Design occurs in complex socio-technical contexts with conflicting stakeholder goals, requirements and other constraints. These limit solution options and create trade-offs where improvements relative to one goal come at the expense of performance on another. Little is known about how the design context influences trade-offs, or how designers interact with context to manage trade-offs. This article reports on an exploratory qualitative interview study investigating design trade-offs in relation to their socio-technical context. We identified nine themes reflecting engineering designers’ perceptions of the influence of the design context on their ability to resolve trade-offs. Findings suggest that the design context is both a source of trade-offs, and of knowledge and information that helps designers clarify ambiguous requirements to navigate and resolve trade-offs. The results provide insight into how designers interact with the design context to learn about the structure of their design problems and the degrees of freedom available to resolve trade-offs. The findings also contribute to understanding the effects of path dependencies in trade-off situations, and how the sequential distribution of design decisions over time constrains trade-off resolution. We discuss some of the goals and challenges of conducting rigorous qualitative research in design and identify potential directions for further research.

Global warming has driven changes in the biology and fitness of organisms that need to adapt to temperatures outside of their optimal range to survive. This study investigated aspects of reproduction and survival of the lady beetle Tenuisvalvae notata (Mulsant) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) subjected to temperatures that varied from its optimal (28°C) to a gradual decrease (12, 14, 16, and 18°C) and increase (32, 34, 35, and 36°C) over time at a rate of 1°C/day. Fertility, fecundity, oviposition period, and survival were determined. There was a significant reduction in fertility and fecundity at temperatures below 18°C and above 34°C, whereas survival was reduced only above 34°C. Additionally, we evaluated that fecundity was the lowest when females were kept at low temperature, and when males were kept under high temperature. Therefore, if the T. notata remained for a long period under exposure to temperatures outside the ideal range, then the species could present different reproductive responses for each sex to high and low temperatures. This factor must be considered when releasing natural enemies into an area to understand the effect of temperature on the decline of a local population a few generations after release.

While elections are an instrument to hold politicians accountable, corrupt politicians are often re-elected. A potential explanation for this paradox is that citizens trade-off integrity for competence. Voters may forgive corruption if corrupt politicians manage to deliver desirable outcomes. While previous studies have examined whether politicians’ competence moderates the negative effect of corruption, this paper focuses on voters’ priorities and directly assesses what citizens value more: integrity or favourable outcomes. Using a survey experiment, we assess citizens’ support for politicians who violate the law in order to improve the welfare of their community and, in some cases, benefit personally from these violations. The results indicate that citizens prefer a politician who follows the law, even if this leads to a suboptimal outcome. However, voters are more likely to overlook violations of the law that benefit the community if these do not result in a personal gain for politicians (i.e., in the absence of corruption). These findings suggest that the mild electoral punishment of corruption may be due to the public’s unawareness of private gains from malfeasance, or to the delay in these private benefits becoming apparent by election day.

Trade-offs involving multiple criteria that cannot be satisfied at the same time are ubiquitous in engineering design activities. Navigating trade-off decisions can be challenging, especially when it comes to sustainability-related decisions in early-stage projects. Through a systematic literature review, we unravel the challenges related to sustainability trade-offs in technology development, concept design, and other front-end of innovation activities. The challenges, which were evaluated by experts from industry and academia, range from technical and organisational to psychological aspects.

A trade-off between structural and chemical defences against herbivory in woody plants is alleged to depend on edaphic factors in African savannas. We studied anti-herbivory traits, in an edaphic mosaic of fertile and infertile soils within a savanna landscape in East Africa, towards elucidating herbivory defence traits expressions in woody plants of African savannas. We used data of 81 plants for 8 species from 8 sites — four sites from fertile soils (42 plants) and another four sites from infertile soils (39 plants). We did not find a general divide between structural and chemical strategies in our data. Instead, we found a range of defence traits combinations. Our results highlight that in woody plants of African savannas, chemical and structural defences can augment each other, and not necessarily trade-off. The diversity of herbivores, ranging from insects to mesobrowsers, may have driven the evolution of multiple defence strategies within the African savannas.

Poverty, inequality and climate change are profoundly interconnected issues and represent grave threats to the future of our planet and civilization. Failure in one will result in failure in the other; thus, government responses to such threats must be meticulously coordinated, especially across environmental and welfare state programs. In recent years, a growing body of research has examined the links between these two domains, lauding the eco-welfare state as a viable path forward. As the literature on the eco-welfare state is at an early stage, this study proposes two essential theoretical and empirical contributions. First, it examines the most prominent theoretical interpretations of the concept of eco-welfare state and proposes a refined understanding. Second, using model-based cluster analysis for 42 countries, this study empirically unveils a global shift towards and the existence of an eco-welfare state.

This paper investigates how guides on Svalbard make sense of their relations to the environment whilst working with mass tourism. The Arctic is heating up more rapidly than any other part of the world, and over the last 30 years the effect of climate change has had a large impact on the environment in the Arctic. The guides as such find themselves living a paradox where their work destroys the nature that they care about and depend on. This paper analyses empirical data collected during four months of fieldwork amongst guides in Svalbard. Throughout the paper, two dimensions are explored: the guides’ relation to and understanding of the environment as well as their ways of caring for it. Building on illustrations of the guides’ preconceptions of the environment, it is shown how the guides in their everyday life are engaged in pro-environmental practices. These practices are embedded in the guides’ reciprocal relationship with the environment, where they negotiate between different trade-offs. The guides thus find a way to navigate the complexity of caring for the environment and working in tourism through their intimate relation to the environment.

This article examines limitations present in India–Indonesia bilateral trade relations. Since January 2019, India has imposed higher import tariffs on Indonesian refined, bleached, deodorised palm oil (RBDPO) than those imposed on Indonesia's main competitor Malaysia. This tariff policy weakened Indonesia's exports, given that India is Indonesia's third-largest export destination for palm oil. To overcome these tariff disparities, the Indonesian government responded with a trade-off strategy, offering to lower its import tariffs on India's raw sugar in exchange for a reduction in India's import tariffs on Indonesia's RBDPO. However, this strategy has thus far failed to generate a satisfying outcome for Indonesia. This article examines the obstacles in enacting such a strategy from the Indonesian perspective. By mobilising the concept of reluctance in international politics, this article argues that India's reluctance hinders Indonesia's trade-off strategy. This reluctance is evidenced by India's hesitation and recalcitrance, resulting in delays, and reversal of policy as well as ignoring Indonesian requests regarding the trade-off strategy. This could indicate that India does not prioritise Indonesia in its Indo-Pacific vision, particularly in enhancing cooperation with Southeast Asian nations, particularly Indonesia.

COVID-19 has impacted all aspects of everyday normalcy globally. During the height of the pandemic, people shared their (PI) with one goal—to protect themselves from contracting an “unknown and rapidly mutating” virus. The technologies (from applications based on mobile devices to online platforms) collect (with or without informed consent) large amounts of PI including location, travel, and personal health information. These were deployed to monitor, track, and control the spread of the virus. However, many of these measures encouraged the trade-off on privacy for safety. In this paper, we reexamine the nature of privacy through the lens of safety focused on the health sector, digital security, and what constitutes an infraction or otherwise of the privacy rights of individuals in a pandemic as experienced in the past 18 months. This paper makes a case for maintaining a balance between the benefit, which the contact tracing apps offer in the containment of COVID-19 with the need to ensure end-user privacy and data security. Specifically, it strengthens the case for designing with transparency and accountability measures and safeguards in place as critical to protecting the privacy and digital security of users—in the use, collection, and retention of user data. We recommend oversight measures to ensure compliance with the principles of lawful processing, knowing that these, among others, would ensure the integration of privacy by design principles even in unforeseen crises like an ongoing pandemic; entrench public trust and acceptance, and protect the digital security of people.

This paper synthesizes concepts from the design creativity and design optimization literatures to develop a conceptual descriptive model of trade-off situations in design. Using a set theory approach, a model of the design space is expanded to formalize the description of trade-offs as Pareto frontiers on this space. The modelling of design process and human biases and limitations on the structure of these design spaces explores the perceptions designers form of these design spaces. The model presented describes how altering the framing and formulation of the design space can be used to alter or bypass the original Pareto frontiers of that space, allowing trade-offs to be navigated outside of the original limitations.

Suppose that a decision-maker’s aim, under certainty, is to maximize some continuous value, such as lifetime income or continuous social welfare. Can such a decision-maker rationally satisfy what has been called ‘continuity for easy cases’ while at the same time satisfying what seems to be a widespread intuition against the full-blown continuity axiom of expected utility theory? In this note I argue that the answer is ‘no’: given transitivity and a weak trade-off principle, continuity for easy cases violates the anti-continuity intuition. I end the note by exploring an even weaker continuity condition that is consistent with the aforementioned intuition.

Diamides have been used worldwide to manage the diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella L. (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae), however some strains showed resistance to these molecules. Also, pheromone traps could be used to manage this pest, hence reducing the use of insecticides in the field. Resistant DBM strains may have biological disadvantages in comparison to susceptible strains in areas without sprays, including reduction in fitness or behavioral changes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate whether DBM strains resistant to chlorantraniliprole showed adaptive costs that could alter male attraction to the sex pheromone, in comparison to susceptible strains in the laboratory and semi-field conditions. First, the LC1, LC10, LC25, and LC50 of DBM to chlorantraniliprole were established, which were 0.003, 0.005, 0.007, and 0.011 mg a.i. liter−1, and 5.88, 24.80, 57.22, and 144.87 mg a.i. liter−1 for the susceptible and resistant strains, respectively. Development and reproduction of DBM strains subjected to those concentrations were compared. Later, male response to the sex pheromone was investigated in a Y-tube in the laboratory and in a greenhouse to pheromone traps. Resistant DBM strain showed an adaptive cost in comparison to the susceptible strain that can result in a delay in population growth in the field when selection pressure is absent. Conversely, resistant males have no olfactory response alteration in comparison to susceptible males, consistently at 3 (P = 0.6848) and 7 days (P = 0.9140) after release, suggesting that pheromone traps continue to be a viable alternative to manage DBM in an IPM system.

Despite being classed as an asocial species, aggregations of sea anemones can be common in abundant species. UK populations of the geographically common aggressive intertidal sea anemone Actinia equina, form clustered aggregations notwithstanding a violent nature towards neighbours and relatives. Smaller in body size, and more abundant than those found in warmer climates, little research has been undertaken to discover what factors affect body size. This study investigates whether aggregation, distance to neighbour, submergence at low tide or pH in rock pools affect body size of A. equina in their natural habitat. Populations were investigated at five sites on the Yorkshire coast during August and September 2016. A total of 562 anemones were recorded revealing that solitary anemones were significantly larger than those found in clustered aggregations. In addition, anemones found submerged in rock pools at low tide were significantly larger than those found on emergent rock, and smaller anemones were found in significantly higher pH conditions (8.5+) than larger anemones. Anemones submerged at low tide are constantly able to feed and not subject to harsh conditions such as wind exposure and temperature, hence they can achieve larger sizes. Consequently, the size of the anemones may reflect a trade-off between the benefits of aggregating in exposed environments and the costs of competition for a reduced food resource.

Livestock farming is criticized for negatively impacting the environment, concerns about animal welfare and the impact of excessive meat consumption on human health. However, livestock farming provides other underappreciated and poorly communicated benefits to society in terms of employment, product quality, cultural landscapes and carbon storage by grasslands. Few attempts have been made so far to simultaneously consider the services and impacts provided by livestock production. Here, we propose an integrated graphical tool, called the ‘barn’ to explicitly summarize the synergies and trade-offs between services and impacts provided by livestock farming. It illustrates livestock farming interacting with its physical, economic and social environment along five interfaces: (i) Markets, (ii) Work and employment, (iii) Inputs, (iv) Environment and climate, (v) Social and cultural factors. This graphical tool was then applied by comparing two contrasting livestock production areas (high livestock density v. grassland-based), and the dominant v. a niche system within a crop-livestock area. We showed the barn could be used for cross-comparisons of services and impacts across livestock production areas, and for multi-level analysis of services and impacts of livestock farming within a given area. The barn graphically summarizes the ecological and socio-economic aspects of livestock farming by explicitly representing multiple services and impacts of different systems in a simple yet informative way. Information for the five interfaces relies on available quantitative assessments from the literature or data sets, and on expert-knowledge for more qualitative factors, such as social and cultural ones. The ‘barn’ can also inform local stakeholders or policy-makers about potential opportunities and threats to the future of livestock farming in specific production areas. It has already been used as a pedagogical tool for teaching the diversity of services and impacts of livestock systems across Europe and is currently developed as a serious game for encouraging knowledge exchange and sharing different viewpoints between stakeholders.

Why some parasites evolve and maintain extreme levels of virulence is a question that remains largely unanswered. A body of theory predicts that parasites that form long-lived spores able to persist in the environment evolve higher virulence, known as the sit and wait hypothesis. Such parasites can obliterate their local host population and wait in the environment for further hosts to arrive, reducing some of the costs of high virulence. On the other hand, some models predict the opposite to be true, that virulence and environmental persistence are both costly and traded off, the resource allocation hypothesis. I conducted a meta-analysis on published data on the relationship between environmental persistence and virulence collected to date. I first examined all data available to date and then conducted a smaller analysis focussing on just those studies testing the specific predictions of the sit and wait hypothesis. Empirical work supports both hypotheses; however, the direction of the effect is largely associated with parasite type. In both analyses, viruses tend to show evidence of resource allocation trade-offs, these traits are positively correlated in bacterial and fungal parasites.

Life-history theory predicts a trade-off between the juvenile growth rate and adult traits related to survival. However, this hypothesized negative correlation is difficult to test robustly because many trade-offs are mild, and environmental variables, such as changes in nutrient availability, can ameliorate the trade-off or make it more pronounced. Thus, it is reasonable to expect that the expression of the trade-off can be condition-dependent. In the present study, we first examined the pre-adult life-history traits of the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, collected from northern, central, and southern China at different temperatures. We found that the northern China population has a significantly shorter pre-adult developmental time and higher growth rate than the southern China population as a result of adaptation to the decreased seasonal length. Then, we tested for a trade-off between the juvenile growth rate and adult lifespan in different temperature and nutrient conditions. We found a negative relationship between juvenile growth rate and adult lifespan under starvation or desiccation conditions; however, a continuous supply of sugar can diminish or obviate the apparent negative relationship, in which the adult lifespan did not show a significant difference in most of the comparisons. These results suggested a resource-mediated trade-off may exist between juvenile growth rate and adult lifespan. However, the adult size may have some positive effect on the lifespan under starvation and desiccation conditions, which may affect the expression of trade-off.

The role of herbivorous livestock in supporting the sustainability of the farming systems in which they are found is complex and sometimes conflicting. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the integration of livestock into farming systems is important for sustainable agriculture as the recycling of nutrients for crop production through returns of animal manure is a central element of the dominant mixed crop-livestock systems. Sustainable agriculture has been widely advocated as the main practical pathway to address the challenge of meeting the food needs of the rapidly growing population in SSA while safeguarding the needs of future generations. The objective of this paper is to review the state of knowledge of the role of herbivores in sustainable intensification of key farming systems in SSA. The pathways to sustainable agriculture in SSA include intensification of production and livelihood diversification. Sustainable agricultural practices in SSA have focused on intensification practices which aim to increase the output : input ratio through increasing use of inputs, introduction of new inputs or use of existing inputs in a new way. Intensification of livestock production can occur through increased and improved fodder availability, genetic production gains, improved crop residue use and better nutrient recycling of manure. Livestock deliver many ‘goods’ in smallholder farming systems in SSA including improving food and nutrition security, increased recycling of organic matter and nutrients and the associated soil fertility amendments, adding value to crop residues by turning them into nutrient-rich foods, income generation and animal traction. Narratives on livestock ‘bads’ or negative environmental consequences have been largely shaped by the production conditions in the Global North but livestock production in SSA is a different story. In SSA, livestock are an integral component of mixed farming systems and they play key roles in supporting the livelihoods of much of the rural population. None-the-less, the environmental consequences of livestock production on the continent cannot be ignored. To enhance agricultural sustainability in SSA, the challenge is to optimize livestock’s role in the farming systems by maximizing livestock ‘goods’ while minimizing the ‘bads’. This can be through better integration of livestock into the farming systems, efficient nutrient management systems, and provision of necessary policy and institutional support.