AgriLOVE: Agriculture, land-use and technical change in an evolutionary, agent-based model

This paper presents a dynamic agent-based model of land use and agricultural production under environmental boundaries, finite available resources and endogenous technical change. In particular, we model a spatially explicit smallholder farming system populated by boundedly-rational agents competing and innovating to fulfill an exogenous demand for food, while coping with a changing environment shaped by their production choices. Given the strong technological and environmental uncertainty, agents learn and adaptively employ heuristics which guide their decisions on engaging in innovation and imitation activities, hiring workers, acquiring new farms, deforesting virgin areas and abandoning unproductive lands. Such activities in turn impact farm productivity, food production, food prices and land use. We firstly show that the model can replicate key stylized facts of the agricultural sector. We then extensively explore its properties across several scenarios featuring different institutional and behavioral settings. Finally, we simulate the model across different applications considering deforestation and land abandonment; human-induced soil degradation; and climate impacts. AgriLOVE offers a flexible simulation environment to study the endogenous emergence of different agricultural production regimes from the interaction of spatially dispersed farms subject to resource constraints, spatial influence and climate change

Numerical Study of the Intrinsic and Feedback Dynamics of a Gas-Solid Fluidized Bed

The aim of this paper is to understand the complex spatio-temporal patterning of the dense bed when the inlet conditions can be modified by the bed itself. In this study, the inlet conditions (fluid pressure and velocity upstream the bed) take into account resistive effects from the distributor and capacitive ones from the air-supply system (plenum). The present work addresses particularly the issue of the transition between multiple and single bubble regimes that occurs for some particular inlet conditions

Torino, via Maria Vittoria 7c. Oratorio di S. Filippo Neri. Strutture di età romana e impianti ottocenteschi

Nell'ambito del cantiere archeologico che ha interessato l'Isolato S. Filippo in Torino, prestigiosa isola che comprende la nota omonima chiesa con oratorio, sono state rinvenute strutture che, a fronte di indagini bibliografiche e di archivio, sono state identificate come segni di impianti utili al fabbricato prospiciente via Carlo Alberto, nell'Ottocento sede centrale delle Poste e Telegrafi e del Ministero dei Lavori pubblici. Raro riferimento per una cosiddetta "storia dell'impiantistica", il testo, oltre a introdurre le principali vicende che hanno accompagnato le trasformazioni del luogo, propone una disamina dettagliata dei materiali ritrovati

La verifica preventiva dell’interesse archeologico nella progettazione della Tratta 3 Collegno Cascine Vica della Linea 1 della Metropolitana Automatica di Torino. The preventive verification of archeological interest in the design of the Section 3. Collegno Cascine Vica of the Turin Automatic Metro Line 1

L’infrastruttura rientra tra quelle dichiarate dal D.L. n. 133/2014 (Decreto Sblocca Italia) strategica, essenziale, indifferibile ed urgente. Infratrasporti.To Srl (di seguito InfraTo) in fase di progettazione definitiva, in ottemperanza al Codice degli Appalti, ha avviato la verifica preventiva dell’interesse archeolo- gico, al fine di fornire indicazioni affidabili per ridurre il grado di incertezza relativamente alla sussistenza di eventuali beni o depositi archeologici interrati e nel definire il livello di rischio circa la possibilità di effettuare ritrovamenti archeologici nel corso dei lavori in oggetto. Parallelamente alle indagini ar- cheologiche sono state effettuate ricerche storiche finalizzate a identificare l’assetto territoriale dell’area interessata dal progetto prima della moderna in- dustrializzazione. Il contributo è volto a mettere in luce le potenzialità e le cri- ticità degli obblighi normativi, in relazione alla necessità di realizzare un’opera infrastrutturale rilevante, con tempi definiti e costi certi. The infrastructure is one of the Italian public works, included in the D.L 133/2014 (Decreto Sblocca Italia) and declared as a strategic, non-postponable and urgent work. Infratrasporti.To Srl (later InfraTo), in conformity with the so-called Codice degli appalti law, engaged a firm for the archaeological risk assess- ment in order to to provide reliable information to reduce the degree of uncertain- ty regarding the existence of any underground archaeological assets. Along with the archaeological research, written reports and maps analysed the area interested by the project before the modern industrial era. Specific instructions were made concerning the reduction of the risk for the archaeological cultural heritage, recom- mending methods appropriate to the found risk indices, following Soprintendenza Archeologica Belle Arti e Paesaggio’s rules. The study explores the potential and challenges of the statutory obligations with regards to the necessity of the construc- tion of an important infrastructure within time limits and known costs

Examining linkages among multiple sustainable development outcomes: does the productive safety net program increase on-farm agrobiodiversity?

In Ethiopia, on-farm agrobiodiversity and the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) play a key role in building smallholders’ resilience. However, the impact of PSNP on on-farm agrobiodiversity is not yet well investigated. In this paper, we develop an analytical framework that links PSNP participation to on-farm agrobiodiversity. Both diverse farming systems and PSNP require labour inputs while providing income stabilization, which might result in a negative relationship between the two. Conversely, higher income from PSNP might allow farmers to increase their long-term on-farm investments, as opposed to the strategies oriented toward the highest immediate profit or calorie intake outcome. We base our empirical analysis on the World Bank’s Ethiopian Socioeconomic Survey, a panel dataset encompassing nearly 3000 respondents and a Tobit model, based on Difference-in-Difference and the Propensity-Score Matching methods. We find that Ethiopia’s PSNP has a negative impact on farm labour input, both in terms of labour intensity and duration. Furthermore, our results show that participation in the program is associated, on average, with lower on-farm crop diversity. We conclude that the PSNP participation may be crowding-out production stabilizing farming activities, such as intercropping or cover cropping, that are more labour intensive. Our findings call for embedding tools in the new phase of the PSNP (2021–2025) that could incentivise on-farm resilience-oriented investments, in particular leading to higher crop diversification

First Principles Calculation of Elastic Properties of Solid Argon at High Pressures

The density and the elastic stiffness coefficients of fcc solid argon at high pressures from 1 GPa up to 80 GPa are computed by first-principles pseudopotential method with plane-wave basis set and the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). The result is in good agreement with the experimental result recently obtained with the Brillouin spectroscopy by Shimizu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 4568 (2001)]. The Cauchy condition was found to be strongly violated as in the experimental result, indicating large contribution from non-central many-body force. The present result has made it clear that the standard density functional method with periodic boundary conditions can be successfully applied for calculating elastic properties of rare gas solids at high pressures in contrast to those at low pressures where dispersion forces are important.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Isostructural Phase Transition of TiN Under High Pressure

In situ high-pressure energy dispersive x-ray diffraction experiments on polycrystalline powder TiN with NaCl-type structure have been conducted with the pressure up to 30.1 GPa by using the diamond anvil cell instrument with synchrotron radiation at room tempearture. The experimental results suggested that an isostructural phase transition might exist at about 7 GPa as revealed by the discontinuity of V/V0 with pressure.Comment: submitte

Сталий розвиток промислового регіону

У монографії визначено засади забезпечення сталого розвитку України та її промислових регіонів у контексті соціального та людського розвитку. Розроблено систему оцінки ризиків ресурсного забезпечення сталого розвитку. Розкрито вплив соціального капіталу на формування сталого розвитку. Визначено взяємозв’язок і взаємозалежність людського та сталого розвитку. Наведено теоретичну модель взаємозв’язку людського розвитку, нагромадження людського капіталу та підвищення конкурентоспроможності промислового регіону. Розкрито механізми активізації участі населення у забезпеченні сталого розвитку промислового регіону

Equation of state and phonon frequency calculations of diamond at high pressures

The pressure-volume relationship and the zone-center optical phonon frequency of cubic diamond at pressures up to 600 GPa have been calculated based on Density Functional Theory within the Local Density Approximation and the Generalized Gradient Approximation. Three different approaches, viz. a pseudopotential method applied in the basis of plane waves, an all-electron method relying on Augmented Plane Waves plus Local Orbitals, and an intermediate approach implemented in the basis of Projector Augmented Waves have been used. All these methods and approximations yield consistent results for the pressure derivative of the bulk modulus and the volume dependence of the mode Grueneisen parameter of diamond. The results are at variance with recent precise measurements up to 140 GPa. Possible implications for the experimental pressure determination based on the ruby luminescence method are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure