Habitat degradation and fragmentation have heightened the importance of understanding human tolerance towards wildlife, as the fate of wildlife in multi-use landscapes depends on people's capacity ...for coexistence. We applied the wildlife tolerance model to examine drivers of tolerance towards Asian elephants Elephas maximus in rural Bangladesh, interviewing local people in 17 villages. We used structural equation modelling to identify causal pathways in which elephant-related exposure, positive and negative interactions, costs and benefits (tangible and intangible) contributed to tolerance. Contrary to expectations, monetary costs were non-significant in shaping tolerance despite major impacts on livelihoods. Instead, intangible costs and intangible benefits were significant factors determining tolerance. Furthermore, reducing people's exposure to elephants would not necessarily affect tolerance, nor would increasing positive interactions. We discuss how the socio-economic and bio-cultural dynamics of local communities can explain these results, and demonstrate how our model can be used to incorporate such complexities into conservation decision-making. For instance, compensation schemes aim to recompense monetary losses and direct damages, to improve tolerance, whereas our results suggest a more effective approach would be to enhance resilience to non-monetary costs and improve perceived benefits. We conclude that future studies should pay increased attention to intangible costs and consider the less direct drivers of tolerance. Through repeated testing of universal models such as that presented here, broad trends may emerge that will facilitate the application of policies across contexts and landscapes.
When deciding how to conserve biodiversity, practitioners navigate diverse missions, sometimes conflicting approaches, and uncertain trade‐offs. These choices are based not only on evidence, funders’ ...priorities, stakeholders’ interests, and policies, but also on practitioners’ personal experiences, backgrounds, and values. Calls for greater reflexivity—an individual or group's ability to examine themselves in relation to their actions and interactions with others—have appeared in the conservation science literature. But what role does reflexivity play in conservation practice? We explored how self‐reflection can shape how individuals and groups conserve nature. To provide examples of reflexivity in conservation practice, we conducted a year‐long series of workshop discussions and online exchanges. During these, we examined cases from the peer‐reviewed and gray literature, our own experiences, and conversations with 10 experts. Reflexivity among practitioners spanned individual and collective levels and informal and formal settings. Reflexivity also encompassed diverse themes, including practitioners’ values, emotional struggles, social identities, training, cultural backgrounds, and experiences of success and failure. Reflexive processes also have limitations, dangers, and costs. Informal and institutionalized reflexivity requires allocation of limited time and resources, can be hard to put into practice, and alone cannot solve conservation challenges. Yet, when intentionally undertaken, reflexive processes might be integrated into adaptive management cycles at multiple points, helping conservation practitioners better reach their goals. Reflexivity could also play a more transformative role in conservation by motivating practitioners to reevaluate their goals and methods entirely. Reflexivity might help the conservation movement imagine and thus work toward a better world for wildlife, people, and the conservation sector itself.
Reconocimiento de la reflexividad entre los practicantes de la conservación
Resumen
Cuando se decide cómo conservar la biodiversidad, quienes la practican sortean varias misiones, algunas veces con enfoques contrastantes y compensaciones inciertas. Estas elecciones no se basan solamente en las evidencias, prioridades de los financiadores, los intereses de los actores y las políticas, sino también en las experiencias personales, formación y valores de los practicantes. En la literatura sobre las ciencias de la conservación han surgido llamados para una mayor reflexividad – la habilidad individual o grupal para examinarse a sí mismo en relación con sus acciones e interacciones con otros. Pero ¿cuál es el papel de la reflexividad en la práctica de la conservación? Para responder esto, exploramos cómo la autorreflexión puede determinar cómo ocurre la conservación individual y grupal de la naturaleza. Realizamos una serie de talleres de discusión e intercambios virtuales durante un año para ejemplificar la reflexividad en la práctica de la conservación. Durante estas sesiones examinamos casos de la literatura gris y revisada por pares, nuestras propias experiencias y conversaciones con diez expertos. La reflexividad de los practicantes abarcó niveles individuales y colectivos y escenarios formales e informales. La reflexividad también comprendió diferentes aspectos de los practicantes, como los valores, conflictos emocionales, identidad social, preparación, contexto cultural y experiencias exitosas y fallidas. Los procesos reflexivos también tienen limitaciones, riesgos y costos. La reflexividad informal e institucionalizada requiere la distribución de tiempo y recursos limitados, puede ser difícil de poner en práctica y no puede resolver los retos de conservación por sí sola. Aun así, cuando se realizan intencionalmente, los procesos reflexivos pueden integrarse a los ciclos de manejo adaptativo en varios puntos, lo que ayuda a quienes practican la conservación a lograr sus metas de mejor manera. La reflexividad también podría tener un papel transformador en la conservación al motivar a los practicantes a reevaluar completamente sus metas y métodos. La reflexividad podría ayudar al movimiento de conservación a imaginar, y por lo tanto trabajar para tener, un mundo mejor para la vida silvestre, las personas y el propio sector de la conservación.
【摘要】
当决定如何保护生物多样性时, 保护实践者需要处理不同的任务, 有时要采用相互冲突的方法, 或面临不确定的利弊权衡。这些选择不仅基于证据、资助者的优先排序、利益相关者的利益及政策, 而且也基于保护实践者的个人经验、背景和价值观。保护科学文献中出现了对更多反身性的呼吁, 也就是个人或团体根据他们的行动和与他人的互动来反思自己的能力。然而, 反身性在保护实践中发挥了什么作用？本研究探讨了自我反思如何塑造个人和团体保护自然的方式。为了提供保护实践中反身性的例子, 我们进行了为期一年的一系列研讨会和在线交流。在这些活动中, 我们讨论了同行评议和灰色文献中的案例、我们自身的经验, 以及与十位专家的会谈。保护实践者之间的反身性跨越了个人和集体的层面以及非正式和正式的环境。反身性也包含了不同的主题, 包括保护实践者的价值观、情感挣扎、社会身份、训练、文化背景, 以及成功和失败的经验。反思的过程存在局限性、危险性和成本。非正式和制度化的反身性需要分配有限的时间和资源, 可能很难付诸实践, 而且不能独自解决保护挑战。然而, 如果有意进行反思, 该过程可以被整合到适应性管理周期的多个节点中, 帮助保护实践者更好地实现目标。反身性还可以通过激励保护实践者完全地重新评估其目标和方法, 在保护中发挥更大的变革作用。此外, 反身性可以帮助保护运动的构想, 从而为野生动物、人类和保护部门自身争取建立一个更好的世界。【翻译:胡怡思;审校:聂永刚】
Background: With the attendant rise of the number of medical colleges in India over past few decades, the demand for cadavers used in medical education and research is growing. However, there is an ...insufficient supply of donated cadavers available for dissection. Objective: The present study aimed to assess the awareness about Body & Organ Donation among students of 1st Professional MBBS course in Bihar, India. Materials and Methods: This retrospective, longitudinal cohort, observational multi-center study was carried out between March-2022 to May-2022 on consecutive 500 medical students admitted in 1st Professional MBBS course, studying at KATIHAR MEDICAL COLLEGE, KATIHAR, MADHUBANI MEDICAL COLLEGE, MADHUBANI and PATNA MEDICAL COLLEGE, PATNA, between the study duration. Inclusion criteria composed of only newly admitted first year medical students, following their informed consent whereas, second year, third year and fourth year medical students were excluded from this study. Approval was obtained from Institutional Ethics Committee. A structured questionnaire containing 29 items was administered after due consent by the department of anatomy of each of the above-mentioned medical colleges. The collected data was entered in Microsoft Excel to maintain the quality of data.
Solar-powered homes can be an optimal solution for the lack of continuous power sources problem in initial low-income communities. However, the challenge of Photovoltaic (PV) uncertainty can make it ...difficult to coordinate this vital solar energy in real-time. This paper proposes a new, low-cost solution for assessing the uncertainty of photovoltaic power generation in smart home energy management systems. The proposed index, inspired by the well-known clearness index, is an adaptive deterministic indicator that only requires free Geographic Information System (GIS) models and PV power measurement, without the need for expensive high-tech controllers or expert engineers/programmers. The proposed index successfully predicts the daily PV energy with errors of less than 3% for more than 93% of studied days, according to the 2020 measured solar radiation of the studied case in an African developing location, i.e. Cairo. Egypt.
Article Highlights
The existing methods of PV uncertainty assessment are discussed.
A new fast and simple adaptive clearness index is proposed for a real time smart home energy management system.
The proposed index is evaluated for a typical case study in Egypt.
Wet sour gas pipelines are subjected to corrosion deterioration mechanisms resulting from interactions between the fluid and piping material. Acid gases, condensation rates, water chemistry, and ...temperature are the key factors in determining the corrosivity of sour gas streams. This work investigated the corrosion risk of a new wet gas pipeline through laboratory experiments and corrosion modeling. The tests were carried out in Hastelloy autoclave rotating cage system used to generate controlled dynamic conditions inside the reactor to mimic the environment inside the pipeline. The results showed high bottom of the line corrosion (BLC) rate reaching 38.9 mpy (0.99 mm/year), while the measured pitting rate was 17 mpy (0.43 mm/year). The corrosion modeling results showed a severe BLC rate exceeding 200 mpy (5.08 mm/year). The observed high BLC was attributed to the absence of bicarbonate which led to a low pH of 3.9. At this pH, the formation of stable iron sulfide is unlikely. Top of the line corrosion (TLC) rate was observed to be moderate reaching up to 7.8 mpy (0.20 mm/year). This is mainly because of the low condensation rate and formation of a protective iron sulfide layer, which confirmed that iron sulfide scale characteristics are the main factor influencing the TLC rate in sour environments. The expected threshold concentration required of bicarbonate to show some reducing effect on the corrosion rate and pH based on historical data analysis and predictive modeling of real-field conditions is discussed in this work. The results and conclusion detail the path forward for the findings.
Abstract
There are wide applications of block-rate pricing schemes in many countries. However, there are no significant studies that apply this common tariff for smart home energy management systems. ...In this paper, a three-time-frame energy management scheme has been proposed for photovoltaic (PV)-powered grid-connected smart homes based on the well-known mixed-integer linear programming optimization technique. This paper provides three original and novel smart home energy management algorithms that depend on the most common residential tariff specifically in developing countries. Three different management concepts have been studied for a typical Egyptian house. The concepts of shifting load, vehicle-to-home and reducing air conditioning have been tested according to a commonly applied slab tariff. The proposed scheme considers the home battery extending lifetime constraints. It also preserves comfortable lifestyle limits for home users according to Arab housing climatic conditions and culture. Moreover, the economic feasibility of integrated PV modules for the studied home has been verified according to the Egyptian tariff. The proposed energy management scheme of PV-powered home reduces the electrical power bill significantly in a wide range from 61% to only 19% of the default case bill according to the applied management technique.
Our purpose is to discuss ethical concerns with disease prevention applications of CRISPR germline editing using a human rights approach. If applied towards furthering health, these tools may aid to ...prevent diseases, thereby improving health and reduce suffering. On the other hand, commercialization of this technology, such that it becomes accessible only to the wealthy few, may have the opposite effect. We argue that caution needs to be taken against the use of germline-editing technology for disease prevention, as unequal access to the technology might negatively impact the health of the population by perpetuating socioeconomic inequality. What were once diseases and immunities of chance could soon become diseases of the poor and immunities of wealth. Hence, if germline editing is to be used for disease prevention, commercialization must be resisted, and efforts must be made to make it available and accessible within the human rights framework.
This paper presents an optimization procedure for the design parameters of InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs Triple-Junction (TJ) solar cell by using SILVACO TCAD. The solar cell design parameters include layers' ...materials, thicknesses and doping concentrations. Firstly, the optimization technique is performed on an InGaP/GaAs/Ge cell. The Ge sub-cell is then replaced by an InGaAs sub-cell. A comparison between the performance parameters of InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs and InGaP/GaAs/Ge TJ solar cells is investigated. The compared parameters are the open circuit voltage (VOC), short circuit current density (JSC), Fill Factor (FF) and the conversion efficiency (η). Finally, a comparison between these optimized devices against some previously published work is presented. All simulations for triple-junction solar cells are accomplished under light intensity of 1-sun of standard AM1.5G solar spectrum at 300 K. The electrical characteristics for the proposed TJ solar cell are VOC = 2.9 V and JSC = 15.97 mA/cm2 with conversion efficiency = 42.01%.
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