ALBERT

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Herman van Os , Rien Herber , Bert Scholtens The decision-making process for subsurface activities in the Netherlands has been unable to cope with the driving forces related to social acceptance in several recently proposed subsurface activities. We therefore investigated the possibility to include the triangle of social acceptance in the decision-making process. Our conceptual model relates the stakeholders, their goals and the driving forces to each other. We developed a framework, which describes the interaction between eleven design criteria for a Decision Support System (DSS). This framework will enable us to design a better, from a social acceptance perspective, DSS for subsurface activities in the Netherlands. Since the goals addressed in the decision-making process are very broad and the stakeholders are quite diverse, a single uniform DSS is not able to provide a satisfactory solution. We therefore suggest to design a DSS that is matched with each class of social acceptance.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Yoshie Inada , Shinobu Izumi , Motoya Koga , Shigehito Matsubara We are developing a planning support system for welfare urban design. If we quantify the optimal route (the route that is the easiest to pass through) for challenged people, we will be able to select the areas that require adjustment in terms of accessibility with greater efficiency. In this paper we report on our development of the prototype system to present an optimal route for wheelchair users, and also, the two workshops we had for evaluating the accuracy of the resulted optimal route.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Erfaneh Allameh , Mohammadali Heidari , Bauke De Vries , Harry Timmermans , Mohammad Masoud , Farhang Mozaffar Almost everyone would agree that teleworking is increasingly growing; but beyond this broad statement, we know little about how people behave when they work at home and how they balance their work and life. User comfort and productivity cannot be addressed properly, without a deep understanding of usersʼ working behavior. This gap is even deeper when it comes to the domain of smart homes as new types of housing which aim to enhance working at home. Hence, more user-centered studies are needed to comprehend the interrelationships among housing, technology, daily life and the work activities. In this paper, we use the outputs of an experiment to model usersʼ work activities in a smart home. The experiment was conducted among 254 respondents, who were asked to explore a smart home in a virtual environment and then to arrange their daily activities including work related activities in the virtual smart home. A choice modeling approach, based on the Multinomial Logit Model (MNL), is applied to model how an individual works at a smart home given influential factors such as the individualsʼ socio-demographic profile and their current lifestyle. Two features of working in a smart home are covered in this paper, namely, “the integration of work activities with other daily activities” and “the location of work activities in the house”. The results give better insight into the future trends of working at home and the effects of smart homes on working behavior of people. The results can be used in further developments of both smart homes and teleworking.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Jinhee Kim , Soora Rasouli , Harry Timmermans Hybrid choice models have been developed as an extension of discrete choice models, particularly multinomial logit models, in an attempt to include attitudinal variables. The quintessence of hybrid choice models is that a model of attitude formation is estimated and the estimated attitudes are added to the commonly used set of attributes in discrete choice models: attributes of the choice alternatives and socio-demographic variables. The most commonly applied model is based on linear specifications, both for the attitude model and the utility function. In this review paper, we discuss the principles underlying the hybrid choice model, summarize the specifications used in previous applications of the model and then continue discussing recent progress that added social influence to the model specification and replaced the linear specification of the utility function with a nonlinear function.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Yountaik Leem , Sang Ho Lee , Jungho Yoon To overcome many difficulties in sustaining the satisfying quality of life for a large population 1 , urban spaces are evolving toward more efficient spaces by combination with ICTs (information and communication technologies) and raising the possibility to provide improved urban services which can enrich the quality of life of the citizen. In many cities over the world, a good number of public and private services in transportation, environment, urban safety from crime or disaster, health and other fields are designed and implemented with IT infrastructure. In spite of the expectation of cost-effective urban services based on the linkage between data and systems, obstructions in administrative and technical domains have made it difficult to be implemented. In this study, two advanced ICTs based urban services, which were developed by linkage and convergence of urban information and systems of Korea were introduced and analysed. The structural design of system convergence and data sharing scheme of Carbon Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) in Sejong City uses UIS (Urban Information System for local authorities), GIS data and other data provided by the public agencies, such as Korea Meteorological Administration for the monitoring and analysing the characteristics of the energy consumption of household 2 . Another system, Urban Integrated CCTV Control System (ICCS) in Anyang City, shows integrated CCTV networks for crime prevention, traffic control and public facility management to provide extended urban services, such as disaster prevention, police investigation and others. Qualitative and Quantitative effects analyses with technical and policy directions were suggested for the development and improvement of future urban services for a liveable city.

Description: In a 10-day aquarium experiment, this investigation examines macrophyte restoration in eutrophic Lake Taihu, the physiological effects of different plant biomass levels and of increasing natural cyanobacterial concentrations on a submerged macrophyte, Vallisneria asiatica . Cyanobacterial stress suppressed the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity of the plant’s leaves and induced the catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) activities of its roots. The soluble protein content in V. asiatica decreased with an increase in natural cyanobacterial concentrations, whereas the malonaldehyde (MDA) increased significantly at chlorophyll a (Chl a ) concentrations of 222 and 262 μg/L in water. V. asiatica adapted to the stress caused by cyanobacterial concentrations by adjusting its antioxidant defense system to remove the excessive reactive oxygen species when the algal Chl a concentration was 〉109 μg/L. Additionally, high biomass of V. asiatica (2 222 g FW/m 2 ) can inhibit the reproduction of cyanobacteria more significantly than low biomass (1 111 g FW/m 2 ). High biomass of V. asiatica increased the oxidative stress in an individual plant when the initial Chl a concentration in the water reached 222 and 262 μg/L, as expressed by the increased MDA in leaves, compared with low biomass of V. asiatica . This provides a basis for controlling cyanobacterial concentrations and V. asiatica biomass for the recovery of V. asiatica in eutrophic Lake Taihu.

Description: Caulerpa lentillifera is a green algae that distributes worldwide and is cultivated for food. We assessed vegetative propagation of C. lentillifera by measuring the specific growth rate (SGR) and chlorophyll fluorescence of the green algae cultured at different salinities and nutrient levels. The results indicated that C. lentillifera can survive in salinities ranging from 20 to 50, and can develop at salinities of 30 to 40. The maximum SGR for C. lentillifera occurred at a salinity of 35. Both chlorophyll content and the ratio of variable to maximum fluorescence ( F v / F m ) were also at a maximum at a salinity of 35. Photosynthesis was inhibited in salinities greater than 45 and less than 25. Both the maximum SGR and maximum chlorophyll content were found in algae treated with a concentration of 0.5 mmol/L of NO 3 -N and 0.1 mmol/L of PO 4 -P. The photosynthetic capacity of photosystem II (PSII) was inhibited in cultures of C. lentillifera at high nutrient levels. This occurred when NO 3 -N concentrations were greater than 1.0 mmol/L and when PO 4 -P concentrations were at 0.4 mmol/L. As there is strong need for large-scale cultivation of C. lentillifera , these data contribute important information to ensure optimal results.

Description: An agar-degrading bacterium, designated as Pseudoalteromonas sp. NJ21, was isolated from an Antarctic sediment sample. The agarase gene aga1161 from Pseudoalteromonas sp. NJ21 consisting of a 2 382-bp coding region was cloned. The gene encodes a 793-amino acids protein and was found to possess characteristic features of the Glyco_hydro_42 family. The recombinant agarase (rAga1161) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and purified as a fusion protein. Enzyme activity analysis revealed that the optimum temperature and pH for the purified recombinant agarase were 30–40°C and 8.0, respectively. rAga1161 was found to maintain as much as 80% of its maximum activity at 10°C, which is typical of a cold-adapted enzyme. The pattern of agar hydrolysis demonstrated that the enzyme is an β-agarase, producing neoagarobiose (NA2) as the final main product. Furthermore, this work is the first proof of an agarolytic activity in Antarctic bacteria and these results indicate the potential for the Antarctic agarase as a catalyst in medicine, food and cosmetic industries.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): N. Agya Utama , Andhy Muhammad Fathoni , Mandau A. Kristianto In the last couple of years and years to come Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia are having the highest GDP growth in ASEAN (South East Asia Nations) member countries; at present Indonesia has the highest GDP, it was $845 billion in 2011 and is predicted to grow up to $ 2,200 billion in 2030. In line with economic growth the countries energy demand also sharply increases, Indonesia primary energy demand has increased four folds in the past 30 years, while the region increase almost five folds. The main energy consumer in the country mainly coming from transportation sector, followed by industrial and residential sectors, while buildings combined (residential and commercial sector) accounted in more than 30% from the total energy consumption. The study focused on alternatives cooling appliances through passive method, where electricity and other source of energy are very limited to be used. The highest cooling appliances for middle class houses are either standing fan or ceiling fan, an alternatives design is developed and simulated by using CFD modeling tools with a tropical climate in Jakarta as the boundaries. The study shows that the passive method could reduce in more than 1800 kg CO2eq annually.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Muhammad Azzam Ismail , Fahanim Abdul Rashid In this paper, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes (LEED-H) rating method was tested on three existing Malaysian green homes (GH). This was to ascertain the amount of changes and modifications needed to configure LEED-H to suit the local context. The three GHs are Demonstration, Cool and Energy Efficient House (DCEEH), Smart and Cool Home (SCH) and CoolTek House (CTH). These are benchmark Malaysian GHs either due to their design, construction methods, building materials or operational procedures. It was found that all case studies did not comply with at least 12 mandatory prerequisites out of 23 as outlined in LEED-H.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Edward Endrianto Pandelaki , Wijayanti , Septana Bagus Pribadi This study concerns to the life of the elderly who live in the high-rise housing in urban areas. The aim of this study is to discover a conceptual model of high-rise housing which is capable to accommodate the activities of the elderly by conducting a comparative study between Indonesia and Japan. Qualitative method is used because it has explorative nature. Providing attention toward how to create a safe, comfortable, healthy, economical, self-reliant living environment, and how to encourage creation of social cohesion, are necessary for the life of the elderly who live in high-rise housing in urban areas.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Ratni Prima Lita , Sari Surya , M. Ma’ruf , Laura Syahrul Studies have shown the relationship between attitude, image, intention to visit and willingness to pay more for environmentally friendly services. With unique background of local tourist in West Sumatra Indonesia, this study aims to confirm the previous findings based on perspective of services marketing literatures. This explanatory study investigates causality among cross sectional data that was collected by following convenience sampling technique. The sample size is 200 local tourists, acquired with intercept approach in several main tourist destinations in West Sumatra. The data was analyzed by structural equation model. The results show that the effects of attitude toward green behavior on overall image are positive (0.446) and significant at the alpha of 0.08, with the t-statistic of 4.804. The overall image has positive impact on word of mouth (0.497) and significant at the alpha of 0.05, with the t-statistic of 4.569. The overall image also has positive impact on willingness to pay (0.523) significant at the alpha of 0.05, with the t-statistic of 5.683. These results indicate that attitude toward green behavior has significant influence on overall image of hotels and restaurants. Overall image has significant influence toward re-visit intention, positive word of mouth, and willingness to pay more for environmentally friendly hotels and restaurants. The management of the hotels and restaurants may consider this finding to improve service quality by adopting environmentally friendly practices.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Tye Ying Ying , Lee Keat Teong , Wan Nadiah Wan Abdullah , Leh Cheu Peng In this study, oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) and kenaf core fibers were converted into sugar for bioethanol production. Results of enzymatic hydrolysis showed that the untreated EFB and kenaf core fibers were hardly to be hydrolysed, in which yielded only 2.6% and 0.4% of reducing sugar (glucose), respectively. In consideration to environmentally friendliness, simple aqueous pre-treatments were carried out prior to hydrolysis aimed to increase sugar production. Based on the results obtained, it was interesting to note that by adopting merely water, acid and alkaline pre-treatments, the total glucose yields were increased to 34.9%, 34.2% and 27.9% for EFB fiber, while 19.3%, 11.7%, and 12.6% for kenaf core fiber, respectively. The results of chemical composition analysis of pre-treated fibers indicated the increase of the sugar production was highly related to the removal of hemicellulose and/or lignin in the fibers. Between the two fibers, pre-treated EFB fiber attained the highest total glucose yield in all the pre-treatments. This revealed that EFB fiber was more viable for sugar production than kenaf core fiber.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Sasa Sofyan Munawar , Bambang Subiyanto To utilize various potential agricultural residues, pellet making was performed and the pellets obtained were characterized in this study. Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB), oil palm frond (OPF), oil palm shell (OPS) and oil palm mesocarp (OPM) were employed as feedstock. Biopellet production was started with material crushing to get uniform material and then continued with pellet forming. Pellet making was conducted using conventional pelletizer under temperatures of 150, 200 and 250 °C for 15 minutes. Some characteristics were measured to determine biopellet quality, i.e. moisture content, density, ash content and calorific value. Based on the water content, ash content, density and calorific value, OPM biopellets that pressed at 200 and 250 °C showed the best formula. The characteristics of this biopellet were moisture content of 1.7-1.9%, ash of 6.85-7.45%, and calorific value of 3,814-4,724 kcal/kg.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Priyono Suryanto , E.T.S. Putra , S. Kurniawan , B. Suwignyo , D.A.P. Sukirno This research was conducted to determine maize growth and yield at various agroforestry development levels, especially in Batur Agung area, Gunung Kidul District, Java, Indonesia. This experiment was conducted in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) single factor with three blocks as replication. Research factor was agroforestry development levels, namely, initial, intermediate, and advanced levels. Observations were done on maize growth and yield variables. Data then was analyzed by applying Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 5% level, and continued with the Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) if significant.Maize physiological response on initial to intermediate and advanced agroforestry level demonstrated impairment tendency. This condition continued to maize production decline in line with shade level (initial AF, intermediate AF, and advanced AF). Traditional silvicultural developed with trees along border, alley cropping and mixer characteristics. Tree planting space was irregular with conventional stands management. Although the physiological response decreased in line with shade increase and so did maize production, farmers still continued to develop initial, intermediate, and advanced agroforestry models. Scheme developed to improve the productivity of agroforestry was constructing intensive agroforestry regimes (IAR). There are 3 IAR, namely, IAR-1 to hold initial agroforestry during the acceleration and management of initial agroforestry heading to intermediate and advanced. IAR-1 base is more intensive crown pruning and commercial thinning approach. Crop area was utilized during the management with C4 species. IAR-2 was designed to hold intermediate AF from traditional to intensive by applying intensive harvesting, with need based cutting and C3 species cultivation. IAR-3 was carried out for the development of advanced AF to initial AF with intensive need based cutting, pollarding, and intensive crop with C4 species.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Irma Isnafia Arief , Z. Wulandari , E.L. Aditia , M. Baihaqi , Noraimah , Hendrawan The research aims to evaluate physicochemical and microbiological properties of fermented lamb sausages elaborated with probiotic Lactobacillus. plantarum IIA-2C12 isolated from Indonesian local beef. The result showed that the addition probiotic L. plantarum IIA/2C12 (9 log cfu/ml) produced better quality of fermented lamb sausages than control (without probiotic). Physicochemichal analysis showed that fermented lamb sausage with L. plantarum IIA-2C12 has a considerebely soft texture and the final pH value and aw of fermented lamb sausage with L. plantarum were 4.13 and 0.88, respectively. Additionally, the pressence of L. plantarum IIA-2C12 significantly reduced the fat content (6.39% wb) and increased the protein content (19.26%wb). Microbiological analysis displayed high population of lactic acid bacteria (9 log cfu/g) on fermented lamb sausage with L. plantarum IIA-2C12 with low population of Escherichia coli (1 log cfu/g) and none of Salmonella spp was detected. Preference test revealed that fermented lamb sausage with L. plantarum IIA-2C12 is the most prefereable product.

Description: Pelagic copepods play an important role in the marine food web. However, a full understanding of the ecological status of this zooplankton group depends on the careful study of their natural diets. In previous PCR-based copepod diet studies, we found many apostome ciliates that live symbiotically under the exoskeleton of the copepods, and their sequences were often over-represented in the 18S rRNA gene (18S rDNA) libraries. As a first step to address this issue, we designed three apostome ciliate 18S rDNA blocking primers, and tested their blocking efficiency against apostome ciliate 18s rDNA under various PCR conditions. Using a semi-quantitative PCR method, we optimized the conditions to efficiently amplify the 18S rDNA of the prey while simultaneously excluding the symbiotic apostome ciliates. This technique will facilitate PCR-based diet studies of copepods and other zooplankton in their natural environments.

Description: Using the wave model WAVEWATCH III (WW3), we simulated the generation and propagation of typhoon waves in the South China Sea and adjacent areas during the passage of typhoon Nesat (2011). In the domain 100°–145°E and 0°–35°N, the model was forced by the cross-calibrated multi-platform (CCMP) wind fields of September 15 to October 5, 2011. We then validated the simulation results against wave radar data observed from an oil platform and altimeter data from the Jason-2 satellite. The simulated waves were characterized by five points along track using the Spectrum Integration Method (SIM) and the Spectrum Partitioning Method (SPM), by which wind sea and swell components of the 1D and 2D wave spectra are separated. There was reasonable agreement between the model results and observations, although the WW3 wave model may underestimate swell wave height. Significant wave heights are large along the typhoon track and are noticeably greater on the right of the track than on the left. Swells from the east are largely unable to enter the South China Sea because of the obstruction due to the Philippine Islands. During the initial stage and later period of the typhoon, swells at the five points were generated by the propagation of waves that were created by typhoons Haitang and Nalgae. Of the two methods, the 2D SPM method is more accurate than the 1D SIM which overestimates the separation frequency under low winds, but the SIM method is more convenient because it does not require wind speed and wave direction. When the typhoon left the area, the wind sea fractions decreased rapidly. Under similar wind conditions, the points located in the South China Sea are affected less than those points situated in the open sea because of the influence of the complex internal topography of the South China Sea. The results reveal the characteristic wind sea and swell features of the South China Sea and adjacent areas in response to typhoon Nesat, and provide a reference for swell forecasting and offshore structural designs.

Description: Bacterioplankton play key roles in the biogeochemical cycle and in organic contaminant degradation. The species richness and abundance of bacterial subgroups are generally distinct from each other, and this is attributed to their different functions in aquatic ecosystems. The spatiotemporal variations of eight phylogenetic subgroups (Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, Firmicutes, Planctomycetes, alpha-, beta-, and gamma-Proteobacteria) derived from Donghu Lake were investigated using PCR-DGGE fingerprinting, to explore their responses to environmental factors. Results indicate that Actinobacteria and beta-Proteobacteria were the two largest bacterial subgroups detected. These two groups and Bacteroidetes showed clear seasonal patterns in composition of the operational taxonomic unit. Results also suggest that the bacterioplankton subgroups in Donghu Lake were significantly correlated with different environmental factors. In brief, the total nitrogen was one of the major factors regulating all the bacterioplankton except for Actinobacteria. However, total phosphorus, another important eutrophication factor, contributed to the two largest bacterial groups (Actinobacteria and beta-Proteobacteria), as well as to the Cyanobacteria and Firmicutes. Therefore, the responses of bacterioplankton subgroups to environmental factors were different, and this should be attributed to the differences in the functions of different groups.

Description: The bopyrid isopod species Rhopalione sinensis Markham, 1990, is recorded for only the second time, from a new locality in China outside Hong Kong, the type-locality. This is also the first finding of the male R. sinensis , which is herein described. Its host, Arcotheres sinensis (Shen, 1932) is a new record. A review of the four known species of Rhopalione Pérez, 1920, an updated diagnosis of the genus and a key to species are provided.

Description: With the rapid development of the marine economy industry, human exploitation of marine resources is increasing, which is contributing to the growing trend of eutrophication and frequent occurrence of red tide. Accordingly, investigations of seawater quality have attracted a great deal of attention. This study was conducted to construct a seawater environmental quality assessment model based on the variable fuzzy recognition model. The uncertainty and ambiguity of the seawater quality assessment were then considered, combining the monitoring values of evaluation indicators with the standard values of seawater quality. Laizhou Bay was subsequently selected for a case study. In this study, the correct variable model for different parameters was obtained according to the linear and nonlinear features of evaluation objects. Application of the variable fuzzy recognition model for Laizhou Bay, water quality evaluation and comparison with performance obtained using other approaches revealed that the generated model is more reliable than traditional methods, can more reasonably determine the water quality of various samples, and is more suitable for evaluation of a multi-index, multi-level, nonlinear marine environment system; accordingly, the generated model will be an effective tool for seawater quality evaluation.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Srikandi Novianti , M.K. Biddinika , Pandji Prawisudha , Kunio Yoshikawa In this research, the hydrothermal treatment (HT) was applied to treat a waste stream from the commercial production of palm oil. The investigation both lab-scale and pilot-scale reactors have been conducted. The hydrothermal products were characterized and their fuel qualities were evaluated. The results indicated that the fuel qualities of the products improved after HT; such as higher carbon content, higher energy density, and lower O/C and H/C ratios compared with the raw feedstock. The HT products derived from the lab-scale and pilot-scale reactors had similar chemical compositions and energy density which indicated the feasibility of an up-scale application for this technology.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Adrianus Amheka , Yoshiro Higano , Takeshi Mizunoya , Helmut Yabar The Kupang government's target of integrating a renewable energy technology system (RETs) and waste treatment plant system (WTPs) are under consideration to pursue the national target of reduction GHG emission between 26-41% (0.767-1.244) Gton CO 2 e from 2010 to 2020. This research considers the feasibility of developing RETs and WTPs in order to reduce GHG emission by a creating the framework, of an Input Output (IO) table of Kupang and its analysis, counting the amount of total coefficients of GHG and air pollutants for each sector in the form of NO x , SO x , CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O from social-economic activities in Kupang. The results show 27 sectors classified in a table, representing the gained coefficients pollutants which will enable the estimate of the total amount of CO 2 e emitted for the year 2010 and a framework for proposal to government. This study is the first research and main reference focusing on pollutant counts and emission coefficients emitted by activity economy on a regional level for Kupang city.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Shaza Rina Sahamir , Rozana Zakaria As Malaysia moves towards a sustainable lifestyles and development, the need to prepare for the change is imperative. Sustainability has become an important initiative discussed and undertaken not only by private buildings but also by public buildings dealing with residential, office, commercial as well as hospital. Building is known as human habitat. The way people design, construct and operate the building has a profound impact on people health and the environment. Compared to other building types, healthcare buildings have an especially large impact on the environment for the 24/7 use. Thus, the development of green hospital is important as it requires strict cleaning procedures and frequent air changes, which increase the already-high energy costs of the 24/7 operations and sophisticated medical equipment that make hospitals among the greatest energy consumers of any institution. The primary aim for this paper is to investigate green assessment criteria for public hospital building development in Malaysia. It compiles the essential criteria of existing green rating systems for healthcare buildings worldwide and presents the difference between each criteria compared to Malaysian green rating system. Existing tools and guidelines are reviewed, analysed and grouped according to the main criteria. The assessment criteria from each rating systems are divided into similar category covers all aspect of building design, construction and operation. Results from the analysis show the important assessment criteria of green public hospital building correspond to Malaysia. The research intended to produce initial guideline as a starting point for Malaysian public hospital in the most consistent and systematic way in practicing green.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Yuri Hermawan Prasetyo , Muhammad Nur Fajri Alfata , Anikmah Ridho Pasaribu Rumah Lontiok is one of the types of Malay traditional houses threatened to extinct since it have been abandoned by the local people. Located in Kampar–Riau, Rumah Lontiok has changed from its original form, particularly in using corrugated metal as rooftop material. The study aims to describe the Rumah Lontiok and its environment, and to investigate its thermal performance. Field experiment was carried out in this study. Thermal properties of material were measured by thermocouple and heat flux sensors, while surface temperature was gathered by thermocouple acquisitioned by datalogger. All thermal environment data were gathered for 24 hours. Data of site situation was documented by recording and sketching on the worksheet. The result of the study figured out the situation of Rumah Lontiok and its environments affecting the thermal performance. The in-situ measurement found out that wall has thermal conductivity of 0.21 W/m.K and the floor is 0.19 W/m.K. The study shows that indoor thermal environment did not quite different compared to the outdoor thermal environment. The roof material is hypothesized as major source of heat gain into inside the building. Even though there are many openings, they cannot remove heat gain effectively.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Sri Atmaja P. Rosyidi , Tjasa Bole-Rentel , Surya Budi Lesmana , Jazaul Ikhsan This paper briefly presents the experience of the Center for Regional Energy Management in the needs assessment, capacity building and adoption of household biogas plants in rural areas of Yogyakarta over the past five years. The biogas program has been designed to solve specific energy provision problems in rural areas, such as securing cooking fuel, as well as to promote ecological farming by using biogas digester as organic manure, thereby efficiently recycling locally available biomass waste. The paper also points that realizing these goals would require significant changes in funding and policy support for the successful implementations of biogas in developing countries. In addition, it highlights some of the key issues related to the implementation of rural energy programs and suggests a new approach and future strategies for initiatives that endeavor to address the issue of rural poverty and improve the living conditions of rural people.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Pannraphat Takolpuckdee In Thailand, Tarad Thai is one of the biggest and significant agricultural markets. Therefore, the problems from fresh waste disposals in this area are recognized as one of environmental significant concerns. In order to manage this problem, the conversion of those possible agricultural waste disposals to biochar soil amendments is studied. In this work, some parts of agricultural fruits waste are durian peel, mangosteen rind, corncob and banana peel. In addition, waste from fresh shrimp, shrimp shell, is also studied. Those previous waste materials are processed by viapyrolysis method to form biochar. The studies of chemical compositions, such as major and some minor nutrition, are analyzed using the Kjeldahl technique, UV-Visible spectrophotometer and Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) spectrometer. The heat of combustion and some chemical properties are also studied. The biochar derived from corncob, per gram, dominates the highest value of the heat of combustion (75.151 Kcal). In addition, the study of biocharuses as soil amendments is studied via the growth of swamp morning glory. By comparing the data from typical soil and biochar soil amendments by t-test, it is found that the growing length and number of leafs shows t cal >t crt which means that, for example, the use of the biochar soil amendments from agricultural market waste and shrimp shell as materials to grow the swamp morning glory displays the significance by comparing to typical soil.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Andhy Muhammad Fathoni , N. Agya Utama , Mandau A. Kristianto This paper presents a technical and economic potential of Solar Energy Application in Indonesia. Indonesia consists of thousands islands. Meanwhile, according to the latest data from the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources in 2012, Indonesia's electrification ratio is only around 74%. Renewable energy especially solar energy is one of the most potential energy sources as Indonesia lies in the equator line where the daylight is abundant and available throughout the year. The solar energy technologys is also eco-friendly and its application has the potential to reduce the greenhouse gas emission. A review of solar energy potential in Indonesia based on the solar resource data is presented. Estimation of solar resource in Indonesia was done using solar radiation data from NASA Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy (SSE). Retscreen software was used for all of the calculation in the study. It is found that the proposed system can generate electricity annually vary from 0.46 GWh/year in Denpasar to 217 GWh/year in Pontianak. This paper also calculates the economic viability through pre-tax IRR and simple payback indicator. It was observed that the highest IRR was observed in Makassar and the lowest IRR was observed in Banjarmasin. Meanwhile, it can be observed that Makassar got the shortest payback period for 11 years and Banjarmasin got the longest payback period of 17.6 years. From the side of environmental impact, the proposed system can reduce the GHG emission up to 243252 tons per year in particular selected location.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Nwe Ni Hlaing , Radzali Othman , Hirofumi Hinode , Winarto Kurniawan , Aye Aye Thant , Abdul Rahman Mohamed , Chris Salim , Srimala Sreekantan To capture carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), a major green house gas from flue gas, several kinds of adsorbents have been synthesized, characterized and tested. In this study, CaO-based adsorbents were synthesized via sol-gel-hydrothermal method and different hydrothermal temperatures (100, 120, 140 and 160 °C) have been investigated in order to verify their influence on the CaO-based adsorbents. Experimental results showed that the Ca(OH) 2 adsorbent with a mixture of CaCO 3 synthesized at 120 °C hydrothermal treatment possesses high CO2 adsorption capacity (0.52 g-CO2/g-sorbent) and at 160 °C hydrothermal treatment, CaC 2 O 4 .H 2 O adsorbent was observed and its CO 2 adsorption capacity was 0.46 g-CO 2 /g-sorbent for first carbonation/calcination cycle.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Benjamin C. McLellan , Yusuke Kishita , Go Yoshizawa , Yohei Yamaguchi , Kazumasu Aoki , Itsuki C. Handoh Understanding and assessing sustainable energy systems at various scales are a complex proposition. The task must take into account more than just the technical realm of energy, seeking to model the dynamic interplay between environmental, social and economic systems as they influence and are influenced by the technical energy system. Energy systems are often considered at a coarse level – at the scale of a nation – or at a relatively fine scale – at the technology end. However, scales of governance, institutions and the regional territory of electricity providers (for example) can make for useful scales of analysis. The current paper describes some of the important elements for undertaking co-design and assessment of energy systems for more resilient, desirable and sustainable energy futures. Key steps are described, among which is a novel model of the technical energy system that incorporates local environmental and planetary limitations. The initial model considerations and an analysis of enablers and barriers, as well as the interactions with the scenario development are presented.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Ratih Novi Listyawati , Christia Meidiana , Mustika Anggraeni The Energy Self-Sufficient Village is one of the Indonesian government programs where one of the criteria is that every village has to be able to fulfil minimum of 60% of energy needs with renewable source of potential owned. Tegalweru is a village that has potential of the livestock sector and there are 6 installations of biogas management to utilize manure waste. The evaluation of the energy self-sufficient village was conducted using emergy analysis. The emergy analysis is applied in two different scenarios. The first is baseline scenario where is only 37 cattle owned by ten households are treated to produce biogas. The second scenario is the scenario to fulfil the 60% target of energy self-sufficient. The emergy analysis is done to calculate the value of four emergy indices, which are, EYR to measure the comparison of yield and input added to biogas system, EIR to measure the emergy input needed to treat 1 kg of manure, ELR to measure the load of the manure treatment on environment, and ESI to measure the sustainability of biogas management. Analysis of emission reduction is also done in this research to find out the best scenario to be implemented in Tegalweru Village.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Kanae Ishimaru , Shigeo Kobayashi , Sayaka Yoshikawa Since 1980s, the settlement and occupancy into abandoned or non-cultivated land by poor peoples or landless peasantsbecame popular in Brazil. These people sometimes lack agricultural experiences to yieldsufficient production for livelihoods and it lead them to abandon the land and repeating forest clearance. Sufficient and sustainable agricultural production for subsistence and crop sale is important, especially during the early stage of immigration, in order to settlers to remain the land they had occupied. To elucidate the difference in crop selection tendencies between households with production sales and those without sales, we categorised the households within a single study area in Brazil into three types: (1) households with sales income from agricultural products (SA), and households without sales income in which the variety among cultivated crops was (2) low (NL) or (3) high (NH). The crops were divided into six types: (1) tubers and herbaceous crops that can be harvested within or around a year; tree crops that can be harvested within 3 years either (2) seasonally or (3) year-round; tree crops that can be harvested only after 4 years either (4) seasonally or (5) year-round; and (6) tree crops for timber, colouring, and oil use. Our survey results indicate that the SA households had a well-designed combination of crop species, including both commercial and subsistence crops, whereas the NH and NL households were lacking in short- and long-term sales. None of the NH had any sales income, even though they had the highest calculated number of calories coming from the consumption of agricultural products.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Tippabust Eksangsri , Thanon Jaiwang Water reuse for final cleaning process in electronic industry is evaluated. The target factory produces flexible printed circuit boards, which are washed with purified deep-well water as a final process before packaging. Survey of water consumption and its quality was conducted. Feasibility study aims to find the suitable schemes the factory can apply to the real practice when the water consumption rate for final cleaning process increases, with a few conditions that need to be concerned. Material flux analysis and economical evaluation are also performed. It is found that the water needs to be treated before reusing due to the conductivity and LPC that are too high. It is, therefore, suggested that the reused water recharged to both RO unit and ion- exchanger at a suitable ratio. The most attractive alternative in term of both technical and economical aspects is when the recharged ration is 30:70. Raw water consumption can be saved up to 19,760 m 3 per year and the investment can be paid off within 2 years.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): B.C. McLellan , G.D. Corder , A. Golev , S.H. Ali Rare Earths have been of considerable interest in recent years for a variety of reasons, in particular due to concerns over the security of supply for modern high efficiency electronics and energy technologies. Such concerns have placed them among the list of “critical” or “strategic” elements in countries such as the United States of America, the European Union, Japan and even in the largest producer and holder of reserves, China. Focus has been given to the environmental impacts of production, and on the distribution of reserves and politico-economic conflict over supply, but international academic work quantifying these impacts is lacking. Moreover, broader consideration of sustainability impacts and benefits in a systematic manner – particularly in regard to the social impacts of RE extraction, processing and utilisation – is not yet apparent. This paper undertakes a review of the literature and state-of-play of sustainability assessment of rare earth elements. Furthermore, the paper highlights areas of sustainability research considered by academic and industrial representatives to be essential for filling these gaps, and a pathway forward towards a more sustainable rare earths industry.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Fathonatu Anisa Khowatimy , Yoga Priastomo , Erna Febriyanti , Harkam Riyantoko , Wega Trisunaryanti The study of waste lubricant hydrocracking into gasoline and diesel fraction using the combination of Y-Zeolite and ZnO (Y-Zeolite/ZnO) catalyst has been conducted. The hydrocracking of waste lubricant was carried out in a semi-flow stainless steel reactor system (i.d = 3.78 cm; l = 30 cm) with hydrogen stream (20 mL/min) at 573, 623, and 673 K. The characterization of catalysts including crystallinity was analysed by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), the amount of total acid site was determined by gas sorption method, the surface area was measured by BET method, and the morphology of the catalyst was analyzed by Transmission Electron Micrograph (TEM). The activities of catalyst including total convertion, liquid and gas product (yield), and selectivity for gasoline and diesel fractions were evaluated. Total convertion was defined as (100–residue)%. The liquid product was collected and analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and flame test. The characterization using XRD showed that ZnO could be rested upon the Y-Zeolite by wetblending. The amount of total acid sites of the Y-Zeolite/ZnO was higher than the constituent material. The highest total convertion of the lubricant using the Y-Zeolite/ZnO was 99.49 wt.% while the Y-Zeolite was 99.10 wt.% at 623 K and without catalyst (thermal hydrocracking) was 98.99 wt.% at 673 K. The highest liquid product at 623 K was achieved by the Y-Zeolite/ZnO catalyst (24.75 wt.%) with the selectivity for gasoline and diesel fractions was 25.92 and74.08%.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Danang Sudarwoko Adi , Lucky Risanto , Ratih Damayanti , Sri Rullyati , Listya M. Dewi , Ruliyana Susanti , Wahyu Dwianto , Euis Hermiati , Takashi Watanabe Fast growing wood species has become more promising as alternative wood sources to solve the gap between wood demand and supply. In this study, we focus on their fiber characteristicsand the wood density to determine their potential utilization. Thirty fast growing species were taken from secondary forest at PT Sari BumiKusuma, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Several hardwood and softwood species, which are commonly used in pulp and paper industries, were used as a comparison.The result showed that these species are low to high density (0.18-0.86). It is interesting to note that the fiber lengths of the 5 wood species were greater than commonly hardwoods, and similar with fiberlengths of softwoods. The fibers of the woods have good runkle ratio and the flexibility values. There were 7 potential species to be used as alternative wood material for pulp and paper: Endospermumdiadenum , Dillenia sp., Adinandradumosa , Adinandra sp., Naucleajunghuhnii , Neonaucleagigantea and Ficusfulva .

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): I. Nengah Suwastika , Ryosuke L. Ohniwa , Kunio Takeyasu , Takashi Shiina The Obg/Era proteins of P-loop GTPase superclass are conserved in various prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Some of these proteins are critical regulators of many aspects of basic cellular processes, including ribosome biogenesis, translation and signal transduction. However, a genome-wide overview of the Obg/Era GTPase genes in plants is not available. Recent ly studies on comprehensive genomic analyses of Arabidopsis thaliana identified 11 Obg-Hflx like GTPase genes that are divided into nine families/subfamilies: Archaea -related Drg and Nog1 , and Eubacteria -related Obg, EngB, HflX, Era, TrmE, EngA , and EngD . In this study we found that Arabidopsis has 3 (three) Drg homologue proteins, namely AtDrg1-1 , AtDrg1-2 and AtDrg1-3 . Subcellular localization analysis of Arabidopsis Obg-Hflx homologues revealed that Archaea -derived Drg proteins are mainly targeted to cytoplasm, except Drg1-3 was detected not only in cytoplasm but also in nucleus. Furthermore, based on expression pattern profiling indicates that Drg1-1 and Drg1-2 were expressed constitutively trough plant development. On the other hand, Drg1-3 was detected in dry seed and under stress plant.

Description: To model Skeletonema costatum blooms and their relationship with environmental parameters in situ, a S. costatum -specific zero-dimensional box model based on the mechanistic model Eco3M was established using physiological features. The parameters were calibrated using experimental counterparts, and simulations were compared with published laboratory findings. The resulting normalized objective function (NOF) values are less than 1.0 (and in most cases less than 0.58) and the values for the slope γ (between 0.656 7–1.127 4) and R 2 (between 0.806 8–0.971) are close to 1.0 for most of the sub-figures. This indicates good agreement between simulated and measured data and suggests that the model reproduces the general characteristics of S. costatum growth and use of nutrients under different N- or P-limiting conditions. The model is appropriate for further applications and can be used to test more scenarios using other nutrients.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 20 Author(s): Erna Wati Ibnu Hajar , Ahmad Ziad Bin Sulaiman , A.M. Mimi Sakinah Stevia has become rather widespread over a wide range of climatic locations around the world and can apparently be successfully grown under different cultivation conditions. Heavy metal accumulation of Stevia extract is dependent on obtaining heavy metals from the soil and water. Heavy metals from plant sources may also vary from place to place because soil heavy metals content varies geographically, thus, they have become the subject of many research projects. Stevia plant is easily contaminated during growth, development and processing and for this, an extensive research is needed to explore the characteristics of the heavy metal produced by the plant. The heavy metals produced from the herb and its toxicity of Stevia plant is not well documented and scientific evidence is limited to establishing Stevia plant as a medicinal plant. The samples were collected from Malacca, Malaysia. The fresh leaves, stems and flowers of the Stevia rebaudiana plant were dried using oven equipment and were grinded until fine to make powder and then of each extracted using Microwave digester. The analysis of samples was carried out by using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass-Spectrophotometer (ICP-MS) with different mode equipment to compare results of heavy metals in Stevia rebaudiana plant. Heavy metal accumulation in Stevia rebaudiana from leaves, stems, and flowers extraction is reported. Heavy metals in leaves, stems and flowers of Stevia rebaudiana presented variety of elements such as As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Pb, Se, Zn, Al, Ag, Co, Ca, Mn and Ni. The high tolerance to heavy metals in leaves, stems, and flowers of Stevia rebaudiana were presented at fifteen parameters below the permissible limit in plant and can be used as food product or therapeutic agent in traditional medicine.

Description: An ion chromatographic method with a valve switching facility was developed to determine trace nitrate concentrations in seawater using two pumps, two different suppressors, and two columns. A carbohydrate membrane desalter was used to reduce the high concentrations of sodium salts in samples. In this method, trace nitrate was eluted from the concentrator column to the analytical columns, while the matrix fl owed to waste. Neither chemical pre-treatment nor sample dilution was required. In the optimized separation conditions, the method showed good linearity ( R 〉0.99) in the 0.05 and 50 mg/L concentration range, and satisfactory repeatability (RSD〈5%, n =6). The limit of detection for nitrate was 0.02 mg/L. Results showed that the valve switching system was suitable and practical for the determination of trace nitrate in seawater.

Description: The velocity structure of the residual current across an entire section of the Qiongzhou Strait (QS) in summer is presented for the first time. Shipboard Acoustic Doppler Current Profile measurements, from the mid-region of the QS (110.18°E), were collected on 1–4 August 2010. The diurnal tidal currents had their maximum amplitudes between 4.24 and 20.24 m. Their amplitude along the major axis ranged from approximately 0.55 m/s in the middle part of the strait (20.15°N) to 0.84 m/s in the north part of the strait (20.20°N). Both anticlockwise and clockwise tidal current rotations exist in the QS. During the observation period (neap tide), a significant westward residual current occupied almost the entire study section. Two velocity cores of westward current were observed at the northern part and near the deepest trough, although an eastward current appeared in the middle part of the transect. The deepest core was located near 62 m at 20.13°N, with a maximum velocity of −0.34 m/s. The shallower core was located at approximately 16 m at 20.20°N, with a maximum velocity of −0.33 m/s. The estimated total volume of water transported through the QS was −0.16 Sv. This value is an important boundary condition, applicable to numerical models studying coastal ocean circulation in the northwestern South China Sea.

Description: To explore the impact of environmental variables on macroalgal their temporal and spatial distributions were examined along the Yantai coast, China between April 2010 and March 2011. Macroalgae sampling was conducted monthly at four sites along the coast: Jiahe River estuary, Zhifu Island, Fisherman’s Wharf, and Yangma Island. The species composition and abundance, and their relationship with environmental variables were assessed. Along the Yantai coast, 35 macroalgae species were identified, including 24 Rhodophyta spp., 7 Chlorophyta, and 4 Phaeophyta spp. Highest species numbers were recorded in the summer at all sampling sites, except in the Jiahe River estuary. Macroalgae biomass was the greatest in the summer. Year-round, the highest species number and dry biomass recorded at Fisherman’s Wharf and Yangma Island was attributed to the substrate type. In summer, Ulva pertusa Kjellman was the dominant species identified along the Yantai coast, which indicates a risk of macroalgae blooms. Our results show that seawater temperature and nutrients appear to significantly affect the temporal and spatial patterns of macroalgal abundance along the Yantai coast. The effects of environmental variables on the macroalgae on the Yantai coast need further study.

Description: Wave fields of the South China Sea (SCS) from 1976 to 2005 were simulated using WAVEWATCH III by inputting high-resolution reanalysis wind field datasets assimilated from several meteorological data sources. Comparisons of wave heights between WAVEWATCH III and TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter and buoy data show a good agreement. Our results show seasonal variation of wave direction as follows: 1. During the summer monsoon (April-September), waves from south occur from April through September in the southern SCS region, which prevail taking about 40% of the time; 2. During the winter monsoon (December-March), waves from northeast prevail throughout the SCS for 56% of the period; 3. The dominant wave direction in SCS is NE. The seasonal variation of wave height H s in SCS shows that in spring, H s ≥1 m in the central SCS region and is less than 1 m in other areas. In summer, H s is higher than in spring. During September–November, influenced by tropical cyclones, H s is mostly higher than 1 m. East of Hainan Island, H s 〉2 m. In winter, H s reaches its maximum value influenced by the north-east monsoon, and heights over 2 m are found over a large part of SCS. Finally, we calculated the extreme wave parameters in SCS and found that the extreme wind speed and wave height for the 100-year return period for SCS peaked at 45 m/s and 19 m, respectively, SE of Hainan Island and decreased from north to south.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 21 Author(s): R. Khanna , R. Cayumil , P.S. Mukherjee , V. Sahajwalla The recovery of materials from urban waste has become progressively more important with wastes providing a variety of resources. This study focuses on the recycling of electronic printed circuit boards (PCBs) from mobile phones, computers, TVs, white goods, and micro-processors etc. that contain significant amounts of hazardous/toxic components along with a variety of metals, ceramics and polymers. Both formal and informal sectors are engaged worldwide in recycling such e-waste to recover precious and other metals (upto 40-70% of value). However poor recycling techniques, especially in developing countries, generate high levels of environmental pollution that affects both the ecosystems and the people living within or near the main recycling areas. Various e-waste recycling methods used in the informal sector include manual dismantling, open burning of PCBs, plastic chipping and melting, burning wires to recover copper, acid & cyanide salt leaching, and inadequate metallurgical treatments. These activities release dust particles loaded with heavy metals and flame retardants into the atmosphere that may re-deposit near the emission site, or be transported over long distances depending on their size. Significant levels of environmental pollution are thus associated with recycling e-waste. This study presents an environmentally sustainable solution to e-waste management and reducing associated pollution during recycling. In this study, waste PCBs were heat treated in the temperature range 1150-1350 o C for periods of up to 20 minutes in an Argon atmosphere. Key metallic constituents namely Cu, Sn and Pb showed a tendency to segregate out in the form of copper rich and Sn rich metallic balls. Minor elements such as Al, Fe, Mg, Ni, Pd, Pt and Zn segregated along with metallic droplets. Such high temperatures led to the removal of hazardous lead and the recovery of highly concentrated copper alloys and precious metals. Pyrolysis of PCBs also generated a carbon rich residue containing traces of Sn and very low levels of copper. Various ceramic impurities present precipitated out as slag and did not interfere with metal recovery.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 21 Author(s): Luke Beesley Most people spend most of their time in densely populated areas, thus the quality of the environment in and surrounding these areas influences the health, wellbeing and happiness of vast swathes of the world's inhabitants. Cities are constantly migrating and metabolizing, leaving behind industrial legacy and environmental degradation to be remediated by future generations; legacies of toxic waste, polluted ground waters, sealed soils, powsy land and degraded ecosystems. Into new and virgin territories modern industries and commerce move and the following populations then pressurize local natural resources and produce new wastes; just as metallurgic and mining wastes were the products of previous heavy industries and prosperity, now knowledge economy based wastes, such as computers, phones and tablets form an emerging disposal challenge. Learning the lessons from the past our new environs should be ‘future proofed’ to cope with the demands placed upon them; for example innovative schemes for water re-use, traffic free zones to maintain air quality and soil protection measures to preserve this vital resource should be incorporated to planning and policy. Planning and policy must also take account of people's desire for self-sufficiency and provenance; for example urban agriculture, motivated by a need for food security and engaged localism needs a safe resource on which to produce food. But we must avoid becoming risk averse but be creative and free thinking in solutions to new environmental issues. Therefore into the future, risk assessment within the ever changing mosaic of urban land uses will provide vital predictive power on the impacts of people on the landscape, allowing ‘future proofing’. Contemporary construction and then deconstruction of urban fabric and consumer products will also be key to resource re-use and waste minimization to avoid an urban environmental pollution burden in the future greater than that which we are already dealing with. In this special issue a collection of papers presents review and experimental evidence of monitoring and potential solutions to emerging environmental issues in cities.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 21 Author(s): Ravindra Rajarao , Veena Sahajwalla , Romina Cayumil , Miles Park , Rita Khanna Rapid urbanization, a general improvement in living standards and increased consumption has resulted in the generation of unprecedented amounts of waste in recent years. Among different wastes, electronic wastes (e-waste) volumes are growing three times faster than any other forms of urban waste. It is estimated that 20 to 50 million tonnes of e-waste are generated worldwide every year. E-waste contains over 1000 different substances; some are toxic and hazardous, which cause serious problems to environment and on human health. Generation of waste residues during recovery of precious metals from e-waste, the presence of hazardous lead, waste plastics, secondary pollution caused by landfilling non-metallic residues are some of the problems associated with recycling e-waste. We report a novel approach to recover valuable materials from waste printed circuit boards; controlled pyrolysis of e-waste was carried out at high temperatures (750-1550 °C) in an argon atmosphere. Segregation of lead and other metals was investigated as a function of temperature and reaction products were analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy. Temperatures above 1350 °C were required to completely remove lead and other metals from e-waste; waste residue that was left behind was predominantly composed of carbon. Further research was carried out on the utilization of lead free non-metallic residue as a carbon source in ironmaking application. Non-metallic residual waste from recycling PCB was found to be a promising reductant in ironmaking applications. This research has laid the foundations of a ‘Zero Waste’ approach for managing and recycling electronic waste.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 21 Author(s): Guangxue Wu , Xiaofeng Zhai , Bo Li , Chengai Jiang , Yuntao Guan Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emission occurs during denitrification, such as in biological wastewater treatments, but few studies have focused on N 2 O emission during denitrification under endogenous conditions. In the present study denitrifiers were acclimated with acetate or methanol as the electron donor, and endogenous denitrification kinetics including denitrification rates and N 2 O emission were examined in batch experiments for the acclimated denitrifiers. Oxidized nitrogen was denitrified slowly during endogenous respiration for denitrifiers acclimated with acetate or methanol, with the denitrification rate of lower than 2 mg/g VSS h. When the nitrate was used as electron acceptor, a low N 2 O emission ratio (lower than 1%) was obtained, while a high emission ratio (above 10%) was observed with nitrite as electron acceptor for both organic carbon acclimated denitrifiers. More attention should be paid to N 2 O emission during denitrification under endogenous conditions (such as in the settlement tanks) especially for systems with short-cut biological nitrogen removal through nitrite or systems with a high nitrite accumulation.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 21 Author(s): George Thomas , A.P. Sherin , Shareekul Ansar , E.J. Zachariah Urban Heat Island (UHI), a measure of the near surface air temperature contrast between urbanised and adjoining rural areas, is the most pronounced effect of urbanisation. The definition of ‘urban’ varies in different contexts, which makes it difficult for direct comparison between cities in different regions. Local climate zone (LCZ) classification based method was adopted in Kochi in Southern India to study its UHI. Twelve mobile surveys were carried out from January 2011 to March 2013 to quantify UHI intensity. Pre-dawn UHI there was more intense than early night UHI, and its intensity in winter was stronger than in summer. UHI observed during winter were 4.6 ° C and 3.7 ° C in pre- dawn and early night respectively. The study area was classified into ten different local climate zones based on the standard zone properties. Thermal gradient between different zones and cooling rates observed in these zones were computed, which validates the LCZ classification. Maximum intensity was seen in Compact Midrise zones which cover the central part of the city. Most intense cooling was observed in openset and sparsely built regions in all seasons. Standard zone properties alone were inadequate to explain variation of UHI intensity of same classes with different surface area and diverse adjacent zones. Two more zone properties, radial distance to adjacent zone called Zone Boundary Distance, and the Nearest Adjacent Zone, are proposed here to overcome this. The use of these additional parameters gives a better understanding of the intra zone variation of UHI intensity of the same classes with different coverage area and diverse adjacent zones.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 21 Author(s): George Thomas , A.P. Sherin , E.J. Zachariah Industrialisation and urbanization leads to an increase in concentration of greenhouse gases, which eventually alters the radiation balance of the climate system. Urban regions are hotspots of greenhouse gas emissions which include CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O, etc. Methane emitting sources hosted by cities include fossil fuel combustion, municipal waste and sewage management, blocked drains and pools etc. Waste discharges from the residences, food wastes, market places etc., contribute to the methane production. Urban heat island causing warm nights in the city is also a suitable condition for the generation of methane. Ground level mixing ratio of methane in the tropical coastal city of Cochin in South India, during calm early morning periods was measured in this study. A mobile traverse method was employed from January 2011 to March 2013. Measurements were taken during both winter and summer seasons. It was observed that the ground level methane concentrations were significantly higher than the global average value. Intra-city variation in ground level mixing ratio was also significant. The maximum value of ground level methane in winter and summer were 3.85 ppm and 3.21 ppm respectively. The study reveals that the city acts as a source of atmospheric methane.

Description: The SMOS (soil moisture and ocean salinity) mission undertaken by the European Space Agency (ESA) has provided sea surface salinity (SSS) measurements at global scale since 2009. Validation of SSS values retrieved from SMOS data has been done globally and regionally. However, the accuracy of SSS measurements by SMOS in the China seas has not been examined in detail. In this study, we compared retrieved SSS values from SMOS data with in situ measurements from a South China Sea (SCS) expedition during autumn 2011. The comparison shows that the retrieved SSS values using ascending pass data have much better agreement with in situ measurements than the result derived from descending pass data. Accuracy in terms of bias and root mean square error (RMS) of the SSS retrieved using three different sea surface roughness models is very consistent, regardless of ascending or descending orbits. When ascending and descending measurements are combined for comparison, the retrieved SSS using a semi-empirical model shows the best agreement with in situ measurements, with bias −0.33 practical salinity units and RMS 0.74. We also investigated the impact of environmental conditions of sea surface wind and sea surface temperature on accuracy of the retrieved SSS. The SCS is a semi-closed basin where radio frequencies transmitted from the mainland strongly interfere with SMOS measurements. Therefore, accuracy of retrieved SSS shows a relationship with distance between the validation sites and land.

Description: Follistatin (FST) is a monomeric glycoprotein highly enriched in cysteines and belongs to TGF-β superfamily. FST can suppress the secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone and plays a vital role in the reproduction of vertebrates. We used rapid amplification of cDNA ends technology to clone the FST gene of half-smooth tongue sole, Cynoglossus semilaevis . We characterized its phylogenetic context and expression patterns to elucidate its function in the breeding season. The full-length sequence of FST is 1 455 bp and encodes a protein of 321 amino acids. We investigated the expression pattern of FST in C. semilaevis at different stages of reproduction using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR). FST mRNA was expressed in all 13 tissues analyzed, and was expressed at high levels in gonad and at slightly lower levels in gill and brain. During the reproductive cycle of C. semilaevis , the transcript level of FST was the highest in the perinucleolus stage, decreased in the primary yolk stage, slightly increased in the tertiary yolk stage, and then reduced to a minimal level in the atretic follicles stage of the ovary. We concluded that FST suppressed follicle-stimulating hormone, which stimulated oocyte development. However, no significant variation was observed across all stages of testis development, although the expression level in the spermatogenesis stage was relatively low, which may result from the regulation of FST by aromatase.

Description: Sub-tidal barotropic current variations coupled with residual sea level fluctuation in the Bohai and Yellow Seas during wintertime are addressed in this study. The temporal evolution and spatial distribution of current fluctuation are investigated using moored acoustic Doppler current profiler data in a three-dimensional numerical model. It is found that a southward current followed by a northward current occurred in the northern Yellow Sea during the fluctuation, concurrent with a significant outflow followed by inflow through the Bohai Strait. The process is consistent from surface to bottom and is coupled with remarkable residual sea level fluctuation. This quasi three-day fluctuation with amplitude 0.2–0.3 m/s leads to 1 m/1.2 m drawdown in the northern Yellow and Bohai Seas, respectively, strongly influencing water exchange between those seas. Because this a prominent feature in the seas, it is necessary to evaluate its effect on fluctuation during winter in future studies, in particular, the northward current during the recovery phase of sea level in the Bohai and Yellow Seas regarding seasonal variation.

Description: Based on a barotropic inflow-outflow model, we examine the formation of the Kuroshio large meander (LM) using conditional nonlinear optimal perturbation (CNOP) method. Both linear and nonlinear evolutions of such perturbations obtained by this method are investigated. The results show that the nonlinear evolution can result in the Kuroshio transition from a straight to LM path, whereas the linear evolution cannot. This implies that nonlinearity plays an important role in the formation of the Kuroshio LM path. The nonlinearity exists as advection in the evolution equations of the perturbation derived from the barotropic inflow-outflow model, namely the nonlinear advection of the perturbation by the perturbation (NAPP). By examining the role of this nonlinearity, we find that the NAPP tends to move the cyclonic eddy induced by the CNOP-type perturbation westward. Together with the beta effect, this offsets part of the eastward advection caused by the interaction between the perturbation and the background flow. Hence, the eastward movement of the cyclonic eddy is significantly weakened, effectively causing the eddy to develop. The sufficient evolution of this cyclonic eddy leads to the formation of the Kuroshio LM.

Description: High temperature influences the homeostasis of fish. We investigated the effects of elevated temperature on tissues of Japanese flounder ( Paralichthys olivaceus ) by analyzing the histology and heat shock protein 70 ( hsp70 ) expression of fish reared in warm conditions. In this study, temperature was increased at 1±0.5°C/day starting at 24±0.5°C, and was kept at that temperature for 5 days before the next rise. After raising temperature at the rate up to 32±0.5°C, tissue samples from midgut, spleen, stomach, liver, muscle, gill, heart, trunk kidney and brain were collected for histological analysis and mRNA assay. Almost all the tissues showed changes in morphological structure and hsp70 level at 32±0.5°C. Histological assessment of the tissues indicated that the gill had the most serious damage, including highly severe epithelial lifting and edema, curved tips and hyperemia at the ending of the lamellars, desquamation and necrosis. The next most severe damage was found in liver and kidney. The hsp70 levels in all the tissues first increased and then decreased. The gut, stomach, muscle, heart, and brain had the highest expressions in 6 h, whereas the spleen, liver, gill and kidney had the highest expressions in 2 h. Therefore, tissues with the most significant lesions (especially gill and liver) responded much earlier (2 h) in hsp70 expression than other tissues, and these tissues demonstrated the most marked histological disruption and elevated mRNA levels, making them ideal candidates for further studies on the thermal physiology of this species.

Description: Selective breeding of the Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei during the last decade has produced new varieties exhibiting high growth rates and disease resistance. However, the identification of new varieties of shrimps from their phenotypic characters is difficult. This study introduces a new approach for identifying varieties of shrimps using molecular markers of microsatellites and mitochondrial control region sequences. The method was employed to identify a new selected variety, Kehai No. 1 (KH-1), from three representative stocks (control group): Zhengda; Tongwei; and a stock collected from Fujian Province, which is now cultured in mainland China. By pooled genotyping of KH-1 and the control group, five microsatellites showing differences between KH-1 and the control group were screened out. Individual genotyping data confirmed the results from pooled genotyping. The genotyping data for the five microsatellites were applied to the assignment analysis of the KH-1 group and the control group using the partial Bayesian assignment method in GENECLASS2. By sequencing the mitochondrial control regions of individuals from the KH-1 and control group, four haplotypes were observed in the KH-1 group, whereas 14 haplotypes were obtained in the control group. By combining the microsatellite assignment analysis with mitochondrial control region analysis, the average accuracy of identification of individuals in the KH-1 group and control group reached 89%. The five selected microsatellite loci and mitochondrial control region sequences were highly polymorphic and could be used to distinguish new selected varieties of L . vannamei from other populations cultured in China.

Description: Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes are useful tracers for distinguishing marine and terrestrial plant sources of sedimentary organic matter (OM), and for identifying OM from different types of plants. By analyzing the carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of marine and riverine sediments from Bohai Bay and its catchment, we were able to identify the source of OM in these sediments. The stable carbon isotope values of Bohai Bay sediments were between −22.94‰ and −23.90‰, while those of riverine sediments were from −24.45‰ to −32.50‰. Marine algae were the main source of OM in Bohai Bay sediments. However, lacustrine algae were the main source of riverine sediments, not terrestrial OM. The nitrogen isotopes in Bohai Bay sediments decreased in eastward direction, with increasing distance from the coastline, which suggested a higher degree of impact from human activities along the coast.

Description: Thermally activated pinecone (TAP) was used for the adsorption of dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS) from aqueous solutions, which was proved to be the main odorous in algae-caused black bloom. The effects of adsorbent dosage, adsorbate concentration and contact time on DMTS biosorption were studied. The TAP produced at 600°C exhibited a relatively high surface area (519.69 m 2 /g) and excellent adsorption capacity. The results show that the adsorption of DMTS was initially fast and that the equilibrium time was 6 h. Higher initial DMTS concentrations led to lower removal percentages but higher adsorption capacity. The removal percentage of DMTS increased and the adsorption capacity of TAP decreased with an increase in adsorbent dosage. The adsorption process conforms well to a pseudo-second-order kinetics model. The adsorption of DMTS is more appropriately described by the Freundlich isotherm ( R 2 =0.996 1) than by the Langmuir isotherm ( R 2 =0.916 9). The results demonstrate that TAP could be an attractive low-cost adsorbent for removing DMTS from water.

Description: Effects of extratropical solar penetration on the North Atlantic Ocean circulation and climate are investigated using a coupled ocean-atmosphere model. In this model, solar penetration generates basinwide cooling and warming in summer and winter, respectively. Associated with SST changes, annual mean surface wind stress is intensified in both the subtropical and subpolar North Atlantic, which leads to acceleration of both subtropical and subpolar gyres. Owing to warming in the subtropics and significant saltiness in the subpolar region, potential density decreases (increases) in the subtropical (subpolar) North Atlantic. The north-south meridional density gradient is thereby enlarged, accelerating the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). In addition, solar penetration reduces stratification in the upper ocean and favors stronger vertical convection, which also contributes to acceleration of the AMOC.

Description: A postichopus japonicus (Holothuroidea, Echinodermata) is an ecological and economic species in East Asia. Conventional biometric monitoring method includes diving for samples and weighing above water, with highly variable in weight measurement due to variation in the quantity of water in the respiratory tree and intestinal content of this species. Recently, video survey method has been applied widely in biometric detection on underwater benthos. However, because of the high flexibility of A. japonicus body, video survey method of monitoring is less used in sea cucumber. In this study, we designed a model to evaluate the wet weight of A. japonicus , using machine vision technology combined with a support vector machine (SVM) that can be used in field surveys on the A. japonicus population. Continuous dorsal images of free-moving A. japonicus individuals in seawater were captured, which also allows for the development of images of the core body edge as well as thorn segmentation. Parameters that include body length, body breadth, perimeter and area, were extracted from the core body edge images and used in SVM regression, to predict the weight of A. japonicus and for comparison with a power model. Results indicate that the use of SVM for predicting the weight of 33 A. japonicus individuals is accurate ( R 2 =0.99) and compatible with the power model ( R 2 =0.96). The image-based analysis and size-weight regression models in this study may be useful in body weight evaluation of A. japonicus in lab and field study.

Description: In the present study, the effects of season on fatty acid composition, total lipids, and ω3/ω6 ratios of northern pike muscle lipids in Kızılırmak River (Kırıkkale, Turkey) were investigated. A total of 35 different fatty acids were determined in gas chromatography. Among these, palmitic, oleic, and palmitoleic acids had the highest proportion. The main polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) were found to be docosahexaenoic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, and arachidonic acid. There were more PUFAs than monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) in all seasons. Similarly, the percentages of ω3 fatty acids were higher than those of total ω6 fatty acids in the fatty acid composition. ω3/ω6 ratios were calculated as 1.53, 1.32, 1.97, and 1.71 in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively. Overall, we found that the fatty acid composition and ω3/ω6 fatty acid ratio in the muscle of northern pike were significantly influenced by season.

Description: Settling particulate matter (SPM) is widely used to describe the sedimentary environment. We have investigated here the SPM collected with a time-series sediment trap in the Heini Bay, Weihai, Shandong Peninsula, China, during the super typhoon Muifa (August 2011, maximum wind speed 55 m/s). Meteorological and hydrological parameters were measured for 18 days. By analyzing the particle flux, grain size, and loss-on-ignition (organic matter content) of SPM we found dramatic changes in these parameters, induced by typhoon Muifa for about 6 days. With the arrival of typhoon, the daily SPM fluxes increased sharply to the maximum at 76.4 g/(m 2 ·d) on the first day and this increase is about 9 times of the normal value, and after 6 days the SPM decreased to the normal value gradually. Other parameters, such as grain size of SPM and organic matter also experienced similar changes. Using these SPM parameters, we divided the settling progress by cluster analysis into three phases: strong (for 3 days), weak (for 3 days), and zero typhoon impact.

Description: Mucins are important components of mucus, which form a natural, physical, biochemical and semipermeable mucosal layer on the epidermis of fish gills, skin, and the gastrointestinal tract. As the first step towards characterizing the function of Muc2, we cloned a partial Megalobrama amblycephala Muc2 cDNA of 2 175 bp, and analyzed its tissue-specific expression pattern by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). The obtained sequence comprised 41 bp 5′-untranslated region (5′-UTR), 2 134 bp open reading frame encoding a protein of 711 amino acids. BLAST searching and phylogenetic analysis showed that the predicted protein contained several common secreted mucin-module domains (VWD-C8-TIL-VWD-C8) and had high homology with mucins from other vertebrates. Among four candidate reference genes ( β - Actin, RPI13α , RPII, 18S ) for the qPCR, RPII was chosen as an appropriate reference gene because of its lowest variation in different tissues. M. amblycephala Muc2 was mainly expressed in the intestine, in the order (highest to lowest) middle-intestine 〉 fore-intestine 〉 hind-intestine. Muc2 was expressed relatively poorly in other organs (brain, liver, kidney, spleen, skin and gill). Furthermore, after 20-days of starvation, M. amblycephala Muc2 expressions after refeeding for 0 h, 3 h, 16 h, 3 d, and 10 d were significantly decreased in the three intestinal segments ( P 〈0.05) at 16 h, and were then upregulated to near the initial level at 10 d.

Description: Central Composite Design (CCD) and response surface methodology were used in the experiment to examine the combined effect of temperature (16–28°C) and salinity (18–42) on Hsp70 and IgM genes expression levels in turbot ( Scophthalmus maximus ) liver and kidney. The results showed that the coefficients of determination ( R 2 =0.965 2 for liver Hsp70, 0.972 9 for kidney Hsp70, 0.921 for liver IgM and 0.962 1 for kidney IgM) and probability values ( P 〈0.01) were significant for the regression model. The interactive effect between temperature and salinity on liver Hsp70, kidney Hsp70 and liver IgM were not significant ( P 〉0.05), while the interactive effect between temperature and salinity on kidney IgM was significant ( P 〈0.01). The model equation could be used in practice for forecasting Hsp70 and IgM genes expression levels in the liver and kidney of juvenile turbot via applying statistical optimization of the response of interest, at which the maximum liver Hsp70, kidney Hsp70, liver IgM and kidney IgM of 1.48, 1.49, 2.48, and 1.38, respectively, were reached. The present model may be valuable in assessing the feasibility of turbot farming at different geographic locations and, furthermore, could be a useful reference for scientists studying the immunity of turbot.

Description: The wave-forcing ‘Coriolis-Stokes forcing’ and ‘Stokes-vortex force’ induced by Stokes drift affect the upper ocean jointly. To study the effect of the wave-induced Stokes drift on the dynamics of the ocean mixed layer, a new three-dimensional (3D) numerical model is derived using the primitive basic equations and Eulerian wave averaging. The Princeton Ocean Model (POM), a 3D primitive equation ocean model is used with the upper wave-averaged basic equations. The global ocean circulation is simulated using the POM model, and the Stokes drift is evaluated based on the wave data generated by WAVEWATCH III. We compared simulations with and without the Stokes drift. The results show that the magnitude of the Stokes drift is comparable with the Eulerian mean current. Including the Stokes drift in the ocean model affects both the Eulerian current and the Lagranian drift and causes the vertical mixing coefficients to increase.

Description: This paper aims to evaluate the effects of ultraviolet-B radiation (UVBR) on Gracilaria lemaneiformis , a commercial red macroalga and an important source of agar. To study the in-vitro effect of UVBR on G. lemaneiformis , this plant was cultivated and exposed to photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) at 40 μmol photons/(m 2 ·s) and enhanced UVBR (0, 0.36, 0.72, 1.08, 1.44, and 1.80 kJ/(m 2 ·d)) for 13 days. The samples were processed for histochemical analysis, and the growth rate, photosynthetic pigment contents, photosynthetic performance, reactive oxygen species levels, membrane permeability, malonyl dialdehyde contents and antioxidant capacity of G. lemaneiformis were investigated. After 13 days of exposure to PAR+UVBR, G. lemaneiformis showed photodamage and photoinhibition of photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a and phycoerythrin), leading to a decreased photosynthetic efficiency. Further, there was a corresponding decrease in the relative growth rates and depigmentation and partial necrosis of the apical segments were noted after exposure to PAR+UVBR. Additionally, UVBR induced excess production of superoxide radicals and hydrogen peroxide, eliciting a marked cellular membrane damage and antioxidative response.

Description: The present study compared vertebral deformities of hatchery-reared and wild-caught juvenile Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus . A total of 362 hatchery-reared flounder (total length 122.5–155.8 mm) were collected from three commercial hatcheries located in Yantai, East China, and 89 wild fish (total length 124.7–161.3 mm) were caught off Yangma Island near Yantai City (37°27′N, 121°36′E). All the fish were dissected, photographed, and images of the axial skeleton were examined for vertebral deformities. Compared with wild-caught flounder in which no deformed vertebrae were detected, 48 (13.3%) hatcheryreared fish had deformed vertebrae. The deformities were classified as compression, compression-ankylosis, and dislocation-ankylosis. The vertebral deformities were mainly localized between post-cranial vertebra 1 and 3, with vertebrae number 1 as the most commonly deformed. The causative factors leading to vertebral deformities in reared Japanese flounder may be related to unfavorable temperature conditions, inflammation, damage, or rupture to the intervertebral ligaments under rearing conditions. Furthermore, no significant difference in the total number of vertebral bodies was observed between wild-caught (38.8±0.4) and hatchery-reared flounder (38.1±0.9) ( P 〉0.05). However, the number of vertebral bodies of hatchery-reared and wild-caught flounder ranged from 35 to 39 and from 38 to 39, respectively.

Description: Monitoring algal blooms by optical remote sensing is limited by cloud cover. In this study, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) was deployed with the aim of monitoring cyanobacteria-dominant algal blooms in Taihu Lake in cloudy weather. The study shows that dark regions in the SAR images caused by cyanobacterial blooms damped the microwave backscatter of the lake surface and were consistent with the regions of algal blooms in quasi-synchronous optical images, confirming the applicability of SAR for detection of surface blooms. Low backscatter may also be associated with other factors such as low wind speeds, resulting in interference when monitoring algal blooms using SAR data alone. After feature extraction and selection, the dark regions were classified by the support vector machine method with an overall accuracy of 67.74%. SAR can provide a reference point for monitoring cyanobacterial blooms in the lake, particularly when weather is not suitable for optical remote sensing. Multi-polarization and multi-band SAR can be considered for use in the future to obtain more accurate information regarding algal blooms from SAR data.

Description: An 8-week feeding experiment was performed to evaluate the effect of dietary genistein on growth performance, body composition, and digestive enzymes activity of juvenile Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ). Four isonitrogenous and isoenergetic diets were formulated containing four graded supplements of genistein: 0, 30, 300, and 3 000 μg/g. Each diet was randomly assigned in triplicate to tanks stocked with 15 juvenile tilapia (10.47±1.24 g). The results show that 30 and 300 μg/g dietary genistein had no significant effect on growth performance of Nile tilapia, but the higher level of genistein (3 000 μg/g) significantly depressed the final body weight and specific growth rate. There was no significant difference in survival rate, feed intake, feed efficiency ratio or whole body composition among all dietary treatments. An assay of digestive enzymes showed that the diet containing 3 000 μg/ggenistein decreased stomach and hepatopancreas protease activity, and amylase activity in the liver and intestine, while a dietary level of 300 μg/g genistein depressed stomach protease and intestine amylase activities. However, no significant difference in stomach amylase activity was found among dietary treatments. Overall, the results of the present study indicate that a high level of dietary genistein (3 000 μg/g, or above) would significantly reduce the growth of Nile tilapia, partly because of its inhibitory effect on the activity of major digestive enzymes. Accordingly, the detrimental effects of genistein, as found in soybean products, should not be ignored when applied as an alternative ingredient source in aquaculture.

Description: The four palaemonoid (sub)families Anchistioididae, Gnathophyllidae, Hymenoceridae, and Pontoniinae are similar in morphology, and all live in marine habitats. Their systematic relationships are controversial. In this study, we used sequences from a mitochondrial ribosomal gene (16S rRNA) and three nuclear genes (H3, NaK, and enolase) to explore the phylogenetic relationships of these four taxa. Our tree based on 43 species belonging to 28 genera shows that Gnathophyllidae and Hymenoceridae are nested within Pontoniinae. This result is consistent with evidence from larval morphology. The defining characteristics of Gnathophyllidae and Hymenoceridae, a vestigial or missing mandibular incisor process and a broadened third maxilliped, can also be found in Pontoniinae; conversely, on the basis of published species descriptions, gnathophyllids and hymenocerids meet most of the defining characteristics of Pontoniinae. The peculiar form of the third maxilliped in gnathophyllids and hymenocerids might be the result of adaptive evolution, as these particular features are also present in pontoniines. According to our phylogenetic tree, Anchistioididae are more remote from Pontoniinae, which is consistent with the distinct morphological differences in the pleopods. The pontoniine genera analyzed (together with Gnathophyllidae and Hymenoceridae) are divided into two clades. The members of Clade I exhibit primordial characteristics similar to those of the Palaemoninae, and might be direct descendants of the ancestor of the Pontoniinae; members of Clade II are more specialized.

Description: In this study, the activated sludge model implemented in the BioWin® software was validated against full-scale wastewater treatment plant data. Only two stoichiometric parameters ( Y p/acetic and the heterotrophic yield ( Y H) ) required calibration. The value 0.42 was used for Y p/acetic in this study, while the default value of the BioWin® software is 0.49, making it comparable with the default values of the corresponding parameter (yield of phosphorus release to substrate uptake ( \(Y_{PO_4 } \) )) used in ASM2, ASM2d, and ASM3P, respectively. Three scenarios were evaluated to improve the performance of the wastewater treatment plant, the possibility of wasting sludge from either the aeration tank or the secondary clarifier, the construction of a new oxidation ditch, and the construction of an equalization tank. The results suggest that construction of a new oxidation ditch or an equalization tank for the wastewater treatment plant is not necessary. However, sludge should be wasted from the aeration tank during wet weather to reduce the solids loading of the clarifiers and avoid effluent violations. Therefore, it is recommended that the design of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) should include flexibility to operate the plants in various modes. This is helpful in selection of the appropriate operating mode when necessary, resulting in substantial reductions in operating costs.

Description: The assessment of population structure and abundance of fish assemblages associated with artificial reefs (ARs) is an important aspect of AR management. In the present study, we used a Dive-Operated Stereo Video (stereo-DOV) technique to assess the population structure and abundance of Sebastes schlegeli associated with two metallic, and three wooden, vessel reefs in Haizhou Bay during 2012 and 2013. The study used video systems to obtain length measurements and estimates of abundance. The size composition of S. schlegeli differed among reefs and individuals around vessel reefs were all adults, with total lengths (TL) of 〉20 cm. Juvenile fish were encountered by divers in a rocky area near the island away from the vessel reefs. The largest individual S. schlegeli (with the highest TL) among five reefs were found around a metallic vessel reef in both 2012 and 2013. TL of S. s chlegeli from all reefs increased by an average of 3.2 cm ( P 〈0.05) from 2012 to 2013, with an estimated mean weight increase of 250.4 g ( P 〈0.05). The video survey also indicated a decrease in the biomass of schools near two metallic vessels between the years. Stereo-video technology was found to be suitable for rockfish surveys around the reefs.

Description: To solve nutrient flux and budget among waters with distinct salinity difference for water-salt-nutrient budget, a traditional method is to build a stoichiometrically linked steady state model. However, the traditional way cannot cope appropriately with those without distinct salinity difference that parallel to coastline or in a complex current system, as the results would be highly affected by box division in time and space, such as the Changjiang (Yangtze) River estuary (CRE) and adjacent waters (30.75°–31.75°N, 122°10′–123°20′E). Therefore, we developed a hydrodynamic box model based on the traditional way and the regional oceanic modeling system model (ROMS). Using data from four cruises in 2005, horizontal, vertical and boundary nutrient fluxes were calculated in the hydrodynamic box model, in which flux fields and the major controlling factors were studied. Results show that the nutrient flux varied greatly in season and space. Water flux outweighs the nutrient concentration in horizontal flux, and upwelling flux outweighs upward diffusion flux in vertical direction (upwelling flux and upward diffusion flux regions overlap largely all the year). Vertical flux in spring and summer are much greater than that in autumn and winter. The maximum vertical flux for DIP (dissolved inorganic phosphate) occurs in summer. Additional to the fluxes of the Changjiang River discharge, coastal currents, the Taiwan Warm Current, and the upwelling, nutrient flux inflow from the southern Yellow Sea and outflow southward are found crucial to nutrient budgets of the study area. Horizontal nutrient flux is controlled by physical dilution and confined to coastal waters with a little into the open seas. The study area acts as a conveyer transferring nutrients from the Yellow Sea to the East China Sea in the whole year. In addition, vertical nutrient flux in spring and summer is a main source of DIP. Therefore, the hydrodynamic ROMS-based box model is superior to the traditional one in estimating nutrient fluxes in a complicated hydrodynamic current system and provides a modified box model approach to material flux research.

Description: Artificial lighting regimes have been successfully used to inhibit sexual maturity of Atlantic salmon in confinement. However, when these operations are applied in commercial recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) using standard lighting technology, sexual maturation is not suppressed. In this study, an L 9 (3 3 ) orthogonal design was used to determine the effects of three factors (spectral composition, photoperiod, and light intensity) on the gonadal development of Atlantic salmon in RAS. We demonstrated that the photoperiod at the tested levels had a much greater effect on the gonadosomatic index and female Fulton condition factor than spectral composition and light intensity. The photoperiod had a significant effect on the secretion of sex steroids and melatonin ( P 〈0.05), and a short photoperiod delayed sex steroid and melatonin level increases. The three test factors had no significant effects on the survival rate, specific growth rate, relative weight gain, and male Fulton condition factor ( P 〉0.05). The optimum lighting levels in female and male Atlantic salmon were LD 8:16, 455 nm (or 625 nm), 8.60 W/m 2 ; and LD 8:16, 8.60 W/m 2 , 455 nm respectively. These conditions not only delayed gonadal development, but also had no negative effects on Atlantic salmon growth in RAS. These results demonstrate that a combination of spectral composition, photoperiod and light intensity is effective at delaying the gonadal development of both male and female salmon in RAS.

Description: SO 2 is very rapidly hydrated to sulfurous acid in water solution at pH value above 6.0, whereby sulfite is yielded from the disassociation of protons. We aimed to improve the sulfite transformation efficiency and provide a basis for the direct utilization of SO 2 from flue gas by a microalgal suspension. Chlorella sp. XQ-20044 was cultured in a medium with 20 mmol/L sodium sulfite under different physicochemical conditions. Under light conditions, sulfite concentration in the algal suspension reduced linearly over time, and was completely converted into sulfate within 8 h. The highest sulfite transformation rate (3.25 mmol/(L·h)) was obtained under the following conditions: 35°C, light intensity of 300 μmol/(m 2 ·s), NaHCO 3 concentration of 6 g/L, initial cell density (OD 540 ) of 0.8 and pH of 9–10. There was a positive correlation between sulfite transformation rate and the growth of Chlorella , with the conditions favorable to algal growth giving better sulfite transformation. Although oxygen in the air plays a role in the transformation of SO 2− 3 to SO 2− 4 , the transformation is mainly dependent on the metabolic activity of algal cells. Chlorella sp. XQ-20044 is capable of tolerating high sulfite concentration, and can utilize sulfite as the sole sulfur source for maintaining healthy growth. We found that sulfite ≤20 mmol/L had no obvious effect on the total lipid content and fatty acid profiles of the algae. Thus, the results suggest it is feasible to use flue gas for the mass production of feedstock for biodiesel using Chlorella sp. XQ-20044, without preliminary removal of SO 2 , assuming there is adequate control of the pH.

Description: A new muricid gastropod species, Lataxiena lutescena sp. nov., is described and illustrated. The new species was recognized during reidentification of the Muricidae collection in the Marine Biological Museum, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao. The specimens of the new species were collected from the East and South China Seas off Fujian, Guangdong, and Hainan Provinces. Lataxiena lutescena sp. nov. is similar to Lataxiena blosvillei (Deshayes, 1832) in general shape, but can be distinguished from the latter by the shell sculpture and radular characteristics. Lataxiena lutescena sp. nov. also resembles Lataxiena bombayana (Melvill, 1893), but differs from that species in the shell shape and anal notches and in lacking short spines on the shell.

Description: In this study, a cytochemical method and transmission electron microscopy was used to examine acid phosphatase activities of yolk granules throughout the early developmental stages of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas . This study aimed to investigate the dynamic change of yolk granule acid phosphatase, and the mechanisms underlying its involvement in yolk degradation during the early developmental stages of molluscs. Three types of yolk granules (YGI, YGII, and YGIII) that differed in electron density and acid phosphatase reaction were identified in early cleavage, morula, blastula, gastrula, trochophore, and veliger stages. The morphological heterogeneities of the yolk granules were related to acid phosphatase activity and degrees of yolk degradation, indicating the association of acid phosphatase with yolk degradation in embryos and larvae of molluscs. Fusion of yolk granules was observed during embryogenesis and larval development of C. gigas . The fusion of YGI (free of acid phosphatase reaction) with YGII (rich in acid phosphatase reaction) could be the way by which yolk degradation is triggered.

Description: Sexual reproduction adversely affects the population growth of cyclic parthenogenetic animals. The density-dependent sexual reproduction of a superior competitor could mediate the coexistence. However, the cost of sex may make the inferior competitor more vulnerable. To investigate the effect of sexual reproduction on the inferior competitor, we experimentally paired the competition of one Brachionus angularis clone against three Brachionus calyciflorus clones. One of the B. calyciflorus clones showed a low propensity for sexual reproduction, while the other two showed high propensities. The results show that all B. calyciflorus clones were excluded in the competition for resources at low food level. The increased food level promoted the competition persistence, but the clones did not show a clear pattern. Both the cumulative population density and resting egg production increased with the food level. The cumulative population density decreased with the mixis investment, while the resting egg production increased with the mixis investment. A trade-off between the population growth and sexual reproduction was observed in this research. The results indicate that although higher mixis investment resulted in a lower population density, it would not determinately accelerate the exclusion process of the inferior competitor. On the contrary, higher mixis investment promoted resting egg production before being excluded and thus promised a long-term benefit. In conclusion, our results suggest that mixis investment, to some extent, favored the excluded inferior competitor under fierce competition or some other adverse conditions.

Description: Since January 2012, the National Satellite Ocean Application Service has released operational wind products from the HY-2A scatterometer (HY2-SCAT), using the maximum-likelihood estimation (MLE) method with a median filter. However, the quality of the winds retrieved from HY2-SCAT depends on the sub-satellite cross-track location, and poor azimuth separation in the nadir region causes particularly low-quality wind products in this region. However, an improved scheme, i.e., a multiple solution scheme (MSS) with a two-dimensional variational analysis method (2DVAR), has been proposed by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute to overcome such problems. The present study used the MSS in combination with a 2DVAR technique to retrieve wind data from HY2-SCAT observations. The parameter of the empirical probability function, used to indicate the probability of each ambiguous solution being the “true” wind, was estimated based on HY2-SCAT data, and the 2DVAR method used to remove ambiguity in the wind direction. A comparison between MSS and ECMWF winds showed larger deviations at both low wind speeds (below 4 m/s) and high wind speeds (above 17 m/s), whereas the wind direction exhibited lower bias and good stability, even at high wind speeds greater than 24 m/s. The two HY2-SCAT wind data sets, retrieved by the standard MLE and the MSS procedures were compared with buoy observations. The RMS error of wind speed and direction were 1.3 m/s and 17.4°, and 1.3 m/s and 24.0° for the MSS and MLE wind data, respectively, indicating that MSS wind data had better agreement with the buoy data. Furthermore, the distributions of wind fields for a case study of typhoon Soulik were compared, which showed that MSS winds were spatially more consistent and meteorologically better balanced than MLE winds.

Description: An annual investigation on phytoplankton communities was conducted to reveal the effects of nutrients on phytoplankton assemblages in Lake Taihu, East China. A total of 78 phytoplankton taxa were identified. Phytoplankton biomass was higher in the northern part of the lake than in the southern part. Cyanobacteria and Bacillariophyta alternated dominance in the northern area, where algal blooms often appear, and co-dominated in the southern area. In the northern part, the proportions of cyanobacteria and Bacillariophyta varied significantly in total biovolume, both along the phosphorus (P) gradient, and between total nitrogen levels (≤3 mg/L and 〉3 mg/L TN). The proportions of cyanobacteria and Bacillariophyta had no significant variations in total biovolume along P and N (nitrogen) gradients in the southern part. Correlation analysis and CCA results revealed that P was the key factor regulating phytoplankton community structure. Nitrogen was also important for the phytoplankton distribution pattern. It was concluded that nutrient structure was heterogeneous in space and shaped the distribution pattern of phytoplankton in the lake. Both exogenous P and internally sourced P release needs to be considered. N reduction should be considered simultaneously with P control to efficiently reduce eutrophication and algal blooms.

Description: Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) has a wide range of biological functions. We cloned the full-length cDNAs encoding PACAP and PACAP-related peptide (PRP) from the brain of largemouth bass ( Micropterus salmoides ) and used real-time quantitative PCR to detect PRP-PACAP mRNA expression. The PRP-PACAP cDNA has two variants expressed via alternative splicing: a long form, which encodes both PRP and PACAP, and a short form, which encodes only PACAP. Sequence analysis results are consistent with a higher conservation of PACAP than PRP peptide sequences. The expression of PACAP -long and PACAP -short transcripts was highest in the forebrain, followed by the medulla, midbrain, pituitary, stomach, cerebellum, intestine, and kidney; however, these transcripts were either absent or were weakly expressed in the muscle, spleen, gill, heart, fatty tissue, and liver. The level of PACAP -short transcript expression was significantly higher than expression of the long transcript in the forebrain, cerebella, pituitary and intestine, but lower than that of the long transcript in the stomach. PACAP -long and PACAP -short transcripts were first detected at the blastula stage of embryogenesis, and the level of expression increased markedly between the muscular contraction stage and 3 d post hatch (dph). The expression of PACAP -long and PACAP -short transcripts decreased significantly in the brain following 4 d fasting compared with the control diet group. The down-regulation effect was enhanced as fasting continued. Conversely, expression levels increased significantly after 3 d of re-feeding. Our results suggest that PRP-PACAP acts as an important factor in appetite regulation in largemouth bass.

Description: A cost-effective method was designed to measure the behavioral response of negative phototaxis to high-intensity illumination in the sea urchin Glyptocidaris crenularis . Ninety sea urchins were randomly and equally divided into two aquaculture environment groups: a fasted group, which was starved during the experiment, and a fed group. After 10 months, the total mortality of each group was recorded. Then, 15 sea urchins were randomly selected from each group and behavioral responses to high-intensity illumination were investigated for each sea urchin. After the behavioral experiment, body measurements of the trial sea urchins were taken. The results reveal that food deprivation significantly affected test diameter ( P 〈0.01), body weight ( P 〈0.01), gonad weight ( P 〈0.01), and gut weight ( P 〈0.01). Furthermore, food deprivation also affected negative phototaxis behaviors of time to rapid spine movement ( P 〈0.01), time to the 1 cm position ( P 〈0.05), and walking distance in 300 s ( P 〈0.01), but not time to body reaction ( P 〉0.05). The mortality rates of fasted and fed urchins were 6.7% and 0%, respectively. The present study provides evidence that food deprivation has a significant effect on phenotypic traits and behavioral responses to high-intensity illumination in the sea urchin G. crenularis . With this method, environmental stressors can be easily detected by measuring proper optional indicators. This study provides a new insight into measuring stress responses of sea urchins in aquaculture. However, further studies should be carried out to understand more environmental factors and to compare this potential behavioral method with immune, physiological, and epidemiological approaches.

Description: Microalgae Tetraselmis subcordiformis and Nannochloropsis oculata were cultured at 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35°C and their properties as potential biofuel resources were examined. The results indicate that T. subcordiformis and N. oculata grew best at 20°C and 25°C and yielded the highest total lipids at 20°C and 30°C, respectively. With increased temperature, neutral lipid and polyunsaturated fatty acids (FAs) decreased while saturated FAs increased, accompanied by increased monounsaturated FAs (MUFAs) in T. subcordiformis and decreased MUFAs in N. oculata ; meanwhile, the predicted cetane number of FA methyl esters increased from 45.3 to 47.6 in T. subcordiformis and from 52.3 to 60.3 in N. oculata . Therefore, optimizing culture temperatures is important for improving microalgal biodiesel production.

Description: Platichthys stellatus is an economically important marine bony fish species that is cultured in China on a large scale. However, very little is known about its immune-related genes. In this study, the transcriptome of the immune organs of P. stellatus that were intraperitoneally challenged with the pathogen Edwardsiella ictaluri JCM1680 is analyzed. Total RNA from four tissues (spleen, kidney, liver, and intestine) was mixed equally and then sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. Overall, 28 465 813 quality reads were generated and assembled into 43 061 unigenes. Similarity searches against public protein sequence databases were used to annotate 28 291 unigenes (65.7% of the total), 368 of which were associated with immunoregulation, including 188 related to immunity response. Additionally, the transcript levels of immunity response unigenes annotated as related to tumor necrosis factor (TNF), TNF receptor, chemokine, major histocompatibility complex, and interleukin-6 were investigated in the different tissues of normal and infected P. stellatus by real-time quantitative PCR. The results confirmed that the unigenes identified in the transcriptome database were indeed expressed and up-regulated in infected P. stellatus . To our knowledge, this is the first report of the sequencing and analysis of the transcriptome of P. stellatus . These findings provide insights into the transcriptomics and immunogenetics of bony fish.

Description: Suspended particulate substances were sampled in the eastern equatorial Pacific in water column from surface to near bottom in five stations in 2005, from which 868 barite crystals were recovered. The barite crystals were examined under scanning electron microscopy. About 61% of the total barites crystals contained detectable Sr by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry. Barite crystals could be classified into four groups based on their morphology: 1) bladed; 2) ovoid or rounded; 3) arrow-like; and 4) irregularly shaped. The arrow-like barite crystals in natural environment has never been reported before. In addition, about a half of the studied crystals showed features of dissolution as cavities or holes inside of the crystals or around their edges. We found that differential dissolution of barite crystals is consequence of heterogeneous Sr distribution in barite crystals. Our results would help in understanding the biogeochemical processes of marine barite formation and preservation in seawater and marine sediments.

Description: In this paper, we compared the normalized radar cross section in the cases of oil spill, biogenic slicks, and clean sea areas with image samples made from 11-pixel NRCS average, and determined their thresholds of the NRCS of the synthetic aperture radar. The results show that the thresholds of oil and biogenic slicks exhibit good consistency with the corresponding synthetic aperture radar images. In addition, we used the normalized radar cross section of clean water from adjacent patches of oil or biogenic slicks areas to replace that of oil or biogenic slicks areas, and retrieve wind field by CMOD5.n and compare wind velocity mending of oil and biogenic slicks areas with Weather Research and Forecasting modeled data, from which the root mean squares of wind speed (wind direction) inversion are 0.89 m/s (20.26°) and 0.88 m/s (7.07°), respectively. Therefore, after the occurrence of oil spill or biogenic slicks, the real wind field could be repaired using the method we introduced in this paper. We believe that this method could improve the accuracy in assessment of a real wind field on medium and small scales at sea, and enhance effectively the monitoring works on similar oil or biogenic slicks incidents at sea surface.

Description: The probability distribution of wave heights under the assumption of narrowband linear wave theory follows the Rayleigh distribution and the statistical relationships between some characteristic wave heights, derived from this distribution, are widely used for the treatment of realistic wind waves. However, the bandwidth of wave frequency influences the probability distribution of wave heights. In this paper, a wave-spectrum-width parameter B was introduced into the JONSWAP spectrum. This facilitated the construction of a wind-wave spectrum and the reconstruction of wind-wave time series for various growth stages, based on which the probability density distributions of the wind-wave heights were studied statistically. The distribution curves deviated slightly from the theoretical Rayleigh distribution with increasing B . The probability that a wave height exceeded a certain value was clearly smaller than the theoretical value for B ≥0.3, and the difference between them increased with the threshold value. The relation between the H s / σ ratio and B was investigated statistically, which revealed that the H s / σ ratio deviated from 4.005 and declined with B . When B reached 0.698 1, the H s / σ ratio was 3.825, which is about 95.5% of its original value. This indicates an overestimation in the prediction of H s from H s =4.005 σ , and provides a potential method for improving the accuracy of the H s remote sensing retrieval algorithm, critical for extremely large waves under severe sea states.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Yuri Queiroz Abreu Torres , Lucia Maria Sá Antunes Costa Over the last decade, new spatial means have been keenly developed on geo-social, location-based networking systems and more recently through mobile applications, with significant personalized digital content, full of cognitive and perceptive clues. Culling this information and having it as the main source of analysis, this study explores the cartography of the city of Rio de Janeiro, portraying some of its outdoors recreational activities that are partially invisible in the daily life, advocating the potentiality of this methodological and theoretical framework to disrupt traditional spatial paradigms and contributes to urban research, design, education and representation.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Motoya Koga , Shinobu Izumi , Shigehito Matsubara , Yoshie Inada , Daria Gaidar In this study, we proposed a method of a welfare town planning, and experimentally developed a support system for disabled persons. Our proposed method of welfare town planning is to make a town-maintenance plan to reflect wheelchair users’ opinions by preparing opportunities for them to directly take part in the town planning and actively express their opinions. Furthermore, in the field of town planning we used a function of support system for disabled persons to calculate quantitatively reduction of physical load for the wheelchair users. This support system has another function: to navigate the wheelchair users from one place to another. The suggested route is found by calculating the most comfortable path for the wheelchair user.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Yang Ding , Bauke de Vries , Qi Han Regional sustainability concerns a complex system that mainly consists of three subsystems, being the economy, society, and the environment. A complex system involves intensive interactions and correlations among its components. Therefore, the way how these components are organized to work together efficiently is of great significance to the development of a complex system. For that reason, measuring regional sustainability should not only focus on changes in each subsystem individually, but also consider the interactions and relationships among the subsystems. In this paper, we apply a modified method to assess coordinated development, which highlights the simultaneous promotions of economic grow, social well-being, and environment al conservation. By introducing the model of coordinated development, we evaluate the sustainable development of Hubei province which is a typical region in Central China. The result shows that Hubei performed poorly in coordinated development. Although the coordinated development index was consistently increasing, the speed was very slow. In a detailed analysis of the economic, societal, and environmental subsystems in Hubei, the shortage of an economic driving force was found the main cause of the poor development of Hubei Province.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Richard Laing , Marianthi Leon , Lamine Mahdjoubi , Jonathan Scott In recent years, there have been rapid developments in techniques available to capture three dimensional data with regards to the existing built environment. Such technologies support the collection of both large scale landscape and streetscape data, as well as information pertaining to building details such as sculpture and decorative features. During the past five years, there has also been a similar development in the software technologies available to support building information modelling (BIM). Whilst the emphasis in terms of initial introduction of BIM has been predominantly within the construction phase of new developments, there is clear potential to incorporate 3D data pertaining to the existing environment, with apparent value in terms of both the conceptual design phase and during detailed consideration of spatial layout and environmental analysis. This paper describes the processes involved in incorporating on-site collected 3D data within BIM, including modelling and analysis processes.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Eleonora Pantano , Harry Timmermans While the last decade has seen increasing interest in the smart city phenomenon from both scholars and practitioners, little attention has been paid to what extent retailing might be considered as part of smart cities, with benefits for all the actors involved in the process. In fact, retailing is subject to a radical innovation force that makes available several technologies that can be successfully applied. The extensive use of advanced systems gives rise to new questions concerning the smart use of technologies. Moreover, the application of advanced technologies is part of a trend towards the creation of smart cities for a better urban society. In this scenario, the idea of smartness goes beyond the concept of application of new technologies by also including more important dimensions, such as organizational structure. Hence, our work aims at identifying what can be considered smart for retailing, in terms of features of smart technology for retailing, and the challenges emerging from the adoption of such smart technologies.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Azarakhsh Rafiee , Eduardo Dias , Steven Fruijtier , Henk Scholten Data collection is moving towards more details and larger scales and efficient ways of interpreting the data and analysing it is of great importance. A Building Information Model (BIM) includes very detailed and accurate information of a construction. However, this information model is not necessarily geo located but uses a local coordinate system hampering environmental analysis. Transforming the BIM to its corresponding geo-located model helps answering many environmental questions efficiently. In this research, we have applied methods to automatically transform the geometric and semantic information of a BIM model to a geo-referenced model. Two analyses, namely view and shadow analysis, have been performed using the geometric and semantic information within the geo-referenced BIM model and other existing geospatial elements. These analyses demonstrate the value of integrating BIM and spatial data for e.g. spatial planning.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Kuo-Chung Wen , Shu-Shan Chang The Taipei subway transfer station is a busy space, has a variety of public transportation and also has multiple activities. If this creates an effective understanding of a traveller's dynamic, it can significantly reduce the area of potential danger. In order to ensure the security of personal data, our research uses the lowest-resolution image to record. We survey more than one thousand digital video records, including peak, off-peak and minor peak hours, to find the approximate spatial and temporal distribution of the crowd. Our study proposes a process for crowd investigation and through data analysis assesses the effectiveness of its methods and processes for flow investigation. Our study explores the potential risk of spatial and temporal distribution as the next stage of research for subway transfer station performance assessment.