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The theory of “resource scarcity” dominates the debate on “ecoviolence” in pastoral areas, where conflicts among communities have traditionally been linked to competition over scarce resources and invariably drought because of its role in resource depletion. However, the notion that climate change and resultant resource scarcity directly prompt violent conflict has been challenged by the notion that conflict actually coincide with periods of resource abundance. These contesting views point to nondeterministic linkage between resource availability and conflicts and, therefore, the complexity of pastoral conflicts. This is the scenario hypothesized for the vast pastoral areas of Kenya where violent conflict has become a chronic characteristic. While focusing on drought-induced conflicts over grazing resources, this paper takes cognizance of other factors that trigger and perpetuate violent conflicts in arid north-western Kenya. We present an insight on the nature, causes, dynamics and mitigation strategies of conflicts between the Turkana and Pokot pastoralists based on research study focusing on the linkages between resource availability and conflict. The findings suggest that violent conflicts in pastoral areas result from a myriad of socio-cultural, economic and political factors that reinforce one another by limiting availability of, depleting and reducing access to natural resource base. Competition for scarce natural resources triggered by frequent droughts and exacerbated by weak local institutions, proliferation of small firearms, political incitements, unclear property right regimes and cattle-raiding, was considered central to the violent conflicts observed in the area. The authors conclude that developing integrated policies and strengthening local governance institutions that are rooted in traditional practices for managing resources and inter-community conflicts is integral to the solution.

The Poster proposes a research agenda for the creation of knowledge about the potential of Digital Product Passports (DPPs) as a means to promote the sustainability of the textiles sector. Analysis is called for to transition to a more sustainable society by focusing on the 1) Textiles ecosystem: relevant stakeholders and their interrelationships 2) Trust, transparency, reliability, sustainability, and information 3) DPPs as an information system 4) Data requirements for DPPs and 5) The societal impacts of DPPs.

Govt. of India has accorded high priority on research and development to cope with climate change in agricultural sector. The Prime Minister’s National Action Plan has identified agriculture as one of eight national missions. The project so far has benefitted several stakeholders across the nation. National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) is a network project of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) aimed at enhancing resilience of Indian agriculture to climate change.

During the systematic scaling for double stars in nuclear emulsions exposed to 3 Gev. Pion beam an event was recorded and from analysis it can be interpreted as due to the annihilation of an anti proton produced in the emulsion. The details of the event along with a micro photograph are given below.

Energy performance regulations for buildings are continuously updated. Projections within the future are being made, fixing now what will be the standards for new buildings for the following decades. The construction sector itself is also evolving, trying not only to follow those new rules, but often trying to look ahead, developing, testing and launching today the prototypes of tomorrow’s buildings and components. To optimise public and private decision making, one has to analyse both the current status as well as the ongoing evolutions and the interactions between the market and the regulatory framework. Within this scope, analyses are conducted in Flanders on the EPBD-database, which contains detailed data on all new residential buildings since 2006. The analysis presented in this paper shows the impact and importance of specific regulations and incentives. In spite of the tightening regulations, huge discrepancies remain visible between a small yet increasing group of low energy, and passive house ‘pioneers’ and premium hunters, as opposed to a trailing group, flirting with the legally imposed limits. The analysis of the data therefore proves the role of as well as some challenges for future decision making, while quantifying the real status and evolutions of the building sector.

This essay gives an overview of the central themes and formal features of Jeff Nichols’s cli-fi film Take Shelter (2011). It also provides insight into the film’s reception and contribution to public debate, as well as offering some teaching ideas.

This thesis explores the entire cycle of education, from initial access to schooling, over degree completion, to returns to education. Despite recent gains in increasing access, an tens of millions of children worldwide are still out of school. Abolishing school fees has increased enrollment rates in several countries where enrollments were low and fees were high. However, such policies may be less effective, or even have negative consequences, when supply-side responses are weak. The first part of the thesis evaluates the impacts of a tuition waiver program in Haiti, which provided public financing to nonpublic schools conditional on not charging tuition. The chapter concludes that school's participation in the program results in more students enrolled, more staff, and slightly higher student-teacher ratios. The program also reduces grade repetition and the share of overage students. While the increase in students does not directly equate to a reduction in the number of children out of school, it does demonstrate strong demand from families for the program and a correspondingly strong supply response from the nonpublic sector.Pertaining degree completion, it is well established that natural disasters can have a negative effect on human capital accumulation. However, a comparison of the differential impacts of distinct disaster classes is missing. Using census data and information from DesInventar and EMDAT, two large disaster databases, the second part of the thesis assesses how geological disasters and climatic shocks affect the upper secondary degree attainment of adolescents. The chapter focuses on Mexico, given its diverse disaster landscape and lack of obligatory upper secondary education over the observed time period. While all disaster types are found to impede attainment, climatic disasters that are not infrastructure-destructive (e.g. droughts) have the strongest negative effect, decreasing educational expansion by over 40%. The effects seem largely driven by demand-side changes such as increases in school dropouts and fertility, especially for young women. The results may also be influenced by deteriorated parental labor market outcomes. Supply-side effects appear to be solely driven by infrastructure-destructive climatic shocks (e.g. floods). These findings thus call for differential public measures according to specific disaster types and an enhanced attention to climatic events given their potentially stronger impact on younger generations.It is also widely appreciated that natural disasters can have negative impacts on local labor market outcomes. However, the study of differential types of negative capital shocks, the underlying labor market mechanisms, and the context of the poorest countries have been neglected. Following testable predictions of economic theory, the third part of the thesis exploits the exogenous variation of destruction of human and physical capital caused by the 2010 Haiti earthquake to disentangle the differential impact on local individual monetary returns to education. Employing individual-level survey data from before and after the earthquake the chapter finds that the returns decreased on average by 37%, especially in equipment-capital intensive industry. Higher educated individuals adjust into low-paying self-employment or agriculture. The returns are particularly shock-sensitive for urban residents, migrants, males, and people over age 25. Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Ground source heat pump (GSHP) system combined with boreholes heat exchangers (BHEs) is increasing worldwide. This technology consists in circulating a fluid within a U-shaped pipe to generate heat exchanges between a BHE and the ground surrounding it, thanks to the temperature difference between the fluid and the ground. BHE can be used for extracting heat (for heating purpose) or injecting heat (for cooling purpose) from/into the ground. In this framework, the presence of groundwater enhances the heat exchanges, as the intrinsic thermal conductivity increases when the pore space is filled by water. Additionally, groundwater fluxes induce advective and dispersive heat exchanges. However, the huge majority of existing norms to dimension multi-BHEs fields only consider conductive heat exchanges, using an apparent ground thermal conductivity inferred from a thermal response test and that generally includes the combined effect of conductive, advective and dispersive heat transfers. The real heat transfers are thus not properly considered in most of the design approaches. Besides, the determination of both the intrinsic ground thermal conductivity and groundwater fluxes (magnitude and direction) requires the characterization of the temperature evolution, not only along an activated BHE, but also around it. However, there is nowadays a lack of experimental studies measuring the heat plume propagation around an activated BHE. Therefore, the first contribution of this thesis is to develop an experimental set-up able to monitor the temperature field around an activated BHE. The set-up is implemented on a previously-developed experimental platform made up of four BHEs, that cross an unconfined aquifer. The thermal activation of one BHE and the monitoring of the temperature through PT100 sensors installed at different depths in the activated and non-activated BHEs provide an appropriate characterization of the heat plume propagation in both saturated and unsaturated domains of the unconfined aquifer.Based on the ...

As energy efficiency becomes one of the key points in the design of most of today's power hungry applications, new and energy efficient approaches and associated technologies find their way towards the customer. Electric double layer capacitors, also known as supercapacitors, are one of these new and interesting products creating new possibilities and solutions to some of today's questions concerning energy efficiency in certain applications. This paper will have a look at the implementation of supercapacitors as peak power unit and energy reservoir in personnel transport system applications, particularly elevator applications. Elevators were and still are built with an energy dissipating resistor to convert the electric braking energy into heat. In the present energy saving economy, this sounds as an inappropriate loss of energy requiring an alternative. Current research involves the use of supercapacitors in elevators to replace this energy dissipating resistor and store the energy in supercapacitors. Thesaved and stored energy can then be reused to power the elevator (e.g. smooth power peaks) or to send energy back to the main power net. This paper presents a basic simulation model along with comments on the supercapacitor pack dimensioning. A cost-benefit analysis, based on the rudimentary model and measurements, concludes the paper.

Office buildings in Chile show higher cooling than heating energy demand. The climate of the country show important differences between cities by the ocean and those of interior regions, located between the coastal and the Andes range. Main cities of Central Chile, where more than 40% of buildings are constructed every year are Santiago and Valparaíso, both located at around 33° S. Santiago presents a Mediterranean climate, with a high temperature oscillation between day and night during cooling period. Valparaíso, by the coast, shows lower temperature fluctuation compared with Santiago during identical period. In order to define design strategies for energy efficiency of office buildings in mentioned cities, a sensitivity study has been made, considering variables like size of windows (window to wall ratio), type of windows (clear and selective glazing, including low e, single and double glazing), use and type of solar protection and use of nocturnal or diurnal ventilation. In opaque facades (walls and roofs), thermal insulation is considered. In case of walls, in order to increase thermal inertia external insulation is assumed. The sensitivity analysis is developed considering a square building containing office rooms on all four orientations. This10 story building has been specially proposed and designed for this analysis. Methodology considers an evaluation of heating and cooling demand of the building in both cities. For this purpose, a simulation software under dynamic conditions has been used (TAS of Environmental Design Solutions Limited). The lowest cooling energy demand is reached when using the lowest window to wall ratio (20%), with solar protection in east, west and north oriented glazed areas. In fact, fully glazed facades in both cities are not recommended. Nocturnal ventilation was highly effective for decreasing cooling demand in both cities. In the case of Valparaíso, due to relatively low temperature during cooling period (maximum lower than 26°C), diurnal ventilation for cooling purposes is also effective.