166 research outputs found
Lost generation: Reflections on resilience and flexibility from an energy system architecture perspective
Whole energy system modelling is a valuable tool to support the development of policy to decarbonise energy systems, and has been used extensively in the UK for this purpose. However, quantitative insights produced by such models necessarily omit potentially important features of physical and engineering reality. The authors argue that important socio-technical insights can be gained by studying critical events such as the loss of 2.1 GW generation from the electricity system of Great Britain on 9th August 2019, in conjunction with literature on the behaviour of complex systems. Among these insights is the idea that models of the operation and evolution of energy systems can never be complete. Both system behaviour (operation) and the emergence and evolution of structure in such systems are formally uncomputable. This provides a starting point for a discussion of the need for additional tools, drawn from the System Architecture literature, to support the design and realisation of future, fully-decarbonised systems with high penetrations of renewable energy. Desirable properties of System Architectures, including current and future Energy System Architectures, are discussed. These include resilience and flexibility, for which there is an extensive literature. They also include the properties of comprehensibility, which helps to make complex systems easier to operate, and of evolvability, for which a working definition is offered
Lost Generation: System Resilience and Flexibility
Whole energy system modelling is a valuable
tool to support the development of policy to decarbonise
energy systems, and has been used extensively in the UK for
this purpose. However, quantitative insights produced by
such models methods necessarily omit potentially important
features of physical and engineering reality. The authors
argue that important socio-technical insights can be gained
by studying critical events such as the loss of 2.1 GW
generation from the electricity system of Great Britain in
August, 2019. The present paper uses this event as a starting
point for a discussion of the need for additional tools, drawn
from the System Architecture literature, to support the
design and realisation of future fully decarbonised systems
with high penetrations of renewable energy, capable of
providing high levels of resilience and flexibility
Activity of the olm (Proteus anguinus) in surface habitats: ecological and evolutionary insights
The olm is considered as a classic example of troglobiont organism. However, in the past different observations of individuals of the typical troglomorphic populations have been reported for springs of Venetia Giulia.
The aim of this work is to point out the non-random active use of surface habitats by the olm, providing a comparison with the occurrence observed in caves and performing an assessment of factors favouring ecotone habitats exploitation.
Since 2020 we started multiple day and night surveys of olms in both springs and caves. Each spring and cave habitat monitored has been characterised by respect to abiotic and biotic features, including planktonic and benthic prey availability.
We detected the olm at least once in 10 springs, with a maximum of 9 individuals occurring together. Detection probability in springs and caves was similar. Spring habitats provided higher density of potential prey available. Olms seems to prefer springs without predator fish and temporary hydroperiod. We recorded in one spring a larva of 3.5 cm which could be the smallest ever recorded in the field.
We suggest that epigean habitats and borders with surface may have an underestimated importance for animals adapted to subterranean environments, including the olm. Our results stimulate for testing if exploitation of ecotones between surface and groundwater can lead to differentiation in populations/subpopulations of stygobiont animals
Turning Back to Turkey Or Turning the Back to Germany? Remigration Intentions and Behavior of Turkish Immigrants in Germany between 1984 and 2011
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Deportation Stigma and Re-migration
Many, if not most, of those who are forcibly expelled from the country to which they have migrated will not settle in the country to which they have been returned but will leave again. A recent article examined some of the reasons why this should be so. It was argued that in addition to the factors that had caused the original migration, such as fear of persecution, continuing conflict, insecurity, poverty and lack of opportunity, deportation creates at least three additional reasons that make re-migration the most likely outcome. These were debt, family commitments and the shame of failure and or ‘contamination’ leading to stigmatisation. In this article, we explore the stigma of failure and of contamination attached to those deported, and the ways in which they respond to and manage this stigmatisation, including by re-migrating. We use Goffman's concept of stigma and the refinement offered by to further nuance understanding of the impact of deportation
Mental health of refugees following state-sponsored repatriation from Germany
von Lersner U, Elbert T, Neuner F. Mental health of refugees following state-sponsored repatriation from Germany. BMC Psychiatry. 2008;8(1): 88.BACKGROUND: In recent years, Voluntary Assisted Return Programmes (VARPs) have received increasing funding as a potential way of reducing the number of refugees in EU member states. A number of factors may affect the mental well-being of returnees. These include adjustment to the home country following return, difficult living conditions, and long-term effects resulting from the severe traumatic stress that had originally driven the affected out of their homes. Little is known about the extent to which these and other factors may promote or inhibit the willingness of refugees to return to their country of origin. The present pilot study investigated refugees who returned to their country of origin after having lived in exile in Germany for some 13 years. METHODS: Forty-seven VARP participants were interviewed concerning their present living conditions, their views of their native country, and their attitudes towards a potential return prior to actually returning. 33 participants were interviewed nine months after returning to their country of origin. Mental health and well-being were assessed using the questionnaires Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale (PDS) and EUROHIS and the structured Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.).Our objectives were to examine the mental health status of refugees returning to their home country following an extended period of exile. We also aimed to assess the circumstances under which people decided to return, the current living conditions in their home country, and retrospective returnee evaluations of their decision to accept assisted return. RESULTS: Prior to returning to their home country, participants showed a prevalence rate of 53% for psychiatric disorders. After returning, this rate increased to a sizeable 88%. Substantial correlations were found between the living situation in Germany, the disposition to return, and mental health. For two thirds of the participants, the decision to return was not voluntary. CONCLUSION: Psychological strain among study participants was of a considerable magnitude. As a result of traumatic stress experienced during war and refuge, victims were vulnerable and not well equipped to cope with either post-migration stressors in exile or with a return to their country of origin. It is noteworthy that the majority returned under pressure from immigration authorities. Living conditions after return (such as housing, work, and health care) were poor and unstable. Participants also had great difficulty readapting to the cultural environment after having lived abroad for an average of 13 years. Current VARPs do not take these factors into account and are therefore not able to assist in a humanitarian reintegration of voluntary returnees
Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases
The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of
aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs)
can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves
excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological
concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can
lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl
radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic
inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the
involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a
large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and
inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation
of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many
similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e.
iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The
studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic
and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and
lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and
longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is
thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As
systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have
multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent
patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of
multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the
decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference
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