Money and sustainability: Transitioning to an ecological monetary system

A profound transformation of our monetary paradigm is urgently needed. To re-think, re-imagine, and re-design our monetary system is of critical priority if we want to have a chance at sustainability. The current dominant monetary-banking-financial system is inherently, and by design, a source and a force of unsustainability lying at the core of our economies and societies. It's a system actively contributing to ecological degradation, socio-political crises, and economic instability, uncertainty, and alienation. But there are alternatives and these must be given the spotlight. Not tweaks or reforms to the system, but radical shifts in how we deal, use, relate to, and feel regarding money. The societal challenge we must embrace is rapidly transitioning our monetary reality into a purposeful ecological monetary ecosystem aligned with the regeneration of our planet and all life in it. This Doctoral thesis contributes to the emergence and development of a new monetary paradigm with planet and people at its core. The research is intrinsically transdisciplinary and based on mixed-methods. Different methodologies were used, combining qualitative with quantitative methods and more passive research with more action-oriented transformative research, including field visits, interviews with practioners, and direct interaction with local and regional complementary currency experiments. By combining a transdisciplinary literature review with an action-research approach this thesis offers novel insights into the transition process to an ecological monetary ecosystem. A set of regenerative principles and priorities for monetary reform that would enable us to root money back into the real economy, coherent with the laws of physics and aligned with an ecology of life is offered. Moreover, a model for a multi-currency ecosystem is explored and presented at the end of this thesis. The implications of such a fundamental revolution in the core design of our increasingly monetized economies could potentially put us back on track and re-align our socio-economic and political system with our climate agreements, our SDG and our intentions for peace and prosperity.Uma profunda transformação do nosso paradigma monetário é urgentemente necessária. Re-pensar, re-imaginar, e re-desenhar o nosso sistema monetário é uma prioridade societal crítica se quisermos garantir a nossa sustentabilidade. O actual sistema monetário-bancário-financeiro dominante é inerentemente, e por design, uma fonte e uma força de insustentabilidade que se encontra no cerne das nossas economias e sociedades. É um sistema que contribui activamente para a degradação ecológica, crises sócio-políticas, e para a instabilidade, incerteza e alienação económica. Mas existem alternativas e estas têm de ser objecto de atenção especial. Não ajustamentos ou "reformas" ao sistema, mas mudanças radicais na forma como lidamos, utilizamos, nos relacionamos e sentimos em relação ao dinheiro. O desafio social que temos de abraçar é a rápida transição das nossas realidades monetárias para um ecossistema propositadamente alinhado com a regeneração do nosso planeta e de toda a vida. Esta tese de doutoramento contribui para a emergência e desenvolvimento de um novo paradigma monetário com o planeta e as pessoas no seu âmago. A investigação é intrinsecamente transdisciplinar e baseada numa abordagem de métodos mistos. Foram utilizadas diferentes metodologias, combinando métodos qualitativos com métodos quantitativos, e investigação mais passiva com investigação transformadora mais orientada para a acção, incluindo visitas de campo, entrevistas e interacção directa com experiências de moedas complementares locais e regionais. Ao combinar uma revisão transdisciplinar da literatura, com uma abordagem de investigaçãoacção, esta tese oferece novas ideias e concepções sobre o processo de transição para um ecossistema monetário ecológico. É oferecido um conjunto de princípios regenerativos e prioridades para a reforma monetária que nos permitiria enraizar o dinheiro de volta à economia real, coerente com as leis da física e alinhado com uma ecologia da vida. No final da tese é ainda explorado e apresentado um modelo para um ecosistema monetário com base na co-existência de múltiplos circuitos monetários. As implicações de uma tal revolução no nosso sistema monetário e no centro das nossas economias, cada vez mais monetizadas, poderão ser potenciadoras de uma transição para um novo caminho societal, alinhado com os nossos acordos climáticos, os nossos ODS e as nossas intenções de paz e prosperidade

Cost-benefit analysis in climate change adaptation: the use of participatory methodologies

A análise custo-benefício, enquanto ferramenta económica de avaliação de projetos públicos ou privados, tem evoluído significativamente nos últimos 200 anos, acompanhando e seguindo quer os desenvolvimentos ao nível da ciência económica, nomeadamente Economia do Ambiente, quer os desenvolvimentos ao nível da análise de projetos e políticas públicas. Apesar das inúmeras e contínuas críticas que lhe são apontadas quer ao nível teórico-académico, quer político, quer socioeconómico, a análise custo-benefício tem-se mantido no centro de uma crescente cultura de avaliação económica dentro dos países da OCDE e tem inclusive ganho cada vez mais peso, nomeadamente ao nível da União Europeia. Nesta tese, fazemos uma análise histórica da evolução teórica e prática da análise custo-benefício, com particular interesse à sua utilização na análise de estratégias e medidas de adaptação às alterações climáticas, apresentando ferramentas e metodologias alternativas e culminando com uma proposta inovadora de uma análise benefício-custo participada, metodologia desenvolvida e testada no caso de estudo de Cascais no âmbito de um projeto europeu de investigação-ação.Cost-benefit analysis, as an economic evaluation tool of public or private projects, has evolved significantly in the last 200 years following the developments in terms of economics, namely Environmental Economic, and developments in project analysis and public policy evaluation. Despite numerous and ongoing criticisms both at a theoretical, academic level as well as at a socio-economic, political level, cost-benefit analysis has remained at the center of a growing culture of economic project appraisal within OECD countries and has even won increasing weight and political recognition, particularly in the European Union. In this thesis, we make a historical analysis of the theoretical evolution and practice of cost-benefit analysis, with particular interest in terms of its use in the analysis of strategies and measures for climate change adaptation, presenting alternative methodologies and tools for the economic appraisal of projects and culminating with an innovative proposal for a participatory benefit-cost analysis, a methodology developed and tested in the Cascais case study under an European action-research project

Deployment of a smart and predictive maintenance system in an industrial case study

Industrial manufacturing environments are often characterized as being stochastic, dynamic and chaotic, being crucial the implementation of proper maintenance strategies to ensure the production efficiency, since the machines? breakdown leads to a degradation of the system performance, causing the loss of productivity and business opportunities. In this context, the use of emergent ICT technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning and augmented reality, allows to develop smart and predictive maintenance systems, contributing for the reduction of unplanned machines? downtime by predicting possible failures and recovering faster when they occur. This paper describes the deployment of a smart and predictive maintenance system in an industrial case study, that considers IoT and machine learning technologies to support the online and real-time data collection and analysis for the earlier detection of machine failures, allowing the visualization, monitoring and schedule of maintenance interventions to mitigate the occurrence of such failures. The deployed system also integrates machine learning and augmented reality technologies to support the technicians during the execution of maintenance interventions.2411-78B2-7CDB | Pedro Miguel MoreiraN/

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Mitochondrial physiology

As the knowledge base and importance of mitochondrial physiology to evolution, health and disease expands, the necessity for harmonizing the terminology concerning mitochondrial respiratory states and rates has become increasingly apparent. The chemiosmotic theory establishes the mechanism of energy transformation and coupling in oxidative phosphorylation. The unifying concept of the protonmotive force provides the framework for developing a consistent theoretical foundation of mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. We follow the latest SI guidelines and those of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on terminology in physical chemistry, extended by considerations of open systems and thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The concept-driven constructive terminology incorporates the meaning of each quantity and aligns concepts and symbols with the nomenclature of classical bioenergetics. We endeavour to provide a balanced view of mitochondrial respiratory control and a critical discussion on reporting data of mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic flows and fluxes. Uniform standards for evaluation of respiratory states and rates will ultimately contribute to reproducibility between laboratories and thus support the development of data repositories of mitochondrial respiratory function in species, tissues, and cells. Clarity of concept and consistency of nomenclature facilitate effective transdisciplinary communication, education, and ultimately further discovery

Mitochondrial physiology

As the knowledge base and importance of mitochondrial physiology to evolution, health and disease expands, the necessity for harmonizing the terminology concerning mitochondrial respiratory states and rates has become increasingly apparent. The chemiosmotic theory establishes the mechanism of energy transformation and coupling in oxidative phosphorylation. The unifying concept of the protonmotive force provides the framework for developing a consistent theoretical foundation of mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. We follow the latest SI guidelines and those of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on terminology in physical chemistry, extended by considerations of open systems and thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The concept-driven constructive terminology incorporates the meaning of each quantity and aligns concepts and symbols with the nomenclature of classical bioenergetics. We endeavour to provide a balanced view of mitochondrial respiratory control and a critical discussion on reporting data of mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic flows and fluxes. Uniform standards for evaluation of respiratory states and rates will ultimately contribute to reproducibility between laboratories and thus support the development of data repositories of mitochondrial respiratory function in species, tissues, and cells. Clarity of concept and consistency of nomenclature facilitate effective transdisciplinary communication, education, and ultimately further discovery

Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study

Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation. Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28–2·40], p\textless0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65–3·22], p\textless0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3–5 versus grades 1–2 (2·35 [1·57–3·53], p\textless0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01–2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06–2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01–2·31], p=0·047). Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost