To clean or not to clean? A critical review of beach cleaning methods and impacts

Cleaning is a fundamental concern of beach managers in many destinations as well as an important requirement in beach quality awards. However, it has been largely neglected in the literature. This paper provides an overview of empirical studies on beach cleaning and analyzes cleaning-related requirements of 11 beach awards that generate controversy in the literature. This study comments on key aspects of beach cleaning, resolves various misconceptions, and provides new perspectives by integrating related topics drawn from a wide range of literature. The arguments based on both the ecological and tourism managerial perspectives are presented, indicating the gaps and proposing research solutions. The paper calls for empirical studies with regard to the efficiency of different cleaning approaches on beaches with varying levels of use intensity and for methodological designs that separate the impacts of mechanical grooming from those of trampling, dune destruction, shore armoring, artificial lighting, among others

Treedepth vs circumference

The circumference of a graph $G$ is the length of a longest cycle in $G$, or$+\infty$ if $G$ has no cycle. Birmel\'e (2003) showed that the treewidth of agraph $G$ is at most its circumference minus one. We strengthen this result for$2$-connected graphs as follows: If $G$ is $2$-connected, then its treedepth isat most its circumference. The bound is best possible and improves on anearlier quadratic upper bound due to Marshall and Wood (2015).<br

Qualitative and Quantitative Beach Cleanliness Assessment to Support Marine Litter Management in Tropical Destinations

In addition to its ecological and recreational relevance, beach cleanliness is also one of the five most important aspects (i.e., the “Big Five”) for beach visitors around the world. Nonetheless, few efforts have been carried out to guide the sound management of this rising issue. This paper presents a quantitative and qualitative method to assess the level of beach cleanliness, in order to allow managers to focus their attention on the environmental management of the most frequent and relevant types of litter in tropical areas. In a first step, a survey on users’ perception was applied to 361 beachgoers in eight beaches in Colombia to identify the most relevant types of beach litter and the weighting factors to obtain quantitative calculations. In a second step, the thirteen categories of litter identified were analyzed in relation to beach cleanliness, origin of litter, and environmental impact, to define its individual weighting importance. Some categories were also selected according to particularities of tropical countries, such as the presence of abundant natural vegetation debris and gross polystyrene items, largely transported by rivers in great quantities. In a third step, the method was then tested at eight beaches in the Caribbean coast of Colombia through a period of four months, during which 192 transect samplings were carried out. The qualitative module of the proposed technique, named Beach Litter Assessment Technique—Qualitative and Quantitative (BLAT-QQ), identified the main types of beach litter and the quantitative module gave an overview on the state of beach cleanliness. The method is demonstrated to be quick and effective in diagnosing beach cleanliness, providing a simple instrument to carry out sound environmental management actions in coastal destinations

Beach Litter Assessment: Critical Issues and the Path Forward

Studies analyzing large-scale patterns or long-term trends in the amounts and composition of beach litter are often based on the analysis of several small-scale studies, which may provide an inaccurate picture if the methods and approaches used in those studies are not directly comparable. Moreover, most beach-litter review studies do not evaluate how the results are affected by a number of factors. Therefore, this paper analyzes empirical results from 62 beach-litter (BL) assessment studies published in the last decade (years 2010-2020) in peer-reviewed international journals. Both the results on beach litter (origin, composition, and density) and the utility of those findings to coastal managers are analyzed and discussed. The paper identifies strengths and weaknesses of different research designs, overall compatibility among the results of studies, and identification and means of eliminating those aspects that cause incompatibilities, inconsistencies, and high variability of data that cause low reliability of the results, among other issues. The results indicate that a global picture based on a number of small-scale studies cannot be drawn due to incompatibilities in sampling protocols and presentation of results, data analysis and interpretation, spatial and temporal differences, and the lack of understanding of factors influencing BL. This paper offers a critical view of many aspects of (BL) research in order to bring them to researchers' attention, at the same time recognizing the importance of previously published studies in making significant advancements in this field. Finally, it is also a call to move from limited data collecting and presentation in peer-reviewed journals to experimental designs, large data analyses, and testing of methods and solutions to the BL issue to advance understanding of beach-litter issues

Beach Certification Schemes in Latin America: Are They Applicable to the Brazilian Context?

Beaches are multidimensional ecosystems that develop relevant natural functions and host tourist activities of great economic value. Therefore, they are currently being subjected to severe human pressure and natural impacts often enhanced by climate change. Beach certification schemes (BCSs) were designed to bridge the gap between recreation and conservation uses. The aim of this paper is to assess the compatibility and potential contribution of nine Beach Classification Schemes (BCSs) used in Latin America with the Orla Project implemented in Brazil to optimize land use planning of coastal zones, including beaches. The weaknesses and strengths of each BCSs were assessed according to the criteria for integrated coastal zone management. As a result, four of the nine BCSs were found to be the most compatible with the context of Brazilian beaches (Ecuadorian, Colombian, Cuban, and Argentinean BCSs), indicating that BCSs can contribute to specific aspects of beach management, but they should not be the only management strategy. In conclusion, the strengths of the four BCSs identified in this study can be used to build a new management tool for Brazilian beaches aligned with the Orla Project-the main coastal planning and management instrument currently used.National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq); PAI Research Group RNM-32

Properties of excited A=40 nuclear systems with varying matter composition

There exists an intriguing problem when bosonic clusters as bound states of fermions are produced in the reaction, and the Bose character of the composite clusters competes with the fermionic properties of their constituents. In the analysis of Ca-40+Ca-40 reactions at 35MeV/A we selected classes of projectile-like sources with exit channels consisting of only bosons, only fermions, only even-even nuclei, only odd-odd nuclei, only even-odd nuclei and only alpha-conjugate nuclei, respectively and searched for kinematic characteristics of these systems which might differ depending upon the type of matter selected. The distributions of various observables for the different classes of matter and comparisons between them will be presented and discussed

Selección por recurrencia de los parámetros de calidad ambiental y turística de los esquemas de certificación de playas en América latina

Beach Certification Schemes (BCSs) are tools recently implemented in Latin America. They are based on an evaluation of a given set of compliance aspects (requirements). The research consisted of the recollection, classification and organization of the available information on the Latin American BCSs, found through search engines, data bases, scientific articles, information networks and direct contact with organizations in charge of the certifications. The information was then used to calculate the proportions of inclusion of the compliance aspects in the five categories proposed by Botero (2008). The most recurrent for the Latin American context compliance aspects were calculated through the evaluation of the 3rd quartile, based on their statistical representativeness. In result, ninety one aspects were found in eight BCSs, most of them in the “environment” category. In the contrary, the “management” category was found to have the least number of aspects. In terms of the BCSs, the Colombian NTS-TS-001-2 and Argentinian IRAM 42100 were found to have the most aspects, while the Cost Rican Bandera Azul Ecológica the least. Finally, with the additional objective to emphasize the environmental importance of beaches, ten most relevant environmental compliance aspects were selected from the twenty eight foundLos Esquemas de Certificación de Playas (ECP) son una herramienta de reciente implementación en América Latina, estando soportados principalmente en la evaluación de aspectos de conformidad en diferentes categorías. Esta investigación recopiló, organizó y validó la mayoría de información disponible sobre ECP en América Latina, a través de la consulta de motores de búsqueda, bases de datos de artículos científicos, redes de información, expertos en certificaciones y contacto directo con las organizaciones promotoras. Con esta información, se calculó la proporción de inclusión de cada requerimiento dentro de las cinco categorías de aspectos de conformidad indicadas por Botero (2008), a través de un histograma de frecuencias. La selección de los aspectos de conformidad más recurrentes para el contexto Latinoamericano se obtuvo mediante la evaluación del tercer cuartil, en base a su representatividad estadística. Se encontraron 91 aspectos de conformidad en las ocho certificaciones estudiadas, siendo la categoría ambiental la que más aspectos reunió, en comparación con la de manejo. Respecto a los ECP, se encontró que la norma colombiana NTS-TS-001-2 y la Argentina IRAM 42100 poseen el mayor número de aspectos de conformidad, mientras que la norma costarricense Bandera Azul Ecológica y la norma uruguaya Playa Natural tienen los valores menores. Finalmente, con el objetivo adicional de enfatizar la importancia ambiental de las playas, se seleccionaron los 10 aspectos de conformidad ambientales más relevantes, dentro de los 28 encontrados.

Software design for the control system for Small-Size Telescopes with single-mirror of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Small-Size Telescope with single-mirror (SST-1M) is a 4 m Davies-Cotton telescope and is among the proposed telescope designs for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). It is conceived to provide the high-energy ($>$ few TeV) coverage. The SST-1M contains proven technology for the telescope structure and innovative electronics and photosensors for the camera. Its design is meant to be simple, low-budget and easy-to-build industrially. Each device subsystem of an SST-1M telescope is made visible to CTA through a dedicated industrial standard server. The software is being developed in collaboration with the CTA Medium-Size Telescopes to ensure compatibility and uniformity of the array control. Early operations of the SST-1M prototype will be performed with a subset of the CTA central array control system based on the Alma Common Software (ACS). The triggered event data are time stamped, formatted and finally transmitted to the CTA data acquisition. The software system developed to control the devices of an SST-1M telescope is described, as well as the interface between the telescope abstraction to the CTA central control and the data acquisition system.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.0589

DigiCam - Fully Digital Compact Read-out and Trigger Electronics for the SST-1M Telescope proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The SST-1M is one of three prototype small-sized telescope designs proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array, and is built by a consortium of Polish and Swiss institutions. The SST-1M will operate with DigiCam - an innovative, compact camera with fully digital read-out and trigger electronics. A high level of integration will be achieved by massively deploying state-of-the-art multi-gigabit transmission channels, beginning from the ADC flash converters, through the internal data and trigger signals transmission over backplanes and cables, to the camera's server link. Such an approach makes it possible to design the camera to fit the size and weight requirements of the SST-1M exactly, and provide low power consumption, high reliability and long lifetime. The structure of the digital electronics will be presented, along with main physical building blocks and the internal architecture of FPGA functional subsystems.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.0589

Using muon rings for the optical throughput calibration of the SST-1M prototype for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) are ground-based instruments devoted to the study of very high energy gamma-rays coming from space. The detection technique consists of observing images created by the Cherenkov light emitted when gamma rays, or more generally cosmic rays, propagate through the atmosphere. While in the case of protons or gamma-rays the images present a filled and more or less elongated shape, energetic muons penetrating the atmosphere are visualised as characteristic circular rings or arcs. A relatively simple analysis of the ring images allows the reconstruction of all the relevant parameters of the detected muons, such as the energy, the impact parameter, and the incoming direction, with the final aim to use them to calibrate the total optical throughput of the given IACT telescope. We present the results of preliminary studies on the use of images created by muons as optical throughput calibrators of the single mirror small size telescope prototype SST-1M proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.0589