51,278 research outputs found
The moderating and mediating role of local government in the community engagement strategy of a renewable energy company in South Africa
Adopting a qualitative case study approach of a renewable energy company in South Africa, the research investigated community engagement within the tripartite relationship of a wind farm, the communities, and the local government. It was found that local government played a moderating role in the community engagement efforts of the wind farm which had to comply with certain engagement protocols determined by local government. Local government also played a mediating role in corporate community engagement, as the wind farm developed their engagement strategy in alignment with local governmentâs policies and acted as a âdot-connectorâ between local government and communities. The wind farm played a reciprocal mediating role on local governmentâs own engagement with their communities in the face of local governmentâs inefficiencies and complemented service delivery outcomes. The wind farmâs engagement strategy thus enabled local development which was appreciated by communities and local government
The social license to operate in the onshore wind energy industry: a comparative case study of Scotland and South Africa
The operations of the onshore wind energy industry are seen by some to cause significant disruption to local communities and there is much debate regarding the extent of national and local support for onshore windfarms. Much like the more traditional energy industries such as mining and oil extraction, the onshore wind energy industry must seek a Social License to Operate (SLO) in order to ensure a long-term and sustainable investment. However, the attitudes of local and national communities to onshore wind farms can vary quite widely, which exposes operations to political and economic risks and raises questions regarding the conditions under which an SLO may be reliably obtained. The research presented here examines the role of government policy and ownership structure in the SLO of two operations in two very different national contexts; Scotland and South Africa. Findings from twenty-three qualitative interviews show that ownership structure is not a significant contributor to the community's support of the operation, and that government policy is an important facilitator of community approval. However, it is also shown that the mechanisms of this facilitation are heavily context dependent. The policy implications of this are discussed and recommendations for government and company policy are offered
The effects of dehydration on the aerobic and anaerobic capacities of men, part IV FINAL scientific report
Dehydration effects on work capacity and aerobic capacities of me
Part III - The effects of thermal stresses on the aerobic and anaerobic work capacities of men Final scientific report
Effects of hyperthermia and hypothermia on aerobic and anaerobic work capacities of me
Some exact solutions with torsion in 5-D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity
Exact solutions with torsion in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity are derived.
These solutions have a cross product structure of two constant curvature
manifolds. The equations of motion give a relation for the coupling constants
of the theory in order to have solutions with nontrivial torsion. This relation
is not the Chern-Simons combination. One of the solutions has a structure and is so the purely gravitational analogue of the
Bertotti-Robinson space-time where the torsion can be seen as the dual of the
covariantly constant electromagnetic field.Comment: 19 pages, LaTex, no figures. References added, notation clarified.
Accepted for publication on Physical Review
Plant root proliferation in nitrogen-rich patches confers competitive advantage
Plants respond to environmental heterogeneity, particularly below ground, where spectacular root proliferations in nutrient-rich patches may occur. Such 'foraging' responses apparently maximize nutrient uptake and are now prominent in plant ecological theory. Proliferations in nitrogen-rich patches are difficult to explain adaptively, however. The high mobility of soil nitrate should limit the contribution of proliferation to N capture. Many experiments on isolated plants show only a weak relation between proliferation and N uptake. We show that N capture is associated strongly with proliferation during interspecific competition for finite, locally available, mixed N sources, precisely the conditions under which N becomes available to plants on generally infertile soils. This explains why N-induced root proliferation is an important resource-capture mechanism in N-limited plant communities and suggests that increasing proliferation by crop breeding or genetic manipulation will have a limited impact on N capture by well-fertilized monocultures
Energetics of intrinsic point defects in ZrSiO
Using first principles calculations we have studied the formation energies,
electron and hole affinities, and electronic levels of intrinsic point defects
in zircon. The atomic structures of charged interstitials, vacancies, Frenkel
pairs and anti-site defects are obtained. The limit of high concentration of
point defects, relevant for the use of this material in nuclear waste
immobilization, was studied with a variable lattice relaxation that can
simulate the swelling induced by radiation damage. The limit of low
concentration of defects is simulated with larger cells and fixed lattice
parameters. Using known band offset values at the interface of zircon with
silicon, we analyze the foreseeable effect of the defects on the electronic
properties of zircon used as gate in metal-oxide-semiconductor devices.Comment: preprint 16 pages, 4 figures, and 5 table
The star-formation history of the universe - an infrared perspective
A simple and versatile parameterized approach to the star formation history
allows a quantitative investigation of the constraints from far infrared and
submillimetre counts and background intensity measurements.
The models include four spectral components: infrared cirrus (emission from
interstellar dust), an M82-like starburst, an Arp220-like starburst and an AGN
dust torus. The 60 m luminosity function is determined for each chosen
rate of evolution using the PSCz redshift data for 15000 galaxies. The
proportions of each spectral type as a function of 60 m luminosity are
chosen for consistency with IRAS and SCUBA colour-luminosity relations, and
with the fraction of AGN as a function of luminosity found in 12 m
samples. The luminosity function for each component at any wavelength can then
be calculated from the assumed spectral energy distributions. With assumptions
about the optical seds corresponding to each component and, for the AGN
component, the optical and near infrared counts can be accurately modelled.
A good fit to the observed counts at 0.44, 2.2, 15, 60, 90, 175 and 850
m can be found with pure luminosity evolution in all 3 cosmological models
investigated: = 1, = 0.3 ( = 0), and
= 0.3, = 0.7.
All 3 models also give an acceptable fit to the integrated background
spectrum. Selected predictions of the models, for example redshift
distributions for each component at selected wavelengths and fluxes, are shown.
The total mass-density of stars generated is consistent with that observed,
in all 3 cosmological models.Comment: 20 pages, 25 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Full details
of models can be found at http://astro.ic.ac.uk/~mrr/countmodel
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