Search results for "House"

Dry-Season Precipitation in Tropical West Africa and Its Relation to Forcing from the Extratropics

2008

Abstract Precipitation is a major socioeconomic factor in the Guineo-Soudanian zone of tropical West Africa with its distinct summer rainy season from May to October. Albeit rare, precipitation during the dry season can have substantial impacts on the local hydrology and human activities reaching from the rotting of harvests to improved grazing conditions. This study provides an observationally based synoptic and dynamical analysis of an abundant rainfall event during the dry season of 2003/04 that affected the countries of Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana. The results point to a forcing of the rainfalls from the extratropics in the following ways: 1) Upper-level clouds and moisture to the e…

Soil Carbon Budget Account for the Sustainability Improvement of a Mediterranean Vineyard Area

2020

Sustainable viticulture is suggested as an interesting strategy for achieving the objectives of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction in terms of mitigation and adaptation. However, knowledge and quantification of the contribution of sustainable vineyard management on climate change impact are needed. Although it is widely assessed by several authors that the agricultural stage has a great impact in the wine chain, very few studies have evaluated the greenhouse gas emission in this phase including the ability of soil to sequester carbon (C) or the off-farm C loss by erosion. This work aimed to provide a vineyard carbon budget (vCB) tool to quantify the impact of grape production on…

El papel de los conjuntos conventuales en la renovación ur bana de Palermo en la época de la Contrarreforma

2014

In a city like Palermo, ancient capital of the Reign of Sicily, the effect of new religious complexes born from the catholic politic of the Counter-Reformation, was sudden and explosive, and it caused, between the second half of the16th century and the first of the 17th century, a process of urban renewal never seen before. The essay means to analyze, first of all, the architectural interventions from a quantitative point of view, so to render the real dimension of the phenomenon and of the role it played in the destruction of the medieval city and the creation of the modern one, triggering un uninterrupted state of conflict between the new religious settlements and the owners of the near b…

2017

We propose a mesh-free and discrete (particle-based) multi-physics approach for modelling the hydrodynamics in flexible biological valves. In the first part of this study, the method is successfully validated against both traditional modelling techniques and experimental data. In the second part, it is further developed to account for the formation of solid aggregates in the flow and at the membrane surface. Simulations of various types of aggregates highlight the main benefits of discrete multi-physics and indicate the potential of this approach for coupling the hydrodynamics with phenomena such as clotting and calcification in biological valves.

Bioconversion of Gibberellin Fermentation Residue into Feed Supplement and Organic Fertilizer Employing Housefly (Musca domestica L.) Assisted by Cor…

2014

The accumulation of a considerable quantity of gibberellin fermentation residue (GFR) during gibberellic acid A3 (GA3) production not only results in the waste of many resources, but also poses a potential hazard to the environment, indicating that the safe treatment of GFR has become an urgent issue for GA3 industry. The key to recycle GFR is converting it into an available resource and removing the GA3 residue. To this end, we established a co-bioconversion process in this study using house fly larvae (HFL) and microbes (Corynebacterium variabile) to convert GFR into insect biomass and organic fertilizer. About 85.5% GA3 in the GFR was removed under the following optimized solid-state fer…

Vertisols and cambisols had contrasting short term greenhouse gas responses to crop residue management

2020

In sustainable agriculture crop residues management should consider the interactions between soil and residue properties, which can affect the decomposition and global greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission. Through a laboratory experiment, we investigated the effect of the management (incorporation and surface placement) of wheat and faba bean residues on their decomposition and CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions from two soils, a Chromic Vertisol and an Eutric Cambisol. In the Vertisol, wheat residues increased the CO2 emission more than faba bean when left on the surface whereas no differences among residues were observed when incorporated. In the Cambisol, faba bean emitted more than wheat when left …

An assessment of factors controlling N2O and CO2 emissions from crop residues using different measurement approaches

2017

Management of plant residues plays an important role in maintaining soil quality and nutrient availability for plants and microbes. However, there is considerable uncertainty regarding the factors controlling residue decomposition and their effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the soil. This uncertainty is created both by the complexity of the processes involved and limitations in the methodologies commonly used to quantify GHG emissions. We therefore investigated the addition of two soil residues (durum wheat and faba bean) with similar C/N ratios but contrasting fibres, lignin and cellulose contents on nutrient dynamics and GHG emission from two contrasting soils: a low-soil org…

From the LCA of food products to the environmental assessment of protected crops districts: A case-study in the south of Italy

2010

In the present study, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to evaluate the energy consumption and environmental burdens associated with the production of protected crops in an agricultural district in the Mediterranean region. In this study, LCA was used as a ‘support tool’, to address local policies for sustainable production and consumption patterns, and to create a ‘knowledge base’ for environmental assessment of an extended agricultural production area. The proposed approach combines organisation-specific tools, such as Environmental Management Systems and Environmental Product Declarations, with the environmental management of the district. Questionnaires were distribute…

De Caperucita Roja a las slasher movies: reescrituras del cuento tradicional en la ficción cinematográfica norteamericana

2011

Desde los albores de la civilización, los relatos populares se han transmitido de generación en generación, conformando un tapiz tupido e interrelacionado que va desde la prehistoria de los indígenas norteamericanos y el Antiguo Testamento hasta nuestros días. A medida que los cuentos perviven al pasar de abuelos a nietos, estos desempeñan un papel determinante para la formación, la consolidación y la transmisión de los valores e ideales de la sociedad. Sin embargo, los avances tecnológicos y los profundos cambios que se producen en la sociedad estadounidense del siglo xx hacen que estas manifestaciones artísticas y culturales deban adaptarse a nuevos medios de transmisión. En el presente a…

La identidad en juego: un acercamiento autoficcional a La casa en Mango Street

2020

Este artículo explica la construcción autoficcional de La casa en Mango Street, obra de la chicana Sandra Cisneros. Parte de la base teórica que considera la autoficción como un género no subordinado a otros, siguiendo la posición de Vera Toro, y elabora un estudio de las claves poéticas de la obra, así como de las condiciones sociohistóricas en que ha sido escrita. Analiza también cómo es el espacio el elemento narrativo fundamental que permite establecer una relación entre la creación literaria, la creación de identidad del pueblo chicano y la de la mujer-narradora de la obra. En este estudio no perdemos tampoco de vista el fuerte carácter crítico del texto: por un lado, observaremos la i…