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Pervasive computing and business process modeling are increasingly joining forces, as mobile human users shall be seamlessly integrated into business processes. In respective scenarios, humans use mobile devices and wireless technology to interact with workflows running in a powerful back-end infrastructure. However, the frequent interaction between humans and workflows causes a high communication overhead and, thus, high energy consumption on mobile devices. This impacts the usability and efficiency of the business process due to rapidly drained batteries and the resulting short life-times of the devices and applications. We present an approach based on a minimum-cut algorithm for reducing costly data transmissions during workflow execution by distributing parts of a workflow to the users' devices. Our motivation is to reduce the energy consumption on the mobile devices and, thus, avoid draining batteries in the field. We prove that our algorithm finds the optimal solution for a given network and workflow, decreasing the energy consumed on mobile devices by 32-37% compared to an approach where the entire workflow is executed in the infrastructure. Thus, in typical domains like logistics and health care, one third of the energy can be saved. This either means that devices have to be charged less frequently, leading to less distraction in the business process, or that mobile device specifications can be lowered. Significant cost reductions result in both cases.

This study investigates the relationship between violent conflict, food price, and climate variability at the subnational level. Using disaggregated data on 113 African markets from January 1997 to April 2010, interrelationships between the three variables are analyzed in simultaneous equation models. We find that: (i) a positive feedback exists between food price and violence - higher food prices increase conflict rates within markets and conflict increases food prices; (ii) anomalously dry conditions are associated with increased frequencies of conflict; and (iii) decreased rainfall exerts an indirect effect on conflict through its impact on food prices. These findings suggest that the negative effects of climate variability on conflict can be mitigated by interventions and effective price management in local markets. Creating environments in which food prices are stable and reliable, and markets are accessible and safe, can lower the impacts of both climate change and conflict feedbacks.

This study highlights how Chinese economic development detrimentally impacted water quality in recent decades and how this has been improved by enormous investment in environmental remediation funded by the Chinese government. To our knowledge, this study is the first to describe the variability of surface water quality in inland waters in China, the affecting drivers behind the changes, and how the government-financed conservation actions have impacted water quality. Water quality was found to be poorest in the North and the Northeast China Plain where there is greater coverage of developed land (cities + cropland), a higher gross domestic product (GDP), and higher population density. There are significant positive relationships between the concentration of the annual mean chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the percentage of developed land use (cities + cropland), GDP, and population density in the individual watersheds (p < 0.001). During the past decade, following Chinese government-financed investments in environmental restoration and reforestation, the water quality of Chinese inland waters has improved markedly, which is particularly evident from the significant and exponentially decreasing GDP-normalized COD and ammonium (NH4+-N) concentrations. It is evident that the increasing GDP in China over the past decade did not occur at the continued expense of its inland water ecosystems. This offers hope for the future, also for other industrializing countries, that with appropriate environmental investments a high GDP can be reached and maintained, while simultaneously preserving inland aquatic ecosystems, particularly through management of sewage discharge.

Environmental and intrinsic factors interact to determine energy requirements in vertebrates. Glucocorticoid hormones (GCs) are key mediators of this interaction, as they fluctuate with energetic demands and regulate physiological and behavioral responses to environmental challenges. While a great body of research has focused on GC variation among individuals, the mechanisms driving GC variation across species and at broad spatial scales remain largely unexplored. Here, we adopted a macrophysiological approach to investigate the environmental factors and life-history traits driving variation in baseline GCs across lizard species. We tested three hypotheses: (1) If GCs increase with body temperature to meet higher metabolic demand, we expect an association between average baseline GCs and the mean species’ body temperature in the field (GC-temperature dependence hypothesis); (2) If GCs mediate behavioral responses to avoid thermal extremes, we expect that individuals frequently exposed to extreme conditions exhibit higher baseline GC levels (Behavioral thermoregulation hypothesis); (3) If GCs increase to support higher energy demands in active foragers during their period of activity, we expect that active foraging species have higher baseline GCs than sit-and-wait foragers, and that GC levels increase in relation to the duration of daily activity windows (Activity hypothesis). We used biophysical models to calculate operative temperatures and the activity patterns of lizards in sun-exposed and shaded microenvironments. Then, we tested the association between baseline GCs, body temperature, operative temperatures, foraging mode, and activity windows across 37 lizard species, using data from HormoneBase. Our comparative analyses showed that variation in baseline GCs was primarily related to the mean field body temperature and foraging mode, with higher baseline GCs in active foragers with higher body temperatures. Our results suggest that body temperature and foraging mode drive GC variation through their effects on energy requirements across lizard species.

In the amphoteric membrane-less decoupled water electrolysis, hydrogen and oxygen are co-produced in separate cells with higher energy efficiency. Ion exchange is mediated by the auxiliary electrodes – HxWO3 for acid and NiOOH for alkaline cell.

This paper investigates key innovative paradigms that seek enhanced consensus building on the sustainable mining agenda of the mineral resource development industry and realities on the ground. It reviews the 55 most relevant academic articles from 2000 to 2019, retrieved from the Web of Science, PubMed and International Conference on Sustainable Development Indicators in the Metals Industry databases. A systematic scoping review method was used to sieve the multitudes of entries obtained from the databases to generate appropriate publications that match the search terms used. Our survey finds a dearth of literature on the subject. Only one article directly confers the need for consensus building on sustainable mining. The existing literature does not suggest the modalities that would enhance indigenous groups’ understanding and appreciation of sustainable mining. This creates a gap between stakeholders with regard to what flags sustainable mining. This study also finds a lack of efforts to incorporate sustainable mining concepts into academic courses focusing on either mining or sustainable development. Thus, this paper suggests that the existing delusions on sustainable mining can be addressed if the science of assessing and communicating the principles of sustainable development in mining is suitably developed and applied in higher educational curricula, environmental literacy feats, community-initiated research and outreach activities. Incorporating indigenous knowledge can address the existing gaps between stakeholder groups and in science.