Revista Jurídica Digital UANDES
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Socio-technical scenarios as a methodological tool to explore social and political feasibility in low-carbon transitions: Bridging computer models and the multi-level perspective in UK electricity generation (2010–2050)
No full textSocial acceptance and political feasibility are important issues in low-carbon transitions. Since computer models struggle to address these issues, the paper advances socio-technical scenarios as a novel methodological tool. Contributing to recent dialogue approaches, we develop an eight-step methodological procedure that produces socio-technical scenarios through various interactions between the multi-level perspective and computer models. As a specific contribution, we propose ‘transition bottlenecks’ as a methodological aid to mediate dialogue between qualitative MLP-based analysis of contemporary dynamics and quantitative, model-generated future pathways. The transition bottlenecks also guide the articulation of socio-technical storylines that suggest how the social acceptance and political feasibility of particular low-carbon innovations can be improved through social interactions and endogenous changes in discourses, preferences, support coalitions and policies. Drawing on results from the 3-year PATHWAYS project, we demonstrate these contributions for the UK electricity system, developing two low-carbon transition pathways to 2050 commensurate with the 2 °C target, one based on technological substitution (enacted by incumbent actors), and one based on broader system transformation (enacted by new entrants)
Political Will and Human Geography: Non-Representational, Post-Political, and Gramscian Geographies
No full textInspired by philosopher Peter Hallward's call for a renewed focus on political will, this article examines its conceptualization within three areas of the discipline: non-representational theory, post-politics, and Gramscian geographies. Non-representational theorists draw attention to the role of affect in shaping political life, but have little to say about conscious collective volition. In contrast, post-politics scholars offer an extensive vocabulary for understanding political will as a prescriptive form of agency, but risk confining the political to an abstract, regulative idea. Meanwhile, Gramscian geographies’ dialectical approach to political will can complement both by mediating between extremes of objective and subjective determination
Mechanical performance of marine sandwich composites subjected to flatwise compression and flexural loading:Effect of resin pins
No full textMechanical performance of marine sandwich panels comprising E-glass/vinyl ester face sheets and perforated poly-vinyl chloride foam core was evaluated and compared with conventional foam core sandwich panels. Circular holes through the foam core thickness were drilled with 12 different arrangements in square patterns and the holes were filled with the resin during the infusion process which created the through-the-thickness solid resin pins. The effect of each pattern on the flatwise compression and core shear properties of the sandwich panels were experimentally investigated. The three-point bending maximum failure load of perforated foam core sandwich panels was increased over 133.8% by increasing the diameter of the resin pins at the expense of increased panel weight up to 67%. The flatwise compression stress to induce core crushing was significantly increased by reinforcing the resin pins.</p
Two Cultures of International Criminal Law
No full textThis chapter argues that the expansionism of international criminal law has, in the last decade, undergone some dramatic changes. In particular, it demonstrates that the advent of the International Criminal Court (hereafter the ICC) has brought about a severe alteration in how the expansionism of international criminal law is thought and practiced. This claim is articulated around the following contentions. It is argued that from Nuremberg to Rome, the modes of legal reasoning associated with the sources of international law provided the main avenues for the expansion of international criminal law. Because such an expansionist strategy is traced back to the trials of war criminals by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal, the expansionist use of the sources of international law is what is called here the Bavarian culture of international criminal law. It is further argued that the codification conducted by the Statute of the International Criminal Court did not put an end to the expansionism of international criminal law but made it rests on hermeneutic modes of interpretation instead. The resort to hermeneutics rather than modes of legal argumentation associated with the sources of international law with a view to pursuing the progressive expansion of international criminal law is what is called here the Roman culture of international criminal law. This chapter thus tells the story of this shift from the Bavarian culture to the Roman culture of international criminal law, that is from sources-based to interpretation-based expansionism. It simultaneously argues that such cultural revolution was made possible by the rewriting of one of the foundational principles which the field had given to itself, namely the principle of legality
Evaluation of a manualised therapy for children with social communication disorder delivered by speech and language therapy practitioners:The SCIP feasibility study
No full textBackground: Children with Social Communication Disorder (SPCD) have significant, heterogeneous social communication difficulties (similar to autism) and persistent language impairment. An innovative, manualised speech and language therapy intervention, the Social Communication Intervention Programme (SCIP) (Adams & Gaile 2015) provides therapy methods and content for SPCD. A feasibility study is required to derive more precise estimates of key parameters for a future trial of SCIP. Aims: To survey current provision of therapy and to assess the feasibility of conducting a substantive randomized controlled trial of SCIP for children who have significant social communication needs and to scope key factors including sample size, recruitment/retention rates and acceptability to practitioners and service users. Methods: An online questionnaire was distributed to SLTs (NHS and independent) and NHS SLT service leads in England. 76 complete survey responses were obtained (51 NHS, 23 non-NHS, 2 both NHS and non-NHS). Survey questions addressed routine service provision and dosage per child, numbers of eligible children per case load, therapy methods currently used and issues around recruitment into a trial. In the second phase of the study, 15 UK SLTs (NHS and non-NHS) who identified 20 children aged 5-11 years with SPCD defined as having social communication difficulties on a pragmatics checklist. SLTs received SCIP training and six hours of supervision from a Research SLT (RSLT). Children received 20 direct SCIP therapy sessions. Primary endpoint SCIP-GAS: At Time 1 (T1) parents provided three prioritized communication goals. Expected steps in each goal were defined by RSLT at T1. After intervention (T2) parents and SLTs (independently) rated each goal compared to T1 baseline ability on a scale of -1 (got worse) to + 5 (greatly exceeded). Parents provided a commentary on outcomes. Two RSLTs compared parent comments with SCIP-GAS scores to derive guidance about clinical significance for a future trial. Practitioners audio-recorded commentaries on therapy content, adaptations and progress over the intervention period. Post-intervention interviews were conducted with 6 SLTs and 6 parents of children about their participation and of SCIP intervention. An expert panel completed a two-round Delphi consultation on potential design of a clinical trial. Results: Routine practice in terms of service provision and dosage for children with SPCD in England varies widely. Seventy-five percent of SLT practitioners delegate therapy to school teaching assistants. The number of intervention approaches used in current practice was very large. It was not possible to estimate the number of eligible children per caseload as SPCD tends to be embedded in autism services. Willingness to participate in a future trial was well-supported by survey participants. In the intervention study, SCIP-GAS outcomes analysis indicates all children except one made some progress on parent ratings; all children made progress on practitioner ratings. Practitioner ratings tended to be higher than parents. An analysis of parent narrative comments associated with SCIP-GAS ratings was completed. A power analysis for a future trial was carried using SCIP-GAS as putative primary endpoint. Analysis of practitioners’ audio-diaries indicated a need for substantial training and supervision in a future trial. SCIP-GAS and therapy methods were acceptable to practitioners and parent. Suggestions for adaptation of the manual and training procedures were made. Conclusions: The feasibility study has indicated the potential of a novel outcome measure that captures meaningful change in social communication skills for this group of children and is supported by practitioners and service users. Analysis suggests that there is likely to be sufficient eligible children in England to support a study and a power calculation has indicated a feasible framework for a trial within a realistic period of time. It is likely that children with high-functioning autism will benefit from SCIP intervention which would substantially increase the pool of eligible children. We recognise the training needs of practitioners may be considerable since SCIP is a novel procedure. An analysis of clinically meaningful change associated with SCIP-GAS and the measure itself has the potential to be of use with other heterogeneous groups of children with communication needs
‘Regional Trade Courts’ in the Shadow of WTO Dispute Settlement System: The Paradox of Two Courts
No full textAs of May 2018, over 650 notifications of RTAs had been received by the WTO Secretariat. Of these, 287 were in force. While the content of the WTO DSU has largely been replicated in most of the regional adjudicatory bodies, emerging features of some of these RTAs are substantially out of line with the WTO DSU. While some RTAs cover aspects currently alien to the WTO, the degree of liberalisation contained within others seems remarkably deeper than under the WTO. Two distinct questions are therefore addressed in this paper. The first is whether the proliferation of RTAs threatens in any way the existence of the WTO dispute settlement system, while the second concerns the extent to which this fragmented patchwork of 'regional trade courts' contributes to the development of international law. In order to tackle these issues, the paper will first explore existing international rules relating to regional trade arrangements
Causal Contribution in War
No full textRevisionist approaches to the ethics of war seem to imply that civilians on the unjust side of a conflict can be legitimate targets of defensive attack. In response, some authors have argued that although civilians do often causally contribute to unjustified global threats – by voting for war, writing propaganda articles, or manufacturing munitions, for example – their contributions are usually too ‘small’, or ‘remote’, to make them liable to be intentionally killed to avert the threat. What defenders of this view lack, however, is a theory of causal contribution. This article sketches and defends a theory of causal contribution. We then apply it to the kinds of situation that defenders of the view are interested in. We argue, however, that since degrees of causal contribution turn out to be sensitive to particular features of the situation that are extrinsic to the agent's action, whether an agent makes a small or a large contribution to a threat may not only be very difficult to discern but in many cases may not line up very well with the kinds of intuition about liability that defenders of the view want to uphold
A Predictive Risk Model for Infection-Related Hospitalization among Home Healthcare Patients
No full textInfection prevention is a high priority for home healthcare (HHC) but tools are lacking to identify patients at highest risk for developing infections. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a predictive risk model to identify HHC patients at risk of an infection-related hospitalization or emergency department visit. A non-experimental study using secondary data was conducted. The Outcome and Assessment Information Set linked with relevant clinical data from 112,788 HHC admissions in 2014 were used for model development (70% of data) and testing (30%). A total of 1,908 patients (1.69%) were hospitalized or received emergency care associated with infection. Stepwise logistic regression models discriminated between individuals with and without infections. Our final model, when classified by highest risk of infection, identified a high portion of those who were hospitalized or received emergent care for an infection while also correctly categorizing 90.5% of patients without infection. The risk model can be used by clinicians to inform care planning. This is the first study to develop a tool for predicting infection risk that can be used to inform how to direct additional infection control intervention resources on high-risk patients, potentially reducing infection related hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and costs
Data-Independent Feature Learning with Markov Random Fields in Convolutional Neural Networks
No full textIn image classification, deriving robust image representations is a key process that determines the performance of vision systems. Numerous image features and descriptors have been developed manually over the years. As an alternative, however, deep neural networks, in particular convolutional neural networks (CNNs), have become popular for learning image features or representations from data and have demonstrated remarkable performance in many real-world applications. But CNNs often require huge amount of labelled data, which may be prohibitive in many applications, as well as long training times. This paper considers an alternative, data-independent means of obtaining features for CNNs. The proposed framework makes use of the Markov random field (MRF) and self-organising map (SOM) to generate basic features and model both intra- and inter-image dependencies. Various MRF textures are synthesized first, and are then clustered by a convolutional translation-invariant SOM, to form generic image features. These features can be directly applied as early convolutional filters of the CNN, leading to a new way of deriving effective features for image classification. The MRF framework also offers a theoretical and transparent way to examine and determine the influence of image features on performance of CNNs. Comprehensive experiments on the MNIST, rotated MNIST, CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets were conducted with results outperforming most state-of-the-art models of similar complexity