Suchergebnisse

Over the past century, the automobile has become an integral part of modern industrializedsociety. Consumer demands, regulatory legislation, and the corporate need togenerate a profit, have been the most influential factors in driving forward the evolutionof the automobile. As the comfort, safety, and reliability of the automobile haveincreased, so has its complexity, and most definitely its mass.The work within this thesis addresses the twofold problem of economy and ecologywith respect to sustainable development of automobiles. Specifically, the conflictingproblems of reducing weight, and maintaining or improving noise, vibration, andharshness behaviour are addressed. Potential solutions to these problems must also beexecutable at the same, or preferably lower production costs. The hypothesis is that byreplacing acoustic treatments, aesthetic details, and complex systems of structural componentsboth on the interior and exterior of the vehicle with a single multi-functionalbody panel, functionality can be retained at a reduced mass (i.e. reduced consumptionof raw materials) and reduced fiscal cost.A case study is performed focusing on the roof structure of a production vehicle. Fullvehicle and component level acoustic testing is performed to acquire acoustic functionalrequirements. Vibro-mechanical testing at the component level is performedto acquire structural functional requirements complimentary to those in the vehiclesdesign specifications. Finite element modelling and analysis is employed to createa model representative of the as-tested component and evaluate its acoustic and mechanicalbehaviour numerically. Results of numerical simulations are compared withthe measured results for both acoustic and mechanical response in order to verify themodel and firmly establish a set of acoustic and mechanical constraints for future work.A new, multi-layered, multi-functional sandwich panel concept is proposed which replacesthe outer sheet metal, damping treatments, transverse beams, and interior trimof the existing ...

Maģistra darba temats ir Sabiedrības vides veselības apziņas veicināšana. Autore darbā pēta veselības apziņas problemātiku, to ietekmējošos faktorus un piedāvāt savu skatījumu uz vides veselības apziņu. Maģistra darba mērķis ir izstrādāt vides veselības apziņas veicināšanas konceptuālo modeli. Sabiedrības vides veselības apziņu veido vairāki elementi – zināšanas, attieksme un vērtības, veselības aprūpes sistēma, uzvedība un motivācija. Lai sasniegto izvirzīto mērķi tika veikta literatūras analīze, intervēts plašs respondentu loks un veikta anketēšana (aptverot valsts un pašvaldības iestādes, masu mēdijus, NVO, kā arī netradicionālo spektru pārstāvjus). Autore darbā apskata vides pārvaldību un ilgtspējīgu attīstību; vides veselību un tās noteicošos faktorus; apskata vides problemātiku normatīvajos aktos; analizē vides veselības apziņu; apskata izglītību kā vides veselības apziņu ietekmējošu faktoru, kā arī tiek skarti vides veselības holistiskās paradigmas principi. ; A theme of the master's work is Public environmental health consciousness promotion. The author investigates issues related to health conscience and its influencing factors, and offer authors perspective on environmental health awareness. Master's work aim is to develop conceptual model to promote environmental health awareness. Public environmental health awareness is composed of several elements - knowledge, attitude and values, health-care system, behavior and motivation. To achieve this objective was performed analysis of the literature, interviewed a wide range of respondents and conducted survey (covering state and local authorities, mass media, NGOs, as well as non-traditional range of representatives. In Master's work author deals with environmental management and sustainable development; environmental health and its determinants; examines environmental problems in the legislation; analyze environmental health awareness; dealing with education as a factor influencing environmental health awareness, as well as touching on environmental health holistic paradigm principles.

The Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft; MPG) with equal weight supports both the Golden and Green Road to Open Access in practice and politically in a sustainable way. In the context of the Green Road it runs with eDoc a central institutional repository for the MPG. The software of the same name is an in-house development. Based on the experiences and wishes of the users, currently, a new application (PubMan) which is built upon the eSciDoc framework is introduced within the institutes. eSciDoc is a co-operation with the FIZ Karlsruhe and is funded until 2009 by the BMBF. All applications and services are Open Source and can therefore be re-used and be further developed. Apart from the development and maintenance of technical infrastructures, the Green Road within the MPG is furthered via direct and indirect personal support for scientists during the publication process. In this regard the close exchange between single Max Planck Institutes, the Max Planck Digital Library and other national and international partners plays an important role. With the Berlin Declaration in 2003 and currently in the Priority Initiative "Digital Information" of the Alliance of the German Research Organizations this commitment for Open Access is also politically represented. In this article are introduced and explained both eDoc and PubMan respectively as well as the Open Access Policy of the MPG with a special focus on the activities within the Green Road. ; Die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG) unterstützt gleichrangig den Goldenen und den Grünen Weg zu Open Access praktisch und politisch nachhaltig. Im Kontext des Grünen Wegs betreibt sie mit eDoc ein zentrales institutionelles Repositorium für die MPG. Die gleichnamige Software hierzu ist eine Eigenentwicklung. Aufbauend auf den Erfahrungen und Wünschen der Nutzer wird derzeit eine neue Anwendung (PubMan) basierend auf dem eSciDoc Framework institutsweise eingeführt. eSciDoc ist ein Kooperationsprojekt mit dem FIZ Karlsruhe und wird vom BMBF bis 2009 gefördert. Sämtliche ...

Corruption is widely recognised as harmful to sustainable development. Less well recognised, however, is that secrecy jurisdictions (also known as tax havens) and the bankers, lawyers and accountants who operate from these jurisdictions, actively encourage and support corrupt practices by facilitating illicit financial flows through an 'offshore interface' between the illicit and licit economies. Financial market liberalisation has contributed to this problem by not addressing the 'secrecy space' comprised by banking secrecy, non-disclosure of ownership of corporations and other legal entities, lack of accounting transparency for multinational companies, and the lack of provisions for effective exchange of information between national authorities. The outcome of this failure to ensure sufficiently transparent financial flows has been the creation of a criminogenic environment, in which illicit flows are easily disguised and hidden amongst legitimate commercial transactions, encouraging capital flight and tax evasion on an awesome scale. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has suffered a net accumulated outflow of capital amounting to over US$600 billion since 1975, and for every dollar of external debt borrowed by SSA countries 80 cents has flowed outwards as capital flight in the same year. The situation is deteriorating, not least because the Government of Ghana has recently announced its intention to support the development of offshore banking services in Accra, which could contribute to a significant increase in the volume of cross-border illicit financial flows in the West African region. Unless this supply side of corruption is tackled there is little prospect for an end to aid dependency and sovereign indebtedness or the creation of economically stable and democratic states able to provide food security, education and healthcare to their citizens.

This working paper offers an international legal perspective on the diverse and conflicting international reactions in response to Kosovo's Declaration of Independence on 17 February 2008. Considering the failure of the UN Security Council in conjuring up a common position, whether a condemnation or approval of Kosovo's desire to become an independent and sovereign member of the international community, each State was left to decide, on its own terms, how to react. The Council's failure is the upshot to what may be defined as the 'politics of recognition', ie, a diversity of differing and conflicting reactions of third States in response to the Kosovo Declaration, which reproduce the main positions in the original dispute rather than settling it. Against this background, the aim of this paper is three-fold. First, it seeks to explain the emergence of these politics. Secondly, it examines the complex nature of the disagreement that lies behind the diverse reactions, which includes a consideration of the reasons behind the different positions of recognising and objecting States as well as an interpretation of why so many States have chosen to remain silent. Thirdly, the paper reflects on the unfortunate implications of these politics. While by no means discarding the inherent international legal dimensions to the original dispute between Pristina and Belgrade, and a role for the International Court of Justice, the paper expresses hesitation about the capacity of international law and the Court to settle the disagreement about international law that is now developing. Furthermore, an exclusive focus on international law detracts attention from the need to continue to approach realities on the ground with a view to establishing a sustainable peace in the Balkan region.

International audience ; In the prospect of a sustainable town planning, the study the impact of the statutory plans which manage the urban dynamics is a major problem of town planning in France. The legislation foresaw a forward evaluation of the environmental impacts of some PLU and the cities of which PLU is already ancient, now start to be interested in this question, while noting that there are no methodologies or tools validated to estimate this impact. Methodological searches concerning the evaluation of the effects of the urban planning and the regulation of PLU were engaged with the urban community of Toulouse, within the framework of a thesis CIFRE implying the University of Technology of Compiègne. The objective is to appreciate the impacts by the modeling and the simulation of the phenomena, by means of spatialised indicators. Our poster will present the context of study and the first obtained results ; Dans la perspective d'un urbanisme durable, l'étude de l'impact des plans réglementaires qui gèrent les dynamiques urbaines est une problématique majeure posée par l'urbanisme en France. La législation a prévu une évaluation à terme de l'impact de certains Plans Locaux d'Urbanisme (PLU) sur l'environnement et les villes commencent à s'intéresser à cette question, tout en notant qu'il n'existe ni méthodologie ni outils validés pour évaluer cet impact. Un travail de recherche méthodologique portant sur l'évaluation des effets de la planification urbaine et du règlement de son PLU a été engagé avec la Communauté Urbaine du Grand Toulouse dans le cadre d'une thèse CIFRE impliquant l'Université de Technologie de Compiègne. L'objectif est d'appréhender les impacts par la modélisation et la simulation des phénomènes, par le biais d'indicateurs spatialisés. Notre poster présentera le contexte d'étude et les premiers résultats obtenus.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) and RCE‐Barcelona in the context of two organisations with a strategic aim to further Education for Sustainable Development. A special emphasis is put in the role that UPC has had in the creation and development of this project, understood as a regional, multisectorial network that aims to reinforce the Universities' own commitment and leadership in ESD.Design/methodology/approachTwo main methodological approaches are used. The evolution of RCE strategic projects in its two years of existence is analysed through the FLA systems approach, while the demand on ESD (and particularly that of the Education and Sustainability Magazine) in the region is explored through an electronic questionnaire sent to 1,000 people.FindingsThe study shows that the strategy of RCE Barcelona has evolved from a focus on diversity of participation to concrete activities based on common objectives with the communication of outputs rather than structures as being more practical and effective. The production of a magazine with input from actors from different levels of education and diverse sectors (based around key sustainability themes) is proving to be a useful resource for educators. Shared governance of the network and a more balanced share of resources and responsibilities amongst members remain a challenge, and as with other RCEs there is still limited evidence of the added value of being part of the global network of RCEs.Originality/valueThis study uses a systems based analytical methodology which is adaptable to the context of any sustainability initiative within higher education. The initiation of a thematic‐based sustainability magazine targeted at educators of formal and non formal education is considered as an innovative initiative.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to critique the discourse of the digital divide and to propose ways of responding to digital inequalities.Design/methodology/approachIllustrations of arguments are based on reviews of academic literature, projects reports, policy documents and research findings from the Penceil project, and are informed by critical theory. The research consisted of 47 semi‐structured interviews and action research involving designing an e‐literacy curriculum and running a course based on it.FindingsA discourse of missed opportunities and "being left behind", present in policy statements and popular media, leads to objectifying non‐users of information and communication technologies (ICT) as "others". This discourse is often internalised by non‐users, but it does not necessarily lead to positive actions, leaving some feeling inadequate. So far initiatives seeking to address the digital divide have had moderate success. To respond to digital exclusion we need to oppose the unchecked spread of e‐services, and help non‐users of ICT to become users or (if they choose to) informed "refusniks". Initiatives aiming to facilitate people's sustainable and meaningful use of ICT ought to draw on individual and community resources. A curriculum should be determined by learners' experiences and their expressions of needs, and go beyond IT skills.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper does not offer a comprehensive review of digital exclusion, concentrating instead on chosen problems and arguments. It is based on the UK experience, and thus more relevant to developed rather than developing countries.Practical implicationsThe paper raises awareness of different issues related to digital exclusion and ways of addressing them.Originality/valueThe paper calls to question current discourse and initiatives addressing the digital divide, highlighting their limitations. It presents alternative ways of responding to digital exclusion.

Public-private partnerships (PPP) have been advanced as a new tool of global governance, which can supply both effective and legitimate governance. In the context of recent debates on the democratic legitimacy of transnational governance, this paper focuses on accountability as a central component of legitimacy. The aim of this paper is to map transnational climate partnerships and evaluate their accountability record in terms of transparency, monitoring mechanisms and representation of stakeholders. Three types of partnerships are identified with respect to their degree of public-private interaction: public-private (hybrid), governmental and private-private. Most of the climate partnerships have functions of advocacy, service provision and implementation. None are standard setting, which indicates that governmental actors are less willing to "contract out" rule-setting authority to private actors in the climate change. Some partnerships, such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development climate partnerships and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects represent "new" modes of hybrid governance with high degree of public-private interaction. However, many partnerships, not least the voluntary technology agreements such as the APP, rest on "old" form of governance based on the logic of lobbying, corporatism, co-optation and interstate bargaining. Private (business-to business) climate partnerships are to varying degrees geared toward quantitative targets in the Kyoto Protocol. The accountability record is higher for hybrid climate partnerships, such as the CDM, due to extensive reporting and monitoring mechanisms, while lower for the governmental networks, such as voluntary technology agreements. Partnerships do not necessarily replace or erode the authority of sovereign states, but rather propels the hybridization and transformation of authority that is increasingly shared between state and nonstate actors.

Faced with an increasing globalization, enterprises must strive to take into account their economic environment if they wish to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. The analysis and use of financial information is at the very heart of this struggle, which has led us to explore the links between economic intelligence and finance. While the apparent lack of cooperation between the two fields takes its roots within their historical and theoretical developments, we show how the recent developments in behavorial finance, by moving away from the classical assumptions of efficient markets in equilibrium with perfectly rational agents, have reintroduced the need for economic intelligence. After underlying the limitations and risks linked with the typical assumptions of "rational" financial models we then proceed with the development of a valuation tool with a subjective risk aversion factor and show that we can obtain a finer analysis than with standard capital budgeting techniques ; Face à une globalisation économique toujours plus affirmée, les entreprises doivent mieux prendre en compte l'environnement économique afin d'obtenir et de maintenir un avantage compétitif. L'analyse et l'utilisation stratégique des données financières sont des éléments incontournables de cette lutte. Nous avons donc exploré les liens unissant intelligence économique et finance et avons analysé les raisons derrière un manque de coopération apparent entre les deux champs. L'analyse de leurs développements historiques et théoriques nous a conduits à explorer les apports de la finance comportementale. Nous montrons comment la rupture avec les modèles prônés par la finance "rationnelle" ouvre la porte aux apports de l'intelligence économique. Nous montrons alors, au travers d'un outil d'évaluation des projets d'entreprise, qu'il est possible d'intégrer des paramètres d'analyse afin de mieux prendre en compte certains risques liés aux caractéristiques spécifiques de ces projets

Over the recent years Russia has faced an astonishing economic growth, coinciding with the era of Vladimir Putin's presidentship. Accordingly, it is not surprising that commonly these rising economic trajectories are attributed to progress in terms of transition initiated and further triggered by Putin's government. This paper is trying to investigate empirically whether the current growth in Russia tends to be caused mainly by (1) success of transition or just by (2) favourable external circumstances such as rising prices for oil, gas, etc. Thus, analytically, progress in transition has been approximated by efficiency estimates, which are - from a theoretical point of view - expected to be rising in course of transition of a formerly planned economy towards a free market system. In order to capture potentially different trajectories of several sectors and regions industry and agriculture have been considered separately, each at regionally aggregated level over a period of 11 years. In general, little evidence of the anticipated rising trends could be found. Instead, notable ups, downs and divergences among regions and sectors were uncovered. According to this analysis, Russia's current growth rates cannot be attributed to general success of transition. Instead, besides reaping the benefits of favourable external circumstances at world markets, from an empirical point of view, scale effects and slightly rising productivity appear to be the main causes of the recent track record. Moreover, in the industry the trend is also triggered by technological progress, which may indicate the turnaround after a decade of decline and give a reason to believe in an initiation of a long-term growth process. Unfortunately, in agriculture little evidence for such a sustainable growth process was evident so far. In general, the inter-sectoral integration in Russia's economy seems to be still quite low.

The dynamic of the agricultural production will be stirred by the European funds and the investments in high-level technologies. The Rural Development Strategy identifies two important elements of success: an investment climate conducive to rural growth, and empowerment of the poor units to share in the benefits of that growth. Investments are critical to ensuring that the public sector can effectively carry out its functions, which include coordination, participatory development of sector strategies, policy formulation, and allocation and monitoring of public investment in agriculture. These governmental functions seek to promote competitive markets in socially acceptable ways, according to the EU rural policy. We distinguish some key measures to promote a competitive agriculture: macro-economy secures undistorted exchange rate policy, removal of implicit taxes and market barriers, nondiscriminatory taxation, macroeconomic stability, and government credibility; trade facilitate exports, participate in trade negotiations, reduce protection on import-substitute goods with relatively low and uniform tariffs, and remove non-tariff barriers (while providing protection from acute price volatility); labor ensure agricultural employment meets core labor standards especially in regard to child labor, hazardous work, and equal employment opportunities for women; competition reevaluate the role of marketing boards, promote competition in input markets, establish labeling regulations for grades and standards; environment and natural resource use establish sustainable management, internalize externalities where possible, and develop markets for pollution and carbon credits; land develop land markets, security of tenure, titling and recording of land transactions, and land reform for fair distribution of land ownership; advanced technology maintain research activities and foster private sector participation in research and extension activities; food security establish social safety net programs to cope in times of extreme price changes and natural disasters.

Economic transformation and globalization not only bring changes but also emphasize the significance of the quality of strategic planning. One of the most valuable factors of the state's strategic planning remains to be its determination. A short historical period of the independent state functioning failed to provide conditions for an integral performance of the state's strategic planning entity elements. Only in the year 2002 the strategy of the sustainable development of economy was launched. Conversely, by present, the structure of the state performance programmes has become definite. In any case, however, the necessity of the presence of an independent national strategic research centre is imminent. The key aspect in the process of state's strategic planning is an immaculate application of SWOT analysis, which relates, in the first place, to the harmonization of insights of the experts performing this analysis. It is purposeful establishing expert groups to evaluate their different relationship in the context of state's governing functions. The first expert group could form (and likely be interested in) internal strategic insights, i.e. civil servants of the state's governance structures, whereas the second group of experts, being more distracted, could present a more scientific background. And lastly, the experience of foreign counterparts involved in the related spheres of their countries would be beneficial. It would allow the possibility to create a completed rather than fragmented comparative basis. Every single aspect of state's economic development necessitates a methodologically finalized strategic context. It is very important to legally define the subject of state's strategic planning, the focus of which is the government. The government, however, remains liable for the independent arrangement of the state's strategic documents. The Seimas, in its turn, seeks harmonization between the state's development strategy and the government programme.

Economic transformation and globalization not only bring changes but also emphasize the significance of the quality of strategic planning. One of the most valuable factors of the state's strategic planning remains to be its determination. A short historical period of the independent state functioning failed to provide conditions for an integral performance of the state's strategic planning entity elements. Only in the year 2002 the strategy of the sustainable development of economy was launched. Conversely, by present, the structure of the state performance programmes has become definite. In any case, however, the necessity of the presence of an independent national strategic research centre is imminent. The key aspect in the process of state's strategic planning is an immaculate application of SWOT analysis, which relates, in the first place, to the harmonization of insights of the experts performing this analysis. It is purposeful establishing expert groups to evaluate their different relationship in the context of state's governing functions. The first expert group could form (and likely be interested in) internal strategic insights, i.e. civil servants of the state's governance structures, whereas the second group of experts, being more distracted, could present a more scientific background. And lastly, the experience of foreign counterparts involved in the related spheres of their countries would be beneficial. It would allow the possibility to create a completed rather than fragmented comparative basis. Every single aspect of state's economic development necessitates a methodologically finalized strategic context. It is very important to legally define the subject of state's strategic planning, the focus of which is the government. The government, however, remains liable for the independent arrangement of the state's strategic documents. The Seimas, in its turn, seeks harmonization between the state's development strategy and the government programme.

After the Kiev summit of the Organization's member states during Ukraine's Presidency GUAM became institutionalized and cooperation within it systemized. The GUAM Baku summit was instrumental in establishing the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development-GUAM. It was important both for further institutionalizing cooperation in the GUAM format and for demonstrating the Organization's possibilities to its foreign partners. The summit was an important event that helped GUAM to assume a dignified place in the international and regional cooperation system, become firmly established in the region, and raise its appeal. The main political document of the Baku summit, the Baku declaration "GUAM: Bringing Continents Together," presented a political assessment of cooperation in the GUAM format during the time that had passed since the Kiev summit and designated the strategic development goals to be pursued in the future. The Baku declaration "GUAM: Bringing Continents Together" confirmed the resolve to expand cooperation in order to develop democratic values, the rule of law, respect of human rights and basic freedoms, achievement of sustainable socioeconomic development, and maintenance of security and stability in the GUAM region. It also strove to enhance GUAM's regional significance and position by consolidating common interests and intensifying branch cooperation. The Declaration underlined the need to fully activate the socioeconomic, transport, energy, scientific and technical, humanitarian, legislative, and law-enforcement potential of the member states in order to create a common space of integration and security in the GUAM region. This was the pivotal idea. All the other documents signed at the Baku summit served to promote it. The Program of Chairmanship of the Azerbaijan Republic approved at the summit by the presidents of the GUAM member states was also oriented toward embodying this idea.