Exploratory analysis of a systemic approach to study supply chain integration potential in the UK offshore wind industry

Emphasis has been placed on supply chain management (SCM) and supply chain integration (SCI) within the offshore wind (OSW) industry in the United Kingdom (UK). The UK government has shown an interest in developing a technologically advanced, skilful, and competitive domestic supply chain with the potential to support future OSW developments around the UK coast. The need to develop a more cost-effective and collaborative OSW supply chain has introduced the concept of SCI into discussions of the OSW industry. Notwithstanding the importance of SCM and SCI in the UK OSW industry, and despite the widespread use of these terms within the industry, little has been done to explain these concepts in relation to the context of OSW. The purpose of this thesis is to address this limitation by providing more detailed description of the OSW supply chain from a theoretical standpoint by empirically exploring SCI in the OSW industry to build a greater understanding of the nature and potential of SCI in the OSW. This research focuses on the development and construction phases of ‘fixed bottom’ OSW farms in the UK. Based on the existing SCM and project-based SCM literature, this thesis provides discussion of the OSW supply chain. The thesis also explores the literature on SCI and systems thinking to form a foundation for an empirical study of SCI in the OSW industry. It applies a systems thinking approach called the Viable System Model (VSM) to qualitatively explore the nature and potential of SCI in the OSW supply chain. This research draws upon Espinosa and Walker’s (2017) suggested ‘methodology to support self-transformation’ as a guideline for the application of the VSM, and conducts interviews with representatives of the OSW supply chain for the collection of primary data. The thesis proposes two SCI strategies based on the VSM; the ‘viable SCI strategy’ and the ‘strategic cluster integration strategy’, which demonstrate the potential of SCI within the OSW industry, including what improvements could be made to facilitate the performance of the whole supply chain. The research findings provide insights into the current nature of SCI within the OSW industry, ultimately suggesting that SCI is largely dependent upon the different approaches taken by OSW project developers when managing supply chains. In addition, this research identifies several facilitating and inhibiting factors of SCI. This thesis contributes to the existing body of knowledge by introducing a VSM inspired framework for the analysis of SCI within project-based environments. Furthermore, it proposes SCI strategies to show how OSW supply chains can be integrated and what improvements could be achieved as a result

Fortress Kaliningrad Ever closer to Moscow. OSW Point of View, October 2019

Moscow’s policy towards the Kaliningrad Oblast has been increasingly consistent in recent years. Its main objective has been to further tighten its grip on the region and its links to mainland Russia in the political, social and economic dimension. As a result, the Kaliningrad Oblast has been made more subordinated to Moscow, which is in line with a general trend in the relations between Russia’s central government and the regions

Understanding the entrepreneurial process to adopt renewable energies in Sweden : a case study on an offshore wind park project in the Baltic Sea

The alarming magnitude of the global climate crisis is on the rise. Thus, a profound and rapid energy system transition towards renewable energies is needed. Offshore wind (OSW) parks are a promising energy source to boost green energy production. While OSW has been adopted in many European countries (e.g. Denmark and Germany), the uptake in Sweden is slow. Adopting large infrastructure projects (e.g. OSW) involve a plurality of actors who influence the adoption process. Studies that examine OSW adoption in Sweden emphasise the policy context for adoption (e.g. negotiating of a permit). Fewer studies consider the situation for entrepreneurs seeking to adopt OSW. Therefore, the paper focuses on the entrepreneurial planning process of adopting OSW in Sweden. Since the entrepreneur is one of many actors influencing the adoption of OSW, a governance perspective is applied to investigate the interplay of actors. The paper follows a case-study research design investigating a planned OSW park project in the Baltic Sea region close to the Archipelago of Stockholm. Primary data was collected through qualitative interviews with social actors involved in the case project. In addition, secondary data from documents, videos and webinars were collected to gain further insights. An in-depth frame analysis was conducted to analyse the interplay of multiple actors and their exercise of agency and power to influence the adoption of the case project. The group of identified actors was allocated to the following five actor constituencies: market, state, community, and the third sector. The actors used different modes of agency to influence the entrepreneurial process (support, collaboration, and communication). In conclusion, the study showed that the permit system is the prevailing regime that governs the adoption of OSW parks in Sweden. The entrepreneurial process to adopt OSW is complex. Thus, context (e.g. involved actors) is key to understanding the complexity of adopting renewable energies. Predefined models often do not address this context, making them difficult to apply to the adoption of large infrastructure projects (e.g. OSW park). Therefore, applying a governance perspective on the case project was helpful in creating context to understand the real-world conditions of adopting OSW parks in Sweden

The Aleurocanthus spiniferus (OSW) in Europe: a becoming invasive threat to citrus also.

The orange spiny whitefly (OSW), Aleurocanthus spiniferus, is a worldwide known citrus pest native to tropical Asia. Since the beginning of the 20th century, OSW spread throughout Asia, the Pacific, central and Southern Africa and from 2008 it was intercepted many times in EPPO area (Italy, Croatia and Montenegro). OSW polyphagy is well known, being able to infest more than 90 host plants belonging to unrelated botanical families, although Citrus spp. are considered the primary hosts. Accurate samplings highlighted OSW new host associations extending the range of plant families potentially exploitable and confirming the existence of host-shift phenomena. Analyses of the mitochondrial COI gene revealed that OSW Apulian population belongs solely to one of the two haplogroups present in China. Furthermore, the study of microbiota allowed us to identify the principal endosymbiotic bacteria in OSW. So far, field samplings confirmed the presence of predators belonging to Coccinellidae family able to prey on different evelopmental stages of A. spiniferus. These findings could be considered as an opportunity for biological control of OSW. Results laid solid foundations in the knowledge of European OSW populations now invading Italy and neighbouring countries to counteract a pan-Mediterranean invasion of this harmful whitefly. Further studies are essential for the assessment of an effective IPM strategy tailored either for organic or intensive agricultural context

The Case for Policy in Developing Offshore Wind: Lessons from Norway

Offshore wind (OSW) has the potential to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and halt damaging climate change. However, policies to foster an OSW industry in Norway have long been small and scarce. Recent events suggest that this is changing, as the state-owned enterprise Enova decided to grant a record NOK 2.3 bn to build the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm in 2019, the Hywind Tampen project. Based on previous work by the corresponding author, we summarize the political development of OSW in Norway to distil generalisable lessons. The corresponding author employed interviews, document analysis and process tracing, using a theory of policy change to characterise the observed political change. She found that the main obstacle for early OSW deployment has been that environmental and visibility concerns have exacerbated energy–political ones that are created by a longstanding lack of local energy demands. As the green energy demand on a global scale is soaring, the lack of OSW deployment for exports implies that climate–political objectives have been subordinated to energy–political ones, in the formulation of Norwegian OSW policies. This hierarchy of goals was not deemed to have changed, despite the recent political developments in the policy area of Norwegian OSW. Hence, the Norwegian case demonstrates the role of context and national sectoral policies in deciding the pace of sustainable energy transitions. It is suggested that future research considers how policy best practices for renewable energy deployment could be adjusted across varying national contexts to overcome political hurdles to the sustainable transition.publishedVersio

Aleurocanthus spiniferus, an alien invasive threat to Europe. AssociatEd bacterial community and natural enemies

Aleurocanthus spiniferus also known as orange spiny whitefly (OSW), is a pest native to tropical Asia that in the last century has spread throughout Asia, reaching Africa, Australia, and Pacific islands. In 2008 the first European OSW population was recorded in Apulia region (South East Italy) and allowed EPPO to add the species as a quarantine threat to Europe now in the A2 list. In the following years OSW spread and invaded new territories of Italy, Croatia and Montenegro. Although OSW polyphagy is already well-known, new associations with autochthonous and allochthonous plants have been reported showing its host-shifting ability. To counteract an upcoming pan-Mediterranean invasion updated bio-ethological information of the pest and the role of possible natural enemies are essential to implement a correct IPM strategy. Field samplings have been aimed at the identification of natural enemies and the evaluation of their efficacy. Furthermore, through insect small-RNA sequencing and by Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) technique coupled with 16S-rRNA gene sequencing, the primary symbiotic bacteria of OSW have been identified. Sampling on natural enemies highlighted the presence of predatory species belonging to the Coccinellidae family. Besides to the almost ineffective populations of Oenopia conglobata and Clithostetus arcuatus, new findings detected scattered Delphastus sp. populations along the western coast of Italy. Both adult and larvae of this ladybird species preyed OSW developmental stages. The evaluation of the role of Delphastus sp. as biocontrol agent is underway. The first study on OSW microbiota allowed to find symbiotic bacteria commonly associated with the genus Aleurocanthus: Portiera sp., Serratia sp., Wolbachia sp., Rickettsia sp. and, although sporadically, other species. Further studies will target the functional role of these symbionts to develop an effective IPM tailored for Countries at risk

From laggard to leader: explaining offshore wind developments in the UK

Offshore wind technology has recently undergone rapid deployment in the UK. And yet, up until recently, the UK was considered a laggard in terms of deploying renewable energy. How can this burst of offshore wind activity be explained? An economic analysis would seek signs for newfound competitiveness for offshore wind in energy markets. A policy analysis would highlight renewable energy policy developments and assess their contribution to economic prospects of offshore wind. However, neither perspective sheds sufficient light on the advocacy of the actors involved in the development and deployment of the technology. Without an account of technology politics it is hard to explain continuing policy support despite rising costs. By analysing the actor networks and narratives underpinning policy support for offshore wind, we explain how a fairly effective protective space was constructed through the enroling of key political and economic interests

Spontaneous Subtle Expression Detection and Recognition based on Facial Strain

Optical strain is an extension of optical flow that is capable of quantifying subtle changes on faces and representing the minute facial motion intensities at the pixel level. This is computationally essential for the relatively new field of spontaneous micro-expression, where subtle expressions can be technically challenging to pinpoint. In this paper, we present a novel method for detecting and recognizing micro-expressions by utilizing facial optical strain magnitudes to construct optical strain features and optical strain weighted features. The two sets of features are then concatenated to form the resultant feature histogram. Experiments were performed on the CASME II and SMIC databases. We demonstrate on both databases, the usefulness of optical strain information and more importantly, that our best approaches are able to outperform the original baseline results for both detection and recognition tasks. A comparison of the proposed method with other existing spatio-temporal feature extraction approaches is also presented.Comment: 21 pages (including references), single column format, accepted to Signal Processing: Image Communication journa

Clinical Presentation and Treatment Outcomes of Children and Adolescents with Low Back Pain in Physical Therapy

Purpose: Low back pain (LBP) is a common condition in adolescents, and a specific pathoanatomical origin for the symptoms cannot always be determined. The purpose of this work was to examine the clinical presentation and outcomes of rehabilitation for adolescents with LBP. Methods: This study was completed in three phases. Phase 1 was a retrospective review of 25 patients under the age of 18 who were seen for treatment of LBP. Information regarding the patients' diagnoses, history, examination, and outcome were collected from chart review. Phase 2 was a review of 99 patients under the age of 18 with LBP. Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) and the Modified Oswestry Questionnaire (OSW) were recorded. Phase 3 consisted of a prospective study of treatment-based classification (TBC) of 34 adolescent patients seen in physical therapy for LBP. Treatment duration and content were at the clinician's discretion. Patients completed an OSW and NPRS before and after physical therapy. Patients were classified using a TBC algorithm, and effectiveness of classification on outcome was examined. Results: In study 1, initial pain scores were lower if a specific pathology was present (P=.001). Initial pain and OSW scores were poorly correlated (r= 0.16). 44% (n=11) of patients scored under the floor value of 12% on OSW. A second examination of the OSW in study 2 concluded that OSW was moderately correlated with NPRS (0.59). Chronbach's alpha was 0.86. All 10 items in OSW appeared to load onto two latent factors. In study 3, a classification decision was able to be made with a moderate degree of reliability (0.53 (0.28, 0.79) ≤ κ ≤ 0.89 (.74, 1.0)) in all of the 34 patients. Stabilization was the most commonly prescribed treatment by clinicians. Those who were matched to their TBC classification experienced fewer numbers of visits than those who were not. Conclusions: It appears the OSW is a valid and reliable tool for assessing clinical outcome of physical therapy intervention for adolescents with LBP. These results also suggest that a TBC approach to treatment of LBP in this population may be effective for improvements in clinical outcome