Suchergebnisse

Ecuador is facing several threats to its food and water security, with over a tenth of its population currently undernourished and living in poverty. As a response, its government is incorporating new patterns of land use and developing regional water infrastructure to cope with the related challenges. In this study, we assess to what point these efforts contribute to integrated water and food security in the country. We investigated the period 2004–2013 in the most productive agricultural region - the Guayas river basin district (GRBD) - and analysed the impacts of different scenarios of agricultural change on local water security. Our approach integrates MuSIASEM (Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism) with the hydrological SWAT model. Freshwater allocation is evaluated within all the water cycle from its source (natural systems) to the final users (societal systems). Water security is assessed spatiotemporally in terms of water stress for the population living in poverty. Water productivity is obtained in relation to agricultural production and nutrition. The multi-scale analysis shows that whereas at river basin district level the median annual streamflow has a similar magnitude than rainfall stored in soil, these two parameters differ spatiotemporally at subbasin level. The study finds the greatest challenge in achieving water security is the south-east and central part of the GRBD, due to water scarcity and a larger population living in poverty. However, these areas are also simultaneously, where the greatest crop water productivity is found. We conclude that food production for both domestic consumption and market-oriented exports can be increased while meeting ecosystem water demands in all the GRBD regions except for the east. Our integration of methods provides a better approach to inform integrated land and water management and is relevant for academics, practitioners and policymakers alike.

Ecuador is facing several threats to its food and water security, with over a tenth of its population currently undernourished and living in poverty. As a response, its government is incorporating new patterns of land use and developing regional water infrastructure to cope with the related challenges. In this study, we assess to what point these efforts contribute to integrated water and food security in the country. We investigated the period 2004–2013 in the most productive agricultural region - the Guayas river basin district (GRBD) - and analysed the impacts of different scenarios of agricultural change on local water security. Our approach integrates MuSIASEM (Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism) with the hydrological SWAT model. Freshwater allocation is evaluated within all the water cycle from its source (natural systems) to the final users (societal systems). Water security is assessed spatiotemporally in terms of water stress for the population living in poverty. Water productivity is obtained in relation to agricultural production and nutrition. The multi-scale analysis shows that whereas at river basin district level the median annual streamflow has a similar magnitude than rainfall stored in soil, these two parameters differ spatiotemporally at subbasin level. The study finds the greatest challenge in achieving water security is the south-east and central part of the GRBD, due to water scarcity and a larger population living in poverty. However, these areas are also simultaneously, where the greatest crop water productivity is found. We conclude that food production for both domestic consumption and market-oriented exports can be increased while meeting ecosystem water demands in all the GRBD regions except for the east. Our integration of methods provides a better approach to inform integrated land and water management and is relevant for academics, practitioners and policymakers alike.

Ecuador is facing several threats to its food and water security, with over a tenth of its population currently undernourished and living in poverty. As a response, its government is incorporating new patterns of land use and developing regional water infrastructure to cope with the related challenges. In this study, we assess to what point these efforts contribute to integrated water and food security in the country. We investigated the period 2004–2013 in the most productive agricultural region - the Guayas river basin district (GRBD) - and analysed the impacts of different scenarios of agricultural change on local water security. Our approach integrates MuSIASEM (Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism) with the hydrological SWAT model. Freshwater allocation is evaluated within all the water cycle from its source (natural systems) to the final users (societal systems). Water security is assessed spatiotemporally in terms of water stress for the population living in poverty. Water productivity is obtained in relation to agricultural production and nutrition. The multi-scale analysis shows that whereas at national level the median annual streamflow has a similar magnitude than rainfall stored in soil, these two parameters differ spatiotemporally at subbasin level. The study finds the greatest challenges in achieving water security is the south-east and central part of the GRBD, due to water scarcity and a larger population living in poverty. However, these areas are also simultaneously, where the greatest crop water productivity is found. We conclude that food production for both domestic consumption and market-oriented exports can be increased while meeting ecosystem water demands in all the GRBD regions except for the east. Our integration of methods provide a better approach to inform integrated land and water management and is relevant for academics, practitioners and policymakers alike.

From the dawn of human civilization, the existence of crimeand punishment are acutely noticeable. Paradoxically, crime and punishment are interrelated termed with each other in contemporary criminology. The prime objective of the study is to identify the changing nature and forms of the philosophy of punishment from historical perspectives. Moreover, the study also tried to find out the associated factors, which contribute to the philosophical change from ancient period to modern age. The review paper is based on secondary sources as well as historical documents like journal articles, authentic books. There are three basic eras perceptible in accordance with the historical viewpoint which are pre classical, classical and modern having retributive, deterrent, rehabilitative and re-integrative philosophies of punishment respectively. The nature of punishment changed due to the impact of political movement especially the French Revolution, industrialization, advancement of science and technology, advent of law enforcing agencies viz., police, courts, and correction systems. Although, the modern philosophy ofpunishment is re-integrative and rehabilitative, but still punishment itself is a debatable issues from different points of view such as existentialism and postmodernism.

Mobile ad hoc network is a network without infrastructure where every node has its own protocols and services for powerful cooperation in the network. Every node also has the ability to handle the congestion in its queues during traffic overflow. Traditionally, this was done through Drop-Tail policy where the node drops the incoming packets to its queues during overflow condition. Many studies showed that early dropping of incoming packet is an effective technique to avoid congestion and to minimize the packet latency. Such approach is known as Active Queue Management (AQM). In this article, an enhanced algorithm called fuzzy-AQM is suggested using a fuzzy logic system to achieve the benefits of AQM. Uncertainty associated with queue congestion estimation and lack of mathematical model for estimating the time to start dropping incoming packets makes the fuzzy-AQM algorithm the best choice. Extensive performance analysis via simulation showed the effectiveness of the proposed method for congestion detection and avoidance improving overall network performance.

Routing is an important functional aspect in wireless ad hoc networks that handles discovering and maintaining the paths between nodes within a network. Due to nodes' mobility, the efficiency of a dynamic ad hoc routing protocol depends highly on updating speed of network topology changes. To achieve continuous updated routing tables, the nodes periodically broadcast short Hello messages to their neighbors. Although benefits of these messages have been proven, many studies show some drawbacks for these messages. In this paper, we adaptively optimize the frequent needs of those messages using a fuzzy logic system. The proposed fuzzy algorithm is used to model the uncertainty measurements for updating local connectivity successfully in time. Extensive performance analysis via simulation proves the effectiveness of the proposed method to improve the accuracy of neighborhood information and, hence, overall network performance.

A creative enterprise (i.e. enterprise in the creative industries) can be understood as an enterprise that relies principally on the creativity of individuals engaged in it. Thus, creativity can be said to define the entire pursuit of creative enterprises. This paper highlights the motivational aspect of creativity in the notion of 'creative vision' based on interviews with founders of creative enterprises in three different regions in Indonesia (Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Bali), encompassing three creative sectors (cuisine, craft, and fashion). Three forms of creative vision have been discovered (collective self-actualization, collective altruism, and co-creation), with each form predominantly signifying each region sampled. Through a collaborative effort of sensemaking in the research team, the current preliminary study contributes to discourses about the nature of creativity or what it entails; it is derived not from the conscious understanding of what creativity is or means by experts and the likes, but from the actual vision of practitioners of creativity from the field where creativity is the soul. The findings emphasize how creativity can be defined: what does it mean to be creative?