Search results for "Stain"
showing 10 items of 5524 documents
Where are we now with global forest regulation and governance? Insights from a 'Global Public Goods' Perspective
2016
Even if an encouraging tendency has recently been observed towards a reduction in the rates of global deforestation, the extent and quality of forests continue to decline in many regions of the world, with alarming consequences on the functioning of global hydrological cycles, the conservation of the world's biological diversity, and the fight against climate change. Against this background, the aim of the present article is to investigate the weaknesses of, and the areas for improvement in, the current framework of global forest governance, through an analysis conducted using the lens of the concept of «global public goods» as transposed into, and shaped by, two competing theoretical appro…
A synthesis of feasible control methods for floating offshore wind turbine system dynamics
2021
Abstract During the past decade, the development of offshore wind energy has transitioned from near shore with shallow water to offshore middle-depth water regions. Consequently, the energy conversion technology has shifted from bottom-fixed wind turbines to floating offshore wind turbines. Floating offshore wind turbines are considered more suitable, but their cost is still very high. One of the main reasons for this is that the system dynamics control method is not well-adapted, thereby affecting the performance and reliability of the wind turbine system. The additional motion of the platform tends to compromise the system’s performance in terms of power maximization, power regulation, an…
Liminality in paradise : a study in utopianism at the Punta Mona community
2009
This Master’s thesis is a study in utopianism at the Punta Mona Sustainable Living and Education Centre, an ecological community of North Americans living on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. The mission statement of Punta Mona is to show “sustainability” as a lived reality and to inspire individuals to return to mainstream society to enact change towards a more “eco-conscious” world. The main objective of this thesis is to critically examine the concept of sustainability as it is understood and practiced at Punta Mona and to raise questions over the tensions inherent in Punta Mona’s in-between position as an ecological community and ecotourism venture. What power structures are implicitly…
Economic analysis of PV systems on buildings in Sicilian farms
2013
Abstract The photovoltaic sector in Italy in recent years has experienced a rapid growth also in the primary sector, thanks to substantial incentives guaranteed by energy policies, simultaneous reduction of investment costs and tax benefits. In order to better understand the growth of the PV industry in Italian primary sector, the aim of this paper has been to evaluate the economic convenience of four PV systems on farm buildings located in four different farms of the north-western coast of Sicily and realized during the second and fourth Italian feed-in schemes. For each feed-in scheme it has been considered a PV plant that sells the electricity to the grid and another in which the energy …
Planktonic foraminifera in ODP Hole 160-963A
2006
New faunal and floral records from Ocean Drilling Project Hole 963A, resolved at ?80-year spacing, provide evidence of suborbital scale climate variability in the central Mediterranean Sea throughout Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5. Cold events in the central Mediterranean Sea, indicated by low abundances of warm species and high abundances of cold species, are also evident in a planktonic foraminifera paleoclimatic curve. They have been linked to NGRIP Greenland ice core “C” events and appear correlative with similar sub-millennial climate fluctuations identified in the North Atlantic region and in the Alboran Basin (Westernmost Mediterranean). Low-resolution benthic and planktonic Oxygen Iso…
Are Cover Crops Affecting the Quality and Sustainability of Fruit Production?
2021
The study of the interaction between fruit trees and cover crops has been addressed in numerous works over the last 50 years or more, evidencing the need to evolve from a productive orchard to an orchard that plays different ecosystem roles in terms of environmental sustainability rather than just productivity. This review, through an analysis of the scientific literature since the 1950s, highlights the development of sustainable soil management models in fruit tree orchards, mostly considering the relationship with fruit quality traits and with the ecosystem services that result from the adoption of cover crops, aiming at identifying and formulating technical recommendations in perennial o…
(Un)sustainable creativity? Different manager-employee perspectives in the finnish technology sector
2020
The importance of creativity for working life and in organizations has increased in recent years. At the same time, the theme of sustainability has been intensely debated in research, society, and organizations. Together, creativity and sustainability have sometimes been described as a contradictory phenomenon: they are described in ways that place them in opposition to each other. To better understand creativity and sustainability and their differences from the perspective of people in different positions, we take advantage of a sociocultural approach in which we do not focus only on creative individuals but also on the impact of creativity on both organizational stakeholders and society a…
Surfactant-based enrichment of rare earth elements from NdFeB magnet e-waste: Optimisation of cloud formation and rare earths extraction
2023
Appropriate waste and resource management are essential for a sustainable circular economy with reduced environmental impact. With critical resources, e-waste may serve as indirect raw material. For example, with NdFeB permanent magnets, Neodymium (Nd) and the co-present Dysprosium (Dy) are critical rare earth elements (REEs). However, there exists no economically viable technology for recycling them from electronic waste (e-waste). Here, a method is presented based on cloud point extraction (CPE). The work involves basic complexation chemistry in a cloud medium with pure REE salts, as well as, with real NdFeB-magnets (nearly 28% REE content by weight) from an old hard disk drive (5.2 g mag…
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 …
Screening boreal energy crops and crop residues for methane biofuel production
2008
Abstract The purpose of the study was to screen potential boreal energy crops and crop residues for their suitability in methane production and to investigate the effect of harvest time on the methane production potential of different crops. The specific methane yields of crops, determined in 100–200 d methane potential assays, varied from 0.17 to 0.49 m 3 CH 4 kg −1 VS added (volatile solids added) and from 25 to 260 m 3 CH 4 t ww −1 (tonnes of wet weight). Jerusalem artichoke, timothy-clover grass and reed canary grass gave the highest potential methane yields of 2900–5400 m 3 CH 4 ha −1 , corresponding to a gross energy yield of 28–53 MWh ha −1 and ca. 40,000–60,000 km ha −1 in pas…