Access and allocation in global biodiversity governance: a review

Access and allocation is one of the five analytical themes of the science plan of the Earth System Governance (ESG) project. Concerns over access and allocation are at the core of struggles and conflicts brought about by the often ineluctable trade-offs related to biodiversity conservation and the global, national and local governance systems that aim to contribute to global biodiversity conservation. Access and benefit-sharing mechanisms, integrated conservation and development projects, payments for ecosystem services or community conservation programmes have all tried balancing environmental objectives with concerns for the allocation of natural resources and associated rights within society, and for access to basic human needs. As a contribution to this special issue on access and allocation, this paper aims to contribute to the analysis of the relevance of questions of access and allocation to ESG by providing an in-depth review of the literature on access and allocation in biodiversity conservation at different scales. We describe how the concepts of access and allocation have been used and conceptualized in the literature produced between 2008 and 2018, and we discuss the two key issues which dominate the literature (1) benefit-sharing; and (2) the role of local institutions. By drawing on the trends and evidence from the literature, we consider the lessons for the next generation of ESG scholars and draw out some key policy implications to be included in the debates on the post-2020 strategic plan for biodiversity

3D Object Reconstruction from Imperfect Depth Data Using Extended YOLOv3 Network

State-of-the-art intelligent versatile applications provoke the usage of full 3D, depth-based streams, especially in the scenarios of intelligent remote control and communications, where virtual and augmented reality will soon become outdated and are forecasted to be replaced by point cloud streams providing explorable 3D environments of communication and industrial data. One of the most novel approaches employed in modern object reconstruction methods is to use a priori knowledge of the objects that are being reconstructed. Our approach is different as we strive to reconstruct a 3D object within much more difficult scenarios of limited data availability. Data stream is often limited by insufficient depth camera coverage and, as a result, the objects are occluded and data is lost. Our proposed hybrid artificial neural network modifications have improved the reconstruction results by 8.53 which allows us for much more precise filling of occluded object sides and reduction of noise during the process. Furthermore, the addition of object segmentation masks and the individual object instance classification is a leap forward towards a general-purpose scene reconstruction as opposed to a single object reconstruction task due to the ability to mask out overlapping object instances and using only masked object area in the reconstruction process

Synthesis and reactions of 1-amino-1,5,6,10b-tetrahydroimidazo[2,1-a]isoquinolin-2(3H)-ones

1-Amino-1,5,6,10b-tetrahydroimidazo[2,1-a]isoquinolin-2(3H)-ones, as previously unknown ring-annelated isoquinolines with a 3-aminoimidazolidin-4-one scaffold, were selectively prepared upon reacting 2-carbamoylmethyl- or 2-ethoxycarbonylmethyl-3,4-dihydroisoquinolinium salts with hydrazine hydrate. Acylation of the primary amino group with benzoyl chlorides, followed by reductive ring cleavage of the annelated 4-imidazolidinone ring and final cyclodehydration of the N,N'-diacylhydrazines resulted in the synthesis of 1-methyl-2(5-aryl-[1,3,4]oxadiazol-2-ylmethyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines which are of interest due to their potential use as bioisosteres of biologically active N-aryl-2-(1-methyl-3,4-dihydro-1H-isoquinolin-2-yl) acetamides

Control of processer with time delays

The main goal of research -to simulate and investigate the processes of automatic management systems with significant automatic delays. In master’s final work, is investigation of managing systems with significant time delays. Investigation was done by simulation carried out in the environment of Matlab/Simulak.To model the processes, transmission functions in which time delay duration is much greater, than in comparison with the resultant steady of time were used. Work consists of investigation of operation in-one management systems. Standard PI, PID, regulators and time delay-compensating system, were used. Final work consists of quality evaluation of statistical indexes of transitional processes. Research presents management system response curves, transitional processes quality indexes and their statistical evaluation. Research findings are summarized in the evaluation

Thermal Modelling and Design of On-board DC-DC Power Converter using Finite Element Method

Power electronic converters are widely used and play a pivotal role in electronics area. The temperature causes around 54 % of all power converters failures. Thermal loads are nowadays one of the bottlenecks in the power system design and the cooling efficiency of a system is primarily determined by numerical modelling techniques. Therefore, thermal design through thermal modelling and simulation is becoming an integral part of the design process as less expensive compared to the experimental cut-and-try approach. Here the investigation is performed using finite element method-based modelling, and also the potential of such analysis was demonstrated by real-world measurements and comparison of obtained results. Thermal modelling was accomplished using finite element analysis software COMSOL and thermo-imaging camera was used to measure the thermal field distribution. Also, the improved configuration of power converter was proposed

Large-time asymptotic equivalence for a class of non-autonomous semilinear parabolic equations

AbstractIn this article we prove new results concerning the long-time behavior of solutions to a class of non-autonomous semilinear parabolic Neumann boundary-value problems defined on open bounded connected subsets Ω of RN. The nature of the equations that we investigate leads us to consider two complementary situations, according to whether the time-dependent lower order terms in the equations possess recurrence properties. If the lower order terms are recurrent, we prove that every solution stabilizes around a spatially homogeneous and recurrent solution of the same Neumann problem in the C1 (Ω)-topology. In contrast, if the lower order terms are not recurrent, the asymptotic states need not be solutions to the original problem and we prove that every solution stabilizes around such an asymptotic state again in the C1 (Ω)-topology. In all cases the dynamics of the asymptotic solutions are governed by a compact and connected set of scalar ordinary differential equations, which are thereby asymptotically equivalent to the original Neumann problem for large times. A major difficulty to be bypassed in the proofs of our theorems stems from the fact that we allow the nonlinearitics to depend explicitly on the gradient of the unknown function. Our method of proof rests upon the use of comparison principles and upon the existence of exponential dichotomies for the family of evolution operators associated with the principal part of the equations. It is also based on ideas that stem for the classic reduction methods for non-autonomous finite-dimentional dynamical systems originally devised by Miller, Strauss-Yorke and Sell

Darnioji kalio dihidrofosfato gavimo ir skystųjų atliekų panaudojimo technologija

A highly concentrated fertilizer is potassium phosphates (potassium hydrogen phosphate and potassium dihydrogen phosphate) which, unfortunately, is usually prohibitively expensive due to excessive manufacturing costs. As a result of high prices, the commonly used potassium dihydrogen phosphate is usually restricted to highly chlorine-sensitive plants, i.e. flowers and vegetables grown in greenhouses. In the dissertation was performed studies about potassium dihydrogen phosphate production by using cheaper raw material and simpler production method. This would enable the extension of chlorine-free concentrated phosphorus and potassium fertilizer range. In this paper was suitable quality crystalline potassium dihydrogen phosphate received, by using potassium chloride and ammonium dihydrogen phosphate and by selecting the best conditions (the ratio of the starting materials, the reaction temperature and the time). Data on pure crystalline potassium dihydrogen phosphate and with cellulose additive granulation conditions are presented in this work. The remaining liquid phase after separating crystalline product was analyzed and evaluated, and is proposed to use as a basic solution to produce liquid fertilizers. In this way, it suggested the principal waste-free potassium dihydrogen phosphate production technology, which is very important for the implementation of modern effective use of natural resources and environmental trends and recommendations. Research results are very important and valuable as their basis for the production of composite bulk mineral (potassium dihydrogen phosphate) and liquid (4-5-15 brand) fertilizers

Translation initiation events on structured eukaryotic mRNAs generate gene expression noise

Gene expression stochasticity plays a major role in biology, creating non-genetic cellular individuality and influencing multiple processes, including differentiation and stress responses. We have addressed the lack of knowledge about posttranscriptional contributions to noise by determining cell-to-cell variations in the abundance of mRNA and reporter protein in yeast. Two types of structural element, a stem–loop and a poly(G) motif, not only inhibit translation initiation when inserted into an mRNA 5΄ untranslated region, but also generate noise. The noise-enhancing effect of the stem–loop structure also remains operational when combined with an upstream open reading frame. This has broad significance, since these elements are known to modulate the expression of a diversity of eukaryotic genes. Our findings suggest a mechanism for posttranscriptional noise generation that will contribute to understanding of the generally poor correlation between protein-level stochasticity and transcriptional bursting. We propose that posttranscriptional stochasticity can be linked to cycles of folding/unfolding of a stem–loop structure, or to interconversion between higher-order structural conformations of a G-rich motif, and have created a correspondingly configured computational model that generates fits to the experimental data. Stochastic events occurring during the ribosomal scanning process can therefore feature alongside transcriptional bursting as a source of noise

Analysis of biofuel plant with heat pump

After shutting down the Ignalina atomic power plant, Lithuania have received a huge blow to it‘s national energetic safety. Not only pressure from The European Union, but risen electricity and natural gas import dependency has forced Lithuania to search for a quick solution. Intuitive way to solve both of the problems was combined heat and power promotion and development. Lithuania was very quick to master the sophisticated biofuel burning technologies. At the beginning biofuel was used for water heating and steam supply to various technological processes. Not long after, international experience using biofuel for cogeneration has rooted down in Lithuania too. Nowadays these plants energy production prime cost is particularly cheap. To hop into the market it is necessary to find effectiveness increasing capabilities. In this study two different ways of heat pump integration into a regular biofuel CHP are examined. First one is based on full waste heat energy transformation of water steam cycle, second – additional flue gas cooling after the economizer and greater latent heat recovery. Detailed termodinamic and economic calculations have shown that because of very high compressor power and it‘s electricity consumption the first version heat pump actually lessens annual profit. A lot less heat quantity is in the flue gas after the economizer. Heat pump designed to cool them down and gather condensing water vapour heat is many times less powerful. This is because of high coefficient of performance (COP=9.899), which is only possible when having low temperature difference between low grade heat pool and heat pump condensator condensing temperature. This kind of heat pump does not require high investment costs and increases annual profit by 264 thousand € or 13,5 %