Environmental Impact of Meals: How Big Is the Carbon Footprint in the School Canteens?

The inhabitants of the world are expected to grow by two billion in the next two decades; as population increases, food demand rises too, leading to more intensive resource exploitation and greater negative externalities related to food production. In this paper the environmental impact of meals provided in school canteens are analysed through the Life Cycle Assessment methodology, in order to evaluate the GHGs emissions released by food production. Meals, and not just individual foods, have been considered so as to include in the analysis the nutritional aspects on which meals are based. Results shows that meat, fish and dairy products are the most impacting in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, with values that shift from 31.7 and 24.1 kg CO2 eq for butter and veal, to 2.37 kg CO2 eq for the octopus, while vegetables, legumes, fruit and cereals are less carbon intensive (average of 3.71 kg CO2 eq for the considered vegetables). When the environmental impact is related to the food energy, the best option are first courses because they combine a low carbon footprint with a high energy content. The results of the work can be used both by the consumer, who can base the meal choice on environmental impact information, and by food services, who can adjust menus to achieve a more sustainable production.

Optimizing the utilization of scad fish (Decapterus spp.) resource in northern coast of Aceh

For ten years, the Scad fish production in the Northern Coast of Aceh has been increasing rapidly at 172.5%. This condition describes that the Scad fish resource exploitation is implemented under improper management that could encounter an overfishing case. This study aimed to analyze the Scad fish resource utilization level and recommend a management strategy to achieve an optimized Scad fish resource utilization in the Northern Coast of Aceh. This study was performed in the Ocean Fishing Port, Kutaraja, Banda Aceh. Bioeconomic analysis results showed that catching product and effort in MSY condition at 2,838.59 tons and 2,808 trips by economic rent was Rp23,902 million per year. In MEY condition, catching product at 2,748.01 ton with catching effort at 2,311 and economic rent was Rp25,056 million per year. The open-access condition of Scad fish resource with total catching effort at 5,386 trips and economic rent value obtained was Rp 0. Results demonstrated that the Scad fish resource utilization status in the Northern Coast of Aceh encounters biological and economical overfishing. The Scad fish resource management strategy for achieving MSY and MEY condition through input control and output control by establishing the total allowed catching product and catching quota.

Intelligent Microfluidics Research on Relative Permeability Measurement and Prediction of Two-Phase Flow in Micropores

Relative permeability is a key index in resource exploitation, energy development, environmental monitoring, and other fields. However, the current determination methods of relative permeability are inefficient and invisible without considering wetting order and pore structure characteristics either. In this study, microfluidic experiments were designed for figuring out key factors impacting on the two-phase relative permeability. The optimized intelligent image recognition was established for saturation extraction. The deep learning was conducted for the prediction of two-phase permeability based on the inputs from microfluidic experiments and image recognition and optimized. Results revealed that phase saturation, wetting order, and pore topology were the key factors influencing the two-phase relative permeability, with the importance of 38.22%, 34.84%, and 26.94%, respectively. The deep learning-based relative permeability model performed well, with MSE < 0.05 and operational efficiency of 3 ms/epoch. Aiming at relative permeability model optimization, on the one hand, the dividing ratio of training set and testing set for flooding phase relative permeability prediction achieved the highest prediction accuracy at 7 : 3, while that for displaced phase was 6 : 4. On the other hand, tanh() activation function performed 40% more accurate than the sigmoid() activation function.

Conservation and Management of the Culture of Bears

ABSTRACT: Culture is widely accepted as an important social factor present across a wide range of species. Bears have a culture as defined as behavioral traditions inherited though social learning usually from mothers to offspring. Successful bear cultures can enhance fitness and resource exploitation benefits. In contrast, some bear cultures related to response to humans and human-related foods can be maladaptive and result in reduced fitness and direct mortality. In environments with minimal human influence most bear culture has evolved over generations to be beneficial and well adapted to enhance fitness. However, most bears across the world do not live in areas with minimal human influence and in these areas, bear culture is often changed by bear interactions with humans, usually to the detriment of bear survival. We highlight the importance of identifying unique bear cultural traits that allow efficient use of local resources and the value of careful management to preserve these adaptive cultural behaviors. It is also important to select against maladaptive cultural behaviors that are usually related to humans inorder to reduce human-bear conflicts and high bear mortality. We use examples from Yellowstone National Park to demonstrate how long-term management to reduce maladaptive bear cultures related to humans has resulted in healthy bear populations and a low level of human-bear conflict in spite of a high number of Park visitors in close association with bears.

Impact of Ecotourism on Local Community’s Participation in Coastal Resource Management: Case of Palaui Island Protected Landscape and Seascape (PIPLS) in Northern Luzon, Philippines

The establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) managed by the community has been a popular tool for coastal and resource management in the Philippines. As the MPAs limit the use of the resources, the eco-biological components of the marine environment have been preserved and maintained, which opened opportunities for ecotourism activities. Thus, ecotourism has been developed as one way of gaining economic benefits from the coastal and marine resources while conserving biodiversity and restoring critical habitats by shifting resource exploitation from an extractive to a non-extractive usage. This study was conducted using household surveys and key informant interviews to investigate whether ecotourism's development affects the local community's participation and support on MPA management using the case of Palaui Island Protected Landscape and Seascape (PIPLS) in northern Luzon, Philippines. The respondents recognized the impacts of ecotourism on their family welfare, fishing activities, and involvement in MPA management. In particular, ecotourism development strengthens local communities' support for coastal resource management, especially if it provides enough sources of income. The results of this study could provide information to resource managers and policymakers on crafting sustainable ecotourism and alternative livelihood policies in MPAs, taking into account its possible impacts on the coastal fishing communities.

Assessment of Timber Resource Exploitation in Shasha Forest Reserve, Osun State, Nigeria: Implication for Sustainable Forestry

Records on rate of timber exploitation are very essential for sustainable forestry. They help in managing the forest sustainably. Therefore, the study collected and analysed data on rate of timber exploitation in Shasha forest reserve in Osun state. Logs arranged and set to be taken out of the forest were identified and measured every Monday between December, 2017 and June, 2018 for twenty-eight (28) weeks. The species and families of logs encountered were identified. A total of 13,944 logs were assessed. Fifteen (15) families belonging to twenty-one (21) species of logs were identified. Result revealed that Sterculiaceae family with five species was the most exploited. Ricinodendron heudelotti has the highest number of exploited logs with overall frequency of 27.71%. Ricinodendron heudelotti had the highest basal area and volume with values of 18018776.71cm² and 113289.36cm³ respectively. The study concludes that the population of Ricinodendron heudelotii tree was high in Shasha forest which made it available for extraction at high rate. The study recommends strict monitoring and enforcement of sustainable forestry laws with regular inventory and up-to-date inventory of timber exploitation rate from the reserve.

PROMOTING PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY AMONG PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS THROUGH TEACHER CAMPS

With a mission to enhance the quality of EFL teachers, the Regional English Language Office (RELO) of the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia has conducted a pre-service teacher camp where practical teaching innovations are taught alongside reflective practices and the development of social and intercultural competences. This paper aims to examine how the participants, who are pre-service language teachers, perceived their professional identity as potential EFL educators after attending Camp EPIC and to what extent the program contributed to this process of professional identity formation. The study employed a mixed-methods survey where a total of 45 participants of Camp EPIC 2018 were purposively selected. They were asked to provide descriptions of themselves as teachers before and after the teacher camp, which were then analysed qualitatively using thematic analysis. As for the quantitative data, a set of thirty-three Likert-scale items were examined using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The triangulated data indicated that the participants’ perception was positively altered after the camp. While some mentioned that they were more resourceful and creative with teaching ideas, others showed a higher level of self-efficacy concerning their competence. These changes could be attributed to four major features of the camp: reflection, feedback, resource exploitation, and collaboration.

Integrated Methodological Approach for the Documentation of Marine Priority Habitats and Submerged Antiquities: Examples from the Saronic Gulf, Greece

The rising human activities and resource exploitation have increased pressure in the coastal zone and the marine environment, risking the very existence of Marine Priority Habitats (MPH) and Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH). The delimitation of these two priority areas in a time- and cost-effective way is essential for the sustainable management and exploitation of sea resources and natural-cultural heritage preservation. We propose an Integrated Methodological Approach for the Detection and Mapping of MPH and UCH. To achieve this, we used a downscale methodological approach of increasing spatial resolution based on three main methodological axes: (i) desk-based research, (ii) marine geophysics/seafloor classification, and (iii) in-depth visual inspection/3D mapping. This methodological scheme was implemented at the Saronic Gulf and focused on Aegina island. The methodology proposed, which combines existing and new techniques, proved successful in detecting and mapping the MPH and UCH in detail, while it compiled the information necessary for the establishment of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) maps. Finally, the MSP map constructed for the Saronic Gulf demonstrated the lack of holistic coastal zone management plans due to impacts on UCH linked to anthropogenic intervention and the sparsity of marine habitats owing to marine pollution.

Hydrogeological modelling of Olkaria domes geothermal field to predict ground subsidence

Ground subsidence studies have been done on Olkaria geothermal field conventionally by comparing levels on benchmarks over years. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) systems have also been used to map surface deformation of small spatial extent. For the prediction of future dynamics of land subsidence in Olkaria due to geothermal resource exploitation, a hydrogeological conceptual model has been developed. In this model, hydrologic geothermal fluid properties are analysed and a relationship between the reservoir and geology of the wells established, subsidence is computed numerically. The model takes into account the hydrogeological condition of Olkaria geothermal field. Hydrological reservoir parameters are computed from well testing data. The study considers the Injectivity indices of the various wells under study as pre-computational indicator of the expected subsidence extents. Both two- and three-dimensional geological cross-sections are modelled with the rockworks software by inputting stratigraphic data for Olkaria domes. Geological simulations are used to study subsidence by assigning the ground formation with virtual material that deformed according to some essential relations in Rockworks computer software. Production zones are determined by a comparison between the well properties and corresponding well geology. Subsidence is then computed by the Tezarghi’s modified equation. Cumulative subsidence figures from the computation are in the range of 0.095-0.537m, without any reinjection. Computed values are then mapped in ArcGIS to develop a representative subsidence map. By application of these modelling and numerical computation methods, ground subsidence was effectively predicted using the five selected wells in Olkaria domes field. The hydrogeological model developed, and mapping is an important tool in the planning and development of a reinjection schedule and in subsidence mitigation. Subsidence prediction also is important in design of infrastructure which will be strong enough to resist the forces caused by subsidence.