scholarly journals ECORISK2050: An Innovative Training Network for predicting the effects of global change on the emission, fate, effects, and risks of chemicals in aquatic ecosystems

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 154
Author(s):  
Samuel A. Welch ◽  
Taylor Lane ◽  
Alizée O.S Desrousseaux ◽  
Joanke van Dijk ◽  
Annika Mangold-Döring ◽  
...  

By 2050, the global population is predicted to reach nine billion, with almost three quarters living in cities. The road to 2050 will be marked by changes in land use, climate, and the management of water and food across the world. These global changes (GCs) will likely affect the emissions, transport, and fate of chemicals, and thus the exposure of the natural environment to chemicals. ECORISK2050 is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network that brings together an interdisciplinary consortium of academic, industry and governmental partners to deliver a new generation of scientists, with the skills required to study and manage the effects of GCs on chemical risks to the aquatic environment. The research and training goals are to: (1) assess how inputs and behaviour of chemicals from agriculture and urban environments are affected by different environmental conditions, and how different GC scenarios will drive changes in chemical risks to human and ecosystem health; (2) identify short-to-medium term adaptation and mitigation strategies, to abate unacceptable increases to risks, and (3) develop tools for use by industry and policymakers for the assessment and management of the impacts of GC-related drivers on chemical risks. This project will deliver the next generation of scientists, consultants, and industry and governmental decision-makers who have the knowledge and skillsets required to address the changing pressures associated with chemicals emitted by agricultural and urban activities, on aquatic systems on the path to 2050 and beyond.

Author(s):  
Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

The Road to Iraq is an empirical investigation that explains the causes of the Iraq War, identifies its main agents, and demonstrates how the war was sold to decision makers and by decision makers to the public. It shows how a small but ideologically coherent and socially cohesive group of determined political agents used the contingency of 9/11 to outflank a sceptical foreign policy establishment, military brass and intelligence apparatus and provoked a war that has had disastrous consequences.


2018 ◽  
pp. 10-20
Author(s):  
Н.А. Глотов ◽  
Н.Е. Соколов ◽  
Ю.Б. Смоляков

Представлены результаты внедрения в хирургическую практику урологического отделения Дорожной клинической больницы г. Ярославль биполярной техники трансуретральной резекции (БТУР) и энуклеации простаты (ТУЭБ) для лечения доброкачественной гиперплазии предстательной железы (ДГПЖ) средних и больших размеров. В сравнительное исследование включено 164 пациента, разделенных по методам операции на 2 основные группы (ТУЭБ - 33 человека, БТУР - 49) и 2 контрольные (открытая простатэктомия - ОПЭ - 38 и монополярная ТУР - 44). Для новых эндоскопических методов установлено значимое снижение объема кровопотери, частоты геморрагических осложнений, сроков послеоперационной катетеризации и госпитализации. Для количественной оценки различий средних и относительных показателей использо-вали непараметрический критерий Манна-Уитни, оценка качественных признаков проводилась с применением критерия Пирсона (χ2), уровень значимости различий для исследования выбран р ≤ 0,05. Анализ послеоперационной динамики клинических показателей в среднесрочной перспективе показал сходную радикальность и эффектив-ность сравниваемых методов. Установленные меньшая инвазивность, большая безопасность и лучшая переносимость биполярных эндоскопических операций демонстрируют перспективность их внедрения взамен бывших стандартных хирургических методов, что позволит повысить качество оперативного лечения и сократить затраты стационара. The results of the introduction into surgical practice of the urological Department of the road clinical hospital of Yaroslavl bipolar technique of transurethral resection (BTTR) and enucleation of the prostate (EOTP) for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) of medium and large sizes are presented. The comparative study included 164 patients, divided by the methods of surgery into 2 main groups (EOTP - 33 people, BTTR - 49) and 2 control (open prostatectomy - OPE - 38 and monopolar TTR - 44). For new endoscopic methods, a significant reduction in the volume of blood loss, the frequency of hemorrhagic complications, the timing of postoperative catheterization and hospitalization was established. Nonparametric Mann-Whitney test was used to quantify the differences in mean and relative indicators, qualitative characteristics were evaluated using Pearson test (χ2), the significance level of the differences for the study was chosen p ≤ 0.05. Analysis of postoperative dynamics of clinical parameters in the medium term showed similar radicality and effectiveness of the compared methods. The lower invasiveness, greater safety and better tolerability of bipolar endoscopic operations demonstrate the prospects of their implementation instead of the former standard surgical methods, which will improve the quality of surgical treatment and reduce the costs of the hospital.


Author(s):  
Mary L. Still ◽  
Jeremiah D. Still

Human factors research has led to safer interactions between motorists through redesigned signage, roadway designs, and training. Similar efforts are needed to understand and improve interactions between cyclists and motorists. One challenge to safe motorist-cyclist interactions are expectations about where cyclists should be on the road. In this study, we utilize more directive signage and additional lane markings to clarify where cyclists should ride in the travel lane. The impact of these signifiers was examined by having motorists indicate where cyclists should ride in the lane, how difficult it was to determine the correct lane position, and how safe they would feel if they were in that lane position. Results indicate that more directive signage – “bicycles take the lane”-and painted hazard signifiers can change motorists’ expectations, so they are more aligned with safer cyclist positioning in the lane.


Africa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hansjörg Dilger

AbstractSchools are institutionalized spaces of learning where children and young people are trained to become morally and ethically responsible members of society. Cultural ideas and values relating to friendship, social status and the nation, but also regarding one's own body, dress and emotional, verbal or gestural expression, are learned and performed by young people on an everyday basis. In this article, I build on ethnographic research on the ‘new’ generation of Christian and Muslim schools in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2008–10), and I show that particular ways of learning and performing values can be understood as a form of embodied morality that orients students and teachers in relation to their educational and socio-urban environments. I argue that schools do not represent monolithic ethical or moral frameworks or that the actors in these educational settings learn or embody those frameworks in uniform ways. Rather, the processes of ethical and moral (self-)formation are often highly fragmented due to the diverse (social, religious and economic) backgrounds of students and teachers as well as the logics of class formation in the neoliberal market, which causes a high degree of fluctuation across the (equally fragmented) educational landscape of Dar es Salaam. I therefore define ‘embodied morality’ as a partial and discontinuous practice whose specific forms and experience are inseparably entwined with the specific ideological, social and institutional environments of particular educational settings.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Roope Husgafvel ◽  
Mikko Martikka ◽  
Andrade Egas ◽  
Natasha Ribeiro ◽  
Olli Dahl

Addressing the sustainability challenges in the forest sector in Mozambique require capacity building for higher education and training of new skilled expert and future decision-makers. Our approach was to developed a study module on and pedagogical approaches to industrial environmental engineering and sustainability. The idea was to developed a joint module that would eventually become a part of both PhD and MSc programmes in the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Mozambique. The basis of our development work encompassed the local priorities as identified by the UEM staff, UEM competencies in forestry engineering and the experience of the Aalto University in higher education in the fields of environmental engineering, sustainability and forest products technology. From the beginning, public authorities and industry/company representatives were involved in the development process to advance the created benefits in terms of sustainable development in Mozambique. The result of the joined work by these two higher education institutions was a study module that has been teached and completed by a class of MSc students as a part of the official UEM curricula.    


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Stefan Fuest ◽  
Monika Sester

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Due to an increasing traffic density in urban environments, the traffic management as well as the society needs to face various problems including congestion, air pollution or a higher probability of accidents. Therefore, it is getting more important to make road users aware of efficient route alternatives to obtain a better distribution of the traffic flow. Since the time for making route decisions is usually limited, the visualization of the information, which should be conveyed, needs to be prepared in a very clear and easily understandable format. In this approach, we propose a framework for automatically visualizing route efficiency based on various environmentally relevant scenarios. Our methods used to create the map visualizations are based on human perception of space, in order to communicate routes and traffic-related situations more intuitively. That is, humans are assumed to mentally abstract the geographic space using various types of distortions rather than perceiving the environment in its actual shape. Based on these concepts, we argue that a perception-based representation of the route, as well as the visual communication of temporary disturbances may not only simplify the navigation process, but also supports an awareness for the current traffic dynamics, which thus may influence route choice behavior towards a more altruistic behavior. In this paper, we further present two algorithmic approaches for automatically abstracting the geometry of a route in more detail, using cartographic generalization techniques - to present the road network in a way, how it might be perceived based on a certain traffic situation.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 4525
Author(s):  
Junjie Zhang ◽  
Kourosh Khoshelham ◽  
Amir Khodabandeh

Accurate and seamless vehicle positioning is fundamental for autonomous driving tasks in urban environments, requiring the provision of high-end measuring devices. Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) sensors, together with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers, are therefore commonly found onboard modern vehicles. In this paper, we propose an integration of lidar and GNSS code measurements at the observation level via a mixed measurement model. An Extended Kalman-Filter (EKF) is implemented to capture the dynamic of the vehicle movement, and thus, to incorporate the vehicle velocity parameters into the measurement model. The lidar positioning component is realized using point cloud registration through a deep neural network, which is aided by a high definition (HD) map comprising accurately georeferenced scans of the road environments. Experiments conducted in a densely built-up environment show that, by exploiting the abundant measurements of GNSS and high accuracy of lidar, the proposed vehicle positioning approach can maintain centimeter-to meter-level accuracy for the entirety of the driving duration in urban canyons.


Author(s):  
Marina Loseva ◽  
Lyudmila Nikanorova

At present, the road sector is experiencing a period of intensive development. The latest achievement was the design, development and implementation of a new generation of roads, the so-called «Smart Roads».


Author(s):  
Daniel P. Shoemaker ◽  
Gregory W. Ulferts ◽  
Patrick T. Wirtz ◽  
Antonio Drommi

<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-indent: 0in; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This article presents a simple approach that will allow decision-makers to evaluate the return on investment of software process improvement prior to launching such an effort. Obviously, it will be easy to tell ten years up the road whether the right decision was made. But a CEO, or CIO contemplating laying out six, or seven figures for the additional personnel and resources to conduct SPI is not in a position to make that call and the wise ones will not be led into it by blind faith. The problem is assessing the risks and returns of such a project in terms and perspective that a non-technical decision-maker can understand. We believe our instrument serves that purpose. </span></span></p>


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