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The 2017 History of Science Society annual meeting is discussed.

The changeover to microprocessor technology in household appliances not only means a profound change in the control technology, but also changes the requirements for control elements and switches quite considerably. Although they have not been technologically necessary for a long time, rotary switches will continue to dictate the appearance of washing machines and similar appliances. And that is a good enough reason to think about how the new and the old requirements can be better met with new technologies.

I was looking forward to participating in revising and updating the Official Community Plan and along with the APC enjoyed a one- day workshop on such matters hosted by CVRD staff in October. Further workshops and planning meetings were envisioned. Short days after that workshop, I was informed that the Electoral Area Services Committee had voted to disband the Saltair APC at the request of Director [Rene Beaudin]. This was accomplished when the whole CVRD Board voted to abolish the Commission. At no time has any elected person informed the Commission of this action nor have I heard from the Area G Director or any other member of the CVRD Board as to the reasons for it. I believe the actions and behaviour of one director have brought disrepute to the entire Board. It is sad when the elected leadership of the CVRD treats concerned and dedicated volunteers in such an arrogant and insensitive manner. It reflects poorly on all of you. Shame, shame, shame!

ABSTRACT IN GERMAN: Effizienz ist nach DIN EN ISO 9000:2000 das Verhältnis zwischen dem erzielten Ergebnis und den dabei eingesetzten Mitteln. Kennzeichnend für ein effizientes Verhalten ist nicht das alleinige Erreichen eines gegebenen, \"richtigen\" Zieles (Effektivität), sondern das Erreichen des Zieles mit einem möglichst geringen Aufwand. \"Corporate Governance\" als Schlagwort für effiziente Unternehmensführung spielt dabei seit Jahren bei privaten börsennotierten Firmen eine bedeutende Rolle. Öffentliche Unternehmen wurden bei der Diskussion um Corporate Governance bisher kaum näher betrachtet, was u.a. im Fehlen eines Public Corporate Governance Kodex als Komplement zum Deutschen Corporate Governance Kodex (für börsennotierte Privatunternehmen) deutlich wird. Doch gerade die Effizienz gewinnt im öffentlichen Bereich mit Blick auf die Finanzsituation der Länder und Kommunen immer mehr an Bedeutung. // ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH: Corporate Governance is a symbol for more efficiency mostly in stock enterprises. It seems that public enterprises, especially the supply and disposal enterprises have been forgotten in the new corporate governance field. But the basic ideas - efficiency, visibility and sustainability - are also very important for these types of enterprises. Therefore, in this article, the state of the art of corporate governance in public enterprises is analyzed and ways for better governance of these enterprises are presented. Reprinted by permission of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft

Effizienz ist nach DIN EN ISO 9000:2000 das Verhältnis zwischen dem erzielten Ergebnis und den dabei eingesetzten Mitteln. Kennzeichnend für ein effizientes Verhalten ist nicht das alleinige Erreichen eines gegebenen, „richtigen“ Zieles (Effektivität), sondern das Erreichen des Zieles mit einem möglichst geringen Aufwand. „Corporate Governance“ als Schlagwort für effiziente Unternehmensführung spielt dabei seit Jahren bei privaten börsennotierten Firmen eine bedeutende Rolle. Öffentliche Unternehmen wurden bei der Diskussion um Corporate Governance bisher kaum näher betrachtet, was u.a. im Fehlen eines Public Corporate Governance Kodex als Komplement zum Deutschen Corporate Governance Kodex (für börsennotierte Privatunternehmen) deutlich wird. Doch gerade die Effizienz gewinnt im öffentlichen Bereich mit Blick auf die Finanzsituation der Länder und Kommunen immer mehr an Bedeutung. Corporate Governance is a symbol for more efficiency mostly in stock enterprises. It seems that public enterprises, especially the supply and disposal enterprises have been forgotten in the new corporate governance field. But the basic ideas — efficiency, visibility and sustainability — are also very important for these types of enterprises. Therefore, in this article, the state of the art of corporate governance in public enterprises is analyzed and ways for better governance of these enterprises are presented.

In a feature article last month Pat Devine urged the Left to look anew at the idea of economic planning. Mike Dietrich and Geoff Hodgson here take issue.

Most trees form symbioses with ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) which influence access to growth-limiting soil resources. Mesocosm experiments repeatedly show that EMF species differentially affect plant development, yet whether these effects ripple up to influence the growth of entire forests remains unknown. Here we tested the effects of EMF composition and functional genes relative to variation in well-known drivers of tree growth by combining paired molecular EMF surveys with high-resolution forest inventory data across 15 European countries. We show that EMF composition was linked to a three-fold difference in tree growth rate even when controlling for the primary abiotic drivers of tree growth. Fast tree growth was associated with EMF communities harboring high inorganic but low organic nitrogen acquisition gene proportions and EMF which form contact versus medium-distance fringe exploration types. These findings suggest that EMF composition is a strong bio-indicator of underlying drivers of tree growth and/or that variation of forest EMF communities causes differences in tree growth. While it may be too early to assign causality or directionality, our study is one of the first to link fine-scale variation within a key component of the forest microbiome to ecosystem functioning at a continental scale.

In African cities like Nairobi, policies to improve vehicle fuel economy help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, but lack of data is a major challenge. We present a methodology for estimating fuel economy in such cities. Vehicle characteristics and activity data, for both the formal fleet (private cars, motorcycles, light and heavy trucks) and informal fleet—minibuses (matatus), three-wheelers (tuktuks), goods vehicles (AskforTransport) and two-wheelers (bodabodas)—were collected and used to estimate fuel economy. Using two empirical models, general linear modelling (GLM) and artificial neural network (ANN), the relationships between vehicle characteristics for this fleet and fuel economy were analyzed for the first time. Fuel economy for bodabodas (4.6 ± 0.4 L/100 km), tuktuks (8.7 ± 4.6 L/100 km), passenger cars (22.8 ± 3.0 L/100 km), and matatus (33.1 ± 2.5 L/100 km) was found to be 2–3 times worse than in the countries these vehicles are imported from. The GLM provided the better estimate of predicted fuel economy based on vehicle characteristics. The analysis of survey data covering a large informal urban fleet helps meet the challenge of a lack of availability of vehicle data for emissions inventories. This may be useful to policy makers as emissions inventories underpin policy development to reduce emissions.