Environmental policy and 'the identity problem'

Since Antiquity philosophy has abounded with provocative arguments in which what appear to be relatively simple and indisputable assumptions lead to unexpected and often baffling conclusions. Zeno's paradoxical arguments against the existence of motion (e.g. Achilles will never catch up the tortoise), or the Liar Paradox which undermines our belief that propositions must be either true or false, or Berkeley's argument against the existence of matter, are just a few examples. In contemporary discussion of the terms of intergenerational justice, which arises out of our concern with environmental problems and our sense of obligation to leave the world to our succesors in an inhabitable state, we encounter one particular argument which - very much like those time-honoured arguments mentioned above - appears to reach highly paradoxical conclusions. From rather simple assumptions, which we might be inclined to accept, we unexpectedly arrive at conclusions which most of us would be inclined to reject since they seem to violate deeply engrained convictions, or common sense, or our moral intuitions. Several authors have discoverd this particular argument, which is now known in the literature as the Identity Problem, or the Non-Identity Problem (both names come from Parfit), or as the Paradox of the Future Individuals (as Kavka calls it).2 The Identity Problem leads to the conclusion that, whatever policy we adopt towards the future, we are not harming future people. Therefore, we have no moral obligations towards them and we are free to choose any policy we like. Whatever choice we make, future generations would have no grounds for complaint even if we left them a very depleted world or exposed them to risks, such as the risks of nuclear radiation. There is no need to emphasize the possible practical significance of this conclusion if we were to accept it and to allow it to provide moral guidance. Much of the environmental debate involving economists, philosophers, politicians, and environmental activists would become pointless. It would no longer be morally relevant whether we leave to our successors enough natural resources and a clean and safe environment. Most of the major environmental questions (including the question of our moral obligations to future generations) discussed today would seem a waste of time. In a sense, therefore, the Paradox of Future Individuals is a prior problem as regards the problem of inter-generational justice. Only if it can be circumvented is there much point in pursuing further other aspects of inter-generational justice - e.g. whether one should adopt a Rawlsian framework, or a Utilitarian framework, or whatever. One of the most interesting apects of the apparently morally inadmissable Paradox of Future Individuals is that it does not follow from any assumptions about our selfishness, or our lack of concern about the future , or even from a belief in the priority of the needs of the present generations over those of future ones. Rather it claims to follow logically from certain assumptions concerning the concept of harm and the concept of personal identity . It is the purpose of this paper to discuss these assumptions and to argue that they do not, in fact, lead to the conclusion that we have no obligations to the future generations

Linking Supply Chain Strategy and Processes to Performance Improvement

AbstractThis paper proposes a model that will assist companies, particularly the small and medium-sized enterprises, assess their performance by prioritizing supply chain processes and selecting an adequate strategy under various market scenarios. The outlined model utilizes and integrates the SCOR framework standard processes and AHP approach to construct, link, and assess a four level hierarchal structure. The model also helps SMEs put more emphasis on supply chain operations and management. The use and benefits of the proposed model are illustrated on a case of a family owned, medium-sized manufacturing company

Games, Planes and Other Useful Distractions:Teaching Online Diverse International Students

The global pandemic triggered a rapid shift to online delivery of courses, and necessitated a re-evaluation of which in-class, active learning activities can be effectively migrated to the online environment without losing their original pedagogical purpose. In particular, team-based interactions or interactions involving physical objects posed a set of instructional design challenges online. Context of this presentation are online teaching experiences from a large, second-year engineering class with a culturally diversified student body. A key part are weekly studio sessions, which focus on a set of hands-on exercises, providing students with opportunities to bridge general concepts/theories and their practical applications in the context of each team-based project. It describes a ground-roots approach of faculty incorporating learning activities that help students develop teamwork, collaboration, communication, etc. skills. Additional aims are also to help students to lower cultural anxieties, develop interpersonal connections, and a sense of belonging

Simulation-based Verification of Lean Improvement for Emergency Room Process

One of the key challenges to health care access in Canadian hospitals is growing overcrowding of the Emergency Departments (EDs), leading to the medical personnel overload, and the excessive waiting times to receive proper care. These adverse effects directly impact the patient satisfaction levels, the ability of the medical professionals to attend promptly to patients\u27 health issues, and generate unnecessary costs. Addressing the sources of waste and improving the process provides better care and higher patient satisfaction, as well as increases operational efficiency and the ability of the medical professionals to intervene on time. This paper describes an effort aimed at improvement of patients\u27 experience over their ED stay. A combination of Lean tools were used to analyze, assess and improve the current situation. Simulation models based on current and future (desired) states were developed. Comparative analysis of both enabled verification of feasibility of proposed solutions, and provided quantifiable results

On-line scheduling method of manufacturing system based on VS algorithm for reference pattern

In this paper, a scheduling method is developed provide planning for manufacturing plants with multiple coordinating cells. The controls for reconfigurable manufacturing systems have to be capable not only of identifying exceptions on-line, but also simultaneously developing on-line strategies for unpredictable customer order changes or inaccurate estimate of processing times. The approach exploits virtual supervisor (VS) concept developing an algorithm which provides access to all system information during program execution and thus can readily monitor the overall system performance creating reference pattern. The goal is to minimize expected costs of part tardiness and/or earliness. A solution methodology based on a combined Lagrangian relaxation, VS-Patterns, Maxwell equations and temporal difference is developed to reduce the computational requirements for large problems. Sequences pattern shows that near optimal schedules can be obtained a dual solution for on-line implementation

An Approach to Line Balancing on Virtual Supervisor Induction Method and Intelligent Agents

This approach develops a method for solving the line-balancing problem, which is based on two stages. The works in a first stage is to identify the task of workstation, the assignment of the tasks to stations on the line and the recognized balance delay. In this stage we propose the induction VS method, which allows further identify the exact position between pieces, machine into a workstation and also between extern workstation, as well as intracellular and intercellular part. This way each task is identified and measured. In the second stage is to carry out a macro-approach to choose the resource to perform each of them. The hybrid intelligent agent architecture is proposed for this second stage, which has consideration of machining sequence. The integration between both technologies allows us to develop new hybrid architecture capable to reduce the computational time in the deliberative layers fundamentally. Finally, a reconfigurable testbed has been proposed for future experiments and results to evaluate this new balancing method. Some previous computational experiments provide that the proposed approach is efficient to solve practical transfer line design for balancing problem

Regular modes in rotating stars

Despite more and more observational data, stellar acoustic oscillation modes are not well understood as soon as rotation cannot be treated perturbatively. In a way similar to semiclassical theory in quantum physics, we use acoustic ray dynamics to build an asymptotic theory for the subset of regular modes which are the easiest to observe and identify. Comparisons with 2D numerical simulations of oscillations in polytropic stars show that both the frequency and amplitude distributions of these modes can accurately be described by an asymptotic theory for almost all rotation rates. The spectra are mainly characterized by two quantum numbers; their extraction from observed spectra should enable one to obtain information about stellar interiors.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, discussion adde

Large Uncertainties in the Thermodynamics of Phosphorus (III) Oxide (P4_4O6_6) Have Significant Implications for Phosphorus Species in Planetary Atmospheres

Phosphorus (III) oxide (P$_4$O$_6$) has been suggested to be a major component of the gas phase phosphorus chemistry in the atmospheres of gas giant planets and of Venus. However, P$_4$O$_6$'s proposed role is based on thermodynamic modeling, itself based on values for the free energy of formation of P$_4$O$_6$ estimated from limited experimental data. Values of the standard Gibbs free energy of formation ($\Delta$Go(g)) of P$_4$O$_6$ in the literature differ by up to ~656 kJ/mol, a huge range. Depending on which value is assumed, P$_4$O$_6$ may either be the majority phosphorus species present or be completely absent from modeled atmospheres. Here, we critically review the literature thermodynamic values and compare their predictions to observed constraints on P$_4$O$_6$ geochemistry. We conclude that the widely used values from the NIST/JANAF database are almost certainly too low (predicting that P$_4$O$_6$ is more stable than is plausible). We show that, regardless of the value of $\Delta$Go(g) for P$_4$O$_6$ assumed, the formation of phosphine from P$_4$O$_6$ in the Venusian atmosphere is thermodynamically unfavorable. We conclude that there is a need for more robust data on both the thermodynamics of phosphorus chemistry for astronomical and geological modeling in general and for understanding the atmosphere of Venus and the gas giant planets in particular.Comment: Article published in ACS Earth Space Chem. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsearthspacechem.3c0001

FMR Study of the Porous Silicate Glasses with Fe 3

The results of research on new magnetic materials for biomedical applications are discussed. These materials are porous silicate glasses with magnetic fillers. To ensure the smallest number of components for subsequent removal from the body, the magnetic fillers are bare magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4). The magnetic properties of these materials have been investigated using the ferromagnetic resonance method (FMR). The FMR analysis has been complemented by scanning electron microscope (SEM) measurements. In order to examine the effect of time degradation on filling the porous glass with bare magnetite nanoparticles the FMR measurement was repeated five months later. For the samples with high degree of pore filling, in contrast to the samples with low degree of pore filling, the FMR signal was still strong. The influence of different pH values of magnetite nanoparticles aqueous suspension on the degree of filling the pores of glasses is also discussed. The experimental results are supported by computer simulations of FMR experiment for a cluster of N magnetic nanoparticles locked in a porous medium based on a stochastic version of the Landau-Lifshitz equation for nanoparticle magnetization