Past Contributions Research Articles

Are Shadow Moneys Money Proper? A Critical Discussion from the Perspective of the History of Monetary Theory

ABSTRACT We address the issue of whether some financial instruments produced by financial innovation, like the so-called shadow moneys, can be regarded as proper money. This is done by examining some past contributions (by Menger, Jevons, Keynes and Hicks) on the nature of money and its fundamental properties. We argue that the most satisfactory contributions come from Hicks, who holds that the essential function of money is to be the economy’s standard of value. On these grounds, we conclude that shadow moneys cannot be regarded as money in a proper sense. Neither are they the economy’s standard of value nor are they a universally accepted means of payment. Their function as a liquid store of value is not sufficient for them to be qualified as money.

Office of Naval Research Undersea Signal Processing, Contributions of Dr. Lisa Zurk

The Undersea Signal Processing team at the Office of Naval Research (ONR 321US) is tasked with developing advanced active/passive sonar signal and information processing technologies that improve the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) performance of US Navy sonar systems. Pursuant to this goal ONR supports academics whose research, being on the cutting edge, lead to high-risk technologies with potential for the greatest advancement of fleet capability. Dr. Lisa Zurk was such an academic, first supported by ONR 321US in 2005. Dr. Zurk’s research focused on developing signal and information processing algorithms which exploited the physics of the underwater operating environment. She believed the path to significant gains in sonar system performance would be obtained through exploitation of environmental knowledge. This belief is now a realization within the Naval Research Enterprise (NRE) and was a primary motivation for initiation of the ONR Task Force Ocean (TFO) Program in 2017. From establishment of the NEAR-Lab at Portland State University in 2005 until her transition to a Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2016, Dr. Zurk made significant contributions to the NRE. This presentation looks to highlight these past contributions and to consider their present impact.

Foundational women in planetary geomorphology: Some contributions in fluvial, aeolian, and (cryo)volcanic subdisciplines

AbstractDespite undeserved challenges to participation in the field of planetary geomorphology, women have made significant contributions in the fluvial, aeolian, and (cryo)volcanic subdisciplines. In this work, some women—in particular, women of color—are highlighted to show a part of these foundational contributions. We focused on women scientists who were working in the latter half of the 20th century, a revolutionary time for terrestrial geomorphology and the inception of the discipline of planetary geomorphology. We also focused on women working in our scientific subdisciplines so that we could provide proper context for their work. These contributions have occurred both as discoveries in terrestrial geomorphology leading to follow‐on discoveries in planetary geomorphology and through serving as educators and role models. With women increasingly achieving positions of influence both in the geo‐ and planetary sciences as in American society, this research allows us to celebrate these contributions of women and particularly women of color while looking forward to a more complete record of their past contributions and greater future achievements.

Acceptance and commitment therapy and its unacknowledged influences: Some old wine in a new bottle?

Recently, Goldfried suggested that one main reason for the underdevelopment of psychotherapy as a scientific enterprise was the lack of acknowledgment of past contributions. In this article, this issue is illustrated by analysing the particular case of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). ACT has clear overlaps with therapies from the systemic tradition, such as strategic therapy in the line of the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto and with the more recent models of solution-focused therapy and narrative therapy. This article analyses theoretical overlaps with these models (e.g. the paradoxical nature of human problems and the nature of language) as well as examples of similarities in therapeutic strategies (externalization and the miracle question). It concludes by suggesting that this practice of inadvertently obliterating the past does not favour the development of the field or the creation of consensus but rather contributes to the ongoing proliferation of 'new' psychotherapy models. Trends that may contribute to circumventing this problem are discussed.

Build, buy, or partner? A systematic literature review on the choice between alternative modes of growth

When pursuing growth opportunities, organizations can, most fundamentally, choose between three different modes: internal development, mergers and acquisitions, and partnerships. Strategic management research investigates the decision of whether to “build, buy, or partner” and its determining factors from various theoretical perspectives, which led to the emergence of related, but largely independent, research streams. As such, this review consolidates the scattered literature landscape and provides a comprehensive understanding of the antecedents associated with the choice of corporate growth modes. To do so, an integrative research framework is proposed that encompasses internal, external, and decision-related factors. Based on this framework, the review provides a synthesized overview and critical assessment of 74 past empirical contributions and develops a detailed roadmap to guide future research.

Quo Vadis advanced chemical process control

AbstractThe current state of advanced chemical and materials process control can be determined by reviewing the past contributions and contemporary developments in the field. The past two decades have not closed the large gap between developed novel process control theories and their industrial applications. On the contrary, the undeniable impression is that the ones who develop theories remain out of reach of industrial experts and practitioners who are capable of using them and/or applying them in practice. However, there is still hope that chemical process control will be heading towards more applicable and realizable control formulations and that it shall survive the current rugged terrains of seemingly self‐proclaimed ‘hot topics’ and eye‐catching developments.

Climate change sociology: Past contributions and future research needs

Climate change sociology: Past contributions and future research needs

Polarized Citizen Preferences for the Ethical Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in 20 Countries.

Objective. When medical resources are scarce, clinicians must make difficult triage decisions. When these decisions affect public trust and morale, as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic, experts will benefit from knowing which triage metrics have citizen support. Design. We conducted an online survey in 20 countries, comparing support for 5 common metrics (prognosis, age, quality of life, past and future contribution as a health care worker) to a benchmark consisting of support for 2 no-triage mechanisms (first-come-first-served and random allocation). Results. We surveyed nationally representative samples of 1000 citizens in each of Brazil, France, Japan, and the United States and also self-selected samples from 20 countries (total N = 7599) obtained through a citizen science website (the Moral Machine). We computed the support for each metric by comparing its usability to the usability of the 2 no-triage mechanisms. We further analyzed the polarizing nature of each metric by considering its usability among participants who had a preference for no triage. In all countries, preferences were polarized, with the 2 largest groups preferring either no triage or extensive triage using all metrics. Prognosis was the least controversial metric. There was little support for giving priority to healthcare workers. Conclusions. It will be difficult to define triage guidelines that elicit public trust and approval. Given the importance of prognosis in triage protocols, it is reassuring that it is the least controversial metric. Experts will need to prepare strong arguments for other metrics if they wish to preserve public trust and morale during health crises.HighlightsWe collected citizen preferences regarding triage decisions about scarce medical resources from 20 countries.We find that citizen preferences are universally polarized.Citizens either prefer no triage (random allocation or first-come-first served) or extensive triage using all common triage metrics, with “prognosis” being the least controversial.Experts will need to prepare strong arguments to preserve or elicit public trust in triage decisions.

The Unique Contribution of Past Bullying Experiences to the Presence of Psychosis-Like Experiences in University Students.

ObjectivesBoth bullying and psychosis-like experiences (PLEs) have gained much attention in recent years, but their interactions are not fully unraveled. The aim of the current study was to validate the Chinese version of Bullying Scale for Adults (C-BSA), and to investigate whether past bullying experiences independently predict the presence of PLEs in university students.MethodsThe validity and reliability of the C-BSA were determined in two independent samples. A battery of psychological inventories was also administered to assess the presence of PLEs, maltreatment history in the family, and current depression and anxiety, including the 15-item positive subscale of the community assessment of psychic experiences (CAPE-p15), the Chinese version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS).ResultsIn the construction sample (N = 629), a Cronbach's α of 0.921 indicated a good internal consistency of C-BSA. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) yielded a four-factor model and a three-factor model, and both were verified by using the confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA) in the validation sample (N = 629). The total scores of C-BSA were significantly correlated with that of CTQ, CAPE-p15, SDS, and SAS. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that bullying was associated with 2.0 or 3.7 times of risk for the presence of PLEs (numbers of bullying types < = 3 or > 3, respectively) after controlling for CTQ, SDS, and SAS scores.ConclusionsC-BSA has shown good psychometric properties in college students. The contribution of past bullying experiences to the present PLEs seems to be independent of other childhood trauma, current depression, and anxiety.

Boundaries of Solidarity: Immigrants, Economic Contributions, and Welfare Attitudes

AbstractIn the politics of welfare, citizens often prioritize natives over immigrants. What conditions reduce welfare discrimination against immigrants? Original survey experiments from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy reveal that the divide between natives and immigrants remains the fundamental cleavage in the politics of welfare. All immigrants face welfare penalties, including immigrants from Western countries. Even young, progressive, highly educated, and economically secure native citizens strongly penalize immigrants. Although immigrants never fully overcome identity barriers, the welfare support gap between natives and immigrants decreases when immigrants have a long work history. A history of employment provides evidence of reciprocity through past contributions and signals immigrants’ commitment to the community. Other immigrants’ characteristics, such as higher education and proactive work attitude, fail to decrease the gap. This article contributes to the study of solidarity in diverse societies and the impact of immigration on the welfare state.

Nahau, Pihi Manus, Pilapan: Hegemony's gender as artefacts of history

It is a pleasure to contribute to the book forum on the republication of the book Culture and History in the Pacific. My contribution comprises two parts. In the first part, I briefly reflect on the book and its current relevance and highlight some issues that resonate with me. In the second part, I provide a more personal response to the book. Together, I hope that this two-part reflection shows the important place this book has in mediating past and present contributions and challenges in anthropological practice.

Western United States and Canada perspective: are herbicide-resistant crops the solution to herbicide-resistant weeds?

AbstractHerbicide-resistant (HR) crops are widely grown throughout the United States and Canada. These crop-trait technologies can enhance weed management and therefore can be an important component of integrated weed management (IWM) programs. Concomitantly, evolution of HR weed populations has become ubiquitous in agricultural areas where HR crops are grown. Nevertheless, crop cultivars with new or combined (stacked) HR traits continue to be developed and commercialized. This review, based on a symposium held at the Western Society of Weed Science annual meeting in 2021, examines the impact of HR crops on HR weed management in the U.S. Great Plains, U.S. Pacific Northwest, and the Canadian Prairies over the past 25 yr and their past and future contributions to IWM. We also provide an industry perspective on the future of HR crop development and the role of HR crops in resistance management. Expanded options for HR traits in both major and minor crops are expected. With proper stewardship, HR crops can reduce herbicide-use intensity and help reduce selection pressure on weed populations. However, their proper deployment in cropping systems must be carefully planned by considering a diverse crop rotation sequence with multiple HR and non-HR crops and maximizing crop competition to effectively manage HR weed populations. Based on past experiences in the cultivation of HR crops and associated herbicide use in the western United States and Canada, HR crops have been important determinants of both the selection and management of HR weeds.

Is higher quality always costly? Marginal costs of quality: Theory and application to railway punctuality

In the railway sector, there has been much discussion about the costs of delays to passengers and their willingness-to-pay to reduce them. However, the cost of delays in the supply side of transport markets have received far less attention (Van Oort, 2016). This paper fills several gaps in the transport and railway literature by studying the relationship between the costs of railway supply and travel time reliability. First we articulate a generic theoretical framework for the relationship between costs and quality in railways, building on past contributions in other sectors and bringing together diverse and currently disconnected literatures. A key new element of the framework is the explicit introduction of the concepts of ‘marginal proactive cost’ and ‘marginal reactive cost’. Second, through the lens of this framework, we empirically study the relationship between the cost of passenger train operation companies (TOCs) in Great Britain (2011 to 2015) and the reliability of their services, thus producing the first estimates in the literature of the elasticity of train operating company cost with respect to train delays, and in turn marginal cost of reducing delays. We find that for most TOCs improving quality is costly but, for some, quality improvements would be associated with lower costs overall, indicating that some operators are on a sub-optimal portion of the cost-quality curve. The framework and analysis can be used to aid quality related decisions in the railways including the design of incentive regimes; and can also be applied to other cost-quality contexts, in and outside transportation.

Before the “West”: Recovering the Forgotten Foundations of Global Order

During the past two decades, there have been growing calls for broadening the discipline of international relations (IR) by giving due recognition to the history, culture, ideas, and agency of non-Western states and societies. Several aspects of this trend are noteworthy. First, it originated from the growing dissatisfaction by non-Western scholars with the Western (US and European) dominance of the IR field, a dominance that obscures and marginalizes the past and recent contributions of other societies. As such, the primary voices challenging this dominance have been non-Western scholars, sometimes in collaboration with a few Western counterparts. These include not just scholars of postcolonialism and race, but also some working in the English School and constructivist and non-Western/post-Western traditions.

The power of genetics: Past and future contribution of balanced genetic selection to sustainable growth and productivity of the Norwegian Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) industry

In less than 50 years Atlantic salmon farming has become a major industry in Norway, and several attempts at predicting future growth have been made. In all food production, genetics has played an important role in production optimisation and efficiency. The benefits of genetic selection in aquaculture are less documented due to a variable production environment, long production time and challenges such as sea-lice, infectious diseases, and market fluctuations. This study investigates the impact of 50 years of balanced genetic selection on growth and productivity of the Norwegian Atlantic salmon industry. In a common garden experiment eggs from females representing present-day farmed Atlantic salmon (generation 11), were fertilised with cryo-preserved milt from males representing previous generations, and the progeny (half-sib families) were reared under the same commercial farming conditions. At the termination of this experiment, the difference in average body weight between generation 0 and half-sibs from present-day salmon was 1.5 kg. The results from the common garden experiment were used to model the contribution of genetic selection for increased salmon growth rate to the industry from generation 0 (harvested in 1975–1978) to generation 11 (harvested in 2017 – 2019) and to simulate the power of genetics for expected industry growth until 2050 (generation 24) giving four different forecast scenarios. We found that a total Norwegian production of 2.5 to 3.2 million tonnes could be achieved in 2050 solely by improving the inherent growth potential of Atlantic salmon through genetic selection. Further, the production time in seawater is expected to be reduced by 40 to 53% from 15.3 months in 2019 to a production time ranging from 9.2 to 7.2 months in 2050, respectively. Reduced production time in seawater results in reduced time at risk of diseases and other unfortunate events, and in our most progressive scenario, mortality in seawater was expected to be reduced by up to 50%. The contribution to reduced losses and increased resource utilisation, increases the sustainability of the Norwegian aquaculture industry. This study demonstrated that it is possible to significantly increase the Norwegian aquaculture production by genetic improvement, and that contribution from genetic selection for growth rate alone can close 77% of the gap of the forecasted five million tonnes in 2050. These scenarios demonstrate that genetic selection should be included as a central component when predicting future development and growth of aquaculture production, both in Norway and other salmon producing countries.

Capacity planning and production scheduling integration: improving operational efficiency via detailed modelling

Successful capacity planning and production scheduling is built on the understanding of market opportunities and the costs of capacity, production, sourcing, inventory, and distribution over the planning horizon. Increasingly, companies attempt to integrate capacity planning and production scheduling to improve upon the commonly used sequential decision process, but most related research works fail to capture the granularity of actual operational decisions and therefore may overlook potential cost-saving opportunities. The contributions of this study include: (1) a detailed integrated capacity and production scheduling model with multiple discrete and continuous options for varying short and medium-term capacity, (2) a heuristic algorithm that exploits the problem structure to solve the nonlinear mixed integer problem, (3) an evaluation of the value of the integrated model relative to traditional practice and its sensitivity to parameters, (4) a review of past contributions to integrated planning, particularly focused on IJPR, and (5) a case study originated from a world-class automobile manufacturer illustrating how the model can be applied and confirming its value relative to hierarchical and less detailed modelling approaches.

Conditional Solidarity - Attitudes Towards Support for Others During the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to study how humans allocate scarce resources in times of hardship. We study public preferences regarding who should get access to government aid for the self-employed, a bed in the intensive care unit, and permission to cross the border using original conjoint survey experiments administered to an incentivised online panel in Switzerland during the first and second waves of the pandemic in 2020. We find that across the three areas, even in extraordinary circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, evaluations of deservingness to aid and support are still based on an underlying logic of conditional solidarity and identity: in all experiments, contributing to the community, be it through past actions and contributions or through current efforts, plays a crucial role in determining an individual’s deservingness, as does their nationality (and legal status) with nationals being perceived as more deserving than non-nationals.

Critical sustainability issues in the production of wind and solar electricity generation as well as storage facilities and possible solutions

Extended implementation of renewable energy technologies is vital to limit global warming. However, there are critical sustainability issues connected to the production of wind turbines, solar photovoltaic modules, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries. These include the use of conflict minerals, toxicity, and finite availability or supply chain governance risks of rare earth elements, cobalt, and lithium, that need to be taken into consideration. “Conflict minerals” refer to tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold, and their current mining is frequently linked to human rights violations and the financing of violent conflicts. This article focuses on one conflict mineral used in solar panels, tin, the three rare earth elements praseodymium, dysprosium and neodymium, mainly used in permanent magnets that are employed in wind turbines and electric motors in electric vehicles, and lithium and cobalt, as they are needed in lithium-ion batteries for solar and wind energy technologies, and electric vehicles. Focusing on these we identify unfavorable implications of using these elements, including issues of lacking transparency and human rights violations, toxicity and finite availability. Alleviating measures are reviewed for their past contributions as well as their future potential to reduce supply chain risks. These include analyzing the supply chain according to ethical standards, extending regulations beyond the scope of conflict minerals, looking for possible minerals or component substitutes, somewhat diverse across these fields, and increasing the minerals’ recycling rates.

The Meaning of Qatal

This study proposes a novel semantics for the Biblical Hebrew qatal form that includes both perfective and perfect/anterior meanings. I begin by evaluating other theories of qatal and give six criteria with which they might be evaluated, showing past analyses to be inadequate. These criteria are given as an external check on what makes a satisfactory analysis more generally, and though we can learn from past contributions, they ultimately fall short in one of these six areas. In contrast, I show that my theory meets these six criteria for what makes an adequate theory. The single meaning that I give for the qatal form is labelled a “perfect,” which I define as an aspectual form that refers to a temporal interval in which either a state holds with a possible preceding event or an event takes place that potentially precedes a state. This is qatal’s particular contribution to the context, though it may have different interpretations as it interacts with various verbal predicates and syntactic and discourse contexts. With this meaning, I account for all the temporal uses of qatal as well as the more difficult optative/precative and counterfactual interpretations. While qatal’s varied uses are recognised and explained, we are able to hold to a single meaning for the form, which is the simplest explanation possible, and this meaning is shown to be typologically and historically plausible.

Conceptualising the transformational power of entrepreneurship from an entrepreneurial ecosystems perspective focusing on environmentally and socially inclusive economic growth

This paper focuses on the philosophy of transformational entrepreneurship and explores what role entrepreneurial ecosystems fulfil within that to stimulate environmentally and socially inclusive growth. It first examines the past and current contributions in the entrepreneurship literature. Then, it considers the current debate on the transformative power of entrepreneurship and how it can be best utilised for creation of sustainable socio-economic growth via diverse forms of entrepreneurship and interdependencies between entrepreneurial actions and functions at different income levels. From this basis, this research contributes to the recent literature on transformational effects of entrepreneurship by providing novel insights into the role entrepreneurial ecosystems fulfil in transforming societies.