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Crowdfunding Renewable Energy: A Practical Guide for Crowdfunding Platforms, Project Developers, Investors and Policy Makers
Get PDFCrowdfunding can play an important role in the energy transition. With sufficient awareness of its potential among all stakeholders, crowdfunding is well matched to help address resulting funding gaps, provided we attract and sustain high-quality crowdfunding platforms targeted at renewable energy investment, raise awareness among project developers of the suitability of crowdfunding as an additional source of finance, better understand the behaviour of individual retail investors and their interest in crowdfunding renewable energy projects, and ensure that the regulatory governance of the range of marketplaces that
have emerged is fit for purpose to allow further scaling up across Europe, and without stifling market forces or ongoing innovation in the sector. This booklet gathers important insights and recommendations in all
these dimensions, drawing on a wealth of analysis of relevant data, industry and investor surveys, and stakeholder engagement across the sector. We complement this with a range of case studies that illustrate how far renewables crowdfunding has come in recent years
MONEY LAUNDERING, PUBLIC BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP REGISTERS AND THE BRITISH OVERSEAS TERRITORIES: THE IMPACT OF THE SANCTIONS AND MONEY LAUNDERING ACT 2018 (UK)
Get PDFTopological data analysis to improve exemplar-based inpainting
Get PDFImage inpainting is the process of filling in the missing region to preserve continuity of its overall content and semantic. In this paper, we present a novel approach to improve an existing scheme, called exemplar-based inpainting algorithm, using Topological Data Analysis (TDA). TDA is a mathematical approach concern studying shapes or objects to gain information about connectivity and closeness property of those objects. The challenge in using exemplar-based inpainting is that missing regions neighborhood area needs to have a relatively simple texture and structure. We studied the topological properties (e.g. number of connected components) of missing regions surrounding the missing area by building a sequence of simplicial complexes (known as persistent homology) based on a selected group of uniform Local binary Pattern LBP. Connected components of image regions generated by certain landmark pixels, at different thresholds, automatically quantify the texture nature of the missing regions surrounding areas. Such quantification help determine the appropriate size of patch propagation. We have modified the patch propagation priority function using geometrical properties of curvature of isophote and improved the matching criteria of patches by calculating the correlation coefficients from spatial, gradient and Laplacian domain. We use several image quality measures to illustrate the performance of our approach in comparison to similar inpainting algorithms. In particular, we shall illustrate that our proposed scheme outperforms the state-of-the-art exemplar-based inpainting algorithm
Developing successful social support: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of mechanisms and processes in a chronic pain support group
Get PDFObjective. The experience of long-term membership of a successful Chronic Pain Support Group (CPSG) was explored to identify; i) factors associated with social support, and; ii) ways that health-care professionals (HCPs) could help CPSGs become more effective and supportive.
Design. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis enabled exploration of participants’ experiences of membership and rationales for continued attendance.
Main outcome measures. Twelve participants (four males, eight females), recruited from a regional CPSG, completed semi-structured interviews lasting from 45-120 minutes. Following verbatim transcription, idiographic then cross-case analyses were undertaken.
Results. Three superordinate themes emerged: (1) Investing in the new normal; (2) The nurturing environment; (3) Growth facilitation through social evolution. Increased investment and identification with membership, generated snowballing social engagement, enhancing pain management/well-being through collective humour and peer-to-peer support. Explicit guidance by HCPs in early stages of group formation/development, and subsequent implicit influences on group attitudes and actions, promoted the group’s development into its current healthy, supportive state.
Conclusion. Contrary to stereotypes, membership offered positive respite from chronic pain through collective coping. Successful CPSGs forge an independent identity, fostering strong group investment and an ability to live well with chronic pain. HCPs can provide a stabilising foundation for CPSGs to develop positively and supportively
Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism
Get PDFIntelligence can be seen as a critical tool of power for states in conventional conflict scenarios. Since the end of the Cold War which defined security through the second half of the twentieth century, many states have shifted a large portion of their national security discourse towards international terrorism rather than threats from other state actors. The interaction between terrorist and state actors has often been analysed using Game Theory approaches, since these allow for a notion of the critical interdependence between each side of the equation. In this way, the gathering of intelligence by a state on a terrorist group can be seen as a legitimate and effective element of proactive and pre-emptive counter terrorism policy: essentially the “foreknowledge” of which Sun Tzu spoke. Similarly, terrorists will always be aiming to outwit the state, and they themselves will need information about the capabilities of counter terrorist policies and agencies in order to do so. All of this leads to a complex contemporary debate in Western liberal democratic states in particular, whereby the expansion of intelligence capabilities runs up against civil liberties lobbies, who sometimes recall memories of totalitarian states such as communist East Germany in opposing their government’s supposedly oppressive designs. In response, the spectre of terrorism is often invoked to provide moral justification for enhanced intelligence gathering capability. Thus we can see an inextricable link between an appropriately articulated terrorist threat, and the intelligence component of counter terrorism policy
Developing a Product Service System through a Productisation Strategy: A case from the 3PL industry
Get PDFA Product-Service System (PSS) is created by combing a tangible product and an intangible service into one integrated offering. Thus, a PSS can be achieved by a production company adding intangible services to a product using a servitization strategy. Or, by a service company adding a tangible product to a service by means of a productisation strategy. The focus of this paper is on the latter. Our work demonstrates a significant gap in the literature in this area. To address this, we adapt an existing PSS conceptual framework provided by Oliva and Kallenberg (2003) as a means to identify the driving and restraining forces considered by a service company as it explored the possibility of pursuing a PSS productisation strategy. The conceptual framework is applied in an exploratory case study with a 3PL service provider. Application of the framework reveals new driving and restraining forces not previously discussed in the literature. Furthermore, it allows a preliminary quantification of the driving and restraining forces using a force field analysis approach (Lewin, 1951). Our work contributes towards the expansion of the empirical knowledge base in the area of PSS
Truth and Consequences: Law, Myth and Metaphor in American Indian Contested Adoption
Get PDFThis article considers the effects of the operations of myth and metaphor on law through a comparison of a United States Supreme Court decision and a novel that deal with the contested trans-racial adoption of an American Indian child. It argues that the United States founding myth of Manifest Destiny—of the divinely ordained fate of the continent to host a (white) Christian state—is determinative of the way in which legal decisions regarding American Indians are made. The myth of Manifest Destiny contains a metaphor of vanished American Indians, such that contemporary American Indians are rendered nearly invisible and whose existence is not easily absorbed into the working of the American legal system. The American Indian Child Welfare Act provides protections against assimilation for indigenous families and community, thus working at cross-purposes to the ultimate aim of Manifest Destiny. What happens in those instances when legal provisions and interpretation run counter to Manifest Destiny? Through the consideration of the situation of a contested adoption, this article reveals the heavy influence of Manifest Destiny in the Supreme Court decision, which is counter to the vision of a pluralistic culture envisioned in both the novel and the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) itself. The consequences of legal resistance to ICWA for American Indian communities and as to the operation of the legal system itself are discussed
Oxygen – the forgotten nutrient
Get PDFOxygen is essential for the maintenance and growth of aerobic animals, similar to the essentiality of what are classically considered nutrients. Nevertheless, O2 is not customarily regarded as a nutrient, this reflecting the route by which it enters the body – through the lungs or gills in vertebrates, rather than via the mouth and gastrointestinal tract. A relative deficiency of O2 occurs at high altitudes and during deep-sea diving, to which distinct adaptations occur. 6 Deficiency is also evident in lung diseases such as emphysema. Without O2, mitochondrial respiration and oxidative phosphorylation cannot take place. At a molecular level, cells adapt to O2 deficiency by switching from oxidative metabolism to anaerobic glycolysis and there are changes in the expression of a multiplicity of genes, driven by hypoxia-sensitive transcription factors, particularly HIF-1. It is argued that O2 should be fully included within the remit of nutritional science alongside the other essential macro-nutrients