Visualizing Alternative Phosphorus Scenarios for Future Food Security

The impact of global phosphorus scarcity on food security has increasingly been the focus of scientific studies over the past decade. However, systematic analyses of alternative futures for phosphorus supply and demand throughout the food system are still rare and provide limited inclusion of key stakeholders. Addressing global phosphorus scarcity requires an integrated approach exploring potential demand reduction as well as recycling opportunities. This implies recovering phosphorus from multiple sources, such as food waste, manure, and excreta, as well as exploring novel opportunities to reduce the long-term demand for phosphorus in food production such as changing diets. Presently, there is a lack of stakeholder and scientific consensus around priority measures. To therefore enable exploration of multiple pathways and facilitate a stakeholder dialog on the technical, behavioral, and institutional changes required to meet long-term future phosphorus demand, this paper introduces an interactive web-based tool, designed for visualizing global phosphorus scenarios in real time. The interactive global phosphorus scenario tool builds on several demand and supply side measures that can be selected and manipulated interactively by the user. It provides a platform to facilitate stakeholder dialog to plan for a soft landing and identify a suite of concrete priority options, such as investing in agricultural phosphorus use efficiency, or renewable fertilizers derived from phosphorus recovered from wastewater and food waste, to determine how phosphorus demand to meet future food security could be attained on a global scale in 2040 and 2070. This paper presents four example scenarios, including (1) the potential of full recovery of human excreta, (2) the challenge of a potential increase in non-food phosphorus demand, (3) the potential of decreased animal product consumption, and (4) the potential decrease in phosphorus demand from increased efficiency and yield gains in crop and livestock systems

Including Pathogen Risk in Life Cycle Assessment of Wastewater Management. 1. Estimating the Burden of Disease Associated with Pathogens

The environmental performance of wastewater and sewage sludge management is commonly assessed using life cycle assessment (LCA), whereas pathogen risk is evaluated with quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA). This study explored the application of QMRA methodology with intent to include pathogen risk in LCA and facilitate a comparison with other potential impacts on human health considered in LCA. Pathogen risk was estimated for a model wastewater treatment system (WWTS) located in an industrialized country and consisting of primary, secondary, and tertiary wastewater treatment, anaerobic sludge digestion, and land application of sewage sludge. The estimation was based on eight previous QMRA studies as well as parameter values taken from the literature. A total pathogen risk (expressed as burden of disease) on the order of 0.2–9 disability-adjusted life years (DALY) per year of operation was estimated for the model WWTS serving 28 600 persons and for the pathogens and exposure pathways included in this study. The comparison of pathogen risk with other potential impacts on human health considered in LCA is detailed in part 2 of this article series

The phosphorus mass balance: Identifying 'hotspots' in the food system as a roadmap to phosphorus security

Phosphorus is a critical element on which all life depends. Global crop production depends on fertilisers derived from phosphate rock to maintain high crop yields. Population increase, changing dietary preferences towards more meat and dairy products, and the continuing intensification of global agriculture supporting this expansion will place increasing pressure on an uncertain, but finite supply of high-quality phosphate rock. Growing concern about phosphorus scarcity and security, coupled with the environmental impact of phosphorus pollution, has encouraged an increase in research exploring how phosphorus is used and lost in the food system - from mine to field to fork. An assessment of recent phosphorus flows analyses at different geographical scales identifies the key phosphorus 'hotspots', for example within the mining, agriculture or food processing sectors, where efficiency and reuse can be substantially improved through biotechnological approaches coupled with policy changes. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd

Lateral straggling of implanted aluminum in 4H-SiC

The implantation of aluminum into 4H-SiC is studied using secondary ion mass spectrometry. In particular, two-dimensional concentration profiles are obtained, which allow the investigation of lateral straggling and its dependence on the crystallographic orientation. A high dose, medium energy aluminum implantation is studied in great detail. It shows an asymmetric distribution due to the 4°-off axis growth of the epitaxial layer. The lateral straggling is found to be in the range of several micrometers for a concentration of 1×1015 cm−3, which is contrary to the expectation given by most simulation studies. Implantations performed at different orientations support the idea that lateral straggling highly depends on the particular channeling opening.ISSN:0003-6951ISSN:1077-311

Co-designing a citizen science climate service

Interactive mobile technologies provide an emerging opportunity for citizens to engage with and enhance urban climate resilience, both as providers of locally situated data on climate variables, impacts and climate adaptation measures as well as to obtain information on local conditions and recommendations. This paper examines the process of co-designing a citizen science application for urban climate resilience in four European cities. Further, the paper studies if and how the system enables knowledge co-production to increase urban resilience following process principles for co-production of climate services and discusses the legitimacy, transparency, credibility, and relevance of the process. We further assess the role that a citizen science climate service could play as a boundary object in knowledge co-production. We draw on experiences from a co-design process that included municipal stakeholders from different sectors as well as municipal employees and civil society end-users involved in campaigns. This study identified a set of barriers and enablers for the co-design process and concludes that the CitizenSensing application can fulfil the role of a boundary object, but that the co-design process is a balancing act between navigating time constraints, including stakeholders different and changing demands and perspectives while retaining a high level of flexibility and reflexivity.Funding Agencies|FCT (Portugal)Portuguese Foundation for Science and TechnologyEuropean Commission [ERA4CS/0001/2016]; FORMAS (Sweden)Swedish Research Council Formas [201701719]; NWO (The Netherlands)Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)Netherlands Government [438.17.805]; RCN (Norway) [274192]; European UnionEuropean Commission [690462]</p

Haemodynamic outcomes during piston-based mechanical CPR with or without active decompression in a porcine model of cardiac arrest

Background Experimental active compression-decompression (ACD) CPR is associated with increased haemodynamic outcomes compared to standard mechanical chest compressions. Since no clinically available mechanical chest compression device is capable of ACD-CPR, we modified the LUCAS 2 (Physio-Control, Lund, Sweden) to deliver ACD-CPR, hypothesising it would improve haemodynamic outcomes compared with standard LUCAS CPR on pigs with cardiac arrest. Methods The modified LUCAS delivering 5 cm compressions with or without 2 cm active decompression above anatomical chest level was studied in a randomized crossover design on 19 Norwegian domestic pigs. VF was electrically induced and untreated for 2 min. Each pig received ACD-CPR and standard mechanical CPR in three 180-s. phases. We measured aortic, right atrial, coronary perfusion, intracranial and oesophageal pressure, cerebral and carotid blood flow and cardiac output. Two-sided paired samples t-test was used for continuous parametric data and Wilcoxon test for non-parametric data. P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results Due to injuries/device failure, the experimental protocol was completed in nine of 19 pigs. Cardiac output (l/min, median, (25, 75-percentiles): 1.5 (1.1, 1.7) vs. 1.1 (0.8, 1.5), p < 0.01), cerebral blood flow (AU, 297 vs. 253, mean difference: 44, 95% CI; 14–74, p = 0.01), and carotid blood flow (l/min, median, (25, 75-percentiles): 97 (70, 106) vs. 83 (57, 94), p < 0.01) were higher during ACD-CPR compared to standard mechanical CPR. Coronary perfusion pressure (CPP) trended towards higher in end decompression phase. Conclusion Cardiac output and brain blood flow improved with mechanical ACD-CPR and CPP trended towards higher during end-diastole compared to standard LUCAS CPR

Verifying the relevance of a vulnerability to food insecurity index in practice for households in South Nigeria

This paper examined the relevance of the Vulnerability to Food Insecurity Index (VFII) in practice for households in South- South region of Nigeria. The main objectives were to verify the result of the VFII with real life experience and to understand why households are vulnerable to food insecurity using qualitative insight. The paper applied both quantitative and qualitative methods. The main findings reveal that the indictors of the index were able to reflect real-life experiences on the ground. However, applying the index to local community requires greater consideration of the heterogeneous population and relative importance of indicators. Thus flexible weight system is recommended when the index depends on local condition

Adaptation decision-making in the Nordic countries: Assessing the potential for joint action

In a global context, the outlook for the Nordic region is relatively favourable, given its relatively stronger resiliency to climate change impacts in comparison to many other geo-political regions of the world. Overall, the projected climatic changes include increases in mean temperatures and in precipitation, although regional variations can be significant. The countries' robust institutions and economies give them a strong capacity to adapt to these changes. Still, the need for adaptation to the changing climate has been and still is substantial, and in most of the region, there has been progress on the issue. This paper explores the potential for Nordic cooperation on adaptation; specifically, for the development of a regional adaptation strategy. In particular, it addresses two questions (1) What is the current state of adaptation in the Nordic countries? and (2) What are the potential benefits and weaknesses of a Nordic strategy for adaptation? In order to answer these two questions, this paper examines reviews the current national adaptation policies of each Nordic country and discusses the challenges facing a Nordic strategy and finally assesses the potential for common Nordic adaptation policy and further cooperation