Mega-City-Regions: on Awareness and Value Chain Approach

Mega-City-Regions (MCR) as a new large-scale urban phenomenon have been gaining attention recently: In research, empirical studies address their functional consistency, and spatial planning policies underline the strategic role of MCRs for territorial competition of a country. But increasingly a tension between the functional logic of knowledge-intensive business activities and the territorial and normative approaches of public bodies begin to emerge. Typical conflicts of spatial development in MCRs occur for example when globally motivated investment decisions hit upon the local needs. This paper proposes an integrated view that can help to bridge the gap between the growing factual knowledge about MCRs and the still weak ability to use this knowledge for local and regional development and spatial planning purposes. The proposed integration draws on the one hand from the corporate-based value chain approach: The interaction of analysis of spatio-economic development, its adequate visualization and focussed communication towards stakeholders is apt to bring about the initiating momentum for beneficial spatial development. In the context of a diffuse perception of MCRs – whose mere size surpasses our common notions of space – analysis, visualization and communication as methodological components in the spatial planning process add value to sustainable spatial development. The process starts with creating awareness for the often invisible and complex functions, qualities and identities of the MCR spatial scale. New strategies of visualization and communication are needed to improve insight and motivation of the actors involved. On the other hand this value chain approach has to be adapted to the varying vertical levels of public bodies with their numerous policies. Thus, “multi-level-governance†is to be conceived as a concept to close the gap between the territorial and the functional logic of spatial development. The paper will study this dual approach with the case of the announced expansion of the international airport in Munich. This complex multi-level-governance process experiments with a consensus-oriented dialogue platform – the so called “neighbourhood conference†(NC) – bringing together actors with divers responsibilities and objectives. The NC sits at the interface of global and local objectives that are transformed on the spatial scale of the MCR of Munich. The paper concludes with recommendations for using the above described spatial value chain approach for more efficient multi-level-governance.

Regional Poverty and Income Inequality in Central and Eastern Europe: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study

poverty, income inequality, regions, Central and Eastern Europe

Optimal plans and timing under additive transformations to rewards

The nature and role of additive transformations to rewards are elucidated for a general class of deterministic, nonautonomous, optimal control problems with many state and control variables. Conditions relating to the optimal choice of initial and terminal times and initial and terminal values of state variables are identified such that additive transformations affect optimal plans. General comparative static results are derived and the framework is extended to cover two common classes of stochastic control problems. Three applications are presented: the canonical adjustment cost model of a firm, a stochastic extension of an irreversible pollution accumulation problem with regime-switching, and an extension of a lifecycle model of retirement in which an agent\u27s retirement wealth evolves stochastically

High-mass star formation in southern disk galaxies

As part of a major study of the physical processes of star formation and the evolution of galactic discs, the detailed distribution of high-mass star formation within southern late-type spirals and Magellanic-type galaxies is being measured by means of narrow-band imaging in Ha and the continuum, spectroscopic studies of prominent HII regions identified in the Ha images, and by radio mapping in neutral hydrogen and the continuum. The radio mapping will be undertaken with the Southern Hemisphere's first large, multi-frequency synthesis array, the Australia Telescope. Some optical imaging and spectroscopic data has already been acquired; the optical data and some preliminary results are described

Mega-City-Regions: on Awareness and Value Chain Approach

Mega-City-Regions (MCR) as a new large-scale urban phenomenon have been gaining attention recently: In research, empirical studies address their functional consistency, and spatial planning policies underline the strategic role of MCRs for territorial competition of a country. But increasingly a tension between the functional logic of knowledge-intensive business activities and the territorial and normative approaches of public bodies begin to emerge. Typical conflicts of spatial development in MCRs occur for example when globally motivated investment decisions hit upon the local needs. This paper proposes an integrated view that can help to bridge the gap between the growing factual knowledge about MCRs and the still weak ability to use this knowledge for local and regional development and spatial planning purposes. The proposed integration draws on the one hand from the corporate-based value chain approach: The interaction of analysis of spatio-economic development, its adequate visualization and focussed communication towards stakeholders is apt to bring about the initiating momentum for beneficial spatial development. In the context of a diffuse perception of MCRs – whose mere size surpasses our common notions of space – analysis, visualization and communication as methodological components in the spatial planning process add value to sustainable spatial development. The process starts with creating awareness for the often invisible and complex functions, qualities and identities of the MCR spatial scale. New strategies of visualization and communication are needed to improve insight and motivation of the actors involved. On the other hand this value chain approach has to be adapted to the varying vertical levels of public bodies with their numerous policies. Thus, "multi-level-governance" is to be conceived as a concept to close the gap between the territorial and the functional logic of spatial development. The paper will study this dual approach with the case of the announced expansion of the international airport in Munich. This complex multi-level-governance process experiments with a consensus-oriented dialogue platform – the so called "neighbourhood conference" (NC) – bringing together actors with divers responsibilities and objectives. The NC sits at the interface of global and local objectives that are transformed on the spatial scale of the MCR of Munich. The paper concludes with recommendations for using the above described spatial value chain approach for more efficient multi-level-governance

Excitation Dynamics in Low Band Gap Donor-Acceptor Copolymers and Blends

Donor-acceptor (D-A) type copolymers show great potential for the application in the active layer of organic solar cells. Nevertheless the nature of the excited states, the coupling mechanism and the relaxation pathways following photoexcitation are yet to be clarified. We carried out comparative measurements of the steady state absorption and photoluminescence (PL) on the copolymer poly[N-(1-octylnonyl)-2,7-carbazole] -alt-5,5-[4',7' -di(thien-2-yl)-2',1',3' -benzothiadiazole] (PCDTBT), its building blocks as well as on the newly synthesized N-(1-octylnonyl)-2,7-bis-[(5-phenyl)thien-2-yl)carbazole (BPT-carbazole) (see Figure 1). The high-energy absorption band (HEB) of PCDTBT was identified with absorption of carbazoles with adjacent thiophene rings while the low-energy band (LEB) originates instead from the charge transfer (CT) state delocalized over the aforementioned unit with adjacent benzothiadiazole group. Photoexcitation of the HEB is followed by internal relaxation prior the radiative decay to the ground state. Adding PC70BM results in the efficient PL quenching within the first 50 ps after excitation. From the PL excitation experiments no evidence for a direct electron transfer from the HEB of PCDTBT towards the fullerene acceptor was found, therefore the internal relaxation mechanisms within PCDTBT can be assumed to precede. Our findings indicate that effective coupling between copolymer building blocks governs the photovoltaic performance of the blends.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: final data release and the metallicity of UV-luminous galaxies

The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey measured the redshifts of over 200 000 ultraviolet (UV)-selected (NUV < 22.8 mag) galaxies on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The survey detected the baryon acoustic oscillation signal in the large-scale distribution of galaxies over the redshift range 0.2 < z < 1.0, confirming the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe and measuring the rate of structure growth within it. Here, we present the final data release of the survey: a catalogue of 225 415 galaxies and individual files of the galaxy spectra. We analyse the emission-line properties of these UV-luminous Lyman-break galaxies by stacking the spectra in bins of luminosity, redshift, and stellar mass. The most luminous (−25mag < M_(FUV) < −22mag) galaxies have very broad Hβ emission from active nuclei, as well as a broad second component to the [O III] (495.9 nm, 500.7 nm) doublet lines that is blueshifted by 100 km s^(−1) , indicating the presence of gas outflows in these galaxies. The composite spectra allow us to detect and measure the temperature-sensitive [O III] (436.3 nm) line and obtain metallicities using the direct method. The metallicities of intermediate stellar mass (8.8 < log (M*/M⊙) < 10) WiggleZ galaxies are consistent with normal emission-line galaxies at the same masses. In contrast, the metallicities of high stellar mass (10 < log (M*/M⊙) < 12) WiggleZ galaxies are significantly lower than for normal emission-line galaxies at the same masses. This is not an effect of evolution as the metallicities do not vary with redshift; it is most likely a property specific to the extremely UV-luminous WiggleZ galaxies

Forgiveness takes place on an attitudinal continuum from hostility to friendliness: Toward a closer union of forgiveness theory and measurement.

Researchers commonly conceptualize forgiveness as a rich complex of psychological changes involving attitudes, emotions, and behaviors. Psychometric work with the measures developed to capture this conceptual richness, however, often points to a simpler picture of the psychological dimensions in which forgiveness takes place. In an effort to better unite forgiveness theory and measurement, we evaluate several psychometric models for common measures of forgiveness. In doing so, we study people from the United States and Japan to understand forgiveness in both nonclose and close relationships. In addition, we assess the predictive utility of these models for several behavioral outcomes that traditionally have been linked to forgiveness motives. Finally, we use the methods of item response theory, which place person abilities and item responses on the same metric and, thus, help us draw psychological inferences from the ordering of item difficulties. Our results highlight models based on correlated factors models and bifactor (S-1) models. The bifactor (S-1) model evinced particular utility: Its general factor consistently predicts variation in relevant criterion measures, including 4 different experimental economic games (when played with a transgressor), and also suffuses a second self-report measure of forgiveness. Moreover, the general factor of the bifactor (S-1) model identifies a single psychological dimension that runs from hostility to friendliness while also pointing to other sources of variance that may be conceived of as method factors. Taken together, these results suggest that forgiveness can be usefully conceptualized as prosocial change along a single attitudinal continuum that ranges from hostility to friendliness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)