843 research outputs found

    The Approach of Ecological Economics

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    This paper discusses the major tenets of ecological economics - including value pluralism, methodological pluralism, and multi-criteria policy assessment. Ecological economics offers viable alternatives to the theoretical foundations and policy recommendations of neoclassical welfare economics. A revolution in neoclassical economics is currently taking place and the core assumptions of welfare economics are being replaced with more realistic models of consumer and firm behavior. But we argue that these new theoretical and empirical findings are largely ignored in applied work and policy applications in environmental economics. As the only heterodox school of economics focusing on the human economy both as a social system and as one imbedded in the biophysical universe, and thus both holistic and scientifically based, ecological economics is poised to play a leading role in recasting the scope and method of economic science.

    Ecological Economics at a Crossroads

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    During the past decade theoretical and empirical advances in neoclassical economics have resulted in the virtual rejection of the two pillars of traditional welfare economics-- rational economic man and perfect competition. Surprisingly, many ecological economists are moving closer to the discredited neo-Walrasian welfare model just at the time it is being replaced within the mainstream. We call for a return to the roots of ecological economics and an engagement with current developments in mainstream theory.

    Writing Double: Politics and The African Narrative of French Expression

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    This essay studies two African narratives of French expression (Le Temps de Tamango of Boubacar Diop and L\u27Enfant de sable of Tahar ben Jelloun) to see how they create a discourse of difference that challenges and deconstructs the conventions of the discursive system of French, its signifying practices, and its ideological underpinnings. The tactics of these narratives, which mark them as post-colonial in a strict sense (as opposed to neo-colonial), are productive of a radical other-meaning, a new meaning that speaks to the concerns of and problems confronting the non-Western writer

    Soviet Military Power and Performance

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    Water quality effects of intermittent water supply in Arraiján, Panama

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    Intermittent drinking water supply is common in low- and middle-income countries throughout the world and can cause waterquality to degrade in the distribution system.In this study,we characterized waterquality in one study zone with continuous supply and three zoneswith intermittentsupply in the drinking waterdistribution network in Arraija!n,Panama.Low orzero pressuresoccurred in allzones,and negative pressuresoccurred in the continuouszone and two ofthe intermittentzones.Despite hydraulic conditions that created risks for backflow and contaminant intrusion, only four of 423 (0.9%) grab samplescollected atrandom timeswere positive fortotalcoliform bacteria and only one waspositive for E.coli.Only nine of 496 (1.8%) samples had turbidity >1.0 NTU and all samples had !0.2 mg/L free chlorine residual.In contrast,water quality was often degraded during the first-flush period (when supply first returned after an outage).Still, routine and first-flush water quality under intermittent supply was much better in Arraija!n than that reported in a previous study conducted in India.Better waterquality in Arraija!n could be due to betterwaterquality leaving the treatmentplant,shortersupply outages,highersupply pressures,a more consistentand higherchlorine residual,and fewercontaminant sourcesnearpipes.The resultsillustrate thatintermittentsupply and itseffectson waterquality can vary greatly between and within distribution networks.The study also demonstrated thatmonitoring techniques designed specifically for intermittentsupply,such as continuous pressure monitoring and sampling the firstflush,can detectwaterquality threats and degradation thatwould notlikely be detected with conventionalmonitoring.Intermittent drinking water supply is common in low- and middle-income countries throughout the world and can cause waterquality to degrade in the distribution system.In this study,we characterized waterquality in one study zone with continuous supply and three zoneswith intermittentsupply in the drinking waterdistribution network in Arraija!n,Panama.Low orzero pressuresoccurred in allzones,and negative pressuresoccurred in the continuouszone and two ofthe intermittentzones.Despite hydraulic conditions that created risks for backflow and contaminant intrusion, only four of 423 (0.9%) grab samplescollected atrandom timeswere positive fortotalcoliform bacteria and only one waspositive for E.coli.Only nine of 496 (1.8%) samples had turbidity >1.0 NTU and all samples had !0.2 mg/L free chlorine residual.In contrast,water quality was often degraded during the first-flush period (when supply first returned after an outage).Still, routine and first-flush water quality under intermittent supply was much better in Arraija!n than that reported in a previous study conducted in India.Better waterquality in Arraija!n could be due to betterwaterquality leaving the treatmentplant,shortersupply outages,highersupply pressures,a more consistentand higherchlorine residual,and fewercontaminant sourcesnearpipes.The resultsillustrate thatintermittentsupply and itseffectson waterquality can vary greatly between and within distribution networks.The study also demonstrated thatmonitoring techniques designed specifically for intermittentsupply,such as continuous pressure monitoring and sampling the firstflush,can detectwaterquality threats and degradation thatwould notlikely be detected with conventionalmonitoring

    Systems, methods and apparatus for implementation of formal specifications derived from informal requirements

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    Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments an informal specification is translated without human intervention into a formal specification. In some embodiments the formal specification is a process-based specification. In some embodiments, the formal specification is translated into a high-level computer programming language which is further compiled into a set of executable computer instructions

    Systems, methods and apparatus for verification of knowledge-based systems

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    Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments, domain knowledge is translated into a knowledge-based system. In some embodiments, a formal specification is derived from rules of a knowledge-based system, the formal specification is analyzed, and flaws in the formal specification are used to identify and correct errors in the domain knowledge, from which a knowledge-based system is translated
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