Social impact assessment of investment activities in the China–Pakistan economic corridor

In order to analyze potential social risks, and achieve smooth implementation of investment activities in the China–Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC), we attempt to establish social impact and risk indicators. Both the impacts on the projects and the impacts of the projects are used to develop risk indicators in accordance with the literature review, reality and international standard principles. Using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and average value to analyze questionnaires of both Chinese and Pakistani respondents, we identify the importance of various risk indicators. The primary social risks of the western high mountain region include tribal obstacles and religious extremism. The social risks to the southeast coastal plains include preserving the historical and cultural heritage of the area and international protection of national parks. The social risks in north Kashmir include disputes, extremist threats, religious and cultural differences, and the protection of natural reserves. The social risks of the Xinjiang region primarily involve social issues faced by ethnic minorities and environmental pressures.     

Carbon definitions and typologies in environmental impact assessment: greenhouse gas confusion?

Estimation of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) is becoming an established part of assessing sustainability within environmental impact assessment (EIA). However, a comparative study of 25 environmental impact statements (EISs) to analyse the practice of accounting for emissions during the EIA process suggests that consideration of the effects of development on emissions of GHG is poorly understood. The extent to which assessment is actually carried out is also inconsistent and sporadically implemented. A key indicator appears to be the varying and sometimes contradictory use of technical terminology, particularly of the term ‘carbon’ and its similar phraseology. This paper provides a critical evaluation of the differing terminology that is applied to GHG assessments undertaken as part of EIA process and explores the effect that misuse of these terms could have on an impact EIS.     

Convergence or polarisation? The impact of research assessment exercises in the Italian case

Scientometrics - Two research assessments with an impact on university funding have taken place in Italy, covering the periods 2004–2010 and 2011–2014. After correcting grading schemes...     

How does the Earth system generate and maintain thermodynamic disequilibrium and what does it imply for the future of the planet?

The Earth's chemical composition far from chemical equilibrium is unique in our Solar System, and this uniqueness has been attributed to the presence of widespread life on the planet. Here, I show how this notion can be quantified using non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Generating and maintaining disequilibrium in a thermodynamic variable requires the extraction of power from another thermodynamic gradient, and the second law of thermodynamics imposes fundamental limits on how much power can be extracted. With this approach and associated limits, I show that the ability of abiotic processes to generate geochemical free energy that can be used to transform the surface-atmosphere environment is strongly limited to less than 1?TW. Photosynthetic life generates more than 200?TW by performing photochemistry, thereby substantiating the notion that a geochemical composition far from equilibrium can be a sign for strong biotic activity. Present-day free energy consumption by human activity in the form of industrial activity and human appropriated net primary productivity is of the order of 50?TW and therefore constitutes a considerable term in the free energy budget of the planet. When aiming to predict the future of the planet, we first note that since global changes are closely related to this consumption of free energy, and the demands for free energy by human activity are anticipated to increase substantially in the future, the central question in the context of predicting future global change is then how human free energy demands can increase sustainably without negatively impacting the ability of the Earth system to generate free energy. This question could be evaluated with climate models, and the potential deficiencies in these models to adequately represent the thermodynamics of the Earth system are discussed. Then, I illustrate the implications of this thermodynamic perspective by discussing the forms of renewable energy and planetary engineering that would enhance the overall free energy generation and, thereby 'empower' the future of the planet.     

Use and effectiveness of health impact assessment in the energy and natural resources sector in the United States, 2007 – 2016

Decisions made in the energy and natural resources sector can affect public health. This report reviews the characteristics and assesses the effectiveness of health impact assessments (HIAs) conducted in this sector. A total of 30 HIAs conducted in 14 states in the United States were identified using a targeted literature search. Five HIAs illustrative of the different source and sub-sector categories, and with identifiable impacts on decision-making processes were selected for review. An existing conceptual framework (Wismar) was used to assess the effectiveness of the five selected HIAs on decision-making related to non-renewable energy, renewable energy, mining, and energy conservation. The 30 HIAs were performed for a variety of projects and assessed health impacts ranging from metabolic disorders to community livability. Eight of the 30 reports were incorporated into environmental impact assessments. All five selected HIAs were generally effective and raised awareness of the health effects of the projects being assessed; four were directly effective and led to changes in final project decisions. Their variable effectiveness may be related to the extent of community engagement and consideration of equity issues, differences in the details and quality of monitoring and evaluation plans devised as part of the HIA process, and whether the outcomes of monitoring and evaluation are reported.     

Document categories in the ISI Web of Knowledge: Misunderstanding the Social Sciences?

Thomson Reuter’s ISI Web of Knowledge (or ISI for short) is used in the majority of benchmarking analyses and bibliometric research projects. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the limitations of data provided by ISI. This article deals with a limitation that disproportionally affects the Social Sciences: ISI’s misclassification of journal articles containing original research into the “review” or “proceedings paper” category. I report on a comprehensive, 11 year analysis, of document categories for 27 journals in nine Social Science and Science disciplines. I show that although ISI’s “proceedings paper” and “review” classifications seem to work fairly well in the Sciences, they illustrate a profound misunderstanding of research and publication practices in the Social Sciences.     

Why does library holding format really matter for book impact assessment?: Modelling the relationship between citations and altmetrics with print and electronic holdings

Scientometrics - Scholarly books are important outputs in some fields and their many publishing formats seem to introduce opportunities to scrutinize their impact. As there is a growing interest in...     

Grain growth in perovskites: What is the impact of boundary transitions?

Several perovskite ceramics are known to have non-Arrhenius type grain growth and to show grain growth transitions instead. These growth transitions are coupled to bimodal microstructures and seem to be caused by the existence, coexistence and transition of two different grain boundary types. This paper gives a review on the details of the grain growth transitions in perovskite ceramics. A simple mean field approach and standard grain growth experiments are used for quantification. However, this approach is far too simple to understand bimodal anisotropic grain growth completely as apparent in perovskites. Important parameters such as atomistic boundary structure, segregation effects, wetting transitions, faceting, grain boundary stoichiometry, space charge and interfacial drag effects are discussed with respect to their impact on grain growth in perovskites. A summary of open questions and future directions is given.     

Stakeholder’s opinion of public participation in Thai environmental and health impact assessment

This paper evaluates the efficacy of public participation in the EHIA (environmental and health impact assessment) process of Thailand based on the opinions of 53 interviewees from various stakeholder groups in relation to certain public participation criteria. The evaluation revealed that public participation in Thai EHIA was partially effective. The project proponents provide an opportunity to anybody interested in the project to get involved from the scoping stage onwards. However, the important decisions are already made before the public can get involved. In addition, government officers and non-governmental organizations appear to be able to influence outcomes of public hearings more concretely than the project-affected people due to the highly technical nature of the discussions. The stakeholders were questioned whether their concerns were taken seriously during the decision-making process. In our conclusions, we make three major recommendations to enhance the public participation process and practice in Thai EHIA, based upon: (1) stakeholder analysis, (2) public participation in EHIA guideline revision, and (3) validation the authenticity of the concerns raised by stakeholders.     

Distance between speed humps and pedestrian crossings: does it matter?

Speed humps are a common physical measure installed at pedestrian crossings to reduce vehicle speeds therefore improve the safety and mobility of pedestrians at the crossing.The aim of this study was to determine whether variations in distance between speed humps and pedestrian crossings contribute differently to the safety and mobility of pedestrians and cyclists, especially children and the elderly, and if so, how. Three sites in Sweden were studied, where vehicle speed measurements and video filming at the site resulted in manually coded, road user behaviour of 1972 pedestrians and cyclists.Road user behaviour at three test sites and two comparison sites equipped with speed cushion at distances of about 5 m and 10 m from the pedestrian crossing, i.e. about one or two car lengths, were studied. As vehicle speeds were somewhat lower at the pedestrian crossing when the distance between the speed cushion to the pedestrian crossing was greater, and there were positive aspects regarding the mobility of the pedestrians and cyclists, a greater distance of about 10 m or two car lengths between the hump and the pedestrian crossing is suggested. The present study only covers speed cushions, but the same distance is also regarded as important when installing other types of physical measures to reduce vehicle speed.     

Is there a fallacy of composition of external R&D? An empirical assessment of the impact of quasi-internal,external and offshored R&D

Empirical studies at the individual firm level often find a positive impact of external R&D on innovation. However, external R&D sourcing might produce an impoverishment of the local knowledge base and thus damage innovation production at the regional level. To address this possible fallacy of composition, we first review the various forms of ‘external’ R&D. We then use the French R&D survey to assess the impact of four different ways of transacting or collaborating on R&D: onshore affiliate external R&D, offshore affiliate external R&D, onshore non-affiliate and offshore non-affiliate external R&D. We then estimate knowledge production functions on the 94 metropolitan French NUTS3 regions observed between 1997 and 2008, differentiating internal R&D and these categories of external R&D. We obtain that the impact of onshore non-affiliate external R&D is significantly negative. The other external R&D categories are non-significant and we do not detect any complementarity between internal and external R&D.     

Thermal pre-treatment in the OSL dating of quartz: is it necessary?

Thermal treatment before optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurement is an important step in all widely accepted OSL dating procedures used with quartz. This is a major constraint on the design of a portable luminescence instrument for estimating ages in the field. Preliminary experiments show that using a standard dating protocol without heating caused a 30-50% underestimation of equivalent dose. This underestimate arises mainly from OSL derived from the 110 degrees C thermoluminescence (TL) trap; because of the thermal instability of this trap, this OSL contribution is only present in unheated laboratory-regenerated signals, but not in the natural signal. An alternative to thermal pre-treatment is investigated, based on the mathematical separation of the stable dosimetry OSL signal from the total OSL; the latter is the sum of signals from several traps, including the 110 degrees C TL trap. Our results show consistency with dose estimates obtained using a standard measurement protocol including pre-heating.     

The impact of the national assessment exercises on self-citation rate and publication venue: an empirical investigation on the engineering academic sector in Italy

Thelwall (J Informetr 11(1):128–151, 2017a.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2016.12.002; Web indicators for research evaluation: a practical guide. Morgan and Claypool, London, 2017b) proposed a new family of field- and time-normalized indicators, which is intended for sparse data. These indicators are based on units of analysis (e.g., institutions) rather than on the paper level. They compare the proportion of mentioned papers (e.g., on Twitter) of a unit with the proportion of mentioned papers in the corresponding fields and publication years. We propose a new indicator (Mantel–Haenszel quotient, MHq) for the indicator family. The MHq is rooted in the Mantel–Haenszel (MH) analysis. This analysis is an established method, which can be used to pool the data from several 2?×?2 cross tables based on different subgroups. We investigate using citations and assessments by peers whether the indicator family can distinguish between quality levels defined by the assessments of peers. Thus, we test the convergent validity. We find that the MHq is able to distinguish between quality levels in most cases while other indicators of the family are not. Since our study approves the MHq as a convergent valid indicator, we apply the MHq to four different Twitter groups as defined by the company Altmetric. Our results show that there is a weak relationship between the Twitter counts of all four Twitter groups and scientific quality, much weaker than between citations and scientific quality. Therefore, our results discourage the use of Twitter counts in research evaluation.     

Emergency management: does it have a sufficiently comprehensive understanding of decision-making, process and context?

It is widely recognised in the social and management sciences that the effective support of decision-making requires a multidisciplinary perspective. This trend is also clear in nuclear emergency management (EM). However, communication between disciplines is not easy to maintain in EM contexts when the decision makers (DMs) are likely to be highly stressed. Such circumstances can lead them to revert to the instinctive patterns of perception of their core disciplines, making communication between disciplines difficult and, perhaps, obscuring complex interactions that have not been rehearsed in practice exercises. This paper explores decision making in EM and the nature of the socio-technical issues that will arise, suggesting that despite the lessons of past accidents the research EM community is still not taking a broad enough view of what future incidents may entail.     

Cooperation and Competition: Re-establishing the Institute of Social Research and the Emergence of the “Frankfurt School”

Der vorliegende Aufsatz stellt Kooperation und Konkurrenz als zwei zentrale Mechanismen in den Vordergrund, die zur Etablierung des Instituts für Sozialforschung (IfS) und der Entstehung der ?Frankfurter Schule“ im Laufe der 1950er Jahre geführt haben. Nach ihrer Rückkehr aus dem amerikanischen Exil nach Frankfurt am Main kooperierten die Leiter des IfS, Max Horkheimer, Friedrich Pollock und Theodor W. Adorno mit amerikanischen Militärbehörden, westdeutschen Erziehungspolitikern, deutschen Soziologen und Professoren an der Universität Frankfurt in der Absicht, die deutsche Bevölkerung im demokratischen Sinne zu erziehen und das IfS wieder zu etablieren. Für diese Kooperation war entscheidend, dass alle genannten Akteure ein gemeinsames Ziel vor Augen hatten, nämlich die Demokratisierung Westdeutschlands und die Konstituierung der Soziologie als ?Demokratisierungswissenschaft“. Gleichzeitig konkurrierten die zahlreichen Institute für Sozialforschung in Westdeutschland um finanzielle Ressourcen, um Deutungsanspruch der empirischen Forschungsergebnisse und um die Frage, wie mit der deutschen NS-Vergangenheit umgegangen werden soll. In den späten 1950er Jahren, als die erste Phase der Institutionalisierung der Soziologie in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ihrem Ende zuging, verstärkte sich die Konkurrenz unter den Soziologen und kumulierte schließlich im Positivismusstreit von 1961. Die intensivierte Konkurrenz in den späten 1950er Jahren und die Auseinandersetzungen unter den Soziologen um 1960 waren wichtige Mechanismen bei der Herausbildung der Bezeichnung ?Frankfurter Schule“, unter der das IfS in den 1960er Jahren bekannt wurde.     

Practitioners’ perceptions of the Brazilian environmental impact assessment system: results from a survey

Practitioners play a key role in implementing environmental impact assessment (EIA) policies. Gauging their perception can help in designing legislation or regulation reforms and signals what needs more attention in research. The Brazilian EIA system is under review by lawmakers, but there is scant information about the views of professionals. A survey was conducted to inquiry on practitioners’ perception of the Brazilian EIA system regarding: (1) quality of the process, (2) quality of the environmental impact studies (EIS), and (3) proposals to change the system. Four hundred and fourteen professionals participated in an online survey responding to 44 questions. Results show positive perceptions about some aspects of current practice, but there is a clear predominance of negative appraisal both about the quality of the process and the quality of EIS. The poorest practices are the consideration of cumulative impacts and determination of impact significance. As for proposals to change the system, respondents defend the continuity of specific characteristics of the Brazilian system. Essentially, practitioners are calling for incremental changes that do not require any modification in the legislation.     

Complementarity effect of governance mechanisms on environmental collaboration: does it exist?

This study evaluates the effect of pre-existing relational governance mechanisms on environmental collaboration. Specifically, our study distinguishes between structural and process dimensions of relational governance mechanisms so as to facilitate a more nuanced investigation into the inherent complementarities and performance implications. Using data collected from 145 US firms and a combination of methodologies – three-stage least squares and structural equation modelling, a number of direct, complementary and mediation effects are hypothesised and tested. The three-stage least squares methodology was adopted to overcome endogeneity and simultaneity issues inherent in the hypotheses covering complementarity. Contrary to conventional wisdom, structural and process governance mechanisms were not found to act as complements for environmental collaboration. Instead, the effect of structural mechanisms was found to be completely mediated by the process mechanisms. Thus, process mechanisms of relational governance were found to be much more important in promoting advanced practices such as environmental collaboration. Our results also document the significant mediating role of environmental collaboration. Implications for future research and practice are offered.