scholarly journals Comprehensive Study on Freshwater Ecosystem Health of Lancang River Basin in Xishuangbanna of China

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuqing Wen ◽  
Xia Li ◽  
Tianhong Li

The Lancang-Mekong River significantly affects the livelihood of residents in the basin as well as the lives of people in other regions of the world in terms of great development potential and its economic and ecological values. In the meanwhile, the river attracts the attention of countries in the basin and the international community because it raises potential for international conflicts. The Lancang-Mekong River leaves China from Xishuangbanna and the ecosystem status in Xishuangbanna constitutes one of the top concerns related to the basin. The study comprehensively evaluates the status of freshwater ecosystem health of the Lancang River in Xishuangbanna for the first time, with reference to aspects of ecosystem vitality, ecosystem services, as well as governance and stakeholders, firstly, linking the ecosystem and the benefits it provides as well as human activities as an organic whole. The methodology used, Freshwater Health Index, is newly developed and constitutes revision of the first attempt of its usage. Basically, the freshwater ecosystem in the studied area and period remains healthy according to the research, and the ecosystem is considered to be capable of providing sufficient services and benefits to meet the economic and societal development demands. Recommendations are proposed for more sustainable local freshwater management and utilization accordingly.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Mohammed ◽  
John Bolten ◽  
Nicholas Souter ◽  
Kashif Shaad ◽  
Derek Vollmer

<p>Understanding the impacts of human activity on the environment is critical to water resources planning and ecosystem services sustainability.  The goal of this work is to develop decision making and support tools for natural resources conservation and assessment at the Lower Mekong River basin by leveraging satellite observations of Earth, physical hydrological modeling (doi:10.3390/rs10060885), and freshwater health index framework (doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.040).  The approach adopted in this work relied on a comprehensive suite of hydrological data products and a regional hydrological decision support system application for the Lower Mekong River basin compiled and developed to improve water accounting and floodplain management.  The social-ecological framework named the freshwater health index (FHI) takes account of the interplay between governance, stakeholders, freshwater ecosystems and the ecosystems services they provide.  Various dam reservoir scenarios have been examined based on stakeholder engagement to enhance the results of the integrative social and ecological nature of fresh waters at the Srepok, Sesan, and Sekong (3S) River basins of the Lower Mekong.  Preliminary results represented by ecosystem vitality indicator has corroborated seasonal flow patterns change in response to water storage capacity increase.  For instance, current modeled reservoirs at the 3S River basin exhibit a deviation from natural flow decrease of 10% when compared with baseline reservoirs.  Governance and Stakeholders role has been found critical to the health of the 3S freshwater ecosystem.  The approach methodology utilized in this work employing the integration of satellite earth observation data and hydrological modeling to investigate ecosystem freshwater health is applicable on a global scale.  This work is part of an ongoing research partnership work between the National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA) and the Conservation International (CI) dedicated to improving natural resources assessment for conservation and sustainable management.</p>


Author(s):  
Rachel Ablow

The nineteenth century introduced developments in science and medicine that made the eradication of pain conceivable for the first time. This new understanding of pain brought with it a complex set of moral and philosophical dilemmas. If pain serves no obvious purpose, how do we reconcile its existence with a well-ordered universe? Examining how writers of the day engaged with such questions, this book offers a compelling new literary and philosophical history of modern pain. The book provides close readings of novelists Charlotte Brontë and Thomas Hardy and political and natural philosophers John Stuart Mill, Harriet Martineau, and Charles Darwin, as well as a variety of medical, scientific, and popular writers of the Victorian age. The book explores how discussions of pain served as investigations into the status of persons and the nature and parameters of social life. No longer conceivable as divine trial or punishment, pain in the nineteenth century came to seem instead like a historical accident suggesting little or nothing about the individual who suffers. A landmark study of Victorian literature and the history of pain, the book shows how these writers came to see pain as a social as well as a personal problem. Rather than simply self-evident to the sufferer and unknowable to anyone else, pain was also understood to be produced between persons—and even, perhaps, by the fictions they read.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mbuzeni Mathenjwa

The history of local government in South Africa dates back to a time during the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. With regard to the status of local government, the Union of South Africa Act placed local government under the jurisdiction of the provinces. The status of local government was not changed by the formation of the Republic of South Africa in 1961 because local government was placed under the further jurisdiction of the provinces. Local government was enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa arguably for the first time in 1993. Under the interim Constitution local government was rendered autonomous and empowered to regulate its affairs. Local government was further enshrined in the final Constitution of 1996, which commenced on 4 February 1997. The Constitution refers to local government together with the national and provincial governments as spheres of government which are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. This article discusses the autonomy of local government under the 1996 Constitution. This it does by analysing case law on the evolution of the status of local government. The discussion on the powers and functions of local government explains the scheme by which government powers are allocated, where the 1996 Constitution distributes powers to the different spheres of government. Finally, a conclusion is drawn on the legal status of local government within the new constitutional dispensation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D.G. Shah ◽  
D.N. Mehta ◽  
R.V. Gujar

Bryophytes are the second largest group of land plants and are also known as the amphibians of the plant kingdom. 67 species of bryophytes have been reported from select locations across the state of Gujrat. The status of family fissidentaceae which is a large moss family is being presented in this paper. Globally the family consists of 10 genera but only one genus, Fissidens Hedw. has been collected from Gujarat. Fissidens is characterized by a unique leaf structure and shows the presence of three distinct lamina, the dorsal, the ventral and the vaginant lamina. A total of 8 species of Fissidens have been reported from the state based on vegetative characters as no sporophyte stages were collected earlier. Species reported from the neighboring states also showed the absence of sporophytes. The identification of different species was difficult due to substantial overlap in vegetative characters. Hence a detailed study on the diversity of members of Fissidentaceae in Gujarat was carried out between November 2013 and February 2015. In present study 8 distinct species of Fissidens have been collected from different parts of the state. Three species Fissidens splachnobryoides Broth., Fissidens zollingerii Mont. and Fissidens curvato-involutus Dixon. have been identified while the other five are still to be identified. Fissidens zollingerii Mont. and Fissidens xiphoides M. Fleisch., which have been reported as distinct species are actually synonyms according to TROPICOS database. The presence of sexual reproductive structures and sporophytes for several Fissidens species are also being reported for the first time from the state.


The recycling and reuse of materials and objects were extensive in the past, but have rarely been embedded into models of the economy; even more rarely has any attempt been made to assess the scale of these practices. Recent developments, including the use of large datasets, computational modelling, and high-resolution analytical chemistry, are increasingly offering the means to reconstruct recycling and reuse, and even to approach the thorny matter of quantification. Growing scholarly interest in the topic has also led to an increasing recognition of these practices from those employing more traditional methodological approaches, which are sometimes coupled with innovative archaeological theory. Thanks to these efforts, it has been possible for the first time in this volume to draw together archaeological case studies on the recycling and reuse of a wide range of materials, from papyri and textiles, to amphorae, metals and glass, building materials and statuary. Recycling and reuse occur at a range of site types, and often in contexts which cross-cut material categories, or move from one object category to another. The volume focuses principally on the Roman Imperial and late antique world, over a broad geographical span ranging from Britain to North Africa and the East Mediterranean. Last, but not least, the volume is unique in focusing upon these activities as a part of the status quo, and not just as a response to crisis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 131-140
Author(s):  
Federica Cappelletti ◽  
Marta Rossi ◽  
Michele Germani ◽  
Mohammad Shadman Hanif

AbstractDe-manufacturing and re-manufacturing are fundamental technical solutions to efficiently recover value from post-use products. Disassembly in one of the most complex activities in de-manufacturing because i) the more manual it is the higher is its cost, ii) disassembly times are variable due to uncertainty of conditions of products reaching their EoL, and iii) because it is necessary to know which components to disassemble to balance the cost of disassembly. The paper proposes a methodology that finds ways of applications: it can be applied at the design stage to detect space for product design improvements, and it also represents a baseline from organizations approaching de-manufacturing for the first time. The methodology consists of four main steps, in which firstly targets components are identified, according to their environmental impact; secondly their disassembly sequence is qualitatively evaluated, and successively it is quantitatively determined via disassembly times, predicting also the status of the component at their End of Life. The aim of the methodology is reached at the fourth phase when alternative, eco-friendlier End of Life strategies are proposed, verified, and chosen.


Author(s):  
A S Yuwono ◽  
Y Wardiatno ◽  
R Widyastuti ◽  
D Wulandari ◽  
M Natali

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5048 (4) ◽  
pp. 486-510
Author(s):  
ALEXANDER L. MONASTYRSKII ◽  
VU VAN LIEN

A new species and eight new subspecies of Papilionoidea discovered in Vietnam between 2002 and 2020 are described and illustrated. The status of two taxa are revised. New taxa include Pieridae: Delias sanaca bidoupa Monastyrskii & Vu subspec. nov. and Talbotia naganum aurelia Monastyrskii & Vu subspec. nov.; Nymphalidae: Abrota ganga pulcheria Monastyrskii & Vu, subspec. nov.; Bassarona recta consonensis Monastyrskii & Vu, subspec. nov.; Pantoporia bieti aurantina Monastyrskii & To subspec. nov.; Ragadia latifasciata cristata Monastyrskii & Vu, subspec. nov.; Ragadia latifasciata crystallina Monastyrskii & Vu, subspec. nov.; Faunis indistincta luctus Monastyrskii & Vu subspec. nov. & Aemona gialaica Monastyrskii, K. Saito & Vu, spec. nov. The taxon infuscata Devyatkin & Monastyrskii, previously described as the subspecies Aemona tonkinensis infuscata, was elevated to the species level, while the taxon critias (Ragadia critias Riley & Godfrey) was reduced to a subspecies. Three Satyrinae species were recorded from Vietnam for the first time: Palaeonympha opalina Butler, 1871; Ypthima motschulskyi Bremer & Grey, 1853; and Ragadia latifasciata Leech, 1891.  


Author(s):  
Nadezhda G. KANTYSHEVA ◽  
Inna V. Solovyova

This article is devoted to a comprehensive study of the structural and semantic features of dish names and their descriptions in German in the field of restaurant discourse. The study employs cognitive discourse analysis, elements of comparative and contextological approaches, taking into account linguocultural parameters. The relevance of the comprehensive study of the names of dishes in restaurant discourse is due to an increased interest in the parameterization of lexical units in different types of institutional discourse. The scientific novelty of this work lies in the fact that for the first time, within the framework of a restaurant menu, not only the nomination of a dish is considered, but also the structural and semantic characteristics of its description are analysed. An attempt is made to analyse a connection between the nominations of dishes and their description in the restaurant menu, as well as to determine the semantic dominants of the genre under study. It is concluded that the text of the menu as a whole presents a combination of the language for special purposes and the language of advertising. In interaction with extralinguistic factors, the nominations of dishes and their descriptions not only document the culture of food in society, but also reflect the ethnocultural picture of the world. Based on the analysis of the menu texts, it is established that structurally the names of dishes are complex words or phrases, built mainly according to the attributive model. The description of dishes performs the function of verbalizing the sensations of taste and clarifying the method of preparing dishes, characterizing the quality of dishes, their ingredients, and the intensity of taste. Evaluative parameters in descriptions are expressed at the lexical, grammatical, syntactic and stylistic levels.


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