Environmentalism: A Challenge to Modernity

This chapter discusses the environmental movement vis-à-vis modernity in the last century. Starting in the early 70s, the contemporary environmental movement consists of articulated collective action opposing polluting agents in different areas of the world, and pursuing a new planetary natural equilibrium. This movement aims to construct a new more balanced model for natural development by scientific and technical means. This movement doesn’t pursue a romantic project to protect nature against modernity and modernization, nor a denial of modernity, nor modernity as a crisis, but a new way to understand and change the world. The environmental movement produces a critical consciousness of both itself and modernity.

Influence of Pre-Sowing Operations on Soil-Dwelling Fauna in Soybean Cultivation

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of different pre-sowing operations on the abundance and composition of total soil fauna in soybean cultivation, with special attention to carabids as biological indicators of agroecosystem quality. The study was conducted in central Croatia with six different pre-sowing activities (cover crop, mulching, ploughing, glyphosate, fertiliser removal, conventional tillage). Pitfall traps were used to collect soil fauna in April, June and September. After determining the abundance and composition of the fauna, their coenological characteristics were calculated and statistical analysis was performed. During the study, 7836 individuals of soil fauna were collected. The composition consisted of 84% beneficial, 8% harmful and 8% indifferent fauna. Class Insecta was the most numerous with a proportion of 56%, with most members of the family Carabidae (1622 individuals), followed by the class Arachnida (40%). The number of fauna collected was influenced by the interaction between pre-seeding intervention and sampling date. Pre-seeding interventions that did not involve soil activities did not affect the number and composition of soil fauna at the beginning of vegetation. Mechanical interventions in the soil and warmer and drier weather have a negative effect on the number and composition of soil fauna. As the season progresses, the influence of pre-sowing activities on soil fauna in soybean crops decreases. It seems that a reduction in mechanical activities in the shallow seed layer of the soil has a positive effect on species richness or diversity. Of particular note is the large proportion of beneficial insects that currently colonise the study area, characterising soil richness and stable natural equilibrium.

Force and Boldness: Cumulative Assets of a Successful Crayfish Invader

Multiple causes can determine the disturbance of natural equilibrium in a population of a species, with a common one being the presence of invasive competitors. Invasives can drive native species to the resettlement of the trophic position, changing reproduction strategies or even daily normal behaviours. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that more effective anatomical features of an intruder (Faxonius limosus) come with increased boldness behaviour, contributing to their invasion success in competition against the native species (Pontastacus leptodactylus). We tested the boldness of specimens representing the two species by video-based assessment of crayfish individuals’ attempts to leave their settlement microenvironment. The experiment was followed by a series of measurements concerning chelae biometry, force and muscle energetics. The native species was less expressive in terms of boldness even if it had larger chelae and better muscular tissue performance. In contrast, because of better biomechanical construction of the chelae, the invasive species was capable of twice superior force achievements, which expectedly explained its bolder behaviour. These findings suggest that, in interspecific agonistic interactions, the behaviour strategy of the invasive crayfish species is based on sheer physical superiority, whereas the native crayfish relies on intimidation display.

Scientific rationale of Yagya: a review

Yagya is an ancient Hindu Vedic ritual aimed at ablution of the body and surroundings by reinforcing the natural equilibrium in various components of the body and ambient environment. Yagya is directed with selective medicinal preparation of herbs that is forfeited in the holy fire inflamed by specific woods along with the chant of distinct Vedic Hymes (mantras). Medicinal smoke significantly removes human pathogenic microbes. The vaporization and sublimation of ingredients of havan samagri in an inverted pyramid shaped yagya-kunda deliver vast amount of therapeutic and environmental benefits. The chemical transformation (into vapor or gaseous phase/ colloidal forms) of the herbal/ plant medicinal preparations in Hawan lead to release of medicinal phytochemicals; which affect many endogenous chemicals including hormonal axis. These fumes help in purifying the air and have anti-epileptic, anti-pyretic, anti-fungal, antibacterial effects amongst the numerous other benefits. Regular chanting of hyms helps in purifying the mind. Improvement has been noticed with respect to digestion, hypertension, mental agitation and sleep after chanting the Mantras.

SINKHOLE DEVELOPMENT MODEL. PART 2. INVESTIGATION OF THE STRUCTURE OF SINKHOLES IN NATURE

The main methods of sinkhole research in nature were: the morphometric method, excavations of sinkholes, cone penetration test (CPT) and drilling in the sinkhole zones, the study of the kinematic and dynamic characteristics of the sinkholes and accompanying effects. The study of morphological features of the sinkhole parameters has allowed to establish, that almost everywhere the appearance of the sinkholes corresponds to the elementary geometric shapes: arched — cylindrical — conical — cupped — saucer-shaped. In the case where the covering deposits are represented by clayey soils, most of the karst sinkholes have an arched or cylindrical shape and conical and cupped forms are typical for sandy soils. Excavations of karst sinkholes have established the arch character of the collapse of soils in the intermediate cavity in the development of a sinkhole on the earth's surface. The CPT of the sinkhole zones revealed specific features of the soil decompaction in the sinkhole, which testify to the collapse of the soils into the intermediate cavity. Drilling operations in the conditions of carbonate and sulphate karst have established that the intermediate cavities develop over the karst cavities. In 2015, the authors were lucky to observe the sequence of the sinkhole development on the earth's surface and to distinguish three stages of the sinkhole formation. The results of karst sinkholes investigations in nature conditions and laboratory modeling of the mechanism of their formation are in good agreement and clearly indicate that the destruction of the cover soils over the karst cavities in the collapse of their roofs begins with the formation of a primary intermediate cavity the surface of which is described by an arch of natural equilibrium. Further, there is a successive collapse of the arch of this primary intermediate cavity and the formation of an intermediate cavity at a lower depth. Thus, the intermediate cavity "moves" to the earth's surface. In the initial stage of formation of a sinkhole on the earth's surface, concentric cracks appear and a small saucer-shaped lowering, the formation of an arch sinkhole occurs in the main stage, in the final stage there is a collapse and displacement of blocks of soil with formation of a depression of a steady state.

Selling to Advised Buyers

In many cases, buyers are not informed about their valuations and rely on experts, who are informed but biased for overbidding. We study auction design when selling to such “advised buyers.” We show that a canonical dynamic auction, the English auction, has a natural equilibrium that outperforms standard static auctions in expected revenues and allocative efficiency. The ability to communicate as the auction proceeds allows for more informative communication and gives advisors the ability to persuade buyers into overbidding. The same outcome is the unique equilibrium of the English auction when bidders can commit to contracts with their advisors. (JEL D44, D82, D83, D86)

Hybrid Natural and Forced Active Balancing Control of Battery Packs State of Charge Based on Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles

Battery packs are widely used in electric vehicles, and their state-of-charge is one of the essential issues that affect the performances, whilst the balance between parallel and series cell of the battery pack always has an obvious effect. To enhance the working performance of the lithium-based power battery pack, a hybrid natural and forced active balancing control (HNFABC) strategy is proposed and adopted to the balancing circuit that is proposed in this work. These converters, which are advantageous in natural balancing and forced equalization, accelerate the balance speed of natural equilibrium in the final stage and protect the battery from being repeatedly charged and discharged. Simulation and experimental results show that HNFABC is not only simpler than other traditional balance control strategies but also faster in the equalization process. The idea of combining natural equilibrium and forced equilibrium can be inspired to be used in some related industries.

Aerodynamic efficiency of a bioinspired flapping wing rotor at low Reynolds number

This study investigates the aerodynamic efficiency of a bioinspired flapping wing rotor kinematics which combines an active vertical flapping motion and a passive horizontal rotation induced by aerodynamic thrust. The aerodynamic efficiencies for producing both vertical lift and horizontal thrust of the wing are obtained using a quasi-steady aerodynamic model and two-dimensional (2D) CFD analysis at Reynolds number of 2500. The calculated efficiency data show that both efficiencies (propulsive efficiency- η p , and efficiency for producing lift- P f ) of the wing are optimized at Strouhal number ( St ) between 0.1 and 0.5 for a range of wing pitch angles (upstroke angle of attack α u less than 45°); the St for high P f ( St = 0.1 ∼ 0.3) is generally lower than for high η p ( St = 0.2 ∼ 0.5), while the St for equilibrium rotation states lies between the two. Further systematic calculations show that the natural equilibrium of the passive rotating wing automatically converges to high-efficiency states: above 85% of maximum P f can be obtained for a wide range of prescribed wing kinematics. This study provides insight into the aerodynamic efficiency of biological flyers in cruising flight, as well as practical applications for micro air vehicle design.

Method of placer mining by directional well drilling

The study aims at justifying the method for the development of placers by directed drilling of wells. A description is given of the opening of the site, the receding and oncoming scheme of the digging excavation, drilling and expansion of the wells, the main hydraulic unit with remote control. The physics-mechanical substantiation of technological parameters is given: hydro-jet erosion, the shape and size of the cleaning chambers, the adaptation of hydrotransport calculation methods. With jetting, the required flow rate and pressure of water to break rocks is based on the laws of soil mechanics. The parameters of the clearing space and the shape of the chambers are taken in accordance with the magnitude of the vault of natural equilibrium. As a determining factor in the calculation of gravity hydrotransport, the consistency of the pulp is adopted with observance of the condition necessary for the bearing capacity. To adapt the methodology for calculating the hydraulic lifting of pulp to the conditions of well development, the coefficient of dilution is taken as the main design parameter. Modeling of jetting jet in the laboratory conditions was carried out, dependences of decrease in axial pressure were obtained at removal of the face from the nozzle.

Is Equilibrium Modelling Outdated for Recent Challenges in River Management?

To date, several different approaches are available to study sediment dynamics at reach or watershed scale, based on very different hypothesis. One of such assumptions, the so-called “morphodynamic equilibrium hypothesis” is becoming little unpopular for its embedded simplifications. The aim of this work is to demonstrate how this approach proves yet effective in modelling landscape morphodynamics at the watershed scale, for what concerns the longitudinal profile of a river and the sedimentary aspects. The application of a 1-D model based on the equilibrium hypothesis has been implemented for several large rivers worldwide. Geomorphological parameters have been analysed, which describe the evolution of longitudinal profile (concavity) and sediments characteristics (aggrading and fining), and the results show a reasonably good correspondence with qualitative estimation of the same parameters. At the scale of analysis and for the chosen systems, which show high inertia to geomorphological changes likely owing to their longitudinal extension, the model can detect where the present conditions reflect a big disturbance to the “natural equilibrium” thus allowing water managers to identify present issues to be addressed.