The environmental basis of sustainable development

Much economic activity depends on the environmentalresource base (soils, water, vegetation, climate) that ultimately underpins virtually all human endeavor. This environmental-resource support is obviously important for agriculture, forestry, fisheries and hydropower generation. It is less obviously important for public health: without regular supplies of domestic-household water with sufficient quantity and quality, the risk of sanitation-disease increases. Much the same applies, through indirect linkages, to such further economic sectors as communications and education.These considerations are especially significant for developing countries. A greater share of their economies is usually dependent on the environmental-resource base than is the case with developed-world economies; and at the same time, the resource base, being generally tropical in location, is more fragile and hence susceptible to depletion than is the case with temperate-zone countries. Thus there is a premium on safeguarding the environmental-resource base as an integral part of those processes known as sustainable development.This is a revised and expanded version of a paper prepared for a Seminar on Land and Water Management, Economic Development Institute, The World Bank, November 10–21, 1986. The author is a consultant in Environment and Development, Upper Meadow, Old Road, Headington, Oxford, United Kingdom. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author, and should not be attributed to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations or to any individual acting on their behalf.     

Effect of Water Vapor on the Release of Fission Gases from Uranium Oxycarbide in High-Temperature, Gas-Cooled Reactor Coated Fuel Particles

The hydrolysis of uranium oxycarbide (UCO) was studied by injecting water vapor into a fuel element containing a known number of high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) coated particles with exposed fuel kernels. The experiments were conducted in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at temperatures between 700° and 1000°C, a system pressure of 200 kPa, and partial pressures of water vapor between 21 and 199 Pa. The general sequential response of the exposed fuel kernels to water vapor addition consisted of (1) a rapid release of stored fission gas with a concomitant increase in the steady-state release and (2) a period of constant steady-state release. Upon cessation of the addition of water vapor, a decline in the release to prehydrolysis values generally occurred. The release of stored fission gas was dependent on the square of the partial pressure of water vapor. The ratio of the constant steady-state release to the prehydrolysis value was independent of the partial pressure of water vapor. The time constant for the decline in the release was the same in all of the hydrolysis tests.     

Soy protein combined with copper and boron compounds for providing effective wood preservation

Chromated copper arsenate (CCA), an arsenicbased wood preservative, is toxic to human health and the environment. Although CCA is stable in seasoned wood, there are potential dangers during CCA manufacture, lumber treatment, and waste disposal. This research was conducted to study the effectiveness of soy products to replace toxic chromium and arsenic compounds in wood preservative formulations. Three soy product (Arpro 2100, HM 90, and Supro 760) were used as fixative agents in preservative solutions containing anhydrous CuSO₄ and Na₂B₄O₇·10H₂O. The decay resistance of treated wood blocks was measured by a soil-block culture method. Despite the large molecular sizes of copper-protein and copper-boron-protein complexes, southern pine sapwood was treatable with these preservative formulations. Wood samples treated with >6 kg°m⁻³ CuSO₄ and 7.5 kg·m⁻³ soy product, and subsequently leached for 3 d and exposed to the decay fungus Gloeophyllum trabeum (Fr.) Mur., sustained only 0.5% weight loss over 12 wk. Wood samples needed 40 kg·m⁻³ CuSO₄ and 50 kg·m⁻³ soy protein to resist the copper-tolerant decay fungus Postia placenta (Fr.) M. Lars. & Lomb. These results suggest that soy-based wood preservatives can prevent wood products from fungal attack and can replace CCA.     

Nitrogen fertilizer in leucaena alley cropping. II. residual value of nitrogen fertilizer and leucaena residues

Legume residues have been credited with supplying mineral nitrogen (N) to the associated cereal crop and improving soil fertility in the long term. Few studies using¹⁵N have reported the fate of legume N and fertilizer N in the presence of legume residues in soil-plant systems over periods of two years or longer. A field experiment was conducted in microplots to evaluate: (1) the residual value of the¹⁵N added in leucaena residues; (2) the residual value of fertilizer¹⁵N applied in the presence of unlabelled leucaena residues in the first year to maize over three subsequent years; and (3) the long-term fate of residual fertilizer and leucaena¹⁵N in a leucaena alley cropping system.There was a significant increase in maize production over three subsequent years after addition of leucaena residues. The residual effect of fertilizer N increased maize yield in the second year when N fertilizer was applied at 36 kg N ha^–1 in the first year in the presence of leucaena residues. Of the leucaena¹⁵N applied in the first year, the second, third and fourth maize crop recovered 2.6%, 1.8% and 1.4%, respectively. The corresponding values for the residual fertilizer¹⁵N were 0.7%, 0.4% and 0.3%. About 12–14% of the fertilizer¹⁵N added in the first year was found in the 200 cm soil profile over the following three years. This differed from the 38–41% of leucaena¹⁵N detected in the soil over the same period. Most of the residual fertilizer and leucaena¹⁵N in the soil was immobilized in the top 25 cm with less than 1% leached below 100 cm. More than 36% of the leucaena¹⁵N and fertilizer¹⁵N added in the first year was apparently lost from the soil-plant system in the first two years. No further loss of the residual leucaena and fertilizer¹⁵N was detected after two years.     

Design ethnography in information systems

Until recently, most ethnographic research in information systems has been based on the traditional anthropological model of ethnography. In this traditional model of ethnography, one of the most important data‐gathering techniques is participant observation. The ethnographer observes and participates but does not actively seek to change the situation. In recent years, however, a new type of ethnographic research has emerged – one that can be called design ethnography. Design ethnography is where the researcher goes beyond observation and actively engages with people in the field. Our view is that design ethnography has much potential for research in information systems. It is a new form of engaged scholarship that bridges the gap between ethnographic research and design science research.     

What chess games and chess problems tell us about digital games and art

This article examines the relationship between chess games and chess problems (‘compositions’) in order to describe the chess problem as art. Arguing that the chess problem is a manipulation of game form guided by human aesthetic principles (e.g. Schiller's ‘beauty’ and Wimsatt's ‘human condition’), the article draws a parallel between art derived from games and art derived from nature. This parallel has important implications in circumstances where a natural world is replaced by a virtual world and nature is, in some sense, ‘lost’ to the artist. The article argues that, in such circumstances, the interactive and ‘concreative’ nature of digital media – particularly digital games – allows for unabated aesthetic production.     

The Effect of Target Vector Selection on the Invariance of Classifier Performance Measures

In this paper, the multiclass supervised training problem is considered when a discrete set of classes is assumed. Upon generating affine models for finite data sets, we have observed the invariance of certain measures of performance after a trained classifier has been presented with test data of unknown classification. Specifically, after constructing mappings between training vectors and their desired targets, the class membership and ranking of test data has been found to remain either invariant or close to invariant under a transformation of the set of target vectors. Therefore, we derive conditions explaining how this type of invariance can arise when the multiclass problem is phrased in the context of linear networks. A bioinformatics example is then presented in order to demonstrate various principles outlined in this work.     

Approximate regular expression pattern matching with concave gap penalties

Given a sequenceA of lengthM and a regular expressionR of lengthP, an approximate regular expression pattern-matching algorithm computes the score of the optimal alignment betweenA and one of the sequencesB exactly matched byR. An alignment between sequencesA=a₁a₂ ... a_M andB=b₁b₂... b_N is a list of ordered pairs, (i₁,j₁), (i₂j₂), ..., (i_t,j_tt) such that i_k < i_k+1 and j_k < j_k+1. In this case the alignmentaligns symbols a_ik and b_jk, and leaves blocks of unaligned symbols, orgaps, between them. A scoring schemeS associates costs for each aligned symbol pair and each gap. The alignment's score is the sum of the associated costs, and an optimal alignment is one of minimal score. There are a variety of schemes for scoring alignments. In a concave gap penalty scoring schemeS={, w}, a function (a, b) gives the score of each aligned pair of symbolsa andb, and aconcave function w(k) gives the score of a gap of lengthk. A function w is concave if and only if it has the property that, for allk > 1, w(k + 1) –w(k) w(k) –w(k –1). In this paper we present an O(MP(logM + log² P)) algorithm for approximate regular expression matching for an arbitrary and any concavew. This work was supported in part by the National Institute of Health under Grant RO1 LM04960.     

An unusual case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

A patient with histopathologically verified sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) presented initially with diplopia, sleep disturbances, and L-dopa-responsive parkinsonism. After more than a year of slow progression, he did not become demented, and failed to fulfill the clinical criteria for possible CJD. No clinical examinations currently proposed to detect CJD showed the disease. CJD should be in the differential diagnosis of "parkinson plus" syndromes until a different etiology has been found or a histopathologic examination performed.     

Entering the field in qualitative field research: a rite of passage into a complex practice world

The concept of ‘the field’ is significant in ethnographic research as well as qualitative research methods more generally. However, how a field researcher enters the field is usually taken for granted after gaining access to the field. We suggest that entrance is a distinct phase of fieldwork that differs from negotiating access. Entrance is not a trivial event; rather, it is a rite of passage into a complex practice world and marks a critical field moment. Drawing on our ethnography and insights from hermeneutics and anthropology, we show that a practical understanding of the field represents a fusion of horizons where a fieldworker is thrown. The concept of thrownness highlights the fact that the fieldworkers' own historicity and prejudices affect their entrance into the field; hence, entrance into the field orientates an ethnographer in the field and influences the entire period of fieldwork that follows. Our theorizing is intended as a contribution towards advancing the discussion of qualitative research methods.