Waste in islands: a political ecology perspective on postcolonial metabolism

Islands are tightly connected to globalized material flows, with specific constraints and vulnerabilities. They are not closed metabolic loops of consumption, production, and waste, favorable to the circular economy. Small islands allow the observation of the material outcomes of circulation, from overflowing dumpsites to marine debris washing up on the shore. We argue that islands are key territories for better understanding the Capitalocene, precisely because of the ways in which they are connected to (rather than isolated from) globalized material flows. This article is a comparative geographical analysis of waste realities in three French/formerly French island territories: Ndzuwani (Comoros), Réunion, and New Caledonia. It builds on metabolism analysis and waste studies—in particular waste colonialism—to address the different perspectives that these approaches open up for the study of island territories. The long-term sociohistorical context of each island helps to explain contemporary waste management policies and practices. A material flow analysis makes it possible to sketch out metabolic profiles that show the contribution of prevailing mining and agricultural industries to waste generation. The comparison of current situations regarding household waste discourses and economies shows how these territories are characterized by waste accumulation.

Principles of formation of the agro-industrial complex in the modern agricultural economy of Russia

Subject. This article deals with the issues of development of market relations in agriculture. Objectives. The article aims to consider the research vocabulary used when describing the features of the development of the agro-industrial complex during the period of market reforms. Methods. For the study, I used analysis and synthesis, and the methods of grouping, comparison, and generalization. Results. The article finds that cash and raw material flows, labor and technical resources cannot be allocated on a centralized basis, as it was usually done during the emergence of the structure of the agro-industrial complex. Conclusions. The traditional category of Agro-Industrial Complex is losing its economic relevance. For scientific observation and practical use, other generalizing categories should replace it.

Selected Warehousing Practices in Bulgarian Trade and Manufacturing Enterprises

Warehousing is an essential logistics activity that has a particularly strong impact on the movement of material flows in the supply chain. That is why in modern business concepts warehouses are an important part of efficient logistics systems. Warehousing management is a complex problem that requires economics and technical knowledge. Based on this, a number of related specifics for the management of these systems could be found in theory and practice. The article presents the results of a survey focused on Bulgarian trade and manufacturing enterprises and reveals some of the warehousing management practices. The scope of the study does not include logistics service providers. Several problems that have an important role in warehousing management are considered as an article focus, such as the characteristics of material flows, main challenges for warehousing systems, degree of integration of warehousing processes, application of quality management and controlling practices, human resources management, sustainable storage practices and usage of information systems and technologies in warehousing. Based on the research data, several conclusions are defined about the practices in warehousing in Bulgaria.

Analysis of the Risk of a Shortage of Operating Stocks in an Item-Unbalanced Spare Parts Supply System

Inventory creation of rechargeable batteries for vital operating equipment requires continuous monitoring of material flows and their optimization. Optimizing inventory processes and material flows in logistics chains is a complex task that depends entirely on knowledge of data on past flows and plans or predictions of future flows. Equally important are knowledge of the service life of materials and knowledge of mathematical models, including the possibilities and regularities of their application for various model situations. The input data for each specific subject reflects not only the business task, but also its concept and position in the sales or production market. It is obvious that the concept of inventory creation will be different for a manufacturing company, different for a commercial subject and different for a state-financed entity. The state-financed and managed entities have specific requirements for the creation of inventories arising from the purpose of their existence and concurrently from the restrictions given by the management systems and regulation of financial flows. It is the limitation resulting on the one hand from the methodologies and laws governing the principles of public procurement that may be in partial conflict with internal normative acts. Using the analysis of input parameters of purchases with subsequent application to a specific inventory creation model from inventory theory, the influence of standard inventory creation processes on the speed and completeness of spare parts deliveries and the resulting level of the maximum required amount of held inventory is shown on the selected entity.

Granular Media Friction Pad for Robot Shoes—Hexagon Patterning Enhances Friction on Wet Surfaces

For maximizing friction forces of the robotic legs on an unknown/unpredictable substrate, we introduced the granular media friction pad, consisting of a thin elastic membrane encasing loosely filled granular material. On coming into contact with a substrate, the fluid-like granular material flows around the substrate asperities and achieves large contact areas with the substrate. Upon applying load, the granular material undergoes the jamming transition, rigidifies and becomes solid-like. High friction forces are generated by mechanical interlocking on rough substrates, internal friction of the granular media and by the enhanced contact area caused by the deformation of the membrane. This system can adapt to a large variety of dry substrate topologies. To further increase its performance on moist or wet substrates, we adapted the granular media friction pad by structuring the outside of the membrane with a 3D hexagonal pattern. This results in a significant increase in friction under lubricated conditions, thus greatly increasing the universal applicability of the granular media friction pad for a multitude of environments.

Multifunctionality as a Strategy to Decrease Resource Use in Building Envelopes

<p>The growing use of renewable and non-renewable resources by human society is increasingly seen as one of the root causes of the occurring imbalance in the global ecosystem. The effects are inter alia made responsible for a severe disruption in climate, loss of biodiversity, water shortage and a looming energy crisis that combined threaten human prosperity and livelihood. As a response to the occurring problems, global commitment to sustainable development is envisaged. In this context the building industry has a great responsibility as it's leverage as one of the biggest stakeholders in global material flows is significant. It will increasingly have to provide credible solutions and strategies to not only qualitatively change the composition of the triggered material flows, but to reduce the absolute consumption of raw and refined materials and generation of material flows to a sustainable level. The research presented in this thesis therefore analyses different strategies that can lead to the reduction of resource use in architecture, focussing on multifunctionality. A discussion of constructional principles of the building envelope analyses how multifunctionality can be achieved. A material intensity analysis using the material input per service unit concept (MIPS) quantifies the potential of multifunctionality to reduce resource use by comparing the material flows of a conventional and a multifunctional envelope. The case study shows that multifunctionality has the potential to reduce the resource use of building envelopes, if synergistic effects are created and if life-cycle wide resource flows are taken into account at the design stage. Both the theoretical first part and the case study in the second part of the thesis underline that the success of multifunctionality in contributing to resource flow reductions is highly dependent on the designer's awareness of the importance of material flows in the built environment and willingness to approach the topic with flexible design solutions. Furthermore it is underlined that only a combination of different strategies which address the topic at different leverage points will lead to the necessary absolute reduction in material flows.</p>

Multifunctionality as a Strategy to Decrease Resource Use in Building Envelopes

<p>The growing use of renewable and non-renewable resources by human society is increasingly seen as one of the root causes of the occurring imbalance in the global ecosystem. The effects are inter alia made responsible for a severe disruption in climate, loss of biodiversity, water shortage and a looming energy crisis that combined threaten human prosperity and livelihood. As a response to the occurring problems, global commitment to sustainable development is envisaged. In this context the building industry has a great responsibility as it's leverage as one of the biggest stakeholders in global material flows is significant. It will increasingly have to provide credible solutions and strategies to not only qualitatively change the composition of the triggered material flows, but to reduce the absolute consumption of raw and refined materials and generation of material flows to a sustainable level. The research presented in this thesis therefore analyses different strategies that can lead to the reduction of resource use in architecture, focussing on multifunctionality. A discussion of constructional principles of the building envelope analyses how multifunctionality can be achieved. A material intensity analysis using the material input per service unit concept (MIPS) quantifies the potential of multifunctionality to reduce resource use by comparing the material flows of a conventional and a multifunctional envelope. The case study shows that multifunctionality has the potential to reduce the resource use of building envelopes, if synergistic effects are created and if life-cycle wide resource flows are taken into account at the design stage. Both the theoretical first part and the case study in the second part of the thesis underline that the success of multifunctionality in contributing to resource flow reductions is highly dependent on the designer's awareness of the importance of material flows in the built environment and willingness to approach the topic with flexible design solutions. Furthermore it is underlined that only a combination of different strategies which address the topic at different leverage points will lead to the necessary absolute reduction in material flows.</p>

Radioactive isotopes in the interstellar medium

Radioactive components of the interstellar medium provide an entirely-different and new aspect to the studies of the interstellar medium. Injected from sources of nucleosynthesis, unstable nuclei decay along their trajectories. Measurements can occur through characteristic gamma rays that are emitted with the decay, or in cosmic material samples through abundances of parent and daughter isotopes as they change with decay. The dynamics and material flows within interstellar medium are thus accessible to measurement, making use of the intrinsic clock that radioactive decay provides. We describe how measurements of radioactive decay have obtained a break-through in studies of the interstellar medium, after first summarizing the characteristics of radioactivity and the sources of unstable nuclei.