Development Of New Infrastructure Research Articles

Mobile phone infrastructure development: Lessons for the development of a hydrogen infrastructure

The development of new infrastructure is often a consideration in the introduction of new innovations. Currently there is some confusion around how to develop a hydrogen infrastructure to support the introduction of FCVs. Lessons can be learned from similar technology introduction in the past and therefore this paper investigates how mobile phone infrastructure was developed allowing the mass-market penetration of mobile phones. Based on this successful infrastructural development suggestions can be made on the development of a hydrogen infrastructure. It is suggested that a hydrogen infrastructure needs to be pre-developed 3–5 years before the market introduction of FCVs can successfully occur. A lack of infrastructural pre-development will cause to the market introduction of FCVs to fail.

Application of sustainability appraisal to the Canterbury Water Management Strategy

In Canterbury, water management presents a particular challenge with regard to resource availability and quality, and the impact of intensification of land use and changing forms of agriculture. These issues have led to the development of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, which identifies a number of options to resolve them. A sustainability appraisal of the options with respect to their contribution to sustainability outcomes illustrates the potential of taking a strategic approach to problem solving in the context of complexity and uncertainty. This article describes the application of a method of sustainability appraisal that is based on international developments but adapted to the New Zealand resource management framework. The approach defined a sustainability bottom line and desired sustainability outcomes, and demonstrated that: (1) the status quo was not sustainable; (2) a strategy based on new infrastructure projects met economic criteria but not environmental criteria; (3) advancing environmental protection with a moratorium on new development met environmental criteria but not economic criteria; and (4) for a sustainable outcome across all criteria, existing water and land use needed to be improved and parallel development of new infrastructure and proactive programs for environmental restoration needed to be implemented.

Perception of Residual Value Risk in Public Private Partnership Projects: Critical Review

AbstractGiven the increased demand for public facilities and the lack of funds and skills to maintain, repair, and replenish the existing facilities, public private partnerships (PPPs) have been widely adopted and have significantly contributed to the development of new infrastructure built throughout the world. However, because many PPP projects will be transferred back to the host governments upon expiry of the concession period, problems related to the subsequent management of PPP projects have not yet been thoroughly studied. Residual value risk (RVR) is a critical concern when the projects revert back to the public sector. Through an extensive literature review and an open-ended questionnaire survey, the perception of RVR in PPP projects is elaborated in this paper, which aims to present a precise definition and meaning of RVR in PPP projects. The survey results indicate that RVR is viewed as an important concern by professionals and academics. The definition of RVR can be phrased as the risk that on...

Strategic planning of cross-sectoral resource megaprojects: Methodology and instruments

This paper reviews issues related to the strategic planning of new cross-sectoral regional resource megaprojects aimed at the development of new infrastructure and an industrial base in Russia and the exploitation of natural resources in the Arctic and Russia’s East, which are in demand on the global market. These issues are particularly topical in view of the current transformation of the economy’s real sector.

Addition of a breeding database in the Genome Database for Rosaceae

Breeding programs produce large datasets that require efficient management systems to keep track of performance, pedigree, geographical and image-based data. With the development of DNA-based screening technologies, more breeding programs perform genotyping in addition to phenotyping for performance evaluation. The integration of breeding data with other genomic and genetic data is instrumental for the refinement of marker-assisted breeding tools, enhances genetic understanding of important crop traits and maximizes access and utility by crop breeders and allied scientists. Development of new infrastructure in the Genome Database for Rosaceae (GDR) was designed and implemented to enable secure and efficient storage, management and analysis of large datasets from the Washington State University apple breeding program and subsequently expanded to fit datasets from other Rosaceae breeders. The infrastructure was built using the software Chado and Drupal, making use of the Natural Diversity module to accommodate large-scale phenotypic and genotypic data. Breeders can search accessions within the GDR to identify individuals with specific trait combinations. Results from Search by Parentage lists individuals with parents in common and results from Individual Variety pages link to all data available on each chosen individual including pedigree, phenotypic and genotypic information. Genotypic data are searchable by markers and alleles; results are linked to other pages in the GDR to enable the user to access tools such as GBrowse and CMap. This breeding database provides users with the opportunity to search datasets in a fully targeted manner and retrieve and compare performance data from multiple selections, years and sites, and to output the data needed for variety release publications and patent applications. The breeding database facilitates efficient program management. Storing publicly available breeding data in a database together with genomic and genetic data will further accelerate the cross-utilization of diverse data types by researchers from various disciplines.Database URL: http://www.rosaceae.org/breeders_toolbox

Becoming a State-in-the-World: Lessons Learned from the American Occupation of Germany

For students of American Political Development, the emergence of globalization and Americanization as themes of inquiry has spurred a growing interest in explaining America's rise as “a legal-economic and geopolitical hegemon.” An important episode in this rise came during the American occupation of Germany after World War II. In postwar Germany, America's military government realized that the American public remained unwilling to support (over the long term) the global projection of what Michael Mann has called “despotic power.” To achieve its fundamental goal of reorienting Germany toward a peaceful coexistence with the Unites States, military government turned instead to what Mann has called “infrastructural power” (power projected “through” society by state institutions). In pivoting from despotic to infrastructural power, three important consequences followed for the occupation. (1) Because it relied on the development of new infrastructures within a new German state, the occupation saw institutional “genesis” in which the Germans themselves influenced the pathway and timing of military government policy. (2) In creating new state institutions, military government performed “policybricolage,” creatively reconstructing institutions “from” the ruins of war-torn Europe (as opposed to “on” its ruins). (3) Financial policy took a central place in military government's focus because it allowed for “increasing returns” in advancing military government's interests. Collectively, military government's experience provided lessons for an American state in the world.

CYBER COUNSELLORS

The Internet and satellite TV have introduced substantial innovations in both the production and the consumption of Islamic knowledge. The development of new infrastructures, skills and communication patterns has resulted in the emergence of ‘new media ecology’, where established traditional Muslim authorities compete for audiences with charismatic satellite preachers and Internet-based muftis. This article explores four distinct websites providing normative content for Muslim minorities in the UK. It focuses on the connections between these Islamic websites and global and local Islamic institutions, the interactions between online and offline Muslim communities and the ways in which the normative content online shapes offline religious manifestations and practices. By doing so, it aims to locate the sources of authority associated with these websites and to explore how Muslim identities are built, negotiated and performed in new discursive spaces. Essentially, this article argues that the underlying logic behind Islamic cyber counselling emphasizes the role of self, the privatization of faith and the increasing insistence on religion as a system of values and ethics. It also demonstrates that the popularity of Internet preachers and muftis converges with the broader transformation of contemporary religiosity, which similarly emphasizes the role of the individual. Such transformation promotes a ready-made and easily accessible set of norms and values that might bring order to daily life and define a practical and visible identity. Nevertheless, the article also demonstrates that the Internet has in the long term reinforced culturally dominant social networks and that while fuelling individualization and privatization of faith, the Internet simultaneously asserts conformity and compliance with established religious authorities.

Do infrastructures impact on alcohol policy making?

The importance of building and strengthening effective infrastructures within the field of public health has increasingly been recognized. A wide variety of actors and structures can be identified for alcohol policy, including systems for policy development, monitoring, research and work-force development, but too little is known about the complex systems of infrastructure available across European countries and their impact on alcohol policy. This study is part of the Alcohol Measures for Public Health Research Alliance (AMPHORA) project, and aims to map existing infrastructures, but also to examine the relationship between infrastructures and alcohol policy change. A survey of alcohol policy infrastructure and infrastructure needs at the national level will be conducted using an updated and adapted questionnaire based on the Health Promotion (HP) Source Project tool. Case studies involving in-depth interviews will be conducted for a selection of countries. Data will be analysed descriptively, mapping alcohol policy infrastructure and identifying needs to reveal any relationship between infrastructure and alcohol policy. This study can contribute to building the scientific knowledge base on this topic as well to policy development. First, the Alcohol Measures for Public Health Research Alliance will produce an extended map of alcohol policy infrastructures in a wide range of European countries. Secondly, the Alcohol Measures for Public Health Research Alliance will foster a better understanding and expand the knowledge base on the role and influence of infrastructure on alcohol policy and practice. Recommendations deriving from this study will identify the need for better utilization of existing infrastructures and for the development of new infrastructures, necessary to develop and implement effective alcohol policy from a public health perspective.

Special Sport Events—Part I

Cities, regions, and countries are making increasing use of special sport events in their economic and social development mix. Governments and event organizers often justify special sport events on the grounds that such events can build social capital, attract visitors, foster trade, enhance the host destination’s brand, and serve as catalysts for the development of new infrastructure. As a result of the proliferation of special sport events, there is an increasing need to determine the means via which events do (and do not) contribute to their stated social and economic development objectives. Consequently, it is vital to understand the unique challenges of managing and marketing special sport events.

Host and Guest Relations and Sport Tourism

Sport tourism activity has substantial potential to enrich the lives of the members of the host community by enhancing economic prosperity, providing additional social and recreational opportunities, and the development of new infrastructure. However, if poorly managed, such activities may also generate negative externalities such as disruption, noise and environmental damage. This essay outlines some of the theories and methods that are relevant to a greater understanding of the impact of sport tourism on a host community and how such impacts may be better managed to ensure the sustainability of the activity. It also presents the results of a series of empirical case studies exploring the impact of large scale sporting events.

Interoperability strategies for scientific cyberinfrastructure: Research and practice

AbstractThe development of new infrastructures for research and collaboration are occurring together with changes in expectations for scientific knowledge. New vocabularies and perspectives are developing with social and organizational practices of science changing concurrently but at different rates. Between the new infrastructures and the new perspectives, we are changing both how we know and what it is to know.A recently initiated three year project supported by the NSF Human Social Dynamics Program (Interoperability Strategies for Scientific Cyberinfrastructure: A Comparative Study) brings together work with three established research collaborations on large‐scale information infrastructures in order to understand through comparative study particular configurations of technologies, communities, and organizations. Despite specific alignments of technical commitment, community involvement and organizational structure, all the projects fall under a common rubric of achieving for data interoperability.

Europe ramps up its research goals

Europe ramps up its research goals

Managing Government Exposure to Private Infrastructure Risks

The privatization of infrastructure should lead to the development of new infrastructure, improvements in the operation of existing infrastructure, and a reduction in budgetary subsidies. Whether countries reap the full benefits of privatization, however, depends on how risks are allocated. If, as is often the case in developing countries, governments assume risks that should be borne by investors, they may reduce incentives for efficiency and incur significant liabilities. To solve these problems, governments need to improve their policies and restrict their risk bearing to certain political and regulatory risks over which they have direct control. When a government provides guarantees, it should attempt to measure their cost and improve the way they are handled in the accounts and budgets. Measurement and budgeting are critical to improving decisions about the provision of guarantees, to improving project selection and contract design, and to protecting governments from unknowingly entering into commitments that might jeopardize future budgets.

The Nonferrous Metals Industry of Kazakhstan

An American specialist on the energy and natural resource industries of the former USSR examines trends in the production of nonferrous metals in Kazakhstan during the 1990s. A discussion of the overall importance of nonferrous metals within the Kazakh economy is followed by an in-depth analysis of production of each of the important mineral commodities—copper, lead and zinc, bauxite and alumina, and others (including molybdenum and tungsten). These analyses include information on the resource base, development of new infrastructure, and projects involving international participation. A concluding section surveys prospects for production in the future. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L72, O13, Q32. 2 tables, 37 references.