Putting the S-word back into Sustainability: Can we be more social?

In an era dominated by climate change debate and environmentalism there is a real danger that the important ‘social’ pillar of sustainability drops out of our vocabulary. This can happen at a variety of scales from business level through to building and neighbourhood level regeneration and development. Social sustainability should be at the heart of all housing and mixed-use development but for a variety of reasons tends to be frequently underplayed. The recent English city riots have brought this point back sharply into focus. The relationships between people, places and the local economy all matter and this is as true today as it was in the late 19th century when Patrick Geddes, the great pioneering town planner and ecologist, wrote of ‘place-work-folk’. This paper, commissioned from Tim Dixon, explains what is meant by social sustainability (and how it is linked to concepts such as social capital and social cohesion); why the debate matters during a period when ‘localism’ is dominating political debate; and what is inhibiting its growth and its measurement. The paper reviews best practice in post-occupancy social sustainability metric systems, based on recent research undertaken by the author on Dockside Green in Vancouver, and identifi es some of the key operational issues in mainstreaming the concept within major mixed-use projects. The paper concludes by offering a framework for the key challenges faced in setting strategic corporate goals and objectives; prioritising and selecting the most appropriate investments; and measuring social sustainability performance by identifying the required data sources

Do we need different frameworks to explain infant MNEs from developing countries?

I argue that the initial set of firm-specific assets (FSAs) act as an envelope for the early stages of internationalization of multinational enterprises (MNEs) (of whatever nationality) AND THAT there is a threshold LEVEL of FSAs that IT must possess for such international expansion to be SUCCESSFUL. I also argue that the initial FSAs of an MNE tend to be constrained by the location-specific (L) assets of the home country. However, beyond different initial conditions, there are few obvious reasons to insist that INFANT developing country MNEs are of unique character THAN ADVANCED ECONOMY MNEs, and I predict that as they evolve, the observable differences between the two groups will diminish. Successful firms will increasingly explore internationalization, but there is also no reason to believe that this is likely to happen disproportionately from the developing countries.

Characterizing typographic expertise: do we process typefaces like faces?

Studies of face recognition and discrimination provide a rich source of data and debate on the nature of their processing, in particular through using inverted faces. This study draws parallels between the features of typefaces and faces, as letters share a basic configuration, regardless of typeface, that could be seen as similar to faces. Typeface discrimination is compared using paragraphs of upright letters and inverted letters at three viewing durations. Based on previously reported effects of expertise, the prediction that designers would be less accurate when letters are inverted, whereas nondesigners would have similar performance in both orientations, was confirmed. A proposal is made as to which spatial relations between typeface components constitute holistic and configural processing, posited as the basis for better discrimination of the typefaces of upright letters. Such processing may characterize designers’ perceptual abilities, acquired through training.

Towards a theoretical framework for creative participation : how personal characteristics influence employees' willingness to contribute ideas

To retain competitiveness, succeed and flourish, organizations are forced to continuously innovate. This drive for innovation is not solely limited to product/process innovation but more profoundly relates to a continuous process of improving how organizations work internally, requiring a constant stream of ideas and suggestions from motivated employees. In this chapter we investigate some recent developments and propose a conceptual framework for creative participation as a personality driven interface between creativity and innovation. Under the assumption that employees’ intrinsic willingness to contribute novel ideas and solutions requires a set of personal characteristics and necessary skill that might well be unique to each organizational unit, the chapter then explores personal characteristics associated with creativity, innovation and innovative behavior. Various studies on the correlation between creativity and personality types are also reviewed. The chapter provides a discussion of solutions and future development together with recommendations for the future research.

Accounting for the economic risk, caused by variation in disease severity, in fungicide dose decisions: exemplified for Mycosphaerella graminicola on winter wheat

A method is presented to calculate economic optimum fungicide doses accounting for the risk-aversion of growers responding to variability in disease severity between crops. Simple dose-response and disease-yield loss functions are used to estimate net disease-related costs (fungicide cost, plus disease-induced yield loss) as a function of dose and untreated severity. With fairly general assumptions about the shapes of the probability distribution of disease severity and the other functions involved, we show that a choice of fungicide dose which minimises net costs on average across seasons results in occasional large net costs caused by inadequate control in high disease seasons. This may be unacceptable to a grower with limited capital. A risk-averse grower can choose to reduce the size and frequency of such losses by applying a higher dose as insurance. For example, a grower may decide to accept ‘high loss’ years one year in ten or one year in twenty (i.e. specifying a proportion of years in which disease severity and net costs will be above a specified level). Our analysis shows that taking into account disease severity variation and risk-aversion will usually increase the dose applied by an economically rational grower. The analysis is illustrated with data on septoria tritici leaf blotch of wheat caused by Mycosphaerella graminicola. Observations from untreated field plots at sites across England over three years were used to estimate the probability distribution of disease severities at mid-grain filling. In the absence of a fully reliable disease forecasting scheme, reducing the frequency of ‘high loss’ years requires substantially higher doses to be applied to all crops. Disease resistant cultivars reduce both the optimal dose at all levels of risk and the disease-related costs at all doses.

A maize bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library from the European flint inbred line F2

We report here the construction and characterisation of a BAC library from the maize flint inbred line F2, widely used in European maize breeding programs. The library contains 86,858 clones with an average insert size of approximately 90 kb, giving approximately 3.2-times genome coverage. High-efficiency BAC cloning was achieved through the use of a single size selection for the high-molecular-weight genomic DNA, and co-transformation of the ligation with yeast tRNA to optimise transformation efficiency. Characterisation of the library showed that less than 0.5% of the clones contained no inserts, while 5.52% of clones consisted of chloroplast DNA. The library was gridded onto 29 nylon filters in a double-spotted 8 × 8 array, and screened by hybridisation with a number of single-copy and gene-family probes. A 3-dimensional DNA pooling scheme was used to allow rapid PCR screening of the library based on primer pairs from simple sequence repeat (SSR) and expressed sequence tag (EST) markers. Positive clones were obtained in all hybridisation and PCR screens carried out so far. Six BAC clones, which hybridised to a portion of the cloned Rp1-D rust resistance gene, were further characterised and found to form contigs covering most of this complex resistance locus.

Earthworm-produced calcite granules: a new terrestrial palaeothermometer?

In this paper we show for the first time that calcite granules, produced by the earthworm Lumbricus terrestris, and commonly recorded at sites of archaeological interest, accurately reflect temperature and soil water δ18O values. Earthworms were cultivated in an orthogonal combination of two different (granule-free) soils moistened by three types of mineral water and kept at three temperatures (10, 16 and 20 ºC) for an acclimatisation period of three weeks followed by transfer to identical treatments and cultivation for a further four weeks. Earthworm-secreted calcite granules were collected from the second set of soils. δ18O values were determined on individual calcite granules (δ18Oc) and the soil solution (δ18Ow). The δ18Oc values reflect soil solution δ18Ow values and temperature, but are consistently enriched by 1.51 (±0.12) ‰ in comparison to equilibrium in synthetic carbonates. The data fit the equation 1000 ln α = [20.21 ± 0.92] (103 T-1) - [38.58 ± 3.18] (R2 = 0.95; n = 96; p < 0.0005). As the granules are abundant in modern soils, buried soils and archaeological contexts, and can be dated using U-Th disequilibria, the developed palaeotemperature relationship has enormous potential for application to Holocene and Pleistocene time intervals.

Modeling ocean primary production: sensitivity to spectral resolution of attenuation and absorption of light

Modeling the vertical penetration of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) through the ocean, and its utilization by phytoplankton, is fundamental to simulating marine primary production. The variation of attenuation and absorption of light with wavelength suggests that photosynthesis should be modeled at high spectral resolution, but this is computationally expensive. To model primary production in global 3d models, a balance between computer time and accuracy is necessary. We investigate the effects of varying the spectral resolution of the underwater light field and the photosynthetic efficiency of phytoplankton (α∗), on primary production using a 1d coupled ecosystem ocean turbulence model. The model is applied at three sites in the Atlantic Ocean (CIS (∼60°N), PAP (∼50°N) and ESTOC (∼30°N)) to include the effect of different meteorological forcing and parameter sets. We also investigate three different methods for modeling α∗ – as a fixed constant, varying with both wavelength and chlorophyll concentration [Bricaud, A., Morel, A., Babin, M., Allali, K., Claustre, H., 1998. Variations of light absorption by suspended particles with chlorophyll a concentration in oceanic (case 1) waters. Analysis and implications for bio-optical models. J. Geophys. Res. 103, 31033–31044], and using a non-spectral parameterization [Anderson, T.R., 1993. A spectrally averaged model of light penetration and photosynthesis. Limnol. Oceanogr. 38, 1403–1419]. After selecting the appropriate ecosystem parameters for each of the three sites we vary the spectral resolution of light and α∗ from 1 to 61 wavebands and study the results in conjunction with the three different α∗ estimation methods. The results show modeled estimates of ocean primary productivity are highly sensitive to the degree of spectral resolution and α∗. For accurate simulations of primary production and chlorophyll distribution we recommend a spectral resolution of at least six wavebands if α∗ is a function of wavelength and chlorophyll, and three wavebands if α∗ is a fixed value.

What should we expect of a liberal explanatory theory?

One of the most problematic aspects of the ‘Harvard School’ of liberal international theory is its failure to fulfil its own methodological ideals. Although Harvard School liberals subscribe to a nomothetic model of explanation, in practice they employ their theories as heuristic resources. Given this practice, we should expect them neither to develop candidate causal generalizations nor to be value-neutral: their explanatory insights are underpinned by value-laden choices about which questions to address and what concepts to employ. A key question for liberal theorists, therefore, is how a theory may be simultaneously explanatory and value-oriented. The difficulties inherent in resolving this problem are manifested in Ikenberry’s writing: whilst his work on constitutionalism in international politics partially fulfils the requirements of a more satisfactory liberal explanatory theory, his recent attempts to develop prescriptions for US foreign policy reproduce, in a new form, key failings of Harvard School realism.

Changes in gene expression in Arabidopsis shoots during phosphate starvation and the potential for developing smart plants

Our aim was to generate and prove the concept of "smart" plants to monitor plant phosphorus (P) status in Arabidopsis. Smart plants can be genetically engineered by transformation with a construct containing the promoter of a gene up-regulated specifically by P starvation in an accessible tissue upstream of a marker gene such as beta-glucuronidase (GUS). First, using microarrays, we identified genes whose expression changed more than 2.5-fold in shoots of plants growing hydroponically when P, but not N or K, was withheld from the nutrient solution. The transient changes in gene expression occurring immediately (4 h) after P withdrawal were highly variable, and many nonspecific, shock-induced genes were up-regulated during this period. However, two common putative cis-regulatory elements (a PHO-like element and a TATA box-like element) were present significantly more often in the promoters of genes whose expression increased 4 h after the withdrawal of P compared with their general occurrence in the promoters of all genes represented on the microarray. Surprisingly, the expression of only four genes differed between shoots of P-starved and -replete plants 28 h after P was withdrawn. This lull in differential gene expression preceded the differential expression of a new group of 61 genes 100 h after withdrawing P. A literature survey indicated that the expression of many of these "late" genes responded specifically to P starvation. Shoots had reduced P after 100 h, but growth was unaffected. The expression of SQD1, a gene involved in the synthesis of sulfolipids, responded specifically to P starvation and was increased 100 h after withdrawing P. Leaves of Arabidopsis bearing a SQD1::GUS construct showed increased GUS activity after P withdrawal, which was detectable before P starvation limited growth. Hence, smart plants can monitor plant P status. Transferring this technology to crops would allow precision management of P fertilization, thereby maintaining yields while reducing costs, conserving natural resources, and preventing pollution.

Separation of performance-approach and performance-avoidance achievement goals: A broader analysis

In the literature on achievement goals, performance-approach goals (striving to do better than others) and performance-avoidance goals (striving to avoid doing worse than others) tend to exhibit a moderate to high correlation, raising questions about whether the 2 goals represent distinct constructs. In the current article, we sought to examine the separability of these 2 goals using a broad factor-analytic approach that attended to issues that have been overlooked or underexamined in prior research. Five studies provided strong evidence for the separation of these 2 goal constructs: Separation was observed not only with exploratory factor analysis across different age groups and countries (Studies 1a and 1b) but also with change analysis (Study 2), ipsative factor analysis (Study 3), within-person analysis (Study 4), and behavioral genetics analysis (Study 5). We conclude by discussing the implications of the present research for the achievement goal literature, as well as the psychological literature in general.