A stochastic production frontier model with a translog specification using the generalized maximum entropy estimator

In this paper, an empirical application of the generalized maximum entropy estimator in a stochastic production frontier model with a translog specification is discussed to investigate technical efficiency in a wine region of Portugal. The empirical results indicate technical progress over the time period of the sample and an increasing technical inefficiency over time. All production units are technically inefficient, although wine cooperatives are less inefficient than private firms.stochastic frontier analysis, generalized maximum entropy, technical efficiency, translog

Municipalities in Transition : a governance system for navigating transformative change in tipping point times

This research wants to explore the diversity of (trans)local transformative initiatives and how they can synergistically generate broad societal change towards sustainability and democracy. I want to seize doable alternatives to deal with existing institutional barriers and social impasses and explore possible approaches and instruments for ‘governing’ transition. I want to address the research gap related to sensible ways of governing the later phase of transitions in a context of rapid and profound change. The research question is therefore: “What would be an applicable and comprehensive governance instrument to support the development of (trans)local transitions, facing the challenge of tipping point times?”. I adopted transdisciplinary participatory action research and focused on developing spaces where renewal can be nurtured in the context of reorganization (in the resilience sense). This approach is expected to lead to new agreements and actions. Still, it is primarily designed to facilitate multi-stakeholder learning processes and open the floor for the emergence of new shared meanings. I assumed that the complexity of the sustainability challenge demands for collaboration between different actors, namely local governments and community-led initiatives. Existing research revealed that many tensions and obstacles to partnership still persist, and results are far from meaningful, while providing insights on how to overcome these challenges. I summarized the state of the art in a Compass for Transformative Collaborations. The research process was based in two projects nested in the Transition movement, namely the Municipalities in Transition and the Dive Deep & Dream Big. The Transition movement is one of the most significant examples of local communities leading the way to a post‐carbon society. The movement is spread world‐wide and demonstrates a distinctive openness for collaborations, providing therefore, an experimental space with transformational ambition. Both these action research projects were supported by the University of Lisbon, anchored by its role within ECOLISE (European Network for Community‐Led Initiatives on Climate Change and Sustainability), with the broad participation of other organizations. I played the role of an embedded researcher, fully partaking as an observer and participant, contributing actively and reflectively to the codesign and facilitation. The Municipalities in Transition project started in 2017 and aimed at exploring how municipalities and civil society could work better together. The research included codesigning a systemic and operational instrument that could boost the transformative reach of cooperation between local actors of sustainability and testing in six pilots in five countries. Local actors can use this instrument together to capture the governance imprint of transformational efforts and are challenged to reorganize and expand it, improving the stock of change actions and related experiences. Quite drastic changes occurred in all the six communities that tested the governance instrument. These changes were the product of the reflexive experimentation, the new social relations, the empowerment process, the changing tensions, the translocal connectivity, the discourse formation, the new (or reinforced) institutional homes and the strategic actions. New ways of doing, organising, framing and/or knowing, as expressed in the theory of Transformative Social Innovation, used as analytical framework. The Dive Deep & Dream Big project started in 2019 and was set as a collaborative inquiry to support break-through change at the municipal scale. Individuals and organizations working in different contexts got together to share knowledge and develop new transition pathways. Creating a social learning environment gave visibility to barriers that prevented effective action by fractally reproducing patterns of polarization. There was an agreement on the building blocks of a new integral governance framework based on reconciliation and imagination. These two action research projects provided complementary information, opening the floor to a holistic approach to transition. As an answer to my research question, I present a structured and replicable transformative governance approach that involves connecting the support of change makers, the welcoming of trauma, and the exercise of creativity, together with the acceleration of systemic collaboration. It can be used as a heuristic in the design of (trans)local regenerative interventions, able to catalyse and support ambitious and inclusive systemic change at the local scale and act as a leverage point for wider societal transformation.KR FoundationTransition NetworkThe Dutch Research Institute For Transition

Maximization of cyanobacterial growth and cyanotoxin productivity

Cyanobacteria group comprises more than 2000 species of prokaryotic organisms and they are commonly named "blue-green algae", in spite of being nowadays classified as Gramnegative bacteria. The worldwide occurrence of hepatotoxic cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa and the accumulation of its toxin microcystin, the most widespread cyanotoxin, have been responsible for several human deaths and various animal intoxication incidents. In recognition to its toxicity, the World Health Organization (WHO) and several national governments established guidelines and recommendation values for this toxin in water, which gave rise to an increasing demand for microcystin's analytical standards. These standards might be used either as laboratory standards in human and environmental risk assessment or as tools for molecular and cell biology studies. However, their availability is still limited due to constrains found in production and purification processes, which inflate the final price to values as high as 28000/mg. Thus, the optimization of cyanobacterial cultivation and toxin purification techniques is needed to decrease production cost of such high added-value product. Since the variation of cyanobacterial blooms toxicity is influenced by environmental factors, the aim of this project is to i) evaluate the effect of environmental factors on Microcystis aeruginosa LEGE 91094 growth and microcystin-LR accumulation; ii) develop cultivation strategies to optimize cyanobacteria growth and maximize toxin productivity; iii) optimize downstream processing steps in order to obtain high yields of cyanotoxin

Simulation analysis of IEEE 802.15.4 for wireless networked control systems

The deployment of wireless networks in industrial environments can bring several advantages over their wired counterparts; however, the characteristics of the wireless channels pose challenges to the provisioning of quality of service (QoS) that are not seen in wired networks. This paper provides an analysis of how important QoS parameters, such as message delivery ratio, delay and energy consumption, vary as a function of the number of sensor nodes injecting traffic in IEEE 802.15.4 networks operating in unbeaconed mode. Results show that the peer-to-peer topology enables better performance than the star topology, under the same conditions, indicating that the former is a better option if centralized control is not required. The use of retransmissions increases significantly the reliability of the network; however, even a high number of retransmissions are not enough to provide full reliability when the channel is highly affected by errors. Results also show that presence of hidden nodes can severely degrade the performance of the network, while the reduction of the turnaround time can improve the performance.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Phytoplankton production modelling in three marine ecosystems—static versus dynamic approach

Phytoplankton productivity is usually determined from water samples incubated at a number of irradiance levels during several hours. The resultant productivity-irradiance (P–E) curves are then used to estimate local and/or global phytoplankton production. However, there is growing evidence that these curves, referred as static, underestimate phytoplankton photosynthesis to a great deal, by assuming a stable response to light over the incubation period. One of the drawbacks of static P–E curves is the overestimation of photoinhibition. In this work, three one-dimensional vertically resolved models were developed as simply as possible, to investigate differences between static and dynamic phytoplankton productivity in three marine ecosystems: a turbid estuary, a coastal area and an open ocean ecosystem. The results show that, when photoinhibition development time is considered (dynamic model), the primary production estimates are always higher than when calculated with the static model. The quantitative importance of these differences varies with the type of ecosystem and it appears to be more important in coastal areas and estuaries (from 21 to 72%) than in oceanic waters (10%). Thus, these results suggest that primary production estimates, obtained under the assumption of a static behaviour response to light, may underestimate the real values of global phytoplankton primary production. Calculations suggest that the quantitative importance of this underestimation may be larger than the global missing carbon sink

Phytoplankton production modelling in three marine ecosystems—static versus dynamic approach

Phytoplankton productivity is usually determined from water samples incubated at a number of irradiance levels during several hours. The resultant productivity-irradiance (P–E) curves are then used to estimate local and/or global phytoplankton production. However, there is growing evidence that these curves, referred as static, underestimate phytoplankton photosynthesis to a great deal, by assuming a stable response to light over the incubation period. One of the drawbacks of static P–E curves is the overestimation of photoinhibition. In this work, three one-dimensional vertically resolved models were developed as simply as possible, to investigate differences between static and dynamic phytoplankton productivity in three marine ecosystems: a turbid estuary, a coastal area and an open ocean ecosystem. The results show that, when photoinhibition development time is considered (dynamic model), the primary production estimates are always higher than when calculated with the static model. The quantitative importance of these differences varies with the type of ecosystem and it appears to be more important in coastal areas and estuaries (from 21 to 72%) than in oceanic waters (10%). Thus, these results suggest that primary production estimates, obtained under the assumption of a static behaviour response to light, may underestimate the real values of global phytoplankton primary production. Calculations suggest that the quantitative importance of this underestimation may be larger than the global missing carbon sink

The lifecycle of a voluntary policy innovation: the case of local Agenda 21

Local Agenda 21 (LA21) emerged 23 years ago as a voluntary policy innovation for local governments aiming at sustainability and has now completed its lifecycle. We aim at a second look at LA21 from the standpoint of the institutional and innovation diffusion theories and with Portugal as case study. Results show a three moment lifecycle for LA21, each with distinct diffusion patterns. The Dawn, stymied by lack of regional and national leadership, was likely fuelled by a learning mechanism. It lasted 10 years and involved a mere 1% of the potential adopters. The Zenith took place when other countries had already come full circle. During this phase 27% of the local governments became active and both coercion and competition stand out as relevant engines. Twilight, most probably powered through coercion, competition and imitation mechanisms, took LA21 to a steady state with an additional 19% of local governments enrolling. Since then LA21 has shown departures in several different directions, including oblivion. We speculate, based on preliminary data that, although most LA21 are no longer active, a durable setting was created that promotes further innovation and public participation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio