Some much needed momentum is finally building behind the EU’s emissions trading system

The EU emissions trading system (ETS) is a key component of the European Union’s policy for tackling climate change. The ETS works using a ‘cap and trade’ system, with a progressively tightening limit set on the amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted by factories, power plants and other actors. Jørgen Wettestad and Torbjørg Jevnaker write that after a difficult period in which the ETS has struggled to meet its aims, the system finally looks to be building some momentum with greater consensus among EU governments and actors in the European Parliament on the way forward

An investigation into anti-proliferative effects of microRNAs encoded by the miR-106a-363 cluster on human carcinoma cells and keratinocytes using microarray profiling of miRNA transcriptomes

Transfection of human oral squamous carcinoma cells (clone E10) with mimics for unexpressed miR-20b or miR-363-5p, encoded by the miR-106a-363 cluster (miR-20b, miR-106a, miR-363-3p, or miR-363-5p), caused 40–50% decrease in proliferation. Transfection with mimics for miR-18a or miR-92a, encoded by the miR-17-92 cluster (all members being expressed in E10 cells), had no effect on proliferation. In contrast, mimic for the sibling miRNA-19a yielded about 20% inhibition of proliferation. To investigate miRNA involvement profiling of miRNA transcriptomes were carried out using deoxyoligonucleotide microarrays. In transfectants for miR-19a, or miR-20b or miR-363-5p most differentially expressed miRNAs exhibited decreased expression, including some miRNAs encoded in paralogous miR-17-92—or miR-106b-25 cluster. Only in cells transfected with miR-19a mimic significantly increased expression of miR-20b observed—about 50-fold as judged by qRT-PCR. Further studies using qRT-PCR showed that transfection of E10 cells with mimic for miRNAs encoded by miR-17-92 - or miR-106a-363 - or the miR-106b-25 cluster confirmed selective effect on expression on sibling miRNAs. We conclude that high levels of miRNAs encoded by the miR-106a-363 cluster may contribute to inhibition of proliferation by decreasing expression of several sibling miRNAs encoded by miR-17-92 or by the miR-106b-25 cluster. The inhibition of proliferation observed in miR-19a-mimic transfectants is likely caused by the miR-19a-dependent increase in the levels of miR-20b and miR-106a. Bioinformatic analysis of differentially expressed miRNAs from miR-106a, miR-20b and miR-363-5p transfectants, but not miR-92a transfectants, yielded significant associations to “Cellular Growth and Proliferation” and “Cell Cycle.” Western blotting results showed that levels of affected proteins to differ between transfectants, suggesting that different anti-proliferative mechanisms may operate in these transfectants

The effect of SME internationalization motivators on initial and successive international market entry mode choice

Source at https://vkm.no/In preparation for a legal implementation of EU-regulation 1829/2003, the Norwegian Environment Agency (former Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management) has requested the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA) to give final opinions on all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and products containing or consisting of GMOs that are authorized in the European Union under Directive 2001/18/EC or Regulation 1829/2003/EC within the Authority’s sectoral responsibility. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has therefore, by letter dated 13 February 2013 (ref. 2012/150202), requested the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM) to carry out scientific risk assessments of 39 GMOs and products containing or consisting of GMOs that are authorized in the European Union. The request covers scope(s) relevant to the Gene Technology Act. The request does not cover GMOs that VKM already has conducted its final risk assessments on. However, the Agency requests VKM to consider whether updates or other changes to earlier submitted assessments are necessary.I forbindelse med forberedelse til implementering av EU-forordning 1829/2003 i norsk rett har Miljødirektoratet (tidligere Direktoratet for Naturforvalting) bedt Mattilsynet om vurderinger av allegenmodifiserte organismer (GMOer) og avledete produkter som inneholder eller består av GMOer som er godkjent under forordning 1829/2003 eller direktiv 2001/18 som er godkjent for ett eller flere bruksområder som omfattes av genteknologiloven. På den bakgrunnen har Mattilsynet, i brev av 13. februar 2013 (ref. 2012/150202), bedt Vitenskapskomiteen for mattrygghet (VKM) om å utarbeide endelige vitenskapelige risikovurderinger av 39 GMOer og avledete produkter som inneholder eller består av genmodifiserte organismer, innen Mattilsynets sektoransvar. VKM er bedt om endelige risikovurderinger for de EU-godkjente søknader hvor VKM ikke har avgitt endelig risikovurdering. I tillegg er VKM bedt om å vurdere hvorvidt det er nødvendig med oppdatering eller annen endring av de endelige risikovurderingene som VKM tidligere har lever

Leading transformation in an uncertain world: A case for strategic speculative design

Strategic speculative design is an uncertainty-oriented approach to perceptually bridge today with envisioned futures through knowledge-seeking design practices such as User experience design. As such, it may complement practices for facilitating transformative change found in management theory and innovation. Despite gaining importance in design schools, strategic speculative design however remains largely unfamiliar in leadership and management research and practice. We argue that this perspective may enable more active participation and dialogue with a variety of stakeholders about forthcoming or possible transformations, which may open for new or improved construction of opportunity in the present. Our paper is conceptual and offers a new model for strategic speculative design as an organisational change method relevant for transformation leadership and discusses possible managerial implications.publishedVersio

When EU Agencies Set Up Advisory Committees: All About Autonomy?

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Strategic Acting as Stagesetting: The Case of Industrial Design

Recent research in strategy, organization theory and industrial marketing is emphasizing the new complexities of gaining a dynamic resource-advantage that can reinvent and differentiate the industrial firm's offerings. This paper examines the dynamic capabilities contributed through industrial design and product innovation. An expanded understanding is needed to capture the specifics of industrial design expertise and its role in developing products as well as business organizations. Industrial design is an intensive transforming and mediating "technology" and the expertise is highly tacit, mobile, and relates to emergent realities of notyet-embodied knowledge. It tends to be embedded in dyads as well as multiple networks that construct new path-dependencies and can enact market, consumer and technological shifts in the business environment. The paper therefore extends the exploration of firm-specific dynamic capabilities to a relational-expressive level by focusing on the collaboration with (partly) independent design partners. Based on in-depth case studies of five Scandinavian firms and their allied industrial designers, a set of potential strategic gains is identified and these relates to four design-strategic processes, which are discussed. Finally, a new framework is presented that may capture how these dynamics between design and innovation actually is constituted and staged through a creative "relational constructing" within new design/business hybrids

Station Keeping of a Subsea Shuttle Tanker System Under Extreme Current During Offloading

A subsea shuttle tanker has been proposed as a multipurpose, versatile transport and storage system. This paper presents the station keeping challenge of the subsea shuttle tanker design during underwater loading and offloading at a subsea well under an extreme current environment. Understanding the behaviour of the proposed subsea shuttle tanker during offloading in extreme currents is vital for both the design of the subsea shuttle tanker itself but also the required actuator effort needed to uphold the demanded station keeping abilities. During the offloading process, the hoovering subsea shuttle tanker would current-vane in a water depth of approximately 70 metres. Recent studies have shown that the drag force exerted on the subsea shuttle tanker body is up to 80 times larger for side-ways current compared to the head-on current. With current-waning capabilities, the generated lift forces are low, and thus the subsea shuttle tanker will use less effort to maintain its desired position and water depth. The paper further investigates the movement of the subsea shuttle tanker during offloading with extreme current speeds, i.e., above 1.6 m/s, in the surge, heave, and pitch motions, respectively. The planar model is built up using a Luenberger observer, where the vessel motions are measured and fed into a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) for calculations of the control input. The LQR control’s primary focus is to hold and achieve the target for the subsea shuttle tanker during the offloading process, i.e., minimize the horizontal and vertical motion. Finally, a state-of-the-art probabilistic method is used to predict the maximum potential displacement during offloading, i.e., the Average Exceedance Rate Method

Heritage craft entrepreneuring in 'the wild': the role of entrepreneurial placemaking for rural development

This chapter investigates heritage craft entrepreneurship ‘in the wild’, creative start-ups emerging within a rural context in Norway and the UK. The research asks how entrepreneurs accomplish heritage craft entrepreneuring. To answer this question, we apply relational ontology, conceptualising entrepreneurship as the ongoing accomplishment of entrepreneurial activities, labelled entrepreneuring. We compare two rural heritage craft businesses: Running a spinnery located on a farm in a valley in Norway and a tweed-based textile creating organisation, co-located with other artisan entrepreneurs positioning in a community-led craft heritage building in the United Kingdom. Both entrepreneuring settings employ heritage craft in their businesses and engage in various forms of collaborations and placemaking in their creative entrepreneuring. This chapter unpacks three facets of artisan entrepreneuring through the lens of placemaking – connecting, organising, and co-developing in rural settings. We contribute to the entrepreneurship-as-practice and creative entrepreneurship literature and highlight the implications of placemaking for rural development.acceptedVersio

Leadership for sustainability: the importance of sustaining imaginative work

Sustainability thinking in enterprise strategies has emerged as a new concern for leaders in many industries and countries. It has spread like a virus in abstract corporate visions communication. We propose that more attention be devoted to leveraging the concrete developmental work from an action-based leadership for sustainability perspective. Our conceptual paper seeks to understand sustainability and change thinking in micro-practices, which can open for reusing resources, transforming core processes and offerings, and innovating in corporate missions. For this conceptual aim, we combine processual philosophy and sustainabilityoriented design thinking with exemplary practices in one specialized business enterprise to help us understand how and why micro sustainability practices can be born, formed, and shaped and how they can evolve into something foundational for an entire value-creation. The focused enterprise in this paper, Flokk, has pioneered sustainability thinking in both its design and development and its entire philosophizing towards the users. In contrast to prevailing management beliefs towards unconstrained creativity, enduring imaginative design and development efforts and leading with some concrete constraining criteria can become beneficial for leveraging sustainable practices, as shown in this puzzling office chair-maker case.acceptedVersio

Reimagining Sustainable Organization

This open access book reimagines a deeper sustainability in dynamic organization. Offering multiple perspectives on arts, design thinking, leadership, knowledge and project management, Reimagining Sustainable Organization addresses our need for thinking and coping differently when facing the many unknowns of real-life enterprises in society. Drawing on process philosophy, real-world case studies, and examinations of business practices as well as management research, the authors explore knowledge creation towards reimagining sustainable organization. The book includes frameworks and conceptual tools as well as insights for further explorations. This book will be of interests to students, scholars and teachers, and practitioners who are studying sustainable organization, greener management, leadership ideas, or knowledge and project management. It covers future pressing issues also for the professionals involved in co-creative work across organizational boundaries. This is an open access book