Hillslope Processes in Temperate Environments

In this chapter, we discuss the factors controlling the mechanisms and rates of hillslope failure in temperate environments with a major focus on the Swiss Alps. We frame this presentation by defining Alpine hillslopes as either strength- or transport-limited hillslopes. We organize this discussion into individual sections that outline how hillslope processes are related to (1) the mechanical strength and bedding orientation of bedrock, (2) the competition between channelized and hillslope processes, (3) hillslope–channel coupling relationships, and (4) fluvial erosion rates. We find that hillslope angles depend on bedrock strength along nonincised channels, but are not related to this parameter in inner gorges. We also find that valley flanks host deep-seated landslides where the bedrock dips parallel to the topographic slope. In the opposite case, the valley sides are dissected by a network of bedrock channels bordered by strength-limited hillslopes. In this chapter, we illustrate that a high ratio between sediment discharge on hillslopes and in channels explains the formation of smooth landscapes with low channel densities and long response times. This chapter considers the formation of strength-limited hillslopes as a consequence of an upslope-directed coupling between channels and hillslopes. The chapter also discusses that soil-mantled hillslopes occur where fluvial incision rates are less than weathering rates of bedrock, which are limited to 0.1–0.3 mm yr−1. We finally present evidence for a decreasing trend of hillslope-derived sediment discharge during the Holocene, but predict an opposite trend in the nearest future as winters are warmer and wetter.

Social Learning Processes in Swiss Soil Protection? The 'From Farmer - To Farmer' Project

Social learning approaches have become a prominent focus in studies related to sustainable agriculture. In order to better understand the potential of social learning for more sustainable development, the present study assessed the processes, effects and facilitating elements of interaction related to social learning in the context of Swiss soil protection and the innovative ‘From Farmer - To Farmer’ project. The study reveals that social learning contributes to fundamental transformations of patterns of interactions. However, the study also demonstrates that a learning-oriented understanding of sustainable development implies including analysis of the institutional environments in which the organizations of the individual representatives of face-to-face-based social learning processes are operating. This has shown to be a decisive element when face-to-face-based learning processes of the organisations’ representatives are translated into organisational learning. Moreover, the study revealed that this was achieved not directly through formalisation of new lines of institutionalised cooperation but by establishing links in a ‘boundary space’ trying out new forms of collaboration, aiming at social learning and co-production of knowledge. It is argued that further research on social learning processes should give greater emphasis to this intermediary level of ‘boundary spaces’.

Knowledge Transfer Processes in the IS Offshore Outsourcing Transition: A Conceptual Model

Despite promising cost saving potential, many offshore software projects fail to realize the expected benefits. A frequent source of failure lies in the insufficient transfer of knowledge during the transition phase. Former literature has reported cases where some domains of knowledge were successfully transferred to vendor personnel whereas others were not. There is further evidence that the actual knowledge transfer processes often vary from case to case. This raises the question whether there is a systematic relationship between the chosen knowledge transfer process and know-ledge transfer success. This paper introduces a dynamic perspective that distinguishes different types of knowledge transfer processes explaining under which circumstances which type is deemed most appropriate to successfully transfer knowledge. Our paper draws on knowledge transfer literature, the Model of Work-Based Learning and theories from cognitive psychology to show how characteristics of know-ledge and the absorptive capacity of knowledge recipients fit particular knowledge transfer processes. The knowledge transfer processes are conceptualized as combinations of generic knowledge transfer activities. This results in six gestalts of know-ledge transfer processes, each representing a fit between the characteristics of the knowledge process and the characteristics of the knowledge to be transferred and the absorptive capacity of the knowledge recipient.

Intelligence is related to specific processes in visual change detection: Fixed-links modeling of hit rate and reaction time

By means of fixed-links modeling, the present study identified different processes of visual short-term memory (VSTM) functioning and investigated how these processes are related to intelligence. We conducted an experiment where the participants were presented with a color change detection task. Task complexity was manipulated through varying the number of presented stimuli (set size). We collected hit rate and reaction time (RT) as indicators for the amount of information retained in VSTM and speed of VSTM scanning, respectively. Due to the impurity of these measures, however, the variability in hit rate and RT was assumed to consist not only of genuine variance due to individual differences in VSTM retention and VSTM scanning but also of other, non-experimental portions of variance. Therefore, we identified two qualitatively different types of components for both hit rate and RT: (1) non-experimental components representing processes that remained constant irrespective of set size and (2) experimental components reflecting processes that increased as a function of set size. For RT, intelligence was negatively associated with the non-experimental components, but was unrelated to the experimental components assumed to represent variability in VSTM scanning speed. This finding indicates that individual differences in basic processing speed, rather than in speed of VSTM scanning, differentiates between high- and low-intelligent individuals. For hit rate, the experimental component constituting individual differences in VSTM retention was positively related to intelligence. The non-experimental components of hit rate, representing variability in basal processes, however, were not associated with intelligence. By decomposing VSTM functioning into non-experimental and experimental components, significant associations with intelligence were revealed that otherwise might have been obscured.

The brain’s default state interacts with working memory processes in a complex and load-dependent manner

Recently, many studies about a network active during rest and deactivated during tasks emerged in the literature: the default mode network (DMN). Spatial and temporal DMN features are important markers for psychiatric diseases. Another prominent indicator of cognitive functioning, yielding information about the mental condition in health and disease, is working memory (WM) processing. In EEG studies, frontal-midline theta power has been shown to increase with load during WM retention in healthy subjects. From these findings, the conclusion can be drawn that an increase in resting state DMN activity may go along with an increase in theta power in high-load WM conditions. We followed this hypothesis in a study on 17 healthy subjects performing a visual Sternberg WM task. The DMN was obtained by a BOLD-ICA approach and its dynamics represented by the percent-strength during pre-stimulus periods. DMN dynamics were temporally correlated with EEG theta spectral power from retention intervals. This so-called covariance mapping yielded the spatial distribution of the theta EEG fluctuations associated with the dynamics of the DMN. In line with previous findings, theta power was increased at frontal-midline electrodes in high- versus low-load conditions during early WM retention. However, load-dependent correlations of DMN with theta power resulted in primarily positive correlations in low-load conditions, while during high-load conditions negative correlations of DMN activity and theta power were observed at frontal-midline electrodes. This DMN-dependent load effect reached significance during later retention. Our results show a complex and load-dependent interaction of pre-stimulus DMN activity and theta power during retention, varying over the course of the retention period. Since both, WM performance and DMN activity, are markers of mental health, our results could be important for further investigations of psychiatric populations.

Decision-Making Processes in Voluntary Football Clubs in Relation to External Counselling

Introduction Recruiting and retaining volunteers who are prepared to make a long-term commitment is a major problem for Swiss sports clubs. With the inclusion of external counselling for the change and systematisation of volunteer management, sports clubs have a possibility to develop and defuse problems in spite of existing barriers and gaps in knowledge. To what extent is external counselling for personnel problems effective? It is often observed that standardised counselling inputs lead to varying consequences for sports clubs. It can be assumed that external impulses are interpreted and transformed differently into the workings of the club. However, this cannot be solely attributed to the situational or structural conditions of the clubs. It is also important to consider the underlying decision-making processes of a club. According to Luhmann’s organisational sociological considerations (2000), organisations (sports clubs) have to be viewed as social systems consisting of (communicated) decisions. This means that organisations are continually reproduced by decision-making processes. All other (observable) factors such as an organisation’s goals, recruiting strategies, support schemes for volunteers etc., have to be seen as an outcome of the operation of prior organisational decisions. Therefore: How do decision-making processes in sports clubs work in the context of the implementation of external counselling? Theoretical Framework An examination of the actual situation in sports clubs shows that decisions frequently appear to be shaped by inconsistency, unexpected outcomes, and randomness (Amis & Slack, 2003). Therefore, it must be emphasised that these decisions cannot be analysed according to any rational decision-making model. Their specific structural characteristics only permit a limited degree of rationality – bounded rationality. Non-profit organisations in particular are shaped by a specific mode of decisionmaking that Cohen, March, and Olsen (1972) have called the “garbage can model”. As sport clubs can also be conceived as “organised anarchies”, this model seems to offer an appropriate approach to understanding their practices and analysing their decision-making processes. The key concept in the garbage can model is the assumption that decision-making processes in organisations consist of four “streams”: (a) problems, (b) actors, (c) decision-making opportunities, and (d) solutions. Method Before presenting the method of the analysis of the decision-making processes in sports clubs, the external counselling will be described. The basis of the counselling is generated by a sports clubs’ capability to change. Due to the specific structural characteristics and organisational principles, change processes in sports clubs often merge with barriers and restrictions. These need to be considered when developing counselling guidelines for a successful planning and realisation of change processes. Furthermore, important aspects of personnel management in sports clubs and especially volunteer management must be implied in order to elaborate key elements for the counselling to recruit new volunteers (e.g., approach, expectations). A counselling of four system-counselling workshops was conceptualised by considering these specific characteristics. The decision-making processes in the sports clubs were analysed during the counselling and the implementation process. A case study is designed with the appropriate methodological approach for such explorative research. The approach adopted for these single case analyses was oriented toward the research program of behavioural decision-making theory (garbage can model). This posits that in-depth insights into organisational decision-making processes can only be gained through relevant case studies of existing organisational situations (Skille, 2013). Before, during and after the intervention, questionnaires and guided interviews were conducted with the project teams of the twelve par-ticipating football clubs to assess the different components of the “streams” in the context of external counselling. These interviews have been analysed using content analysis following guidelines as for-mulated by Mayring (2010). Results The findings show that decision-making processes in football clubs occur differently in the context of external counselling. Different initial positions and problems are the triggers for these decision-making processes. Furthermore, the implementation of the solutions and the external counselling is highly dependent on the commitment of certain people as central players within the decision-mak-ing process. The importance of these relationships is confirmed by previous findings in regard to decision-making and change processes in sports clubs. The decision-making processes in sports clubs can be theoretically analysed using behavioural decision-making theory and the “garbage can model”. Bounded rationality characterises all “streams” of the decision-making processes. Moreo-ver, the decision-making process of the football clubs can be well illustrated in the framework, and the interplay of the different dimensions illustrates the different decision-making practices within the football clubs. References Amis, J., & Slack, T. (2003). Analysing sports organisations: Theory and practice. In B. Houlihan (Eds.), Sport & Society (pp. 201–217). London, England: Sage. Cohen, M.D., March, J.G., & Olsen, J.P. (1972). A garbage can model of organisational choice. Ad-ministrative Science Quarterly, 17, 1-25. Luhmann, N. (2000). Organisation und Entscheidung. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag. Mayring, P. (2010). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. Weinheim: Beltz. Skille, E. Å. (2013). Case study research in sport management: A reflection upon the theory of science and an empirical example. In S. Söderman & H. Dolles (Eds.), Handbook of research on sport and business (pp. 161–175). Cheltenham, England: Edward Elgar.

Annulation of Tetrathiafulvalene to the Bay Region of Perylenediimide: Fast Electron-Transfer Processes in Polar and Nonpolar Solvents

A tetrathiafulvalene donor has been annulated to the bay region of perylenediimide through a 1H-benzo-[d]pyrrolo[1,2-a]imidazol-1-one spacer affording an extended pi-conjugated molecular dyad (TTF-PDI). To gain insight into its ground- and excited-state electronic properties, the reference compound Ph-PDI has been prepared via a direct Schiff-base condensation of N,N'-bis(1-octylnonyl) benzoperylene-1',2':3,4:9,10-hexacarboxylic-1',2'-anhydride-3,4:9,10-bis (imide) with benzene-1,2-diamine. Both the experimental and the computational (DFT) results indicate that TTF-PDI exhibits significant intramolecular electronic interactions giving rise to an efficient photoinduced charge-separation process. Free-energy calculations verify that the process from TTF to the singlet-excited state of PDI is exothermic in both polar and nonpolar solvents. Fast adiabatic electron-transfer processes of a compactly fused, pi-conjugated TTF-PDI dyad in benzonitrile, 2-methyltetrahydrofuran, anisole and toluene were observed by femtosecond transient absorption spectral measurements. The lifetimes of radical-ion pairs slightly increase with decreasing the solvent polarities, suggesting that the charge-recombination occurs in the Marcus inverted region. By utilizing the nanosecond transient absorption technique, the intermolecular electron-transfer process in a mixture of has been observed via the triplet excited PDI for the first time.

Biogeochemical processes in a clay formation in situ experiment: Part F - Reactive transport modelling

Reactive transport modelling was used to simulate solute transport, thermodynamic reactions, ion exchange and biodegradation in the Porewater Chemistry (PC) experiment at the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory. Simulations show that the most important chemical processes controlling the fluid composition within the borehole and the surrounding formation during the experiment are ion exchange, biodegradation and dissolution/precipitation reactions involving pyrite and carbonate minerals. In contrast, thermodynamic mineral dissolution/precipitation reactions involving alumo-silicate minerals have little impact on the fluid composition on the time-scale of the experiment. With the accurate description of the initial chemical condition in the formation in combination with kinetic formulations describing the different stages of bacterial activities, it has been possible to reproduce the evolution of important system parameters, such as the pH, redox potential, total organic C. dissolved inorganic C and SO(4) concentration. Leaching of glycerol from the pH-electrode may be the primary source of organic material that initiated bacterial growth, which caused the chemical perturbation in the borehole. Results from these simulations are consistent with data from the over-coring and demonstrate that the Opalinus Clay has a high buffering capacity in terms of chemical perturbations caused by bacterial activity. This buffering capacity can be attributed to the carbonate system as well as to the reactivity of clay surfaces.