Office of Technology Assessment: History,implementation, and participatory critique

The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), which was created by the Technology Assignment Act of 1972, was—and still remains even after its abolishment in 1995—a unique congressional agency. OTA provided members of Congress with their own means of understanding and evaluating complex science and technology matters—of which there are no shortages. It spurred an entire literature of academic research both about OTA and the idea of technology assessment more generally. Understanding the legislative history and implementation of the Technology Assessment Act is crucial not just for scholarship, though. OTA was a blueprint for institutionalizing politically accountable technology assessment. Even as technologies advance at rapid rates, OTA still offers valuable lessons that scholars and policy-makers alike ought to glean. This paper places OTA in a contemporary context of (institutionalized) technology assessment. It contributes to a better understanding of OTA's origins by tracing its lineage to a set of federal reports beginning in 1929. It then analyzes OTA's response to pragmatic implementation questions of how to strike a balance between speed, depth, scope, and temporal focus. Lastly, it uses a public values framework to critique OTA's failure to adequately incorporate participatory elements into its processes.     

Agent-based modeling of energy technology adoption: Empirical integration of social,behavioral, economic,and environmental factors

Agent-based modeling (ABM) techniques for studying human-technical systems face two important challenges. First, agent behavioral rules are often ad hoc, making it difficult to assess the implications of these models within the larger theoretical context. Second, the lack of relevant empirical data precludes many models from being appropriately initialized and validated, limiting the value of such models for exploring emergent properties or for policy evaluation. To address these issues, in this paper we present a theoretically-based and empirically-driven agent-based model of technology adoption, with an application to residential solar photovoltaic (PV). Using household-level resolution for demographic, attitudinal, social network, and environmental variables, the integrated ABM framework we develop is applied to real-world data covering 2004–2013 for a residential solar PV program at the city scale. Two applications of the model focusing on rebate program design are also presented.     

Challenges for technology diffusion policy to achieve socio-economic goals

The aim of this contribution is to analyze the challenges for technology diffusion policies to achieve expected socio-economic goals and to deduce conclusions for an adequate policy design. Based on hypotheses from theoretical contributions, we review two rather distinct technology fields. One is biobased products, the other health technologies with bioethanol and magnetic resonance imaging respectively as case studies in order to derive rather general insights regarding those policies. The case studies highlight the difficulties in achieving the aimed societal goals by promoting technology diffusion. The dominant innovation design (e.g. techniques or resources used) which diffuses or its application fields (e.g. indication, patient characteristics) differ from those assumed in impact assessments and side-effects which occur in other markets. The direct linkage of policy measures to societal criteria may avoid some of those undesired developments but may have side effects of their own, such as trade distortions or shifting the environmental burden to other activities. However, there is considerable scope for improvement in policy design compared to the status-quo. Overall, a more balanced policy mix regarding various socio-economic goals is vital and unintended side effects have to be considered more in decision making.     

Factors involved in associations between Facebook use and college adjustment: Social competence,perceived usefulness,and use patterns

Although previous research has investigated widespread use of social media, especially Facebook, by youth attending college, the conditions under which these media foster adjustment to college remain unclear. This study tested a model illuminating pathways linking social competence to college adjustment via students’ perceptions about the usefulness of Facebook and ways in which they used the medium. Self-report survey data from 321 college students (M age = 20.09; 58% female; 84% Caucasian) attending a major Midwestern university supported the proposed model, indicating that higher social competence could foster or impede college adjustment, depending upon how it was related to beliefs about the usefulness of different Facebook functions and how these perceptions, in turn, were associated with patterns of Facebook use. Findings underscore the importance of considering connections among personal attributes, perception of media effectiveness, and media behaviors in assessing the implications of social media for users’ psychosocial well-being.     

红花檵木仿生古桩景快速成型技术

红花檵木作为一种彩色叶植物广泛应用于园林造景当中,目前在园林景观建设中红花檵木主要以低矮灌木的形式存在,由于其景观应用形式的单一化,严重制约了红花檵木生态、景观、经济价值的充分发挥以及相关行业的进一步发展。文章从红花檵木的生态、生理习性为理论基础出发,通过对两种红花檵木仿生古桩景制作材料及方法的介绍,公开了一种红花檵木古桩景快速成型园林景观应用的新形式、新方法,达到丰富红花檵木景观应用形式,提升其生态、景观价值的目的。同时应用形式的多样化,能促进红花檵木相关上下游产业的发展,为红花檵木景观产业注入新的活力。     

新城市科学背景下的城市设计新可能

本文面对智慧城市和新城市科学 迅速发展的背景，立足新时期城市设计转型 需求，针对新近涌现出的以机器学习、虚拟 现实、计算机可视化等为代表的多种新技术 和以街景数据、兴趣点数据、位置服务数据 等为代表的多源城市数据开展讨论。继而对 其所带来的城市设计新可能进行了探讨和展 望，并对于相关典型工具和代表性案例进行 了介绍。这些伴随新城市科学涌现的数据和 技术不仅能够为城市设计在场地分析、设计 开展和方案评估上带来工作方式的革新，而 且有望进一步明确城市设计的专属技术体 系，并以此推动城市设计的领域构建。     

Neuroscience and architecture: What does the brain tell to an emotional experience of architecture via a functional MR study?

Environment psychologically affects individuals. According to the base of cognitive psychology, there is a direct relationship between human behavior, environment, and emotional process. Assuming that pleasantness and unpleasantness are associated with peripheral nervous system activation, the current study aims to explore if the pleasant or unpleasant architectural places can stimulate the brain regions engaged in emotions or not. As the main contribution, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measuring blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) changes to effectively detect the brain's region that mainly responds to the emotional-perceptual processes. Based on the results of examining the emotional assessment model of “Pleasure-Arousal” applied to 140 students, 30 most-rated images representing 15 pleasant and 15 unpleasant places were shown to 32 participants in a 1.5-T MRI scanner. After applying standard preprocessing steps (re-alignment, slice-timing, co-registration, segmentation, normalization, and smoothing) to functional MR images, first-level analysis was applied to each subject. The results were evaluated using statistical corrections at different levels for female and male participants with the second-level analysis. In conclusion, it has been shown that there is a significant linkage between environmental experience and brain activation so that the architectural qualities can change blood flow in specific brain regions.     

Effects of sintering method and BiFeO3 dopant on the dielectric and ferroelectric properties of BaTiO3–BiYbO3 based solid solution ceramics

(0.95–x) BaTiO₃–0.05 BiYbO₃–x BiFeO₃ (x?=?0, 0.01, 0.02, and 0.04) (abbreviated as (0.95–x) BT–0.05 BY–x BFO) ceramics were fabricated by conventional sintering (CS) and microwave sintering (WS) methods. Effects of sintering method and BFO dopant on the microstructure and electric properties of (0.95–x) BT–0.05 BY–x BFO ceramics were comparatively investigated. X-ray diffraction showed that all CS and WS samples presented a single perovskite phase. It was also found that WS ceramics possessed denser microstructure and finer grains compared to CS samples as indicated by the surface morphology characterization. Dielectric measurements revealed that all samples exhibited the weak relaxation behavior; however, the degree of relaxation behavior of BT–BY based ceramic could be strengthened by addition of BFO and by WS method. Moreover, the temperature and frequency stability could be improved with doped BFO. The density of 0.93BT–0.05BY–0.02BFO ceramic was found to be the largest while that of 0.94BT–0.05BY–0.01BFO ceramic was the smallest, thus, the dielectric constant of 0.93BT–0.05BY–0.02BFO was significantly larger than that of 0.94BT–0.05BY–0.01BFO and 0.94BT–0.05BY–0.04 BFO ceramics. minimum dielectric constant of (0.95–x) BT–0.05 BY–x BFO ceramic was obtained at x?=?0.01. Ferroelectric measurements indicated that all samples showed the slim hysteresis loop. The remnant polarization (P_r) and coercive field (E_C) of (0.95–x) BT–0.05 BY–x BFO ceramics first decreased and then increased with increasing x，the minimum values were obtained at x?=?0.01. Moreover, P_r and E_C of WS ceramics were slightly larger than those of CS ceramics, indicating that higher density and larger grain sizes contributed to enhancing the ferroelectric characteristic. These findings indicate that addition of moderate amount of BFO and use of WS technique can strengthen the degree of relaxation behavior and improve the ferroelectric properties of BT–BY based ceramics.     

Methodology for dependence-based integrated constitutive modelling: An illustrative application to SiCp/Al composites

In industrial forming and machining process, the large plastic deformation of material takes place in wide loading ranges of strain-rate and forming temperature. A satisfactory modelling of quasi-static and dynamic material behaviors is of great importance for understanding physical process and processes optimization. A dependence-based integrated methodology, together with an improved weighted multi-objective parameter identification strategy is presented for the development of phenomenological constitutive model and the parameter identification using experimental data from quasi-static and dynamic tests with instantaneous strain rate variations and plastic strain-related temperature changes. The improved multi-objective parameter identification model is reformulated by introducing three weighting factors for valuing different measure errors and fit standard errors in individual objective function corresponding to each test, considering the sampling point number and active material parameter number under different loading conditions, and balancing optimization opportunity of quasi-static and dynamic sub-objective functions. The methodology is verified for feasibility through illustrative constitutive identification for SiC_p/Al composites. This may provide a methodology of constitutive modelling for predicting material behaviors in quasi-static and dynamic modes equally well.     

How to accelerate green technology diffusion? Directed technological change in the presence of coevolving absorptive capacity

The time window for effective climate change mitigation is closing. Technological change needs to be accelerated to limit global warming to a manageable level. Path dependence of technological change is one explanation for sluggish diffusion of green technologies. Firms acquire capital that differs by technology type and build up type-specific technological know-how needed to use capital efficiently. Path dependence emerges from cumulative knowledge stocks manifested in the productivity of supplied capital and firms’ capabilities. Increasing returns arise from induced innovation feedbacks and learning by doing. Relatively lower endowments with technological knowledge are a barrier to diffusion for new technologies. This paper shows how the evolution of relative stocks of technological knowledge explains different shapes of diffusion curves. Using an eco-technology extension of the macroeconomic agent-based model Eurace@unibi, it is shown how the effectiveness of different climate policies depends on the type and strength of diffusion barriers. Environmental taxes can outweigh lower productivity and subsidies perform better if lacking capabilities hinder firms to adopt a sufficiently mature technology.