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The large picture and the ideal of total control upheld by traditional economics are unlikely to obtain complete answers in the increasing complexity of the socioeconomic system with its various manifestations, such as globalisation and environmental depletion. The reason why the economy does what it does and why we pay attention to it gets lost along the way. In other words, the instruments of economics are inadequate for the complex socioeconomic context in which we live. To illustrate this concept as a starting point for new foundations for economic disciplines, we present an unusual scientifi c discussion inspired by a fantasy thriller fi lm of 1997 titled Cube .
There is a preferred direction for spontaneous changes in nature leading to decay and destruction, in accordance with the entropy law. Notwithstanding this assertion, the law does not prohibit changes opposite to spontaneity, only that such change cannot happen by itself. In this paper, I show that the second law points out the possibilities of constructive changes against spontaneity, as well as sets the limit to those possibilities. The actualization of those changes necessitates the concepts of useful work and reversible-like processes. Although all macroscopic processes in nature are spontaneity-driven, machines and machine operation can only be comprehended – not as spontaneous processes, but – as reversible-like processes, which are designed to be spontaneity-driven. Machines (and life) are the outcomes of constructive forces in nature, which derive their effi cacy from the destruction of spontaneity; destruction and construction are two faces of the entropy law.
The effects of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fi elds on living systems are reported and discussed in the framework of evolutionary physics.The discussion is focused on: (a) new epistemological points of view related to the relationship between Prigogine's thermodynamics and evolutionary biology; (b) the relevance of Gödel's theorem on scientifi c modelling; (c) an attempt to take steps towards an evolutionary medicine.Particular emphasis has been dedicated to the role of sounds, water and clinical response and to the self-organisation action, which can be related to the capacity of human beings to use their own defences to reactivate lost mechanisms.
Cities are complex dynamic entities.From a thermodynamic perspective, they represent open systems, constantly importing and exporting energy and matter across their boundaries; the output invariably being less ordered due to irreversible internal processes (dissipation).In analogy to natural ecosystems, the uptake, transport and storage of substances in urban sites as well as their transformation can be considered equivalent to urban metabolism.Apparently inspired by progress that has been made in the study of natural ecosystems, a range of tools based on thermodynamics have recently been applied to better understand this urban metabolism and how it can be optimised.In this paper we review progress that has been made in both domains (i.e.natural and anthropogenic ecosystems).In particular, we consider applications of entropy, energy, exergy and (the quasi-thermodynamic) emergy.We attempt to qualitatively defi ne a seemingly general dichotomy between the explanatory power of a given thermodynamic concept and its calculability.We conclude that whilst thermodynamic considerations indisputably provide a general framework for understanding cities and their evolution, further research is needed for them to become operational representations of urban metabolism and indicators of sustainability.We suggest possible pathways for achieving this.
Because of its scale and the role it plays in our lives, a healthy built environment is of vital importance.As a part of material culture, buildings have to support human needs.But because of their static nature, obtained through design, most contemporary buildings and their components have a negative impact on their surroundings.The huge quantities of waste produced during demolition and the still rising emission of greenhouse gases created during use of the building, manufacture and waste treatment of its components are environmental indicators of an ineffi cient and unhealthy design.Moreover, a socio-economic paradox has been created.Due to inadequate design many buildings are unable to adapt to (fast-changing) contemporary requirements.As a result many constructions are left to their fate and decay.This ineffi cient use of matter and space is in sharp contrast with a global need for affordable housing.In high density countries, such as Belgium, building plots are scarce and expensive.In addition to this, the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) estimates that 600 million urban residents and 1 billion rural dwellers in developing countries live in inadequate housing.In this paper, three main methods that integrate the fourth dimension, i.e. time, into design are described: design for adaptability (construction reuse), design for deconstruction (component reuse) and design for dismantling (material reuse).These four-dimensional design strategies strive for a healthy built environment, by taking into account, as from the fi rst sketches, the wear and tear of artefacts and the changing and evolving circumstances that will affect them.The design of several construction kits, developed at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, shows that the designer must pay attention to detailing.The key detailing principles and two design cases are further examined in this paper.
Electromagnetic dosimetry, which quantifies the interaction of electromagnetic fields with biological material, is primarily used for the evaluation of human exposures due to mobile wireless devices generating electromagnetic fields.The term dosimetry refers to the absorbed energy in an object, while exposimetry encompasses external field measurements.Both dosimetry and exposimetry are based on experimental and/or numerical methods.In this paper a proposed new method for numerical exposimetry for short-range radio frequency devices is described.The novelty of the field calculation method, called beam-tracing, lies in the determination of the total electromagnetic field, i.e. direct, reflected, transmitted, and diffracted, at a specific location.The calculation of the total external electromagnetic fields enables the determination of the deposited electromagnetic energy in a human being through the specific absorption rate using known approximation formulas.This paper presents an application of the beam-tracing method to calculations of human exposure from typical wireless local-area network systems located in an indoor environment.
Land use and land cover changes are important aspects of global environmental changes.They are controlled by natural factors and are affected by socioeconomic, technological, and historical factors.In this study, multitemporal Landsat images were used to analyze changes in biomass.We aimed at obtaining information for better decision-making regarding land use in the semiarid areas of Inner Mongolia.Information on land use and land cover in the steppes of Inner Mongolia, China was derived from multitemporal Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images in 1989, 1994, and 1997, and a Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) image in 2002.On the basis of the vegetation index, five vegetative biomass zones were delineated from the TM/ETM+ images: no vegetation, low biomass, middle biomass, high biomass, and woods.Changes in vegetative biomass were analyzed, in relation to natural factors, such as monthly mean temperature and precipitation.The results suggest that a change in vegetative biomass depends on that in meteorology.Changes in vegetative biomass were also analyzed, in relation to socioeconomic factors, such as overgrazing, population increases, and agricultural production.With increasing population pressure, proper land use is important for a sustained yield and the conservation of a semiarid ecosystem.
The implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) asks for the commitment of all European member states.There are many different issues to be considered simultaneously and appropriate methodologies and tools are needed to overcome the complexity of this mission.This article presents an integrated framework for solving wastewater problems, at a regional level, aiming at achieving the WFD goals.This is a challenging task from all viewpoints: environmental, economic, social, and technical.The various levels of intervention deemed necessary for this purpose are described and the need for appropriate methodological tools is analyzed.
in a Florentine hospital on the 9 April 2007 at the age of eighty-six, after several years of failing health and much pain.Ferroni was born in Florence on 25 March 1921 and was educated at the Royal University of Florence where he took his 'Dottore' degree in Chemistry 'Magna cum Laude' (full marks and honours).There, soon after World War II, he reorganized the laboratories and served as teacher and instructor.Yet Ferroni was either an unsalaried or an unassuming man.He knew his subject well and knew how to pass on his knowledge to others; his practical classes were a model and his technique impeccable.When he was still a student at the University of Florence, he had his first meeting with the renewed chemist Richard Willstätter
Environ theory and analysis is an input–output (I/O) network theory of environment based on conservative interchange of energy and matter between system components. Utility analysis is an extension of basic I/O methodology that enables determination of proximate and ultimate interaction types between components by comparing contributions from and to intersecting I/O environs that mediate pairwise interactions. Ordered sign pairs of computed utilities specify and quantify nine interaction types. Our study asks two questions: (1) How do we unscramble complex webs to determine ultimate interaction types between components in ecosystems? (2) Is unweighted digraph structure, as widely investigated in food-web and other network theories, by itself sufficient, or must linkages also be quantified (weighted)? Utility analysis of ‘community modules’, which are small- order dissipative steady-state networks, indicated three modes of determining interaction types: (1) Structural determination – in certain simple webs, interactions are determined by network topology alone, without regard for numerical flow values; (2) Parametric determination, endogenous – in other webs, interactions are internally determined by flow values within the system. Both network topology and interior flow magnitudes combine to determine interaction types; (3) Parametric determination, exogenous – in a third class of webs, interactions are externally determined by boundary flows into the system from outside. In these webs, a combination of network topology and external inputs determines the interaction types. Characteristics of these three categories of networks are described, and it is shown that interactions in ecosystems, such as competition, predation, and mutualism, are typically not fixed, as often assumed, but vary with network coupling patterns and flow magnitudes, which are always fluid and changing.
Pest and disease incursions can impose significant costs of forgone production and trade. Additionally, there are costs of management activities such as hazard reduction, eradication and control. The assessment of these costs and the determination of the optimal management response have attracted attention in recent years. Minimising the expected present value of the total of the above mentioned costs is one of the criteria for determining how to protect the economy from the effects of unmitigated hazards. It involves a tradeoff between additional expenditure on management activities such as hazard reduction and their expected benefits such as a reduced hazard rate of future incursions. In this paper, an analytical expression is developed for the expected discounted present value of all future incursion and management costs for the case of recurrent episodes of pest or disease incursion and eradication, where there is uncertainty about the arrival of disease incursions and about the outcome of the eradication process. Uncertainty about the outcome of the eradication process means that it is uncertain whether the pest or disease is completely removed at the end of the eradication process. The optimal expenditure on management activities for a risk neutral decision maker is obtained by minimising the derived expression with respect to the levels of management activities, subject to the relationships between management activities and their associated outcomes such as a reduction of the hazard rate. An example is provided to illustrate the determination of the combination of management activities that minimises the expected economic cost of pest or disease incursions.
A multi-functional artificial reef (MFAR) is a relatively new kind of coastal structure that can have several functions.The main possible functions are the protection of the local coastline against erosion, increasing the possibilities of local surfing and enhancement of the marine ecosystem in the area.This article elucidates these three functions.For the coast of Leirosa, a small town located in the north western coast of Portugal, a MFAR is a possible solution to protect the local coastline.For the design of the MFAR geometry for the Leirosa coast, some parameters have to be defined, such as the length of the reef slope and the offshore distance of the structure.The use of a numerical model allowed for simulations of the evolution of regular and irregular waves over a variable bathymetry.Several cases have been run for different slopes of the reef and for different offshore distances of the structure, as well as for different dimensions of the crest of the structure.The analysis focused on the influence of the length of the slope on the breaker type and on the characteristic length determination of a broad-crested structure like a MFAR.The results indicate that the depth of the platform has a large influence on the breaker type and no clear differences in the current patterns were found for different distances from the shoreline to the base of a broad-crested structure or from the shoreline to the apex of the structure crest.
In January 2007, the Environmental Directorate of the European Commission released a preview of the results of a study on climate change and its consequences.Climate changes predicted for the next 20 years are already happening, as demonstrated by the latest scientific investigations, and are accelerating faster than predicted.The main novelty of the European report is that the European Union commits itself to promoting and leading the endeavour to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.EU countries are committed to a 30% autonomous unilateral decrease in emissions by 2020.This ambitious project should be a clear signal to the international community of the leading role Europe intends to play.The increase in temperature has a dramatic effect that will affect people living in coastal areas, and in Italy, the first glance is for the Venice situation.IPCC estimates suggest that increased annual temperatures and an increase in extreme precipitations in the Adriatic Sea will be the likely effects of global climate change.It becomes essential to be able to adapt to climate change and to plan an increase in resilience and a reduction of the costs of environmental damage.It is impossible to predict how climate change will unfold over the next 20-30 years, but it is nevertheless possible to protect our communities from the worst consequences to some extent.
Sapropel (a lake-derived organic-rich mud) has been utilized as a soil fertilizer on sandy and loamy Cambisols in Lithuania.Replicated treatments (including sapropel at 200 t ha -1 ) were applied to crop rotations (maize, barley, clover, winter rye, potatoes and oats) and long-term influences on soil physico-chemical properties and crop yield examined.Soil agrochemical properties were evaluated before and after the end of the first (1989-90), second and third (2001-02) crop rotations from four treatments and four replicates.Results reveal that, in most cases, there are notable increases in soil pH, total absorbed bases, available phosphorus and potassium and soil organic matter content after each crop rotation.Moreover, results show that sapropel can improve crop productivity to comparable levels as manure-fertilized soils.This indicates that there are longterm benefits of sapropel applications, namely improvements in soil properties and associated influences on crop productivity.However, sapropel extraction and application requires sound environmental management of the risks involved so as to provide safe, practical, commercial and sustainable resources for the countries with these deposits.Management should accord with EU directives on soil, water and farming practices.
Suspended solids discharge during consecutive rain episodes was observed in a small rural catchment in northwest Spain during a study of the sources of production and transport of these sediments.At the catchment outlet, discharge was measured and suspended solid samples were taken in the later portion of the rainy season, using an automatic sampler.A multi-interval sampling program was carried out.The results show that in a sequence of discharge peaks, the suspended solid concentrations present an increase and a reduction with flow.The lowest suspended solid concentrations obtained at the last discharge peaks seem to reflect an exhaustion of the sediment source during the succession of events.Clockwise hysteresis loops are described, and the sediment peaks were found to occur either prior to or with the discharge peaks.This type of relation can be explained by the presence of nearby sources and/or sediment exhaustion.Erosion of riverbanks and roads has been observed as important sources of suspended solids in the catchment.
