Sustainability assessment and complementarity

Sustainability assessments bring together different perspectives that pertain to sustainability in order to produce overall assessments and a wealth of approaches and tools have been developed in the past decades. But two major problematics remain. The problem of integration concerns the surplus of possibilities for integration; different tools produce different assessments. The problem of implementation concerns the barrier between assessment and transformation; assessments do not lead to the expected changes in practice. This paper aims to analyze issues of complementarity in sustainability assessment and transformation as a key to better handling the problems of integration and implementation. Based on a generalization of Niels Bohr’s complementarity from quantum mechanics, we have identified two forms of complementarity in sustainability assessment, observer stance complementarity and value complementarity. Unlike many other problems of sustainability assessment, complementarity is of a fundamental character connected to the very conditions for observation. Therefore complementarity cannot be overcome methodologically; only handled better or worse. Science is essential to the societal goal of sustainability, but these issues of complementarity impede the constructive role of science in the transition to more sustainable structures and practices in food systems. The agencies of sustainability assessment and transformation need to be acutely aware of the importance of different perspectives and values and the complementarities that may be connected to these differences. An improved understanding of complementarity can help to better recognize and handle issues of complementarity. These deliberations have relevance not only for sustainability assessment, but more generally for transdisciplinary research on wicked problems

A polyocular framework for research on multifunctional farming and rural development

The paradox of multifunctionality is that, on the one hand, the specialized functionalities of agriculture only arise because of the functional differentiation of social systems and scientific disciplines and, on the other hand, multifunctionality can only enter as a way to mediate between conflicts, interests and fragmented knowledge when different functions and observations of functions combine. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a theoretical and methodological platform for multidisciplinary research on multifunctional farming. With the notions of polyocular cognition and polyocular communication we introduce a second order, interdisciplinary communication process that can meet the challenge of creating a shared view on multifunctional farming. Polyocular communication must be based on other rules than the rules of the involved disciplines. Whereas disciplinary communication is about providing consistent, efficient and precise knowledge in the context of a sharply delimited research world, polyocular communication is about extending a multidimensional space of understanding

Jordbrug, strukturelle koblinger og bæredygtighed

Artiklen analyserer udviklingen i landbruget med udgangspunkt i Luhmanns systemteori og med særlig fokus på begreberne om afkobling og strukturelle koblinger. I et stadigt mere komplekst samfund er reduktion (eller rettere udgrænsning) af kompleksitet en nødvendig men kontingent udvikling. I landbruget ser vi denne udvikling både i form af en uddifferentiering af semantikker og tilhørende funktionssystemer og i form af horisontale og vertikale specialiseringer og uddifferentieringer. De logiske konsekvenser heraf er for det første at de enkelte organisations- og funktionssystemers omverden (dvs. den verden de kan lade sig irritere af) bliver forenklet, og dermed sker der en række afkoblinger. For det andet, og som kompensation for denne udvikling, er det nødvendigt at udvikle nye strukturelle koblinger mellem disse systemer for at kompensere for uddifferentieringen. En yderligere konsekvens af denne udvikling er, at der sker en række reaktioner i omgivelserne som begynder at irritere tilbage i andre former, og der opstår endnu flere specialiserede semantikker. De semantikker der er uddifferentieret som egentlige funktioner, søger at genintroducere irritationen af landbrugsbedrifterne via f.eks. lovgivne restriktioner eller i form af skatter og afgifter. I artiklen fokuserer vi analysen på andre og nye muligheder for strukturelle (gen)koblinger, med udgangspunkt i en række aktuelle tiltag og bevægelser; koblinger der kan bidrage til at genintroducere omgivelsernes irritation til systemerne. Vi skelner mellem tre former for strukturelle koblinger: 1) De strukturelle koblinger som landbrugsvirksomheden producerer for at genintroducere omgivelser til omverden, dog i reduceret form via de generaliserede medier som funktionssystemerne tilbyder. 2) Strukturelle koblinger mellem organisationer der kan håndtere andre dimensioner end blot pris og kvantitet. Her skelner vi mellem de medierede koblingsmuligheder som de generaliserede medier, som f.eks. Ø-mærket, tilbyder, og koblingsmuligheder i bindende men dynamiske samarbejdsaftaler i netværket, som afhænger af og giver mulighed for ko-evolution. 3) Anden ordens semantiske strukturelle koblinger af iagttagelser af iagttagelser, som f.eks. knytter sig til bæredygtighedssemantikken; semantikker der netop har deres styrke og udfordring ved at de forbliver ubestemte i deres form. Analysen viser at Luhmanns begreb om strukturelle koblinger ikke kun er stærkt når det gælder om at analysere og forstå udviklingsprocesserne i jordbruget, men at dette begrebsapparat også kan danne grundlag for at arbejde konstruktivt med de udfordringer som uddifferentieringen producerer

A Giant Sand Injection Complex: The Upper Jurassic Hareelv Formation of East Greenland

A major intrusive sandstone complex of Late Jurassic age is spectacularly exposed in Jameson land, East Greenland. It is probably the largest in the World, and covers an area of 55x70 km with a thickness of 200–400 m, and forms the Upper Oxfordian–Volgian Hareelv Formation. The complex consists of black basinal mudstones and highly irregular sandstone bodies, dykes and sills. The sand was derived from collapse of the front of sandy shelf-margin wedges, which triggered hyperconcentrated to concentrated density flows, and deposited massive sands further down the slope, at the base-of-slope and in the basin. The sand of some flows was loaded into the slope muds while elsewhere it flowed in steep-sided gullies formed by retrogressive slumping of the slope muds. All sand bodies were liquefied subsequent to burial and the sand was intruded into the surrounding black compacted muds and mudstones. Intrusion took place repeatedly over a long time interval, in environments ranging from very shallow to relatively deep burial, and the primary sediment structures of the sands were generally lost during these processes. It is rarely possible to determine the degree of post-burial remobilization but it ranges from rather small-scale modifications to wholesale liquefaction and out-of-place intrusion of the sand over many tens of metres. Sandstone dykes and sills occur ubiquitously and were emplaced by all combinations of stoping and dilation. The intrusive sand bodies range in dimensions from centimetres to many hundreds of metres. Deposition took place during the most important Mesozoic rift event in East Greenland and the pervasive remobilization and liquefaction of all sand bodies in the Hareelv Formation is interpreted as having been caused mainly by cyclic earthquake shocks. Additional important factors were slope shear stress, build up of pore pressure due to loading, slumping, upwards movement of pore waters expelled from the compacting muds, and also possibly of biogenic and thermogenic gas. The Hareelv Formation is an excellent field analogue for deeply buried hydrocarbon reservoirs, which have been modified by remobilization and injection of the sands

Corporate Disclosure Practices, Institutional Investors, and Stock Return Volatility

This paper investigates whether the quality of a firm’s disclosure practices affects the composition of a firm’s institutional investor base and whether this association has implications for a firm’s stock return volatility. The findings indicate that firms with higher disclosure quality, as measured by AIMR rankings, have greater institutional ownership, but the particular types of institutional investors that are attracted to disclosure quality tend to have no net impact on firms’ stock return volatility. In contrast, improvements in disclosure quality are shown to produce contemporaneous increases in ownership primarily by transient-type institutions. Such institutions can be characterized as having a short-term investment focus along with a propensity to trade aggressively. The findings indicate that firms with disclosure quality improvements resulting in higher transient institutional investor ownership experience subsequent increases in stock return volatility

The Use of a Touch Computer System for Distributing Information to Visitors at the 1982 World\u27s Fair

The use of computers to increase efficiency of operations is becoming a well recognized method in the leisure industry. This study examined the use of computers to provide information to visitors of the World\u27s Fair about the Knoxville area to help improve service. Findings indicate that the developed method is an effective aid, but to increase its efficiency the system must be more consumer oriented

Lack of protective effect of tiotropium vs induced dynamic hyperinflation in moderate COPD

SummaryStudy objectiveNovel evaluation of protective effect of tiotropium against induced dynamic hyperinflation (DH) during metronome paced hyperventilation (MPH) in moderate COPD.MethodsProspective, randomized, double-blind, placebo control, crossover study. Lung function measured pre/post MPH at 30 breaths/min for 20 s in 29 (18M) COPD patients (GOLD Stage 2) age 70 ± 9 yr (mean ± SD) before and after 30 days of 18 μg tiotropium bromide vs placebo. Lung CT scored for emphysema (ES).ResultsAt baseline post 180 μg aerosolized albuterol sulfate, FEV1: 1.8 ± 0.6 L (69 ± 6%pred) and ≥60% predicted in all, and 14 of 29 had FEV1 (L) ≥70% predicted with FEV1/FVC 58 ± 8%. After 29 days + 23 h post tiotropium (trough) there was significant decrease only in FRC/TLC% (p = 0.04); after 30 days + 2 h post tiotropium (peak) significant increase only in FEV1 (L) (p = 0.03) compared to placebo. Results post MPH induced DH at baseline and after 30 days and 2 h post placebo or tiotropium were similar with decrease in IC 0.44 ± 0.06 L (p < 0.001). Correlation between ES and increased FEV1 (L) at peak tiotropium: r = 0.19, p = 0.96 and decreased FRC/TLC% at trough tiotropium: r = −0.26, p = 0.36.ConclusionIn moderate COPD, tiotropium did not reduce MPH induced DH and reduction in IC. However, at peak tiotropium, there was significant bronchodilation in FEV1 (L) and at trough a decrease in FRC/TLC% compared to placebo despite varying emphysema

High-temperature superconducting fault current microlimiters

High-temperature superconducting microbridges implemented with YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-delta) thin-films are shown to be possible fault current limiters for microelectronic devices with some elements working at temperatures below the superconducting critical temperature and, simultaneously, under very low power conditions (below 1W). This is the case in the important applications of superconductors as SQUID based electronics, and technologies for communication or infrared detectors. In this paper it is shown that the good thermal behavior of these microlimiters allows working in a regime where even relatively small faults induce their transition to highly dissipative states, dramatically increasing their limitation efficiency. The conditions for optimal refrigeration and operation of these microlimiters are also proposed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. LaTeX and EPS file