Fresh water systems are rapidly changing and water quality is deteriorating as a result of climate change. Aquatic drones can help us understand these changes - which will be key to tackling water-related challenges ahead.The ideas presented in this article aim to inspire adaptation action – they are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Global Center on Adaptation.
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This paper pioneers the assessment of tourism's total global resource use, including its fossil fuel consumption, associated CO2 emissions, fresh water, land, and food use. As tourism is a dynamic growth system, characterized by rapidly increasing tourist numbers, understanding its past, current, and future contributions to global resource use is a central requirement for sustainable tourism assessments. The paper introduces the concept of resource use intensities (RUIs), which represent tourism's resource needs per unit of consumption (e.g. energy per guest night). Based on estimates of RUIs, a first assessment of tourism's global resource use and emissions is provided for the period 1900–2050, utilizing the Peeters Global Tourism Transport Model. Results indicate that the current (2010) global tourism system may require c.16,700 PJ of energy, 138 km3 of fresh water, 62,000 km2 of land, and 39.4 Mt of food, also causing emissions of 1.12 Gt CO2. Despite efforts to implement more sustainable forms of tourism, analysis indicates that tourism's overall resource consumption may grow by between 92% (water) and 189% (land use) in the period 2010–2050. To maintain the global tourism system consequently requires rapidly growing resource inputs, while the system is simultaneously becoming increasingly vulnerable to disruptions in resource flows.
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Semi-closed greenhouses have been developed in which window ventilation is minimized due to active cooling, enabling enhanced CO2 concentrations at high irradiance. Cooled and dehumidified air is blown into the greenhouse from below or above the canopy. Cooling below the canopy may induce vertical temperature gradients along the length of the plants. Our first aim was to analyze the effect of the positioning of the inlet of cooled and dehumidified air on the magnitudes of vertical temperature and VPD gradients in the semi-closed greenhouses. The second aim was to investigate the effects of vertical temperature gradients on assimilate production, partitioning, and fruit growth. Tomato crops were grown year-round in four semiclosed greenhouses with cooled and dehumidified air blown into the greenhouses from below or above the crop. Cooling below the canopy induced vertical temperature and VPD gradients. The temperature at the top of the canopy was over 5°C higher than at the bottom, when outside solar radiation was high (solar radiation >250 J cm-2 h-1). Total dry matter production was not affected by the location of the cooling (4.64 and 4.80 kg m-2 with cooling from above and from below, respectively). Percentage dry matter partitioning to the fruits was 74% in both treatments. Average over the whole growing season the fresh fruit weight of the harvested fruits was not affected by the location of cooling (118 vs 112 g fruit-1). However, during summer period the average fresh fruit weight of the harvested fruits in the greenhouse with cooling from below was higher than in the greenhouse with cooling from above (124 vs 115 g fruit-1).
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Jan Van der Noot (c.1540-c.1601) is a central figure in Dutch literature, widely regarded as the first true Renaissance poet in the Netherlands. He was the earliest Dutch poet to imitate Ronsard, Baïf, and Petrarch, and the first to use the sonnetform. Van der Noot also has vital links with sixteenth-century England and English literature. While living in London (1567-72), he produced the source-text for Spenser and Roest's Theatre of Voluptuous Worldlings. Yet despite this contribution, he is frequently overlooked by English-speaking critics. Even when he does receive consideration, he is seldom viewed as a poet in his own right. As an attempt to redress this, we offer here fresh translations from Van der Noot's work, lightly annotated throughout, concentrating on the sonnets that are the lynchpin of his reputation.
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This paper presents the results of an exercise to assess the effects of metaphors on knowledge management. Knowledge is an abstract phenomenon with no direct referent in the real world. To think and talk about knowledge we use conceptual metaphors. The exercise shows that these metaphors greatly influence the problems we identify related to knowledge in organizations and the type of knowledge management solutions we propose. The knowledge as water metaphor used in this exercise – which reflects the dominant way of thinking in Western knowledge management literature – leads to the thingification of knowledge, resulting in a discourse about ways to formalize, manage and control knowledge. This discourse primarily serves the interests of management. In contrast, the knowledge as love metaphor used in this exercise – which reflects more an Asian way of thinking about knowledge – shifts the discourse from the topic of knowledge as a thing to the underlying preconditions for good knowledge work. These conditions include the facilitation of knowledge professionals, the quality of the relationships in the organization, and the quality of the organizational culture. This discourse is aimed at humanizing the organization instead of formalizing it and is more in the interest of employees.
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Een stripboek helemaal gewijd aan de veldboon! Waarom? In het project Bean me up! is drie jaar onderzoek gedaan naar de vraag: kan de Nederlandse veldboon als eiwitbron de soja uit verre landen vervangen? Is de Nederlandse veldboon geschikt om te verwerken in voedingsmiddelen? De resultaten zijn veelbelovend! Wist je bijvoorbeeld dat studenten nieuwe producten ontwikkelen van veldbonen? Wat dacht je van borrelbonen en kaasvervangers? Maar er is nog veel meer te vertellen over de veldboon. En dat allemaal verpakt in strips, afgewisseld door enkele infographics en interviews. Zie de veldboon schitteren als held die de aarde redt, vind de veldboon die groen ziet bij de dokter, geniet van de veldboon die op zoek gaat naar zijn ideale vrouw voor zijn nageslacht. Ervaar zelf waarom de oer-Hollandse veldboon dit stripboek verdient!
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Standard SARS-CoV-2 testing protocols using nasopharyngeal/throat (NP/T) swabs are invasive and require trained medical staff for reliable sampling. In addition, it has been shown that PCR is more sensitive as compared to antigen-based tests. Here we describe the analytical and clinical evaluation of our in-house RNA extraction-free saliva-based molecular assay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. Analytical sensitivity of the test was equal to the sensitivity obtained in other Dutch diagnostic laboratories that process NP/T swabs. In this study, 955 individuals participated and provided NP/T swabs for routine molecular analysis (with RNA extraction) and saliva for comparison. Our RT-qPCR resulted in a sensitivity of 82,86% and a specificity of 98,94% compared to the gold standard. A false-negative ratio of 1,9% was found. The SARS-CoV-2 detection workflow described here enables easy, economical, and reliable saliva processing, useful for repeated testing of individuals.
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With the increasing global population, urbanization, the current unsustainable and expansive agricultural practices would be expected to further elevate the risk of food and nutritional insecurity of the global population, which is recognized as a global threat for the 21st century. This paper reviews the demographic changes, urbanization, sustainability of the conventional agricultural systems, the environmental and resource implications and presents possible sustainable alternatives.
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Global society is confronted with various challenges: climate change should be mitigated, and society should adapt to the impacts of climate change, resources will become scarcer and hence resources should be used more efficiently and recovered after use, the growing world population and its growing wealth create unprecedented emissions of pollutants, threatening public health, wildlife and biodiversity. This paper provides an overview of the challenges and risks for sewage systems, next to some opportunities and chances that these developments pose. Some of the challenges are emerging from climate change and resource scarcity, others come from the challenges emerging from stricter regulation of emissions. It also presents risks and threats from within the system, next to external influences which may affect the surroundings of the sewage systems. It finally reflects on barriers to respond to these challenges. http://dx.doi.org/10.13044/j.sdewes.d6.0231 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabineeijlander/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/karel-mulder-163aa96/
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Bij zijn inauguratie presenteerde Luewton Agostinho een globale visie op watertechnologie, de fysische principes die hierbij betrokken zijn en de uitdagingen, behoeften en conflicten bij het wetenschappelijk en toegepast onderzoek
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