An Ultra-Wide Band Umbilical Cord for Cognitive Radio Systems

This paper describes how Cognitive Radio (CR) could benefit from Software-Defined Radio (SDR) compatible Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) systems. It introduces the notion of umbilical cord that can keep a CR device connected to its surrounding world, thanks to sensing and low speed over-the-air reconfiguration (OTAR) means provided by Low-Data Rate (LDR) systems, and to fast OTAR downloading facilities based on High-Data Rate (HDR) hot spots. A particular UWB architecture supporting SDR-compatible technological constraints is proposed as candidate to realize this promising combination of capabilities

Making a living in a slum settlement: The relative influence of norms, cognition and group practices on slum dwellers’ choices related to earning a living

This doctoral thesis explores slum dwellers’ decisions regarding their ways of making a living. The different aspects of earning one’s life in a poverty situation have been mostly studied from the perspective of livelihood assets, the circulation of information about opportunities, the management of skills and relationships, and the affirmation of personal significance in carrying out one’s livelihood strategy. By contrast, this research investigates the decisions behind making a living, by looking at the relative influence of 1) the norms shaping the slum dwellers’ environment, 2) slum dwellers’ individual intentions, 3) slum dwellers’ motivation to comply with others’ behaviours, and 4) the narratives slum dwellers build around the rationality of their choices. In an attempt to address the knowledge gap concerning the interactions between decision-making and poverty, the research documents and analyses the interplay of individual and social factors affecting decision-making processes in the Thapathali slum settlement of Kathmandu, Nepal. The research shows that through their discourse, slum dwellers relay normative beliefs, that is, beliefs which are influenced by norms or definitions of what is acceptable. It is found that these normative beliefs have a partially prescriptive role in determining how slum dwellers make decisions. Most unexpectedly, while slum dwellers’ interpretations of norms produce normative beliefs that are difficult to revise such as valuation neglect – the dispositions of slum dwellers to strive for further opportunities being limited by the collective interpretation of their constrained situation –, the research demonstrates that particular norms such as religious and caste-related norms create a room for manoeuvre as slum dwellers interpret these norms while serving their individual interests, therefore shifting the boundaries of the collectively accepted norms. Driven by one’s will to ‘opt out’ from caste discrimination, some slum dwellers instrumentalise their religious affiliation and convert to Christianity to overcome discrimination and access further benefits within the community, while others make use of their caste-related skills to enhance their array of opportunities. The research concludes that decisions related to making a living in situations of poverty are primarily characterised by the volatility of the normative beliefs behind these decisions: slum dwellers recurrently interpret and re-interpret norms in an attempt to best align their behaviours with their individual intentions and the collective reasons given for certain behaviours within the community. As such, it is the study of the production of normative beliefs that best achieves the unpacking of decision processes and decision practices related to making a living in the Thapathali slum settlement

A Method Helping to Define Eco-innovative Systems Based on Upgradability

AbstractEnvironmental issues due to emerging markets and rapid development of consumer goods’ consumption require a new model to design more sustainable products. While traditional eco-design methods (LCA, Check-lists, Guidelines, DfX tools…) are generally restricted to a local optimization of the product or to macro-rules for defining an environmental strategy, this article presents an eco-innovative method based on product upgradability which is the integration of functional enrichments on the product. Indeed, the integration of upgrades offers new opportunities for facilitating the dissemination of the remanufacturing approach, the dissemination of Product-Service Systems, or for increasing the lifetime of product.This article presents an eco-innovative method based on upgradability consisting in: exploring the potential upgrades of modules - PMoL (SADT activity A4), the potential value network structures for upgradability - VaNS (A3) and the potential serviceable upgrades including eco-learning strategies - SMoL (A5). This method combines then the results PMoL, VaNS and SMoL to form promising Upgradable Modules Scenarios – UpMoS (A6), which are completed by the specification of an associated value network (A7) and the consolidation of eco-usage services and services offers (A8). The final result obtained, Upgradable systems concepts– UpSys are then assessed thanks to a multicriteria approach (A9) considering environmental, economic and user's and stakeholder's attractiveness criteria.To summarize, this method is structured in two rounds. The first round (A3, A4, A5) aims to explore widely the possibilities offered by the upgradability avoiding the complexity of an approach dealing with several parameters simultaneously. The purpose of the second round (A6, A7, A8, A9) is to specify and assess Upgradable systems encompassing the overall results of the exploration. Before performing this work, relevant information needs to be collected for the project (market information, customer segments, technologies, stakeholders, environmental impacts of the current product, etc.) and acceptability domains of upgradable systems have to be analyzed (A1, A2).This paper presents therefore this eco-innovative approach based on five founding principles and answering to the requirements identified in the literature for a good and effective eco-design method

La transmodernidad de Los Maromeros de Verónica Musalem : una crítica performativa a la modernidad/colonialidad

For the members of the Modernity / Coloniality research group, decolonization, to be effective, cannot be limited to the economic and political sphere, but must also relate to categories of thought, imaginaries and knowledge (Lander, 2000). From this perspective, art in general, and theater in particular, because they are imaginary, seem capable of making a real epistemic shift and of generating utopian proposals. This article sets out to explore one of these propositions by analyzing the play Los Maromeros by Mexican playwright and director Verónica Musalem. More specifically, he shows how the coloniality of the genre (Lugones, 2008) is subverted by an aesthetic that can be qualified as transmodern (Dussel, 2017). This dramatic aesthetic takes as its model the maroma, a Mixtec, Zapotec and Nahuatl acrobatic and ritual practice that can be seen as a counter-anthropological ritual. It is about summoning the white alien to bodily actualize his power and ward off him by means of appropriation. Moreover, the maroma can be understood as a rite of passage that repairs the symbolic castration introduced by the coloniality of the genre (Segato, 2014). Thus, the modeling of the maroma in Los Maromeros by Verónica Musalem can be read as an act of resistance and epistemic reappropriation by means of performativity.Para los integrantes del grupo Modernidad/Colonialidad, la descolonización no puede limitarse solamente al aspecto económico y político, sino que debe tomar en cuenta, sobre todo, las herramientas del pensamiento, la imaginación y el saber (Lander, 2000). Desde esta perspectiva, podemos decir que el arte en general, y el teatro en particular, son capaces de producir un verdadero desplazamiento epistémico y generar propuestas utópicas, ya que ambos están vinculados con la imaginación. Este artículo explora precisamente una de estas propuestas a través del análisis de la obra de teatro Los Maromeros de la dramaturga y directora mexicana Verónica Musalem. El objetivo de este trabajo es, por lo tanto, mostrar en qué medida la estética que nombro transmoderna (Dussel, 2017), puede llegar a desestabilizar la modernidad/colonialidad y el patriarcado moderno colonial (Lugones, 2008). Esta estética toma como modelo la maroma, una práctica acrobática y ritual mixteca, zapoteca y nahuatl (Pescayre, 2015). Ahora bien, la maroma puede leerse como un ritual « contra-antropológico » (Goddard, 2019) al invocar/imitar al hombre blanco heterosexual actualizar al nivel corporal su potencia y la conjurar por medio de una apropiación. Además, la maroma puede entenderse como un rito iniciático para los jovenes mediante el cual « curan » su castración simbólica producida por la colonialidad del género (Segato, 2014). Así, la modelización de la maroma en Los Maromeros de Verónica Musalem puede leerse como un acto de resistencia y de reapropiación epistémica gracias a su performatividad

Acacia auriculiformis production in the Mampu agroforestry zone on the Batéké plateau, Democratic Republic of Congo

peer reviewedThe Mampu agroforestry zone on the Batéké plateau in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been managed with Acacia auriculiformis shade trees for over twenty years by local communities, supplies subsistence products and fuel wood to Kinshasa. Thanks to international grant funding, this agroforestry system, which integrates traditional slashand- burn cultivation, has been replicated in many places across the RDC, but its performance has never been assessed. The aim of this study was to estimate Acacia auriculiformis production in terms of total biomass and usable biomass for charcoal (stems and branches more than 4 cm in diameter) as part of the agroforestry system. To do so, two local allometric equations for total and usable biomass were adjusted from destructive testing data. Using existing inventory data (n = 112 plots), we identified significant structural heterogeneity throughout the rotation period (8-10 years) but also among plots of the same age. Despite this heterogeneity, which may be accounted for by environmental conditions on site and/or by differences in the handling of plot management techniques, production is comparable to that observed at other sites, averaging 145 tonnes per hectare over 10 years. The Mampu agroforestry system has many advantages, including direct services creating rural employment and combined production of subsistence goods and charcoal, but also indirect services such as avoided deforestation and carbon sequestration. The system's sustainability and dissemination should nevertheless be discussed

Variability of Black Carbon Deposition to the East Antarctic Plateau, 1800-2000 AD

Refractory black carbon aerosols (rBC) from biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion are deposited to the Antarctic ice sheet and preserve a history of emissions and long-range transport from low- and mid-latitudes. Antarctic ice core rBC records may thus provide information with respect to past combustion aerosol emissions and atmospheric circulation. Here, we present six East Antarctic ice core records of rBC concentrations and fluxes covering the last two centuries with approximately annual resolution (cal. yr. 1800 to 2000). The ice cores were drilled in disparate regions of the high East Antarctic ice sheet, at different elevations and net snow accumulation rates. Annual rBC concentrations were log-normally distributed and geometric means of annual concentrations ranged from 0.10 to 0.18 μg kg−1. Average rBC fluxes were determined over the time periods 1800 to 2000 and 1963 to 2000 and ranged from 3.4 to 15.5 μg m−2a−1and 3.6 to 21.8 μg m−2a−1, respectively. Geometric mean concentrations spanning 1800 to 2000 increased linearly with elevation at a rate of 0.025 μg kg−1/500 m. Spectral analysis of the records revealed significant decadal-scale variability, which at several sites was comparable to decadal ENSO variability

Public subsidies have supported the development of electric trawling in Europe

In the 2000s, the Dutch beam trawl fleet was in chronic deficit and under pressure to reduce its environmental impact. Instead of converting to selective fishing gears, it successfully lobbied the European Commission with the support of public authorities and scientists to obtain derogations against formal scientific advice to practice a prohibited technique: electric trawling. Since then, electric trawling has expanded beyond regulatory threshold: 84 large trawlers now catch the vast majority of the Dutch flatfish quota, causing detrimental socio-environmental impacts. To assess whether the European Union's fisheries policies fulfilled legal objectives and implemented the 2030 Agenda, it appeared crucial to quantify how much public financial aid had been provided to the Dutch fishing sector for its conversion to electric trawling. The financial information enabling this evaluation was first concealed but was eventually obtained. We show that the institutional opacity surrounding electric trawling was not serendipitous and has served to dissimulate allocations of public monies to a prohibited fishing method (otter trawl), illegal licenses, and falsely ‘scientific’ fishing. In breach of EU laws, 20.8 million EUR of structural funds have so far been granted to this sector in the form of direct subsidies, i.e. over 30 times the amount acknowledged by the fishing industry. The findings presented here lift part of the veil surrounding electric trawling, but the complete reconstruction of the impacts of this fishing method can only be done when decision-makers and scientists disclose all data in full transparency and become the warrants of the public interestS