scholarly journals Understanding the Sustainability of the Energy–Water–Land Flow Nexus in Transnational Trade of the Belt and Road Countries

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 6311
Author(s):  
Gengyuan Liu ◽  
Asim Nawab ◽  
Fanxin Meng ◽  
Aamir Mehmood Shah ◽  
Xiaoya Deng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Population ◽  
Land Resources ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Transnational Connections ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Transnational Trade ◽  
Different Levels

Increasing economic and population growth has put immense pressure on energy, water and land resources to satisfy national and supra-national demand. Through trade, a large proportion of such a demand is fulfilled. With trade as one of its key priorities, the China Belt and Road Initiative is a long-term transcontinental investment program. The initiative gained significant attention due to greater opportunities for economic development, large population and different levels of resource availability. The nexus approach has appeared as a new viewpoint in discussions on balancing the competing sectoral demands. However, following years of work, constraints exist in the scope and focus of studies. The newly developed multi-regional input–output (MRIO) models covering the world’s economy and its use of resources permit a comprehensive analysis of resource usage by production and consumption at different levels, and bring more knowledge about resource nexus problems. Using the MRIO model, this work simultaneously tracks energy, water and land use flows and investigates the transnational resource nexus. A nexus strength indicator is proposed which depends on ternary diagrams to grade countries based on their combined resources’ use and sectoral weighting. Equal sectoral weighting is assigned. The analysis presented a sectorally balanced nexus approach. Findings support existing work by recognizing energy, water and land as the robust transnational connections, from both production and consumption points of view. Resource nexus issues differ from country to country owing to inequalities in industrial set-up, preferences in economic policy and resource endowments. The paper outlines how key resource nexus problems can be identified and prioritized in view of alternative and often opposing interests.

scholarly journals Effects of disk tillage on soil condition, crop yield and weed infestation

2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (No. 1) ◽  
pp. 20-26
Author(s):  
M. Birkás ◽  
T. Szalai ◽  
C. Gyuricza ◽  
M. Gecse ◽  
K. Bordás
Keyword(s):  
Winter Wheat ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Soil Layer ◽  
Soil Condition ◽  
Perennial Weeds ◽  
Weed Infestation ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Different Levels

This research was instigated by the fact that during the last decade annually repeated shallow disk tillage on the same field became frequent practice in Hungary. In order to study the changes of soil condition associated with disk tillage and to assess it is consequences, long-term tillage field experiments with different levels of nutrients were set up in 1991 (A) and in 1994 (B) on Chromic Luvisol at Gödöllö. The effects of disk tillage (D) and disk tillage combined with loosening (LD) on soil condition, on yield of maize and winter wheat, and on weed infestation were examined. The evaluation of soil condition measured by cone index and bulk density indicated that use of disking annually resulted in a dense soil layer below the disking depth (diskpan-compaction). It was found, that soil condition deteriorated by diskpan-compaction decreased the yield of maize significantly by 20 and 42% (w/w), and that of wheat by 13 and 15% (w/w) when compared to soils with no diskpan-compaction. Averaged over seven years, and three fertilizer levels, the cover % of the total, grass and perennial weeds on loosened soils were 73, 69 and 65% of soils contained diskpan-compaction.

scholarly journals Green Transition: The Frontier of the Digicircular Economy Evidenced from a Systematic Literature Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 11068
Author(s):  
Fabio De Felice ◽  
Antonella Petrillo
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Current State ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Current Production ◽  
The Right

Today, the issue of economic circularity is certainly not a new concept. It represents an essential issue in any production system since it is an alternative to the current production and consumption model. The importance of the topic is confirmed worldwide. However, there is still a “circularity gap” that can be bridged in the short and medium term, probably with the use of innovative and digital technologies. In fact, many researchers agree that the sustainable future can be achieved in the long term thanks to digital technologies (i.e., IoT, artificial intelligence, quantum computing etc.) which, thanks to their speed of calculation, are able to identify the right solutions at the right time. The challenge, therefore, will be to develop innovative technologies and tools for the efficient use of resources in industries for sustainable production. Thus, the aim of this study is to define the current state of the art and future research developments in this very promising field. To achieve this goal, the integration of a “set” of tools, based on the AHP method and the PRISMA protocol, is proposed. The results aim to be a guideline for decision makers and researchers interested in this topic.

scholarly journals Self organized critical dynamics of the sustainable development

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 113-120
Author(s):  
Dimitrij Najdovski ◽  
Ivo Slaus ◽  
Aleksander Zidansek
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Critical Dynamics ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Production And Consumption

Meadows, Randers, and Meadows developed a computer model, which studied relations between global resources, production, and consumption. Their model solves a simple system of ordinary differential equations under different scenarios and predicts the future of variables like population, food production, and various measures of pollution and use of resources. Due to the complexities of the observed system, such a simple model can not take into account all significant parameters and therefore cannot be used for accurate long term predictions. Therefore we developed a neural network based model, which we tested with historical data to reproduce the Meadows results. We also used this model to cluster countries based on similarity as measured by the observed variables in an attempt to predict, which characteristics are most significant for their development.

Aspects of the Evolution of the Romanian Tourists’ Preferences Concerning the Domestic Tourist Destinations

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Aniela Bălăcescu ◽  
Radu Șerban Zaharia
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Model ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Tourist Destinations ◽  
Tourism Management ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
On Line ◽  
The One ◽  
Long Term Studies

Abstract Tourist services represent a category of services in which the inseparability of production and consumption, the inability to be storable, the immateriality, and last but not least non-durability, induces in tourism management a number of peculiarities and difficulties. Under these circumstances the development of medium-term strategies involves long-term studies regarding on the one hand the developments and characteristics of the demand, and on the other hand the tourist potential analysis at regional and local level. Although in the past 20 years there has been tremendous growth of on-line booking made by household users, the tour operators agencies as well as those with sales activity continue to offer the specific services for a large number of tourists, that number, in the case of domestic tourism, increased by 1.6 times in case of the tour operators and by 4.44 times in case of the agencies with sales activity. At the same time, there have been changes in the preferences of tourists regarding their holiday destinations in Romania. Started on these considerations, paper based on a logistic model, examines the evolution of the probabilities and scores corresponding to the way the Romanian tourists spend their holidays on the types of tourism agencies, actions and tourist areas in Romania.

The Belt and Road Initiative: Goals and Challenges

2020 ◽  
pp. 167
Author(s):  
Adnan Khalaf i Hammed Al-Badrani ◽  
Hind Ziyad Nafeih
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Power Lines ◽  
Belt And Road Initiative ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
Ancient Silk Road ◽  
Main Engine ◽  
The Belt And Road

The Belt and Road Initiative is an initiative to revive the ancient Silk Road, through networks of land and sea roads, oil and gas pipelines, electric power lines, the Internet and airports, to create a model of regional and international cooperation.       It is essentially a long-term development strategy, launched by the Chinese president in 2013 to become the main engine of Chinese domestic policy and foreign diplomacy and within the framework of the soft power strategy, to enhance its position and influence in the world as a peaceful and responsible country.   The study includes identifying the initiative and setting goals for China, as well as the challenges and difficulties that hinder the initiative.

Use Of Tai Chi Elements To Increase Respiratory Amplitude

2019 ◽  
pp. 11-20
Author(s):  
Mihai-Alexandru Citea ◽  
Marius Neculaes
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Tai Chi ◽  
Sports Club ◽  
Optimal Functioning ◽  
Physiological Adaptations ◽  
Competitive Activity ◽  
Abdominal Breathing ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Different Levels

High performance sport has a major impact on the physiological adaptations of the respiratory system. The importance of the optimal functioning of this system is essential to achieve top results in high performance sport but also in maintaining a long term health status. Science journals present numerous studies that highlight the benefits of practicing Tai Chi on the general population, with effects ranging from improving cardiac function, to influencing the immune system. The purpose of this study is to identify whether by practicing Tai Chi forms a athlete can change their breathing pattern and develop their respiratory amplitude. The subjects of the study were 22 fencing practitioners, accredited at the Iași Municipal Sports Club (C.S.M. Iași), aged between 14 and 18 years, with over 3 years of competitive activity. Materials and method: The study participants were evaluated initially and at the end of 7 months of practice. The frequency was 3 sessions per week, and the duration of each session was 20-30 minutes. The evaluation consisted in measuring the circumference of the thorax at 3 different levels: subaxillary, medial thorax (T6-T7) and lower rib (diaphragmatic) in maximal inspiration and expiration. Conclusions: A constant evolution is observed in most of the exposed cases. In cases where this evolution is not visible, a change in the breathing mode can be noticed, transforming from an upper rib breathing into a thoracic or abdominal breathing. With the exception of one case, all subjects had an improvement of the value in the lower rib level.

Population fragmentation causes inadequate gene flow and increases extinction risk

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Frankham ◽  
Jonathan D. Ballou ◽  
Katherine Ralls ◽  
Mark D. B. Eldridge ◽  
Michele R. Dudash ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Random Mating ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Isolated Population ◽  
Population Fragmentation ◽  
Single Population ◽  
Total Size ◽  
Limited Gene Flow

Most species now have fragmented distributions, often with adverse genetic consequences. The genetic impacts of population fragmentation depend critically upon gene flow among fragments and their effective sizes. Fragmentation with cessation of gene flow is highly harmful in the long term, leading to greater inbreeding, increased loss of genetic diversity, decreased likelihood of evolutionary adaptation and elevated extinction risk, when compared to a single population of the same total size. The consequences of fragmentation with limited gene flow typically lie between those for a large population with random mating and isolated population fragments with no gene flow.

scholarly journals Spectrum Based Power Management for Congested IoT Networks

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 2681
Author(s):  
Kedir Mamo Besher ◽  
Juan Ivan Nieto-Hipolito ◽  
Raymundo Buenrostro-Mariscal ◽  
Mohammed Zamshed Ali
Keyword(s):  
Power Management ◽  
Network Performance ◽  
Channel Allocation ◽  
Battery Life ◽  
Packet Routing ◽  
Data Packets ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Iot Devices ◽  
Set Up

With constantly increasing demand in connected society Internet of Things (IoT) network is frequently becoming congested. IoT sensor devices lose more power while transmitting data through congested IoT networks. Currently, in most scenarios, the distributed IoT devices in use have no effective spectrum based power management, and have no guarantee of a long term battery life while transmitting data through congested IoT networks. This puts user information at risk, which could lead to loss of important information in communication. In this paper, we studied the extra power consumed due to retransmission of IoT data packet and bad communication channel management in a congested IoT network. We propose a spectrum based power management solution that scans channel conditions when needed and utilizes the lowest congested channel for IoT packet routing. It also effectively measured power consumed in idle, connected, paging and synchronization status of a standard IoT device in a congested IoT network. In our proposed solution, a Freescale Freedom Development Board (FREDEVPLA) is used for managing channel related parameters. While supervising the congestion level and coordinating channel allocation at the FREDEVPLA level, our system configures MAC and Physical layer of IoT devices such that it provides the outstanding power utilization based on the operating network in connected mode compared to the basic IoT standard. A model has been set up and tested using freescale launchpads. Test data show that battery life of IoT devices using proposed spectrum based power management increases by at least 30% more than non-spectrum based power management methods embedded within IoT devices itself. Finally, we compared our results with the basic IoT standard, IEEE802.15.4. Furthermore, the proposed system saves lot of memory for IoT devices, improves overall IoT network performance, and above all, decrease the risk of losing data packets in communication. The detail analysis in this paper also opens up multiple avenues for further research in future use of channel scanning by FREDEVPLA board.

scholarly journals Integration of various scales for measurement of insomnia

2021 ◽  
pp. 263208432110100
Author(s):  
Satyendra Nath Chakrabartty
Keyword(s):  
Test Scores ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Weighted Sum ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Normal Probability ◽  
Equivalent Test ◽  
Item Scores ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Different Levels

Background Scales for evaluating insomnia differ in number of items, response format, and result in different scores distributions and score ranges and may not facilitate meaningful comparisons. Objectives Transform ordinal item-scores of three scales of insomnia to continuous, equidistant, monotonic, normally distributed scores, avoiding limitations of summative scoring of Likert scales. Methods Equidistant item-scores by weighted sum using data-driven weights to different levels of different items, considering cell frequencies of Item-Levels matrix, followed by normalization and conversion to [1, 10]. Equivalent test-scores (as sum of transformed item- scores) for a pair of scales were found by Normal Probability curves. Empirical illustration given. Results Transformed test-scores are continuous, monotonic and followed Normal distribution with no outliers and tied scores. Such test-scores facilitate ranking, better classification and meaningful comparison of scales of different lengths and formats and finding equivalent score combinations of two scales. For a given value of transformed test-score of a scale, easy alternate method avoiding integration proposed to find equivalent scores of another scales. Equivalent scores of scales help to relate various cut-off scores of different scales and uniformity in interpretations. Integration of various scales of insomnia is achieved by finding one-to-one correspondence among the equivalent score of various scales with correlation over 0.99 Conclusion Resultant test-scores facilitated undertaking analysis in parametric set up. Considering the theoretical advantages including meaningfulness of operations, better comparison, use of such method of transforming scores of Likert items/test is recommended test and items, Future studies were suggested.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document