Disruptive low-carbon innovations

This perspective article considers the potential for disruptive innovations to transform the market for energy-related goods and services in line with emission reductions required for stringent mitigation. Its rationale is that consumers are a neglected constituency in societal efforts to meet climate policy objectives. First, I review Christensen’s canonical definition of disruptive innovation as low-end products offering novel sources of value to users marginalised or over-supplied by mainstream markets. Second, I apply disruptive innovation concepts to the challenge of climate change mitigation and the necessary contribution of low-carbon innovation. There are both potentials for disruptive low-carbon innovations but also problems in achieving social benefits through the consumption of private goods. Third, I set out a series of criteria for disruptive low-carbon innovations and apply these to identify sets of potential innovations relating to mobility, buildings & cities, food, and energy supply. A wide range of consumer-facing innovations offer goods or services with novel attributes currently valued only in small market niches. Fourth, I report on the findings of two workshops on disruptive low-carbon innovation involving innovators, market intermediaries, policymakers and researchers. Different stakeholders hold sharply contrasting understandings of disruptive low-carbon innovation and its distinctive relevance for energy transformation

Towards a network psychometrics approach to assessment: simulations for redundancy, dimensionality, and loadings

Research using network models in psychology has proliferated over the last decade. The popularity of network models has largely been driven by their alternative explanation for the emergence of psychological attributes—observed variables co-occur because they are causally coupled and dynamically reinforce each other, forming cohesive systems. Despite their rise in popularity, the growth of network models as a psychometric tool has remained relatively stagnant, mainly being used as a novel measurement perspective. In this dissertation, the goal is to expand the role of network models in modern psychometrics and to move towards using these models as a tool for the validation of assessment instruments. This paper presents three simulation studies and an empirical example that are designed to evaluate different aspects of the psychometric network approach to assessment: reducing redundancy, detecting dimensions, and estimating loadings. The first simulation evaluated two novel approaches for determining whether items are redundant, which is a key component for the accuracy and interpretation of network measures. The second simulation evaluated several different community detection algorithms, which are designed to detect dimensions in networks. The third simulation evaluated an adapted formulation of the network measure, node strength, and how it compares to factor loadings estimated by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The results of the simulations demonstrate that network models can be used as an effective psychometric tool and one that is on par with more traditional methods. Finally, in the empirical example, the methods from the simulations are applied to a real-world dataset measuring personality. This example demonstrated that these methods are not only effective, but they can validate whether an assessment instrument is consistent with theoretical and empirical expectations. With these methods in hand, network models are poised to take the next step towards becoming a robust psychometric tool

Remotely close associations: openness to experience and semantic memory structure

Openness to experience—the enjoyment of novel experiences, ideas, and unconventional perspectives—has shown several connections to cognition that suggest open people might have different cognitive processes than those low in openness. People high in openness are more creative, have broader general knowledge, and show greater cognitive flexibility. The associative structure of semantic memory might be one such cognitive process that people in openness differ in. In this study, 497 people completed a measure of openness to experience and verbal fluency. Three groups of high (n = 115), moderate (n = 121), and low (n = 118) openness were created to construct semantic networks—graphical models of semantic associations that provide quantifiable representations of how these associations are organized—from their verbal fluency responses. The groups were compared on graph theory measures of their respective semantic networks. The semantic network analysis revealed that as openness increased, the rigidity of the semantic structure decreased and the interconnectivity increased, suggesting greater flexibility of associations. Semantic structure also became more condensed and had better integration, which facilitates open people’s ability to reach more unique associations. These results were supported by open people coming up with more individual and unique responses, starting with less conventional responses, and having a flatter frequency proportion slope than less open people. In summary, the semantic network structure of people high in openness to experience supports the retrieval of remote concepts via short associative pathways, which promotes unique combinations of disparate concepts that are key for creative cognition

Marketing techniques applied to energy conservation

The purpose of this study is to review the nature of the controversy on the scope of marketing; to determine whether marketing techniques and tools can be applied to a social problem in a nonbusiness enterprise—in this case, education; and to analyze the results of an experiment to determine the effectiveness of these techniques. The study attempts to answer in a specific instance the question of the effectiveness of marketing techniques seeking to solve a social problem. The nonbusiness area selected was education and the social cause decided on was energy conservation by the homeowner. This problem was selected because of its unique importance, its timeliness, and the fact that an effort to change the consumer's lifestyle in the area of energy conservation has been relatively unexplored by the different agencies involved (government, education, business, utility companies, etc.). The hypothesis stated that certain marketing techniques applied to a nonbusiness enterprise at a selected community college will more effectively bring about the desired social change by the consumer in the area of home energy conservation than in a community college not employing these techniques. Change is evaluated on (1) initial attendance, (2) the positive action taken by the class participants, and (3) the intended future action by the participants

A study of eight Canadian student services handbooks : the research and development of a student services

1 vol. (various pagings) ; 29 cm. --As Director of Student Services within the WolfCreek School Division No. 72, it came to my attention that this department of educational services did not have a handbook or manual that outlined various areas of service, procedures, policies, and information necessary for central office personnel, school staffs, and parents/guardians to utilize when implementing specialized programs for students. Questions around these issues prompted me to research the work other school divisions and provinces had done in this area of professional services. From this research, I designed, developed and wrote a resource specifically for WolfCreek School Division No. 72. The research and development of this Student Services Handbook revolved around this question of study. "What have other school divisions in Canada written in this area of educational resources and what should the Student Services Handbook developed for Wolf Creek School Division No. 72 consist of?" The pursuit of answering this question involved several methods. For the purpose of studying the work other professional organizations had done in this area the search for handbooks or other parallel resource materials was accomplished by selected school divisions generously sharing their written work, thorough research on the Internet and focused communication with fellow colleagues or other professional associations. Investigating the necessary components for the handbook involved gathering parallel work previously written in other school divisions and provinces as well as checking with fellow colleagues about relevant, recent materials and documentation. The nature of this study, if it was to be brought together conclusively into one type, would be described best as comparative. Two general conclusions were reached after the data was analyzed and interpreted. First, similar written work had been completed by other school divisions and provinces in this area of educational services. Secondly, these parallel resources along with input from school staffs and central office personnel assisted greatly in the unique design, structure, and development of the handbook created for the WolfCreek School Division No. 72. This comparative research revealed in other school divisions and provinces across Canada indicated some similarities and differences. With each of these resources, there was a consistent theme of service delivery, policies / procedures, student referral, and assessment. These themes were integrated in the development of the Student Services Handbook for WolfCreek School Division No. 72. It was also apparent that each school division and province had different methods of implementing student programs which enhanced the study and confirmed the need for a specific resource that would meet the unique needs of each school division and province across Canada. This project describes that process and contains the resulting document I produced from my graduate research, which contributes to meeting WolfCreek School Division No. 72 student's needs by all members of the educational team

Metafounders are related to F st fixation indices and reduce bias in single-step genomic evaluations.

International audienceAbstractBackground Metafounders are pseudo-individuals that encapsulate genetic heterozygosity and relationships within and across base pedigree populations, i.e. ancestral populations. This work addresses the estimation and usefulness of metafounder relationships in single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction (ssGBLUP).ResultsWe show that ancestral relationship parameters are proportional to standardized covariances of base allelic frequencies across populations, such as Fst\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$F_{\text{st}}$$\end{document} fixation indexes. These covariances of base allelic frequencies can be estimated from marker genotypes of related recent individuals and pedigree. Simple methods for their estimation include naïve computation of allele frequencies from marker genotypes or a method of moments that equates average pedigree-based and marker-based relationships. Complex methods include generalized least squares (best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE)) or maximum likelihood based on pedigree relationships. To our knowledge, methods to infer Fst\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$F_{\text{st}}$$\end{document} coefficients from marker data have not been developed for related individuals. We derived a genomic relationship matrix, compatible with pedigree relationships, that is constructed as a cross-product of {−1,0,1} codes and that is equivalent (apart from scale factors) to an identity-by-state relationship matrix at genome-wide markers. Using a simulation with a single population under selection in which only males and youngest animals are genotyped, we observed that generalized least squares or maximum likelihood gave accurate and unbiased estimates of the ancestral relationship parameter (true value: 0.40) whereas the naïve method and the method of moments were biased (average estimates of 0.43 and 0.35). We also observed that genomic evaluation by ssGBLUP using metafounders was less biased in terms of estimates of genetic trend (bias of 0.01 instead of 0.12), resulted in less overdispersed (0.94 instead of 0.99) and as accurate (0.74) estimates of breeding values than ssGBLUP without metafounders and provided consistent estimates of heritability.ConclusionsEstimation of metafounder relationships can be achieved using BLUP-like methods with pedigree and markers. Inclusion of metafounder relationships reduces bias of genomic predictions with no loss in accuracy

A European union and Canadian review of public health nursing preparation and practice.

This study explores the preparation and role of the public health nurse (PHN) across European Union (EU) countries (Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) and Canadian provinces (Alberta, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island)

Spurious long memory, uncommon breaks and the implied–realized volatility puzzle

One of the puzzles in international finance is the frequent finding that implied volatility is a biased predictor of realized volatility. However, given asset price volatility is often characterized as possessing long memory, the recent literature has shown that allowing for long-range dependence removes this bias. Of course, the appearance of long memory can be generated by the presence of structural breaks. This paper discusses the effect of structural breaks on the implied-realized volatility relation. Simulations show that if significant structural breaks are omitted, testing can spuriously show the typical patterns of fractional cointegration found in the literature. Next, empirical results show that foreign exchange implied and realized volatility contains structural breaks. The breaks in the implied series never closely anticipate or co-occur with those of the realized series, suggesting that the market has no ability to forecast structural change. When breaks are accounted for in the bi-variate framework, the point estimate of the slope parameter falls and the null of unbiasedness can be rejected. Allowing for structural breaks suggests that the implied-realized volatility puzzle might not be solved after all

A case study of the Magrath school council 1995-2000

vii, 58 leaves ; 29 cm. --This study is an examination of the Magrath School Council, Magrath, Alberta, Canada, from 1995-2000. The study examines the reasons people in Magrath give for sitting on school council. The study also examines how the school council has evolved from 1995- 2000 and what the members consider their successes and failures. The results of the study provide some insight into the functioning of a school council in rural Alberta and hopefully offer some suggestions to school councils for avoiding potential problems and encouraging successes. Finally, a comparison of the work of a school council from the perspective of teachers and of parents is made. The results indicate that teachers, as council members, become very concerned when they think parent council members are using their positions on council to engage in school administration activities. Teacher members prefer a school council that works on building better communication between school and community. The studied group of parent members agree. In the beginning, parent council members had some serious misunderstandings of the work of a school council in the initial stages, coming to the task with personal agendas and activist determination. As their perceptions and their roles modified over time, the school council at Magrath has become a fairly innocuous organization, attending mainly to tasks that do not create conflict or tension with professional staff. Ironically, both parent and teacher members of the present school council are concerned about the current state of the council, worried that it lacks authority and purpose