much research into EMS there is still very little quantitative research on their actual environmental outcome. The second part of the paper uses three different statistical methods to assess whether companies and production sites with EMS perform better than those without and whether performance improves after an EMS has been introduced. Identifying only a weak link between EMS and eco-efficiency, the authors propose a number of possible explanations and warn against an overly-positive view of EMS as an autonomous driver of environmental performance.environmental management systems, environmental performance, eco-efficiency
The Relationship Between Social Support and Self-Advocacy in College Students with Disabilities
This study explored the connection between social support and self-advocacy in college students with disabilities. The College Students with Disabilities Campus Climate Survey (Lombardi, Gerdes, & Murray, 2011) was used to gather data from undergraduate students at a midsize western private university. Social support was found to be a significant predictor of self-advocacy in college students with disabilities. Peer support, family support, and faculty teaching practices made up the construct of social support. Peer support and faculty teaching practices were found to be significant predictors of student self-advocacy. Family support was not found to be significant. The data was examined for group differences between genders, disability types, and disability status (high incidence disabilities versus low incidence disabilities). No significant group differences were found. These findings suggest helping students build social support will increase their level of self-advocacy, which in turn may increase academic success
Does membrane curvature elastic energy play a role in mediating oxidative stress in lipid membranes?
E_{10} Symmetry in One-dimensional Supergravity
We consider dimensional reduction of the eleven-dimensional supergravity to
less than four dimensions. The three-dimensional nonlinear
sigma model is derived by direct dimensional reduction from eleven dimensions.
In two dimensions we explicitly check that the Matzner-Misner-type
symmetry, together with the , satisfies the generating relations of
under the generalized Geroch compatibility (hypersurface-orthogonality)
condition. We further show that an extra symmetry, which is newly
present upon reduction to one dimension, extends the symmetry algebra to a real
form of . The new acts on certain plane wave solutions
propagating at the speed of light. To show that this cannot be
expressed in terms of the old but truly enlarges the symmetry, we
compactify the final two dimensions on a two-torus and confirm that it changes
the conformal structure of this two-torus.Comment: 33 pages, 3 figures. The action of the Chevalley generators of
SL(2,R)_8 is corrected. Commutativity of SL(2,R)_0 and SL(2,R)_8 is checked
in detail. The generalized Geroch compatibility (hypersurface-orthogonality)
condition is derive
Digital Cavities and Their Potential Applications
The concept of a digital cavity is presented. The functionality of a tunable
radio-frequency/microwave cavity with unrestricted Q-factor is implemented. The
theoretical aspects of the cavity and its potential applications in high
resolution spectroscopy and synchronization of clocks together with examples in
signal processing and data acquisition are discussed
What produces the extended LINER-type emission in the NUGA galaxy NGC 5850?
(Abridged) The role of low ionization nuclear emission region (LINER)
galaxies within the picture of active galactic nuclei (AGN) has been
controversial. It is still not clear whether they host an AGN in a low
accretion mode, or whether they are not active at all but dominated by
alternative ionization mechanisms, namely shocks, winds/outflows, or
photoionization by a post asymptotic giant branch (p-AGB) stellar population.
The detection of extended LINER-like emission was often taken as evidence of
ionization by stellar components but this has not been undisputed. We performed
optical integral field spectroscopic observations on the central approx. 4 kpc
of NGC 5850 using VIMOS at the VLT, which provides spatially-resolved spectra
for the gas emission and the stellar continuum. We derive and analyse emission
line and kinematic maps. We find the central few kpc of NGC 5850 to be
dominated by extended LINER-like emission. The emission-line ratios that are
sensitive to the ionization parameter increase with radial distance to the
nucleus. Therefore, the extended LINER-like emission in NGC 5850 is dominated
by ionization from distributed ionization sources, probably by stars on the
p-AGB. The LINER-like region is surrounded by emission that is classed as
'composite', likely due to a mixture of a LINER-like ionization pattern and
photoionization by low-level star formation. Two star-forming regions are
present in the 21"x19" field of view. One of them is located approximately in
the ring surrounding the kinematically decoupled core. The second one is close
to the nucleus and is the origin of a region of decreased emission line ratios
oriented radially outwards. We find the interstellar gas to have areas of steep
velocity gradients and a complex kinematic morphology, probably caused by the
lopsided (m=1) distribution of the gas. The inflow of gas toward the center
appears possible.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables, accepted by 'Astronomy and
Astrophysics
Detection of gravitational waves in circular particle accelerators II. Response analysis and parameter estimation using synthetic data
We simulate the response of a Storage Ring Gravitational-wave Observatory
(SRGO) to astrophysical gravitational waves (GWs), numerically obtaining its
sensitivity curve, parameter degeneracies, and optimal choices of some
controllable experiment parameters. We also generate synthetic noisy GW data
and use Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to perform parameter estimation
of the source properties. With this, we show that a single SRGO could
potentially localize the GW source in the sky using Earth's rotation. Then, we
study the source sky localization area, mass and distance estimation errors as
functions of noise, data sampling rate, and observing time. Finally, we
discuss, along with its implications, the capacity of an SRGO to detect and
constrain the parameters of millihertz (mHz) GW events.Comment: This manuscript is the sequel to Phys. Rev. D 102, 122006 (2020) or
arXiv:2012.00529. This manuscript will be submitted for review and
publication to Physical Review D (PRD). 21 pages, 10 figure
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