4,471 research outputs found
Water for utilities: climate change impacts on water quality and water availability for utilities in Europe
This report provides an assessment of the consequences of changing water availability for production of drinking water, the manufacturing industry and power production in Europe, due to climate change and socio-economic developments. The report is based up on projections of demographic and socio-economic trends and climate change impacts, according to the SRES A2 and B1 scenario’s also used by IPC
Research Synthesis
Herbert Simon’s (1956) concept of satisficing provides an intuitive explanation for the reasons why respondents to surveys sometimes adopt response strategies that can lead to a reduction in data quality. As such, the concept rapidly gained popularity among researchers after it was first introduced to the field of survey methodology by Krosnick and Alwin (1987), and it has become a widely cited buzzword linked to different forms of response error. In this article, we present the findings of a systematic review involving a content analysis of journal articles published in English-language journals between 1987 and 2015 that have drawn on the satisficing concept to evaluate survey data quality. Based on extensive searches of online databases, and an initial screening exercise to apply the study’s inclusion criteria, 141 relevant articles were identified. Guided by the theory of survey satisficing described by Krosnick (1991), the methodological features of the shortlisted articles were coded, including the indicators of satisficing analyzed, the main predictors of satisficing, and the presence of main or interaction effects on the prevalence of satisficing involving indicators of task difficulty, respondent ability, and respondent motivation. Our analysis sheds light on potential differences in the extent to which satisficing theory holds for different types of response error, and highlights a number of avenues for future research
Investigating situated cultural practices through cross-sectoral digital collaborations: policies, processes, insights
The (Belfast) Good Friday Agreement represents a major milestone in Northern Ireland's recent political history, with complex conditions allowing for formation of a ‘cross-community’ system of government enabling power sharing between parties representing Protestant/loyalist and Catholic/nationalist constituencies. This article examines the apparent flourishing of community-focused digital practices over the subsequent ‘post-conflict’ decade, galvanised by Northern Irish and EU policy initiatives armed with consolidating the peace process. Numerous digital heritage and storytelling projects have been catalysed within programmes aiming to foster social processes, community cohesion and cross-community exchange. The article outlines two projects—‘digital memory boxes’ and ‘interactive galleon’—developed during 2007–2008 within practice-led PhD enquiry conducted in collaboration with the Nerve Centre, a third-sector media education organisation. The article goes on to critically examine the processes involved in practically realising, and creatively and theoretically reconciling, community-engaged digital production in a particular socio-political context of academic-community collaboration
The Co-development of Friends’ Delinquency with Adolescents’ Delinquency and Short-term Mindsets: The Moderating Role of Co-Offending
The companions in crime hypothesis suggests that co-offending moderates the link between peer delinquency and adolescent delinquency. However, this hypothesis has rarely been investigated longitudinally. Hence, this study investigated the co-development of friends’ delinquency and adolescents’ delinquency, as well as the co-development of friends’ delinquency and short-term mindsets (impulsivity and lack of school future orientation). Whether this co-development is stronger when adolescents engage in co-offending was also investigated. Three data waves with two year lags from an ethnically-diverse adolescent sample (at wave 1: N = 1365; 48.6% female; M = 13.67; age range = 12.33–15.09 years) in Switzerland were used. The results from parallel process latent growth modeling showed that the co-development between friends’ delinquency and adolescents’ delinquency was stronger when adolescents engaged in co-offending. Thus co-offending likely provides direct access to a setting in which adolescents continue to model the delinquency they learned with their peers
Strong Near-Infrared Emission Interior to the Dust-Sublimation Radius of Young Stellar Objects MWC275 and AB Aur
Using the longest optical-interferometeric baselines currently available, we
have detected strong near-infrared (NIR) emission from inside the
dust-destruction radius of Herbig Ae stars MWC275 and AB Aur. Our
sub-milli-arcsecond resolution observations unambiguously place the emission
between the dust-destruction radius and the magnetospheric co-rotation radius.
We argue that this new component corresponds to hot gas inside the
dust-sublimation radius, confirming recent claims based on spectrally-resolved
interferometry and dust evaporation front modeling.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ
A Search for Star-Disk Interaction Among the Strongest X-ray Flaring Stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster
The Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project observed hundreds of young, low-mass
stars undergoing highly energetic X-ray flare events. The 32 most powerful
cases have been modeled with the result that the magnetic structures
responsible for these flares can be many stellar radii in extent. In this
paper, we model the observed spectral energy distributions of these 32 stars in
order to determine, in detail for each star, whether there is circumstellar
disk material situated in sufficient proximity to the stellar surface for
interaction with the large magnetic loops inferred from the observed X-ray
flares. Our spectral energy distributions span the wavelength range 0.3-8 um
(plus 24 um for some stars), allowing us to constrain the presence of dusty
circumstellar material out to >10 AU from the stellar surface in most cases.
For 24 of the 32 stars in our sample the available data are sufficient to
constrain the location of the inner edge of the dusty disks. Six of these (25%)
have spectral energy distributions consistent with inner disks within reach of
the observed magnetic loops. Another four stars may have gas disks interior to
the dust disk and extending within reach of the magnetic loops, but we cannot
confirm this with the available data. The remaining 14 stars (58%) appear to
have no significant disk material within reach of the large flaring loops.
Thus, up to ~40% of the sample stars exhibit energetic X-ray flares that
possibly arise from a magnetic star-disk interaction, and the remainder are
evidently associated with extremely large, free-standing magnetic loops
anchored only to the stellar surface.Comment: Accepted to the ApJ; 26 pages, 6 tables, 6 figure
A High Spatial Resolution Study of the λ=3 mm Continuum of Orion-KL
Recent interferometric observations have called into question the traditional
view of the Orion-KL region, which displays one of the most well-defined cases
of chemical differentiation in a star-forming region. Previous,
lower-resolution images of Orion-KL show emission signatures for oxygen-bearing
organic molecules toward the Orion Compact Ridge, and emission for
nitrogen-bearing organic molecules toward the Orion Hot Core. However, more
recent observations at higher spatial resolution indicate that the bulk of the
molecular emission is arising from many smaller, compact clumps that are
spatially distinct from the traditional Hot Core and Compact Ridge sources. It
is this type of observational information that is critical for guiding
astrochemical models, as the spatial distribution of molecules and their
relation to energetic sources will govern the chemical mechanisms at play in
star-forming regions. We have conducted millimeter imaging studies of Orion-KL
with various beam sizes using CARMA in order to investigate the continuum
structure. These \lambda;=3mm observations have synthesized beam sizes of
~0.5"-5.0". These observations reveal the complex continuum structure of this
region, which stands in sharp contrast to the previous structural models
assumed for Orion-KL based on lower spatial resolution images. The new results
indicate that the spatial scaling previously used in determination of molecular
abundances for this region are in need of complete revision. Here we present
the results of the continuum observations, discuss the sizes and structures of
the detected sources, and suggest an observational strategy for determining the
proper spatial scaling to accurately determine molecular abundances in the
Orion-KL region.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
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