Strongly sustainable development goals : Overcoming distances constraining responsible action

Sustainable development has been an important policy goal for the international community for over three decades. Still, the state of the planet continues to worsen. This conceptual article considers the failure largely a result of structural obstacles and the so-called weak sustainability discourse, popularized by the Brundtland report and manifested today in The 2030 Agenda. The article adopts a strong sustainability perspective for examining structural distances between actors and the consequences of their acts. We argue that these impede responsible action and that policy should aim to reduce or eliminate distances in the four dimensions of space, time, functions and relations. The article concludes by suggesting Strongly Sustainable Development Goals, which could help transitioning humanity towards sustainability, lower the anthropogenic environmental impact on the planet, and enable the continuity of diverse life on Earth.Peer reviewe

Value creation in capital waterway projects: Application of a transaction cost and transaction benefit framework for the Miami River and the New Orleans Inner Harbour Navigation Canal

Waterways have many more ties with society than as a medium for the transportation of goods alone. Waterway systems offer society many kinds of socio-economic value. Waterway authorities responsible for management and (re)development need to optimize the public benefits for the investments made. However, due to the many trade-offs in the system these agencies have multiple options for achieving this goal. Because they can invest resources in a great many different ways, they need a way to calculate the efficiency of the decisions they make. Transaction cost theory, and the analysis that goes with it, has emerged as an important means of justifying efficiency decisions in the economic arena. To improve our understanding of the value-creating and coordination problems for waterway authorities, such a framework is applied to this sector. This paper describes the findings for two cases, which reflect two common multi trade-off situations for waterway (re)development. Our first case study focuses on the Miami River, an urban revitalized waterway. The second case describes the Inner Harbour Navigation Canal in New Orleans, a canal and lock in an industrialized zone, in need of an upgrade to keep pace with market developments. The transaction cost framework appears to be useful in exposing a wide variety of value-creating opportunities and the resistances that come with it. These insights can offer infrastructure managers guidance on how to seize these opportunities

FEM-modellering av en vattenkraftstation : Utvärdering av beräkningar i 3D

The Finite Element Method (FEM) is a numerical analysis technique for obtaining approximate solutions. Its origin can be tracked back to the 1940s. The technique, which during the second half of the 20th century required programming skills and a deep understanding of its underlying theory, has during the last decade been implemented in more user friendly software. Models are built in CAD-like environment and the results are illustrated in easy to understand color graphics.Advancements in computer technology have made it possible to build and analyze more advanced models. These advancements have initiated a growing interest in going from mostly 2D-analysis to full scale 3D-models that describe whole constructions.The work done in this report has been performed in cooperation with the consulting company SWECO Infrastructure, which during the first half of 2011 has been designing a hydroelectric power station. The hydroelectric power station in question is Kraftstation VI in the Swedish town Hissmofors. By working with the FEM-software Abaqus, a full scale model of Kraftstation VI has been built and analyzed.The first part of the report focus on modeling technique and some potential sources of error that might arise in FEM-models such as the one in the report.The geometry of the power station is complex which motivated the use of solid elements. Since most of the construction is subjected to bending the choice of using 20-node cube elements was made.Dam constructions are subjected to one-sided water pressure; therefore its safety against overturning and sliding must be established. This is done through stability calculations where all the loads acting on the construction is considered. It is desirable to be able to calculate the stability through the use of the FEM-model and therefore a method for doing that is developed.The model is analyzed by studying three different loading scenarios: Loading scenario 1 – A global analysis of the hydroelectric power station when it is subjected to the expected everyday loads. The focus is on investigating the interaction between the different parts of the station and identifying possible stress concentrations. Loading scenario 2 – A stability analysis of the station with complementary hand calculations. The results indicate that the method is accurate and that the station is stable. Loading scenario 3 – Calculation of the design moment in ultimate limit state in one of the walls of the intake. The results are compared to the design values that SWECO used when designing the wall. The comparison shows that the calculations done in Abaqus returns lower design moment that those of SWECO.Validerat; 20110911 (anonymous

Programmable address lookup unit

The goal of this thesis was to design a programmable Address Lookup unit for use in the forwarding engine in a network device such as a switch or a router. A solution with a special designed processor core with a optimized Instruction Set, an I/O processor for accesses to external memory and a sample of a network software was designed and mapped to a multiprocessor architecture. The multiprocessor architecture implements the same features as in the current non programmable hardware Address Lookup unit, and adds the possibility to upgrade the implementation to meet new features due to the new property of programmability. Three multiprocessor architectures, the Parallel multithreaded multiprocessor architecture, the Macro pipeline RISC multiprocessor architecture and the Superpipeline VLIW multiprocessor architecture, was selected out as the most suitable implementation architectures. An estimated implementation area for the multiprocessor architectures when meeting the current Address Lookup units performance requirements were calculated. The multiprocessor architectures were compared against each other on the issues of performance and area scalability, where the Superpipeline VLIW multiprocessor architecture was found to be the best implementation platform for the programmable Address Lookup unit. The Superpipeline multiprocessor architecture implementation was built on two basic units, a VLIW processor and an I/O processor. These two basic units was designed, implemented, verified and synthesized. The result of this synthesis was compared with the calculated values made during the target architecture evaluation. For the VLIW processor the estimated implementation area was calculated to 0.141405 mm2 and the final synthesis to 0.156647 mm2, a difference of 11%. The difference was analyzed to depend on the control logic added to the final version of the VLIW processor. For the I/O processor the estimated implementation area was 0.80800 mm2 and the final synthesis 0.106653 2, a difference of 32%. The difference was analyzed to depend on multiplexers added to the final version of the I/O processor. Finally a small Superpipeline, holding eight VLIW processors and two I/O processors, was implemented and synthesized. The implementation area for this synthesis was 0.822874 mm2 compared to 1.466482 mm2 when built and synthesized on separate units. This difference of 78%, was analyzed to depend on the synthesis tools ability to effectively optimize the design.Validerat; 20101217 (root

Lactobacillus coryniformis subsp. coryniformis Strain Si3 Produces a Broad-Spectrum Proteinaceous Antifungal Compound

The antifungal activity spectrum of Lactobacillus coryniformis subsp. coryniformis strain Si3 was investigated. The strain had strong inhibitory activity in dual-culture agar plate assays against the molds Aspergillus fumigatus, A. nidulans, Penicillium roqueforti, Mucor hiemalis, Talaromyces flavus, Fusarium poae, F. graminearum, F. culmorum, and F. sporotrichoides. A weaker activity was observed against the yeasts Debaryomyces hansenii, Kluyveromyces marxianus, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The yeasts Rhodotorula glutinis, Sporobolomyces roseus, and Pichia anomala were not inhibited. In liquid culture the antifungal activity paralleled growth, with maximum mold inhibition early in the stationary growth phase, but with a rapid decline in antifungal activity after 48 h. The addition of ethanol to the growth medium prevented the decline and gave an increased antifungal activity. The activity was stable during heat treatment and was retained even after autoclaving at 121°C for 15 min. Maximum activity was observed at pH values of between 3.0 and 4.5, but it decreased rapidly when pH was adjusted to a level between 4.5 and 6.0 and was lost at higher pH values. The antifungal activity was fully regained after readjustment of the pH to the initial value (pH 3.6). The activity was irreversibly lost after treatment with proteolytic enzymes (proteinase K, trypsin, and pepsin). The antifungal activity was partially purified using ion-exchange chromatography and (NH(4))(2)SO(4) precipitation, followed by gel filtration chromatography. The active compound(s) was estimated to have a molecular mass of approximately 3 kDa. This is the first report of the production of a proteinaceous antifungal compound(s) from L. coryniformis subsp. coryniformis

Winters are changing: snow effects on Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystems

Snow is an important driver of ecosystem processes in cold biomes. Snow accumulation determines ground temperature, light conditions and moisture availability during winter. It also affects the growing season’s start and end, and plant access to moisture and nutrients. Here, we review the current knowledge of the snow cover’s role for vegetation, plant-animal interactions, permafrost conditions, microbial processes and biogeochemical cycling. We also compare studies of natural snow gradients with snow manipulation studies, altering snow depth and duration, to assess time scale difference of these approaches. The number of studies on snow in tundra ecosystems has increased considerably in recent years, yet we still lack a comprehensive overview of how altered snow conditions will affect these ecosystems. In specific, we found a mismatch in the timing of snowmelt when comparing studies of natural snow gradients with snow manipulations. We found that snowmelt timing achieved by manipulative studies (average 7.9 days advance, 5.5 days delay) were substantially lower than those observed over spatial gradients (mean range of 56 days) or due to interannual variation (mean range of 32 days). Differences between snow study approaches need to be accounted for when projecting snow dynamics and their impact on ecosystems in future climates

Winters are changing: snow effects on Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystems

Snow is an important driver of ecosystem processes in cold biomes. Snow accumulation determines ground temperature, light conditions, and moisture availability during winter. It also affects the growing season’s start and end, and plant access to moisture and nutrients. Here, we review the current knowledge of the snow cover’s role for vegetation, plant-animal interactions, permafrost conditions, microbial processes, and biogeochemical cycling. We also compare studies of natural snow gradients with snow experimental manipulation studies to assess time scale difference of these approaches. The number of tundra snow studies has increased considerably in recent years, yet we still lack a comprehensive overview of how altered snow conditions will affect these ecosystems. Specifically, we found a mismatch in the timing of snowmelt when comparing studies of natural snow gradients with snow manipulations. We found that snowmelt timing achieved by snow addition and snow removal manipulations (average 7.9 days advance and 5.5 days delay, respectively) were substantially lower than the temporal variation over natural spatial gradients within a given year (mean range 56 days) or among years (mean range 32 days). Differences between snow study approaches need to be accounted for when projecting snow dynamics and their impact on ecosystems in future climates