Brief History of Additive Manufacture and the Effect of Patents

In the present article, the author presents a study of the history of patents, as well as the effect of this on the progress of additive manufacturing. This brief history of additive manufacturing, aims to be a mandatory reading for all that researcher, scientist or company manager, who wants to be able to situate the current moment of additive manufacturing, and be able to judge the effect that patents have had on the development of this technology. Therefore, it should be noted, that the expiration of the patents that protected some Additive Manufacturing technologies, thus allowing the entry into the market of universities and small companies manufacturing and marketing personal printers economically very affordable

The Importance of Prevention in Tackling Desertification: An Approach to Anticipate Risks of Degradation in Coastal Aquifers

Groundwater degradation is a major issue on an increasingly hot and thirsty planet. The problem is critical in drylands, where recharge rates are low and groundwater is the only reliable resource in a context of water scarcity and stress. Aquifer depletion and contamination is a process of desertification. Land Degradation Neutrality is regarded as the main initiative to tackle land degradation and desertification. It is embedded in target 15.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals and focused on preventing these dynamics. Within this framework, we present an approach to assess risks of degradation and desertification in coastal basins with aquifers threatened by seawater intrusion. The approach utilizes an integrated system dynamics model representing the main relationships between the aquifer and an intensively irrigated area (greenhouses) driven by short- and medium-term profitability. The study area is located in a semi-arid region in Southern Spain, the Gualchos stream basin, which contains the Castell de Ferro aquifer. We found that the risk of salinization of the aquifer is 73%, while there is a 70% risk that the system would increases its demand for surface water in the future, and the chance of doubling the current demand is almost 50%. If the current system of reservoirs in the area were not able to satisfy such an increase in demand because of climate change, the basin would be at a serious risk of desertification.This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC grant agreement 647038 (BIODESERT)) and by the project 101086497 funded by European Union’s Horizon-CL6-2022-Governance-01-07 research and innovation program

Modelling of Information for Additive Manufacture (AP242) and Comparative with Other Existing Models

With the advent of new technologies, there has been a revolution in recent decades that is not alien to companies. Nowadays, the organization of the company is subject to a series of information and/or qualities that are convenient to organize. In order that the information of a company can be used by other collaborating companies, some standards that allow communication have been created. The ISO 10303 standard, better known as STEP, is the international standard that is fulfilling this objective of standardizing the methods that allow what is called "interoperability". Very recently, different solutions are being articulated to those proposed ones in this study, aimed at providing solutions to the same problems, such as using the model based on STEP - NC. The purpose of this research is to develop a proposal that incorporates the AP242 standard (ISO 10303) in the information model for a manufacturing technique that is growing at great speed, known as "Additive Manufacturing"; for this purpose, the feasible project methodology is used, in addition to making a comparison with other existing models

Uberizing Agriculture in Drylands: A Few Enriched, Everyone Endangered

The future of water resources relies heavily on food production. Large-scale agriculture, driven by irrigation technology and cost reduction, has transformed traditional dryland croplands into a very profitable but environmentally and socially impactful agribusiness. The study of groundwater-dependent food systems is fragmented. Hydrology, on one hand, concentrates on water resources while overlooking surface agricultural processes. Meanwhile, the agro-economic sector is fixated on optimizing resource utilization for short-term profit maximization. Consequently, numerous adverse environmental and social consequences are overlooked by these conventional approaches. To steer resource usage and our food systems in a new direction, prioritizing the integration of this collective knowledge is imperative. Here, we analyze the impacts of greenhouse agriculture in SE Spain, one of the global hotspots of fruit and vegetable production. Through the lens of the treadmill of production theory we uncover the model’s significant profitability and its environmental and social effects, which include unequal wealth distribution, precarious working conditions, and the depletion and pollution of belowground water reserves. Reducing water use and limiting the development of new irrigated areas, using crop species adapted to available water resources, and empowering farmers against large distributors are key measures to avoid the social and economic collapse of this region, and of other dryland areas that have followed a similar unsustainable development model. The need for these changes becomes more pressing as the impacts of climate change continue to escalate. Within this context, groundwater reserves represent vital strategic resources that must not be wasted.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. JMV acknowledges support from MICINN through European Regional Development Fund [SUMHAL, LIFEWATCH-2019-09- CSIC-4, POPE 2014-2020] and Fundación Biodiversidad (MITECO) through European Union—NextGenerationEU Fund [ATLAS project]. EG acknowledges support from Generalitat Valenciana and a European Social Fund grant (APOSTD/2021/188). FTM acknowledges support from Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (EUR2022-134048)

System Dynamics for understanding desertification processes

La desertificación es un proceso complejo y contraintuitivo cuyo estudio demanda un enfoque multidisciplinar. Ello la convierte en un campo de investigación ideal sobre el que aplicar la Dinámica de Sistemas (DS). Se trata de una metodología de construcción de modelos dinámicos de simulación por ordenador que se concibe como herramienta de apoyo para el estudio y la gestión de problemas que, especialmente, muestren las características aludidas. Este artículo repasa los fundamentos de la metodología, muestra sus ventajas y desventajas, e ilustra su funcionamiento con un caso de estudio de desertificación. A través de este modelo, que describe un sistema de pastoreo en el que tanto la erosión como la invasión de matorrales son dos amenazas contrapuestas y latentes, se explican dos de las principales señas de identidad de la DS: la detección de bucles de realimentación y la implementación de multiplicadores. Mediante los primeros se trata de explicitar los mecanismos subyacentes al comportamiento del sistema y con los “multis” se demuestra la necesidad de considerar el comportamiento de un sistema en situaciones extremas, propias de problemas como la desertificación. El trabajo presenta, además, diversas maneras de utilizar un modelo DS. Más allá de la evolución temporal de las variables que forman parte del modelo, es posible acoplar distintos tipos de análisis que resultan muy útiles en el estudio y prevención de la desertificación, como es la estimación de riesgos de desertificación y los análisis de sensibilidad que permiten detectar los factores más determinantes de este problema.Desertification is a complex and counter-intuitive process whose study requires a multidisciplinary approach. This makes it an excellent field of research in which to apply System Dynamics (SD). It is a methodology for the construction of dynamic computer simulation models that is conceived as a support tool for the study and management of problems that, in particular, show the characteristics mentioned above. This article reviews the basics of the methodology, shows its advantages and disadvantages, and illustrates how it works with a desertification case study. Through this model, which describes a rangeland system in which both erosion and shrub encroachment are two opposing and latent threats, two of the main hallmarks of SD are explained: the detection of feedback loops and the implementation of multipliers. The former is an explicit attempt to explain the mechanisms underlying the behaviour of the system, while the "multis" demonstrate the need to consider the behaviour of a system in extreme situations, inherent to problems such as desertification. The work also presents several ways of using a SD model. Beyond the temporal evolution of the variables that make up the model, it is possible to couple different types of analysis that are very useful in the study and prevention of desertification, such as the estimation of desertification risks and sensitivity analyses that allow the detection of the most determining factors of this problem.DeSurvey (CE-Integrated Project Contract No. 003950), PADEG (Universidad de Extremadura, CGL2008/01215/BTE), MESOTOPOS (Junta de Andalucía, P08 RNM-4023) y BIODESERT (ERC Grant agreement no. 647038)