Urban food futures : ICTs and opportunities

Food is a vital foundation of all human life. It is essential to a myriad of political, socio-cultural, economic and environmental practices throughout history. However, those practices of food production, consumption, and distribution have the potential to now go through immensely transformative shifts as network technologies become increasingly embedded in every domain of contemporary life. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are one of the key foundations of global functionality and sustenance today and undoubtedly will continue to present new challenges and opportunities for the future. As such, this Symposium will bring together leading scholars across disciplines to address challenges and opportunities at the intersection of food and ICTs in everyday urban environment. In particular, the discussion will revolve around the question: What are the key roles that network technologies play in re-shaping the food systems at micro- to macroscopic level? The symposium will contribute a unique perspective on urban food futures through the lens of network society paradigm where ICTs enable innovations in production, organisation, and communication within society. Some of the topics addressed will include encouraging transparency in food commodity chains; value of cultural understanding and communication in global food sustainability; and technologies to social inclusion; all of which evoke and examine the question surrounding networked individuals as changes catalysts for urban food futures. The event will provide an avenue for new discussions and speculations on key issues surrounding urban food futures in the network era, with a particular focus on bottom-up micro actions that challenge the existing food systems towards a broader sociocultural, political, technological, and environmental transformations. One central area of concern is that current systems of food production, distribution, and consumption do not ensure food security for the future, but rather seriously threaten it. With the recent unprecedented scale of urban growth and rise of middle-class, the problem continues to intensify. This situation requires extensive distribution networks to feed urban residents, and therefore poses significant infrastructural challenges to both the public and private sectors. The symposium will also address the transferability of citizen empowerment that network technologies enable as demonstrated in various significant global political transformations from the bottom-up, such as the recent Egyptian Youth Revolution. Another key theme of the discussion will be the role of ICTs (and the practices that they mediate) in fostering transparency in commodity chains. The symposium will ask what differences these technologies can make on the practices of food consumption and production. After discussions, we will initiate an international network of food-thinkers and actors that will function as a platform for knowledge sharing and collaborations. The participants will be invited to engage in planning for the on-going future development of the network.

Fluorescent Fields: electric lighting and the rationalization of the modern corporate workplace

This study investigates the implications of the introduction of electric lighting systems, building technologies, and theories of worker efficiency on the deep spatial and environmental transformations that occurred within the corporate workplace during the twentieth century. Examining the shift from daylighting strategies to largely artificially lit workplace environments, this paper argues that electric lighting significantly contributed to the architectural rationalization of both office work and the modern office environment. Contesting the historical and critical marginalization of lighting within the discourse of the modern built environment, this study calls for a reassessment of the role of artificial lighting in the development of the modern corporate workplace. Keywords: daylighting, fluorescent lighting, rationalization, workplace design

Agroindústria canavieira e unidade de conservação: Impactos Sociais na comunidade de pescadores de Baía Formosa (RN)

The conservation unities emerged in response to the environmental damages. In the Atlantic Forest of the Brazilian Northeast, the most of the damages come from the sugar-cane agro-industry, especially by the deforestation for the introduction of sugar-cane fields and installation of the industry structure. Besides the damages over the biodiversity, there are critical social problems that affect the communities which survive using directly or indirectly the biome from the Atlantic Forest. The objective of this research is to analyze the social impacts on the fishermen of Baía Formosa/RN generated by the changes and socio-environmental transformations occurred starting the installation of a sugar-cane factory and the creation of a conservation area in the municipality of Baía Formosa/RN community. The research is based on a qualitative and diachronic perspective, for both approach, it was used the method of oral history in conjunction with the literature search and some technical and research tools such as direct observation, interview, records images and recordings . The results show that social and symbolic practices of the community in the conservation unit Mata Estrela last more strongly presented. Today fewer natural resources are used, due to factors such as limit access to forest and disappearance of some natural resources by deforestation. It is believed that the loss of free access to space for the community is the most significant negative impact, as promoted changes in the relationship of the community with the Star Forest that contributed to the fading of their social and symbolic practices. The loss of free access caused the decline in the practice of agriculture, which resulted in the loss of one of the means of social reproduction of the community

Sustentabilidade e identidade local: pauta para um planejamento ambiental participativo em sub-bacias hidrográficas da Região Bragantina

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Os ventos e seus impactos na área urbana de Rio Claro (SP) entre 2005 e 2010: um análise através dos jornais e dos boletins de ocorrência

The intensive development in the urbanization process implied a series of economic, social, and gradually, environmental transformations, essentially, since its intensification, which took place from the Industrial Revolution in Europe and North America. In Latin American countries, including Brazil, there was such acceleration in urban sprawl, only in the middle of the twentieth century, fomented by a peculiar industrialization, coming from the scientific-technical revolution, which occurred in developing countries. In this context, and with a lack of planning and an effective organization, cities of the dependent countries face an inordinate population growth and an unprecedented industrial swelling. Brazil, following this trend, presents several issues regarding the gaps in the provision of necessary infrastructure to meet the most basic needs of its population and the intense activity and anthropogenic effects on the environment. In this sense, environmental problems, related to air and water pollution, degradation and contamination of soil, paving roads, reduction of green areas, urban heat island, among others, reaching ever deeper into the Brazilian urban areas. It is important the analysis in this final project, the weather events related to episodes of strong winds and the events and the impacts to the population of Rio Claro (SP) in the period 2005 to 2010, basing themselves in Geographical Climatology and Urban climate studies. In this scenario, we found the prevalence of occurrences linked to falling trees in the study area, connected, at the same time, to the occurrence and to the absence of episodes of extreme events, with measurements of strong winds, showing a connection between the events and external facts to episodes of winds

L’emergere del periurbano: il caso di Bologna

The rationale behind this piece of research is to study the movement of people from Bologna city centre to its outskirts and to find out what type of people are subject to move and the reasons for this: are they forced into or do they choose to do so? The present study will also consider how people commute from home to the city centre and the effect this has on them. For the purpose of this work, attention will be drawn to the possibility of these outer areas to develop in such a way that people will no longer need to commute to the city in order to recreate the advantages this offers to them (e.g. shops, job opportunities, ext). The theoretical framework this doctorial work is based upon concerns historical, urbanist, sociological and demographic approaches, along with the fact that the hegemony of the city centre has been benefiting has decreased. Historical centres and the central poles of metropolitan systems have lost their functional and symbolic relevance. More specifically, the Bologna Area is undergoing two tendencies: the first one is a process of residential decentralization from the capital town, capable of involving a plurality of social groups, which caused an enrichment of the social composition of "suburban" population. The second process is a partial substitution of the population in the city centre with new groups: this not only occurred with directional groups, but it has also interested new parts of the “service worker” class and members of metropolitan underclass, causing, consequentially, a growing complexity in central areas of the metropolitan system. The need to increase knowledge of Bologna territory has become more and more relevant, since the 70’s, when a series of important environmental transformations favoured a research interest that did not exclusively stopped within the city centre boarders, but rather encouraged the exploration of Bologna outer/suburban areas. Finally, in the urban/suburban discourse, this piece of research has highlighted how the search for a better quality of life (financial reasons, larger spaces, possibility to buy/rent for a better price, environmental issues) determines the choice to leave the centre of the city in favour of outer areas. The tendency that this doctorial work has brought to surface is the need to match a more manageable standard of living to the proximity to the city, despite the fact that this results in the stress caused to commuting and the lack of those cultural and entertaining facilities offered by the city. The new suburban inhabitants do not regret leaving the city, but, at the same time, do not feel emotionally attached to the new location at a community level: what they seem to look for is a more comfortable environment where to live in.

Civilizing the tropics: The highlanders' failed attempt to transform the Colombian Amazon, 1850--1930

The subject of this dissertation is the nature of the environmental transformations, both symbolic and physical, that took place in Colombia between 1850 and 1930. This period begins with the attempt by the Colombian elite to leave behind colonial ties, overcome economic disorganization, and link Colombia to the international market. These efforts were part of a general project to “civilize” this tropical country. The period closes with the transition toward an industrialization and urbanization process led by the Colombian state during the 1930s. ^ Frequently, environmental studies as an academic field are dominated by biological concerns. However, most environmental thinking accepts their interdisciplinary nature. Under this framework not only spatial but also symbolic concerns are key elements in understanding environmental transformations. ^ This study finds that despite several attempts to transform the Colombian landscape physically, most of the substantive changes were localized and circumscribed to the Andean region. Other changes were mainly symbolic. This dissertation thus uses the Amazon as one of several regions that did not experience significant changes in the forest canopy. While highlanders originally dreamed of the Amazon as an untapped El Dorado, their failed attempts to exploit the region caused them to imagine it as a nightmarish “green hell”. ^ This dissertation concentrates on three pairs of concepts: tropicality/civilization, landscape/territory, and symbolic/material changes. It presents both a general vision of Colombia and case studies of three regions: Cundinamarca, and Cauca Valley are used to compare with the Amazon region that is developed at length. Whereas mainstream Colombian histories have either fixated on the Andean highlands or, in a relegated second place, on the Caribbean region, this dissertation attempts to significantly contribute to the historiography of Colombia by focusing on the largely neglected Amazonian region. ^ To understand imageries about Colombia's landscape, the dissertation relies on travel writings, chorographic descriptions and maps. It also makes uses legal documents and other published primary sources, including literary pieces and memoirs. ^

Colectivos sociales y ciborgs: hacia una lectura feminista de los drones

Este artículo analiza el papel de los drones en la emergencia de nuevas formas de participación política e impugnación del poder por parte de colectivos sociales. El artículo plantea una lectura feminista de los drones como ciborgs (humanos-máquinas) para explorar las agencias distribuidas entre actores humanos y no humanos con el propósito de visibilizar las relaciones de poder y analizar la configuración de contra-realidades. Se presentan ocho casos de colectivos sociales que, con la ayuda de un dron, disputan el poder de gobiernos, empresas transnacionales además de desempeñar innovadoras intervenciones públicas.

Nitrogen and phosphorus transformations in fixed-film biofilters subjected to aeration/no-aeration cycles

Despite recent developments in fixed-film combined biological nutrients removal (BNR) technology; fixed-film systems (i.e., biofilters), are still at the early stages of development and their application has been limited to a few laboratory-scale experiments. Achieving enhanced biological phosphorus removal in fixed-film systems requires exposing the micro-organisms and the waste stream to alternating anaerobic/aerobic or anaerobic/anoxic conditions in cycles. The concept of cycle duration (CD) as a process control parameter is unique to fixed-film BNR systems, has not been previously investigated, and can be used to optimise the performance of such systems. The CD refers to the elapsed time before the biomass is re-exposed to the same environmental conditions in cycles. Fixed-film systems offer many advantages over suspended growth systems such as reduced operating costs, simplicity of operation, absence of sludge recycling problems, and compactness. The control of nutrient discharges to water bodies, improves water quality, fish production, and allow water reuse. The main objective of this study was to develop a fundamental understanding of the effect of CD on the transformations of nutrients in fixed-film biofilter systems subjected to alternating aeration I no-aeration cycles A fixed-film biofilter system consisting of three up-flow biofilters connected in series was developed and tested. The first and third biofilters were operated in a cyclic mode in which the biomass was subjected to aeration/no-aeration cycles. The influent wastewater was simulated aquaculture whose composition was based on actual water quality parameters of aquacuture wastewater from a prawn grow-out facility. The influent contained 8.5 - 9:3 mg!L a111monia-N, 8.5- 8.7 mg/L phosphate-P, and 45- 50 mg!L acetate. Two independent studies were conducted at two biofiltration rates to evaluate and confirm the effect of CD on nutrient transformations in the biofilter system for application in aquaculture: A third study was conducted to enhance denitrification in the system using an external carbon- source at a rate varying from 0-24 ml/min. The CD was varied in the range of0.25- 120 hours for the first two studies and fixed at 12 hours for the third study. This study identified the CD as an important process control parameter that can be used to optimise the performance of full-scale fixed-film systems for BNR which represents a novel contribution in this field of research. The CD resulted in environmental conditions that inhibited or enhanced nutrient transformations. The effect of CD on BNR in fixed-film systems in terms of phosphorus biomass saturation and depletion has been established. Short CDs did not permit the establishment of anaerobic activity in the un-aerated biofilter and, thus, inhibited phosphorus release. Long CDs resulted in extended anaerobic activity and, thus, resulted in active phosphorus release. Long CDs, however, resulted in depleting the biomass phosphorus reservoir in the releasing biofilter and saturating the biomass phosphorus reservoir in the up-taking biofilter in the cycle. This phosphorus biomass saturation/depletion phenomenon imposes a practical limit on how short or long the CD can be. The length of the CD should be somewhere just before saturation or depletion occur and for the system tested, the optimal CD was 12 hours for the biofiltration rates tested. The system achieved limited net phosphorus removal due to the limited sludge wasting and lack of external carbon supply during phosphorus uptake. The phosphorus saturation and depletion reflected the need to extract phosphorus from the phosphorus-rich micro-organisms, for example, through back-washing. The major challenges of achieving phosphorus removal in the system included: (I) overcoming the deterioration in the performance of the system during the transition period following the start of each new cycle; and (2) wasting excess phosphorus-saturated biomass following the aeration cycle. Denitrification occurred in poorly aerated sections of the third biofilter and generally declined as the CD increased and as the time progressed in the individual cycle. Denitrification and phosphorus uptake were supplied by an internal organic carbon source, and the addition of an external carbon source (acetate) to the third biofilter resulted in improved denitrification efficiency in the system from 18.4 without supplemental carbon to 88.7% when the carbon dose reached 24 mL/min The removal of TOC and nitrification improved as the CD increased, as a result of the reduction in the frequency of transition periods between the cycles. A conceptual design of an effective fixed-film BNR biofilter system for the treatment of the influent simulated aquaculture wastewater was proposed based on the findings of the study.

Sensemaking and sustainable practicing: Functional affordances of information systems in green transformations

This paper explores how a world-wide operating software solutions provider implemented environmentally sustainable business practices in response to emerging environmental concerns. Through an interpretive case study, we develop a theoretical framework that identifies four important functional affordances originating in information systems, which are required in environmental sustainability transformations as they create an actionable context in which (1) organizations can engage in a sensemaking process related to understanding emerging environmental requirements, and (2) individuals can implement environmentally sustainable work practices. Through our work, we provide several contributions, including a better understanding of IS-enabled organizational change and the types of functional affordances of information systems that are required in sustainability transformations. We describe implications relating to (1) how information systems can contribute to the creation of environmentally sustainable organizations, (2) the design of information systems to create required functional affordances, (3) the management of sustainability transformations, and (4) the further development of the concept of functional affordances in IS research.

Structural mobility and transformations in globular proteins

Although globular proteins are endowed with well defined three-dimensional structures, they exhibit substantial mobility within the framework of the given threedimensional structure. The different types of mobility found in proteins by and large correspond to the different levels of organisational hierarchy in protein architecture. They are of considerable structural and functional significance, and can be broadly classified into(a) thermal and conformational fluctuations, (b) segmental mobility, (c) interdomain mobility and (d) intersubunit mobility. Protein crystallographic studies has provided a wealth of information on all of them. The temperature factors derived from X-ray diffraction studies provide a measure of atomic displacements caused by thermal and conformational fluctuations. The variation of displacement along the polypeptide chain have provided functionally significant information on the flexibility of different regions of the molecule in proteins such as myoglobin, lysozyme and prealbumin. Segmental mobility often involves the movement of a region or a segment of a molecule with respect to the rest, as in the transition between the apo and the holo structures of lactate dehydrogenase. It may also involve rigidification of a disordered region of the molecule as in the activation of the zymogens of serine proteases. Transitions between the apo and the holo structures of alcohol dehydrogenase,and between the free and the sugar bound forms of hexokinase, are good examples of interdomain mobility caused by hinge-bending. The capability of different domains to move semi-independently contributes greatly to the versatility of immunoglobulin molecules. Interdomain mobility in citrate synthase appears to be more complex and its study has led to an alternative description of domain closure. The classical and the most thoroughly studied case of intersubunit mobility is that in haemoglobin. The stereochemical mechanism of the action of this allosteric protein clearly brings out the functional subtilities that could be achieved through intersubunit movements. In addition to ligand binding and activation,environmental changes also often cause structural transformations. The reversible transformation between 2 Zn insulin and 4 Zn insulin is caused by changes in the ionic strength of the medium. Adenylate Kinase provides a good example for functionally significant reversible conformational transitions induced by variation in pH. Available evidences indicate that reversible structural transformations in proteins could also be caused by changes in the aqueous environment, including those in the amount of water surrounding protein molecules.

Structural Transformations in Protein Crystals caused by controlled Dehydration

Recent experiments in this laboratory on structural transformations caused by controlled dehydration of protein crystals have been reviewed. X-ray diffraction patterns of the following crystals have been examined under varying conditions of environmental humidity in the relative humidity range of 100-75%: a new crystal form of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A grown from acetone solution in tris buffer (I), the well-known monoclinic form of the protein grown from aqueous ethanol (II), the same form grown from a solution of 2-methyl pentan-2,4-diol in phosphate buffer (III), tetragonal (IV), orthorhombic (V), monoclinic (VI) and triclinic (VII) hen egg white lysozyme, porcine 2 Zn insulin (VIII), porcine 4 Zn insulin (IX) and the crystals of concanavalin A(X). I, II, IV, V and VI undergo one or more transformations as evidenced by discontinuous changes in the unit cell dimensions, the diffraction pattern and the solvent content. Such water-mediated transformations do not appear to occur in the remaining crystals in the relative humidity range explored. The relative humidity at which the transformation occurs is reduced when 2-methyl pentan-2,4-diol is present in the mother liquor. The transformations are affected by the crystal structure but not by the amount of solvent in the crystals. The X-ray investigations reviewed here and other related investigations emphasize the probable importance of water-mediated transformations in exploring hydration of proteins and conformational transitions in them.

Thermally induced evolution of phase transformations in gas hydrate sediment

Thermally induced evolution of phase transformations is a basic physical-chemical process in the dissociation of gas hydrate in sediment (GHS). Heat transfer leads to the weakening of the bed soil and the simultaneous establishment of a time varying stress field accompanied by seepage of fluids and deformation of the soil. As a consequence, ground failure could occur causing engineering damage or/and environmental disaster. This paper presents a simplified analysis of the thermal process by assuming that thermal conduction can be decoupled from the flow and deformation process. It is further assumed that phase transformations take place instantaneously. Analytical and numerical results are given for several examples of simplified geometry. Experiments using Tetra-hydro-furan hydrate sediments were carried out in our laboratory to check the theory. By comparison, the theoretical, numerical and experimental results on the evolution of dissociation fronts and temperature in the sediment are found to be in good agreement.