644 research outputs found

    Patents and Atomic Energy

    Get PDF

    Energy systems, socio-spatial relations, and power: the contested adoption of district heating with combined heat and power in Sweden, 1945-2011

    Get PDF
    District heating (DH) and combined heat and power (CHP) are often considered complementary green technologies (DH-CHP) that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They are, however, complex given their operation at the intersection of shifting socio-spatial relations and political power struggles. We investigate the political processes behind the diffusion (and blocked diffusion) of DH and CHP in Sweden from 1945 until 2011, considered through the lens of Jessop, Brenner and Jones’ (2008) Territory, Place, Scale and Networks (TPSN) framework. Foregrounding the socio-spatial constitution of policy decisions, we examine Sweden’s changing patterns of DH and CHP adoption. First, we present the TPSN framework that considers space as simultaneously a structuring principle, enabling and constraining action, as well as a field of operation in which agency is exercised. Second, we examine the socio-spatial structuration of energy systems. Third, we analyse how the changing socio-spatial constitution of each socio-technical system affects key actors’ interests and actions, including the spatial strategies they develop to advance their interests. District heating rapidly diffused across Swedish municipalities in large part because it was considered to be urban infrastructure aligned with the mission of municipalities and was not in direct competition with other actors supplying heat. CHP electricity generation, on the other hand, was initially seen as a benefit to municipal utilities, but was later considered a threat to the interests of large-scale utilities and blocked, only to gain favour again when changing sociospatial conditions made CHP an asset to large-scale utilities. Our analysis suggests that technological diffusion and blockage is far from a straightforward matter. It requires examination of the dynamics of multi-level governance and overlapping socio-technical systems. Socio-technical regimes are in constant evolution and actors struggle to adapt to new circumstances. Socio-technical systems are not merely material systems, but an expression of dynamic power relations and adaptation strategies

    Tax Frontiers of Trust Law

    Get PDF

    A study of some broad-leaved evergreens for northeastern Kansas

    Get PDF
    Typescript, etc.Digitized by Kansas State University Librarie

    Isoperimetry in the Plane with Density e-1/r

    Get PDF
    We study the isoperimetric problem in the plane with weighting or density e-1/r. The isoperimetric problem seeks to enclose prescribed weighted area with minimum weighted perimeter. For density e-1/r, isoperimetric curves are conjectured to pass through the origin. We provide numerical and theoretical evidence that such curves have an angle at the origin approaching 1 radian from above as area approaches zero and provide further estimates

    Regulation of IGF-I Signaling in Retinal Endothelial Cells by Hyperglycemia

    Get PDF
    PURPOSE. To investigate the role of hyperglycemia in regulating the proliferative response of retinal endothelial cells (RECs) to insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I. METHODS. The regulation of IGF-I signaling by glucose concentration was assessed by biochemical analysis of primary RECs grown in media containing normal (5 mM) and high (25 mM) glucose. Cell counting was used to asses the proliferative response to IGF-I. RESULTS. Glucose (25 mM) enhanced the proliferative response of RECs to IGF-I. Phosphorylation of the adaptor protein She (Src homology 2 domain containing) transforming protein 1) was increased in RECs grown in high glucose. For She to be phosphorylated, it must be recruited to the cytoplasmic domain of the transmembrane protein SHPS-1 (SHP substrate-1). She recruitment to SHPS-1 was increased when RECs were grown in high glucose. The difference in She recruitment to SHPS-1 was attributable to a difference in SHPS-1 phosphorylation that is required for She recruitment. This, in turn, was attributable to an increase in SHPS-1 association with integrin-associated protein (IAP), which is necessary for SHPS-1 phosphorylation. The difference in response under the two different glucose conditions appeared to be attributable to changes in the activation of the integrin αVβ3, since blocking αVβ3 in high glucose inhibited the response to IGF-I, whereas addition of the active region of vitronectin to RECs grown in normal glucose enhanced their response. CONCLUSIONS. This study demonstrates that hyperglycemic conditions enhance the response of RECs to IGF-I by increasing the association of IAP with SHPS-1 permitting the formation of the SHPS-1-Shc signaling complex, which is required for the proliferative response to IGF-I

    Teaching music theory in UK higher education today: contexts and commentaries

    Get PDF
    This multi-authored article offers accounts of how programmes for teaching music theory within the Western-notated tradition were created in two UK higher education institutions. These accounts are followed by two more discursive reflections on the nature and purpose of music education today, advocating the importance of listening skills and inclusive pedagogies. The article is framed by an introduction and conclusion contextualising the issues raised in relation to a selection of prior contributions to Music Education Research and comparing approaches to music literacy and theory teaching as represented in recent music theory conferences in the UK and the United States

    Capitalist pigs: Governmentality, subjectivities, and the regulation of pig farming in colonial Hong Kong, 1950-1970

    Get PDF
    This paper analyses the philanthropic governmentality of the Hong Kong colonial government during the Farm Improvement Program (1950–70), focusing on the utilization of pigs, interest-free loans, and the spatial constitution of pig farming as technologies to transform refugee farmers into ‘productive workers’. This research has three primary objectives: to (1) elucidate how the production of knowledge and governing technologies, including the spatial design of livestock production, facilitated the disciplining of pig farmers in a colonial context; (2) expand Foucauldian governmentality analysis into the realm of the regulatory mechanisms of food production systems by documenting how philanthropic pig donations, lending programmes, and the distribution of material benefits promoted capitalist pig production; and (3) demonstrate how technologies – specifically the social construction of pigs and the spatial constitution of pig farming practices – moulded the subjectivities of colonial pig farmers. Empirical analysis is based on archival research and in-depth interviews with 19 pig farmers and two pig farmers’ association leaders. We identify the provision of free pigs and pigsties, the demonstration of new spatial pig-raising practices, and the establishment of interest-free lending systems as the major technologies of governance employed under the Farm Improvement Program. Through these technologies refugee farmers from mainland China learned and internalized concepts of efficiency, productivity, farm management, and self-help. The technologies of the Farm Improvement Program were not just philanthropic activities, they were political tactics to confront the penetration of communism into the colony by changing the practices, productivity, and subjectivities of refugee farmers
    • …
    corecore