Recognising ‘learning’ as an uncertain source of SEA effectiveness

Strategic environmental assessment’s (SEA’s) capacity to profile significant environmental effects is thought to help make public-sector decision-making more sustainable. Acknowledgement is growing that ‘learning’, that links to but transcends individual assessments, is a key source of SEA effectiveness. Such learning is largely positioned as wholesome, moral, as ‘good’. The Scottish Parliament went further than the European Commission to require all public bodies to engage with SEA. More than 14 years of evidence – including from the Scottish Government SEA Database (an online registry), a survey and interviews – provides a unique opportunity to study the role of learning in SEA. The paper argues that application of SEA requires systematic reinforcement and maintenance of learning. But the learning fostered by SEA is not guaranteed to prioritise or protect ‘environment’ – for that to happen SEA must also be embraced as disruptor of the prioritisation of economic goals.     

Environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment in the UK after leaving the European Union

Abstract

The United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union and, until the terms of the ‘Brexit’ are negotiated, this has led to considerable uncertainty over the future practice of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in the UK. Here we show that multiple obligations exist outside the scope of the EU which mean that EIA and SEA will continue to be required in the long term, but that their future compliance with the Directives remains unclear. We consider three scenarios for Brexit and present the implications of each; these are: signing up to the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement; membership of the European Free Trade Association, but not EEA, or negotiate a separate agreement. The implications of no longer being subjected to the obligations of the Directives under some scenarios are discussed and include opening the door for increasing diversity of application across the regions of the UK, and the probability of raised screening thresholds so as to reduce the burden of assessment on developers.     

Lessons learnt from voluntary strategic environmental assessments (SEAs) in Namibia

Abstract

Ten strategic environmental assessments (SEAs) were undertaken in Namibia between 2008 and 2013, although it is not yet a legal mandate. Efforts are currently underway to establish a formal instrument for SEA processes. To inform the drafting of such regulations or at the request of proponents, seven of these SEAs were reviewed using a methodology developed for the OECD-DAC and based on principles of SEA good practice. The reviews examined the processes followed by the SEAs, appraised stakeholders’ reflections, and assessed the outcomes and contributions to decision-making. Although all analysed SEAs delivered on their respective terms of references (ToRs), inadequacies encountered were largely attributed to shortcomings in their ToRs. They showed inadequate public consultation or strategic dimension; failed to address alternatives to, and cumulative effects of, the policy, plan or programme assessed; and paid limited attention to synergies or antagonisms. The majority had some influence on decision-making and proposed monitoring procedures for identified mitigation measures. SEA regulations and measures to strengthen institutional and human capacity to sustain effective SEA application are critically needed in Namibia.     

First steps toward best practice SEA in a developing nation: lessons from the central Namib uranium rush SEA

The intent of this study is to contribute to the discussion of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) best practice based on experience gained in a recent SEA initiative: the central Namib (Namibia) uranium rush SEA. We evaluate this SEA process against internationally established characteristics of ‘best practice’ SEA to improve and strengthen future practice in Namibia. The study draws primarily on the final assessment report as well as inputs from six informants involved in the assessment. The results reveal some elements of good practice as well as areas for improvement, and in particular, the need for improved baseline data collection; adequate consideration of alternatives; committing to preferred scenario/options; enforceability; and a more robust institutional capacity. We offer insight into how consideration of these factors may help to strengthen SEA practice in Namibia. Overall, the SEA may not represent a ‘best practice’ example according to international standards, but it does suggest a potentially bright future for SEA practice in Namibia.     

Reflecting on the preparation of guidelines for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of nuclear power programmes

In this paper, the ‘guidelines for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of nuclear power programmes’ by the International Atomic Energy Agency are introduced. This includes a reflection on their preparation process and contents as well as consultation feedback. The preparation process started with two meetings of international nuclear and SEA experts and the creation of a writing team which prepared an initial set of draft guidelines. This was followed by various consultation exercises. The guidelines are organised along an allocation of tasks within a tiered system of energy related policies, plans, programmes and projects. Whilst consultation showed that there was agreement on the approach to most issues, no consensus was present on the extent to which economic and social issues should be fully integrated with environmental considerations. Strong support was given to the way quality review is designed, going beyond focusing on the main SEA reports to cover procedural and participatory aspects next to elements of a comprehensively tiered decision making framework, the ability to influence decisions as well as the quality (expertise and experience) of those involved in conducting the SEA.

Abbreviation: SEA: Strategic Environmental Assessment; EIA: Environmental Impact Assessment; IAEA: International Atomic Energy Agency     

The Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST) and measures of cognitive functioning

ObjectiveThe Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST) are utilised widely to assess fitness to drive when law enforcement suspects a driver's ability to drive is impaired, whether by drugs or alcohol. The SFST ostensibly achieve this through assessment of the level of drivers’ cognitive and psychomotor impairment, although no studies have explicitly assessed the relatedness of cognitive ability and performance on the SFST. The current study aimed to assess the relationship between the three components of the SFST with a well validated computerised cognitive battery.MethodA sub-set of 61 placebo condition participants comprised the sample, with 33 females and 28 males (mean age 25.45 years). Correlations between the individual SFST subscales ‘Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus’ (HGN), the ‘One Leg Stand’ (OLS) and the ‘Walk and Turn’ test (WAT) and Cognitive Drug Research (CDR) sub-scales of ‘Quality of Working Memory’, ‘Power of Attention’ and ‘Continuity of Attention’ were analysed using point-biserial correlation.ResultsSixty participants were included for analyses. A weak–moderate positive (five subscales) and a moderate–strong negative (two subscales) association was noted between seven of the nine individual CDR subscales and the SFST subscale of the WAT test (all p < 0.05). Individually, a moderate positive association was noted between the sub-scale ‘Nystagmus lack of smooth pursuit’ and ‘digit vigilance reaction time’ and ‘choice reaction time; reaction time’ (both p < 0.05) and ‘Nystagmus head move and/or jerk’ and ‘simple reaction time’ (p < 0.001). When assessed as a partially composite factor, a comparable association was also noted between the composite score of the SFST subscale ‘Nystagmus head move and/or jerk’ and both (a) simple and (b) digit vigilance reaction time (both p < 0.05). No association was noted between any of the individual cognitive variables and the SFST subscale ‘OLS’, or between composite cognitive scores ‘Quality of Working Memory’, ‘Power of Attention’ and ‘Continuity of Attention’ and total SFST scores.DiscussionVariation in some aspects of cognitive performance was found to be moderately and positively correlated with some individual aspects of the SFST; particularly among tasks which assess reaction time. Impairment of these cognitive processes can also contribute to the completion of complex tasks such as driving or the SFST. Complex behavioural tasks such as driving are often severely impaired due to intoxication, and thus in a practical sense, the SFST can still be considered a useful screening tool to identify drug or alcohol impaired drivers.     

Structural performance of discontinuous metal matrix composites

Abstract

Discontinuous metal matrix composites (i.e. short fibre and particle reinforced materials) have attained a significant degree of scientific and technological maturity as advanced structural materials. Initial commercialisation has been achieved, with the unique combinations of mechanical and physical properties afforded by metal-ceramic systems proving appropriate for a variety of structural and semistructural applications. In recent years there has been important consolidation in the understanding of basic structural properties in such composites, which are addressed in the present review. The outstanding requirement for an improved understanding of damage tolerance characteristics in these materials is particularly noted. ‘Mesoscopic’ materials architectures (e.g. laminated and functionally graded materials) are also discussed, and the associated potential for development offracture resistant discontinuous metal composite materials highlighted.     

Application of Neural Computing in Pharmaceutical Product Development: Computer Aided Formulation Design

Abstract

Most pharmaceutical products are complex systems designed to meet several compendial or other performance standards simultaneously. Ideal or ‘optimum’ product composition and the manufacturing process variables are generally established after extensive experimentation. Artificial Neural Networks are pattern recognition tools that allow the development of ‘expert’ systems without having to write computer programs. With this technology it may be possible to develop formulation ‘expert’ systems to predict the formulation composition and the manufacturing process conditions necessary to achieve the desired performance standards. This report introduces the concept of a formulation expert system to predict the in vitro drug release profile from hydrophilic matrix tablets. Formulation expert systems or Computer Aided Formulation Design has the potential to reduce the time and cost of the product development process.     

From medicine to poison: how flexible strategic environmental assessment may be? Lessons from a non-regulated SEA system

Empirical research dedicated to Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is mostly grounded on SEA systems guided by legal requirements, clearly stated procedures and systematic use of SEA to policy- and plan-making. Nevertheless, a considerable parcel of SEA practice is currently occurring in countries with no specific legislation or guidance to be followed, i.e. non-regulated SEA systems. Therefore, it is important to understand how SEA is performing in these countries and to establish whether related SEA systems are subject to the same premises and perspectives of effectiveness that have been reported in literature so far. The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the state-of-practice in Brazil, based on best practice analysis of SEA reports and interviews, reporting empirical evidence regarding the use of SEA and its related timing, procedural performance and key players involved. Main findings reveal an isolated instrument, embroidered in a disperse and unclear framework, poorly coordinated and highly sensitive to circumstances. Provision of a structured system, indicating clear purposes of SEA, systematic procedures and stakeholder’s responsibilities are suggested as potentially relevant measures to balance current system’s flexibility, thus fostering SEA effectiveness.     

Comment: There is no unmet requirement of optical coherence for continuous-variable quantum teleportation

Abstract

It has been argued that continuous-variable quantum teleportation at optical frequencies has not been achieved because the source used (a laser) was not ‘truly coherent’. Here it is shown that ‘true coherence’ is always illusory, as the concept of absolute time on a scale beyond direct human experience is meaningless. A laser is as good a clock as any other, even in principle, and this objection to teleportation experiments is baseless.     

Relationship between coincidence site lattice,boundary plane indices,and boundary energy in nickel

Abstract

This paper reports an analysis both by coincidence site lattice (CSL) categorisation and interface–plane categorisation of a large data set of grain boundary geometry in nickel. The analysis showed that whereas two-thirds of Σ3 and Σ9 CSLs were classed as having ‘special’ geometry (i.e. related to low energy), very few other CSLs had ‘special’ geometries. It was found that for Σ3s there was an empirical relationship connecting the frequency of occurrence of specific planes (mostly asymmetrical tilt types on the 011 zone), the average interplanar spacing at the boundary (d(eff)), and the boundary energy. Σ3 boundaries having a planar coincidence site density (PCSD) of unity were much more poorly represented in the data set than Σ3s having PCSD = 3, indicating the far greater importance of boundary planes than the PCSD. The occurrence of ‘special’ planes at Σ9 boundaries is considered to be partly a geometrical consequence of their contiguity with Σ3s.     

Mario Cresci's

Abstract

‘Any claim to systematic knowledge appears as a flight of foolish fancy. To acknowledge this is not to abandon the idea of totality .... Reality is opaque; but there are certain points — clues, symptoms — which allow us to decipher it’.¹ Searching for an epistemological model, or paradigm in the social sciences, the Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg wrote these words in an essay published in 1979 under the title ‘Clues: Morelli, Freud, and Sherlock Holmes’. Ginzburg was able to weave into his essay many threads in an interdisciplinary discussion on the research method used, towards the end of the nineteenth century, by an Italian art connoisseur (Giovanni Morelli), a physician in Vienna (Sigmund Freud), and a British writer of detective stories (Arthur Conan Doyle). What unified their method was the attention paid to ‘marginal and irrelevant details as revealing clues’,² for the attribution of a painting, the analysis of a symptom, and the discovery of a criminal. In his own work, Ginzburg considered this paradigm as an effective research method for the study of obscure fields of human culture, such as witchcraft and popular beliefs.³     

Nanostructures,Entanglement and the Physics of Quantum Control

Abstract

Nanostructures might be viewed as solid-state approximations to SU(N) networks, the nodes of which would, in simplest form, be analogous to elementary spins. Owing to interactions with an external light field and coupling between the local nodes these networks allow for single- and multiple-node coherence (entanglement), despite damping. By means of stochastic simulations we demonstrate how such a ‘quantum machinery’ embedded in a qualified environment would look like in terms of measurement protocols. These protocols give evidence for the underlying complex behaviour of the network, a complexity which is based on the non-local information contained in the entanglement and which would not be present in the ‘classical limit’ of using local information only.     

Analysis of driver roles: modelling the changing role of the driver in automated driving systems using EAST

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of the driver within automated driving systems using the Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork (EAST) method. We already know that as the level of automation increases within the driving task, the role of the driver shifts from that of an active operator (i.e. a driver driving) to more of a passive monitor (i.e. a driver monitoring). Task, social and information networks were constructed using the Hierarchical Task Analysis of Driving and evidence from driver verbalisations collected during a previous study to further explore the changing role of the driver using network analysis. A ‘broken links’ approach was conducted to show that momentary engagement in non-driving-related secondary tasks within an automated driving system can dramatically change the structure of driving system.     

Discontinuously reinforced intermetallic matrix composites via XD synthesis

Abstract

A review is given of recent results obtained for discontinuously reinforced intermetallic matrix composites produced using the XD process. Intermetallic matrixes investigated include NiAl, multiphase NiAl+Ni₂AlTi, CoAl, near γ titanium aluminides (i.e. TiAl+Ti₃Al), and L1₂ trialuminides containing minor amounts of second phase. A judicious match of the matrix and reinforcement can enhance both physical and mechanical properties. Particulate reinforcements can affect properties directly by enhancing modulus and strength or indirectly by refining grain size, enhancing microstructural homogeneity in a casting, or providing additional nucleation sites which improve phase transformation kinetics. Such mechanical properties as low and high temperature strength, compressive and tensile creep, elastic modulus, ambient ductility, and fracture toughness are discussed as functions of reinforcement size, shape, and volume fraction. Microstructures before and after deformation are examined and correlated with measured properties. An observation of interest in many of the systems examined is ‘dispersion weakening’ at high temperatures and high strain rates. This behaviour is not specific to the XD process; rather similar observations have been reported in other discontinuous composites. Proposed mechanisms for this behaviour are presented.

MST/1561     

Union Cases Based on Designs by Bertel Thorvaldsen

Abstract

The recent article¹ on the use of Thorvaldsen's medallion designs by Peck for the decoration of two of the Peck and Hdvorsen cases made no reference to its use by other manufacturers. We have a case (see illustration), not recorded by Rinhart², nominally of quarter plate size, of fine quality and bearing the moulded legend contained within an oval ‘SMITH'S PATENT. 1860’. (Indicated ‘A’ on illustration.) It bears the title ‘Morning’ and there appears to be no indication of the engraver of the die. The paper label contained within is merely printed     

Obituary

Abstract

This handsome book is a superb introduction to the history of photography in Japan as well as a catalogue of The History of Japanese Photography exhibition held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the Cleveland Museum of Art (2003). The over-sized (12 x 10 inches) volume contains 207 beautifully reproduced photographic plates, seven chapters discussing the history of photography in Japan from 1848 until 2000, and a helpful series of appendices. The latter includes the ‘Exhibition Checklist’, a ‘Chronology’, ‘Artist Profiles’, listings of ‘Major Photography Clubs and Associations’ and ‘Major Photography Magazines’, a ‘Selected Bibliography’ and an ‘Index’. For those interested in a well written, informative and visually stimulating introduction to the subject, this is the book to consult.     

Towards a home-grown approach to strategic environmental assessment: adapting practice and participation in Kenya

Abstract

Kenya is among the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to formally require the assessment of public policies, plans and programs. National strategic environmental assessment (SEA) guidelines were finalized in 2012 to adapt and enhance SEA practice in the Kenyan context. The purpose of this research was to examine recent Kenyan SEA, with a particular emphasis on public participation, by developing and applying an analysis framework that both incorporates commonly accepted SEA principles and approaches and is cognizant of the national context in shaping SEA practice. Results reveal that a number of SEA practices are consistent with the framework in the nine cases considered, such as containing standard SEA components and developing monitoring plans. A requirement that each SEA must include educating the public about SEA is an innovative local adaptation. Results also show a number of practices that are still emerging, such as initiating SEA early and disseminating results to the participants. We conclude that SEA is still developing in Kenya, but processes for conducting it are slowly adapting to the Kenyan context.     

Influence of kinetic factors on distribution of grain boundary planes in nickel

Abstract

This paper reports measurements of large sample populations of grain boundary geometries – both grain misorientations and boundary plane orientations – in annealed nickel. Two heat treatment schedules are represented: one in which a specimen is heated at 1000°C for 1 h (the ‘fast’ specimen) and another which combines this treatment with a slow heating and cooling cycle (the ‘slow’ specimen). There was a marked difference between the proportions of ‘geometrically special’ boundaries in the two data sets, with the slow set containing almost double the proportion of coincident site lattice boundaries (CSLs) observed for the fast set. Furthermore, of the CSLs in the slow set, half were tilts or twists (mostly asymmetrical tilts), compared with less than a quarter of the CSLs in the fast set. The interpretation of these data is that kinetic factors have a strong influence on the evolution of populations of ‘special’ boundaries.

MST/1431