Sweden as a crossroads : some remarks concerning Swedish folk dancing

Publisher PD

Ethnomusichoreology? Ethnochoreomusic?

Publisher PD

Primary Energy Consumption in China and its Environmental Impact

This paper is a literature survey of the primary energy consumption in China since 1978 and its impact on environment. The high dependence on fossil energy resources, coal in particular, has together with the rapid growth of energy consumption during the past decade increased the outlet of pollutants to air, soil and water. The paper focuses on air pollutions in the first hand. The development from 1978 until around 2010 is described and discussed. The scientific articles found are mostly funded or influenced by Chinese authorities. Therefore the paper also reviews some environmental NGO’s and newspapers to get a counter weight. This has supported the view that there is an urgent need for action in China to stop degradation of the environment. A handful of options to reduce the environmental impact of primary energy consumption are discussed together with the challenges China faces today. The urgency for action is obvious and the question to be answered in the near future is if the government in China has the capacity to implement the options discussed

BRICs – their impact on global environment

The BRIC countries have been in a process of fast economic growth for more than a decade and the growth seems to continue. Economic growth is often linked to the use of fossil fuels and the release of greenhouse gases. The accumulation in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases contribute to global warming and the risk for climate change. The objective is to study the impact on global environment of the use of fossil fuels in the BRICs. The impact is limited to carbon dioxide. The historical development of economic growth and carbon dioxide outlet in the individual BRIC countries is reviewed and possible scenarios for the future are discussed to find out the impact of a business as usual scenario on the global environment in the future. The development in the BRICs is compared with the World and the developed regions of the US and EU. The overall conclusion is that the BRICs will be responsible for a major part of the carbon dioxide outlet in the future. The BRICs may, without any further climate policies and programs, be a threat to global environment. There is a significant potential to reduce the carbon dioxide outlet but it is not likely to happen unless the BRICs face a dramatic climate change. However, the position of the individual BRICs is different. Brazil seems to be in the best position to limit the carbon dioxide outlet in the future while China and India compete about the worst position

Applications using estimates of forest parameters derived from satellite and forest inventory data

From the combination of optical satellite data, digital map data, and forest inventory plot data, continuous estimates have been made for several forest parameters (wood volume, age and biomass). Five different project areas within Sweden are presented which have utilized these estimates for a range of applications. The method for estimating the forest parameters was a ”k-Nearest Neighbor” algorithm, which used a weighted mean value of k spectrally similar reference plots. Reference data were obtained from the Swedish National Forest Inventory. The output was continuous estimates at the pixel level for each of the variables estimated. Validation results show that accuracy of the estimates for all parameters was low at the pixel level (e.g., for total wood volume RMSE ranged from 58-80%), with a tendency toward the mean, and an underestimation of higher values while overestimating lower values. However, when the accuracy of the estimates is assessed over larger areas, the errors are lower, with best results being 10% RMSE over a 100 ha aggregation, and 17% RMSE over a 19 ha aggregation. Applications presented in this paper include moose and bird habitat studies, county level planning activities, use as input information to prognostic programs, and computation of statistics on timber volume within drainage basins and smaller land holdings. This paper provides a background on the kNN method and gives examples of how end users are currently applying satellite-produced estimation data such as these

Nitrogen fertilization increases N2O emission but does not offset the reduced radiative forcing caused by the increased carbon uptake in boreal forests

Net primary production in boreal coniferous forests is generally severely limited by N deficiency. Nitrogen fertilization has thus the potential to strongly increase forest tree biomass production in the boreal region and consequently increase the biosphere uptake of atmospheric CO2. Increased N availability may though increase the production and emission of soil N2O, counteracting the climate mitigation potential from increased forest biomass production. Studies in the boreal region on the net effect on the climate mitigation potential from N fertilization are scarcer than in other biomes. Therefore, we explored how N affected soil GHG fluxes in two boreal field N-loading experiments, of which one is a long-term experiment (40 years), and the other established 6 years before investigation. We also estimated whether the increased soil N2O emission could offset the N-driven increased C sequestration by the trees. Nitrogen additions affected the soil GHG fluxes in both stands. Soil N2O emission was enhanced by N addition at every fertilization rate, though marginally compared to the reduced soil CO2 emission and the increased atmospheric CO2 uptake and biomass production. The estimated annual uptake of CH4 by soil under long-term N addition increased. The magnitude of soil CH4 uptake was on the same order of magnitude as the increase in soil N2O emissions caused by N addition, when compared as CO2 equivalents. In conclusion, forest N fertilization in boreal areas increased the GHG net uptake and, thus, provides a means to mitigate increasing atmospheric concentrations of GHG

HIE-ISOLDE: the technical options

The ISOLDE facility at CERN has a long and successful tradition of continuous development and growth in order to meet the scientific requests from the user community. The current situation continues this habit and several projects to increase the scientific scope of the facility through technical developments are under way or envisaged within the medium-term future planning. These developments will result in a transformed facility with the label HIE (High Intensity and Energy)-ISOLDE where the intensity, quality, and energy range of the secondary beams will be substantially improved. They are largely in line with the necessary technical developments towards the future EURISOL facility. This report summarizes these development projects

Prospects for the Northwestern Russian Forest Raw Material Harvesting during the Transition to a Market Economy

This paper analyzes the long-term prospects of profitably harvesting the forests in northwestern Russia in a sustainable manner, indicating the potential short-to medium-term competitiveness of the Russian forestry in both domestic and international markets. We have chosen a systemic approach (a modification of Porter's Diamond) to investigate the threats to and possibilities of the Russian forestry. This means that we consider not only factor conditions, but also demand conditions, the presence and status of related and supporting industries, firm strategy, structure, and rivalry, and the role of government in creating a competitive Russian forestry. Our analysis of the factor conditions prevailing in the mid to late 1990s indicates that the prospects for the Russian forestry could be very good. However, this potential will be realized only if substantial problems can be solved with regard to revising government policy, clarifying property rights, developing and maintaining the infrastructure, and achieving a stable and not too rapid increase in costs. Furthermore, we think that domestic demand is a weak link and that a revitalization of this demand is necessary.Cet article offre une analyse des perspectives à long terme d'une exploitation forestière rentable et durable des forêts du nord-ouest de la Russie, analyse qui souligne la compétitivité potentielle à court et à moyen terme de l'industrie forestière russe sur les marchés domestique comme international. On a choisi une approche systémique (une version du losange de Porter) pour étudier les éléments qui constituent une menace pour l'industrie forestière russe et ceux qui représentent des ouvertures. Ce qui signifie qu'on ne considère pas seulement les conditions des facteurs mais aussi les conditions de la demande, la présence et le statut des industries connexes et dérivées, la stratégie des entreprises de même que leur structure et leur rivalité, ainsi que le rôle du gouvernement dans la création d'une industrie forestière russe concurrentielle. Notre analyse des conditions des facteurs prédominantes du milieu à la fin des années 1990 révèle que les perspectives pour l'industrie forestière russe pourraient être très bonnes. Ce potentiel ne se concrétisera toutefois qu'après la résolution de problèmes majeurs visant la révision de la politique gouvernementale, la clarification des droits de propriété, le développement et le maintien de l'infrastructure, ainsi que la réalisation d'un accroissement stable et assez lent des coûts. On croit de plus que la demande nationale constitue un maillon fragile et qu'une revitalisation de cette demande s'impose