47 research outputs found
Global value chains, environmental upgrading and downgrading
No full textGlobalization has engendered the growth of global value chains, which are strategic forms of organization across actors, that explicate how goods and services and produced and flow from production to consumption. A key concern of the global value chain (GVC) literature relates to whether and how actors, environmentally upgrade by creating and capturing more value. This entry leverages selected insights from multiple sub-disciplines of environmental economic geography, organizational sociology, economic sociology, economic geography and environmental sociology to advance understandings of the environmental dimensions of upgrading and downgrading in GVCs. Analytically, environmental upgrading is elucidated in terms of processes of environmental upgrading, that is how value is created and the ways in which it is appropriated; and the resultant outcomes, which are biophysical manifestations that impacts on market access, and reputation. The process-outcome distinction facilitates understanding what environmental upgrading means and how it differs across actors within a GVC
Global value chains, environmental upgrading and downgrading
No full textGlobalization has engendered the growth of global value chains, which are strategic forms of organization across actors, that explicate how goods and services and produced and flow from production to consumption. A key concern of the global value chain (GVC) literature relates to whether and how actors, environmentally upgrade by creating and capturing more value. This entry leverages selected insights from multiple sub-disciplines of environmental economic geography, organizational sociology, economic sociology, economic geography and environmental sociology to advance understandings of the environmental dimensions of upgrading and downgrading in GVCs. Analytically, environmental upgrading is elucidated in terms of processes of environmental upgrading, that is how value is created and the ways in which it is appropriated; and the resultant outcomes, which are biophysical manifestations that impacts on market access, and reputation. The process-outcome distinction facilitates understanding what environmental upgrading means and how it differs across actors within a GVC
Codes of Conduct and Standard Setting in the Forest Sector : Constructing Markets for Democracy?
No full textIn an age of globalization, there is a growing perception that state regulatory instruments may be an inadequate means of regulating firm conduct. Increasingly, scholars are evaluating how corporate codes of conduct may operate as regulatory mechanisms. This article examines competing codes of conduct in the forest sector. Through a detailed case study of code adoption, innovation, and diffusion in the forest sector, focusing on mechanisms of vertical, horizontal and competitive diffusion, it is found that non-governmental organization (NGO) codes have placed competitive pressure to adopt higher standards on competing schemes. However, NGO schemes have been limited in constructing fluid markets for their own goods. The article examines which strategies for codes regimes are most likely to diffuse high standards throughout contemporary markets.À notre époque de mondialisation, il existe une tendance à croire que les instruments de régulation étatique apparaissent comme des moyens inadéquats pour réglementer la conduite des entreprises transnationales. De plus en plus, les intellectuels se penchent sur la façon dont les codes de conduite des entreprises peuvent servir de mécanisme de régulation. Cet article analyse des codes de conduite concurrents dans le secteur forestier. Nous décrivons dans le détail un cas d’adoption, de création et de diffusion de codes de conduite concurrents, en retenant des mécanismes de diffusion horizontale, verticale et concurrente de marchandises codifiées. La réflexion se poursuit en se demandant quelles sont les stratégies des systèmes de codes les plus susceptibles de propager des standards élevés à travers les marchés actuels.Dans cette étude, nous abordons un cas dans lequel la compétition entre deux systèmes d’établissement de normes, un premier tiré de l’industrie et un deuxième d’une organisation non gouvernementale (ONG) représentant des groupes à intérêts diversifiés, est sensée avoir engendré « une course au sommet » dans l’établissement de standards. Le code de conduite et le schéma de monitoring de l’ONG ont connu un succès remarquable en élevant la barre des standards éthiques de production dans l’industrie, c’est-à-dire qu’ils ont mis de l’avant des valeurs démocratiques dans les codes, dans leur participation à la société civile et dans leur degré de transparence. De plus, le succès de ce modèle représentant des intérêts multiples aurait apparemment incité les compétiteurs de l’industrie à accroître la qualité sociale de leurs propres standards et à maintenir une position concurrente sur ces mêmes standards. Au même moment, les codes de l’ONG ont toutefois été gênés par leur inaptitude à fournir aux détaillants une offre suffisante de marchandises à haut standard.Les données de l’étude de cas laissent croire que, pour étendre l’application de ces codes de façon plus fructueuse, des éléments ou des lieux verticaux et horizontaux de coordination économique sont particulièrement importants. La coordination horizontale, c’est-à-dire la coordination au sein des associations de l’industrie, entre autres efforts, a créé des espaces pour l’ensemble des industries permettant la réalisation de décisions conjointes en vue d’atteindre un nouveau niveau de production et de fournir des mécanismes pour s’occuper des problèmes de tension chez les retardataires. La coordination horizontale, par des associations d’industries, quand elle se produit, permet à des secteurs de cheminer vers des buts de qualité sociale coûteuse en tant que groupe, évitant ainsi la menace des coûts sur le « premier initiateur » et dégageant un espace chez les leaders de l’industrie servant à discipliner les retardataires. Dans le cas d’un régime basé sur l’industrie, les résultats de la coordination horizontale ont apparemment connu une propagation plus rapide, quoiqu’à un niveau de standard plus bas que celui connu par l’ONG à intérêts multiples.De la même manière, la coordination verticale, telle quelle est illustrée par l’étude de cas, prend de l’importance au moment de traiter de la nature de la production confiée de plus en plus en sous-traitance. Au fur et à mesure que la mondialisation s’étend et que l’organisation de l’économie tend à être perçue comme une série de liens de collaboration et de compétition entre des opérations autrement isolées, des liens qui enjambent les frontières nationales et qui évitent les modes plus conventionnels de régulation, l’étude de cas permet de croire que la chaîne de l’offre devient plus importante comme une orientation vers des standards de qualité sociale. Cependant, encore là, le modèle de l’ONG à intérêts multiples dans le secteur de la foresterie a lutté en vue de présenter une offre approuvée contenant assez de liens dans la chaîne de manière à engendrer des marchés fluides pour leurs marchandises à haut standard. L’étude de cas illustre un nombre de tentatives innovatrices de la part de la communauté des ONG en réagissant de façon à mettre en place des stratégies visant à établir des marchés fluides pour des marchandises approuvées. La régulation de ces expériences horizontales, verticales et concurrentielles de diffusion de standards prend de l’importance parce que c’est seulement par l’identification de « moyens efficaces » de propagation des pratiques à haut standard que les codes de conduite pourront fondamentalement transformer la nature de l’organisation contemporaine de l’économie.En la era de la globalización, hay una percepción creciente que los instrumentos de regulación del estado pueden constituir medios inadecuados para regular la conducta de las empresas. Cada vez más, los científicos evalúan cómo los códigos de conducta de las corporaciones pueden operar como mecanismos reguladores. Este artículo examina los códigos de conducta en entran en concurrencia en el sector forestal. A través de un estudio de caso detallado de la adopción, innovación y difusión del código en el sector forestal, y focalizando los mecanismos de difusión competitiva vertical y horizontal, se demuestra que los códigos de las organizaciones non gubernamentales (ONG) ejercen una presión competitiva para adoptar estándares mas elevados en los esquemas competitivos. Sin embargo, los esquemas de las ONG han sido limitados en cuanto a la construcción de mercados fluídos para sus respectivos bienes. Este artículo examina cuáles son las estrategias respecto a los regimes de códigos que son mas propicias para difundir estándares mas elevados en los mercados contemporáneos
Setting in the Forest Sector Constructing Markets for Democracy?
No full textNota: Las reglas de escritura de las referencias bibliográficas pueden variar según los diferentes dominios del conocimiento. Este documento está protegido por la ley de derechos de autor. La utilización de los servicios de Érudit (comprendida la reproducción) se rige por su política de utilización que se puede consultar en el UR
Predicting Near-Future Demand of Self-Storage Rooms
No full textThe value of data has increased enormously over the last couple of years. Many datasets contain valuable information that can, for example, be used to make forecasts. In this thesis, the dataset of a company in the self-storage industry is analyzed. The company offers customers rental storage facilities, such as lockers, rooms, containers at several locations in the Netherlands. The rooms, also called units, are characterized by three features: location, volume, and floor. The dataset contains for each storage facility the entire renting history of each self-storage unit. For the company, it is of interest to understand and predict the demand of its customers, such that it can flexibly adjust the prices of the rooms and services based on demand. Beyond, forecasting users' demand for various types of products is a common and essential problem in many different domains (e.g., recommendation systems, transportation systems).This thesis aims to predict the demand for the next week by applying white-box and black-box models. The problem is represented as a temporal weighted bipartite network prediction problem. Specifically, the goal is to predict the network structure at a time T+1 based on the bipartite network observed at time T-k+1, T-k+2, ..., T, where k is an integer and needs to be optimized such that the prediction error is minimized. By analyzing the data in its temporal dimension, using the autocorrelation and cross-correlation among different storage locations, floors and volumes, it was shown that the autocorrelation is high and the cross-correlation is low. This suggests that the temporal bipartite network is possibly predictable.We have explored different state-of-the-art predictive techniques. Markov chain model, LSTM, and ConvLSTM have been selected because of their fundamental difference in the way they learn and predict. A performance comparison is given where the techniques have been applied on the storage data, and it shows that LSTM outperforms the Markov chain and ConvLSTM based on the following evaluation metrics: RMSE, MAE, and accuracy. According to our dataset, higher predictability was achieved when only the data of a single link was exploited. The Markov chain and the LSTM utilize the information of a single link to predict. On the contrary, the ConvLSTM utilizes the information of the entire network to predict. The low cross-correlation between the links explains why the LSTM outperforms the ConvLSTM. The ConvLSTM tries to capture spatio-temporal dependencies, while this, in general, does not contain much valuable predictive information. Thus, the model is introduced to more noise, making it harder to predict accurately. The LSTM also outperforms the Markov chain model, which is used as a baseline method. This proves that it is beneficial to use a complex deep learning model for this dataset to predict. However, the Markov chain performs comparable to the ConvLSTM, showing that a black-box model does not always outperform a white-box model. This emphasizes that the most suitable predictive algorithm depends on the statistical properties of the dataset.The theoretical upper bound of the predictability of the network is computed. It is the upper bound that can be used to compare the realized performance to the maximum achievable prediction performance for any predictive algorithm. The difference between the performance of the best performing algorithm to our dataset, LSTM, and the theoretical upper bound is still large, indicating that there is still room for improvement.Computer Science | Multimedia Computin
Stabilization of Visually Guided Robotic Lampreys
No full textThis thesis contains two contributions to the stabilization of visually guided robotic lampreys: the head stabilization method and the head-led target tracking design. Both approach the problem that camera inputs, attached to the head segment, are disturbed due to the participation of the head in the locomotion gait of the robot. Head stabilization is designed to stabilize the head segment itself, and head-led target tracking is designed to stabilize the target in the field of view of the cameras. The head stabilization and head-led target tracking designs are build upon the Ijspeert model. The Ijspeert model is an biologically inspired oscillator-based central pattern generator, capable of producing locomotion signals to achieve a lateral undulation gait. Analysis of this Ijspeert model is done by rewriting the model as a network of Kuramoto oscillators. This analysis concludes with a proof for the convergence of the phase differences of the Ijspeert oscillators. Although methods that mitigate the head stabilization problem for robotic lampreys have been designed before, the head stabilization method in this thesis approaches the head stabilization problem as a control problem for the fist time, to the best of our knowledge. The head stabilization method is designed to align the head segment with the average body direction, by providing head stabilizing parameters to the Ijspeert model. Perfect head stabilization is achieved, under the assumption that the motor dynamics are instant. Even though head stabilization is not perfectly achieved in reality with non-instant motor dynamics, we have verified that the head stabilized Ijspeert model is an improvement in terms of head stability, compared to the Ijspeert model without head stabilization. The designed head stabilization method is applied to a novel head-led target tracking design. This method combines a forward locomotion gait with a turning controller to perform target tracking, and is designed to increase the accuracy of visual information by directing the head segment towards the target. The head-led target tracking design is verified by placing the robotic lamprey in a virtual fluid environment with a target, which showed that the target is reached by the robot. Furthermore, the head-led target tracking design is compared to a design from the literature that does not direct the head segment towards the target. The head-led target tracking design shows improvements to the design from the literature in terms of the used performance measures.Mechanical Engineering | Systems and Contro
Interference in 79 GHz Phase-Coded Automotive Radar
No full textAutomotive radars play a crucial role in the reduction of traffic casualties and the realization of autonomous driving due to its robustness and adverse weather tolerance. However, as the penetration rate of automotive radars increases, concerns arise regarding the mutual interference. In contrast to the predominant Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radars, Phase-Modulated Continuous Wave (PMCW) radars might provide solutions for the interference problem by coding the waveforms, which brings an additional degree of freedom. In this thesis, a system level overview of the phase-coded radar is presented. Regarding the popular code families, particular attention was given to the Gold, Almost Perfect Autocorrelation Sequences (APAS), and Zero-Correlation Zone (ZCZ) sequences. This thesis has proposed three distinct designs for 16-TX-element MIMO Phase-Coded radar that drives the requirements of a Medium Range Radar (MRR). The conclusion can be drawn that APAS and ZCZ sequences have shown to provide a (sub)optimal design that is emphasized by their perfect correlation characteristics within the designated distance of interest. Furthermore, in full-transmit capacity MIMO, the proposed designs use semi-orthogonal waveforms to provide excellent performance in synchronous PMCW radars. However, performance degrades in case Doppler-shifted reflections are received, whereas sidelobes arise in range due to non-orthogonality. This thesis concludes that the APAS-coded waveforms are most tolerant to Doppler shift; besides, its Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) MIMO Transmission scheme is computationally more efficient than the Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) scheme used in Gold and ZCZ coded waveforms. Finally, the radar-to-radar interference investigation has proven that for uncorrelated PMCW- to-PMCW interference, the noise floor undergoes a consistent increase, which is according to the interference-plus-noise power level calculated from the link budget analysis. This thesis emphasizes these results, as the interference effect in FMCW-to-FMCW (provided by NXP Semiconductors) have seen similar phenomena. Therefore, results in this thesis support the conclusion that coded waveforms do not remove or suppress the energy levels of the interference. For correlated interference, ghost targets might be formed, but this depends on the starting time as well as the starting coded bit of the interferer, as the correlation peak can be formed outside the distance of interest.Microwave Sensing, Signals & SystemsElectrical Engineering | Microelectronic
Doppler Influence on Waveform Orthogonality in 79GHz MIMO Phase-Coded Automotive Radar
No full textUtilization of phase-coded waveforms in automotive MIMO radars for short to medium range applications is studied. Performances of three most-promising binary code families (Gold, APAS and ZCZ sequences) are compared. Design tradeoffs of practical implementation of phased-coded waveforms for MIMO radar are analyzed for the first time for a possible future System on Chip implementation. Orthogonality of the waveforms in case of moving targets is analyzed. The implications of the code properties for the Range-Doppler map, as well as the Range-Angular map, are pointed out. Doppler frequency shift impact on such performance indicators as the target peak power and range sidelobe levels in the range-Doppler plane, as well as the range and azimuth sidelobe behavior, and the angular error in the azimuthal plane have been comprehensively studied for the first time. It is shown that the time-staggered transmit scheme with autocorrelation properties only (while introducing azimuthal errors) results in improved performance compared to code division multiplexing with auto- and cross-correlation properties.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Microwave Sensing, Signals & System
