10,234 research outputs found
Legal Issues Pertaining to Community Based Fisheries Management
National and intergovernmental regulation of fisheries has not prevented many failures of fisheries management around the world. New approaches to improving the environmental sustainability of fisheries have included the certification of fisheries harvested by sustainable means, and the ecolabelling of fish and seafood products from certified fisheries. The intention is to use the power of markets as an incentive to induce more sustainable fisheries. To date, only a relatively small number of fisheries have been certified, and these have been predominantly in developed countries. Critiques from developing countries of ecolabelling, as currently formulated, focus on five general areas: a) legitimacy and credibility; b) a mismatch between certification requirements and the reality of tropical small-scale fisheries; c) potential distortions to existing practices and livelihoods; d) equity and feasibility; and e) perceived barriers to trade.This paper reviews these developing country concerns on the basis of already certified fisheries, and on experiences from forestry, aquaculture and the aquarium industry, and also examines precedents and trends in international environmental and trade issues. It suggests that ecolabelling as currently practiced is unlikely to be widely adopted in Asian countries. Certification may have sporadic success in some eco-conscious, or niche, markets but it is unlikely to stimulate global improvement of fisheries management.The paper argues that to avoid the controversy that accompanies ecolabelling, the focus should be on revision of national fisheries management and not on an ad hoc approach to individual fisheries. Improvements in fisheries management, the equitable treatment of fishing sub-sectors and stakeholders within management schemes, and the prospect of reaping increased value-added from fisheries all require government acceptance of needs and actions. Governments should be encouraged to enter into broad coalitions to improve aspects of fisheries management, and to enhance efforts to develop locally relevant indicator systems for fisheries and for the ecosystem approach. Governments of developing countries must also first address the difficult questions of access to and tenure arrangements for their fisheries, as these are essential prerequisites for successful certification and product labeling. They will also need to legislate on the form and conduct of the postharvest chain and product control, as, in export markets, these are outside the control ofthe fishing communities. International agreement and clarity on trade, environmental (and health) standards affecting fisheries will augment national efforts. Advocacy coalitions that include governments, rather than extraterritorial imposition of labelling schemes, are required
Virtual geological outcrops - fieldwork and analysis made less exhaustive?
For geologists studying outcrops in the field, there is an ever‐increasing need for the acquisition of accurate and comprehensive data, whatever their purpose. Fortunately, this need is mirrored by an expanding range of digital data capturing technologies that provide the possibility of examining geological outcrops in minute detail from the desktop. Although difficult technologically, there is also a need to combine differing datasets into a single, accurate, digital model that will allow field geologists to place their data in a wider context. This paper examines the techniques available, and highlights new Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology which should prove to be a unifying technique, being able to combine images and local coordinates on‐site
Stochastic Einstein equations
Stochastic Einstein equations are considered when 3D space metric
are stochastic functions. The probability density for the
stochastic quantities is connected with the Perelman's entropy functional. As
an example, the Friedman Universe is considered. It is shown that for the
Friedman Universe the dynamical evolution is not changed. The connection
between general relativity and Ricci flows is discussed.Comment: 5 page
Number-Phase Wigner Representation for Efficient Stochastic Simulations
Phase-space representations based on coherent states (P, Q, Wigner) have been
successful in the creation of stochastic differential equations (SDEs) for the
efficient stochastic simulation of high dimensional quantum systems. However
many problems using these techniques remain intractable over long integrations
times. We present a number-phase Wigner representation that can be unraveled
into SDEs. We demonstrate convergence to the correct solution for an anharmonic
oscillator with small dampening for significantly longer than other phase space
representations. This process requires an effective sampling of a non-classical
probability distribution. We describe and demonstrate a method of achieving
this sampling using stochastic weights.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur
Nuclear quantum effects in solids using a colored-noise thermostat
We present a method, based on a non-Markovian Langevin equation, to include
quantum corrections to the classical dynamics of ions in a quasi-harmonic
system. By properly fitting the correlation function of the noise, one can vary
the fluctuations in positions and momenta as a function of the vibrational
frequency, and fit them so as to reproduce the quantum-mechanical behavior,
with minimal a priori knowledge of the details of the system. We discuss the
application of the thermostat to diamond and to ice Ih. We find that results in
agreement with path-integral molecular dynamics can be obtained using only a
fraction of the computational effort.Comment: submitted for publicatio
Macroscopic Expression Connecting the Rate of Energy Dissipation and Violation of the Fluctuation-Response Relation
A direct connection between the magnitude of the violation of the
fluctuation-response relation (FRR) and the rate of energy dissipation is
presented in terms of field variables of nonequilibrium systems. Here, we
consider the density field of a colloidal suspension either in a relaxation
process or in a nonequilibrium steady state driven by an external field. Using
a path-integral representation of the temporal evolution of the density field,
we find an equality that relates the magnitude of the violation of the FRR for
scalar and vector potentials of the velocity field to the rate of energy
dissipation for the entire system. Our result demonstrates that the violation
of the FRR for field variables captures the entropic component of the
dissipated free energy.Comment: 4 pages, a major reviso
Quantum turbulence in condensate collisions: an application of the classical field method
We apply the classical field method to simulate the production of correlated
atoms during the collision of two Bose-Einstein condensates. Our
non-perturbative method includes the effect of quantum noise, and provides for
the first time a theoretical description of collisions of high density
condensates with very large out-scattered fractions. Quantum correlation
functions for the scattered atoms are calculated from a single simulation, and
show that the correlation between pairs of atoms of opposite momentum is rather
small. We also predict the existence of quantum turbulence in the field of the
scattered atoms--a property which should be straightforwardly measurable.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures: Rewritten text, replaced figure
Sum rule for response function in nonequilibrium Langevin systems
We derive general properties of the linear response functions of
nonequilibrium steady states in Langevin systems. These correspond to extension
of the results which were recently found in Hamiltonian systems [A. Shimizu and
T. Yuge, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. {\bf 79}, 013002 (2010)]. We discuss one of the
properties, the sum rule for the response function, in particular detail. We
show that the sum rule for the response function of the velocity holds in the
underdamped case, whereas it is violated in the overdamped case. This implies
that the overdamped Langevin models should be used with great care. We also
investigate the relation of the sum rule to an equality on the energy
dissipation in nonequilibrium Langevin systems, which was derived by Harada and
Sasa.Comment: 8 page
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