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Consistent evidence confirms that the addition of fluoride to achieve an optimal concentration in potable water supplies is both safe and effective in reducing community caries experience. While public acceptance and use of water fluoridation in Australia has been high for forty years, its implementation in Queensland remained low until December 2008. Political and social scientists have long recognised that the formation and maintenance of public policy in Australia is a complex interactive process involving inter alia government, bureaucracy, pressure groups and voters. However, explanations of the factors influencing the outcome of a proposal to fluoridate a municipal water supply remain inadequate. The long evolution of adjusted fluoridation has its genesis in pre-1930 North American concerns over the disfigurement associated with endemic dental mottling. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, many perceived this affliction as the visible manifestation of a public health problem: chronic fluoride intoxication. Reports of environmental contamination of the food chain from naturally over-fluoridated water and agrarian and industrial practices only increased community doubts about the accumulative and toxic potential of fluoride. For these and other reasons the public perception of fluoride was poor. Between 1937 and 1945, USPHS dental researcher and later Director of the National Institute of Dental Research HT Dean and co-workers emerged as the few who understood the fine line between fluoride therapy and toxicity. Their investigations involved not only specialised interpretations of human dental epidemiology but also multidisciplinary studies of human and animal fluoride exposure and homeostasis. However, decisions to implement water fluoridation had to come from the relevant government authorities. Here scientific knowledge faced political reality. Apart from perceived safety issues and resistance to the compulsory nature of water fluoridation, many other barriers to water fluoridation emerged: incompletely understood pharmacodynamics of fluoride; confounding issues in the initiation and propagation of caries; community acceptance of this epidemic; and political sensitivities regarding water. This scientific and social background explained why adjusted fluoridation was amenable to both challenge and misrepresentation. In the US, the constitutional, institutional and financial network provided the basis for an enduring culture of dental research that eventually provided the multidisciplinary evidence to endorse the safety and efficacy of water fluoridation. Although Australians did not experience a widespread human mottling problem akin to that in the United States, Australian fluoride advocates faced similar opposition. The Australian constitution, state parochialism and decentralisation compounded by vast distances fragmented the responsibilities for research, health and water treatment. Each state had limited resources and faced these responsibilities in its own way. Although there were several early attempts in some states at regional dental field studies, meaningful national dental epidemiology did not emerge until 1993. Hence, much of the supportive evidence for fluoridation in Australia had to be imported from North America. This background meant that wherever fluoridation was widely implemented in Australia, state authority played a role. In addition to the general social and scientific concerns about fluoride and fluoridation, before 1957 there were a number of unresolved scientific factors relating to naturally over-fluoridated ground water, climate, tea consumption and fluid homeostasis involving canecutters. These made Queensland different in the Australian context. After 1957, as these scientific concerns in Queensland diminished, the political landscape changed and provided new foundations for political hesitance and expedience. The timing and circumstances of the promulgation of the Fluoridation of Public Water Supplies Act (1963) influenced its nature to the extent that until 2008, this legislation with its link to various local government acts was unique within Australia. Although there were notable exceptions such as the decisions to fluoridate water supplies at Townsville and Mareeba, this legislative background established the “Queensland difference” as a fixture in fluoride debates across the state. When combined with inadequate state funding and a lack of political resolve from parliamentarians and councillors, prospects for fluoridation in Queensland were virtually paralysed. Nonetheless, while inquiry into the political reasons for the implementing or the failure to implement fluoridation remains thin, developments in Queensland after December 2007 lend significant weight to the finding that a politically resolute centralised authority with the responsibility for both health and water are key components in the outcome.

Syfte: Studiens syfte är att utifrån ett ledarperspektiv få ökad förståelsen för vilka utmaningar organisationskulturen bidrar till vid arbetet med cirkulära affärsmodeller.   Metod: Studien utgår från en hermeneutisk vetenskapstradition med en induktiv ansats. Metoden som tillämpats är kvalitativ och data har samlats in genom 10 semistrukturerade intervjuer för att sedan sammanställas i en tematisk analys. Intervjuer har genomförts med ledare som arbetar med CE och varje respondent har fått en anonymitetskod för att de inte ska kunna identifieras.   Resultat & slutsats: Studien visar att de ledare som vi intervjuat arbetar främst med affärsmodellerna Regenerering, Share och Loop som är kopplade till ramverket ReSOLVE och som respondenterna kallar Förnyelsebar och Återbruka. De främsta barriär och hinder kopplad till organisationskulturen och CE handlar om kunskapshantering och motivation. Studien visar att en ledare kan hantera dessa hinder genom att främja ett öppet klimat och bygga in arbetet med CE som en naturlig del i arbetet. Organisationer med en kultur som har ett externt fokus och där medarbetarnas värderingar ligger i linje med organisationens värderingar främjar arbetet med CE.   Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien har bidragit med en ökad förståelse för att olika affärsmodeller i ReSOLVE kan ha varierad miljömässig påverkan. Att medarbetare ser ett större perspektiv och att CE är en naturlig del i processen underlättar arbetet med CE. En kundorienterad organisation visar sig också föra arbete med CE framåt. Förslag på fortsatt forskning: För att stärka vår studie ytterligare föreslår vi fortsatt forskning gällande ytterligare perspektiv utöver ledarens syn på arbetet med CE. Vi föreslår också att framtida forskning kan undersöka affärsmodellers påverkan på miljön samt att utveckla forskning kring sambandet mellan en kundorienterad organisation och CE. / Aim: The aim of the study is to increase the knowledge of the challenges that organizational culture contributes to when working with circular business models, based on a leadership perspective.   Method: The study originates from a hermeneutical science tradition with an inductive approach. The method used is qualitative and data has been collected through semi structured interviews and later compiled in a thematic analysis. The interviews have been conducted with leaders working with CE and all of the respondents have been anonymized through anonymity codes.   Result & conclusions: The study indicates that the interviewed leaders primarily use the business models Regenerate, Share and Loop that are linked to the ReSOLVE framework, that the leaders refers to as Renewable and Reusable. Knowledge management and motivation are the main barriers and obstacles associated with the organizational culture and CE. The study shows that the leader can handle these barriers by promoting an open organizational climate and make CE as a natural part of the business. Organizations that have a culture with an external focus and where the employee’s values are in line with the values of the organization facilitates the work with CE.   Contribution of the thesis: The study has contributed to an increased understanding that different ReSOLVE business models can have different environmental effects. A bigger perspective and working with CE as a natural part of the process facilitates the work with CE. A customer-oriented organization have also turned out to foster CE.   Suggestions for future research: In order to further strengthen our study, we propose continued research regarding further perspectives on the work with CE in addition to the leader’s view. We also propose future research to investigate the environmental impact of the business models. And to develop research on the relationship between a customer-oriented organization and the work with CE.

<p>For scholars of international relations, reputation for resolve - the belief that an actor will stand firm in future disputes - has served as a seminal explanation for the outcome of interstate crises. Scholars studying state reputation remain divided as to which characteristics of the state determine reputation for resolve. Recent scholarship questions this traditional state-centric view of international relations, indicating leaders can be as influential as states in international affairs. My dissertation investigates whether individual leaders can develop reputations for resolve independently from the states they serve. In doing so, my dissertation bridges the state-centric and leader-centric literatures, contributing to our understanding of both reputations for resolve and the impact of individual leaders on international politics. My theory focuses on reputation development as I examine which information decision-makers use to make assessments of resolve. As leaders are the primary arbiters of foreign policy and interact substantially with each other during international crises and negotiations, I conclude that leaders should be able to develop independent reputations for resolve based on their behavior while in office. I further theorize that, due to the ways in which individuals access and process information, a leader's early actions while in office will matter more in assessments of his/her resolve, making initial reputations difficult to change. </p><p> To test my theory against alternative hypotheses, I employ a multi-methods research design using experimental surveys, statistical duration analysis, and a historical case study. The experiments focus on the internal causal mechanisms by which individuals process information to make predictions of a leader's resolve. To test the external validity of my theory, I employ a duration analysis to examine how the resoluteness of a leader's response to a crisis helps prevent that leader from being a target of future crises. Finally, the case study uses process tracing methods to investigate the extent to which individual leaders develop reputations for resolve over time. Through these multiple methods, I find robust evidence that leaders do develop reputations for resolve independently from their state's reputation. The experiments indicate that leader behavior is influential on perceptions of resolve even when accounting for state-based characteristics. Furthermore, I find that participants are more likely to seek out and prioritize leader-based information. I also find that early perceptions of resolve have a significant impact on later perceptions. The duration analysis indicates that the resoluteness of a leader's behavior can affect his/her risk of future crisis onset. Finally, the case study shows that potential challenger leaders do take leader-based information into account when making assessments of resolve and that a leader's early behavior is particularly influential to the development of his/her reputation for resolve. Based on this evidence I conclude that leaders can develop reputations for resolve. These reputations are primarily based on a leader's statements and behavior, even when controlling for state-based variables, and are resistant to change once formed.</p> / Dissertation

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Yes / In order to grow the food the world needs, there is a pressing need to gain a more detailed understanding of how innovative solutions can be incorporated into the agricultural supply chains, particularly within production, for environmentally, economically, ethically and socially viable food production. Despite a number of innovative solutions available, many challenges in agricultural supply are still prevalent, with researchers to date largely focusing on these challenges in isolation, as opposed to exploring the relationships held between these challenges. Thus, supported by Circular Economy, Agriculture, Industry 4.0 literature and expert opinions, agricultural supply chain challenges are modelled and analysed using ISM methodology to help uncover 12 agricultural challenges which ultimately impede goods moving within the supply chain. Findings discovered that the Unproductive Workers and Pesticide Hazards are the key drivers of agricultural challenges. The ISM Hierarchical model elucidates research propositions and a parsimonious model for future research.

[pt] Através de sua abordagem restaurativa e regenerativa por princípio, a economia circular é capaz de trazer inúmeros benefícios quando combinada às práticas de agricultura orgânica, que consistem na produção de alimentos livres de contaminantes e que preza pela segurança e valorização do homem e do meio ambiente. Nesse estudo, a relação entre os dois temas será analisada sob o contexto da cafeicultura orgânica, setor que tem apresentado fortes tendências de crescimento e um amplo campo de desenvolvimento para novas práticas ao longo de toda a sua cadeia de suprimentos. O café é carbono negativo e capaz de ter seu ciclo completamente fechado, podendo ser reinserido de forma integral e segura no meio ambiente. A análise foi realizada utilizando os preceitos da metodologia ReSOLVE, desenvolvido pela Ellen MacArthur Foundation (regenerar, compartilhar, otimizar, ciclar, virtualizar e trocar) em empresas que produzem e/ou comercializam café orgânico, verificando a sua devida aplicabilidade ao longo das respectivas cadeias de suprimentos. O presente estudo é uma pesquisa qualitativa de caráter descritivo. Para isso, foram desenvolvidos estudos de casos com a realização de entrevistas estruturadas em profundidade com os atuais proprietários das empresas focais e a triangulação de dados, buscando validar sua confiabilidade. O resultado dessa pesquisa evidencia como a aplicação da economia circular nos modos de produção da cafeicultura orgânica é capaz de potencializar os resultados obtidos, através da cooperação e integração de sua cadeia de suprimentos, mas também constata a presença de algumas barreiras importantes a sua plena implementação. / [en] Through its restorative and regenerative approach by principle, the circular economy is able to bring numerous benefits when combined with organic farming practices, which consists in producing food free of contaminants and that values the safety and enhancement of man and the environment. In this study, the relationship between the two topics will be analyzed in the context of organic coffee farming, a sector that has shown strong growth trends and a wide field for the development of new practices throughout its supply chain. Coffee is carbon negative and capable of having its cycle completely closed, and can be fully and safely reinserted into the environment. The analysis was carried out using the precepts of the ReSOLVE methodology, developed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (regenerate, share, optimize, cycle, virtualize and exchange) in companies that produce and/or sell organic coffee, verifying its proper applicability along the respective supply chains. The present study is a qualitative research of descriptive character. To this end, case studies were developed with structured in-depth interviews with the current owners of the focal companies and data triangulation, seeking to validate its reliability. The result of this research shows how the application of the circular economy in organic coffee production methods is able to enhance the results obtained, through cooperation and integration of its supply chain, but also notes the presence of some important barriers to its full implementation.

Even though battles have been fought in built-up areas for a long time, there have not been any specific theories connected to it. As the world becomes increasingly urbanized, the problem of not having any complete theories with which to analyze military operations in urban terrain becomes bigger. This essay aims to contribute to the field of military theory by investigating if Robert Leonhard’s theory of combined arms can be used in analyzing such operations and to be able to explaining the outcome of them.   The main question posed in this essay is; to what extent can Leonhard’s theory explain the outcome of military operations in urban terrain? The method used to answer this question is a comparative method formed as a case study of two military operations in urban terrain, Operation Vigilant Resolve and Operation Phantom Fury, which both took place in Fallujah during the Iraq war 2004. The intention is to test Leonhard’s theory in both cases by assigning the theory several indicators, which are tested in each case.   The result shows that the indicators appeared almost equally in both cases, even though one of the operations was said to be a success and the other a failure. However during the occasions when the coalition force used combined arms, both operations achieved military effectiveness. The conclusion is that Leonhard’s theory of combined arms cannot be used to explain the outcome of military operations in urban terrain. The theory has not been verified and strengthened by empirical evidence, but weakened, which is the opposite of what should have been the result. Combined arms-theory cannot be used to assimilate lessons learned from military operations in urban terrain.