A philosophical outlook on potential conflicts between planetary protection, astrobiology and commercial use of space

The aim of this chapter is to use philosophy and, in particular ethical theory, to identify and explore some potential conflicts

What are the core ideas behind the Precautionary Principle?

The Precautionary Principle is both celebrated and criticized. It has become an important principle for decision making, but it is also subject to criticism. One problem that is often pointed out with the principle is that is not clear what it actually says and how to use it. I have taken on this problem by performing an analysis of some of the most influential formulations of the principle in an attempt to identify the core ideas behind it, with the purpose of producing a formulation of the principle that is clear and practically applicable. It was found that what is called the Precautionary Principle is not a principle that tells us what do to achieve extra precaution or how to handle situations when extra precaution is called for. Instead, it was found to be a list of circumstances that each justify extra precaution. An analysis of some of the most common and influential formulations of the Precautionary Principle identified four such circumstances: (1) When we deal with important values that tend to be systematically downplayed by traditional decision methods – such as human health and the environment. (2) When we suspect that the decision might lead to irreversible and severe consequences and the values at stake are also irreplaceable, (3) When timing is at least as important as being right. (4) When it is more important to avoid false negatives than false positives. This interpretation of the Precautionary Principle does not say anything about what kind of actions to take when extra precaution is called for, but it does provide a clear and practically useful list of circumstances that call for extra precaution and that is not subject to the most common objections to the Precautionary Principle

Ethics and the potential conflicts between astrobiology, planetary protection and commercial use of space

A high standard of planetary protection is important for astrobiology, though the risk for contamination can never be zero. It is therefore important to find a balance. If extraterrestrial life has a moral standing in its own right, it will also affect what we have to do to protect it. The questions of how far we need to go to protect extraterrestrial life will be even more acute and complicated when the time comes to use habitable worlds for commercial purposes. There will also be conflicts between those who want to set a world aside for more research and those who want to give the green light for development. I believe it is important to be proactive in relation to these issues. The aim of my project is therefore to identify, elucidate, and if possible, suggest solutions to potential conflicts between astrobiology, planetary protection, and commercial use of space

CONCEPÇÕES DA GERAÇÃO Y EM RELAÇÃO À BUROCRACIA UNIVERSITÁRIA

O objetivo do artigo é identificar as concepções e posicionamentos de servidores técnico-administrativos em educação (STAE’s) em relação à burocracia universitária com a qual lidam no cotidiano do seu trabalho. Nosso propósito é abordar a questão da reconfiguração do quadro de pessoal técnico-administrativo nas instituições federais com especial enfoque nas implicações do ingresso de profissionais jovens, ou da chamada geração Y, para o enfrentamento do problema da burocracia na gestão administrativa das universidades. Mediante uma concepção de pesquisa descritiva, abordagem predominantemente qualitativa e estratégia do estudo de caso, analisamos um setor administrativo da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). Os resultados nos revelam que os jovens servidores têm empregado esforços constantes para a flexibilização das estruturas e dinamização dos processos de trabalho. Valorizam a autonomia, a dialogicidade na tomada de decisão e em geral tendem a assumir outras responsabilidades. Esses resultados podem nos servir como indicativos de uma possibilidade de mudanças positivas em direção à reestruturação organizacional e ao aprimoramento das funcionalidades burocráticas que conduzam as universidades federais a patamares mais próximos da excelência administrativa e acadêmica

On Hardy q-inequalities

Some q-analysis variants of Hardy type inequalities of the form \int_0^b (x^{\alpha-1} \int_0^x t^{-\alpha} f(t) d_qt)^p d_qx \leq C \int_0^b f^p(t) d_qt with sharp constant C are proved and discussed. A similar result with the Riemann-Liouville operator involved is also proved. Finally, it is pointed out that by using these techniques we can also obtain some new discrete Hardy and Copson type inequalities in the classical case.Comment: To appear in Czechoslovak Math. J., 22 page

Report from a Socratic Dialogue on the Concept of Risk

The term ’risk’ is used in a wide range of situations, but there is no real consensus of what it means. ‘Risk ‘is often stipulatively defined as “a probability for the occurrence of a negative event” or something similar. This formulation is however not very informative, and it fails to capture many of our intuitions about the concept or risk. One way of trying to find a common definition of a term within a group is to use a Socratic Dialogue (SD). This method is fairly new, and it is rather different from the original Socratic dialogues (at least if we are to judge from how they are described by Plato). The best explanation for the name ought to be that it is inspired by the original Socratic dialogues. The SD in its modern form was originally developed as a tool for enabling laymen to perform rather advanced concept analyses under the supervision of a professional philosopher. The formal goal of the method is to find a common way of perceiving of a particular term, or at least to find out exactly how the members of the group differ in their understandings of the term, and why. The largest gain from the process has in practice turned out to be a higher awareness among the participants of different ways of understanding the term, and the ideas and intuitions behind it. This has turned out to be very useful in educational settings, but the method has also been used with great success both in research, and in e.g. business, public administration and nongovernmental organisations. In the present case, a Socratic dialogue on the concept of risk was performed within the framework of a Ph D-course about risk and uncertainty at the Swedish University of Agriculture in Alnarp, Sweden. The participants on the course where all quite familiar with practical issues relating to risks. Both from the course work, and from their own research

Stress and Strength Analysis of Curved Glulam Beams With Box Cross-Section

Glulam arches can be used when designing structures with large spans such as halls or arenas. Wood has low density compared to steel and concrete which keeps down the dead weight of the structure. The cross section of glulam arches is often built up as a box-section for efficiency reasons. However, wood shows strongly orthotropic behavior where maximum allowed stress perpendicular to grain is only 1-2% of maximum stress along grain. Bending moment creates stress perpendicular to grain for a curved beam element. By altering the slope of the arch, moment forces can be minimized for a specific load distribution and the structure can be designed using a minimum of material. Wood is a heterogeneous material which means that different parts of the material have different properties. The volume of wood needed for designing an arch big enough for a structure as a hall or an arena is substantial. As the volume of wood under stress is increased the probability that a small part of the volume has a low ultimate stress value also increases. This effect can be handled using Weibull statistics theory. In this thesis expressions for calculation of normal stress, shear stress and stress perpendicular to grain are derived for a curved beam with box cross section using beam theory. By using equilibrium conditions and an approximation method, the force vector corresponding to a distributed load of a curved beam element is described without the need of shape functions. With use of the finite element method, reaction forces can be calculated for an arbitrary system of curved beams. If the reaction forces are known, it’s possible to calculate the section forces using the equilibrium conditions. Finally, Weibull theory is used to calculate the strength of such a structural system. The theory is implemented using MATLAB/CALFEM to create a toolbox which can be used for strength design of structures made of curved glulam beams. Calculations carried out using the toolkit developed show that the Weibull theory size effect has a large impact on the strength of large arches. Analysis of an arch with a span of about 90 meters shows that the strength may be heavily overestimated if the size effect is disregarded