32,298 research outputs found
Stakeholder engagement: Defining strategic advantage for sustainable construction
This is the accepted version of the following article: Rodriguez-Melo, A. and Mansouri, S. A. (2011), Stakeholder Engagement: Defining Strategic Advantage for Sustainable Construction. Bus. Strat. Env., 20: 539â552, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bse.715/abstract.Although sustainable development is increasingly becoming a part of business plans, it is unclear what makes the economic, social and environmental dynamics strategically compatible. This research examines which of the following in sustainable development â government policy, managerial attitude and stakeholder engagement â is the most influential on the profitability of companies in the UK construction sector. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were rendered through a survey and semi-structured interviews. Patterns of ambiguity in legislation were discovered as an obstacle for changing the sector's mind-set. Stakeholder engagement was identified as the defining factor increasing managers' awareness, helping legislation to be effectively implemented and making sustainability highly appealing to clients. These findings indicate that to gain competitive advantage, companies should embark on long-term strategic alliances which adopt the proposals of environmental non-governmental organisations and closely follow public opinion. This, strengthens brand equity, allows for premium pricing, increases market share and maximizes profit
Magnetization reversals in a disk-shaped small magnet with an interface
We consider a nanodisk possessing two coupled materials with different
ferromagnetic exchange constant. The common border line of the two media passes
at the disk center dividing the system exactly in two similar half-disks. The
vortex core motion crossing the interface is investigated with a simple
description based on a two-dimensional model which mimics a very thin real
material with such a line defect. The main result of this study is that,
depending on the magnetic coupling which connects the media, the vortex core
can be dramatically and repeatedly flipped from up to down and vice versa by
the interface. This phenomenon produces burst-like emission of spin waves each
time the switching process takes place.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
Conditions for free magnetic monopoles in nanoscale square arrays of dipolar spin ice
We study a modified frustrated dipolar array recently proposed by M\"{o}ller
and Moessner [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{96}, 237202 (2006)], which is based on
an array manufactured lithographically by Wang \emph{et al.} [Nature (London)
\textbf{439}, 303 (2006)] and consists of introducing a height offset
between islands (dipoles) pointing along the two different lattice directions.
The ground-states and excitations are studied as a function of . We have
found, in qualitative agreement with the results of M\"{o}ller and Moessner,
that the ground-state changes for , where ( is the
lattice parameter or distance between islands). In addition, the excitations
above the ground-state behave like magnetic poles but confined by a string,
whose tension decreases as increases, in such a way that for
its value is around 20 times smaller than that for . The system exhibits
an anisotropy in the sense that the string tension and magnetic charge depends
significantly on the directions in which the monopoles are separated. In turn,
the intensity of the magnetic charge abruptly changes when the monopoles are
separated along the direction of the longest axis of the islands. Such a gap is
attributed to the transition from the anti to the ferromagnetic ground-state
when .Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. Published versio
Quantum phase-space analysis of the pendular cavity
We perform a quantum mechanical analysis of the pendular cavity, using the
positive-P representation, showing that the quantum state of the moving mirror,
a macroscopic object, has noticeable effects on the dynamics. This system has
previously been proposed as a candidate for the quantum-limited measurement of
small displacements of the mirror due to radiation pressure, for the production
of states with entanglement between the mirror and the field, and even for
superposition states of the mirror. However, when we treat the oscillating
mirror quantum mechanically, we find that it always oscillates, has no
stationary steady-state, and exhibits uncertainties in position and momentum
which are typically larger than the mean values. This means that previous
linearised fluctuation analyses which have been used to predict these highly
quantum states are of limited use. We find that the achievable accuracy in
measurement is far worse than the standard quantum limit due to thermal noise,
which, for typical experimental parameters, is overwhelming even at 2 mK.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures To be published in Phys. Rev.
- âŠ