The 10 most recently published documents
This research analyzes the gender dynamics that have influenced natural resource management in the rural communities of La Ferrería and El Nayar, Durango, Mexico, over the past 50 years. Using a theoretical framework based on gender perspective, intersectionality, and rural systems theory, the study examines how social change, globalization, and the new rurality have transformed gender roles and access to natural resources.
Through qualitative methods such as participant observation, semi-structured interviews, life histories, and documentary research, this study identifies the progressive loss of traditional knowledge and the increasing urbanization of rural life. The results reveal that although women have gained greater participation in decision-making processes, structural barriers continue to limit their access to land and resource management. In addition, changing generational perspectives, particularly among participants aged 18 to 24, indicate a growing disengagement from traditional agricultural practices in favor of technical and academic approaches.
This study highlights the urgent need to integrate gender perspectives into rural development policies, promoting sustainable and equitable resource management while preserving ancestral knowledge. The research underscores the importance of revaluing rural work to ensure long-term food security and maintain cultural ties to the land.
Key words: Gender perspective, natural resource management, new rurality, traditional knowledge, rural development.
Analysis of Agricultural Water Uses in Almansouriya District in Iraq: Challenges and Solutions
(2025)
The study of agricultural water usage in Almansouriya District reveals significant challenges related to water scarcity, high salinity in groundwater, and considerable evaporation rates. The study emphasizes the importance of implementing multiple strategies to achieve sustainable water use and enhance agricultural resilience in the face of climatic and environmental challenges.
This document serves as a comprehensive compendium of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that are vital for enhancing water-sensitive structures and combating environmental changes in South-East Asia (SEA). It provides a framework to address a spectrum of social, economic, and environmental challenges by offering essential ecosystem services. The Compendium defines categories and features to better describe problems, propose solutions (NbSs), and outline how these solutions will achieve their targets through ecosystem services.
This paper presents a comparative study of binarization techniques for automated defect detection in dye penetrant testing (DPT) images. We evaluate established methods, including global, adaptive, and histogram-based thresholding, against three novel machine learning-assisted approaches, Soft Binarization (SoBin), Delta Binarization (DeBin), and Convolutional Autoencoder Binarization (AutoBin), using a real-world dataset from an automated DPT system inspecting stainless steel pipes. Performance is assessed with both pixel-level and region-level metrics, with particular emphasis on the influence of defect saturation. Defect saturation is quantified as the mean saturation value of all pixels belonging to a given defect, and defects are grouped into ten categories spanning from low (60–68) to high (132–140) mean saturation. Our results demonstrate that for lower mean defect saturation values, methods such as AutoBin_Triangle , HSV_global_70 , and SoBin achieve superior Intersection over Union (IoU) and high true positive rates. In contrast, methods based primarily on global thresholding of the saturation channel tend to perform competitively on images with higher defect saturation levels, reflecting their sensitivity to stronger color signals. Moreover, depending on the method, nearly perfect region-level true positive rates ( TPRregion) or minimal false positive rates ( FPRregion) can be attained, emphasizing the trade-off that different models offer distinct strengths and weaknesses, which necessitates selecting the optimal method based on the specific quality control requirements and risk tolerances of the industrial process. These findings underscore the critical importance of defect saturation as a cue for both human and computer vision systems and provide valuable insights for developing robust automated quality control and predictive quality algorithms.
The article presents results of an analytical and numerical modeling of electron fluid motion and heat generation in a rectangular conductor at an alternating electric potential. The analytical solution is based on the series expansion solution (Fourier method) and double series solution (method of eigenfunction decomposition). The numerical solution is based on the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). An analytical solution for the electric current was obtained. This enables estimating the heat generation in the conductor and determining the influence of the parameters characterizing the conductor dimensions, the parameter M (phenomenological transport time describing momentum-nonconserving collisions), the Knudsen number (mean free path for momentum-nonconserving) and the Sh number (frequency) on the heat generation rate as an electron flow passes through a conductor.
Commercial strategy games are a medium for addressing and disseminating socially controversial issues and influencing social discourse. In order to assess their didactic usefulness and suitability as educational media, this article examines the extent to which they integrate multiperspectivity into their game design. In principle, the ability to adopt perspectives is essential for understanding other human beings, their views, motives, and interests, and is therefore also an important educational objective at school. If strategy games integrate multiperspectivity, they could eventually also be used as a didactic tool to develop perspective-taking skills and to deal with controversial social issues, such as climate change or urban planning, in the classroom. In order to address this research gap and assess the potential of digital strategy games for teaching multiple perspectives in the classroom, it is first necessary to examine the extent to which and the forms in which strategy games integrate multiple perspectives. For this purpose, seventeen successful titles are examined through an empirical game analysis. It is shown that in all of them, different stakeholders and their perspectives are integrated into the games. However, the number of perspectives, the scope of the perspectives presented, and their controversial nature, as well as the language design vary considerably.
This study evaluates the techno-economic feasibility of solar-based green hydrogen potential for off-grid and utility-scale systems in Niger. The geospatial approach is first employed to identify the area available for green hydrogen production based on environmental and socio-technical constraints. Second, we evaluate the potential of green hydrogen production using a geographic information system (GIS) tool, followed by an economic analysis of the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) for alkaline and proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolyzers using fresh and desalinated water. The results show that the electricity generation potential is 311,617 TWh/year and 353,166 TWh/year for off-grid and utility-scale systems. The hydrogen potential using PEM (alkaline) water electrolyzers is calculated to be 5932 Mt/year and 6723 Mt/year (5694 Mt/year and 6454 Mt/year) for off-grid and utility-scale systems, respectively. The LCOH production potential decreases for PEM and alkaline water electrolyzers by 2030, ranging between 4.72–5.99 EUR/kgH2 and 5.05–6.37 EUR/kgH2 for off-grid and 4.09–5.21 EUR/kgH2 and 4.22–5.4 EUR/kgH2 for utility-scale systems.
In a supersonic flow, disturbances of different parameters arise. These perturbations can have a significant impact on the interaction of the flow with the surface. When gas flow passes through a shock wave, perturbations are transformed depending on the initial parameters of the flow. Therefore, it is important to be able to correctly assess the intensity of these transformations. In this work, for the first time, a method has been proposed that allows us to estimate the dynamics of variation of disturbances of flow parameters when passing through an oblique shock wave. The influence of the shock wave inclination angle β, Mach number, intensity of disturbances of velocity, density, temperature, and pressure in front of the shock wave on perturbations of the flow parameters behind the shock wave was investigated. The Mach numbers ranged from 1.2 to 10 and the shock wave inclination angle varied from 15° to 90°. It was shown that the interaction of a supersonic gas flow with an oblique shock wave has a significant effect on the transformation of the perturbations of the flow parameters. The perturbations of temperature and pressure behind the shock wave increase significantly with the increasing angle β and Mach number in front of the shock wave. With the increasing Mach number, the velocity perturbations behind the shock wave first increase, then decrease, passing through a maximum, and afterwards the flow becomes more stable.
Participatory processes are key for designing technology solutions but challenging since target groups rarely have technological expertise. They are, however, experts in their lives. Vulnerable young people are even more challenged when asked to participate. A toolkit approach can introduce non-tech-savvy individuals to digital technology. This paper presents the process of (co-)designing a toolkit for vulnerable young people and social workers. The evaluation provides insights into what components are needed to prepare for participatory technology development. The toolkit can be seen as a mobile laboratory that supports technology development and builds on considerations from other research and design processes. The toolkit was (co-)designed in two phases. An initial version based on other prototypes and the state of the art was evaluated according to feedback from social work professionals. The revised version was evaluated by both professionals and vulnerable young people, leading to refinement and final redesign. The final toolkit, focusing on the smart home domain, was evaluated through participant observation and qualitative content analysis. The results show how feedback, inductively derived in four categories, led to the design of the toolkit with three modules relevant to engaging vulnerable young people in technology design: experience, understand and co-design.
As global reliance on sustainable energy solutions intensifies, there is a growing need to optimise and accurately predict renewable energy outputs. Bifacial photovoltaic systems, which are capable of capturing irradiance on both their front and rear sides, represent a significant advancement over traditional monofacial systems, yielding higher energy per area. The accuracy of simulation models for these systems has a direct impact on their financial viability, necessitating the use of comprehensive and reliable simulation frameworks. This research validates BifacialSimu, an open-source simulation tool designed to enhance the prediction of bifacial PV system energy outputs by incorporating multiple simulation models. The practical validation of BifacialSimu is based on empirical data from three diverse geographic locations. The locations of Golden, United States; Heggelbach, Germany; and Florianópolis, Brazil, provide insights into the performance of bifacial PV systems across a range of environmental conditions and installation configurations. These findings underscore the practical applicability of BifacialSimu, with recommendations for simulation model selection and methodological advancements, paving the way for more precise and efficient bifacial PV system simulations across diverse scenarios. This study employs a number of validation metrics, including relative error, coefficient of determination and Normalized Root Mean Square Error, to assess the accuracy of the simulations. The findings indicate that the Ray tracing method is the most accurate of the irradiance simulation modes for most scenarios. The validation results highlight that the Ray Tracing method achieves superior accuracy in irradiance simulations, particularly under varied environmental conditions, while Variable Albedo models further enhance predictive precision by accounting for dynamic factors such as snow cover.