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Meanings of Public and the Future of Public Services
by David A. McDonaldCritically assessing meanings of the term ‘public’, this book situates the emergence and expansion of ‘public services’ within market-based forms of production and consumption. It highlights the potential for making public services more progressive within market societies, but underscores their ongoing capture by private interests and emphasises the inherent limits of reform within a ‘bourgeois public sphere’. The author explores opportunities for more expansive forms of non-marketized public services, examining emerging debates on the theory and practice of equitable, participatory and sustainable forms of publicness that go beyond mere ownership. The book then asks how we can build a robust international ‘pro-public’ movement that juggles universal needs with local context. With a focus on essential public services such as water, electricity and health, the text is global in its scope and written for a broad audience. It will be useful for those interested in social and public policy, public services and public administration, political theory, economic geography, social movements, sustainability and development.
The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World
by Ken AlderIn June 1792, amidst the chaos of the French Revolution, two intrepid astronomers set out in opposite directions on an extraordinary journey. Starting in Paris, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre would make his way north to Dunkirk, while Pierre-François-André Méchain voyaged south to Barcelona. Their mission was to measure the world, and their findings would help define the meter as one ten-millionth of the distance between the pole and the equator--a standard that would be used "for all people, for all time." The Measure of All Things is the astonishing tale of one of history's greatest scientific adventures. Yet behind the public triumph of the metric system lies a secret error, one that is perpetuated in every subsequent definition of the meter. As acclaimed historian and novelist Ken Alder discovered through his research, there were only two people on the planet who knew the full extent of this error: Delambre and Méchain themselves. By turns a science history, detective tale, and human drama, The Measure of All Things describes a quest that succeeded as it failed--and continues to enlighten and inspire to this day.
Measure Theory and Fine Properties of Functions (Studies In Advanced Mathematics Ser. #5)
by LawrenceCraig EvansThis book provides a detailed examination of the central assertions of measure theory in n-dimensional Euclidean space and emphasizes the roles of Hausdorff measure and the capacity in characterizing the fine properties of sets and functions. Topics covered include a quick review of abstract measure theory, theorems and differentiation in Mn, lower Hausdorff measures, area and coarea formulas for Lipschitz mappings and related change-of-variable formulas, and Sobolev functions and functions of bounded variation. The text provides complete proofs of many key results omitted from other books, including Besicovitch's Covering Theorem, Rademacher's Theorem (on the differentiability a.e. of Lipschitz functions), the Area and Coarea Formulas, the precise structure of Sobolev and BV functions, the precise structure of sets of finite perimeter, and Alexandro's Theorem (on the twice differentiability a.e. of convex functions).Topics are carefully selected and the proofs succinct, but complete, which makes this book ideal reading for applied mathematicians and graduate students in applied mathematics.
Measurement and Analysis of Blast Fragmentation
by José A. Sanchidrián Ashok Kumar SinghFragmentation characteristics influence mucking productivity, crusher throughput and energy consumption, plant efficiency, yield and recovery, or the price itself of the end product in the case of industrial minerals and aggregates. Reliable, quantitative measurements of fragment sizes are instrumental in controlling and optimizing the blasting res
The Measurement and Analysis of Housing Preference and Choice
by Henny C.C.H. Coolen Sylvia J.T. Jansen Roland W. GoetgelukWhat are the current trends in housing? Is my planned project commercially viable? What should be my marketing and advertisement strategies? These are just some of the questions real estate agents, landlords and developers ask researchers to answer. But to find the answers, researchers are faced with a wide variety of methods that measure housing preferences and choices. To select and value a valid research method, one needs a well-structured overview of the methods that are used in housing preference and housing choice research. This comprehensive introduction to this field offers just such an overview. It discusses and compares numerous methods, detailing the potential limitation of each one, and it reaches beyond methodology, illustrating how thoughtful consideration of methods and techniques in research can help researchers and other professionals to deliver products and services that are more in line with residents' needs.
Measurement for the Sea: Supporting the Marine Environment and the Blue Economy (Springer Series in Measurement Science and Technology)
by Giovanni Battista Rossi Pasquale Daponte Vincenzo PiscopoIn the history of humankind, the sea has always played a key role as a privileged medium for communication, commerce and contact among population centers. It constitutes an essential ecosystem, and an invaluable reservoir and source of food for all living beings. Therefore, its heath is a critical challenge for the survival of all humanity, particularly as one the most important environmental components targeted by global warming. Measuring and monitoring techniques are key tools for managing the marine environment and for supporting the Blue Economy. With this perspective, a series of annual international events, entitled Metrology for the Sea (MetroSea for short) was begun in 2017. Their increasing success inspired this book, which provides an anthology of tutorials dealing with a representative selection of topics of concern to a broad readership. The book covers two broad application areas, marine hydrography and meteorology, and then deals with instrumentation for measurement at sea. Typical metrological issues such as calibration and traceability, are considered, for both physical and chemical quantities. Key techniques, such as underwater acoustic investigation, remote sensing, measurement of waves and monitoring networks, are treated alongside marine geology and the monitoring of animal species. Economic and legal aspects of metrology for navigation are also discussed. Such an unparalleled wide vision of measurement for the sea will be of interest to a broad audience of scientists, engineers, economists, and their students.
Measurement of Blast Fragmentation
by John A. Franklin Takis KatsabanisA collection of workshop papers providing state-of-the-art reviews on all aspects of fragmentation, including photographic requirements, image enhancement, statistical treatment, and applications in quarrying, mining and minerals processing industries.
The Measurement of Environmental and Resource Values: Theory and Methods
by A. Myrick Freeman III Joseph A. Herriges Catherine L. KlingThe first edition of this important work was the winner of the 2002 Publication of Enduring Quality award by the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. The continuing premise for the book is that estimates of the economic values of environmental and natural resource services are essential for effective policy-making. As previous editions, the third edition, which includes two additional co-authors, presents a comprehensive treatment of the theory and methods involved in estimating environmental benefits. Researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners will welcome the work as an up-to-date reference on recent developments. Students will gain a better understanding of the contribution that economics as a discipline can make to decisions concerning pollution control and human health, recreation, environmental amenities, and other critical issues concerning the way we use and interact with environmental and natural resource systems. To reflect recent progress in both the theory and practice of non-market valuation, the third edition includes more details on empirical approaches to measurement, expanded discussion of the reasons for divergence between "willingness to pay" and "willingness to accept compensation," and increased coverage of econometric issues encountered in estimation. In keeping with its cutting edge orientation, it also includes more discussion of survey design, equilibrium sorting models, and the implications of behavioral economics for welfare measurements and benefit cost analysis.
Measurement of Higgs Boson Production Cross Sections in the Diphoton Channel: with the full ATLAS Run-2 Data and Constraints on Anomalous Higgs Boson Interactions (Springer Theses)
by Ahmed Tarek Abouelfadl MohamedThis thesis presents the measurement of the Higgs boson cross section in the diphoton decay channel. The measurement relies on proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy √s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The collected data correspond to the full Run-2 dataset with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb-1. The measured cross sections are used to constrain anomalous Higgs boson interactions in the Effective Field Theory (EFT) framework. The results presented in this thesis represent a reduction by a factor 2 of the different photon and jet energy scale and resolution systematic uncertainties with respect to the previous ATLAS publication. The thesis details the calibration of electron and photon energies in ATLAS, in particular the measurement of the presampler energy scale and the estimation of its systematic uncertainty. This calibration was used to perform a measurement of the Higgs boson mass in the H → γγ and H → 4l channels using the 36 fb−1 dataset.
Measurements of Higgs Boson Properties in Proton-Proton Collisions at √s =7, 8 and 13 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (Springer Theses)
by Ulascan SaricaThis thesis documents the measurement of lifetime, width, mass, and couplings to two electroweak bosons of the recently-discovered Higgs boson using data from the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Both on-shell (at the mass of around 125 GeV) and off-shell (above 200 GeV) Higgs boson production is studied and an excess of off-shell production with significance above two standard deviations is observed for the first time. The latter is a qualitative new way to study the Higgs field, responsible for generation of mass of all the known elementary particles. In addition, phenomenological tools have been developed with the Monte Carlo event generator and matrix element techniques for an optional analysis of LHC data. Optimization of the CMS data with careful alignment of the silicon tracker is also presented.
Measures of Success: Designing, Managing, and Monitoring Conservation and Development Projects
by Nick Salafsky Anna Balla Richard A. MargoluisMeasures of Success is a practical, hands-on guide to designing, managing, and measuring the impacts of community-oriented conservation and development projects. It presents a simple, clear, logical, and yet comprehensive approach to developing and implementing effective programs, and can help conservation and development practitioners use principles of adaptive management to test assumptions about their projects and learn from the results.The book presents a systematic approach to improving the focus, effectiveness, and efficiency of projects, with specific guidelines and advice on:designing a realistic conceptual framework based on local site conditions developing clearly defined goals, objectives, and activities creating a monitoring plan that can be used to assess whether goals and objectives are being met integrating social and biological science techniques to collect the most relevant and useful data in the most cost-effective way using the information obtained through the monitoring plan to modify the project and learn from the resultThe text is developed in eight chapters that follow the structure of a planning process from conception to completion, with the chapters linked by four scenarios that serve as teaching case studies throughout the book. Examples from these scenarios illustrate the processes and tools discussed, and each scenario case study is presented in its entirety in an appendix to the volume. The approach has been developed and field tested by practitioners working in many different projects in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and their experience and input ensure that the guide is both practical and useful.Measures of Success is the only work of its kind currently available, and represents an invaluable resource for field-based practitioners, project managers, and local community leaders, as well as for international NGO staff, college and university teachers and students, researchers, and government officials.
Measuring and Accounting for Environmental Public Goods: A National Accounts Perspective (National Bureau of Economic Research Studies in Income and Wealth)
by Nicholas Z. Muller, Eli P. Fenichel, and Mary BohmanProvides strategies and approaches for integrating natural capital into environmental statistics. While the importance of natural resources and the contributions of the environment to welfare are apparent, traditional national income and wealth accounting practices do not measure or value environmental public goods. This volume examines the conceptual and empirical basis for integrating natural capital—forests, oceans, and air—into the economic and environmental statistics that inform public policy. It offers innovative approaches to valuing nonmarket environmental goods and services, including strategies for capturing heterogeneity in measurement across types of capital, geography, and individuals. The chapters focus on measuring productivity with adjustments for pollution damage, developing a microdata infrastructure to advance our understanding of the distribution of environmental amenities and hazards, and estimating long-run sustainable development indicators. Case studies consider coastal assets, forests, and marine ecosystems, and develop strategies for implementing specific environmental-economic accounts such as environmental activity accounts and natural capital accounts for forests and the marine economy. As national income accounting standards are updated to incorporate expanded guidance on issues related to natural capital, this timely book will help inform decisions on the measurement and treatment of climate, air, water, and other public goods.
Measuring and Controlling Sustainability: Spanning Theory and Practice
by Adam Lindgreen Christine Vallaster Dr Shumaila Yousofzai Bernhard HirschEfforts to establish the measurement and control of sustainability have produced notable tools, but those instruments lack applicability in practice. Increasing the level of standardization of such tools also seems difficult to achieve, because the contexts surrounding the focal organizations differ considerably. Therefore, what we need is a systematic, interdisciplinary assessment of how to measure and control sustainability, so that we can establish an essential definition and up-to-date picture of the field. Measuring and Controlling Sustainability attempts to provide such an assessment in 17 chapters, organized into four main topic sections: (a) organizations and social value creation: concepts, responsibilities, and barriers; (b) accounting, measurement, performance, and diffusion of social value; (c) practical and managerial insights from real-life cases; and (d) choices, incentives, guidance, and ethics. This research anthology provides a comprehensive collection of cutting-edge theories and research that will further the development and advancement of measuring and controlling sustainable efforts in theory and managerial practice.
Measuring and Evaluating Sustainability: Ethics in Sustainability Indexes (Routledge Studies in Sustainable Development)
by Sarah E. FredericksThe indexes used by local, national, and international governments to monitor progress toward sustainability do not adequately align with their ethical priorities and have a limited ability to monitor and promote sustainability. This book gives a theoretical and practical demonstration of how ethics and technical considerations can aid the development of sustainability indexes to overcome this division in the literature and aid sustainability initiatives. Measuring and Evaluating Sustainability develops and illustrates methods of linking technical and normative concerns during the development of sustainability indexes. Specifically, guidelines for index development are combined with a pragmatic theory of ethics that enables ethical collaboration among people of diverse ethical systems. Using the resulting method of index development, the book takes a unique applied turn as it ethically evaluates multiple sustainability indexes developed and used by the European Commission, researchers, and local communities and suggests ways to improve the indexes. The book emphasizes justice as it is the most prevalent ethical principle in the sustainability literature and most neglected in index development. In addition to the ethical principles common to international sustainability initiatives, the book also employs a variety of religious and philosophical traditions to ensure that the ethical evaluations performed in the text align with the ideals of the communities using the indexes and foster cross-cultural ethical dialogue. This volume is an invaluable resource for students, researchers and professionals working on sustainability indicators and sustainability policy-making as well as interdisciplinary areas including environmental ethics; environmental philosophy; environmental or social justice; ecological economics; businesses sustainability programs; international development and environmental policy-making.
Measuring and Improving Social Impacts: A Guide for Nonprofits, Companies and Impact Investors
by Marc J. Epstein Kristi YuthasIdentifying, measuring and improving social impact is a significant challenge for corporate and private foundations, charities, NGOs and corporations. How best to balance possible social and environmental benefits (and costs) against one another? How does one bring clarity to multiple possibilities and opportunities? Based on years of work and new field studies from around the globe, the authors have written a book for managers that is grounded in the best academic and managerial research.It is a practical guide that describes the steps needed for identifying, measuring and improving social impact. This approach is useful in maximizing the impact of different types of investments, including grants and donations, impact investments, and commercial investments.With numerous examples of actual organizational approaches, research into more than fifty organizations, and extensive practical guidance and best practices, Measuring and Improving Social Impacts fills a critical gap.
Measuring Arthropod Biodiversity: A Handbook of Sampling Methods
by Jean Carlos Santos Geraldo Wilson FernandesThis book brings together a wide range of sampling methods for investigating different arthropod groups. Each chapter is organised to describe and evaluate the main sampling methods (field methods, materials and supplies, sampling protocols, effort needed, and limitations); in addition, some chapters describe the specimen preparation and conservation, species identification, data collection and management (treatment, statistical analysis, interpretation), and ecological/conservation implications of arthropod communities. The book aims to be a reference for zoologists, entomologists, arachnologists, ecologists, students, researchers, and for those interested in arthropod science and biodiversity. We hope the book will contribute to advance knowledge on field assessments and conservation strategies. Arthropods represent the most speciose group of organisms on Earth, with a remarkable number of species and interactions still to be described. These invertebrates are recognized for playing key ecological roles in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. Because of the increasing and relentless threats arthropods are facing lately due to a multitude of human induced drivers, this book represents an important contribution to assess their biodiversity and role in ecosystem functioning and generation of ecosystem services worldwide.
Measuring Emission of Agricultural Greenhouse Gases and Developing Mitigation Options using Nuclear and Related Techniques: Applications of Nuclear Techniques for GHGs
by Mohammad Zaman Lee Heng Christoph MüllerThis open access book is an outcome of the collaboration between the Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition Section, Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria, and the German Science Foundation research unit DASIM (Denitrification in Agricultural Soils: Integrated control and Modelling at various scales) and other institutes. It presents protocols, methodologies and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for measuring GHGs from different agroecosystems and animals using isotopic and related techniques that can also be used to validate climate-smart agricultural practices to mitigate GHGs. The material featured is useful for beginners in the field wanting an overview of the current methodologies, but also for experts who need hands-on descriptions of said methodologies. The book is written in form of a monograph and consists of eight chapters.
Measuring Good Business: Making Sense of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Data
by Richard HardymentWhat's a good company? Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing is transforming the world of business and finance. Investors are using data on issues like climate and diversity to enhance returns and make an impact. But with scepticism creeping in, how far can we trust the numbers? Is all this data making a difference to people and planet, and have we actually lost sight of what we are measuring and why? Measuring Good Business explains what we can measure – and calls for honesty about what we can't.This is the first book to look at the numbers behind the ESG revolution. It sets out a bold blueprint to revolutionise the data based on bottom-up, inclusive metrics, customised data to meet investor needs and impact measures that put sustainability in context. It is essential reading for anyone creating, using or studying ESG and sustainability data. After unpacking what’s going on today, the book focuses on solutions, providing a how-to guide to improve measurement and make sustainable business more impactful. It shows why measurement matters in a highly accessible way through stories and insights based on practical experience.The book is relevant to a broad readership of data creators (e.g. those working in companies), users (e.g. capital market participants) as well as the large ecosystem of raters, rankers and standard setters across the private, public and non-profit worlds.
Measuring Health Equity in Small Areas: Findings from Demographic Surveillance Systems
by INDEPTH NetworkOver the past decade, several initiatives have been launched to address the major health problems affecting the world's poorest countries, including global efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. More recently, a millennial challenge has been laid down to root out and confront the links between poverty and health. Using demographic surveillance systems, the INDEPTH researchers aim to contribute both to the empirical knowledge about health equity in developing countries and to report on the application of and innovation in tools and methods. Illustrated with case studies from Africa and Asia, this book puts forward a comprehensive view of the INDEPTH methodologies and findings. It develops and measures concepts and constructs of 'poverty' and 'equity' and relates these to health status. While tools and concepts for measuring health status are more developed, this volume contributes by grappling with new concepts and tools to measure changes in deprivation and disadvantage, adding to this intense theoretical and methodological debate.
Measuring Intangible Values: Rethinking How to Evaluate Socially Beneficial Actions (Routledge Studies in Sustainability)
by Marie Harder Gemma BurfordThis book explores the complex problem of how to measure the ‘success’ of social organisations, projects and activities. Whether improving a local situation, organizing a campaign around sustainability, or assessing the intangible effects of perceived social benefits, currently we have only have a very limited range of mechanisms for judging effectiveness. On the one hand, a market-driven logic demands that qualitative perceptions and experiences are quantified into simplified and numerically defined variables. On the other, community projects are left un-assessed, as one-off outcomes of local and situated processes that must somehow automatically ‘make things better’. For academics, researchers and other professionals working in this field this has resulted in the deep frustration of not being able to assess the things that are most centrally important: higher human values such as integrity, trust, respect, equality and social justice. Measuring Intangible Values argues that we can make shared social values – and their measurement - central to decisions about improving civil society. But because these social values are intangible, we need to develop ways of eliciting and validating them at the local level that can capture people’s shared meanings across multiple goals and perspectives. We need to develop mechanisms for evaluating whether these values are met that use rigorous but also relevant measures. And we need to develop ways of doing this that are scalable, transferable and comparable across different kinds of organisations and fields of activity. This book will be valuable for researchers in all social science disciplines which touch on human values, such as sociology, social psychology, human geography, social policy, architecture and planning, design and community studies.
Measuring Progress Towards Sustainability
by Subhas K. Sikdar Debalina Sengupta Rajib MukherjeeThis book is a state of the art treatise on what has been done so far on measuring sustainability for decision making. Contributions will appeal to engineers and scientists engaged in technology development, assessment, and verification. Researchers working on engineering sustainability are likely to get ideas for further research in quantifying sustainability for industrial systems. Concepts described can be applied across all scales, from process technology to global sustainability; and challenges and limitations are also addressed. Readers will discover important insights about simulation-based approaches to process design and quantitative measurement techniques of sustainability for business and technology systems. Most of the examples and case studies are from chemical enterprises but the methodologies presented could be applicable to any system for which quantitative data for indicators are available, and the choice of the set of indicators of sustainability are comprehensive.
Measuring the Real World: A Textbook of Applied Statistical Methods
by Heiner ThiessenOffers an introduction in Applied Statistics focusing on some of the statistics of today's society--world wide population growth, economic developments, international trade and energy consumption, global maldistribution of income and absorption of resources, depletion of species and resources, environmental changes, and human problems.
Measuring Tomorrow: Accounting for Well-Being, Resilience, and Sustainability in the Twenty-First Century
by Éloi LaurentHow moving beyond GDP will improve well-being and sustainabilityNever before in human history have we produced so much data, and this empirical revolution has shaped economic research and policy profoundly. But are we measuring, and thus managing, the right things—those that will help us solve the real social, economic, political, and environmental challenges of the twenty-first century? In Measuring Tomorrow, Éloi Laurent argues that we need to move away from narrowly useful metrics such as gross domestic product and instead use broader ones that aim at well-being, resilience, and sustainability. By doing so, countries will be able to shift their focus away from infinite and unrealistic growth and toward social justice and quality of life for their citizens.The time has come for these broader metrics to become more than just descriptive, Laurent argues; applied carefully by private and public decision makers, they can foster genuine progress. He begins by taking stock of the booming field of well-being and sustainability indicators, and explains the insights that the best of these can offer. He then shows how these indicators can be used to develop new policies, from the local to the global.An essential resource for scholars, students, and policymakers, Measuring Tomorrow covers all aspects of well-being—including health, education, and the environment—and incorporates a broad range of data and fascinating case studies from around the world: not just the United States and Europe but also China, Africa, the Middle East, and India.
Measuring Welfare beyond Economics: The genuine progress of Hong Kong and Singapore (Routledge Studies in Sustainable Development)
by Claudio O. Delang Yi Hang YuDissatisfaction with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as an indicator of a country’s development or a population’s wellbeing led to the development of the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). The GPI is an aggregate index of over 20 economic, social and environmental indicators, and accounts for both the welfare benefits of economic growth, and the social and environmental costs which accompany that economic growth. The result is better information about the level of welfare or well-being of a country’s population. This book measures the GPI of Hong Kong and Singapore from 1968 to 2010. It finds that for both countries, economic output (as measured by the GDP) has grown more than welfare (as measured by the GPI), but important differences are also found. In Hong Kong, the GPI has grown for the whole period under consideration, while in Singapore the GPI has stalled from 1993. This is in line with most countries and is explained by the "threshold hypothesis" which states that beyond a certain level of economic development the benefits of further economic growth are outweighed by even higher environmental and social costs. The book argues that the growth of Hong Kong’s GPI is due to its favourable relationship with China and in particular its ability to export low-wage jobs and polluting industries, rather than successful domestic policies. A stalling or shrinking GPI calls for alternative policies than the growth economy promoted by neoclassical economists, and the book explores an alternative model, that of the Steady State Economy (SSE).
Meccanica Analitica: Meccanica Classica, Meccanica Lagrangiana e Hamiltoniana e Teoria della Stabilità (UNITEXT #122)
by Valter MorettiIl testo parte da una rivisitazione teorica della meccanica classica newtoniana e del suo linguaggio matematico che si conclude con un'analisi critica della meccanica classica newtoniana. Si passa quindi alle formulazioni lagrangiane e hamiltoniane della meccanica classica, discutendo in particolare il rapporto tra simmetrie e costanti del moto all'interno di varie versioni del teorema di Noether e analoghi risultati. I capitoli sulla meccanica hamiltoniana, oltre al materiale standard come le parentesi di Poisson, la geometria simplettica, la formulazione di Hamilton-Jacobi e principi variazionali, includono alcuni risultati teorici importanti come il teorema di Liouville e il teorema di ricorrenza di Poincaré. La teoria della stabilità è introdotta e discussa nell'approccio di Liapunov. Il linguaggio adottato in tutto il testo è quello della geometria differenziale, che in ogni caso viene introdotta gradualmente. Un complemento finale include la teoria di base dei sistemi di equazioni differenziali ordinarie e dei sistemi con alcune generalizzazioni alla teoria sulle varietà. Diverse appendici introducono alcuni strumenti matematici come la teoria delle forme differenziali, la derivata di Lie e la teoria dell'integrazione su varietà. Il libro include diversi esercizi risolti.Il libro si rivolge agli studenti di Matematica e Fisica per i corsi di Meccanica Razionale e Meccanica Analitica.