title: Moving beyond panaceas in fisheries governance

authors: Young, Oran R.

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: In fisheries management—as in environmental governance more generally—regulatory arrangements thatare thought to be helpful in some contexts frequently become panaceas or, in other words, simpleformulaic policy prescriptions believed to solve a given problem in a wide range of contexts, regardlessof their actual consequences. When this happens, management is likely to fail, and negative side effectsare common. We focus on the case of individual transferable quotas to explore the panacea mindset, a setof factors that promote the spread and persistence of panaceas. These include conceptual narratives thatmake easy answers like panaceas seem plausible, power disconnects that create vested interests in pan-aceas, and heuristics and biases that prevent people from accurately assessing panaceas. Analysts havesuggested many approaches to avoiding panaceas, but most fail to conquer the underlying panaceamindset. Here, we suggest the codevelopment of an institutional diagnostics toolkit to distill the vastamount of information on fisheries governance into an easily accessible, open, on-line database of check-lists, case studies, and related resources. Toolkits like this could be used in many governance settings tochallenge users’understandings of a policy’s impacts and help them develop solutions better tailored totheir particular context. They would not replace the more comprehensive approaches found in the liter-ature but would rather be an intermediate step away from the problem of panaceas.

text: Moving beyond panaceas in fisheries governance In fisheries management—as in environmental governance more generally—regulatory arrangements thatare thought to be helpful in some contexts frequently become panaceas or, in other words, simpleformulaic policy prescriptions believed to solve a given problem in a wide range of contexts, regardlessof their actual consequences. When this happens, management is likely to fail, and negative side effectsare common. We focus on the case of individual transferable quotas to explore the panacea mindset, a setof factors that promote the spread and persistence of panaceas. These include conceptual narratives thatmake easy answers like panaceas seem plausible, power disconnects that create vested interests in pan-aceas, and heuristics and biases that prevent people from accurately assessing panaceas. Analysts havesuggested many approaches to avoiding panaceas, but most fail to conquer the underlying panaceamindset. Here, we suggest the codevelopment of an institutional diagnostics toolkit to distill the vastamount of information on fisheries governance into an easily accessible, open, on-line database of check-lists, case studies, and related resources. Toolkits like this could be used in many governance settings tochallenge users’understandings of a policy’s impacts and help them develop solutions better tailored totheir particular context. They would not replace the more comprehensive approaches found in the liter-ature but would rather be an intermediate step away from the problem of panaceas.

year: 2018-09-11

title: Viscous effects in time-dependent planar reconnection

authors: Armstrong, Craig Keith

subjects: magnetic reconnection

abstract: Context. Viscous dissipation is expected to play a significant part in energy release in solar flares, yet the role of viscosity in a weakly resistive plasma of the solar corona remains unclear.

Aims. We attempt to clarify the role of viscous effects in magnetic reconnection by performing simulations of reconnection in planar periodic geometry in an incompressible viscous resistive plasma. 
Methods. We consider magnetic reconnection, driven by large-scale vortical flows. We use both the classical shear viscosity and the Braginskii form for the ion parallel viscosity in a magnetised plasma. We determine the scalings of the current sheet parameters and the global rates of resistive and viscous dissipation. We use steady-state exact solutions and scaling arguments to interpret the numerical results.
Results. We show that, regardless of the form of viscosity, the resistive non-viscous analytical solutions for flux pile-up merging provide a very good approximation of the numerical results in the reconnecting current sheet. We find no evidence for a visco-resistive scale. Numerical results for a highly sheared magnetic field, however, appear to deviate from the analytical predictions in the case of the Braginskii viscosity.

text: Viscous effects in time-dependent planar reconnection Context. Viscous dissipation is expected to play a significant part in energy release in solar flares, yet the role of viscosity in a weakly resistive plasma of the solar corona remains unclear.

Aims. We attempt to clarify the role of viscous effects in magnetic reconnection by performing simulations of reconnection in planar periodic geometry in an incompressible viscous resistive plasma. 
Methods. We consider magnetic reconnection, driven by large-scale vortical flows. We use both the classical shear viscosity and the Braginskii form for the ion parallel viscosity in a magnetised plasma. We determine the scalings of the current sheet parameters and the global rates of resistive and viscous dissipation. We use steady-state exact solutions and scaling arguments to interpret the numerical results.
Results. We show that, regardless of the form of viscosity, the resistive non-viscous analytical solutions for flux pile-up merging provide a very good approximation of the numerical results in the reconnecting current sheet. We find no evidence for a visco-resistive scale. Numerical results for a highly sheared magnetic field, however, appear to deviate from the analytical predictions in the case of the Braginskii viscosity.

year: 2011

title: The source, composition and typology of ‘Limestone’ Adzes from Eastern North Island, New Zealand

authors: Nelson, Campbell S.

subjects: adzes

abstract: Collections of stone adzes (toki) from the eastern North Island of New Zealand include a number of typologically early (Archaic) forms made from what has been previously described as ‘siliceous or silicified limestone’. Seventy five finished adzes and preforms of this material were recorded in the present study. Their geographic distribution is primarily restricted to southern Hawkes Bay – Wairarapa, and they apparently originated from a single manufacturing centre at Owahanga, on the northern Wairarapa coast. Chemical and mineralogical analyses (by X-ray fluorescence, portable XRF, vacuum gasometry and X-ray diffraction) of two artefacts from Owahanga show they contain about 20–30 per cent CaCO3 (as calcite), while samples of the presumed local source rock have a slightly higher carbonate content but comparable silica (quartz) and Rb concentrations. The rock type used in the manufacture of adzes was therefore not a true limestone but calcareous mudstone, compositionally distinct from siliceous limestones in southern Wairarapa and probably derived from the Whangai Formation. Possible reasons for the use of this stone material are discussed.

text: The source, composition and typology of ‘Limestone’ Adzes from Eastern North Island, New Zealand Collections of stone adzes (toki) from the eastern North Island of New Zealand include a number of typologically early (Archaic) forms made from what has been previously described as ‘siliceous or silicified limestone’. Seventy five finished adzes and preforms of this material were recorded in the present study. Their geographic distribution is primarily restricted to southern Hawkes Bay – Wairarapa, and they apparently originated from a single manufacturing centre at Owahanga, on the northern Wairarapa coast. Chemical and mineralogical analyses (by X-ray fluorescence, portable XRF, vacuum gasometry and X-ray diffraction) of two artefacts from Owahanga show they contain about 20–30 per cent CaCO3 (as calcite), while samples of the presumed local source rock have a slightly higher carbonate content but comparable silica (quartz) and Rb concentrations. The rock type used in the manufacture of adzes was therefore not a true limestone but calcareous mudstone, compositionally distinct from siliceous limestones in southern Wairarapa and probably derived from the Whangai Formation. Possible reasons for the use of this stone material are discussed.

year: 2016