scholarly journals Vasectomies of male African elephants as a population management tool: A case study

Bothalia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heike R. Zitzer ◽  
Victoria L. Boult
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Habitat Degradation ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Hormonal Contraceptives ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Birth Rates ◽  
Lethal Control ◽  
Elephant Population

Elephant populations in South Africa are largely confined to fenced reserves and therefore require continued management to prevent high elephant densities that may cause habitat degradation. Growing human populations surrounding these reserves limit the possibility for wildlife range expansion, adding socio-economic considerations to the growing list of challenges reserve managers must contend with. Often, reserves have therefore opted to manage elephant population growth using various contraceptive methods to reduce birth rates, with lethal control acting as a last resort.Reserve owners at the Pongola Game Reserve South in northern KwaZulu-Natal opted to vasectomise the oldest male elephants to limit elephant population growth. Besides the reduction in birth rates, vasectomies were anticipated to have minimal impacts on behaviour. This study aimed to examine behavioural implications of treatment by monitoring musth, dominance and social behaviours of vasectomised males.Physical and behavioural observations of vasectomised males were recorded using instantaneous scan sampling and continuous focal samples of study individuals between 2011 and 2016. These data were also collected for non-treated adolescent males, with which to substantiate potential impacts of vasectomies.This case study has revealed that the behaviour of the vasectomised males was not influenced by vasectomies: musth was displayed as anticipated in the oldest males; a linear dominance hierarchy was maintained, headed by the oldest individual, and association patterns with female groups remained intact. Further, the younger non-treated males fell in line with the overall dominance hierarchy.This unique post-treatment study supports the use of vasectomies as a relatively cost-effective (one-off treatment), low-risk and successful tool for the management of elephant population growth, and an option which is preferable to both lethal control and hormonal contraceptives. Further research to establish the impacts of vasectomies on female behaviour and population dynamics is recommended.

Migration and Population Growth: A Case Study of Assam

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 125-127
Author(s):  
Bandana Chowdhury ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth

A Glimpse of Children's wear Market : Case Study on Marks & Spencer (London)

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelly Narula
Keyword(s):  
Market Share ◽  
Disposable Income ◽  
Birth Rates ◽  
Demographic Trend ◽  
Volume Recovery ◽  
Market Leader ◽  
Is Value

Children's wear clothing comprises of clothing, designed for children under the age of 14. It is a sector which despite of the pressure on disposable income, expects the market to be most resilient by volume. Parents are reluctant to cut back on Children's wear. Purchases are more need-driven and the market is value-driven, allowing for high volumes – supporting volume recovery. One major factor that will boost the Children's wear market is the current demographic trend towards higher birth rates. In 2010, the total UK market for Children's wear was valued at £5.91bn, increase by 6.5% from 2009. Further, Verdict Retail forecasts the Children's wear market to grow by meager 1.7% in 2012, underperforming total clothing due to lower inflation. This article highlights the findings of a case study on Marks & Spencer (Bond Street, London) a leading UK brand, whose market share, fell down considerably in the Children's wear Department. The suggestions and consultancy have been provided for the brand, to improve their market share in the changing and volatile environment which was once, a market leader in the Kids-wear segment in UK.

The socio-spatial politics of royalties and their distribution: A case study of the Surat Basin, Queensland

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110266
Author(s):  
Neil Argent ◽  
Sean Markey ◽  
Greg Halseth ◽  
Laura Ryser ◽  
Fiona Haslam-McKenzie
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effective ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Energy Extraction ◽  
Grant Application ◽  
Coal Seam Gas ◽  
Spatial Politics ◽  
Developmental Needs ◽  
Development Fund ◽  
Effective Use

This paper is concerned with the socio-spatial and ethical politics of redistribution, specifically the allocation of natural resources rents from political and economic cores to the economic and geographical peripheries whence the resource originated. Based on a case study of the coal seam gas sector in Queensland's Surat Basin, this paper focuses on the operation of the Queensland State Government's regional development fund for mining and energy extraction-affected regions. Employing an environmental justice framework, we critically explore the operation of these funds in ostensibly helping constituent communities in becoming resilient to the worst effects of the ‘staples trap’. Drawing on secondary demographic and housing data for the region, as well as primary information collected from key respondents from mid-2018 to early 2019, we show that funds were distributed across all of the local government areas, and allocated to projects and places primarily on a perceived economic needs basis. However, concerns were raised with the probity of the funds’ administration. In terms of recognition justice, the participation of smaller and more remote towns and local Indigenous communities was hampered by their structural marginalisation. Procedurally, the funds were criticised for the lack of local consultation taken in the development and approval of projects. While spatially concentrated expenditure may be the most cost-effective use of public monies, we argue that grant application processes should be open, transparent and inclusive, and the outcomes cognisant of the developmental needs of smaller communities, together with the need to foster regional solidarity and coherence.

scholarly journals Reservoir Sediment Management Using Artificial Neural Networks: A Case Study of the Lower Section of the Alpine Saalach River

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 818
Author(s):  
Markus Reisenbüchler ◽  
Minh Duc Bui ◽  
Peter Rutschmann
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Close Correlation ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Lower Section ◽  
Reservoir Sediment ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
Artificial Neural ◽  
Artificial Neural Network Ann

Reservoir sedimentation is a critical issue worldwide, resulting in reduced storage volumes and, thus, reservoir efficiency. Moreover, sedimentation can also increase the flood risk at related facilities. In some cases, drawdown flushing of the reservoir is an appropriate management tool. However, there are various options as to how and when to perform such flushing, which should be optimized in order to maximize its efficiency and effectiveness. This paper proposes an innovative concept, based on an artificial neural network (ANN), to predict the volume of sediment flushed from the reservoir given distinct input parameters. The results obtained from a real-world study area indicate that there is a close correlation between the inputs—including peak discharge and duration of flushing—and the output (i.e., the volume of sediment). The developed ANN can readily be applied at the real-world study site, as a decision-support system for hydropower operators.

scholarly journals The Role of Communication and Engagement in Airport Noise Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6088
Author(s):  
Graeme Heyes ◽  
Paul Hooper ◽  
Fiona Raje ◽  
Ian Flindell ◽  
Delia Dimitriu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Priorities ◽  
Considerable Effect ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Management Activity ◽  
Community Attitudes ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Aviation Noise ◽  
Noise Management

Research suggests that non-acoustic factors can have a considerable effect on community attitudes and opinions towards aviation noise and that these can be influenced through processes of communication and engagement. This paper reviews literature from various fields to identify the key elements of effective practice, using them as a lens through which to assess case study noise management actions conducted at European airports. This analysis found that communication and engagement holds significant potential for noise management, but that this remains largely unfulfilled due to such methods being used as an ancillary management activity, rather than as a powerful tool to aid in the design and delivery of noise management actions. A series of recommendations and research priorities are proposed that could shape the future of noise management, including potential changes to European policy that more explicitly advocate for communication and engagement as a noise management tool in its own right.

scholarly journals Toward Decentralised Sanitary Sewage Collection Systems: A Multiobjective Approach for Cost-Effective and Resilient Designs

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 1886
Author(s):  
Arezoo Zahediasl ◽  
Amin E. Bakhshipour ◽  
Ulrich Dittmer ◽  
Ali Haghighi
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Optimization Approach ◽  
Hydraulic Design ◽  
Multiobjective Approach ◽  
Layout Generation ◽  
Plant Allocation ◽  
Problem Solving Process

In recent years, the concept of a centralized drainage system that connect an entire city to one single treatment plant is increasingly being questioned in terms of the costs, reliability, and environmental impacts. This study introduces an optimization approach based on decentralization in order to develop a cost-effective and sustainable sewage collection system. For this purpose, a new algorithm based on the growing spanning tree algorithm is developed for decentralized layout generation and treatment plant allocation. The trade-off between construction and operation costs, resilience, and the degree of centralization is a multiobjective problem that consists of two subproblems: the layout of the networks and the hydraulic design. The innovative characteristics of the proposed framework are that layout and hydraulic designs are solved simultaneously, three objectives are optimized together, and the entire problem solving process is self-adaptive. The model is then applied to a real case study. The results show that finding an optimum degree of centralization could reduce not only the network’s costs by 17.3%, but could also increase its structural resilience significantly compared to fully centralized networks.

An application of Austrian legal requirements for CSO emissions

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 1081-1088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred Kleidorfer ◽  
Wolfgang Rauch
Keyword(s):  
Model Calibration ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Combined Sewer Overflows ◽  
Sewer System ◽  
Legal Requirements ◽  
Innovative Methods ◽  
Combined Sewer

The Austrian standard for designing combined sewer overflow (CSO) detention basins introduces the efficiency of the combined sewer overflows as an indicator for CSO pollution. Additionally criteria for the ambient water quality are defined, which comprehend six kinds of impacts. In this paper, the Austrian legal requirements are described and discussed by means of hydrological modelling. This is exemplified with the case study Innsbruck (Austria) including a description for model building and model calibration. Furthermore an example is shown in order to demonstrate how – in this case – the overall system performance could be improved by implementing a cost-effective rearrangement of the storage tanks already available at the inflow of the wastewater treatment plant. However, this guideline also allows more innovative methods for reducing CSO emissions as measures for better usage of storage volume or de-centralised treatment of stormwater runoff because it is based on a sewer system simulation.

scholarly journals GPU-Enabled Serverless Workflows for Efficient Multimedia Processing

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1438
Author(s):  
Sebastián Risco ◽  
Germán Moltó
Keyword(s):  
Video Processing ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Multimedia Processing ◽  
Computing Services ◽  
Video Frames ◽  
Open Source Framework ◽  
Cloud Infrastructures ◽  
Aws Lambda ◽  
Runtime Environments

Serverless computing has introduced scalable event-driven processing in Cloud infrastructures. However, it is not trivial for multimedia processing to benefit from the elastic capabilities featured by serverless applications. To this aim, this paper introduces the evolution of a framework to support the execution of customized runtime environments in AWS Lambda in order to accommodate workloads that do not satisfy its strict computational requirements: increased execution times and the ability to use GPU-based resources. This has been achieved through the integration of AWS Batch, a managed service to deploy virtual elastic clusters for the execution of containerized jobs. In addition, a Functions Definition Language (FDL) is introduced for the description of data-driven workflows of functions. These workflows can simultaneously leverage both AWS Lambda for the highly-scalable execution of short jobs and AWS Batch, for the execution of compute-intensive jobs that can profit from GPU-based computing. To assess the developed open-source framework, we executed a case study for efficient serverless video processing. The workflow automatically generates subtitles based on the audio and applies GPU-based object recognition to the video frames, thus simultaneously harnessing different computing services. This allows for the creation of cost-effective highly-parallel scale-to-zero serverless workflows in AWS.

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