Desalination is increasingly put forward as a sustainable local solution to water scarcity in combination with the exploitation of renewable energy sources. However, the complexity of the resource ...nexus entails the unavoidable existence of pros and cons across its various dimensions that can only be assessed at different scales of analysis. In turn, these pros and cons entail different winners and losers among the different social actors linked through the nexus. To address these challenges, a novel approach to resource nexus assessment is put forward, based on multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) and recognizing the resource nexus as a wicked problem. The integrated representation identifies the existence of biophysical constraints determined by processes both under human control (in the technosphere) and beyond human control (in the biosphere). The approach is illustrated with a local case study of desalination in the Canary Islands, Spain. The material presented has been generated in the context of the project “Moving towards adaptive governance in complexity: Informing nexus security” (MAGIC) for use in participatory processes of co-production of knowledge claims about desalination, a prerequisite for informed policy deliberation.
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•A novel approach for integrated assessment of water-energy-food systems is provided.•It is validated for a local desalination system in the drought-prone Canary Islands.•The system uses wind energy to provide desalted water for agriculture.•Inputs, outputs and wastes are assesses in biophysical and economic terms.•Trade-offs across different levels and dimensions of analysis can be anticipated.
Different perspectives, related to different hierarchical levels of analysis, should be used when discussing technological changes in agriculture. In fact, technological choices are affected by: (i) ...the characteristics of the socioeconomic system to which the farming system belongs; (ii) the characteristics of the ecosystem managed for agricultural production; and (iii) the farmers' feelings and aspirations. This paper presents a model of biophysical analysis that can be used to establish bridges among different perspectives. The agricultural throughput per hour of labor and per hectare obtained at farm level is evaluated against two sets of indicators characterizing the constraints coming from societal and ecological sides. Economic growth pushes for increases in the intensity of the throughput ‘per hours of labor’ and ‘per hectare’ at the farm level (two indicators, namely socioeconomic and demographic pressure, are proposed to assess this effect). The need of maintaining ecological compatibility generates a contrasting pressure pushing for keeping as low as possible the intensity of throughput in the agroecosystem. A family of indicators (the ratios of ‘current environmental loading (EL)’ / ‘critical environmental loading (CEL)’) is proposed to assess such a pressure. Feelings and aspirations of farmers determine the acceptability of compromises, at the moment of technological choices, after considering the severity of these two pressures. A plan ‘productivity per hour’ and ‘productivity per hectare’ can be used to study technological changes on two hierarchical levels (societal level and farming system level). A third axis can be added to this plane to include assessments of EL. Numerical examples are given for a sample of more than 60 world countries.
The goal of this study was to investigate associations of morning and evening personality types with personality dimensions in a convenient sample of 60 men and 60 women, ages 18 to 29 years. A short ...form of the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire and a personality questionnaire Come mi vedo (How I see myself), based on the 5-factor model of personality, were given. Several personality dimensions appear to be significantly correlated with Morningness scores: Conscientiousness (positively) and Openmindedness (negatively). The analysis indicated morning types tend to reach their goals resolutely and to plan their steps, they prefer to be precise, tidy, punctual, trustworthy; they have a sense of duty and responsibility; they are also less original and less open to culture and novelties, less curious, conformist, traditionalist, and less well-informed, hardworking, steady, tenacious, and diligent, on the Come mi vedo.
The aim of the study was to examine the anthropometric features and body composition of athletes practising karate at a high and medium competitive level. Our study was carried out on a sample of 35 ...subjects practising karate and aged from 16.0 to 32.5 years. This sample was divided into two groups: group 1 ( n=14 elite athletes) and group 2 ( n=21 amateur athletes). Various anthropometric measurements were taken (weight, height both standing and sitting, diameters, circumferences and skinfold thickness) from which different anthropometric indices were calculated (body mass index, Scelic and Grant indices, arm muscle circumference and area), and the somatotype was then determined. The body composition of each subject was assessed using the skinfold technique and the Jackson-Pollock (J-P) and Sloan-Weir (S-W) equations. The two groups of athletes showed very similar measurements regarding anthropometric characteristics. Only the Scelix index presented a significantly different value in the two groups (49.6+/-1.3 for group 1 vs. 51.1+/-1.3 for group 2; p<0.01). Group 1 showed a mesomorphic-ectomorphic somatotype, while the amateur athletes presented a balanced mesomorphic type. Moreover, a lower percentage of fat mass was more frequent in the first group (J-P=8.1+/-2.4%; S-W=8.9+/-3.3%) than in the second one (J-P=9.8+/-1.6%; S-W=11.2+/-3.7%), although the differences between the two groups were not significant. We conclude that group 1 is characterized by a slightly prominent vertical development of the skeletal frame. This could be an anthropometric characteristic that is best suited to meet the specific functional requirements of this sport. Moreover, both groups of athletes are characterized by a low percentage of fat mass, particularly the elite group.
Fine grain zirconia-yttria materials are required for enhanced performance in solid oxide fuel cells and related devices and in applications requiring good thermo-mechanical properties. Materials ...with about 3 mol% Y2O3-ZrO2 composition are good electrolyte materials for solid oxide fuel cell, ceramic membrane oxygen separation and a number of related devices because of their superior mechanical properties and ease of fabrication into thin self-supporting structures in comparison with a material in the 8-10 mol% Y2O3-ZrO2 composition range. In this study, sintering behaviour, impedance studies, four-probe DC conductivity measurements and microstructure analysis has been performed on various easy sintering grade materials from two commercial powder suppliers. These materials achieve near theoretical density at sintering temperatures as low as 1350-1400 deg C. For direct comparison of the conductivity and impedance behaviour in easy sintering grade materials, several other 3 mol% Y2O3-ZrO2 powders were also investigated. The total ionic conductivity at 850 deg C in easy sintering grade materials is comparable with normal-grade commercial materials of similar composition despite a slightly higher grain boundary impedance at lower temperatures (below 450 deg C). There were no obvious differences in the grain boundary thickness, calculated from the impedance data, of normal and easy sintering grade materials.
This paper uses complex system thinking to identify key peculiarities of ecological engineering. In particular it focuses on the distinction between the purpose-driven design of structures in ...environmental engineering and the natural process of self-organization characteristic of life, which needs to be integrated into ecological engineering.
Conventional engineering addresses the problem of fabrication of an organized structure, say a road, which reflects a goal at the outset, as well as considerations external to the road. At the outset there is an essence of which the organized structure is a realization. This realization belongs to a certain type (apartment building, suspension bridge). The type is in relation to: (a) the expected contexts (e.g. housing in Manhattan, a bridge in rural Africa) and (b) location-specific socio-economic constraints (low/high economic budget). Conventional engineering does not question the goals of the selected plan and can only object to the feasibility of a proposed typology in a given context. Engineers deal with the challenge of the realization of a plan at a given point in space and time.
The central dogma of biology identifies organisms as informationally-closed and this makes possible their use as machines. Ecological systems, on the contrary, are informationally-open. They cannot be used as machines to create functional structures, because they are becoming in time. For engineered structures to work it is usually required that there is (1) stability of system components; (2) admissibility of a workable context; (3) validity of purpose and concept. Ecologically-engineered structures challenge these requirements because of specificity of required environments and lability of system parts over the time the engineered structure functions. Other engineering is better if it achieves flexibility, but ecological engineering must be so flexible as to take on a looping character that updates the system to meet changing requirements. Accordingly, the original goals cannot be taken for granted later in the process of ecological engineering. Ecological engineering has to be a flexible iterative process of design, in which the designer must continually update goals, essences, typologies and processes of realization.
This piece is a response to Chilarescu and Viasu’s comment on our previously published article in Ecological Economics. We give an analytical expression of the logarithmic function and show that ...putting a number with dimensions in logarithmic function does violate the principle of dimensional homogeneity: dimensionally different numbers cannot be summed up. We present other examples of this analytical error, including several by Nobel Prize winners in Economics. We show that Proposition 1 by Chilarescu and Viasu is too obvious to be necessary to prove. We briefly touch on the hidden analytical fallacy associated with empirical works in economics that extensively use Cobb-Douglas or CES production function.
Technological innovations in agriculture are being used to sustain the rapid growth in population. Genetic engineering is a technological breakthrough that is part of the drive towards agricultural ...development.
Technological development in agriculture has led to a diminished use of biodiversity in food production, and a reduced efficiency of energy use. This paper explores the reasons for these paradoxical ...effects of progress, by considering the farming system as an integral part of the larger socioeconomic system and natural environment in which it operates.
Whenever changes in the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of society result in a higher opportunity cost of labor, land and capital, the agricultural sector has no other option but to augment the productivity of labor, land and the economic return of capital investments. At the farm level, this translates into the need to increase the density of agricultural throughputs, per hour of farm labor and per hectare of land, in the agroecosystem. Above a certain threshold, high densities of agricultural throughputs can no longer be achieved with natural patterns of matter cycling in the agroecosystem. Fossil energy inputs and monoculture then become a necessity.
The relationship between socioeconomic and demographic characteristics on the one hand and actual productivity of labor and land in agriculture on the other hand is confirmed by a cross-sectional analysis of a large sample of countries. General trends in economic and population growth indicate that most countries are moving toward high-energy-input and labor-saving technologies. Moving away from this path of technological development in agriculture, as would be required to preserve and enhance biodiversity use in agriculture, is an immense challenge that needs to be faced.
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