Total System Performance Assessment for Waste Disposal Using a Logic Tree Approach

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has sponsored the development of a model to assess the long-term, overall performance of the candidate spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The model simulates the processes that lead to HLW container corrosion, HLW mobilization from the spent fuel, and transport by groundwater, and contaminated groundwater usage by future hypothetical individuals leading to radiation doses to those individuals. The model must incorporate a multitude of complex, coupled processes across a variety of technical disciplines. Furthermore, because of the very long time frames involved in the modeling effort (10⁴ years), the relative lack of directly applicable data, and many uncertainties and variabilities in those data, a probabilistic approach to model development was necessary. The developers of the model chose a logic tree approach to represent uncertainties in both conceptual models and model parameter values. The developers felt the logic tree approach was the most appropriate. This paper discusses the value and use of logic trees applied to assessing the uncertainties in HLW disposal, the components of the model, and a few of the results of that model. The paper concludes with a comparison of logic trees and Monte Carlo approaches.     

改革开放前中国共产党未能成功实现角色转变的启示

执政党与革命党的角色在很多方面具有不同的特点,然而,社会主义革命胜利结束至改革开放前,执政的中国共产党却带有浓重的革命党色彩,未能实现由革命党向执政党角色的成功转变。要确保执政党的执政地位坚如磐石、实现强国富民的宏伟目标,党必须始终坚持和平共处五项基本原则,必须始终坚持以经济建设为中心任务不动摇,必须始终坚持"三个代表",必须弘扬与时俱进的精神,确保党的先进性不断创新,始终走在时代的前列。     

论气候变化背景下的国际水合作

国际水合作不仅已经成为通行的国际实践,而且已经逐步被确立为国际习惯法上的义务。为了应对气候变化对跨界水资源的影响,作为法律义务的国际水合作有强化的趋势,而作为实践的国际水合作也在不断深化。我国应以此为契机,加强国际水合作,实现我国跨界水资源的公平与可持续利用。     

民间傩仪式的空间特性与傩艺人人神角色的偏移——傩艺人身份的艺术人类学探究

从民族文化传统的感知维度上来看,与时间对跳傩艺人之人神沟通者身份的具体内涵及身份转换的规约性相比,傩仪式独有的空间特性对傩艺人人神角色转换的规约性更深刻更凸显。在跳傩仪式中,傩艺人的身份因为仪式空间属性的规约也具有了空间性,角色的扮演也随着跳傩仪式空间属性的改变而发生偏移。当仪式空间属性神圣的时候,跳傩艺人体认到的是他们作为驱疫降福之神灵的意识;而当仪式空间属性世俗的时候,他们也能够从属神的意识回归到属人的意识,从而实现仪式过程中人神之间的互动,完成娱神娱人的仪式功能。也正是在人与神之角色的偏移和不同承担过程中,傩艺人人神沟通者身份的具体内涵才得以呈现,而傩神信仰于当地百姓日常生活和精神追求之间的深层关联也得到凸显。     

Safety climate and safety outcomes: A meta-analytic comparison of universal vs. industry-specific safety climate predictive validity

Previous research has demonstrated that safety climate is a robust predictor of safety-related outcomes. However, there is little consensus about the optimal strategy to measure safety climate. One of the main issues has been whether safety climate measures should be universal or industry-specific. As such, this study was designed to examine the criterion-related validity of universal and industry-specific safety climate measures by conducting a meta-analytic comparison of their relationships with a variety of safety-related outcomes (i.e. safety behaviour, risk perceptions, accidents and injuries, and other adverse events). With 120 independent samples (N?=?81,213), we found that the industry-specific safety climate measures displayed better predictive power when predicting safety behaviour and risk perceptions than the universal safety climate measures. On the other hand, the universal safety climate measures displayed better predictive power when predicting other adverse events (but not accidents and injuries) than the industry-specific safety climate measures. We discuss these findings in light of the intended use of organisational safety climate surveys.     

Communal Goals,Campus Racial Climate Perceptions,and Cultural Differences in Perceived Academic Satisfaction

Although some research has examined Latino collectivism and Latino students' campus climate perceptions, there remains a gap in the literature regarding the interactive effects of these two constructs. Therefore, the authors examined the moderating effect that perceptions of campus racial climate may have on the relationship between communal goals and academic major satisfaction for Latino students in comparison with European American students. Contrary to prediction, perceptions of a positive university campus racial climate moderated the relationship between communal goals and academic satisfaction for European American students but not Latino students. Specifically, European Americans endorsing higher communal goals were more likely to report higher academic satisfaction when holding a positive perception of the university's racial climate. However, a main effect was observed whereby communal goals were a significant positive predictor of academic satisfaction for Latino students. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

US labour unions and green transitions: depth,breadth, and worker agency

ABSTRACT

The goal of this article is to interpret and analyse two ambitious and prominent cases of labour environmentalism in the USA – the par excellence example of liberal capitalism. In order to capture the nuances, contradictions, and varieties of labour environmentalism, I employ an analytical scheme based on three dimensions. The first dimension (depth) explores the social and environmental commitments manifested in these cases, the second dimension (breadth) explores their spatiality, and the third dimension (agency) explores the degree to which these initiatives reflect a proactive as opposed to a reactive labour environmentalism.     

Voices from the stories untold: Lesbian,gay, bisexual,trans, and queer college students' experiences with campus climate

ABSTRACT

Twelve self-identified college students within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) spectrum were interviewed on campus climate perceptions and their experiences of discrimination and isolation at their university. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes from the data. This process resulted in the emergence of three themes, identified as discrimination, isolation, and avoidance. The most salient experiences of discrimination and isolation reported by participants came from within LGBTQ organizations or from lesbian or gay male individuals that participants sought out for social support. LGBTQ intra-community discrimination was considered to be particularly damaging to participants' sense of belonging and involvement within the LGBTQ community. Discrimination and isolation from straight-identified organizations or individuals was reported mostly in the context of fraternities/sororities and religious organizations. Furthermore, actions by members of these latter groups caused participants to avoid these groups out of expectations of negative interactions. These results inform empirical research to bring awareness to acts of discrimination that continue to take place within the university toward LGBTQ students. Specific implications for social work practice with LGBTQ college students and future research on diverse LGBTQ populations and resources are discussed.     

Social media and political discussion: when online presence silences offline conversation

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the relationship between the use of social media, attitudinal strength, perceived opinion agreement with social ties, and willingness to discuss a political issue in different online and offline contexts. Unlike the anonymous environment of some Internet forums, social media are closely tied to the relationships and activities of everyday life. Social media increasingly make ties from offline contexts persistent online, and, because of the ambient nature of these technologies, awareness of the opinions, interests, and activities of social ties has become pervasive. As such, the use of social media is likely to affect everyday conversation about political issues in on- and offline contexts, including the home, workplace, social gatherings with friends, community meetings, and on social network sites (SNSs). Based on a national probability survey, we find that the use of SNSs (i.e., Facebook and Twitter) has a direct, negative relationship to deliberation in many offline settings. Some uses of these platforms are associated with having a lower, perceived opinion agreement with social ties. As part of a spiral of silence, this further reduces the willingness of social media users to join political conversations in some offline settings. Only those with the strongest attitudes on an issue are immune.     

Urban risks due to climate change in the Andean municipality of Pasto,Colombia: A Bayesian network approach

The current trends of climate change will increase people's exposure to urban risks related to events such as landslides, floods, forest fires, food production, health, and water availability, which are stochastic and very localized in nature. This research uses a Bayesian network (BN) approach to analyze the intensity of such urban risks for the Andean municipality of Pasto, Colombia, under climate change scenarios. The stochastic BN model is linked to correlational models and local scenarios of representative concentration trajectories (RCP) to project the possible risks to which the municipality of Pasto will be exposed in the future. The results show significant risks in crop yields, food security, water availability and disaster risks, but no significant risks on the incidence of acute diarrheal diseases (ADD) and acute respiratory infections (ARI), whereas positive outcomes are likely to occur in livestock production, influenced by population growth. The advantage of the BN approach is the possibility of updating beliefs in the probabilities of occurrence of events, especially in developing, intermediate cities with information-limited contexts.