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Nursery industry has a considerable importance in the value chain' building of vegetable companies. Its importance increases in a country like Italy, where vegetable productions in open field and in greenhouse contribute significantly to the creation of income and employment and to the socio-economic support of entire geographic areas. However, this sector is underpowered, if compared to the potential expressed by the vegetable production, considering that technical, economic and market literature suggests the opportunity to extend the use of transplantation as an alternative to the direct seeding in order to achieve environmental and commercial benefits. This work was both the result of a meta-analysis and a direct survey and aims to determine an estimate of demand of nursery industry in Sicily, a region that intercepts approximately 31% of national investments in protected cultivation and provides the basis for evaluating the activation potential of new investments, considering technical legislative and market aspects and the supply chain integration.

Amidst the transition from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the book, Political Agendas for Education: From Race to the top to saving the planet by Joel Spring has discussed issues such as the impact of Race to the Top, the influence of Teach for America (TFA), teacher evaluation and merit pay, Republican reaction and rejection of Race to the Top and the education agenda of the Obama administration, and the benefits reaped by the growing for-profit industry on the United States (U.S.) education system. Simultaneously, the 5th edition has comparatively analyzed Libertarian and Green Party agendas along with the main stream political agendas which have dominated education in the U.S. Furthermore, this book has highlighted aspects of education reform which emphasize environmental sustainability, social and educational equity and freedom with the goal of human and societal health and wellbeing.

Indigenous circumpolar populations have experienced profound transitions in lifeways over the past half-century as a result of economic development. Although there have been positive aspects of this social transformation, most circumpolar groups today have a triple burden of disease, with a modestly elevated infectious disease level, an elevated and increasing burden of chronic conditions such as obesity and cardiovascular disease, and high rates of mental health–related challenges. The health of contemporary circumpolar populations is not easily characterized because of dramatic regional differences that stem from socioeconomic disparities among nonindigenous groups, individual population histories, lifestyle factors, environmental pollution, and underlying biological variation. Overall health and well-being range from excellent among the Sami of Sweden and Norway to extremely poor among marginalized native populations in northern Russia. Circumpolar groups today are not only threatened by continued regional economic development and pollution, but also uniquely vulnerable to global climate change.

International audience ; Petroleum-based fuel is facing significant depletion issue due to its limited reserves and increasing demand from various industries. Thus, various considerations from economical, environmental and political concerns have motivated researchers to develop alternative energy sources such as biofuel to decrease dependence on petroleum-based fuel. However, the changes in the fuel composition of biofuel affect the material compatibility. In engineering applications where elastomeric components are exposed to hostile environment such as palm biodiesel medium, at least two aspects contribute to the degradation of the materials during the service: diffusion of the liquids leading to swelling and fluctuating multiaxial mechanical loading leading to fatigue failure. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to study the mechanical responses of elastomers under this coupled diffusion-mechanical loading in order to predict accurately their fatigue failure. The present work investigates the swelling of elastomers under simultaneous diffusion of palm biodiesel and multiaxial large deformations.

This paper outlines the EU regulatory framework and analyses current practice in four European countries in respect of public procurement and tendering of ferry services. Tender management for major ferry services resides with national government agencies, while tenders for smaller volume regional and/or inter-isles services are generally managed by local authorities and/or regional transport authorities. Operator selection criteria increasingly emphasises service quality aspects, and environmental impacts, as well as price (i.e. amount of subsidy required). There is a continued trend towards privately-owned operators providing and investing in essential ferry services, with an increasing role played by larger international integrated transport organisations. For transport authorities, ferry service procurement involves a continuous evolutionary process of specifying, offering, selecting, monitoring and reviewing services supplied. Based on the information collected and analysed, the authors have developed a 'tender route map' which explains the different stages and key issues concerning public procurement of ferry services.

This review is a summary of different aspects of the design and operation of small-scale, household, biogas digesters. It covers different digester designs and materials used for construction, important operating parameters such as pH, temperature, substrate, and loading rate, applications of the biogas, the government policies concerning the use of household digesters, and the social and environmental effects of the digesters. Biogas is a value-added product of anaerobic digestion of organic compounds. Biogas production depends on different factors including: pH, temperature, substrate, loading rate, hydraulic retention time (HRT), C/N ratio, and mixing. Household digesters are cheap, easy to handle, and reduce the amount of organic household waste. The size of these digesters varies between 1 and 150 m3. The common designs include fixed dome, floating drum, and plug flow type. Biogas and fertilizer obtained at the end of anaerobic digestion could be used for cooking, lighting, and electricity.

This paper presents strategic visions, scenarios and action plans for enhancing Tanzania Power Systems towards next generation Smart Power Grid. It first introduces the present Tanzanian power grid and the challenges ahead in terms of generation capacity, financial aspect, technical and non-technical losses, revenue loss, high tariff, aging infrastructure, environmental impact and the interconnection with the neighboring countries. Then, the current initiatives undertaken by the Tanzania government in response to the present challenges and the expected roles of smart grid in overcoming these challenges in the future with respect to the scenarios presented are discussed. The developed scenarios along with visions and recommended action plans towards the future Tanzanian power system can be exploited at all governmental levels to achieve public policy goals and help develop business opportunities by motivating domestic and international investments in modernizing the nation's electric power infrastructure. In return, it should help build the green energy economy.

Emissions of greenhouse gases linked with global climate change are affected by diverse aspects of economic activity, including individual consumption, business investment, and government spending. An effective climate policy will have to modify the decision calculus for these activities in the direction of more efficient generation and use of energy, lower carbon-intensity of energy, and - more broadly - a more carbon-lean economy. The only approach to doing this on a meaningful scale that would be technically feasible and cost-effective is carbon pricing, that is, market-based climate policies that place a shadow-price on carbon dioxide emissions. We examine alternative designs of three such instruments - carbon taxes, cap-and-trade, and clean energy standards. We note that the U.S. political response to possible market-based approaches to climate policy has been and will continue to be largely a function of issues and structural factors that transcend the scope of environmental and climate policy.

This paper outlines the EU regulatory framework and analyses current practice in four European countries in respect of public procurement and tendering of ferry services. Tender management for major ferry services resides with national government agencies, while tenders for smaller volume regional and/or inter-isles services are generally managed by local authorities and/or regional transport authorities. Operator selection criteria increasingly emphasises service quality aspects, and environmental impacts, as well as price (i.e. amount of subsidy required). There is a continued trend towards privately-owned operators providing and investing in essential ferry services, with an increasing role played by larger international integrated transport organisations. For transport authorities, ferry service procurement involves a continuous evolutionary process of specifying, offering, selecting, monitoring and reviewing services supplied. Based on the information collected and analysed, the authors have developed a 'tender route map' which explains the different stages and key issues concerning public procurement of ferry services.

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to an important but perhaps under- appreciated aspect of the Internet: the emergent idea of a global commons in the use of the Internet, in which people might transcend national boundaries to discuss, plan and organize to further matters of global import, whether environmental regulation, curbing epidemics, mitigating poverty, reducing risks of nuclear wars, promoting individual freedoms, etc. This paper attempts to construct a framework to assess what this commons might be, variations in its practices, the threats it faces, and both technological and political means of protecting or at least preserving it. ; This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Grant No. N00014-09-1-0597. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations therein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research.

In this paper, a multi-agent based simulation platform is introduced that focuses on legitimate and illegitimate aspects of maritime traffic, mainly on intercontinental transport through piracy afflicted areas. The extensible architecture presented here comprises several modules controlling the simulation and the life-cycle of the agents, analyzing the simulation output and visualizing the entire simulated domain. The simulation control module is initialized by various configuration scenarios to simulate various real-world situations, such as a pirate ambush, coordinated transit through a transport corridor, or coastal fishing and local traffic. The environmental model provides a rich set of inputs for agents that use the geo-spatial data and the vessel operational characteristics for their reasoning. The agent behavior model based on finite state machines together with planning algorithms allows complex expression of agent behavior, so the resulting simulation output can serve as a substitution for real world data from the maritime domain.

Many low income countries in Africa are optimistic that producing biofuels domestically will not only reduce their dependence on imported fossil fuels, but also stimulate economic development, particularly in poorer rural areas. Skeptics, on the other hand, view biofuels as a threat to food security in the region and as a land-grabbing opportunity for foreign investors. As a result of this ongoing debate, national biofuels task forces have been asked to evaluate both the viability of domestic biofuels production and its broader implications for economic development. To guide these complex evaluations, this paper presents an analytical framework that prioritizes different aspects of a comprehensive national assessment and identifies suitable evaluation methods. The findings from recent assessments for Mozambique and Tanzania are used to illustrate the framework. While these two country studies found that biofuels investments could enhance development, their experiences highlight potential tradeoffs, especially at the macroeconomic and environmental levels, where further research is needed.

Ethanol use as a fuel additive or directly as a fuel source has grown in popularity due to governmental regulations and in some cases economic incentives based on environmental concerns as well as a desire to reduce oil dependency. As a consequence, several countries are interested in developing their internal market for use of this biofuel. Currently, almost all bio-ethanol is produced from grain or sugarcane. However, as this kind of feedstock is essentially food, other efficient and economically viable technologies for ethanol production have been evaluated. This article reviews some current and promising technologies for ethanol production considering aspects related to the raw materials, processes, and engineered strains development. The main producer and consumer nations and future perspectives for the ethanol market are also presented. Finally, technological trends to expand this market are discussed focusing on promising strategies like the use of microalgae and continuous systems with immobilized ...

AbstractAttempts to develop a better understanding of the interaction between the compensation environment and injured workers suggest that the compensation environment may negatively impact on the psychological wellbeing of injured workers. This study offers a complementary perspective to contemporary quantitative studies exploring the psychosocial aspects of workplace injury and disability, and contributes to the growing body of qualitative data on the interaction of personal and environmental factors influencing recovery from work injury. The beliefs and experience of injured workers, as explored through ethnographic interviewing, offer insight to the social meaning and relationships comprised in the compensation environment and reveal the pervasive impact of workplace injury across personal, social and occupational spheres. Poor claims administration and hostile interpersonal interactions are identified as particular sources of frustration and discontent for injured workers. Strong themes of perceived injustice emerge as a potentially valuable area for future research in improving the outcomes of compensable injury.