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Research in the field of Global Environmental Governance (GEG) pays considerable attention to the emergence of New Governance Mechanisms (NGM). This doesn't only mean the involvement of a growing number of non-state actors but also of new state actors, corresponding to new ways of participation. In this regard, NGM poses profound challenges to governments and institutions in the Developed and Developing world alike. This article seeks to advance the debates on GEG by analysing fairness and equity implications in participatory processes that led to the development of innovative governance mechanisms in Brazil, which may have influenced the elaboration of its intended Nationally Determined Contribution (iNDC). Given the fact that the social dimension is at the heart of Brazil's climate adaptation and mitigation strategies and bearing in mind the need to institutionalize the protection of vulnerable from the negative effects of climate change and strength their resilience, a relevant aspect is evident. Brazil, as a transitional economy, could provide insights into environmental governance schemes as well as influence the policy-making process in others developing nations. We believe that existing local, regional and global governance mechanisms in Brazil, explore keyfactors associated with public perception, awareness, ethics, justice, innovation and risk management, which are ultimately important to address normative implications related to the climate negotiations and international relations as Brazil's iNDC commits to strength the country's adaptation capacity and proactively assess climate related risks. But how fairness and equity are really addressed in the country?

This is the first edition of our new online Journal, the Journal of Applied Social Theory, and it makes sense to launch the journal via a special edition on theorising digital scholarship. After all, the journal is online and fully accessible to anyone who wishes to read it (i.e., including those outside high education). It is also the journal wing of an established blogging platform www.socialtheoryapplied.com – a site co-edited by the co-editors of the journal, both of whom are experienced at using digital platforms (Wordpress, Facebook, Twitter) for publishing purposes. Digital scholarship is therefore of immense interest to us, and bringing social theory to bear on the field is an activity we both wanted to get our teeth into. Those of us who engage in digital scholarship do so for a host of reasons, and it would be foolish to paint us all with the same brush. Some digital scholars see the web as a place that can free up writing, communication and dissemination activity – a welcome alternative to the slow and cumbersome way in which traditional scholarship often gets published. Publishing via the web gives one immediate access to readers and fellow scholars, and offers the opportunity at least to engage in discussion about issues of relevance in real time. Others do it for political reasons, as part of an open access movement that pits itself against an outdated and undemocratic publishing cabal. And there are those who have no other alternative routes to publishing apart from the digital.

Abstract. The need to raise awareness among the communities about the challenge of resource use – and, more generally, about the principles of sustainability – is the reason why the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed, in December 2002, the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005–2014 (DESD). For operators and managers of cultural and natural heritage, it represents a profound challenge to their ability to transmit the content of scientific knowledge to the general public in order to empower everyone on the preservation of cultural and natural resources, and to raise awareness about the potential that mankind has at its disposal. In this context, the application of the PAIDEIA APPROACH for the management of cultural heritage is the key to the recovery of socio-economic values intrinsic to these resources. This approach to management is based on the enhancement of cultural (namely archaeological) and natural heritage for social benefit and it involves the tourist trade as a vehicle of knowledge transmission, intercultural dialogue and socio-economic sustainable development.

This text is based on an appraisal of theoretical developments in queer feminisms and seeks to translate such concerns to a field of inquiry that we call queer feminist critical psychology. The text uses the concept of homonormativity as a specific apparatus of heteronormativity to tackle sexual politics and neoliberalism and applied to two interrelated domains: citizenship and the family. Such a perspective entails a critique of these notions in terms of the exclusionary assumptions they are based on and read as an example of the effects of homonormativity. Issues of representability are also discussed within this framework showing how these family and citizenship concepts are only intelligible within the scope of certain assumptions of gender, sexuality and political economy. The article also analyses issues of recognition of humanity that are always already derived from these norms. The construction of alternative forms of knowledge, specifically queer feminist critical psychology, implies taking into account these intersected spheres to produce knowledge that is situated and attentive to these norms, for the purposes of deconstruction.

This paper describes a case study where the evolution of MSW management practices for three municipalities in Portugal were analyzed using the Life Cycle Assessment technique. This evolution was mainly due to legislative pressures that led to changes in MSW collection and treatment or disposal systems implemented between 1990 and 2000. The municipalities participating in the study were Porto, Maia and Gondomar, all part of LIPOR, the intermunicipal entity responsible for the MSW management of 8 municipalities in the Porto region. Environmental burdens from these two management scenarios were calculated based on an inventory model developed by White et al. (1995), using some on-site specific parameters related with the system's operation conditions. Results show the advantage of the 2000 practices, both in terms of energy consumptio and emissions of gases with greenhouse effect.

The present case study was developed for the municipality of Porto, the second largest city of Portugal that has near 300 000 inhabitants. Due to legislative evolution, some changes have been implemented on MSW management practices since 1990 leading to meaningful improvements on energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions. Two situations were compared: (i) the first one concerns the situation in 1990 where the MSW produced was collected, a meaningful fraction of it was composted and the residual waste dumped; and, (ii) the second situation where the EU legislation on recycling targets for packaging material and diversion of organic waste from landfills was taken into account, including an incineration plant on the management system. Greenhouse gas emissions from these two management scenarios were calculated based on an inventory model developed by White et al (1992). Weighting factors for the different gases based on the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were used to aggregate the emissions values and obtain a simple and comparable result for each situation. Results show the advantage of the 2000 practices both in terms of energy consumption and emissions of gases with greenhouse effect.

Modern plant phenotyping, often using non-invasive technologies and digital technologies, is an emerging science and provides essential information on how genetics, epigenetics, environmental pressures, and crop management (farming) can guide selection toward productive plants suitable for their environment. Thus, phenotyping is at the forefront of future plant breeding. Bibliometric science mapping is a quantitative method that analyzes scientific publications throughout the terms present in their title, abstract, and keywords. The aim of this mapping exercise is to observe trends and identify research opportunities. This allows us to analyze the evolution of phenotyping research and to predict emerging topics of this discipline. A total of 1,827 scientific publications fitted our search method over the last 20 years. During the period 1997–2006, the total number of publications was only around 6.1%. The number of publications increased more steeply after 2010, boosted by the overcoming of technological bias and by a set of key developments at hard and software level (image analysis and data storage management, automation and robotics). Cluster analysis evidenced three main groups linked to genetics, physiology, and imaging. Mainly the model plant "Arabidopsis thaliana" and the crops "rice" and "triticum" species were investigated in the literature. The last two species were studied when addressing "plant breeding," and "genomic selection." However, currently the trend goes toward a higher diversity of phenotyped crops and research in the field. The application of plant phenotyping in the field is still under rapid development and this application has strong linkages with precision agriculture. EU co-authors were involved in 41.8% of the analyzed papers, followed by USA (15.4%), Australia (6.0%), and India (5.6%). Within the EU, coauthors were mainly affiliated in Germany (35.8%), France (23.7%), and United Kingdom (18.4%). Time seems right for new opportunities to incentivize research on more crops, in real field conditions, and to spread knowledge toward more countries, including emerging economies. Science mapping offers the possibility to get insights into a wide amount of bibliographic information, making them more manageable, attractive, and easy to serve science policy makers, stakeholders, and research managers. ; Peer Review

Farming and environment are key issues on political and social agendas on a global scale. In the past two decades, agricultural systems went through a major revision having in mind ecological and landscape concepts on a conservation basis. Technical profiles (TP) are used as study tools to evaluate operational costs and to assess the deviation between theoretical production models and each farm system. TPs of sustainable crop systems such as integrated production and organic farming are based on principles, tasks and technologies, such as crop protection, cover crops and ecological infrastructures preservation, that expectably induce differences in the functional biodiversity present in each system. The main target of the present work was to develop a methodology to measure the impact(s) of farming practices on pest importance (occurrence and damages) and functional biodiversity. This study was carried out during 2005 and 2006 and was supported by the national project AGRO 545 "The environmental indicators to assess the IPM, the integration production, the organic farming and the sustainable use of pesticides ". A survey was performed with 191 vineyard farmers in the four Portuguese main important regions: Verdes, Douro, Dão and Alentejo. The survey was carried out during the crop season and biodiversity was assessed (pests and beneficial arthropods) simultaneously. The results presented here are related to a preliminary data analysis. As expected, IPM and organic farming impact on the environment tends to be low, but conventional systems revealed a similar tendency, induced by the need of reducing production costs. Differences among regions were also found, as expected, due to territorial structure and farm dimensions. In monitored vineyards, 48.2% of species variance was explained by the studied variables. The number of discontinuities in the surroundings was found to be associated to all arthropod functional groups. ; The authors wish to thank the growers, which kindly allowed us to conduct our work in their orchards and vineyards; APAS, AAPIM, PAINHO, AJAP, ADVID, AVITILIMA, APIDÃO, AGROBIO, ATEVA, SOGRAPE and BIOCOA for technical assistance. This work was financed by the project AGRO 545 "The environmental indicators to ass ; 5 ; 1 ; 8 ; volume 933 ; DE/NEM ; Revista Acta Horticulturae (ISHS)

The separator membrane is an essential component of lithium-ion batteries, separating the anode and cathode, and controlling the number and mobility of the lithium ions. Among the polymer matrices most commonly investigated for battery separators are poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and its copolymers poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE), poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP), and poly(vinylidene fluoride-cochlorotrifluoroethylene) (PVDF-CTFE), due to their excellent properties such as high polarity and the possibility of controlling the porosity of the materials through binary and ternary polymer/solvent systems, among others. This review presents the recent advances on battery separators based on PVDF and its copolymers for lithium-ion batteries. It is divided into the following sections: single polymer and co-polymers, surface modification, composites, and polymer blends. Further, a critical comparison between those membranes and other separator membranes is presented, as well as the future trends on this area. ; Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT): UID/FIS/04650/2013, PTDC/CTM-ENE/5387/2014, UID/CTM/50025/2013, project NO. 28157/02/SAICT/2017 and grants SFRH/BPD/112547/2015 (C.M.C.), including FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 programme and National Funds through FCT. Financial support from the Basque Government Industry Department under the ELKARTEK and HAZITEK programs is also acknowledged. ...