Towards a comprehensive green infrastructure typology: a systematic review of approaches,methods and typologies

There is no consensus on a comprehensive classification for green infrastructure (GI). This is a consequence of the diversity of disciplines, application contexts, methods, terminologies, purposes and valuation criteria for which a GI typology is required. The aim of this systematic literature review is to evaluate the existing evidence on how GI is being categorised and characterised worldwide. We reviewed a total of 85 studies from 15 countries that were analysed for contextual trends, methods, parameters and typologies. Results show that relevant literature lacks a common terminology and that a universal typology for all scenarios is impractical. Analysis reveals that GI can be organised into four main GI categories: (a) tree canopy, (b) green open spaces, (c) green roofs and (d) vertical greenery systems (facades/walls). Green open spaces and tree canopy attracted the attention of researchers due to their complexity, variability and important roles in GI planning. Evidence suggests that a ternary approach in terms of the functional (purpose, use, services), structural (morphology) and configurational (spatial arrangements) attributes of GI should be applied for a more comprehensive classification. Although this approximation is inherently generic, since it can be used across different research disciplines, it is also sufficiently specific to be implemented for individual scopes, scenarios and settings. Further research is needed to develop a typology capable of responding to particular research aims and performance analyses based upon the findings discussed in this paper.     

The uniformly most powerful unbiased tests involving the f-distribution

The uniformly most powerful unbiased test in exponential family situations involving the F-distrlbution is illustrated with examples. Its performance is compared with that of the more conventional equal-tails test. A FORTRAN program for computing the critical values and tail sizes of this test is also presented.     

Translating English and French social policy concepts: A personal view from France

In 1998, the research unit of the French Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité (MIRE) published a bilingual glossary of French and English terms used in social policy. A number of issues, questions and hypotheses, all related to translation and transferability, were raised in the course of this exercise. This article purports to take some of them up again. Although the glossary was a collective venture, the following interpretations are under the sole responsibility of the author.     

12 HRM and Distributed Work

Abstract

The phenomenon of managing work that is distributed over geographical distance is not new but is increasing in both frequency and intentionality as a function of globalization and knowledge-centric strategies. I review the literature on geographically distributed work, both that which highlights liabilities of loss of proximity and more recent research that emphasizes “virtual teams” as an intentional organizing device. I explore the adaptations, remedies, and countervailing strategies deployed to support such teams, contrasting those that minimize distance with those that increase individual and group capacity for coping with distance. I also emphasize that other dimensions of distance—cultural, administrative, and economic—affect the organization of work, the experiences of those doing the work, and individual and organizational outcomes. Here I highlight the “blended workforce” in which standard (traditional employees) and nonstandard (temporary and contract) workers are organized to accomplish interdependent tasks—and again contrast problems of distance with emergent adaptations. Finally, I explore the implications for human resource management (HRM), first considering which HR systems are best suited to work distributed over different types of distance, and then reviewing literature on specific HR practices—selection, training, task/job design, compensation, and performance appraisal. I close by arguing that HRM research must reach beyond its past focus on managing employees within a single firm over a prolonged career under collocated conditions. As the world generates countless new distance-related phenomena, our research must tackle the challenges of managing both standard and non-standard workers engaged in interdependent tasks of limited duration across multiple employers/clients and involving multiple dimensions of distance.     

The agricultural ethics of biofuels: climate ethics and mitigation arguments

An environmental, climate mitigation rationale for research and development (R&D) on liquid transportation fuels derived from plants emerged among many scientists and engineers during the last decade. However, between 2006 and 2010, this climate ethic for pursuing biofuel became politically entangled and conceptually confused with rationales for encouraging greater use of plant-based ethanol that were both unconnected to climate ethics and potentially in conflict with the value-commitments providing a mitigation-oriented reason to promote and develop new and expanded sources of biofuel. I argue that the conceptual construct of technological trajectories provides a fecund approach to the ethical evaluation of R&D strategies in the case of plant-based liquid transportation fuels. The idea of a trajectory has a current use in the literature of science studies and aptly summarizes a number of themes that are critical to the evaluation of tools and techniques whose future shape, design, applications and potential consequences are necessarily somewhat speculative. In the case of biofuels, it is the imagined future trajectory that provides the basis for resistance to an emerging technology, rather than the present-day technical capabilities and the unexpected consequences of biofuel development.     

Managing in uncertain economic times: The case for planning

The traditional organization format in most firms has been to separate production, marketing and distribution and accept a certain amount of friction at the interface of these functions. The price of this friction and the risks inherent in its acceptance make this an increasingly unattractive organizational alternative. New organizational structures that forecast, monitor and control materials flow between raw materials and customers in a systems context are required for intrafirm response and implementation to the challenges of a rapidly changing business environment. The article emphasizes these conclusions against the backcloth of a shortage aconomy.     

The organization of performance and the performance of organization

This paper considers the interconnection between ‘performance’ and ‘organization’ through an ethnographic study of the art-work of an experimental theatre group. From the basis of this fieldwork, significant parallels are drawn between contemporary developments in the theory and practice of organization and with experimental and radical theatre. These arenas become connected through their shaping by the activity of particular avant-gardes and interrelated by their authoritarian linkage of novelty and nostalgia. The paper is concluded by an examination of the significance of these limiting interconnections for the transitional process of ‘blurring’ and ‘refiguration’ in the Human Sciences.     

Admissible variable-selection procedures when fitting misspecified regression models by least squares

For loss equal to squared error of prediction, Kempthorne(l984) has proved that all variable-selection procedures are admissible for choosing among least-squares fits of a normal linear regression model. We extend this result to the case of a normal linear regression model in which the form of the expected response vector is misspecified.