Reference Situation Research Articles

Accident data analysis and on-field inspections: do they lead to similar conclusions?

Network Safety Ranking and Road Assessment Programme (RAP) are two procedures used in road infrastructure safety management to rank the road sections of a network according to estimated road safety performance. The former uses indicators based on road accidents and their consequences while the latter method is based primarily on inspections of the road infrastructure.The aim of this study was to verify whether there is a relationship between the indicators used within these methods, in order to evaluate if and under which conditions RAP scores contribute to the prediction of accident numbers. The adopted approach is based on the calibration and analysis of a wide array of models in order to reproduce the observed events – injury road accidents, fatalities and injuries - with reference to different aggregations of the original data and in the two reference situations: with and without EuroRAP (European Road Assessment Programme) indicators.. From the obtained results, the introduction of the EuroRAP indicators ends up making the models that explain the frequency of accidents more convincing from a statistical point of view. These indicators, which summarise the road safety performance of a road section, could prove useful in replacing the covariates (e.g. presence of intersections, geometrical and functional features of roads) that are used in the calibration of accident prediction models. However, it should be stressed that not all types of accident are addressed by the EuroRAP approach, and this may represent a limitation for those roadways where such kind of accidents are frequently observed, like rear-end collisions on motorways. Probably, by including these accident types, the explanatory power of the EuroRAP variables would increase, at least on motorways.

Active ageing: social representations of health professionals in Elderly Health Reference Units.

To identify social representations of health professionals providing elderly care in seven Elderly Health Reference Units in São Paulo city regarding health necessities, their role in care and promotion of active ageing. Qualitative research, based on directives from the document "Active ageing: a policy framework" by the World Health Organization. The Discourse of the Collective Subject is employed to systematize social representations, whose central ideas were categorized using the QualiQuantiSoft® program. Four reference situations were elaborated and the one related to iatrogenesis and elder vulnerability was selected. Twenty-nine professionals took part in this study (sixteen physicians, seven nutritionists and six nurses). Seven categories emerged from the central ideas, with higher frequency for medical conduct disagreement on referring the patient to the Basic Health Unit and the polypharmacy issue. Discourse by professionals point out the necessity of creating care that overcomes the fragmentation of the work process.

Linguistic profile of source as a terminographical tool

The article characterizes the sources of the historical dictionary of linguistic terms. The source base for the study of the evolution of Ukrainian linguistic terminology includes secondary sources, divided into such groups: 1) grammars and textbooks; 2) dictionaries and encyclopedias; 3) monographs and scientific articles on linguistic issues. The concept of “linguistic profile of the source” is used to describe the linguistic source of the historical dictionary of linguistic terms. The conceptualization process as a cognitive mechanism of the meaning formation is based on speech operations that a person uses in language usage. Determinant in the perception of information is the phenomenon of attention, which has several designations in cognitive linguistics: highlighting, perspectivization, profiling, focusing. The linguistic conceptualization of the cognitive profiling operation is based on the thesis that a person has the cognitive ability to perceive, interpret and describe the same reference situation differently, using different linguistic means. It is because a person chooses the most important and significant information for him at this moment from all other. Terms figure and background are used to describe the perceptual connection between the object of focus and the rest of the perceptual field. The links between terms figure and background at first were described by the Danish Gestalt psychologist E. Rubin. The concept of a linguistic profile of source is used to focus the researches attention on those aspects of the analyzed sources that are important for studying the evolution of the linguistic term. The following key points are I. “External” criticism of the source. 1. Time of the source creation. 2. Place of the source creation. 3. The historical and cultural and linguistic situation in the region of the source creation. 4. The author of the source, its age, education, worldview, etc. 5. Motives and circumstances of the source creation. 6. Estimation of the source in linguistic works. 7. Works that are the basis of the analyzed source. ІІ. “Internal” source criticism. 1. Complete coverage of language tiers. 2. The terms that denote the linguistic concepts, their hierarchical organization. 3. The author’s orientation on the specific Ukrainian / borrowed vocabulary to describe linguistic concepts. 4. Features of the usage of lexical units to denote the linguistic concepts in the source text, their paradigmatics and syntagmatics. This article is modelled the linguistic profile of I.H. Verkhratskyi’s works. The analysis of linguistic sources by these parameters makes it possible to present the history of a linguistic term in a linguistic text, taking into account its contextual environment and the richness of syntagmatic and paradigmatic connections. The linguistic profile of the source/works is an actual basis of dictionary articles of historical dictionaries of linguistic terms of different genres. Keywords: linguistic term, historical dictionary of linguistic terms, linguistic source studies, profiling, linguistic profile of a source, language personality.

Intellectual method of operational evaluation of the network element state to ensure the quality of services in corporate multiservice communications networks

The work proposes and investigates an intelligent method and algorithms for on-line assessment of the state of network elements to ensure the required quality indicators of provided communication services in corporate high-speed multiservice communication networks. The developed method and algorithms operate in a mode close to real time. One of the features of corporate multiservice communication networks is the high dynamics of changes in their state. The main task of the automated control system, which is an integral part of the corporate multiservice communication network, is to ensure the specified quality of the provided communication services to the consumer. Thus, the relevance of the research presented in the work is due to the fact that most of the management processes in corporate high-speed multiservice communication networks must be implemented in a mode close to real time with a given quality. The basis of the method for operational assessment of the state of network elements is the concept of creating and using intelligent agents. In the proposed approach, intelligent agents are created as hierarchical fuzzy situational networks, in which control solutions, in contrast to known methods based on the use of reference situations, are applied based on solving a hierarchical set of optimization problems using fuzzy mathematical programming methods. The main paradigm of their functioning is “situation -action”.

ASSESSMENT OF THE COMPLEX SYSTEM CONDITION (ON THE EXAMPLE OF AN IT COMPANY)

The paper considers the problem of estimating the state of the enterprise (on example of the IT company). The problem is presented in the form of two problems. The first problem is the aggregation of the initial information and the second problem is the identification of the state of a complex system. Authors formulated the problem and selected methods for solution of the problem. It is possible to form software for solving research problems. To solve the problem of aggregation of initial data authors used the fuzzy cluster analysis, namely the fuzzy k-means method. A numerical research was carried out and a test case was figured out in the MATLAB environment. In this test case the source data was reduced to a dimensionless form. Thereafter, already reduced to the same scale, the initial attributes were reduced to fuzziness. The results allow to formalize linguistic variables, which are characterized by the term-sets and definition range. The numerical results were approximated by analytical membership functions. The solution of the first task allows to generate a set of possible fuzzy reference situations, which reflect the possible state of the system. Each situation is characterized by the reference informational granule, which contains information about formalized linguistic variables. The second problem was solved by using the method of fuzzy logic in the MATLAB environment. The test case was calculated. In this test case, the search of the situation in which the IT-company is located was performed. At this stage, the current situation belongs to comparison with each reference situation. In this way, authors determined the most similar reference situation to the current situation. An analysis of the resulting situation allows to argue the state of the IT company. The solution of the second task allowed to establish assessment of IT company state. The theoretical and practical results can improve the efficiency of complex system management.

Interactive soundscape augmentation by natural sounds in a noise polluted urban park

Inappropriate sound environments are able to strongly deteriorate the user experience in parks. A possible remediation is adding positively perceived sounds. The case of an urban park, fully surrounded by busy roads, was studied to explore the potential of adding natural sounds in an interactive way. With a smartphone app, recruited users (N = 165) were allowed to mix in a combination of eight types of natural sounds, played back by a hidden loudspeaker, until their personally optimized soundscape was composed. These preferred soundscapes were then evaluated by other participants. A questionnaire showed that these compositions are able to improve the general appreciation of the auditive environment, especially for park visitors that rated the reference situation as poor. Road traffic noise, the dominant sound source in the park under study, was heard to a much lesser extent, showing the masking potential of the augmented natural soundscapes. Most people prefer a balanced combination of various types of (natural) sounds, in which songbirds and house sparrows were prominent. There was consistency among the participants to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio of the added natural sounds in the frequency range between 2.5 kHz and 8 kHz. So without the common and most often visually intruding noise abatements solutions, interactively augmented soundscapes can improve the sonic environment in noise polluted parks. More in general, the current ICT-based approach can be considered as an efficient methodology to improve the perception of urban public spaces.

Reducing the climate change impacts of lithium-ion batteries by their cautious management through integration of stress factors and life cycle assessment

Abstract The use of Li-ion batteries for stationary energy storage in households represents a viable solution to mitigate climate change when compared with the reference situation of electricity supply from the grid in various countries. This study quantifies the climate change impacts of production, use, and disposal of NMC batteries and compares the impacts with provision of electricity from grids of six European countries to calculate their carbon handprints, a measure of positive climate impacts. The study also develops a general cycle life model for NMC batteries to show the impact of various stress factors on the lifetime of the battery, which was then used to show the impact of battery management on its climate change impacts due to varying energy throughput. Of the countries studied, the carbon handprint was the highest in Bulgaria at 13,450 kg CO2-eq. per energy throughput of the battery during its life cycle of 25.3 MWh. The lowest handprint achieved was in Finland at 2000 kg CO2-eq., while no handprint was achieved in Norway. Uncertainty in the data on Li-ion battery production and recycling was found to be of minor importance when the entire life cycle of the batteries was studied and compared with the baseline scenario. Operating temperature, cycle depth and average state of charge during cycling have significant impact on the lifetime of Li-ion batteries and hence on their carbon handprint. The longest lifetime with NMC batteries can be achieved by cycling the battery at low cycle depth at an average state of charge of around 50% and an operating temperature close to 25 °C. Operating the battery at 50% cycle depth instead of 90% cycle depth more than doubled the carbon handprint in all the counties studied except Norway.

What value do travelers put on connectivity to mobile phone and Internet networks in public transport? Empirical evidence from the Paris region

Unlike the drivers of private vehicles, public transport (PT) users may perform secondary tasks during their primary travel activity. Moreover, Information and Communication Technologies may open up “multi-tasking” possibilities by allowing individuals to spend their travel time in more pleasant ways. This article proposes a tentative valuation of connectivity to mobile phone and Internet networks (MPIN) in PT, based on the stated preferences of 501 inhabitants of the Paris region. The surveyed individuals were presented with hypothetical trade-offs between travel time reductions and improvements in MPIN connectivity in PT. Econometric tests show that the values ascribed to better connectivity are higher when PT users perform various tasks with smartphones or tablets during their trips and when they experience a large number of connectivity problems in the reference situation. While heterogeneity between individuals has a minor direct impact, we propose a typology of PT users that captures variations in valuations. On average, the subjective value of travel time would be reduced by 12% if PT users benefited from optimal MPIN connectivity whilst traveling. Alternative “time multipliers” – for types of PT user, gradual connectivity improvements, different device-based tasks – are also proposed. Lastly, we apply our results to a cost-benefit analysis of a current project in the Paris region PT.

Potential of energy flexible buildings: Evaluation of DSM strategies using building thermal mass

Energy flexible buildings through smart demand-side management (DSM) or smart demand response (DR) using efficient energy storage, are currently one of the most promising options to deploy low-carbon technologies in the electricity networks without the need of reinforcing existing networks. Although, many ignore the potential, economic and energetic benefits these alternatives could hold for buildings, users and tariffs.In the study carried out a control system of demand management measures is analyzed, based on the use of the buildings' thermal mass as thermal storage (preheating, precooling and night ventilation). This demand management system is analyzed in five existing residential buildings in the so-called reference scenario (construction, user and current prices). Subsequently, comes the analysis of the optimal management strategy choice from the system, when facing changes in the housings' constructive characteristics and electric tariffs.The dynamism of the management system stands out from the results achieved, as well as the dependence of the possible strategy choices on the climate zones. In the reference situation, the maximum economic savings obtained after the implementation of the management system correspond to 3.2% for heating and 8.5% for cooling. In this same manner, when the buildings are previously rehabilitated, the savings can double even generating energy savings. Finally, it can be concluded that the low installation costs of these measures make them a winning solution, as long as the electric pricing and user behavior allow the required flexibility.

Avanços biotecnológicos e seus reflexos: um estudo de caso acerca da nacionalidade à luz dos direitos humanos

A medicina tem apresentado diversas transformações com o intuito de melhorar a qualidade de vida das pessoas. A exemplo disto, menciona-se a reprodução humana assistida. Referida técnica revela sua importância na medida em que permite que indivíduos com disfunções relacionadas à fertilidade ou mesmo casais homoafetivos possam ter filhos. Mas não é só: também se apresenta como recurso àqueles que visam planejar o intervalo ou o tempo em que terão sua respectiva prole. Não obstante, apesar de amplamente utilizado, verifica-se que os problemas ético-jurídicos decorrentes deste procedimento não foram suficientemente enfrentados pelo direito, seja pela ausência de regulamentação ou pelas consequências exsurgidas, não antes previstas. É o que se verifica quando do confronto existente entre decisões jurídico-administrativas e direitos fundamentais tutelados por declarações internacionais. Neste cenário, pretende-se analisar dois casos dos Estados Unidos da América, nos quais, há um só tempo, negou-se cidadania à uma criança e concedeu-se ao seu respectivo irmão, com base em fatores genéticos e desconsideração de vínculos afetivos. Para tanto, far-se-á uma análise acerca das técnicas de reprodução assistida e sua regulamentação no Brasil, assim como nos Estados Unidos da América. Isto, visando correlacionar as questões atinentes à cidadania americana e aos direitos humanos envolvidos na situação em referência. O método adotado é o dedutivo, tomando por base os aspectos doutrinários e legislativos pertinentes ao tema, em âmbito nacional e estrangeiro.

Generating Customizable Natural Language Descriptions

In the Natural Language Generation field, the task of Reference Expression Generation (REG) consists of selecting the semantic content that should compose the linguistic description of a discourse object, as in `the man in black' or `the boy in the centre'. REG algorithms tend to use predefined parameters to model qualitative and quantitative aspects of the description to be generated, and are often difficult to adapt to new domains or applications. In addition, obtaining linguistic examples in all possible reference situations is also often impracticable, which limits the use of machine learning approaches in this task. Based on these observations, this work proposes an extension of a standard REG algorithm, in which certain aspects of a reference strategy are customized without necessarily resorting to training data. The proposal was tested by making use of three REG domains, and its results compared favourably against a standard REG approach.

Assessing biodiversity impacts in life cycle assessment framework - Comparing approaches based on species richness and ecosystem indicators in the case of Finnish boreal forests

Abstract Impacts of bioeconomy on climate have been much discussed, but less attention has been given to biodiversity deterioration. One approach to assess biodiversity impacts is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Finland is a forested country with intensive forest industries, but only coarse biodiversity LCA methods are available. The aim of this study was to further develop and apply approaches to assess the biodiversity impacts of wood use in Finland. With the species richness approach (all taxons included), biodiversity impacts were higher in Southern than in Northern Finland but impacts in Southern and Northern Finland were lower when mammals, birds and molluscs were included. With the ecosystem indicators approach, if the reference situation were forest in its natural state, biodiversity impacts were higher than in the case where the initial state of forest before final felling was used to derive biodiversity loss. In both cases, the biodiversity impacts were higher in Northern Finland. These results were not coherent as the model applying species richness data assesses biodiversity loss based on all species, whereas the ecosystem indicators approach considers vulnerable species. One limitation of the species richness approach was that there were no reliable datasets available. In the ecosystem indicators approach, it was noticed that the biodiversity of managed Finnish forests is substantially lower than in natural forests. Biodiversity LCA approaches are highly sensitive to reference states, applied model and data. It is essential to develop approaches capable of comparing biodiversity impacts of forest management practices, or when looking at multiple environmental impacts simultaneously with the LCA framework.

Modelling of Emissions and Energy Use from Biofuel Fuelled Vehicles at Urban Scale

Biofuels have been considered to be sustainable energy source and one of the major alternatives to petroleum-based road transport fuels due to a reduction of greenhouse gases emissions. However, their effects on urban air pollution are not straightforward. The main objective of this work is to estimate the emissions and energy use from bio-fuelled vehicles by using an integrated and flexible modelling approach at the urban scale in order to contribute to the understanding of introducing biofuels as an alternative transport fuel. For this purpose, the new Traffic Emission and Energy Consumption Model (QTraffic) was applied for complex urban road network when considering two biofuels demand scenarios with different blends of bioethanol and biodiesel in comparison to the reference situation over the city of Coimbra (Portugal). The results of this study indicate that the increase of biofuels blends would have a beneficial effect on particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions reduction for the entire road network (−3.1% [−3.8% to −2.1%] by kg). In contrast, an overall negative effect on nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions at urban scale is expected, mainly due to the increase in bioethanol uptake. Moreover, the results indicate that, while there is no noticeable variation observed in energy use, fuel consumption is increased by over 2.4% due to the introduction of the selected biofuels blends.

DEVELOPMENT OF ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC SYSTEMS OF AGRARIAN NATURE MANAGEMENT IN CONDITIONS OF GLOBALIZATION

Modern ecological-economic system of agrarian nature falls under the influence of globalization, which is aggravated by the existing problems of economic activity, suffers from limited resources, and therefore an important condition for ensuring its stability and development is the innovative nature of the reproduction process and effective management of its development. Perspective approaches to the formation of organizational and economic mechanism of nature management at different levels of management of socio-economic development include the development of adaptive regional ecological and economic systems that allow to plan and develop agricultural production taking into account the permissible man-made load, new organizational and economic principles of management of mechanized processes on the basis of modern information technology. The basis of such a methodological approach should be to establish the principles of a process-oriented approach to the management of the ecological-economic system on the basis of modeling of the main and auxiliary processes in the virtual system of agrarian nature management. The peculiarities of ecological and economic systems require the development of special research methods in substantiating the relevant mechanisms of management of agro-industrial sphere. The development of ecological and economic systems of agrarian nature management is determined by the processes occurring in them, the risks and threats to their safety, and the prospects for social and economic development. In order to avoid or at least to prevent threats to ecological and economic security generated by structural imbalances in the economic and social spheres under the conditions of globalization and, as a consequence, result in limited reproduction of natural resources, it is necessary to transfer agrarian natural resources to the principles of sustainable development. Depending on the goals, tasks and problems under consideration, an arsenal of diagnostic methods is selected. The main thing in diagnostics ̶ is to identify the symptoms, factors that characterize the state of the controlled system. It is necessary to determine the vector of environmental priorities for the development of the ecological and economic system, which will allow the grouping of environmental protection measures depending on the damage caused. The perspective direction of development of the agro-system of the regions is the development and implementation of an adaptive-landscape system of land use. The Geographic Information System (GIS) provides systematization, processing, display and dissemination of coordinated data. An illustration of environmental activity can be a technique for the formation of a virtual ecological-economic system, which, in addition to the model of technology selection for the economic bloc, should include a description of the complex processes that take place. One of the promising directions of organizing the ecological and economic mechanism of managing the agrarian process should be the formation of a decision-making model based on knowledge, which is a structured, formal description of the accumulated experience of management of agrarian production and its environmental assessment. The concept of such a model is based on a comparison of the current information model of the ecological environment and the agrarian process, its transformation, with a generalized description of permissible reference situations. Each reference situation reflects the possible permissible conditions that may arise in the process of agrarian nature use in the external environment. These conditions are compared with the current purpose of the enterprise. On the basis of expert interviews, appropriate management measures are taken to ensure the achievement of a comparable environmental and economic goal. The choice of managerial decisions in this case is based on the results of the coincidence or the differences between the comparable models of description of the state of agrarian processes in accordance with the goals set for the current time. A characteristic feature of the concept of the ecological and economic mechanism for managing the process in the agrarian sector is the presence in the control of the knowledge base and the subsystem of automated decision support. When developing a process-oriented management scheme, it is necessary to apply the criteria for selecting program-targeted tools for reducing environmental damage by regional territories. Comprehensive assessment of the ecological and economic system of the region allows management to monitor the compliance of the adopted decisions with the strategic objectives of the region and to identify "pain points" in various areas of activity. The consistent use of these approaches will help to improve the management of ecological and economic systems of agrarian nature management, but puts before researcher’s new pressing problems, which will be devoted to further research.

Estimating Leopard Panthera pardus fusca (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) abundance in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh, India

Reliable population estimate of apex predators, such as the Leopard Panthera pardus fusca, is important as they indicate ecosystem health, enable evaluation of the effectiveness of conservation efforts and provide a benchmark for future management decisions. The present study is the first to estimate abundance of Leopard along with possible prey profile in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary (KWLS), in central Madhya Pradesh (M.P.), India. For systematic sampling, two study habitats, 15km² each, were identified, one close to the park entrance and the other away from the park entrance. Sampling was carried out between March and April 2017, for a period of 18 days in each of the two study habitats, ‘good’ and ‘poor’, initially based on situation in reference to park-entry. Each habitat was divided into five blocks each, and each block subdivided into three, 1km² observation units. In all, 16 trail cameras were placed in pairs, one set at a time in five of the blocks, over a six–day period. The total sampling effort was 180 trap-nights. The trigger speed was set to 3 frames per 10 seconds, and repeated only after 20 minutes interval on infra-red detection of object. The data was analysed using closed population capture–recapture analyses in Program MARK, to estimate Leopard abundance. Seventy-eight Leopard detections representing eight unique individuals were found in the 30km² study site. Seven Leopards were detected in the good habitat and one in the poor habitat. The estimate for Leopard abundance for the good habitat was 11 Leopards (SE 4.6, 95% CI = 8 – 31 individuals). Due to limited captures/recaptures in the poor habitat, abundance could not be estimated for this habitat class.

Reference situations for biodiversity in life cycle assessments: conceptual bridging between LCA and conservation biology

PurposeIn life cycle assessment (LCA) literature addressing land use impacts on biodiversity, several potential reference situations are proposed. However, the lack of guidance on how to apply the proposed reference situations fosters confusion within the topic and raises questions about implications of different reference conceptions. The purpose of this article is to contribute to an improved methodology for assessing biodiversity impacts in LCA through developing the use of reference situations in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) models of land use.MethodsWe analyze how reference situations are currently used when assessing the impacts from land use on biodiversity, as well as how such are defined and used outside LCA, specifically in biodiversity conservation. Based on this review, we provide recommendations to the LCIA research community on how to modify its use of reference situations to enable more relevant assessments of impacts on biodiversity.Results and discussionIt is shown how, in the LCA framework, the use of so-called baseline references dominates, and what shortcomings this implies, including unclear definitions of what “naturalness” and “pristine nature” represent, as well as the lack of reliable data. By contrast, biodiversity conservation, typically aiming at ensuring a favorable conservation status for biodiversity, normally uses limit and target references. These reference situations have the advantage of reflecting, often at an aggregated level, society’s preferences, and values related to biodiversity. Because of this, they also include biodiversity that is dependent on a certain level of management, as in, e.g., semi-natural pastures. This is an important aspect as much of the biodiversity highly valued today belong to this category.ConclusionsWe recommend that reference situations for biodiversity in LCIA models should be developed based on biodiversity targets aligned with society’s conservation frameworks. Only measurements of deviation away from or closer to a desired reference situation make it possible for decision makers to distinguish the varying biodiversity-related costs and benefits that are associated with different production systems.

Improving the Allocation of Flood risk management interventions From a Spatial Quality Perspective

In this publication, the developed integrated method for including spatial quality as an ex-ante criterion in flood risk management strategy development is presented in detail and tested. Based on the results of the earlier research-by-design exercise, as described in the third publication, it is concluded that the key to making spatial quality an ex-ante criterion is to make sure sufficient interchangeable flood risk management interventions, with varying locations, are available, since having multiple effective measures from a flood risk perspective makes selection based on other criteria, such as spatial quality, possible. In this paper, the ways in which a range of interchangeable measures can be included by considering flood risk management interventions at different scale levels (varying from system scale to local scale interventions) and at different flood risk layers (including both flood risk reduction and consequence reduction measures) is described. As a base reference situation, the impact on spatial quality of the ‘business as usual’ flood risk management strategy for this region is assessed. Subsequently, the ways that the flood risk management interventions can be shifted away from the locations in which they have a negative effect on spatial quality, by considering alternatives with a better (preferably neutral or positive) impact on spatial quality is tested. This is done by systematically deploying interventions at different scale levels and safety layers, while assessing their impact on spatial quality. Based on this assessment, the combinations of measures that result in an optimal impact on spatial quality, can be selected for the regional flood risk management strategy. This case study research demonstrates that the developed method, compared to the business as usual reference strategy, allows for spatial quality to become an ex-ante criterion, resulting in the formulation of a flood risk management strategy with an improved impact on spatial quality. The approach includes the following steps: An inventory of the current and potential flood risk protection strategies An inventory of the spatial characteristics, ambition, and potentials of the region A qualitative assessment of the existing situation and (if available) of a reference flood risk management strategy Systematic research-by-design on how flood risk management interventions at different scales can shift the local flood risk management interventions (and a qualitative assessment of this shift) Systematic research-by-design on how interventions in different flood risk intervention layers can shift the flood risk intervention (and a qualitative assessment of this shift)

Prospective environmental and economic assessment of solar-assisted thermal energy recovery from wastewater through a sequencing batch biofilter granular reactor

The integration of an off-grid solar-assisted heat pump (SHP) and a sequencing batch biofilter granular reactor (SBBGR) for thermal energy recovery from wastewater was assessed by means of a prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC), by theoretically scaling up a pilot installation in Bari, Italy, to a full-scale unit designed for 5000 person-equivalents. The LCA and LCC included all activities in the life cycle of the SHP and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), namely construction, operation and end-of-life. The thermal energy produced by the SHP was assessed as supplying heating and cooling for an air-conditioning system, displacing a conventional air-source heat pump powered by electricity from the grid. This integrated system was compared to a reference situation where wastewater is treated in a conventional WWTP applying activated sludge with no thermal energy recovery system, showing clear environmental benefits in all impact indicators, such as a 42% reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions and a cost reduction of 53%. Several sensitivity analyses confirmed these findings, with the exception of the price rebound effect, which showed that the lower cost of the integrated system could lead to overturning the environmental benefits. As a limitation of the study, the distribution of the supplied air-conditioning to meet a demand off-site the WWTP premises, such as in residential buildings or hotels, was not included. Therefore, our results constitute only a preliminary positive outcome that should be validated in a real-life application.

Serological Prevalence of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia in Niger in 2017.

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) is a highly contagious disease of cattle caused by Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides Biotype Small Colony (MmmSC). The disease currently occurs in most of sub-Saharan Africa and where it is endemic and a major constraint for improving pastoral productivity. Following the persistence of this scourge, and in order to control this disease, a serological survey was conducted to determine the prevalence of CBPP in Niger. In fact, 1,590 sera were collected following a stratified sampling plan based on the risk factor of dissemination of CBPP. The analysis were performed at the Central Livestock Laboratory using the c-Elisa test. The results obtained show a wide distribution of the disease with an overall prevalence of 4.15% at individual level. The highest prevalences were recorded in the South-East regions [Zinder (7.5%), Diffa (7.5%)] and the West part [Tahoua (6.9%)]. The prevalence at the commune level was about 36.55%, which was relatively high. The prevalence at strata level was 36.55% (95% PI 0.2428–0.4882). The expected prevalences did not match those found. The results of this serological survey are considered the reference situation (T0) of CBPP in Niger with the PRAPS project, and allowed to the country to redefine control policies for better control of the disease at national and sub-regional level.

IPV model with Cobb–Douglas and reference-dependent utility functions

The optimal allocation of land resources using auctions is beneficial for rational land use. This paper introduces the Cobb–Douglas utility function and reference-dependent utility function into the original independent private value model to study the effect of bidders’ preferences for winning probability in different auction schemes. This preference has an obvious influence on the seller’s expected revenue in the first price auction. When the buyer demonstrates a relatively large preference for the probability of winning, selecting the second-price auction is helpful for seller to obtain high expected revenue. On the other hand, when this preference is relatively small, a favorable choice for the seller is the first-price auction with the reserve price publicly announced. The comprehensive coupling effect of different parameters can be analyzed by using the improved auction model, which considers the reference and preference situations simultaneously. This model would be useful in the design of a land auction scheme.