A thematic cost-benefit analysis of a marine protected area

The implementation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) is ultimately a social endeavour to sustain or improve human well-being via the conservation of marine ecosystems. The degree to which ecological gains are realised can depend upon how economic, ecological and social costs (negative impacts) and benefits (positive impacts) are included in the designation and management process. Without the support of key stakeholder groups whose user rights have been affected by the creation of an MPA, human impacts cannot be reduced. This study analyses a three year dataset to understand the themes associated with the economic, environmental and social costs and benefits of an MPA in Lyme Bay, United Kingdom (UK) following its establishment in 2008. Methodologically, the paper presents an ecosystem based management framework for analysing costs and benefits. Two hundred and forty one individuals were interviewed via questionnaire between 2008 and 2010 to determine perceptions and the level of support towards the MPA. Results reveal that despite the contentious manner in which this MPA was established, support for the MPA is strong amongst the majority of stakeholder groups. The level of support and the reasons given for support vary between stakeholder groups. Overall, the stakeholders perceive the social, economic and environmental benefits of the MPA to outweigh the perceived costs. There have been clear social costs of the MPA policy and these have been borne by mobile and static gear fishermen and charter boat operators. Local support for this MPA bodes well for the development of a network of MPAs around the UK coast under the United Kingdom Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. However, this initial optimism is at risk if stakeholder expectation is not managed and the management vacuum is not filled.

What can ecosystem models tell us about the risk of eutrophication in the North Sea?

Eutrophication is a process resulting from an increase in anthropogenic nutrient inputs from rivers and other sources, the consequences of which can include enhanced algal biomass, changes in plankton community composition and oxygen depletion near the seabed. Within the context of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, indicators (and associated threshold) have been identified to assess the eutrophication status of an ecosystem. Large databases of observations (in situ) are required to properly assess the eutrophication status. Marine hydrodynamic/ecosystem models provide continuous fields of a wide range of ecosystem characteristics. Using such models in this context could help to overcome the lack of in situ data, and provide a powerful tool for ecosystem-based management and policy makers. Here we demonstrate a methodology that uses a combination of model outputs and in situ data to assess the risk of eutrophication in the coastal domain of the North Sea. The risk of eutrophication is computed for the past and present time as well as for different future scenarios. This allows us to assess both the current risk and its sensitivity to anthropogenic pressure and climate change. Model sensitivity studies suggest that the coastal waters of the North Sea may be more sensitive to anthropogenic rivers loads than climate change in the near future (to 2040).

Valuing conservation benefits of an offshore marine protected area

Increasing anthropogenic pressure in the offshore marine environment highlights the need for improved management and conservation of offshore ecosystems. This study scrutinises the applicability of a discrete choice experiment to value the expected benefits arising from the conservation of an offshore sandbank in UK waters. The valuation scenario refers to the UK part of the Dogger Bank, in the southern North Sea, and is based on real-world management options for fisheries, wind farms and marine protection currently under discussion for the site. It is assessed to what extent the general public perceive and value conservation benefits arising from an offshore marine protected area. The survey reveals support for marine conservation measures despite the general public’s limited prior knowledge of current marine planning. Results further show significant values for an increase in species diversity, the protection of certain charismatic species and a restriction in the spread of invasive species across the site. Implications for policy and management with respect to commercial fishing, wind farm construction and nature conservation are discussed.

Sistema integrado para empresas de construcción en Cusco

Actualmente las empresas requieren estrategias innovadoras, que permitan gestionar de forma integral, optimizando los recursos y maximizando los resultados. Siendo el objetivo del presente trabajo de investigación, diseñar un instrumento de gestión integral (gestión de la calidad, ambiental, seguridad y salud ocupacional) para el sector construcción en Cusco. Se realizó un análisis actual de la actividad de construcción, se planteó a diferencia de otras propuestas, el diseño que inicia con el diagnóstico, planificación, organización, ejecución, supervisión y optimización del sistema integral. Los resultados están expresados en el diagnóstico de los 3 sistemas, información clave, para el planteamiento y propuesta de las etapas posteriores; estructurando el planteamiento de los subprogramas basados en el diagnóstico integral, para finalmente determinar los lineamientos estratégicos, de implementación, evaluación y verificación del sistema, teniendo en cuenta la norma ISO 9001: 2008, ISO 14001:2004 y OSHAS 18001:2007; así como la legislación vigente para el Perú.

Using CORBA's advanced services to enhance the integrity of QoS management programmable networks

The development of wideband network services and the new network infrastructures to support them have placed much more requirements on current network management systems. Issues such as scalability, integrity and interoperability have become more important. Existing management systems are not flexible enough to support the provision of Quality of Service (QoS) in these dynamic environments. The concept of Programmable Networks has been proposed to address these requirements. Within this framework, CORBA is regarded as a middleware technology that can enable interoperation among the distributed entities founds in Programmable Networks. By using the basic CORBA environment in a heterogeneous network environment, a network manager is able to control remote Network Elements (NEs) in the same way it controls its local resources. Using this approach both the flexibility and intelligence of the overall network management can be improved. This paper proposes the use of two advanced features of CORBA to enhance the QoS management in a Programmable Network environment. The Transaction Service can be used to manage a set of tasks, whenever the management of elements in a network is correlated; and the Concurrency Service can be used to coordinate multiple accesses on the same network resources. It is also shown in this paper that proper use of CORBA can largely reduce the development and administration of network management applications.

Monitoring of Corrosion in Structural Reinforcing Bars: performance comparison using in-situ fibre optic and electric wire strain gauge systems

Abstract This work addresses the problems of effective in situ measurement of the initiation or the rate of steel corrosion in reinforced concrete structures through the use of optical fiber sensor systems. By undertaking a series of tests over prolonged periods, coupled with acceleration of corrosion, the performance of fiber Bragg grating-based sensor systems attached to high-tensile steel reinforcement bars (ldquorebarsrdquo), and cast into concrete blocks was determined, and the results compared with those from conventional strain gauges where appropriate. The results show the benefits in the use of optical fiber networks under these circumstances and their ability to deliver data when conventional sensors failed.

HTS Machines as Enabling Technology for All-Electric Airborne Vehicles

Environmental protection has now become paramount as evidence mounts to support the thesis of human activity-driven global warming. A global reduction of the emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere is therefore needed and new technologies have to be considered. A large part of the emissions come from transportation vehicles, including cars, trucks and airplanes, due to the nature of their combustion-based propulsion systems. Our team has been working for several years on the development of high power density superconducting motors for aircraft propulsion and fuel cell based power systems for aircraft. This paper investigates the feasibility of all-electric aircraft based on currently available technology. Electric propulsion would require the development of high power density electric propulsion motors, generators, power management and distribution systems. The requirements in terms of weight and volume of these components cannot be achieved with conventional technologies; however, the use of superconductors associated with hydrogen-based power plants makes possible the design of a reasonably light power system and would therefore enable the development of all-electric aero-vehicles. A system sizing has been performed both for actuators and for primary propulsion. Many advantages would come from electrical propulsion such as better controllability of the propulsion, higher efficiency, higher availability and less maintenance needs. Superconducting machines may very well be the enabling technology for all-electric aircraft development.

A Capabilities-Aware Framework for Using Computational Accelerators in Data-Intensive Computing

Multicore computational accelerators such as GPUs are now commodity components for highperformance computing at scale. While such accelerators have been studied in some detail as stand-alone computational engines, their integration in large-scale distributed systems raises new challenges and trade-offs. In this paper, we present an exploration of resource management alternatives for building asymmetric accelerator-based distributed systems. We present these alternatives in the context of a capabilities-aware framework for data-intensive computing, which uses an enhanced implementation of the MapReduce programming model for accelerator-based clusters, compared to the state of the art. The framework can transparently utilize heterogeneous accelerators for deriving high performance with low programming effort. Our work is the first to compare heterogeneous types of accelerators, GPUs and a Cell processors, in the same environment and the first to explore the trade-offs between compute-efficient and control-efficient accelerators on data-intensive systems. Our investigation shows that our framework scales well with the number of different compute nodes. Furthermore, it runs simultaneously on two different types of accelerators, successfully adapts to the resource capabilities, and performs 26.9% better on average than a static execution approach.

Introducing Automated Management Through Iteratively Increased Automation and Indicators

Introducing automation into a managed environment includes significant initial overhead and abstraction, creating a disconnect between the administrator and the system. In order to facilitate the transition to automated management, this paper proposes an approach whereby automation increases gradually, gathering data from the task deployment process. This stored data is analysed to determine the task outcome status and can then be used for comparison against future deployments of the same task and alerting the administrator to deviations from the expected outcome. Using a machinelearning
approach, the automation tool can learn from the administrator's reaction to task failures and eventually react to faults autonomously.

Proteomic analysis reveals oxidative stress response as the main adaptative physiological mechanism in cows under different production systems

Three groups of cows representing three ranges of welfare in the production system were included in the study: two groups of Bruna dels Pirineus beef cattle maintained under different management systems (good and semiferal conditions) and a group of Alberes cows, a breed that lives in the mountains (hardest conditions).

In order to identify new stress/welfare biomarkers, serum from Bruna cows living in both environments was subjected to DIGE labelling, two-dimensional electrophoresis and MALDI-MS or ion trap MS. Identification was achieved for 15 proteins, which mainly belonged to three biological functions, the oxidative stress pathway (glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and paraoxonase (PON-1)), the acute phase protein family (Heremans Schmid glycoprotein alpha2 (α2-HSG)) and the complement system.

Biological validation included the Alberes breed. GPx and PON-1 were validated by an enzymatic assay and found to be higher and lower, respectively, in cows living in hard conditions. α2-HSG was validated by ELISA and found to be reduced in hard conditions. Other biomarkers of the redox status were also altered by living conditions: protein carbonyl content, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione reductase (GR).

Our results show that changes in the redox system are the main adaptation of cows living in challenging environmental conditions. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: “Farm animal proteomics”.

On-off based charging strategies for EVs connected to a Low Voltage distributon network

The development of appropriate Electric Vehicle (EV) charging strategies has been identified as an effective way to accommodate an increasing number of EVs on Low Voltage (LV) distribution networks. Most research studies to date assume that future charging facilities will be capable of regulating charge rates continuously, while very few papers consider the more realistic situation of EV chargers that support only on-off charging functionality. In this work, a distributed charging algorithm applicable to on-off based charging systems is presented. Then, a modified version of the algorithm is proposed to incorporate real power system constraints. Both algorithms are compared with uncontrolled and centralized charging strategies from the perspective of both utilities and customers. © 2013 IEEE.