Investigation and evaluation of the aging behaviour of technical materials as a selection criterion for use in zinc-air flow batteries

Zinc-air secondary batteries have the potential to act as electrochemical energy storage devices in broad industrial applications. The main arguments for developing marketable systems are the good commercial availability and environmental compatibility of zinc [1]. A consortium of different companies and scientific institutions is engaged in the development of a scalable zinc-air secondary battery. For the establishment of the system, the concept and all components, such as the gas diffusion electrode as well as the zinc electrode, are being investigated and optimised. In order to achieve a certain marketability of the battery after the end of the project, the plastic-based housing, sealing and current-conducting components are also being examined for their long-term stability and suitability. The system concept has high demands on the chemical resistance of the components due to the alkaline electrolyte in use. The plastics in question are typical housing materials with good chemical resistance, soft sealing materials based on thermoplastic elastomers and compounds highly filled with graphite for current conduction within the battery. To evaluate the materials, comparative studies are carried out with regard to the material properties, such as mechanical stability and electrical conductivity, and the combustion behaviour to assess the aging between newly produced and aged parts. In particular, the compounds highly filled with graphite presumably exhibit side reactions in contact with the active materials used in the system due to unavoidable impurities. This behaviour is also integrated in the evaluation of the raw material selection

Atributos físicos e químicos de um argissolo vermelho-amarelo submetido a diferentes manejos de um experimento de longa duração.

Neste trabalho objetivou-se avaliar a alteração de algumas propriedades físicas e químicas do solo sob diferentes sistemas de preparo, num experimento de longa duração, após 23 anos de instalação. Foram coletadas amostras de solo para avaliar os atributos químicos e físicos do solo. Os tratamentos foram: plantio direto, arado de disco, arado de disco + grade pesada, grade pesada e mata secundária, como referência. Com os dados obtidos, foi possível observar que a mata secundária apresentou os maiores teores de carbono total e acidez. Já os teores de nutrientes P, K+, Ca2+ e Mg2+, foram mais elevados nos sistemas de preparo do solo, destacando o P na camada superficial do sistema Plantio direto. A densidade de solo também foi maior na camada superficial neste tratamento, diminuindo em profundidade, enquanto se verificou o inverso nos preparos convencionais. Concluiu-se que o maior conteúdo de carbono total na mata secundária se deve ao acúmulo de resíduos vegetais na superfície, aportados pela vegetação natural. Já os maiores teores de P, K, Ca2+ e Mg2+ nos solos agricultáveis deve-se a aplicação de fertilizantes e corretivos e, o aumento da densidade de solo na superfície é devido ao tráfego de máquinas e implementos agrícolas durante o manejo

Nitrogen dynamics in soils cultivated with maize and fertilized with pig slurry.

The proper disposal of pig manure is of great importance because, when mishandled, it can contaminate water resources. This study aimed to evaluate the nitrogen dynamics in a Cerrado Oxisol and its absorption, over time, by a maize crop managed with pig slurry associated with mineral fertilization (N P K). The study was conducted at a private farm, in the region of Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The maize crop was able to recover 62% of the mineral nitrogen that entered the soil-plant system, while 9% leached as nitrate and, to a lesser amount, as ammonium. The maximum average content of nitrate and ammonium of 92 kg ha-1 and 43 kg ha-1, respectively, was observed in the 0 to 0.3 m soil layer during the early crop development stage. A minimum content of 5.8 kg ha-1 of nitrate and 9.0 kg ha-1 of ammonium, respectively, was measured at the end of the cycle. In addition, the nitrate content at that soil layer, at the end of the maize cycle, remained below the values measured at the native Cerrado, indicating that the agricultural use of the land poses no additional risk to the nitrate accumulation and leaching into the soil profile. Resumo: A destinação adequada dos dejetos suínos é de grande relevância, pois quando mal manejada, pode provocar contaminação de recursos hídricos. Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a dinâmica do nitrogênio no perfil de um Latossolo sob Cerrado e a sua absorção, ao longo do tempo, pela cultura do milho, manejada com uso de dejetos líquidos de suínos, associado à adubação mineral (N P K). O estudo foi realizado em uma propriedade particular da região de Sete Lagoas, MG, Brasil. A cultura recuperou 62% do nitrogênio mineral que entrou no sistema solo-planta, enquanto 9% lixiviou na forma de nitrato e, em menor quantidade, na forma de amônio. Teores médios máximos de nitrato e amônio de 92 kg ha-1 e de 43 kg ha-1, respectivamente, foram observados na camada 0-0,3 m no início do desenvolvimento da cultura. Conteúdos mínimos de 5,8 kg ha-1 de nitrato e de 9,0 kg ha-1 de amônio, foram medidos no final do ciclo. Além do mais, os teores de nitrato naquela camada, ao final do ciclo da cultura do milho, mantiveram-se abaixo dos valores observados do Cerrado nativo, indicando que o uso agronômico da terra não ofereceu risco adicional de acúmulo e lixiviação de nitrato no perfil do solo

Success factors of global goal-setting for sustainable development:Learning from the millennium development goals

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were an important precursor to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, identifying the conditions that made the MDGs successful enhances our understanding of global goal-setting and informs the global endeavour to achieve the SDGs. Drawing on a comprehensive review of 316 articles published between 2009 and 2018, we identify six factors that have enabled or hindered MDG implementation. Our analysis stresses the importance of path dependencies and shows that the MDGs catalysed changes only for those countries with sufficient resource availability, administrative capacity and economic development, as well as adequate support from external donors. National ownership and NGO pressure bolstered efforts to implement the MDGs. These findings suggest that globally agreed goals do not easily trickle down from the global to the national level. Thus, this article adopts a forward-looking perspective and draws key lessons for the current implementation of the SDGs in developing countries

Modelagem do crescimento de culturas: aplicações à cultura do milho.

Características gerais dos modelos de culturas; Principais modelos de culturas; Possibilidades de aplicação dos modelos de cultura; Aplicação no manejo da cultura; Aplicação na análise da resposta de culturas à irrigação e no planejamento do uso de recursos hídricos; Aplicação no manejo de nitrogênio; Aplicação na avalização de risco climático e no prognóstico de safras; Aplicação na análise da sustentabilidade de sistemas de sucessão de culturas; Aplicação em estudos de variabilidade espacial e em manejo sítio-específico; Aplicação no planejamento de uso da terra e dos recursos naturais; Aplicação na genética e melhoramento e na análise da interação genótipo x ambiente; Aplicação na simulação do efeito de pragas, doenças e plantas daninhas; Aplicação nos estudos de mudanças climáticas; Aplicação como ferramenta de educação e transferência de tecnologia; Limitações dos modelos de crescimento de culturas; Potencialidades de aplicação de modelos de simulação de culturas no Brasil.bitstream/CNPMS-2010/22537/1/Doc-91.pd

Sound archaeology: terminology, Palaeolithic cave art and the soundscape

This article is focused on the ways that terminology describing the study of music and sound within archaeology has changed over time, and how this reflects developing methodologies, exploring the expectations and issues raised by the use of differing kinds of language to define and describe such work. It begins with a discussion of music archaeology, addressing the problems of using the term ‘music’ in an archaeological context. It continues with an examination of archaeoacoustics and acoustics, and an emphasis on sound rather than music. This leads on to a study of sound archaeology and soundscapes, pointing out that it is important to consider the complete acoustic ecology of an archaeological site, in order to identify its affordances, those possibilities offered by invariant acoustic properties. Using a case study from northern Spain, the paper suggests that all of these methodological approaches have merit, and that a project benefits from their integration

Boundaries and Prototypes in Categorizing Direction

Projective terms such as left, right, front, back are conceptually interesting due to their flexibility of contextual usage and their central relevance to human spatial cognition. Their default acceptability areas are well known, with prototypical axes representing their most central usage and decreasing acceptability away from the axes. Previous research has shown these axes to be boundaries in certain non-linguistic tasks, indicating an inverse relationship between linguistic and non-linguistic direction concepts under specific circumstances. Given this striking mismatch, our study asks how such inverse non-linguistic concepts are represented in language, as well as how people describe their categorization. Our findings highlight two distinct grouping strategies reminiscent of theories of human categorization: prototype based or boundary based. These lead to different linguistic as well as non-linguistic patterns

Exploring Global Climate Policy Futures and Their Representation in Integrated Assessment Models

The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, paved the way for a new hybrid global climate governance architecture with both bottom-up and top-down elements. While governments can choose individual climate goals and actions, a global stocktake and a ratcheting-up mechanism have been put in place with the overall aim to ensure that collective efforts will prevent increasing adverse impacts of climate change. Integrated assessment models show that current combined climate commitments and policies of national governments fall short of keeping global warming to 1.5 °C or 2 °C above preindustrial levels. Although major greenhouse gas emitters, such as China, the European Union, India, the United States under the Biden administration, and several other countries, have made new pledges to take more ambitious climate action, it is highly uncertain where global climate policy is heading. Scenarios in line with long-term temperature targets typically assume a simplistic and hardly realistic level of harmonization of climate policies across countries. Against this backdrop, this article develops four archetypes for the further evolution of the global climate governance architecture and matches them with existing sets of scenarios developed by integrated assessment models. By these means, the article identifies knowledge gaps in the current scenario literature and discusses possible research avenues to explore the pre-conditions for successful coordination of national policies towards achieving the long-term target stipulated in the Paris Agreement