A case for systemic environmental analysis of cultured meat

The environmental implications of cultured meat are profound. An anticipatory life cycle assessment of cultured meat published in 2011 suggested it could have a smaller impact than agricultural meat in all categories except energy consumption. As with most technologies, cultured meat will almost certainly be accompanied by unintended consequences as well as unforeseen costs and benefits that accrue disproportionately to different stakeholders. Uncertainty associated with new engineered products cannot be completely eliminated prior to introduction, but ongoing environmental assessments of the technologies as they advance can serve to reduce unforeseen risks. Given the pace at which tissue engineering is advancing, systemic assessments of the technology will be pivotal in mitigating unintended environmental consequences.

7G＇s Environmental Initiative through the Lens of the Technology-Organization-Environment （TOE） Framework

This qualitative research study addresses the research question of how the environmental sustainability initiative of 7G （Seventh Generation）, a product design, marketing, and distribution company in the household and personal care products, could be understood within its supply chain context using Tornatzky and Fleischer＇s TOE （Technology-Organization-Environment） framework. Content analysis, a research technique for making valid inferences from text following a set of procedures, was used and applied to secondary data materials on 7G. The findings reveal that the environmental, organizational, and technological contexts, which are key elements of the TOE framework, are useful in analyzing and comprehending the business practices and business processes adopted by 7G to pursue its sustainability initiative. Of particular interest are those business processes that were included by 7G＇s EMS （Environment Management System） and enabled by green IS （Information Systems）. Both the strengths and weaknesses of 7G＇s efforts are discussed and suggestions are presented for modifying certain phases of the systems development life cycle methodology when implementing green IS.

International Conference on Environment and Human Health Systems Engineering 2017 Held in Xi＇an

The first International Conference on Environment and Human Health Systems Engineering was held on July 8,2017 in Northwestern Polytechnical University（NPU）,Xi’an.This conference was jointly held by the School of Life Sciences of NPU,the Office of International Cooperation of NPU and the China Aerospace Academy of Systems Science and Engineering（CAASSE）.

COMPARISON OF GREEN HOME ENERGY PERFORMANCE BETWEEN SIMULATION AND OBSERVATION: A CASE OF VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES

The United States has a long-term goal to reduce 50%of energy usage in buildings based on 2010 consumption levels.Home energy efficiency is often measured by laboratory experiments and computational simulation.Thus,there is little to no quantifiable evidence showing the extent of energy efficiency homes can achieve within the larger context of green building standards.The objective of this research is to identify actual home energy performance as an effect of green building technolo-gies by comparing energy use from real-world observations and energy modeling.Results indicate a significant reduction of energy consumption at 43.7%per unit or 43.4%per square foot(i.e.,0.093 m^(2))and substantial financial savings at$628.4 per unit or$0.80 per square foot(i.e.,$8.6 per m^(2))annually.Savings account for 2%of median annual household income or 46%of energy cost expenditures for an American home.Results also identify the construction type as a significant factor,yet building technology is not the only factor influencing a home’s energy efficiency.The findings contribute to the body of knowledge in three aspects:(1)simulated energy usage is higher than actual energy usage;(2)energy modeling via simulation tools is particularly accurate for new construction;and(3)energy modeling,especially for existing buildings,is not accurate due to largely varying occupant behaviors.

Interest-Driven Model for Human Dynamics

Empirical observations indicate that the interevent time distribution of human actions exhibits heavy-tailed features. The queuing model based on task priorities is to some extent successful in explaining the origin of such heavy tails, however, it cannot explain all the temporal statistics of human behavior especially for the daily entertainments. We propose an interest-driven model, which can reproduce the power-law distribution of interevent time. The exponent can be analytically obtained and is in good accordance with the simulations. This model well explains the observed relationship between activities and power-law exponents, as reported recently for web-based behavior and the instant message communications.

Information Feedback Strategies in a Signal Controlled Network with Overlapped Routes

We investigate the effects of four different information feedback strategies on the dynamics of traffic, travelers＇ route choice and the resultant system performance in a signal controlled network with overlapped routes. Simulation results given by the cellular automaton model show that the system purpose-based mean velocity feedback strategy and the congestion coefficient feedback strategy have more advantages in improving network utilization efficiency and reducing travelers＇ travel times. The travel time feedback strategy and the individual purposed-based mean velocity feedback strategy behave slightly better to ensure user equity.

Heterogeneity of Some Cooperation/Competition Properties

We show that the heterogeneity index, which was proposed by Hu and Wang [Physica A 387 （2008） 3769], can be used to describe the disparity of the cooperation sharing or competition gain distributions, which is very important for understanding the dynamics of a cooperation/competition system. An analytical relation between the distribution parameters and the heterogeneity index is derived, which is in good agreement with the empirical results. Our theoretical and empirical analyses also show that the relation between the distribution parameters can be analytically derived from the so-called Zhang-Chang model [Physica A 360 （2006） 599; 383 （2007） 687）. This strongly recommends a possibility to create a general dynamic cooperation/competition model.

A Realistic Cellular Automaton Model for Synchronized Traffic Flow

A cellular automaton model is proposed to consider the anticipation effect in drivers＇ behavior. It is shown that the anticipation effect can be one of the origins of synchronized traffic flow. With anticipation effect, the congested traffic flow simulated by the model exhibits the features of synchronized flow. The spatiotemporal patterns induced by an on-ramp are also consistent with the three-phase traffic theory. Since the origin of synchronized flow is still controversial, our work can shed some light on the mechanism of synchronized flow.

Prisoner＇s Dilemma on Co-Evolving Networks without Strategy Update

We investigate the game theory in a structured population with the assumption that the evolution of network structure is far faster than that of strategy update. We find that the degree distribution for the finM network consists of two distinct parts： the low degree part which is contributed to by defectors and a broadband in the regime with high degree which is formed by cooperators. The structure of the final network and the final strategy pattern have also been numerically proved to be independent of the game parameters.

A principal consideration on general Bayes'filters for a state estimation of environmental sound and vibration systems

This paper describes a fundamental consideration on our works on the design of general Bayes' filters for the state estimation of non-stationary, non-linear, and non-Gaussian environmental sound and vibration systems. We have discussed an essential point of several Bayes' filters proposed by using the orthogonal or non-orthogonal expansion form of Bayes' theorem. They can estimate any kinds of statistics of arbitrary function type of state variables including the lower and the higher order statistics connected with the Lx evaluation index in the environmental sound and vibration systems. Here, we have mainly focussed on giving the fundamental viewpoints of their design policies. Some new estimation methods and new results not yet published are included.

Achieving carbon neutrality through ecological carbon sinks:A systems perspective

1.Introduction Carbon neutrality have become a consensus for all of humanity[1,2].As of April,2023,132 countries have announced carbon neutrality targets[3].To achieve carbon neutrality,efforts need to be made from multiple aspects,including decarbonization of the power sector[4,5],electrification of the end-use sectors[6,7],and greening of other industries[8].Ecological carbon sinks play a unique role in these strategies to offset hard-to-reduce greenhouse gas(GHG)emissions by reabsorbing or storing carbon that has already been emitted.

An Environment for Rapid Prototyping of Interactive Systems

This paper shows an environment which supports the development of multi-thread dialogue interactive systems.The environment includes several tools and run-time support programs for the design and implementation of the user interface of an interactive system.First,methods of user interface specifica- tion with Elementary Nets are discussed.Then,the syntax of a user interface specification language based on Elementary Nets and the pre-compiler for the language as well as a graphic editor for Elemen- tary Nets construction are described.Finally,an example is given to illustrate the design process of a user interface.

COMPLEX ECO-ECONOMY SYSTEM

In the past there were a lot of researches on the topic of economic growth. Nevertheless, the environment has been a bit abstracted by standard economics. Scarce natural resources and our choices to protect them or exploit them jointly determine the economic and environmental systems. In this paper we describe a model with a particular focus on the relationship among income, pollution, and non-renewable resources. We want to combine both economic and environmental sectors. The system dynamics approach is used in analyzing these complex relationships. This paper gives an insight into the possibilities for replacing non-renewable resources with more renewable ones. Next, we present the simulation runs of the model that are conducted with the help of existing system dynamics modeling tools. Only the relationships simulated so far between the variables ought to be put under yet more cautious examination.

Socioecological drivers facilitating biodiversity conservation in traditional farming landscapes

Traditional farming landscapes have evolved as tightly coupled socioecological systems that support high biodiversity.However,land-use change severely threatens the high biodiversity of these landscapes.Navigating nature conservation in such landscapes requires a thorough understanding of the key drivers underpinning biodiversity.Through empirical research on mammals,birds,butterflies,and plants in a traditional cultural landscape in Romania,we revealed seven hypothesized drivers facilitating biodiversity conservation.Similar proportions of three main land-use types support the landscape species pool,most likely through habitat connectivity and frequent spillover between land-use types.Landscape complementation and supplementation provide additional habitat for species outside their core habitats.Gradients of woody vegetation cover and gradients in land-cover heterogeneity provide mosaic landscapes with wide ranges of resources.Traditional land-use practices underpin landscape heterogeneity,traditional land-use elements such as wood pastures,and human-carnivore coexistence.Top-down predator control may limit herbivore populations.Lastly,cultural ties between humans and nature have a central influence on people’s values and sustainable use of natural resources.Conservation approaches should aim to maintain or restore these socioecological drivers by targeting the heterogeneous character of the forest-farmland mosaic at large scales through"broad and shallow"conservation measures.These large-scale measures should be complemented with"deep and narrow"conservation measures addressing specific land-use types,threats,or species.In both cases,conservation measures should integrate the entire socioecological system,by recognizing and strengthening important links between people and the environment.

Sediment flux from the Zhoushan Archipelago, eastern China

Knowledge of the sediment flux derived from different sources is critical for interpreting the sedimentary records associated with large river sedimentary systems. For the Changjiang River system, previous studies hardly focused on the sediment load from the adjacent Zhoushan Archipelago(ZA). Based on four prediction models, aiming to improve the understanding of the sediment load from the ZA during the Holocene, we show that the predicted sediment flux of the ZA ranges from ~0.7 to 26.5 Mt·yr^(-1), with an average value of 10.7 Mt·yr^(-1), and the islands with a relatively large area or high relief contribute greatly to the total flux. This sediment load is an order of magnitude lower than that of the Changjiang River, but it is similar to those of the local small rivers. Located in the core area of the southward dispersal path of the Changjiang River plume, the ZA also influences the sediment transport into Hangzhou Bay and over the Zhejiang-Fujian coastal seas. On the Holocene temporal scale, e.g., for the period from 6 ka BP to 2 ka BP, the sediments discharged from the ZA had a considerable effect on the shelf sedimentary system. This study provides evidence for an important role an archipelago can play in terms of sediment supply and transport in coastal and inner continental shelf regions.

Effect of combined light-emitting diodeson the accumulation of glucosinolates in Brassica microgreens

As of recent,microgreen vegetable production in controlled environments are being investigated for their bioactive properties.Phytochemicals like glucosinolates(GLS)are highly sensitive to varying spectral qualities of light,especially in leafy greens of Brassica where the responses are highly species-dependent.The accumulation of bioactive GLS were studied under 8 different treatments of combined amber(590 nm),blue(455 nm),and red(655 nm)light-emitting diodes(rbaLED).A semi-targeted metabolomics approach was carried out to profile common intact-GLS in microgreen extracts of Brassica by means of LC-HRMS/MS.Thirteen GLS were identified,among them were 8 aliphatic,4 indolic and 1 aromatic GLS.Mass spectrometry data showed sinigrin had the highest average concentration and was highest in B.juncea,progoitrin was highest in B.rapa and glucobrassicin in R.sativus.The individual and total GLS in the microgreens of the present study were largely different under rbaLED;B.rapa microgreens contained the highest profile of total GLS,followed by R.sativus and B.juncea.Sinigrin was increased and gluconasturtiin was decreased under rbaLED lighting in most microgreens,glucoalyssin uniquely increased in R.sativus and decreased in B.rapa and glucobrassicin uniquely decreased in both B.rapa and B.juncea.The present study showed that rbaLED contributed to the altered profiles of GLS resulting in their significant modulation.Optimizing the light spectrum for improved GLS biosynthesis could lead to production of microgreens with targeted health-promoting properties.