Academic literature on the topic 'Erosion control measures'

The article presents the initial part of the research of the efficiency of erosion and flood control measures designed in the experimental basin of the Němčický stream. A long term observation of discharges, rainfalls, and some water quality indicators was introduced at 2 experimental profiles. We have elaborated a study of the erosion threat for discovered areas, where the realisation of protective measures is necessary to reduce soil loss. Besides the erosion control, the sheet grassing contributes to a better water retention by the agricultural countryside. The efficiency of the designed measures ascertained by model evaluation proved that grassing of 49 ha of arable land (from total 183 ha) and the exclusion of erosive dangerous crops growing (on 21 ha) should decrease the centenary discharge by 18% and the amount of the transported suspended matter by 29%. The observation will continue after realisation of the erosion control measures and of a polder, which was designed for sufficiently effective flood protection, and the measurements will be compared with the preliminary and model values.

<p>Road construction has increased significantly worldwide in the last decades to meet the demands of the increasing human population and this has led to serious soil erosion problems, the bulk of which is unaccounted for, especially in the developing world. For comprehensive land management decisions and monitoring strategies, a review of work that has been done to assess soil erosion due to roads is critical. This article, therefore, reviews the causes of road‒related soil erosion, assessment methods and available control measures. Specifically, work provides an overview of (i) the linkages between roads and soil erosion; (ii) measurement and prediction of road‒related erosion; and (iii) erosion control and rehabilitation techniques. Literature shows that road construction results in hill-slope profile modification; removal of vegetation cover; as well as the formation of steep slopes that are prone to severe erosion. Furthermore, there is a variety of erosion control measures for controlling road‒related erosion although no study has demonstrated the method that is cost efficient and operational across different landscapes. We are of the view that this study provides guidance in future research on road‒related soil erosion across the developing world were sophisticated monitoring techniques are limited due to resource scarcity for assessing large areas.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Resumen</strong></p>La construcción de carreteras se ha incrementado ampliamente en todo el mundo durante las últimas décadas para cumplir con las demandas de la creciente población humana, lo que ha llevado a serios problemas de erosión de suelos, muchos de los cuales no se previeron, especialmente, en los países en desarrollo. Sobre las decisiones y supervisión de estrategias de un manejo completo del terreno se realizó una revisión al crítico trabajo que se ha hecho para medir la erosión en suelos causados por las carreteras. Por esta razón, este artículo revisa las causas de la erosion relacionada con la construcción de rutas y evalúa los métodos y medidas de control disponibles. Específicamente, este trabajo ofrece una revisión de (a) las relaciones entre las carreteras y la erosión de los suelos; (b) la medida y la predicción de la erosión vinculada a las carreteras, y (c) las técnicas de control de erosión y rehabilitación. La literature muestra que la construcción de carreteras produce modificaciones en el perfil inclinación, remueve la vegetación superficial y aumenta la inclinación en pendientes propensas a erosión severa. Además, existen varias medidas para controlar la erosión causada por la construcción de carreteras, a pesar de que ningún estudio ha demostrado el método que sea más eficiente y operacional para diferentes paisajes. Este estudio guía futuras investigaciones en la erosion causada por la construcción de caminos en los países en desarrollo donde las técnicas de supervisión sofísticas para la evaluación de grandes áreas son limitadas debido a la escasez de recursos.

Land consolidations are an important instrument for implementation of erosion and flood control measures. Thanks to their poly-functional character, they also contribute to increase of ecological stability and aesthetic of landscape. Although the land consolidation process does not advance as quickly as requisite, it brings unquestionably positive results. One or more erosion and flood control measures are built in 17 % of cadastres with finished complex land consolidation. Land consolidation designs are supported by the state and the EU funds are used for the realization of protective and ecological measures. With the aim to evaluate real efficiency of implemented measures, research project QI92A012 has been started. This paper presents its method principles and particular results for one of the model cadastres – Lejčkov. Realized elements in Lejčkov were confronted with the plan of common facilities and critical analysis of the size, parameters, type and localization of elements was made with regard to their efficiency to keep the soil from surface erosion away in the long run, to decrease discharges and sediment transport in extreme precipitation events. We can state that erosion control measures in Lejčkov were designed and built well and they are suitable for the highland type of countryside.

The aim of the study is to select an optimal variant of the system of water erosion control measures. The water erosion issue was observed and evaluated in 15 blocks of special cultivations-vineyards and orchards. These blocks are situated in the managed area of the join-stock company PATRIA Kobylí. At first the average long-term loss of soil with the influence of water erosion is calculated. The universal Wischmeier-Smith equation is used for this purpose. If the calculated loss of soil exceeds the permissible value, the erosion control measures have to be suggested. The optimal variant has been selected on the bases of the evaluation of several kinds of measures in each block. This variant follows first of all the erosion control efficiency, but also demands on production as well as slope accessibility for mechanization, expensiveness and some negative sides of suggested measures. The suggested system of water erosion control measures contributes to increasing of soil fertility and production ability with the respect to landscape management and environmental protection.

The subject of this master thesis is an integrated flood protection proposal in cadastral territory Jerlochovice and Fulnek. Area of interest is highly affected by soil loss caused by torrential rainfalls. Implemented measures are based on analysis results. The softwares used for analysis were ArcGIS, DesQ-MaxQ and USLE method for soil loss calculation. The final step was control erosion analysis which verified the implemented measures. The final analysis clearly shows the obvious reduction of erosion affection in the area.

This diploma thesis deals with design of soil erosion control measures and flood control measures in the cadastral area of Palkovice. The request for construction came from the village Palkovice. It sits at the foothills of Beskydy with a very sloping terrain. In addition, there are larger soil complexes without any erosion control measures, which leads to degradation and reduction of soil yields. The introduction summarizes desired objectives. Then thesis deals with the description and analysis of the current state of the village and its solution. The solution of technical measures is depicted in the situation and elaborated in more detail. The drawings are enclosed in attachment. The conclusion summarizes the content of the work, achieved goals and benefits.

The theme of the work is the creation of the characteristics of the erozních and drainage conditions in the cadastral territory of the commune and the subsequent proposal Kujavy erosion control measures. Analysis of erozion ratios was processed using GIS method of the grid. Characteristics of runoff ratios was carried out for major service area of the critical points (SPKB) using model DesQ and numbers of the CN. In the design of erosion control measures was drawn up in the economic evaluation.

The main subject of this diploma thesis is a study of a suggestion of environmentally friendly adjustments in the basin of Jičínka, working as preventive protection against floods. The study contains a research of the stated area using the method of CN-curves in the hydrological model DesQ-MaxQ and the principle of Wischmeier-Smith's equation, in modicication of ArcGIS programme. Based on the analysis, the work suggests an improvement of erosive and drain ratios and then an assessment of effectiveness of the protection. We get the assessment of the effectiveness by comparing the condition of the erosive wash and the surface drain before and after implementation of our measures. The work also sets its goal in calculating the financial returnability of the investition indicatively.

Thesis is about assessment of erosion and flood control measures effectiveness, especially of broad base terraces. The main contribution is a new method of flood effect evaluation of these measures. This is solved by modern programs and geospatial technologies such as ArcMap and HEC - HMS. Economic assessment in alternative solutions of flood and erosion control effect is a main result which leads to optimal technical proposal. The proposed, relatively fast, method can be successfully applied in practice.

A subject of this Thesis is the design of the complex system of measures of soil conservation in given catchment area, which will serve as a concept of complex land consolidation in cadaster Jerlochovice. Based on the analysis and the land survey, a feasible solution was designed using the hydrological and erosive tools of ArcGIS. For the identification of areas endangered by erosion and for the identification of runoff conditions, the Universal Soil Loss Equation of Wischmeier-Smith was used (in grid modification). Based on the calculated values, the suitable technical and agrotechnical measures of soil erosion control were designed. Each component was designed for the values of Qn from the model DesQ. Subsequently the efectivity of the designed measures was evaluated by the comparison of results of erosive and runoff conditions before and after the aplication of the soil and water conservation measures.

Master´s thesis intends to establish the degree of erosion hazard in the given area using ArcGIS and based on the evaluation suggest flood measures. The work contains a description and photographs of the site address, general treatises erosion, the distribution of erosion, formation of erosion, erosion rate calculation faktorek threat and that it affect erosion control measures - water erosion (organizational, cultural and technical), the method used and a description of the software ArcGIS. This thesis describes how to determine the degree of erosion risk using software used. Based on the results obtained, proposal of erosion control measures on the most vulnerable places.

The subject of the diploma thesis was the evaluation of erosion and drainage conditions in the cadastral area of Čejkovice in the Morava basin and the subsequent proposal of protective measures. The erosion analysis and the subsequent design of the protective measures were carried out in four variants depending on the increasing R factor. In conclusion, the scope of individual protective measures for each variant was evaluated.

Populism and Trade traces the role of populist trade policy in the increase of global protectionism and the erosion of international trade institutions. Populist anti-trade rhetoric played a major part in US President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign, in which he portrayed current trade agreements as elitist measures to undermine US manufacturing jobs, economic security, and the interests of the American people. Upon taking office he proceeded to implement trade restrictions that were unprecedented in the era of GATT-WTO rules. His use of national security criteria for unilateral tariffs on steel and aluminum and his trade war with China represented an abandonment of WTO trade rules and practices. In the United Kingdom, the 2016 Brexit referendum resulted in a vote to leave the European Union, thereby ending the UK trade integration arrangement that had begun in 1973. The referendum campaign drew on UK criticism of EU intrusion on UK sovereignty in presenting the issue in populist terms of elitist control from Brussels set against the interests of the victimized British people. The book develops a conceptual framework of protectionism that links behavioral factors with perceived external threats and voting behavior based on emotion. It also offers a review of trade policies of other populist governments and an assessment of their economic and institutional cost. A concluding chapter provides recommendations for addressing the populist challenge, focusing on adjustment policies, reforms of global trade institutions, and the need to protect domestic democratic processes.

Psoriatic arthritis is a destructive inflammatory arthritis that can affect the peripheral and axial skeleton of patients with psoriasis. Plain radiography has formed an important part in defining psoriatic arthritis as a distinct clinical entity, from early work reporting on distinguishing features to more recent inclusion of osteoproliferation in the CASPAR classification criteria. Plain radiography is accessible, inexpensive and remains the standard measure of assessing damage in inflammatory arthritis. Originally considered a benign disease psoriatic arthritis is now recognised to be destructive and progressive, though not as aggressive as rheumatoid arthritis. Peripheral joint damage is characterised by erosions, joint space narrowing, osteoproliferation, osteolysis and ankylosis. Approximately twenty percent of patients have erosive disease at diagnosis progressing to approximately half of all patients by three years disease duration. In its most severe form, psoriatic arthritis mutilans, digits become shortened from gross bone resorption (osteolyisis) leading to severe functional impairment and disability. Spondyloarthritis may affect between 25-70% of patients with PsA. The radiographic features of Psoriatic Spondyloarthritis differ from Ankylosing Spondylitis, in that sacroiliitis is often asymmetrical and less severe, the cervical spine is frequently involved and syndesmophytes are asymmetrical and para-marginal. Overall radiographic features are less severe than ankylosing spondylitis. The natural history of both peripheral and axial radiographic damage in psoriatic arthritis in the modern era of early diagnosis, tight disease control and biologic drugs has yet to be established.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

AbstractAgriculture has shown a considerable capacity to adapt to climate change. Many adaptations occur autonomously without the need for conscious response by farmers and agricultural planners. However, it is likely that the rate and magnitude of climate change may exceed that of normal change in agriculture that specific technologies and management styles may need to be adopted to avoid the most serious of effects. Thus areas likely to be most vulnerable to climate variability can be spared from its impacts through implementation of appropriate adaptation measures such as development of indigenous technologies.Six hundred farmers from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria were surveyed and they all possess different indigenous adaptation strategies ranging from swamp farming (Oyo State), application of neem seed (Kaduna State), soil erosion control (Enugu State), rainwater harvesting (Taraba State), land improvement (Cross River State) to farmland management (Benue State). They all have simple but profound technologies driving these schemes with much success. These indigenous adaptation techniques are majorly constrained by inadequate financial resources. Indigenous technology adoption is affordable with high revenue potential.

Erosion of piping systems is a significant issue for many operators of Hydrocarbon infrastructure. Until now mitigation measures have been limited to detection / measurement and reducing production. For many operators this can be a significant loss in revenue and an increase in IMR costs. A novel Erosion Control Technology (ECT) is being developed that can significantly reduce the impact of erosion on piping infrastructure. This technology has the potential of adding immense value when it is used to debottleneck and optimize flow rates. The patented ECT has been designed to control sand erosion in real-time by deflecting and redistributing sand in the product flow stream. Preliminary laboratory testing of the ECT has been very successful. The ECT inserts designed for the ambient test conditions have shown substantial reduction in erosion (both global and local). Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been the key enabling factor allowing the critical breakthrough in this technology. Experimental results have shown very good correlation with the CFD sand erosion model results. A roadmap in line with industry practices and standards has been developed for project implementation of the ECT solution in the near future.

Hard facings are used in a number of different types of components generally to provide improved wear, erosion, and corrosion resistance to the substrate. A typical application is to a valve seat which may be subjected to high wear loads and high flow rates such that a hard wearing surface is required. Traditionally, a common application method has been to weld deposit the hard facing onto a softer substrate, e.g. the main body material of the component. This can result in poor quality micro-structures, e.g. cast/inhomogeneous structures being created that may not provide the required wear/erosion/corrosion resistance. This can be a particular issue for Nuclear applications where the hard facing is cobalt based. If the facing deteriorates and releases cobalt based debris, the debris (crud), if it becomes activated, can contribute significantly to the overall plant radiation activation level. Also, depending upon the geometry, deposition process, the expansion coefficient difference between the facing and substrate, and the cooling rate, a detrimental tensile residual stress can be generated. This can cause cracking of the facing which, depending upon the in-service loading conditions, could lead to crack propagation into the substrate, potentially threatening the structural integrity of the component; a leak or structural failure could result. One application method to address the potential poor micro-structure that may be created from weld deposition methods, is to use a Hot Isostatically Pressed (HIPed) hard facing. This is where a wear surface is created from the solid state, rather than using a localised melting route, by the HIP consolidation of powder produced by a gas atomisation process. Homogenous, isotropic, finer grained, and defect free microstructures can be created via this method which generally exhibit improved resistance to wear/erosion/corrosion. Also, where the HIP consolidated facing is HIP bonded to the substrate, a beneficial compressive residual stress is created that can arrest any crack propagation into the substrate if cracking of the facing was to occur. For Nuclear applications it is imperative the material quality of a hard facing is assured. It is essential that care is taken particularly in the production of the powder to ensure it does not contain undesirable defects/contamination. This paper presents: the benefits that can be achieved with creating component hard facings using the HIP process, the key defects/contamination that may be present, and the quality control measures recommended to assure the material quality.

Reducing the solid particle erosion (SPE) of blades is one of the most important problems for high-parameter steam turbine. Based on the erosion rate models and the particle rebound models of blade materials obtained through the accelerated erosion test under high temperature, a lot of three dimension numerical simulations were conducted in this paper. The influence of particle size on the impingement point distribution on the nozzle surface and the erosion characteristics of control stage nozzle in a supercritical steam turbine were analyzed quantitatively. The size range of the oxide scale particles participating in the erosion damage were extended to 500μm, and some special anti-erosion measures corresponding to different size particles were proposed to reduce the erosion of nozzle. Results show that the erosion of pressure surface in the trailing edge of nozzle is mainly from the high-intensity impingement of particles smaller than 160μm, especially those with the size range from 20μm to 60μm. For the impingement of these small particles, optimizing the profile and cascade structure as well as coating the hard coating on the surface of nozzle can improve the erosion resistance of nozzle. However, these small particles do not impinge the nozzle trailing edge suction surface. The severe erosion damage of suction surface of nozzle was from the impingement again of the particles with the size range from 200μm to 500μm after rebounding from nozzle pressure surface. It is very difficult to resist the erosion damage of these large particles for the hard coating, and separating large particles from main steam before entering the nozzle chamber should be a good choice for improving the erosion resistance of turbine. These studies will provide a technical basis for selecting anti-erosion measures of control stage nozzle.