Sustainability Assessment of Small Scale Fishing Vessel Operations: A Case Study in Palabuhanratu, Indonesia

Remote communities such as rural villages, post-disaster housing camps, and military forward operating bases are often located in remote and hostile areas with limited or no access to established infrastructure grids. Operating these communities with conventional assets requires constant resupply, which yields a significant logistical burden, creates negative environmental impacts, and increases costs. For example, a 2000-member isolated village in northern Canada relying on diesel generators required 8.6 million USD of fuel per year and emitted 8500 tons of carbon dioxide. Remote community planners can mitigate these negative impacts by selecting sustainable technologies that minimize resource consumption and emissions. However, the alternatives often come at a higher procurement cost and mobilization requirement. To assist planners with this challenging task, this paper presents the development of a novel infrastructure sustainability assessment model capable of generating optimal tradeoffs between minimizing environmental impacts and minimizing life-cycle costs over the community’s anticipated lifespan. Model performance was evaluated using a case study of a hypothetical 500-person remote military base with 864 feasible infrastructure portfolios and 48 procedural portfolios. The case study results demonstrated the model’s novel capability to assist planners in identifying optimal combinations of infrastructure alternatives that minimize negative sustainability impacts, leading to remote communities that are more self-sufficient with reduced emissions and costs.

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Multilingualism in eastern Indonesia: linguistic evidence of a shift from symmetric to asymmetric multilingualism

International Journal of Bilingualism ◽

10.1177/13670069211023134 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 136700692110231

Author(s):

Francesca Romana Moro

Keyword(s):

Language Contact ◽

Small Scale ◽

Modelling Language ◽

Apparent Paradox ◽

Eastern Indonesia ◽

Communicative Strategies ◽

Linguistic Evidence ◽

Research Questions ◽

Bilingual Communities

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: The Alorese in eastern Indonesia are an Austronesian community who have inhabited two Papuan-speaking islands for approximately 600 years. Their language presents a paradox: contact with the neighbouring Papuan languages has led to both complexification and simplification. This article argues that these opposite outcomes of contact result from two distinct scenarios, and formulates a hypothesis about a shift in multilingual patterns in Alorese history. Design/Methodology/Approach: To formulate a hypothesis about the discontinuity of multilingual patterns, this article first sketches the past and present multilingual patterns of the Alorese by modelling language contact outcomes in terms of bilingual optimisation strategies. This is followed by a comparison of the two scenarios to pinpoint similarities and differences. Data and Analysis: Previous research shows that two types of contact phenomena are attested in Alorese: (a) complexification arising from grammatical borrowings from Papuan languages, and (b) morphological simplification. The first change is associated with prolonged child bilingualism and is the result of Papuan-oriented bilingual strategies, while the latter change is associated with adult second language (L2) learning and is the result of universal communicative strategies. Findings/Conclusions Complexification and simplification are the results of two different layers of contact. Alorese was first used in small-scale bilingual communities, with widespread symmetric multilingualism. Later, multilingualism became more asymmetric, and the language started to undergo a simplification process due to the considerable number of L2 speakers. Originality: This article is innovative in providing a clear case study showing discontinuity of multilingual patterns, supported by linguistic and non-linguistic evidence. Significance/Implications: This article provides a plausible explanation for the apparent paradox found in Alorese, by showing that different outcomes of contact in the same language are due to different patterns of acquisition and socialisation. This discontinuity should be taken into account by models of language contact.

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Photovoltaics Enabling Sustainable Energy Communities: Technological Drivers and Emerging Markets

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14071862 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (7) ◽

pp. 1862

Author(s):

Alexandros-Georgios Chronis ◽

Foivos Palaiogiannis ◽

Iasonas Kouveliotis-Lysikatos ◽

Panos Kotsampopoulos ◽

Nikos Hatziargyriou

Keyword(s):

State Of The Art ◽

Research Question ◽

Economic Benefits ◽

Energy Market ◽

Small Scale ◽

Local Energy ◽

Community Members ◽

Open Research ◽

Energy Community

In this paper, we investigate the economic benefits of an energy community investing in small-scale photovoltaics (PVs) when local energy trading is operated amongst the community members. The motivation stems from the open research question on whether a community-operated local energy market can enhance the investment feasibility of behind-the-meter small-scale PVs installed by energy community members. Firstly, a review of the models, mechanisms and concepts required for framing the relevant concepts is conducted, while a clarification of nuances at important terms is attempted. Next, a tool for the investigation of the economic benefits of operating a local energy market in the context of an energy community is developed. We design the local energy market using state-of-the-art formulations, modified according to the requirements of the case study. The model is applied to an energy community that is currently under formation in a Greek municipality. From the various simulations that were conducted, a series of generalizable conclusions are extracted.

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Roles, relationships and emotions: Student teachers’ understanding of feedback as interpersonal

Research in Education ◽

10.1177/0034523721989370 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 003452372198937

Author(s):

Caroline Elbra-Ramsay

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Student Teachers ◽

Small Scale ◽

First Year ◽

Case Study Methodology ◽

Study Methodology ◽

Undergraduate Programme ◽

Phenomenological Case Study ◽

International Teacher

This paper reports the findings of a small-scale study seeking to investigate how student teachers, within a three-year undergraduate programme, understand feedback. Feedback has been central to debates and discussion in the assessment literature in recent years. Hence, in this paper, feedback is positioned within the often-contradictory discourses of assessment, including perspectives on student and teacher feedback. The study focused on two first year undergraduate student teachers at a small university in England and considered the relationships between their understanding of feedback as a student, their understanding of feedback as an emerging teacher, and the key influences shaping these understandings. A phenomenological case study methodology was employed with interviews as the prime method of data collection. Themes emerged as part of an Nvivo analysis, including emotional responses, relationships and dialogue, all of which appear to have impacted on the students’ conceptual understanding of feedback as indelibly shaped by its interpersonal and affective, rather than purely cognitive or ideational, dimensions. The paper therefore seeks to contribute to the wider feedback discourse by offering an analysis of empirical data. Although situated within English teacher education, there are tentative conclusions that are applicable to international teacher education and as well as higher education more generally.

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The potential of agroforestry concessions to stabilize Amazonian forest frontiers: a case study on the economic and environmental robustness of informally settled small-scale cocoa farmers in Peru

Land Use Policy ◽

10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105242 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 102 ◽

pp. 105242

Author(s):

Benno Pokorny ◽

Valentina Robiglio ◽

Martin Reyes ◽

Ricardo Vargas ◽

Cesar Francesco Patiño Carrera

Keyword(s):

Small Scale ◽

Amazonian Forest ◽

Environmental Robustness ◽

Cocoa Farmers

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Monitoring Lakes Surface Water Velocity with SAR: A Feasibility Study on Lake Garda, Italy

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13122293 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 2293

Author(s):

Marina Amadori ◽

Virginia Zamparelli ◽

Giacomo De Carolis ◽

Gianfranco Fornaro ◽

Marco Toffolon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Surface Water ◽

Wind Waves ◽

Test Site ◽

Water Velocity ◽

Surface Velocity ◽

Medium Size ◽

Small Scale ◽

Lake Garda ◽

Marine Applications

The SAR Doppler frequencies are directly related to the motion of the scatterers in the illuminated area and have already been used in marine applications to monitor moving water surfaces. Here we investigate the possibility of retrieving surface water velocity from SAR Doppler analysis in medium-size lakes. ENVISAT images of the test site (Lake Garda) are processed and the Doppler Centroid Anomaly technique is adopted. The resulting surface velocity maps are compared with the outputs of a hydrodynamic model specifically validated for the case study. Thermal images from MODIS Terra are used in support of the modeling results. The surface velocity retrieved from SAR is found to overestimate the numerical results and the existence of a bias is investigated. In marine applications, such bias is traditionally removed through Geophysical Model Functions (GMFs) by ascribing it to a fully developed wind waves spectrum. We found that such an assumption is not supported in our case study, due to the small-scale variations of topography and wind. The role of wind intensity and duration on the results from SAR is evaluated, and the inclusion of lake bathymetry and the SAR backscatter gradient is recommended for the future development of GMFs suitable for lake environments.

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