Assessment through socioecological abstraction: The case of nutrient management models in Sudano-Sahelian West Africa

The sustainability of smallholder agriculture in the drylands of West Africa is a topic of long-lasting concern. This paper is focused on the scientific assessment of nutrient (mis)management affecting the long-term productivity of cropland. “Nutrient mining” is seen as a major mechanism for land degradation in the region. Two models will be the focus: that tied to the rangeland-to-cropland metric and the nutrient balance model. These tools of assessment follow a long history of environmental assessment and modeling that purposefully abstracts from the heterogeneity of the same farming practices that modeling efforts seek to assess. Abstraction is always part of modeling but the form of abstraction described here ignores any detailed understanding of farming practices and in so doing, demands very little information about farming practices. In this way, models serve as both the symptom and cause of continued ignorance of farming practices by most agronomists and soil scientists working in the region. The variables used in these models will be described and how these same variables are strongly influenced by the variation of farmers’ practices will be discussed. In addition, it will be shown that needless model abstraction results in research outcomes that provide very little insights to guide land policy formulation and agricultural extension. In short, these models point to the ultimate resource limits of the regional agricultural system but provide few insights of what could be changed to reduce rates of land degradation. The paper concludes by presenting alternative approaches that through their engagement with the diverse positionalities of farmers, provides insights useful for the development of effective land policies.     

Knowledge management through the development of knowledge repositories: towards work degradation

This paper questions the consequences of the use of electronic knowledge repositories for work and employment. Drawing on critical research suggesting that knowledge management associated with such tools presents similarities to scientific management principles, it proposes to examine the following key research question: how do employees experience the transformation of the employment relationship when a knowledge repository is introduced to the workplace? The inquiry is grounded in an exploratory qualitative case study of a knowledge management system designed to foster knowledge‐sharing in a Belgian public administration. The findings illustrate two complementary outcomes: this system resulted in employees experiencing deskilling and work degradation, and was met with resistance. Significantly, this paper considers work degradation as a reflexive phenomenon in the context studied, where knowledge‐sharing systems produced deskilling and resistance as part of a specific re‐regulation process.     

Socio-economic and biophysical determinants of land degradation in Vietnam: An integrated causal analysis at the national level

Recognizing the socio-economic and biophysical causes of land degradation at the national level is important for cause-targeted strategies when designing policies for combating land degradation. This study aims to identify the biophysical and socio-economic factors that significantly affect land degradation across Vietnam and to interpret the causalities underlying the effects. The dependent variables considered in the study are spatial, the extent and intensity of degradation in three land-use zones (agriculture, forest and severely degraded abandonment). The hypothesized explanatory variables are common economic and demographic drivers and bio-physical factors such as soil, terrain constraints, and neighborhood land-use structures that are often neglected in many large-scale land degradation assessments. Instead of using a single inferential statistic technique, we used multi-linear regression and binary logistic regression in a complementary manner to increase the detectability and credibility of the degradation cause analyses. The results showed agricultural production growth had strong and consistent effects on land degradation extent and intensity. Population growth, especially in rural areas, had a strong effect on the extent of overall land degradation. The importance of a neighboring forest was revealed for its ability to reduce land degradation intensity in abandoned, unproductive lands. The concrete faceting of the causal analysis for each land-use zone as social–ecological stratum allowed us to combine the defined social–ecological contexts, contemporary theories, and hypotheses in the field to clarify the causal factors of a complex phenomenon like land degradation. The study demonstrates these contemporary inferential statistics can be complementarily used to sufficiently detect and understand land degradation causes at the national level. The results suggest implications for national land management policy: internalizing land degradation costs in the farming system evaluation for payment for ecosystem services policy, restricting forest conversion, and improving extension services and education in agrarian communities.     

Erosion mitigation in the Waikato District,New Zealand: economic implications for agriculture

Soil erosion, in its various forms, is caused or aggravated by agricultural activities. Mitigation of surface erosion comprises the construction of shelterbelts, fencing, riparian buffering, and stock reduction. Mitigation of mass‐movement erosion, in turn, takes the form of spaced planting of trees to maintain a persistent, healthy, and complete ground cover. In this article, we assess the economic implications to agriculture of the adoption of mitigation alternatives for erosion control in the Waikato District, New Zealand. The Waikato District presents a spatial pattern of erosion that affects profitability of dairy, and sheep and beef enterprises. We use the Universal Soil Loss Equation and the New Zealand Empirical Erosion Model to estimate erosion figures that are then fed into an economic‐focused, nonlinear, partial equilibrium mathematical programming model of New Zealand land use. Different scenarios are constructed for surface and mass‐movement soil erosion targets ranging from 0% to 50% below baseline levels. We find that achieving surface erosion targets is more expensive than mass‐movement targets, and results in different responses in regional‐level costs, land use, enterprise net revenue, and adoption of mitigation alternatives.     

氯离子对苯酚电化学氧化降解过程的影响分析

高级氧化技术是有机污染物处理的重要技术,而电化学氧化法是有机物降解中最理想的方法之一。本文研究了氯离子的存在环境下,苯酚在不同氧化物涂层的阳极上所发生电化学降解过程的分析,深入探讨氧化法降解有机物质中氯离子的作用。     

“进步话语”与人性的沉沦——论康拉德的丛林小说

约瑟夫·康拉德的小说创作常常蕴含着深刻的道德主题,他的“丛林小说”更是着力于探讨欧洲文明社会所谓的“进步话语”的实质。文章将以《海隅逐客》、《进步前哨》、《黑暗的心》等三部小说为研究对象,以小说中主人公的形象分析为切入点,揭示出“进步话语”背后殖民掠夺的本质,展现在“物”的诱惑下人性的沉沦。     

陕西经济增长与环境退化脱钩的实证分析

陕西在实现经济快速增长的同时,面临着越来越大的资源环境压力。文章利用陕西1995--2009年的样本数据,对其经济增长与能源消耗、污染物排放的脱钩状况进行了实证分析,探讨了阻碍脱钩的原因。提出通过产业结构优化与升级,降低高耗能行业产值比重,加大企业技术改造力度,健全节能减排激励约束机制等措施,实现经济发展与持续脱钩的双赢。     

聚L-乳酸的合成及其性能研究

以辛酸亚锡为催化剂,丙交酯为单体,开环聚合得到聚L-乳酸(PLLA)。研究了各种因素对PLLA分子量及性能影响,包括单体的纯度、催化剂的浓度、反应温度及时间等。并产物进行了分子量及降解性能测试。结果表明,PLLA材料是热不稳定聚合物,具有良好的降解性和生物相容性。     

Estimating the costs and benefits of soil conservation in Europe

Economics is about problems of choice. In erosion control, both public authorities and private land users are faced with such problems. What is the impact of erosion, both on-site and off-site, and to what extent can this impact be quantified? If we conceptualize this impact in terms of sustainability, how can we compare one type of effect against another? The former question can be answered only by natural scientists, the latter by economists and other social scientists. Weighing different aspects of sustainability requires value judgments, and economists are sometimes accused of having a jaundiced view of reality, wrongly supposing that decisions are based on rationality and denying the importance of emotion.However, let us assume that there is some mileage to be gained out of attempting to estimate the cost of erosion in an economic sense—which consists of converting the various effects into a common denominator: euros. If we can predict the impact of erosion control measures on erosion rates, we can know the benefit of these measures. The cost also needs to be calculated, not in terms of money but in terms of resources expended (which could have been used for other purposes) and in terms of possible negative impacts of erosion control (for instance, increased use of herbicides in reduced-tillage systems).There are important other considerations which economists may study. Firstly, there is the comparison of present versus future costs and benefits: how much can we sacrifice today for higher sustainability tomorrow?Secondly, there is the issue of private versus public costs and benefits: how do the goals of private land users differ from (those of?) the public good, how can this help us to predict land users’ behaviour, and what incentives would be appropriate to make them behave in such a way as to maximize the public good? Thirdly, how do we deal with uncertainty and risk?These problems loomed large in a study to support an extended impact assessment for the EU Soil Thematic Strategy, in 2005. Whereas much research has been done on erosion and its impact, much of this is on a small scale. The extent of the problem on a national, let alone a continental or a global scale, is still poorly known. The paper discusses how these problems were faced, which is not the same as saying they were resolved.     

普通小球藻对直接大红4B染料的降解作用研究

利用紫外-可见吸收光谱、高效液相色谱、傅立叶转换红外光谱分析以及溶液pH值测定,研究普通小球藻对直接大红4B染料溶液的降解作用。结果表明:普通小球藻对染料的降解必须在光的协同作用下进行,模拟太阳光的协同降解效果最好;染料的降解效果随普通小球藻的浓度与照射光强度的增加而增强,掺藻浓度16×108 cells/L的染料溶液,光照5 h的脱色率达到86%以上,降解速度在染料浓度比较高的初期较大;普通小球藻在对直接大红4B溶液的降解过程中不会产生中间产物;随着降解时间的延长,溶液的pH值在不断降低。