3,558 research outputs found
Towards a Linked democracy model
In this chapter we lay out the properties of participatory ecosystems as linked democracy ecosystems. The goal is to provide a conceptual roadmap that helps us to ground the theoretical foundations for a meso-level, institutional theory of democracy. The identification of the basic properties of a linked democracy eco-system draws from different empirical examples that, to some extent, exhibit some of these properties. We then correlate these properties with Ostrom's design principles for the management of common-pool resources (as generalised to groups cooperating and coordinating to achieve shared goals) to open up the question of how linked democracy ecosystems can be governed
Historical-institutionalist perspectives on the development of the EU budget system
The EU budget has only recently started to feature in theories of European integration. Studies typically adopt a historical-institutionalist framework, exploring notions such as path dependency. They have, however, generally been rather aggregated, or coarse-grained, in their approach. The EU budget has thus been treated as a single entity rather than a series of inter-linked institutions. This paper seeks to address these lacunae by adopting a fine-grained approach. This enables us to emphasize the connections that exist between EU budgetary institutions, in both time and space. We show that the initial set of budgetary institutions was unable, over time, to achieve consistently their treaty-based objectives. In response, rather than reform these institutions at potentially high political cost, additional institutions were layered on top of the extant structures. We thus demonstrate how some EU budgetary institutions have remained unchanged, whilst others have been added or changed over time
The Northwest Tropical Atlantic Station (NTAS) : NTAS-1 mooring deployment cruise report
A surface mooring outfitted for meteorological and oceanographic measurement was deployed near 14°50'N, 51°00'W in the
northwest tropical Atlantic on 30 March 2001. This was the initial deployment of the Northwest Tropical Atlantic Station (NTAS)
project for air–sea flux measurement. These observations will be used to investigate air–sea interaction processes related to climate
variability. The deployment was done on R/V Oceanus Cruise 365, Leg 5 by the Upper Ocean Processes Group (UOP) of the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The 3-meter discus buoy was outfitted with two Air–Sea Interaction Meteorology
(ASIMET) systems. Each system measures, records, and transmits via Argos satellite the surface meteorological variables necessary
to compute air–sea fluxes of heat, moisture and momentum. The upper 120 m of the mooring line was outfitted with oceanographic
sensors for the measurement of temperature and velocity. This report describes the initial deployment of the NTAS mooring
(NTAS-1), including some of the pre-cruise buoy preparations and post cruise data comparisons.Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through the
Cooperative Institute for Climate and Ocean Research (CICOR) under Grant No. NA87RJ0445
The challenges of monitoring national climate policy: learning lessons from the EU
One of the most central and novel features of the new climate governance architecture emerging from the 2015 Paris Agreement is the transparency framework committing countries to provide, inter alia, regular progress reports on national pledges to address climate change. Many countries will rely on public policies to turn their pledges into action. This article focuses on the EU’s experience with monitoring national climate policies in order to understand the challenges that are likely to arise as the Paris Agreement is implemented around the world. To do so, the research employs – for the first time – comparative empirical data submitted by states to the EU’s monitoring system. Our findings reveal how the EU’s predominantly technical interpretation of four international reporting quality criteria – an approach borrowed from reporting on GHG fluxes – has constrained knowledge production and stymied debate on the performance of individual climate policies. Key obstacles to more in-depth reporting include not only political concerns over reporting burdens and costs, but also struggles over who determines the nature of climate policy monitoring, the perceived usefulness of reporting information, and the political control that policy knowledge inevitably generates. Given the post-Paris drive to achieve greater transparency, the EU’s experience offers a sobering reminder of the political and technical challenges associated with climate policy monitoring, challenges that are likely to bedevil the Paris Agreement for decades to come
Perceptions of Cooperation in a Longitudinal Social Dilemma
Most social dilemma studies of communication’s effects on cooperation are based on laboratory results with trivial incentives. Studies of real-life social dilemmas with nontrivial rewards are needed to extend the generality of laboratory results. Perceptions of cooperation on a group product (weekly group essay) were examined as a public goods dilemma embedded in a longitudinal study of groups using either face-to-face or computer-mediated communication. Perceptions of cooperation increased over time, whereas measures of group identity did not. No media effect on perceptions of cooperation was observed. Several predictors of late perceptions of cooperation were examined, but only early perception of cooperation was significant. Results are discussed with respect to several current hypotheses regarding communication and cooperation in social dilemmas.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline
The Northwest Tropical Atlantic Station (NTAS) : NTAS-2 mooring turnaround cruise report
The Northwest Tropical Atlantic Station (NTAS) was established to address the
need for accurate air-sea flux estimates and upper ocean measurements in a region with
strong sea surface temperature anomalies and the likelihood of significant local air–sea
interaction on interannual to decadal timescales. The approach is to maintain a surface
mooring outfitted for meteorological and oceanographic measurements at a site near
15°N, 51°W by successive mooring turnarounds. These observations will be used to
investigate air–sea interaction processes related to climate variability.
Deployment of the first NTAS mooring (NTAS-1) at 14°50′ N, 51°00′ W on 30
March 2001 was documented in a previous report (Plueddemann et al., 2001). This report
documents recovery of the NTAS-1 mooring and deployment of the NTAS-2 mooring at
the same site. Both moorings used 3-meter discus buoys as the surface element. These
buoys were outfitted with two Air–Sea Interaction Meteorology (ASIMET) systems.
Each system measures, records, and transmits via Argos satellite the surface
meteorological variables necessary to compute air–sea fluxes of heat, moisture and
momentum. The upper 120 m of the NTAS-1 mooring line, and the upper 150 m of the
NTAS-2 mooring line, were outfitted with oceanographic sensors for the measurement of
temperature and velocity.
The mooring turnaround was done on the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown, Cruise
RB-02-02, by the Upper Ocean Processes Group of the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution. The cruise took place between 2 and 8 March 2002. A SeaBeam bathymetry
survey of the site was done first, followed by deployment of the NTAS-2 mooring on 4
March at approximately 14°44.3′ N, 50°56.8′ W in 5043 m of water. A 24-hour
intercomparison period followed, after which the NTAS-1 mooring was recovered. This
report describes these operations, as well as some of the pre-cruise buoy preparations.Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Ocean Research (CICOR) under Grant No. NA17RJ1223
Cooperation and Contagion in Web-Based, Networked Public Goods Experiments
A longstanding idea in the literature on human cooperation is that
cooperation should be reinforced when conditional cooperators are more likely
to interact. In the context of social networks, this idea implies that
cooperation should fare better in highly clustered networks such as cliques
than in networks with low clustering such as random networks. To test this
hypothesis, we conducted a series of web-based experiments, in which 24
individuals played a local public goods game arranged on one of five network
topologies that varied between disconnected cliques and a random regular graph.
In contrast with previous theoretical work, we found that network topology had
no significant effect on average contributions. This result implies either that
individuals are not conditional cooperators, or else that cooperation does not
benefit from positive reinforcement between connected neighbors. We then tested
both of these possibilities in two subsequent series of experiments in which
artificial seed players were introduced, making either full or zero
contributions. First, we found that although players did generally behave like
conditional cooperators, they were as likely to decrease their contributions in
response to low contributing neighbors as they were to increase their
contributions in response to high contributing neighbors. Second, we found that
positive effects of cooperation were contagious only to direct neighbors in the
network. In total we report on 113 human subjects experiments, highlighting the
speed, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness of web-based experiments over those
conducted in physical labs
Stratigraphy of Lake Vida, Antarctica: hydrologic implications of 27 m of ice
Lake Vida, located in Victoria Valley, is one of the largest lakes in the
McMurdo dry valleys and is known to contain hypersaline liquid brine sealed
below 16 m of freshwater ice. For the first time, Lake Vida was drilled to a
depth of 27 m. Below 21 m the ice is marked by well-sorted sand layers up
to 20 cm thick within a matrix of salty ice. From ice chemistry, isotopic
composition of δ18O and δ2H, and ground penetrating radar
profiles, we conclude that the entire 27 m of ice formed from surface
runoff and the sediment layers represent the accumulation of surface
deposits. Radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating limit the
maximum age of the lower ice to 6300 14C yr BP. As the ice cover
ablated downwards during periods of low surface inflow, progressive
accumulation of sediment layers insulated and preserved the ice and brine
beneath, analogous to the processes that preserve shallow ground ice. The
repetition of these sediment layers reveals hydrologic variability in
Victoria Valley during the mid- to late Holocene. Lake Vida is an exemplar
site for understanding the preservation of subsurface brine, ice, and sediment
in a cold desert environment
Social Interactions vs Revisions, What is important for Promotion in Wikipedia?
In epistemic community, people are said to be selected on their knowledge
contribution to the project (articles, codes, etc.) However, the socialization
process is an important factor for inclusion, sustainability as a contributor,
and promotion. Finally, what does matter to be promoted? being a good
contributor? being a good animator? knowing the boss? We explore this question
looking at the process of election for administrator in the English Wikipedia
community. We modeled the candidates according to their revisions and/or social
attributes. These attributes are used to construct a predictive model of
promotion success, based on the candidates's past behavior, computed thanks to
a random forest algorithm.
Our model combining knowledge contribution variables and social networking
variables successfully explain 78% of the results which is better than the
former models. It also helps to refine the criterion for election. If the
number of knowledge contributions is the most important element, social
interactions come close second to explain the election. But being connected
with the future peers (the admins) can make the difference between success and
failure, making this epistemic community a very social community too
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