Social movements in sustainability transitions : identity, social learning & power in the Spanish & Turkish water domains /

Descripció del recurs: el 02 de novembre de 2010Dominant economic growth and nation-state building practices are often based on detaching individuals from other individuals and communities from their natural environment in which their livelihoods used to be based. Water plays a key role in these development strategies as it is the case of the building of dams and large water transfer infrastructures. Social-ecological detachment allows on the one hand, to merge former communities into the abstract idea of national citizenship, while at the same time, has a disempowering effect on individuals who try to protect 'their land' and their identity in contrast to the national identity. In this comparative case study, I look at theconflicts and social-ecological detachment processes observed in two communities of Spain and Turkey, and in particular the social movements against the Itoiz Dam in Spain and the Ilısu Dam in the Turkish Kurdistan. These conflicts are representative in the ways water 'policies' become the arena for multiple identities and interests, such as the claims of the stateless nations of the Basques and the Kurds. The anti-Itoiz Dam movement was integrated with the New Water Culture (NWC) movement which emerged as a response to the large scale threat posed by the Spanish National Hydrology Plan (NHP) 2001. Similarly, the anti-Ilısu Dam movement was integrated with the Turkish water movement which emerged as a social justice platform against the threats posed by the 5th World Water Forum (WWF) 2009 which took place in Turkey. On the one hand, through this multi-level alliance formation, these local movements helped to empower their own communities. But on the other hand, they also demonstrated the larger urban public (who, to a great extent, had already been socially and ecologically detached from their traditional lands) that this particular type of development was destructive, resulted in blatant cases of environmental injustice, and that other ways of development less destructive and fairer could be possible. On many grounds, these movements aspire to find ways of reattaching the detached individuals/people back to their communities and nature or, in other words, to reframe the cultural basis of what they see as an unfair growth development paradigm. New community and nature identities have been used to challenge such paradigm and to recreate a more holistic and inclusive social-ecological identity in which human-nature separation becomes increasingly questioned. Empirical data has been gathered from in-depth interviews and focus group meetings held with key actors of these movements, participative-observation, and analysis of secondary sources. Results showed that one clear strategy apparent in both movements was to try to empower people through practices of multi-level networking and collaboration. This enhanced social learning in a way that they learnt not only about the problem they faced, but also on how to build new collective skills to challenge the dominant cultural paradigms which created those unsustainability problems in the first place. Learning, then, in the face of these pro-growth nation-state building strategies, means not only protecting small communities from market forces and global environmental change, but also, in particular, learning to change this dominant cultural paradigm which sees the detachment of people from their communities and from their natural world a necessary condition of progress and development. In this way, new social movements, by aiming to reconstruct such social-ecological identities, may contribute to sustainability learning

Operations management tools to be applied for textile

17th World Textile Conference of the Association-of-Universities-for-Textiles (AUTEX) - Shaping the Future of Textiles -- MAY 29-31, 2017 -- GREECEIn this paper, basic concepts of process analysis such as flow time, inventory, bottleneck, labour cost and utilization are illustrated first. The effect of bottleneck on the results of a business are especially emphasized. In the next section, tools on productivity measurement; KPI (Key Performance Indicators) Tree, OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) and Takt Time are introduced and exemplified. KPI tree is a diagram on which we can visualize all the variables of an operation which are driving financial results through cost and profit. OEE is a tool to measure a potential extra capacity of an equipment or an employee. Takt time is a tool to determine the process flow rate according to the customer demand. KPI tree is studied through the whole process while OEE is exemplified for a stenter frame machine which is the most important machine (and usually the bottleneck) and the most expensive investment in a finishing plant. Takt time is exemplified for the quality control department. Finally quality tools, six sigma, control charts and jidoka are introduced. Six sigma is a tool to measure process capability and by the way probability of a defect. Control chart is a powerful tool to monitor the process. The idea of jidoka (detect, stop and alert) is about alerting the people that there is a problem in the process.Assoc Univ Textile

Diseño y Evaluación de un programa informático para la educación musical de maestros no especialistas. El caso de EMOLAB.

Este trabajo expone el diseño, desarrollo y evaluación de un software como apoyo docente en una materia de formación musical básica para futuros maestros generalistas. La evaluación del programa fue realizada por estudiantes de primer año del Grado de Maestro en Educación Primaria. Cumplimentaron un cuestionario que recogió sus opiniones (versatilidad, eficacia, facilidad de uso, calidad del entorno gráfico, adecuación, interés, facilitación del aprendizaje, feedback, funcionalidad) y percepciones sobre aspectos más generales (control, orientación, afectividad, consulta, verificación, seguimiento). Los resultados sugieren que el alumnado percibe EMOLab como herramienta de gran ayuda en el desarrollo de sus habilidades musicales

Batch and continuous removal of heavy metals from industrial effluents using microbial consortia

Bio-removal of heavy metals, using microbial biomass, increasingly attracting scientific attention due to their significant role in purification of different types of wastewaters making it reusable. Heavy metals were reported to have a significant hazardous effect on human health, and while the conventional methods of removal were found to be insufficient; microbial biosorption was found to be the most suitable alternative. In this work, an immobilized microbial consortium was generated using Statistical Design of Experiment (DOE) as a robust method to screen the efficiency of the microbial isolates in heavy metal removal process. This is the first report of applying Statistical DOE to screen the efficacy of microbial isolates to remove heavy metals instead of screening normal variables. A mixture of bacterial biomass and fungal spores was used both in batch and continuous modes to remove Chromium and Iron ions from industrial effluents. Bakery yeast was applied as a positive control, and all the obtained biosorbent isolates showed more significant efficiency in heavy metal removal. In batch mode, the immobilized biomass was enclosed in a hanged tea bag-like cellulose membrane to facilitate the separation of the biosorbent from the treated solutions, which is one of the main challenges in applying microbial biosorption at large scale. The continuous flow removal was performed using fixed bed mini-bioreactor, and the process was optimized in terms of pH (6) and flow rates (1 ml/min) using Response Surface Methodology. The most potential biosorbent microbes were identified and characterized. The generated microbial consortia and process succeeded in the total removal of Chromium ions and more than half of Iron ions both from standard solutions and industrial effluents

Identification of genetic variation in the major histocompatibility complex gene region in Turkish sheep breeds

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) in sheep, Ovar-Mhc, remains poorly characterized relative to other domestic animals. However, its basic structure is similar to that of other mammals, comprising class I, II and III regions. In this study, the Ovine MHC class II DRB1 and DRB3 genes were amplified by polymerase chain reaction in eight sheep breeds reared in Turkey. Informative restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) were obtained with five restriction enzymes for DRB1 and with two restriction enzymes for DRB3. The digestion of DRB1 exon 2 with NciI, SacI, SacII, Hin1I each produced three genotypes and two alleles (viz., a and b) with frequencies of 0.69 and 0.31; 0.65 and 0.35; 0.91 and 0.09; 0.57 and 0.43, respectively. The digestion of DRB1 exon 2 with DdeI produced four genotypes and three alleles (viz., a, b and c) with frequencies of 0.62, 0.28 and 0.10, respectively. On the other hand, the digestion of DRB3 exon 2 with NdeII and BsaI each produced three genotypes and two alleles (viz., a and b) with frequencies of 0.72 and 0.28; 0.96 and 0.04, respectively. This study presents the genetic profiles of the exon 2 region of the MHC DRB1 and DRB3 genes in native Turkish sheep breeds.Keywords: DRB1, DRB3, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP

Monitoring and disinfection of biofilm-associated sulfate reducing bacteria on different substrata in a simulated recirculating cooling tower system

Microbial biofilm and corrosion in cooling systems are the most common problems that damage expensive equipment, cause loss of production, and increase maintenance costs. Sulfate reducing bacteria were considered the major bacterial group involved in microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC). We investigated the survival and enumeration of biofilm-associated SRB on coupons of galvanized steel, stainless steel, and copper, which are materials used in the manufacturing of cooling systems. We also investigated the effect of monochloromine on SRB as in mixed species mature biofilms formed on coupons by simulating recirculating cooling water conditions, due to the better penetration feature in biofilms than the residual chlorine. It was concluded that SRB count increased with time in bulk water and the surfaces (P < 0.01). Experimental results supported by statistical analyses show that monochloromine is poorly effective on SRB colonies formed on galvanized and stainless steel surfaces

Genome-wide Association Study Identifies Two Susceptibility Loci for Osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone malignancy of adolescents and young adults. In order to better understand the genetic etiology of osteosarcoma, we performed a multi-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) consisting of 941 cases and 3,291 cancer-free adult controls of European ancestry. Two loci achieved genome-wide significance: rs1906953 at 6p21.3, in the glutamate receptor metabotropic 4 [GRM4] gene (P = 8.1 ×10-9), and rs7591996 and rs10208273 in a gene desert on 2p25.2 (P = 1.0 ×10-8 and 2.9 ×10-7). These two susceptibility loci warrant further exploration to uncover the biological mechanisms underlying susceptibility to osteosarcoma

Detección de ADN de Brucella melitensis mediante la prueba de PCR en muestras de leche de ovejas postaborto

Laboratory diagnosis of brucellosis is generally performed by microbiological and serological methods. PCR assay is a specific and sensitive choice for the detection of different bacterial agents. An evaluation of this test was carried out for the detection of&nbsp;Brucella melitensis&nbsp;DNA in sheep milk. 102 milk samples from sheep after abortion were taken and studied using bacteriological culture, PCR and milk ring test (MRT). PCR found&nbsp;B. melitensis&nbsp;DNA in 24 (23.5%) out of 102 milk samples, while only 8 (7.8%) of the samples were positive to&nbsp;B. melitensis&nbsp;through direct culture. MRT found 28 (27.4%) positive milk samples. The detection limit for PCR in sheep milk inoculated with&nbsp;B. melitensis&nbsp;strain 16 M was 1.7x103-1.7x104&nbsp;cfu/ml. PCR and MRT coincidence was 96%. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were determined as 100% and 81.3% respectively for PCR assay and 75% and 75% for MRT. PCR is a useful tool for a fast diagnosis of&nbsp;B. melitensis&nbsp;in sheep milk. &nbsp;El diagnóstico de laboratorio de brucelosis es generalmente realizado por métodos microbiológicos y serológicos. La prueba PCR es reconocida como una alternativa específica y sensible para la detección de diferentes agentes bacterianos. Se realizó una evaluación de la prueba PCR para la detección de ADN de&nbsp;Brucella melitensis&nbsp;en leche de oveja. Ciento dos muestras tomadas de ovejas postaborto fueron analizadas por métodos de cultivo bacteriológico, prueba PCR y prueba del anillo en leche (MRT). El PCR detectó ADN de&nbsp;B. melitensis&nbsp;en 24 (23,5%) de 102 muestras de leche, mientras que solamente 8 (7,8%) muestras de leche fueron positivas a&nbsp;B. melitensis&nbsp;por cultivo directo. El MRT detectó 28 (27,4%) muestras positivas de leche. El límite de detección de&nbsp;B. melitensis&nbsp;16 M por PCR fue de 1,7x103-1,7x104&nbsp;ufc/ml en leche inoculada. La concordancia entre PCR y MRT fue 96%. La sensibilidad diagnóstica y la precisión fueron determinadas como el 100% y el 81,3% respectivamente para la prueba de PCR y el 75% y el 75% para MRT. En conclusión, PCR es una herramienta muy útil para el diagnóstico rápido de&nbsp;B. melitensis&nbsp;en leche de oveja. &nbsp

Compressive sensing-based robust off-the-grid stretch processing

Classical stretch processing (SP) obtains high range resolution by compressing large bandwidth signals with narrowband receivers using lower rate analogue-to-digital converters. SP achieves the resolution of the large bandwidth signal by focusing into a limited range window, and by deramping in the analogue domain. SP offers moderate data rate for signal processing for high bandwidth waveforms. Furthermore, if the scene in the examined window is sparse, compressive sensing (CS)-based techniques have the potential to further decrease the required number of measurements. However, CS-based reconstructions are highly affected by model mismatches such as targets that are off-the-grid. This study proposes a sparsity-based iterative parameter perturbation technique for SP that is robust to targets off-the-grid in range or Doppler. The error between reconstructed and actual scenes is measured using Earth mover's distance metric. Performance analyses of the proposed technique are compared with classical CS and SP techniques in terms of data rate, resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. It is shown through simulations that the proposed technique offers robust and high-resolution reconstructions for the same data rate compared with both classical SP- and CS-based techniques. © 2017, The Institution of Engineering and Technology