Search

Epidemiological models of notifiable livestock disease are typically framed at a national level and targeted for specific diseases. There are inherent difficulties in extending models beyond national borders as details of the livestock population, production systems and marketing systems of neighbouring countries are not always readily available. It can also be a challenge to capture heterogeneities in production systems, control policies, and response resourcing across multiple countries, in a single transboundary model. In this paper, we describe EuFMDiS, a continental‐scale modelling framework for transboundary animal disease, specifically designed to support emergency animal disease planning in Europe. EuFMDiS simulates the spread of livestock disease within and between countries and allows control policies to be enacted and resourced on a per‐country basis. It provides a sophisticated decision support tool that can be used to look at the risk of disease introduction, establishment and spread; control approaches in terms of effectiveness and costs; resource management; and post‐outbreak management issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skeletonema potamos is a poorly known freshwater species in the ancestrally and predominantly marine genus Skeletonema . With phylogenetic analysis of two nuclear {partial SSU (18S) and partial LSU (28S) rDNA)} and two chloroplast ( rbc L and psb C) genes, we verified its placement within the genus Skeletonema and identified the mostly brackish species, Skeletonema subsalsum , as its closest known relative. Comparisons of SSU and LSU rRNA genes from S. potamos populations from Europe and North America revealed no intraspecific variation. Skeletonema potamos can be a dominant element of the phytoplankton community in various ecosystems, including the River Danube. We tracked phytoplankton composition in the River Danube weekly from 1979 to 2 012, and throughout this period, S. potamos exhibited a strong increase in proportion of total phytoplankton abundance and biomass – an increase that was correlated with increasing water temperature over the same time period. Current records indicate a temperate distribution of S. potamos , but ecological data predict possible expansion of its geographic range and increase in seasonal duration within existing habitats in response to the warming of surface waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an overview on the history of the European Parliament. It describes the reconstruction of Europe after World War II, noting the role of the Organization for European Cooperation in bringing forth the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community which paved the way for the integration of Europe. It outlines the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC), the changing regime in Eastern Europe, and the formation of the European Parliament.

• Technical, economic and environmental modeling frameworks are proposed. • Economic and environmental optima of hybrid renewable energy systems are different. • Local climatic conditions highly influence the impacts and the optimal design. • Single- and multi-objective optimization both have advantages and disadvantages. • Installing photovoltaics is the cheapest way to decrease environmental impacts. The rapid spread of renewables made it essential to design optimal hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) with the distinctive economic and environmental impacts of each technology in mind. According to a comprehensive literature review, very few studies consider life-cycle environmental impacts in small-scale hybrid renewable energy system optimization. This paper aims to fill this gap by providing a multi-objective design framework for household-scale systems based on the technical modeling of several typical components. Solar photovoltaic, wind turbine, solar heat collector, heat pump, heat storage, battery, and as a novelty, heat insulation thickness are considered. Backup power is either drawn from the grid or produced by a diesel generator in grid-connected and off-grid scenarios, respectively. Single objective optimization using genetic algorithm resulted in the least cost and the least environmental footprint options in a case study of three different locations across Europe. Then, Pareto-optimal solutions between the two extremities were explored with a multi-objective genetic algorithm. Single objective results show substantial differences between environmental and economic optima, while multi-objective optimization proved to be an efficient tool to investigate the trade-offs between the two conflicting goals. Solar photovoltaics is proved to be the most competitive technology to reduce environmental impacts in the case of grid-connected systems. Off-grid systems, however, benefit the most from a balanced mix of different renewable energy sources. Life-cycle impacts in the design of systems involving renewables is proven to be relevant while potential applications of the framework are also revealed. Further research areas, as well as the limitations of the methodology are identified in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]