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A multi-level spatial assessment framework for identifying land use conflict zones
Get PDFLand use conflicts (LUCs) are pivotal in understanding the complex interactions between human activities and global changes. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to analyze LUCs, focusing on land use suitability (LUS), scarcity, and diverse development objectives. It introduces a multi-level spatial assessment framework designed to identify LUCs, promoting sustainable land use practices. We chose China as the case study due to its status as the largest developing country and its intricate land use challenges. By integrating the “ecological-agricultural-urban” function with a four-tier classification of conflict intensity, our study identifies 12 distinct conflict patterns. Additionally, we classified LUCs into nine archetypes based on competing land use attributes within each 250-meter grid cell. Our empirical results show that the current LUS in China has intensified land use rivalry and conflicts. The geographical distribution, land category composition, and the intensity and manifestation of these conflicts exhibit significant variability across different LUC zones. We identified 14 regional zones, highlighting significant spatiotemporal variations in conflict distribution. Key findings include the positive impact of converting unused land to forestland and the negative effects of transforming agricultural land into construction land. These findings underscore the need for tailored land management strategies for each city or region, based on their specific development contexts
Short-cycle borehole thermal energy storage: Impact of thermal cycle duration on overall performance
Get PDFBorehole thermal energy storage arrays are a common form of seasonal underground energy storage which relies on the thermal mass of subsurface rock or sediment to store hot or cold thermal energy. However in practice, typical seasonal operation seldom leads to cyclic energy recovery factors greater than 50-60 % due to significant thermal losses during prolonged periods between consecutive charges. In this paper, the impact of short cycle operation (down to a few days) on energy recovery and overall performance is investigated. Analytical and numerical models are used to estimate energy recovery as a function of cycle length for a typical array and for two distinct charging and discharging scenarios (constant temperature or thermal charge load), which is novel and has not been done before. The results show that shorter cycle duration yields increased recovery factors and storage capacity, which is ascribed to a greater rate of charge to rate of thermal loss ratio. In particular, short-cycle operation at the scale of days unlocks recovery factors in excess of 85 %. The results, supported by a numerical subsurface analysis of the temperature distribution, also show that the recovery efficiency increases with time as losses
approach, but never fully reach, a steady-state
Women in transgression: we still need to move beyond traditional gender roles in policy surrounding women who undertake substance use and sex work
Get PDFBackground:
Female sex workers and women who use drugs are often framed as “bad” or “fallen” women. In Scotland, discourses that interpret sex work and substance use as sites of violence against women have dominated. This restricts the creation of adequate policy to support women, and recognising their agency, autonomy and identity.
Methods:
This research combines narrative interviews with women who use drugs, female family members of those who use substances (including drugs and alcohol) and interviews with women engaged in sex work in Scotland. These were thematically analysed to identify how women navigate their identities particularly as this relates to transgressing traditional gender roles in Scotland.
Results:
Sex work and drug use are seen as contradictory to traditional feminine roles and as such policy is constructed from a moral standpoint. Women are constructed as “housewives” and “mothers” with a focus on the caring role they provide for the family, or as victims of patriarchy and male violence and their multiple other roles are often downplayed.
Conclusion:
A paradigm shift is needed in discourse, debate and policy processes in order to enable women’s lived experiences to be heard and engaged. This will allow for thinking beyond a sole focus on risk
Crisis, domestic workers and socio-economic rights
No full textDespite providing services that are essential for the sustainability of societies, economies and families, migrant domestic workers face important challenges when it comes to enjoying key socio-economic rights such as fair wages and social protection. I argue that to understand this paradox and to effectively ensure domestic workers’ rights, we need to examine the impacts of the enduring crisis of social reproduction, brought into stark relief by the Covid-19 pandemic. The chapter starts by providing an account of the nature and multiple manifestations of social reproduction crisis. I then show the different ways the enduring crisis of social reproduction impacts domestic workers’ socio-economic rights. The chapter finally discusses different strategies that use the law to improve domestic workers’ access to socio-economic rights. Emergencies of the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic tend to exacerbate existing disadvantages but can also renew political and societal debates and provide much-needed impetus for positive changes, provided there are actors willing and able to carry these forward
Paediatric bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells support acute myeloid leukaemia cell survival and enhance chemoresistance via contact-independent mechanism
Get PDFChildren diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (paediatric AML [pAML]) have limited treatment options and relapse rates due to chemoresistance and refractory disease are over 30%. Current treatment is cytotoxic and in itself has long-lasting harsh side effects. New, less toxic treatments are needed. The bone marrow microenvironment provides chemoprotection to leukaemic cells through cell communication and interaction with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), but this is not well defined in pAML. Using primary patient material, we identify a cell contact-independent mechanism of MSC-mediated chemoprotection involving extrinsic soluble factors that is abrogated through inhibition of the JAK/STAT and ERK pathways
Not all uncivil behaviours are equal: exploring responses to incivility in veterinary practice using vignettes
Get PDFWorkplace incivility is considered a common workplace stressor, linked to a range of adverse impacts such as reduced wellbeing. However, there is a lack of research focused on how targets of incivility respond. The current study addresses that gap by examining responses to incivility within veterinary practice. Veterinarians and veterinary nurses ( = 132) evaluated six scenarios depicting two types of incivility (direct e.g. demeaning comments/indirect, for example, ignoring someone) across three instigators (clients, co-workers, senior colleagues), reporting their perception and appraisal of the uncivil behaviour depicted along with potential responses. Direct incivility was linked to responses such as reciprocation, exit, and support seeking, whereas indirect incivility was associated with affiliative and ignoring responses. Negative appraisal of incivility predicted a higher likelihood of exit, avoidance, support seeking and reporting responses. These findings suggest that incivility targets utilise a broad range of response options and adapt their response dependent on the situation
Should we be writing at a time like this? Reflections on abolition, political science and International Relations
Get PDFShould we be writing at a time like this? In this short reflection for the 25th anniversary of the British Journal of Politics and International Relations, I argue that for the journal to remain relevant in an age of perma-crisis, those of us who read and publish in it need to adopt an abolitionist approach to our research, teaching, and praxis. I outline the contours of an abolitionist approach to political science and international relations, and argue that if we are a community who aims to understand, explain, and address the issues and crises that face Britain and the globe today, then our disciplines of political science and international relations may themselves not be up to the scale and seriousness of the challenges we face. Instead, abolition can provide a pathway to overcoming harms and injustices, and offers us a future of care, community, and public safety
Tracing the geographic origin of Atlantic cod products using stable isotope analysis
Get PDFRationale:
Increasing demand for fish and seafood means that the traceability of marine products is becoming ever more important for consumers, producers and regulators. Highly complex and globalised supply networks create challenges for verifying a stated catch region. Atlantic cod is one of the most commercially important species in the northeast Atlantic. Several regional fisheries supply cod into the trade network, of which some are at greater risk of overexploitation than others. Tools allowing retrospective testing of spatial origin would significantly assist sustainable harvesting of fish, reducing incentives for illegal fishing and fraud.
Methods:
Here, we investigate whether stable isotope ratios of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur can be used to retrospectively identify the catch region of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). We measured the isotopic composition of muscle tissue from 377 cod from 10 catch regions across the northeast Atlantic and then applied three different assignment methods to classify cod by region of most likely origin. The assignment method developed was subsequently tested using independently sourced, known-origin samples.
Results:
Individual cod could be traced back to their true origin with an average assignment accuracy of 70–79% and over 90% accuracy for certain regions. Assignment success rates comparable to those using genetic techniques were achieved when assigning among restricted and pre-selected regions. However, assignment accuracy to the fishery region estimated from independent samples across the whole geographic range of cod averaged ~25% overall, highlighting the need for careful application of isotope-based approaches.
Conclusion:
Stable isotope techniques can provide effective tools to test for origin in Atlantic cod, but not all catch regions are isotopically distinct. Stable isotopes could be combined with genetic techniques to result in higher assignment accuracy than could be achieved using either method independently. Assignment potential can be estimated from reference datasets, but estimates of realistic assignment accuracy require independently collected data
A self-assembled metallo-macrocycle two-qubit spin system
Get PDFA self-assembled, charge-neutral dicopper(ii) metallo-macrocycle with a near degenerate singlet–triplet ground state is a prototype molecular two-qubit system. The weakly-coupled spin centres delivered a long phase memory time of 5.4 μs, and each spin can be selectively switched using an applied potential providing a convenient means to modulate the quantum levels
Identification of hydroandradite in CM carbonaceous chondrites: a product of calc-silicate alteration on C-complex asteroids
Get PDFA hydrous Ca-Fe-rich silicate identified as hydroandradite was observed in the ‘Mighei19 type’ carbonaceous (CM) chondrite falls, Shidian and Kolang. This is the first report of hydroandradite occurring within meteorites. Hydroandradite forms through aqueous calc-silicate alteration under specific fluid conditions. Its presence within Shidian and Kolang has implications for interpreting alteration processes within the C-complex asteroid parent bodies of the CM chondrites. To better understand its occurrence, the meteoritic hydroandradite was studied with scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalysis, transmission electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. It occurs in four petrographic contexts: layered, perovskite-associated, sulphide-associated, and spheroidal. Kolang has all four morphologies, while only the sulphide-associated occurs in Shidian. In Kolang, hydroandradite was likely produced by replacement of kamacite, Ti-bearing clinopyroxene in calcium- and aluminium-rich inclusions, and secondary magnetite in three distinct alteration events. The formation temperature of meteoritic hydroandradite was estimated to be 100–245°C, based on the mineralogy of the lithologies within which it occurs as well as on its degree of hydration relative to synthetic and terrestrial hydroandradites. Because Kolang and Shidian are the only reported meteorites with hydroandradite to date, they may be from the same parent body
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