ALBERT

Beschreibung: Modern biotechnology, including the application of transgenic techniques to produce Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), can play a significant role in increasing agricultural production in a sustainable way, but its products need to be tailored for the developing world. In sub-Saharan Africa, the capacity to develop GMOs and ensure they meet stringent regulatory requirements is somewhat limited. Most African governments contribute little to science and technology either financially or through strong policies. This leaves the determination of research and development priorities in the hands of international funding agencies. Whereas funding from the United States is generally supportive of GM technology, the opposite is true of funding from European sources. African countries are thus pulled in two different directions. One alternative to this dilemma might be for countries in the sub-Saharan Africa region to develop stronger South-South collaborations, but these need to be supported with adequate funding. African governments as well as external funding agencies are urged to consider the important role that biotechnology, including GM technology, can play in contributing to sustainable development in Africa, and to provide adequate support to the development of capacity to research, develop and commercialize GMOs in the region.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 8 June 2011 David J., Mallinson , Curtis W., Smith , Shannon, Mahan , Stephen J., Culver , Katie, McDowell The Outer Banks barrier islands of North Carolina, USA, contain a geologic record of inlet activity that extends from ca. 2200calyr BP to the present, and can be used as a proxy for storm activity. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating (26 samples) of inlet-fill and flood tide delta deposits, recognized in cores and geophysical data, provides the basis for understanding the chronology of storm impacts and comparison to other paleoclimate proxy data. OSL ages of historical inlet fill compare favorably to historical documentation of inlet activity, providing confidence in the technique. Comparison suggests that the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and...

Beschreibung: The Peruvian anchovy fishery is the largest worldwide in terms of catches. The fishery started during the mid 1950s, and since then it has been highly dependent on natural stock fluctuations, due to the sensitivity of anchovy stocks to ocean-climate variability. The main driver of anchovy stock variability is the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and three extreme ENSO warm events were recorded in 1972–1973, 1983–1984 and 1997–1998. This study investigates the evolution of coping strategies developed by the anchovy fisheries to deal with climate variability and extreme ENSO events. Results showed eight coping strategies to reduce impacts on the fishery. These included: decentralized installation of anchovy processing factories; simultaneous ownership of fishing fleet and processing factories; use of low-cost unloading facilities; opportunistic utilization of invading fish populations; low cost intensive monitoring; rapid flexible management; reduction of fishmeal price uncertainty through controlled production based on market demand; and decoupling of fishmeal prices from those of other protein-rich feed substitutes like soybean. This research shows that there are concrete lessons to be learned from successful adaptations to cope with climate change-related extreme climatic events that impact the supply of natural resources. The lessons can contribute to improved policies for coping with climate change in the commercial fishery sector.

Beschreibung: Sludge produced by municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) amounts to only a few percent by volume of the processed wastewater, but its handling accounts for up to 50% of total operating costs. Moreover, the need to achieve a sustainable sludge management strategy has become of great concern. It follows that as conventional and more traditional options, such as land spreading for agricultural purposes, are progressively restricted, and often legally banned, the development of innovative systems to maximize the recovery of useful materials and/or energy is required. A change toward more sustainable procedures can be promoted through an integrated approach, including the assessment of management routes capable of maximizing the recycle/recovery benefits, through low energy impact systems, and the development of operational systems appropriate to local circumstances. Based on the above considerations, an integrated system is proposed in this paper. It includes Anaerobic digestion, Dewatering/Drying, and Pyrolysis/Gasification processes which are efficiently coupled for the recovery of products for material reuse and/or energy purposes. Such an integrated system should also allow the recovery of one or more materials, depending on the combination of processes which best fit specific local situations.

Beschreibung: Based on an analysis of the working principles of the hydraulic variable pitch system of a wind turbine, a novel Petri net model and reliability evaluation method are proposed. First, Petri net theory is adopted to build a model for each discrete state of the operation of the hydraulic pitch system of the wind turbine and at the same time a fault Petri net model is established. Then through qualitative analysis and quantitative calculations based on the fault Petri net, the system reliability indexes are obtained. During the qualitative analysis process, in order to more conveniently find the minimal cut sets of the fault Petri net, a Visual C++ 6.0-based algorithm is compiled and the minimal cut sets are tested correctly with another method. During the quantitative calculation process, the fault probability has been obtained from the equations according to the fault probability of libraries and transitions between different states. Not only does the proposed Petri net describe the structure, function and operation of the hydraulic pitch system with a graphic language, but the fault Petri net model can also clearly express the logical relations among faults. The novel Petri net model offers simple calculations and the prospect of broad applicability and the new reliability evaluation method provides an important reference for the performance evaluation of these systems.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 23 June 2011 Gregory C., Wiles , Daniel E., Lawson , Eva, Lyon , Nicholas, Wiesenberg , R.D., D'Arrigo Two interstadial tree ring-width chronologies from Geikie Inlet, Glacier Bay Southeast, Alaska were built from 40 logs. One of these chronologies has been calendar dated to AD 224–999 (775yr) crossdating with a living ring-width chronology from Prince William Sound, Alaska. Trees in this chronology were likely killed through inundation by sediments and meltwater from the advancing Geikie Glacier and its tributaries ca. AD 850. The earlier tree-ring chronology spans 545yr and is a floating ring-width series tied to radiocarbon ages of about 3000calyr BP. This tree-ring work indicates two intervals of glacial expansion by the Geikie Glacier system toward the...

Beschreibung: Water, being a primary element in the diet and a necessary resource for the agriculture, can be considered a basic need for humans. In addition, also industrial practices need a growing amount of water. Since human population is continuously growing at a rate that, in the last two centuries, approximates well the exponential, water demand is increasing. However, the water resources on the Earth are finite. For this reason, even disregarding the potential threats due to the climate change, this situation appears as one of the biggest challenges of the current era. Actually, several small-scale regions already face water sustainability problems, and the scarcity of water resources is expected to spread to wider areas in the near future, if the actual trends of development and population growth do not change. The situation is exacerbated as the climate is already changing, due to the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and its rate is expected to increase by the end of this century. The effects of these changes will increase the natural variability of the climate, exacerbating the extreme climatic phenomena (drought and flood events) and increasing the difficulty of managing water resources, especially in the most vulnerable regions.

Beschreibung: This paper provides data from two years of monitoring of the chemical quality of rivers and streams in North West England from the clean headwaters to polluted rivers just above the tidal reach and covers 26 sites including the Ribble, Wyre and the tributary rivers of the Calder and Douglas. Across the basins that include areas of rural, urban and industrial typologies, data is presented for three of the priority substances in the Water Framework Directive i.e., nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb). Average concentrations are low and well below the Environmental Quality Standards values for all three of these substances. Cadmium and Pb appear in approximately equal proportions in the dissolved (0.45 µm) whilst Ni occurs predominantly in the dissolved form (92%). Regional inputs of these metals arise mostly from diffuse sources as the storm-flow concentrations are generally greater than at base-flow condition. Greater concentrations of Ni are transported at the headwaters and smaller tributary sites under storm flow condition than for the main stream of the Ribble. For Ni, amounts increase as the river proceeds from its headwaters down towards the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, whilst Cd and Pb show consistent values throughout the catchment. There is annual cycling of dissolved concentrations of Cd, Pb and Ni for the clean headwater streams that gives maxima during the latter half of the year when the river flow is greater. For the impacted sites the pattern is less distinct or absent. Our estimates suggest that the Ribble estuary receives 550 t y−1 of dissolved Ni, 16 t y−1 of dissolved Cd and 240 t y−1 of dissolved Pb.

Beschreibung: The use of remote sensing for environmental policy development is now quite common and well-documented, as images from remote sensing platforms are often used to focus attention on emerging environmental issues and spur debate on potential policy solutions. However, its use in policy implementation and evaluation has not been examined in much detail. Here we examine the use of remote sensing to support the implementation and enforcement of policies regarding the conservation of forests and wetlands in the USA. Specifically, we focus on the “Roadless Rule” and “Travel Management Rules” as enforced by the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service on national forests, and the “No Net Loss” policy and Clean Water Act for wetlands on public and private lands, as enforced by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Army Corps of Engineers. We discuss several national and regional examples of how remote sensing for forest and wetland conservation has been effectively integrated with policy decisions, along with barriers to further integration. Some of these barriers are financial and technical (such as the lack of data at scales appropriate to policy enforcement), while others are political.

Beschreibung: The aim of this paper is to analyze two Finnish Joint Regional Authorities for Water Supply—namely the Raisio-Naantali Joint Municipal Authority for Water Supply (established in 1957) and the Tuusula Region Joint Municipal Authority for Water Supply (established in 1967)—for assessing the development of supra-municipal water governance. The above two cases make it possible to analyze and assess water policies in settings where the owners are groups of municipalities. The analysis is based on two separately conducted case studies. The study data consist of several types of materials: Annual reports, local government documents, etc. The conducted interviews were semi-structured with some themes defined beforehand. The studies describe two authorities in the context of historical development and as a part of local development.

Beschreibung: Unconferencing is a method for organizing social learning which could be suitable to trigger sustainability learning processes. An unconference is defined as participant-driven meeting that tries to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as top-down organization, one-way communication and power-relationships based on titles, formal hierarchies and status. This paper presents a case study on the application of unconferencing in a large Swiss university (ETH Zurich) where an unconference was conducted to engage students, academics, staff and external experts in a mutual learning process aimed at the development of project ideas for reducing its CO2 emissions. The study analyzes how the unconferencing format initiated and promoted sustainability oriented group processes during the unconference, and in how far the projects which were developed contributed to a reduction of the university’s CO2 emissions.

Beschreibung: Understanding the socio-economic factors that are associated with fishers’ willingness to delay gratification may be useful for designing appropriate fisheries management and conservation policies. We aim to identify the predictors of low discounting behaviour among fishers, which is analogous to having a longer-term outlook. We base our empirical study on two small-scale tropical reef fisheries in Sabah, Malaysia, and Fiji. We use an experimental approach to identify fishers with low discount rates, and then use a logistic regression model to identify predictors of low discount rates. We find that 42% of the respondents have low discount rates, and that site and village level variables are significant predictors of low discount rates. Within Sabah and Fiji, boat ownership and relative catch differentiate low discounting from non-low discounting fishers, but these variables have contradictory effects in Sabah and Fiji. Overall, our results imply that a substantial proportion of reef fishers may be willing to engage in conservation initiatives; however, local socio-cultural, economic, and ecological conditions have to be considered first during the process of designing management interventions.

Beschreibung: Peelle’s Pertinent Puzzle (PPP) was described in 1987 in the context of estimating fundamental parameters that arise in nuclear interaction experiments. In PPP, generalized least squares (GLS) parameter estimates fell outside the range of the data, which has raised concerns that GLS is somehow flawed and has led to suggested alternatives to GLS estimators. However, there have been no corresponding performance comparisons among methods, and one suggested approach involving simulated data realizations is statistically incomplete. Here we provide performance comparisons among estimators, introduce approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) using density estimation applied to simulated data realizations to produce an alternative to the incomplete approach, complete the incompletely specified approach, and show that estimation error in the assumed covariance matrix cannot always be ignored.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 25 June 2011 Natalie M., Monacci , Ursula, Meier-Grünhagen , Bruce P., Finney , Hermann, Behling , Matthew J., Wooller This study examines a sediment core (SR-63) from a mangrove ecosystem along the Sibun River in Belize, which is subject to both changes in sea-level and in the characteristics of the river's drainage basin. Radiocarbon dates from the core show a decreased sedimentation rate from ~6ka to 1calka BP and a marked change in lithology from primarily mangrove peat to fluvial-derived material at ~2.5calka BP. Changes in the sedimentation rates observed in mangrove ecosystems offshore have previously been attributed to changes in relative sea-level and the rate of sea-level rise. Pollen analyses show a decreased abundance of Rhizophora (red mangrove)...

Beschreibung: This study used an affordable ground-based portable LiDAR system to provide an understanding of the structural differences between old-growth and secondary-growth Southeastern pine. It provided insight into the strengths and weaknesses in the structural determination of portable systems in contrast to airborne LiDAR systems. Portable LiDAR height profiles and derived metrics and indices (e.g., canopy cover, canopy height) were compared among plots with different fire frequency and fire season treatments within secondary forest and old growth plots. The treatments consisted of transitional season fire with four different return intervals: 1-yr, 2-yr, 3-yr fire return intervals, and fire suppressed plots. The remaining secondary plots were treated using a 2-yr late dormant season fire cycle. The old growth plots were treated using a 2-yr growing season fire cycle. Airborne and portable LiDAR derived canopy cover were consistent throughout the plots, with significantly higher canopy cover values found in 3-yr and fire suppressed plots. Portable LiDAR height profile and metrics presented a higher sensitivity in capturing subcanopy elements than the airborne system, particularly in dense canopy plots. The 3-dimensional structures of the secondary plots with varying fire return intervals were dramatically different to old-growth plots, where a symmetrical distribution with clear recruitment was visible. Portable LiDAR, even though limited to finer spatial scales and specific biases, is a low-cost investment with clear value for the management of forest canopy structure.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 8 June 2011 Jan-Hendrik, May , Jana, Zech , Roland, Zech , Frank, Preusser , Jaime, Argollo , ... Although glacial landscapes have previously been used for the reconstruction of late Quaternary glaciations in the Central Andes, only few data exist for the Eastern Cordillera in Bolivia. Here, we present results from detailed morphostratigraphic mapping and new data of surface exposure dating (SED), optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), and radiocarbon dating (14C) from the Huara Loma Valley, Cordillera de Cochabamba (Bolivia). Discrepancies between individual dating methods could be addressed within the context of a solid geomorphic framework. We identified two major glaciations. The older is not well constrained by the available data, whereas the younger glaciation is subdivided into at...

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 12 June 2011 Roderick J., Bale , Iain, Robertson , Matthew W., Salzer , Neil J., Loader , Steven W., Leavitt , ... We present the first near millennium-length, annually resolved stable isotope record from bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva, D.K Bailey). The carbon isotope ratios from the cellulose of seven trees from the White Mountains of California, corrected for anthropogenic changes in atmospheric chemistry, are used to reconstruct growing season (June through August) precipitation back to AD 1085. Extremely negative isotope results are strongly correlated with proposed severest El Niño events over the last 500yr, and similar values in the first half of the millennium are used to reconstruct a further 13 strong El Niño events, concentrated in the 12th Century and the...

Beschreibung: This study integrates photovoltaic (PV) system, building structure, and heat flow mechanism to propose the notion of ventilated Building-Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) walls. The energy-saving potential of the ventilated BIPV walls was investigated via engineering considerations and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The results show that the heat removal rate and indoor heat gain of the proposed ventilated BIPV walls were dominantly affected by outdoor wind velocity and airflow channel width. Correlations for predicting the heat removal rate and indoor heat gain, the reduction ratio of the indoor heat gain, CO2 reduction, and induced indoor air exchange are introduced.

Beschreibung: The goal of the two year Ground European Network for Earth Science Interoperations-Digital Repositories (GENESI-DR) project was to build an open and seamless access service to Earth science digital repositories for European and world-wide science users. In order to showcase GENESI-DR, one of the developed technology demonstrators focused on fast search, discovery, and access to remotely sensed imagery in the context of post-disaster building damage assessment. This paper describes the scenario and implementation details of the technology demonstrator, which was developed to support post-disaster damage assessment analyst activities. Once a disaster alert has been issued, response time is critical to providing relevant damage information to analysts and/or stakeholders. The presented technology demonstrator validates the GENESI-DR project data search, discovery and security infrastructure and integrates the rapid urban area mapping and the near real-time orthorectification web processing services to support a post-disaster damage needs assessment analysis scenario. It also demonstrates how the GENESI-DR SOA can be linked to web processing services that access grid computing resources for fast image processing and use secure communication to ensure confidentiality of information.

Beschreibung: In this paper, two main approaches for automatic building detection and localization using high spatial resolution imagery and LiDAR data are compared and evaluated: thresholding-based and object-based classification. The thresholding-based approach is founded on the establishment of two threshold values: one refers to the minimum height to be considered as building, defined using the LiDAR data, and the other refers to the presence of vegetation, which is defined according to the spectral response. The other approach follows the standard scheme of object-based image classification: segmentation, feature extraction and selection, and classification, here performed using decision trees. In addition, the effect of the inclusion in the building detection process of contextual relations with the shadows is evaluated. Quality assessment is performed at two different levels: area and object. Area-level evaluates the building delineation performance, whereas object-level assesses the accuracy in the spatial location of individual buildings. The results obtained show a high efficiency of the evaluated methods for building detection techniques, in particular the thresholding-based approach, when the parameters are properly adjusted and adapted to the type of urban landscape considered.

Beschreibung: A review of the literature published from 2008 to 2010 on topics related to chemicals and allied products is presented. The review considered several sections such as waste management, physicochemical treatment, aerobic treatment, anaerobic treatment, air emissions, soils and groundwater, and reuse.

Beschreibung: Accurate electric load forecasting has become the most important issue in energy management; however, electric load demonstrates a seasonal/cyclic tendency from economic activities or the cyclic nature of climate. The applications of the support vector regression (SVR) model to deal with seasonal/cyclic electric load forecasting have not been widely explored. The purpose of this paper is to present a SVR model which combines the seasonal adjustment mechanism and a chaotic immune algorithm (namely SSVRCIA) to forecast monthly electric loads. Based on the operation procedure of the immune algorithm (IA), if the population diversity of an initial population cannot be maintained under selective pressure, then IA could only seek for the solutions in the narrow space and the solution is far from the global optimum (premature convergence). The proposed chaotic immune algorithm (CIA) based on the chaos optimization algorithm and IA, which diversifies the initial definition domain in stochastic optimization procedures, is used to overcome the premature local optimum issue in determining three parameters of a SVR model. A numerical example from an existing reference is used to elucidate the forecasting performance of the proposed SSVRCIA model. The forecasting results indicate that the proposed model yields more accurate forecasting results than the ARIMA and TF-ε-SVR-SA models, and therefore the SSVRCIA model is a promising alternative for electric load forecasting.

Beschreibung: To meet European Water Framework Directive requirements, data are needed on faecal indicator organism (FIO) concentrations in rivers to enable the more heavily polluted to be targeted for remedial action. Due to the paucity of FIO data for the UK, especially under high-flow hydrograph event conditions, there is an urgent need by the policy community for generic models that can accurately predict FIO concentrations, thus informing integrated catchment management programmes. This paper reports the development of regression models to predict base- and high-flow faecal coliform (FC) and enterococci (EN) concentrations for 153 monitoring points across 14 UK catchments, using land cover, population (human and livestock density) and other variables that may affect FIO source strength, transport and die-off. Statistically significant models were developed for both FC and EN, with greater explained variance achieved in the high-flow models. Both land cover and, in particular, population variables are significant predictors of FIO concentrations, with r2 maxima for EN of 0.571 and 0.624, respectively. It is argued that the resulting models can be applied, with confidence, to other UK catchments, both to predict FIO concentrations in unmonitored watercourses and evaluate the likely impact of different land use/stocking level and human population change scenarios.

Beschreibung: A comparison of the community structure of juvenile hermatypic corals of 2 to 37 m depth at the fringing reefs of Curaçao between 1975 and 2005 shows a decline of 54.7% in juvenile coral abundance and a shift in species composition. Agaricia species and Helioseris cucullata, the most common juveniles in 1975, showed the largest decline in juvenile abundance (a 9 and 120 fold decrease in density respectively) with Helioseris cucullata being nearly extirpated locally. In 2005, Porites astreoides contributed most colonies to the juvenile coral community, increasing from 8.2% (in 1975) to 19.9% of the total juvenile community. Between 1975 and 2005, juveniles of brooding species decreased in relative abundance while the abundance of juveniles of broadcast spawning species increased or remained the same. These data illustrate the magnitude of the changes that have occurred in only three decades in the composition of juvenile coral communities.

Beschreibung: This paper explores the politics around the role of agency in the UK climate change debate. Government interventions on the demand side of consumption have increasingly involved attempts to obtain greater traction with the values, attitudes and beliefs of citizens in relation to climate change and also in terms of influencing consumer behaviour at an individual level. With figures showing that approximately 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions are attributable to household and transport behaviour, policy initiatives have progressively focused on the facilitation of “sustainable behaviours”. Evidence suggests however, that mobilisation of pro-environmental attitudes in addressing the perceived “value-action gap” has so far had limited success. Research in this field suggests that there is a more significant and nuanced “gap” between context and behaviour; a relationship that perhaps provides a more adroit reflection of reasons why people do not necessarily react in the way that policy-makers anticipate. Tracing the development of the UK Government’s behaviour change agenda over the last decade, we posit that a core reason for the limitations of this programme relates to an excessively narrow focus on the individual. This has served to obscure some of the wider political and economic aspects of the debate in favour of a more simplified discussion. The second part of the paper reports findings from a series of focus groups exploring some of the wider political views that people hold around household energy habits, purchase and use of domestic appliances, and transport behaviour-and discusses these insights in relation to the literature on the agenda’s apparent limitations. The paper concludes by considering whether the aims of the Big Society approach (recently established by the UK’s Coalition Government) hold the potential to engage more directly with some of these issues or whether they merely constitute a “repackaging” of the individualism agenda.

Beschreibung: An adsorption microcalorimeter was designed and built in our laboratory and used for the determination of differential adsorption heats in different samples of porous solids: activated carbon granules, activated carbon pellets, an activated carbon monolith and a zeolite sample. This work shows the relationship between adsorption heat and the pore size of different porous solids using adsorption of NH3, CO and N2O. The result shows that the thermal effect can be related with textural properties and superficial chemical groups of the studied porous solids. The values of differential heats of N2O adsorption in the investigated systems have shown that this interaction is weaker than that with CO. Small amounts of N2O are chemisorbed in the investigated systems. For the room temperature adsorption of N2O, the strongest active sites for the interaction with Brönsted acid groups in the ACM structure were identified. The values determined are between −60 kJ/mol and −110 kJ/mol for ZMOR and ACM, respectively, for the adsorption of N2O and −95 kJ/mol and −130 kJ/mol for the adsorption of CO.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 14 June 2011 Denis, Wirrmann , Anne-Marie, Sémah , Jean-Pierre, Debenay , Magali, Chacornac-Rault Multiproxy analysis of three littoral cores from western New Caledonia supports the hypothesis that the main controlling factors of environmental changes are sea-level change, ENSO variability and extra-tropical phenomena, such as the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) marked by a tendency for La Niña-like conditions in the tropical Pacific. The record starts during the late Holocene sea-level rise when the terrestrial vegetation indicated wet and cool conditions. The site was a coastal bay definitely transformed into a freshwater swamp at around 3400calyr BP, after the rapid drawdown of sea level to its current level. Sediments and foraminiferal assemblages indicated subsequent episodes...

Beschreibung: The development of genetically engineered (GE) crops has focused predominantly on enhancing conventional pest control approaches. Scientific assessments show that these GE crops generally deliver significant economic and some environmental benefits over their conventional crop alternatives. However, emerging evidence indicates that current GE crops will not foster sustainable cropping systems unless the negative environmental and social feedback effects are properly addressed. Moreover, GE crop innovations that promote more sustainable agricultural systems will receive underinvestment by seed and chemical companies that must understandably focus on private returns for major crops. Opportunities to promote crops that convey multi-faceted benefits for the environment and the poor are foundational to a sustainable food system and should not be neglected because they also represent global public goods. In this paper, we develop a set of criteria that can guide the development of GE crops consistent with contemporary sustainable agriculture theory and practice. Based on those principles, we offer policy options and recommendations for reforming public and private R&D and commercialization processes to further the potential contributions of GE crops to sustainable agriculture. Two strategies that would help achieve this goal would be to restore the centrality of the public sector in agricultural R&D and to open the technology development process to more democratic participation by farmers and other stakeholders.

Beschreibung: Landscape scale conservation planning efforts have been in place for the past several decades to maintain biodiversity. Objectives of past efforts have been to identify areas to create reserves based on species diversity, land ownership, and landscape context. Risk analysis has not often been included in these spatial analyses. Datasets such as the Southwest Regional Gap Analysis (SWReGAP) are now available as are processes that allow risk analysis to be viewed in a spatial context in relations to factors that affect habitats over broad scales. We describe a method to include four spatial datasets to provide coarse scale delineation on areas to focus conservation including species numbers, key habitats, land management and factors that influence habitats. We used the SWReGAP management status dataset to identify management categories for long-term intent of management for biodiversity. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish identified a set of 290 Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN). Species occurrences for these species were associated with hydrologic unit codes from the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). Key habitats were identified by using the SWReGAP land cover dataset and NHD derivatives. Factors that influence habitats were identified and scored for 89 land cover types and 23 aquatic habitats identified by the NMDGF. Our final model prioritizes landscapes that are within key habitats, have high numbers of terrestrial and aquatic Species of Greatest Conservation Need taxa, may be potentially altered by multiple effects that influence habitats, and lack long-term legally-binding management plans protecting them from anthropogenic degradation. Similar to other efforts, riparian and aquatic habitats were identified as the most important for conservation. This information may be displayed spatially, allowing land managers and decision makers to understand the ecological context where multiple effects of potential factors may influence some habitats greater than others, and repeat process with CWCS revisions.

Beschreibung: The urban heat island effect is linked to the built environment and threatens human health during extreme heat events. In this study, we analyzed whether characteristic land uses within an urban area are associated with higher or lower surface temperatures, and whether concentrations of “hot” land uses exacerbate this relationship. Zonal statistics on a thermal remote sensing image for the City of Toronto revealed statistically significant differences between high average temperatures for commercial and resource/industrial land use (29.1 °C), and low average temperatures for parks and recreational land (25.1 °C) and water bodies (23.1 °C). Furthermore, higher concentrations of either of these land uses were associated with more extreme surface temperatures. We also present selected neighborhoods to illustrate these results. The paper concludes by recommending that municipal planners and decision-makers formulate policies and regulations that are specific to the problematic land uses, in order to mitigate extreme heat.

Beschreibung: The objective of this study is to validate an approach based on the change detection in multitemporal TerraSAR images (X-band) for mapping soil moisture in the Sahelian area. In situ measurements were carried out simultaneously with TerraSAR-X acquisitions on two study sites in Niger. The results show the need for comparing the difference between the rainy season image and a reference image acquired in the dry season. The use of two images enables a reduction of the roughness effects. The soils of plateaus covered with erosion crusts are dry throughout the year while the fallows show more significant moisture during the rainy season. The accuracy on the estimate of soil moisture is about 2.3% (RMSE) in comparison with in situ moisture contents.

Beschreibung: Negligence of former industrial sites (“brownfields”) has adversely impacted urban landscapes throughout the industrialized world. Brownfield redevelopment has recently emerged as a sustainable land use strategy and impetus for urban revitalization. This study presents a system dynamics model of the redevelopment process that illustrates how delays compound before realizing financial benefits from investment in these core urban areas. We construct a dynamic hypothesis, in which brownfield redevelopment activities are dependent upon funding and in turn bolster tax base through job creation. Drawing on previous studies, barriers to brownfield redevelopment are explored, including fear of liability, regulatory concerns, and uncertain cleanup standards and funding mechanisms. We model a case study of redevelopment in the State of Michigan (USA), which is informed by data from the Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and U.S. Conference of Mayors brownfield surveys. Stock-flow structures represent phases of redevelopment, with diverted streams for sites in which no contamination was found (false alarms) and those with excess contamination level. The model is used to examine the point at which cumulative tax revenues from redeveloped areas exceed cumulative expenditures on brownfield redevelopment under different levels of funding availability.

Beschreibung: Typically the aim in the construction process is to calculate the energy, space and cost efficiency in the design phase. These factors’ influence on decision making extends to the whole building process. How these decisions affect the use of the building and user satisfaction as well as maintenance is still not that well understood. This study analyses different schools and day care centers and their energy as well as primary energy use. The buildings are located in southern Finland. Each building has had different objectives with respect to energy efficiency in the design phase. Our objective was to find out how those decisions made in the design and construction phase have influenced the overall energy performance of the building compared to existing building stock of similar building type. The results show that the studied buildings had lower thermal energy consumption compared to existing building stock. Thus the special attention in the design phase allowed achieving the desired goal. However, for the electricity consumption such a correlation could not be found. One of the reasons could be also different service level of buildings (more equipment). Also other quality values could not be compared since such data were not available from the existing building stock. As many earlier studies have indicated users have a high influence on the energy consumption. In the future, when feed-back from the users are obtained it will be interesting to analyze the results and compare what kind of influence that user behavior will have on the overall energy consumption of the studied buildings.

Beschreibung: The Jordan River basin is subject to extreme and increasing water scarcity. Management of transboundary water resources in the basin is closely intertwined with political conflicts in the region. We have jointly developed with stakeholders and experts from the riparian countries, a new dynamic consensus database and—supported by hydro-climatological model simulations and participatory scenario exercises in the GLOWA (Global Change and the Hydrological Cycle) Jordan River project—a basin-wide Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) tool, which will allow testing of various unilateral and multilateral adaptation options under climate and socio-economic change. We present its validation and initial (climate and socio-economic) scenario analyses with this budget and allocation tool, and invite further adaptation and application of the tool for specific Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) problems.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 7 May 2011 Bryan Keith, Sell , Scott Douglas, Samson Geochemical correlation of ash-fall beds with conventional tephrochronologic methods is not feasible when original glass composition is altered. Thus, alternative correlation methods may be required. Initial studies of heavily altered Paleozoic tephra (K-bentonites) have suggested the potential for employing trace-element concentrations in apatite as ash-fall bed discriminators. To further test the utility of apatite trace-element tephrochronology, we analyzed apatite phenocrysts from unaltered volcanic rocks with an electron microprobe: nine samples from rocks erupted during the Quaternary and one sample from a rock erupted during the Paleogene. The resulting apatite trace-element data provide unique bed discriminators despite within-crystal variability. Each of...

Beschreibung: Both organic and conventional farming processes require energy input in the form of diesel fuel for farming equipment, animal feed, and fertilizer compounds. The most significant difference between the two methods is the use in conventional farming of mineral fertilizers and pesticides that are minimally employed in organic management. It is argued that organic farming is more environmentally friendly, given that synthetic fertilizers mainly used at conventional farms are replaced with animal manure and cover crops. Nutrient uptake by plants is additionally enhanced by the effective use of rhizobia and other types of plant growth-promoting bacteria, in combination with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. This article aims to compare the amounts and/or types of energy and nutrients required for both farming systems and provide feasible suggestions for the sustainable use of farm resources in combination with good crop yields.

Beschreibung: In 2009, just 27% of American teens with mobile phones reported using their devices to access the internet. However, teens from lower income families and minority teens were significantly more likely to use their phones to go online. Together, these surprising trends suggest a potential narrowing of the digital divide, offering internet access to those without other means of going online. This is an important move, as, in today’s society, internet access is central to active citizenship in general and teen citizenship in particular. Yet the cost of this move toward equal access is absorbed by those who can least afford it: Teenagers from low income households. Using survey and focus group data from a national study of “Teens and Mobile Phone Use” (released by Pew and the University of Michigan in 2010), this article helps identify and explain this and other emergent trends for teen use (as well as non-use) of the internet through mobile phones.

Beschreibung: Forest management planning in Finland is currently adopting a new-generation forest inventory method, which is based on interpretation of airborne laser scanning data and digital aerial images. The inventory method is based on a systematic grid, where the grid elements serve as inventory units, for which the laser and aerial image data are extracted and the forest variables estimated. As an alternative or a complement to the grid elements, image segments can be used as inventory units. The image segments are particularly useful as the basis for generation of the silvicultural treatment and cutting units since their boundaries should follow the actual stand borders, whereas when using grid elements it is typical that some of them cover parts of several forest stands. The proportion of the so-called mixed cells depends on the size of the grid elements and the average size and shape of the stands. In this study, we carried out automatic segmentation of two study areas on the basis of laser and aerial image data with a view to delineating micro-stands that are homogeneous in relation to their forest attributes. Further, we extracted laser and aerial image features for both systematic grid elements and segments. For both units, the feature set used for estimating the forest attributes was selected by means of a genetic algorithm. Of the features selected, the majority (61–79%) were based on the airborne laser scanning data. Despite the theoretical advantages of the image segments, the laser and aerial features extracted from grid elements seem to work better than features extracted from image segments in estimation of forest attributes. We conclude that estimation should be carried out at grid level with an area-specific combination of features and estimates for image segments to be derived on the basis of the grid-level estimates.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 13 May 2011 Arjen P., Stroeven , Derek, Fabel , Jonathan M., Harbor , David, Fink , Marc W., Caffee , ... Deglaciation chronologies for some sectors of former ice sheets are relatively poorly constrained because of the paucity of features or materials traditionally used to constrain the timing of deglaciation. In areas without good deglaciation varve chronologies and/or without widespread occurrence of material that indicates the start of earliest organic radiocarbon accumulations suitable for radiocarbon dating, typically only general patterns and chronologies of deglaciation have been deduced. However, mid-latitude ice sheets that had warm-based conditions close to their margins often produced distinctive deglaciation landform assemblages, including eskers, deltas, meltwater channels and aligned lineation systems. Because these features were formed or significantly...

Beschreibung: Narrow channels located in the longwave IR CO2 absorption region between approximately 13.2 and 14.5 μm, the well known CO2 slicing channels, have been proven to be quite effective for the estimates of cloud heights and effective cloud amounts as well as atmospheric temperature profiles. The designs of some of the near-future multi-channel earth observing satellite sensors cannot accommodate these longwave IR channels. Based on the analysis of the multi-channel imaging data collected with the NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MODIS) instrument and on theoretical cloud radiative transfer modeling, we have found that narrow channels located at the midwave IR region between approximately 4.2 and 4.55 μm, where the combined CO2 and N2O absorption effects decrease rapidly with increasing wavelength, have similar properties as the longwave IR CO2 slicing channels. The scattering of solar radiation by clouds on the long wavelength side of the 4.3 μm CO2 absorption makes only a small contribution to the upwelling radiances. In order to retain the crucial cloud and temperature sensing capabilities, future satellite sensors should consider including midwave IR CO2 and N2O slicing channels if the longwave IR channels cannot be implemented on the sensors. The hyperspectral data covering the 3.7-15.5 mm wavelength range and measured with the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) can be used to further assess the utility of midwave IR channels for satellite remote sensing.

Beschreibung: Research Articles Ian Hawes, Karl Safi, Brian Sorrell, Jenny Webster-Brown, David Arscott, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 03 , pp 235-242 Abstract

Beschreibung: Research Articles G.C. Grobler, A.D.S. Bastos, C.T. Chimimba, S.L. Chown, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 03 , pp 225-234 Abstract

Beschreibung: The Mt Cer Pluton, Serbia, is a complex laccolith-like intrusion (~ 60 km2), situated along the junction between the southern Pannonian Basin and northern Dinarides. It intrudes Palaeozoic metamorphic rocks causing weak to strong thermal effects. Based on modal and chemical compositions, four rock-types can be distinguished: (1) metaluminous I-type quartz monzonite/quartz monzodiorite (QMZD); (2) peraluminous S-type two-mica granite (TMG), which intrudes QMZD; (3) Stra[z]anica granodiorite/quartz monzonite (GDS); and (4) isolated mafic enclaves (ME), found only in QMZD. 40K-39Ar dating and geological constraints indicate that the main quartz monzonite/quartz monzodiorite body of Mt Cer was emplaced not later than 21 Ma, whereas the emplacement ages of the Stra[z]anica granodiorite/quartz monzonite and two-mica granites are estimated at around 18 and 16 Ma, respectively. The Mt Cer pluton is similar to the Mt Bukulja pluton, some 80 km southwestwards. Genesis of QMZD cannot be interpreted by fractional crystallization coupled with mixing or assimilation. It is best explained by a convection-diffusion process between mantle-derived minette/leucominette magmas and GDS-like magmas followed by two end-member magma mixing. The composition of GDS rocks suggests that GDS-like magmas could have formed by melting of lower crustal lithologies similar to amphibolite/metabasalts. The geochemistry of TMG is reproduced by an Assimilation/Fractional Crystallization model with a ratio of rate of assimilation to rate of fractional crystallization of 0.4, using the compositions of the least evolved TMG of the Bukulja pluton and adjacent metamorphic rocks as proxies for the parental magma and contaminant, respectively. The origin and evolution of the Mt Cer and adjacent Mt Bukulja plutons provide new constraints on the Tertiary geodynamics of the northern Dinarides-southern Pannonian region. The quartz monzonite/quartz monzodiorite is interpreted as a result of the Oligocene post-collisional Dinaride orogen-collapse, which included a limited lithosphere delamination, small-scale mantle upwelling, and melting of the lower crust. By contrast, the two-mica granite magmas formed through melting in shallower crustal levels during the extensional collapse in the Pannonian area.

Beschreibung: Late Carboniferous red-beds, 〈 700 m thick, at outcrop and in the subsurface of the Canonbie Coalfield can be assigned to the Warwickshire Group. They are preserved within the axial part of the Solway Syncline and are divisible into the Eskbank Wood, Canonbie Bridge Sandstone and Becklees Sandstone formations. Sedimentation largely took place on a well-drained alluvial plain, characterized mainly by early, primary oxidation of the strata. Large, northerly-flowing braided river systems were common, with overbank and floodplain fines deposited lateral to the channels; soils formed during intervals of low sediment aggradation. The Canonbie succession includes some of the youngest Carboniferous rocks preserved in the UK. Correlation of the Eskbank Wood Formation is equivocal, but using petrographical, heavy mineral, zircon age dating and palaeocurrent data, the Canonbie Bridge Sandstone Formation can be unambiguously correlated with the Halesowen Formation of Warwickshire, the Pennant Sandstone Formation of South Wales and the offshore Boulton Formation. This suggests that southerly-derived detritus travelled considerable distances from the Variscan highlands of Brittany and/or central Germany across the southern North Sea and UK areas, to a position some hundreds of kilometres north of that previously recognized. The Becklees Sandstone Formation has much in common with the Salop Formation of the English Midlands. It appears to have no preserved equivalent elsewhere in the UK or in the UK sector of the southern North Sea but resembles stratigraphically higher parts of the southern North Sea succession seen in the Dutch sector.

Beschreibung: The morphology and structure of the 1999 lava flows at Mount Cameroon volcano are documented and discussed in relation to local and source dynamics. Structures are analysed qualitatively and more detailed arguments are developed on the processes of levee formation and systematic links between flow dynamics and levee-channel interface geometry. The flows have clear channels bordered by four main types of levees: initial, accretionary, rubble and overflow levees. Thermally immature pahoehoe lava units with overflow drapes define the proximal zone, whereas rubble and accretionary levees are common in the distal region bordering thermally mature aa clinker or blocky aa flow channels. Pressure ridges, squeeze-ups and pahoehoe ropes are the prevalent compressive structures. Standlines displayed on clinkery breccias are interpreted to represent levee-channel interactions in response to changing flow levels. These data complement previous knowledge on lava flow morphology, thus far dominated by Etnean and Hawaiian examples.

Beschreibung: The Takab complex is composed of a variety of metamorphic rocks including amphibolites, metapelites, mafic granulites, migmatites and meta-ultramafics, which are intruded by the granitoid. The granitoid magmatic activity occurred in relation to the subduction of the Neo-Tethys oceanic crust beneath the Iranian crust during Tertiary times. The granitoids are mainly granodiorite, quartz monzodiorite, monzonite and quartz diorite. Chemically, the magmatic rocks are characterized by ASI

Beschreibung: Tectonothermal analysis of a mainly carbonate unit located in the external part of the Variscan orogen in NW Spain is dealt with using the conodont colour alteration index (CAI) and the study of textures of these microfossils. The Kubler index of the illite (KI) is used as a complementary method. The area is characterized by a great uniformity in the CAI values, which in most cases are

Beschreibung: The hot emplacement of the Ronda peridotites (Betic Cordilleras) developed a dynamothermal aureole and partial melts that led to the intrusion of granite dykes in the peridotites. Previous geochronological data place rather broad limits for this event between 22 and 19 Ma. Analyses of neocrystalline zircon rims from large zircon populations yield a U-Pb SHRIMP age of 22.3{+/-}0.7 Ma for the dynamothermal aureole formation, and intrusion ages of granite dykes between 22.6{+/-}1.8 and 21.5{+/-}3.8 support that conclusion. Therefore, these new ages provide a more robust constraint on the hot emplacement of the Ronda peridotites at middle crustal levels.

Beschreibung: The Pele La Group in the Wachi La section in the Black Mountains of central Bhutan represents the easternmost exposure of Cambrian strata known in the Himalaya. The group contains a succession of siliciclastic rocks with minor amounts of carbonate, the uppermost unit of which, the Quartzite Formation, bears age-diagnostic trilobite body fossils that are approximately 493 Ma old. Trilobite species include Kaolishania granulosa, Taipaikia glabra and the new species Lingyuanaspis sangae. A billingsellid brachiopod, Billingsella cf. tonkiniana, is co-occurrent. This fauna is precisely correlated with that of a specific stratigraphic horizon within the upper part of the Kaolishania Zone, Stage 9 of the Cambrian System, Furongian Epoch of the North China block, and thus represents the youngest Cambrian sedimentary rocks yet known from the Himalaya. The faunal similarity suggests proximity between North China and the Himalayan margin at this time. This unit was deposited in a predominantly storm-influenced shelf and shoreface environment. U-Pb geochronological data from detrital zircon grains from the fossil-bearing beds of the Quartzite Formation and strata of the underlying Deshichiling Formation show grain age spectra consistent with those from Cambrian rocks of the Lesser and Tethyan Himalaya in Tibet, India and Pakistan. These data support continuity of the northern Gondwanan margin across the Himalaya. Prominent peaks of approximately 500 Ma zircons in both the Quartzite and Deshichiling formations are consistent with the Furongian (late Cambrian) age assignment for these strata. The presence of these relatively young zircon populations implies rapid post-cooling erosion of igneous bodies and subsequent deposition which may reflect the influence of a widespread Cambro-Ordovician orogenic event evident in the western Himalaya.

Beschreibung: The Miocene-Quaternary Trans-Mexican Volcanic arc is thought to have grown southwards (i.e. trenchward) since the Pliocene. This theory is mainly supported by roughly N-S-directed polygenetic volcanic ranges along which volcanic activity migrates southwards with time. We investigated the eruptive history of one of these ranges, the Sierra Nevada (east boundary of Mexico City basin), by compiling literature ages and providing new K-Ar dates. Our K-Ar ages are the first ones for the northernmost Tlaloc and Telapon volcanoes and for the ancestral Popocatepetl (Nexpayantla). The obtained ages reveal that the four stratovolcanoes forming the range worked contemporaneously during most of the Middle to Late Pleistocene. However, taking into account the onset of the volcanic activity, a southward migration is evidenced along the Sierra Nevada: volcanism initiated at its northern tip at least 1.8 Ma ago at Tlaloc volcano, extended southwards 1 Ma ago with Iztaccihuatl and appeared at its southern end 329 ka ago with the Nexpayantla cone. Such a migration would be most probably primarily driven by Cocos slab roll-back and steepening rather than by regional crustal tectonics, which played a secondary role by controlling the apparent alignment of the volcanoes.

Beschreibung: Electron microprobe analyses of 128 detrital rutile grains from two Jurassic sandstone samples (Hettangian and Bajocian-Bathonian in age) from hydrocarbon exploration wells on the Norwegian margin confirm that more than 85 % of the rutiles were derived from metapelitic rocks. Zr-in-rutile geothermometry confirms that about 83 % of the rutile was formed under high-grade metamorphism (〉750 {degrees}C). Sixty-two rutile grains, including 60 of the identified high-temperature rutile population, were also analysed for U-Pb geochronology using SHRIMP. The 206Pb-238U rutile ages range from approximately 485-292 Ma, with a major cluster between 450 and 380 Ma. These data suggest that the detrital rutile was predominantly derived from a felsic source that experienced granulite-facies metamorphism about 450-380 Ma ago. This conclusion is consistent with derivation from high-grade Caledonian metasedimentary rocks, probably the Krummedal sequence in central East Greenland, as previously suggested by an earlier provenance study using conventional heavy mineral analysis, garnet geochemistry and detrital zircon age dating. The present study underscores the importance of rutile geochemistry and geochronology in quantitative single-mineral provenance analysis of clastic sedimentary rocks.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 18 May 2011 Oliver A.C., Atkinson , David S.G., Thomas , Andrew S., Goudie , Richard M., Bailey The northeastern sector of the Rub' al-Khali desert in the eastern United Arab Emirates (UAE) is dominated by large NE–SW trending dune ridges orientated perpendicular to the currently prevailing northwesterly wind regime. In this study, extensive use has been made of artificially exposed sections through these major dune ridges that reveal internal sedimentary structures and allow an intensive, high-resolution sampling programme to be carried out. Here, we present the optical dating results for samples from 7 sections. The results indicate that dune activity and preservation occurred within the periods 7–3ka, 16–10ka and 22–20ka with evidence of earlier preservation during marine...

Beschreibung: This article reviews and compares assessments of three biodiesel fuels: (1) transesterified lipids, (2) hydrotreated vegetable oils (HVO), and (3) woody biomass-to-liquid (BTL) Fischer-Tropsch diesel and selected feedstock options. The article attempts to rank the environmental performance and costs of fuel and feedstock combinations. Due to inter-study differences in goal and study assumptions, the ranking was mostly qualitative and intra-study results are emphasized. Results indicate that HVO made from wastes or by-products such as tall oil, tallow or used cooking oil outperform transesterified lipids and BTL from woody material, both with respect to environmental life cycle impacts and costs. These feedstock options are, however, of limited availability, and to produce larger volumes of biofuels other raw materials must also be used. BTL from woody biomass seems promising with good environmental performance and the ability not to compete with food production. Production of biofuels from agricultural feedstock sources requires much energy and leads to considerable emissions due to agrochemical inputs. Thus, such biodiesel fuels are ranked lowest in this comparison. Production of feedstock is the most important life cycle stage. Avoiding detrimental land use changes and maintaining good agricultural or forestry management practices are the main challenges to ensure that biofuels can be a sustainable option for the future transport sector.

Beschreibung: Environmental monitoring programs must efficiently describe state shifts. We propose using maximum entropy modeling to select dissimilar sampling sites to capture environmental variability at low cost, and demonstrate a specific application: sample site selection for the Central Plains domain (453,490 km2) of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). We relied on four environmental factors: mean annual temperature and precipitation, elevation, and vegetation type. A “sample site” was defined as a 20 km × 20 km area (equal to NEON’s airborne observation platform [AOP] footprint), within which each 1 km2 cell was evaluated for each environmental factor. After each model run, the most environmentally dissimilar site was selected from all potential sample sites. The iterative selection of eight sites captured approximately 80% of the environmental envelope of the domain, an improvement over stratified random sampling and simple random designs for sample site selection. This approach can be widely used for cost-efficient selection of survey and monitoring sites.

Beschreibung: Landsat MSS and ETM+ images were analyzed to detect 25-year land-cover change (1976–2001) in the critical Taguibo Watershed in Mindanao Island, Southern Philippines. This watershed has experienced historical modifications of its land-cover due to the presence of logging industries in the 1950s, and continuous deforestation due to illegal logging and slash-and-burn agriculture in the present time. To estimate the impacts of land-cover change on watershed runoff, land-cover information derived from the Landsat images was utilized to parameterize a GIS-based hydrologic model. The model was then calibrated with field-measured discharge data and used to simulate the responses of the watershed in its year 2001 and year 1976 land-cover conditions. The availability of land-cover information on the most recent state of the watershed from the Landsat ETM+ image made it possible to locate areas for rehabilitation such as barren and logged-over areas. We then created a “rehabilitated” land-cover condition map of the watershed (re-forestation of logged-over areas and agro-forestation of barren areas) and used it to parameterize the model and predict the runoff responses of the watershed. Model results showed that changes in land-cover from 1976 to 2001 were directly related to the significant increase in surface runoff. Runoff predictions showed that a full rehabilitation of the watershed, especially in barren and logged-over areas, will be likely to reduce the generation of a huge volume of runoff during rainfall events. The results of this study have demonstrated the usefulness of multi-temporal Landsat images in detecting land-cover change, in identifying areas for rehabilitation, and in evaluating rehabilitation strategies for management of tropical watersheds through its use in hydrologic modeling.

Beschreibung: Community forestry and related small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) can contribute towards the achievement of REDD+ goals, since they can promote sustainable use and conservation of forests and, therefore, a reduction in forest-related carbon emissions. Additionally, they can improve the quality of life of forest-dependant people by generating alternative sources of income and employment. However, SMFEs often face a number of challenges, including non-conducive policy environments, inadequate business skills, and moreover, limited access to financial services. In this paper, we propose to direct a portion of REDD+ readiness efforts towards promoting the generation of an enabling environment for SMFEs that includes: the construction of an adequate Business Environment (BE), the provision of Business Development Services (BDS) and better access to Financial Services (FS). With the application of this framework, SMFEs will be more likely to proliferate and succeed, leading to enhanced community resilience and empowerment, in addition to increasing the likelihood of forest carbon stock permanence and the long term achievement of REDD+ goals. Opportunities and challenges of applying this approach in Latin America are discussed.

Beschreibung: Editorial R.I. Lewis Smith, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 02 , pp 105-105 Abstract

Beschreibung: Research Articles Jill P. Zamzow, Craig F. Aumack, Charles D. Amsler, James B. McClintock, Margaret O. Amsler, Bill J. Baker, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 02 , pp 107-116 Abstract

Beschreibung: Research Articles Kevin Hall, Ian Meiklejohn, Adam Bumby, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 02 , pp 155-163 Abstract

Beschreibung: Research Articles Eva E.R. Philipp, Gunnar Husmann, Doris Abele, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 02 , pp 127-138 Abstract

Beschreibung: Research Articles Andreas Borchers, Ines Voigt, Gerhard Kuhn, Bernhard Diekmann, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 02 , pp 164-179 Abstract

Beschreibung: Rapid Communication Maria Olech, Katarzyna J. Chwedorzewska, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 02 , pp 153-154 Abstract

Beschreibung: Research Articles Giancarlo Lauriano, Caterina Maria Fortuna, Marino Vacchi, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 02 , pp 139-143 Abstract

Beschreibung: Research Articles D. Pirrie, H.A. Jonkers, J.L. Smellie, J.A. Crame, J.M. McArthur, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 02 , pp 180-187 Abstract

Beschreibung: Research Articles Jean-Baptiste Thiebot, Amélie Lescroël, David Pinaud, Philip N. Trathan, Charles-André Bost, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 02 , pp 117-126 Abstract

Beschreibung: Research Articles Stefano Schiaparelli, Maria Chiara Alvaro, Ruth Barnich, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 02 , pp 144-151 Abstract

Beschreibung: Research Articles Benjamin Bomfleur, Christian Pott, Hans Kerp, Antarctic Science , Volume 23 Issue 02 , pp 188-208 Abstract

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 22 February 2011 G., Benito , V.R., Thorndycraft , M.T., Rico , Y., Sánchez-Moya , A., Sopeña , ... A long-term flood record from the Buffels River, the largest ephemeral river of NW South Africa (9250 km2), was reconstructed based on interpretation of palaeoflood, documentary and instrumental rainfall data. Palaeoflood data were obtained at three study reaches, with preserved sedimentary evidence indicating at least 25 large floods during the last 700yr. Geochronological control for the palaeoflood record was provided by radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. Annual resolution was obtained since the 19th century using the overlapping documentary and instrumental records. Large floods coincided in the past within three main hydroclimatic settings: (1) periods of regular large flood...

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 22 February 2011 J. Sakari, Salonen , Heikki, Seppä , Minna, Väliranta , Vivienne J., Jones , Angela, Self , ... To investigate the Holocene climate and treeline dynamics in the European Russian Arctic, we analysed sediment pollen, conifer stomata, and plant macrofossils from Lake Kharinei, a tundra lake near the treeline in the Pechora area. We present quantitative summer temperature reconstructions from Lake Kharinei and Lake Tumbulovaty, a previously studied lake in the same region, using a pollen–climate transfer function based on a new calibration set from northern European Russia. Our records suggest that the early-Holocene summer temperatures from 11,500calyr BP onwards were already slightly higher than at present, followed by a stable Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) at 8000–3500calyr BP...

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 22 February 2011 Bernard, Hallet , Land L., Washburn , Nuna L., MacDonald , Carl S., Benson , Minze, Stuiver

Beschreibung: Remote sensing has become the most important data source for the digital elevation model (DEM) generation. DEM analyses can be applied in various fields and many of them require appropriate DEM visualization support. Analytical hill-shading is the most frequently used relief visualization technique. Although widely accepted, this method has two major drawbacks: identifying details in deep shades and inability to properly represent linear features lying parallel to the light beam. Several authors have tried to overcome these limitations by changing the position of the light source or by filtering. This paper proposes a new relief visualization technique based on diffuse, rather than direct, illumination. It utilizes the sky-view factor—a parameter corresponding to the portion of visible sky limited by relief. Sky-view factor can be used as a general relief visualization technique to show relief characteristics. In particular, we show that this visualization is a very useful tool in archaeology as it improves the recognition of small scale features from high resolution DEMs.

Beschreibung: The need for integrated methodological framework for sustainability assessment has been widely discussed and is urgent due to increasingly complex environmental system problems. These problems have impacts on ecosystems and human well-being which represent a threat to economic performance of countries and corporations. Integrated assessment crosses issues; spans spatial and temporal scales; looks forward and backward; and incorporates multi-stakeholder inputs. This study aims to develop an integrated methodology by capitalizing the complementary strengths of different methods used by industrial ecologists and biophysical economists. The computational methodology proposed here is systems perspective, integrative, and holistic approach for sustainability assessment which attempts to link basic science and technology to policy formulation. The framework adopts life cycle thinking methods—LCA, LCC, and SLCA; stakeholders analysis supported by multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA); and dynamic system modelling. Following Pareto principle, the critical sustainability criteria, indicators and metrics (i.e., hotspots) can be identified and further modelled using system dynamics or agent based modelling and improved by data envelopment analysis (DEA) and sustainability network theory (SNT). The framework is being applied to development of biofuel supply chain networks. The framework can provide new ways of integrating knowledge across the divides between social and natural sciences as well as between critical and problem-solving research.

Beschreibung: The physiological principles predicting growth (3-PG) model is generally used to estimate gross primary productivity (GPP) in forest plantations. All existing parameter values in the 3-PG model for GPP estimation have been set as the standard values for eucalyptus and pine plantations. We propose that the 3-PG model can be applied to deciduous broadleaf forests dominated by Betula platyphylla via appropriate parameterization of their structure and functions. The allometric relationships between stem biomass and stem diameter, and between foliage biomass and stem biomass, were determined for the biomass partitioning ratio. Additionally, a temperature modifier was considered appropriate because it affected canopy quantum efficiency. After parameterization, the model showed a good correlation between the estimated results and the data from experimental plots in central and northern Japan. At both sites, GPP peaked around August and was 0 during the winter, when the canopy is bare of leaves. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the most influential parameter relative to the output. GPP was sensitive to changes in canopy quantum efficiency and optimum temperature. Among the meteorological data used, solar radiation and temperature had great impacts on GPP, therefore, these parameters should be carefully considered to produce accurate results.

Beschreibung: Based on predicted changes in the magnitude and distribution of global precipitation, temperature and river flow under the A1B and A2 scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (IPCC SRES), this study assesses the potential impacts of climate change and CO2 fertilization on global agriculture, and its interactions with trade liberalization, as proposed for the Doha Development Round. The analysis uses the new version of the GTAP-W model, which distinguishes between rainfed and irrigated agriculture and implements water as an explicit factor of production for irrigated agriculture. Significant reductions in agricultural tariffs lead to modest changes in regional water use. Patterns are non-linear. On the regional level, water use may go up for partial liberalization, and down for more complete liberalization. This is because different crops respond differently to tariff reductions, and because trade and competition matter too. Moreover, trade liberalization tends to reduce water use in water scarce regions, and increase water use in water abundant regions, even though water markets do not exist in most countries. Considering impacts of climate change, the results show that global food production, welfare and GDP fall over time while food prices increase. Larger changes are observed under the SRES A2 scenario for the medium term (2020) and under the SRES A1B scenario for the long term (2050). Combining scenarios of future climate change with trade liberalization, countries are affected differently. However, the overall effect on welfare does not change much.

Beschreibung: The purpose of the paper is two-fold. First, to identify the main sustainability issues that Scottish food supply chain actors are concerned with and any differences that exist between primary producers, processors and distributors and consumers; and second, to explore the implications of respondents’ views for the direction of food and drink policy in Scotland. The analysis was based on a dataset assembled from the written responses to the National Food Policy discussion in Scotland, which contains opinions on the different dimensions of sustainability (economic, environmental and social) from a broad range of individuals and organizations representing different segments of the Scottish population. The empirical analyses involved comparing the responses according to two criteria: by food supply chain stakeholder and by geographical region. The results indicated that whilst there were differences among the studied groups, the importance of social and economic sustainability were strongly evident in the foregoing analysis, highlighting issues such as diet and nutrition, the importance of local food, building sustainability on sound economic performance, the market power of supermarkets, and regulation and support in building human and technical capabilities.

Beschreibung: As a member of the Annex 1 countries to the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Japan is committed to reducing 6% of the greenhouse gas emissions. In order to achieve this commitment, Japan has undertaken several major mitigation measures, one of which is the domestic measure that includes ecologically friendly lifestyle programs, utilizing natural energy, participating in local environmental activities, and amending environmental laws. Mitigation policies could be achieved if public responses were strong. As the internet has increasingly become an online platform for sharing environmental information, public responses to the need for reducing greenhouse gas emissions may be assessed using available online tools. We used Google Insights for Search, Google AdWords Keyword Tool, and Google Timeline View to assess public responses in Japan based on the interest shown for five search terms that define global climate change and its mitigation policies. Data on online search interests from January 04, 2004 to July 18, 2010 were analyzed according to locations and categories. Our study suggests that the search interests for the five chosen search terms dramatically increased, especially when new mitigation policies were introduced or when climate change related events were organized. Such a rapid increase indicates that the Japanese public strongly responds to climate change mitigation policies.

Beschreibung: Multimedia streaming means delivering continuous data to a plethora of client devices. Besides the actual data transport, this also needs a high degree of content adaptation respecting the end users’ needs given by content preferences, transcoding constraints, and device capabilities. Such adaptations can be performed in many ways, usually on the media server. However, when it comes to content editing, like mixing in subtitles or picture-in-picture composition, relying on third party service providers may be necessary. For economic reasons this should be done in a service-oriented way, because a lot of adaptation modules can be reused within different adaptation workflows. Although service-oriented architectures have become widely accepted in the Web community, the multimedia environment is still dominated by monolithic systems. The main reason is the insufficient support for working with continuous data: generally the suitability of Web services for handling complex data types and state-full applications is still limited. In this paper we discuss extensions of Web service frameworks, and present a first implementation of a service-oriented framework for media streaming and digital item adaptation. The focus lies on the technical realization of the services. Our experimental results show the practicality of the actual deployment of service-oriented multimedia frameworks.

Beschreibung: At their most local, initiatives to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) will depend on rural people to manage forest resources. Although the design of frameworks, mechanisms and arrangements, to implement REDD programs have received significant attention, it is not yet clear how REDD+ will function on the ground or how the participation of local populations will be assured. Community forest management (CFM) could be an option under REDD+ depending on how it is negotiated, largely because of the expectation that CFM could reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation. Examining institutional factors in the emergence of successful CFM systems and local forest enterprises could provide valuable lessons for REDD planners. We examine cases of CFM development in Mexico, Brazil and Bolivia, to assess the role of multi-scaled governance institutions in their development. Comparing and contrasting advanced CFM systems to regions where it is still emerging, we will show how the establishment of a local organizational base for communal resource management is crucial.

Beschreibung: Recently increasing attention has been paid to complementing environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with social aspects. The paper discusses the selection of social impacts and indicators from existing frameworks like Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) and Social Impact Assessment (SIA). Two ongoing case studies, addressing sustainability assessment within decision support, were considered: (1) Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Indonesia; and (2) Integrated Packaging Waste Management in Spain and Portugal (FENIX). The focus was put on social impacts occurring due to decisions within these systems, such as choice of technologies, practices or suppliers. Thus, decision makers—here understood as intended users of the studies’ results—are not consumers that buy (or do not buy) a product, such as in recent SLCA case-studies, but mainly institutions that decide about the design of the water or packaging waste management system. Therefore, in the FENIX project, a list of social impacts identified from literature was sent to the intended users to be ranked according to their priorities. Finally, the paper discusses to what extent the entire life cycle is reflected in SLCA impact categories and indicators, and explains how both life-cycle and on-site-related social impacts were chosen to be assessed. However, not all indicators in the two projects will assess all stages of the life cycle, because of their varying relevance in the different stages, data availability and practical interest of decision makers.

Beschreibung: The paper is based on findings from research that assesses the potential for enhancing the performance of compressed earth bricks. A set of experiments was carried out to assess the potential for enhancing the bricks’ physical, mechanical and hygrothermal performance through the design of an optimal stabilization strategy. Three different types of bricks were fabricated: soil-cement, soil-cement-lime, and soil-cement-fiber. The different types of bricks did not exhibit significant differences in performances when assessed on the basis of porosity, density, water absorption, and compressive strength. However, upon exposure to elevated moisture and temperature conditions, the soil-cement-fiber bricks had the highest residual strength (87%). The soil-cement and soil-cement-lime bricks had residual strength values of 48.19 and 46.20% respectively. These results suggest that, like any other cement-based material, compressed earth brick properties are affected by hydration-triggered chemical and structural changes occurring in the matrix that would be difficult to isolate using tests that focus on “bulk” changes. The discussion in this paper presents findings from a research effort directed at quantifying the specific changes through an analysis of the microstructure.

Beschreibung: Coffee has been associated with reductions in the risk of non-communicable chronic diseases (NCCD), including diabetes mellitus. Because differences in food habits are recognizable modifying factors in the epidemiology of diabetes, we studied the association of coffee consumption with type-2 diabetes in a sample of the adult population of the Federal District, Brazil. This cross-sectional study was conducted by telephone interview (n = 1,440). A multivariate analysis was run controlling for socio-behavioural variables, obesity and family antecedents of NCCD. A hierarchical linear regression model and a Poisson regression were used to verify association of type-2 diabetes and coffee intake. The independent variables which remained in the final model, following the hierarchical inclusion levels, were: first level—age and marital status; second level—diabetes and dyslipidaemias in antecedents; third level—cigarette smoking, supplement intake, body mass index; and fourth level—coffee intake (£100 mL/d, 101 to 400 mL/day, and 〉400 mL/day). After adjusting hierarchically for the confounding variables, consumers of 100 to 400 mL of coffee/day had a 2.7% higher (p = 0.04) prevalence of not having diabetes than those who drank less than 100 mL of coffee/day. Compared to coffee intake of £100 mL/day, adults consuming 〉400 mL of coffee/day showed no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of diabetes. Thus, moderate coffee intake is favourably associated with self-reported type-2 diabetes in the studied population. This is the first study to show a relationship between coffee drinking and diabetes in a Brazilian population.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 3 August 2011 Olaf, Juschus , Maksim, Pavlov , Georg, Schwamborn , Frank, Preusser , Grigory, Fedorov , ... Lake El'gygytgyn is situated in a 3.6Ma old impact crater in northeastern Siberia. Presented here is a reconstruction of the Quaternary lake-level history as derived from sediment cores from the southern lake shelf. There, a cliff-like bench 10m below the modern water level has been investigated. Deep-water sediments on the shelf indicate high lake levels during a warm Mid-Pleistocene period. One period with low lake level prior to Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 has been identified, followed by a period of high lake level (10m above present). In the course of MIS 2 the lake level dropped to −10m....

Beschreibung: The zero bias stability, which is an important performance parameter for vibratory cylinder gyroscopes, is high sensitive to temperature change. It is considered that the varying temperature makes the vibration mode axes unstable, which has significant influence on the zero bias stability. This paper will investigate this problem in detail. First, the relationships between the angular positions of vibration mode axes and the zero bias are analyzed. Secondly, the thermal-modal model of the cylinder resonator with several defects such as mass imbalance, frequency split (FS), and geometry errors are developed by ANSYS. Simulation results show that with the increase of temperature, angular positions of the vibration mode axes obviously change, which leads to a dramatic zero bias drift. Finally, several major influence factors on the angular position stability of vibration mode axes, including frequency split, geometry errors, thermal elastic modulus coefficient (TEMC) and thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) are analyzed in detail. Simulation results in this paper will be helpful for deep understanding of the drift principle of zero bias induced by temperature for vibratory cylinder gyroscopes and also be helpful for further temperature compensation or control.

Beschreibung: In this paper, we have developed a facile MgCl2-assissted hydrothermal synthesis route to grow tubular aragonite whiskers on a large scale. The products have been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy, and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). The results show the as-grown product is pure tubular aragonite crystalline whiskers with a diameter of 5–10 mm and a length of 100–200 mm, respectively. The concentration of Mg2+ plays an important role in determining the quality and purity of the products. Furthermore, the method can be extended to fabricate CaSO4 fibers. The high quality of the product and the mild conditions used mean that the present route has good prospects for the growth of inorganic crystalline whiskers.

Beschreibung: The present study assesses the validity and reproducibility of two occlusal indices for epidemiological studies—the Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI) and the Dental Health Component of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (DHC-IOTN) for the identification of orthodontic treatment needs. The total of 131 study models was examined by an examiner (orthodontic specialist) for the determination of the DAI and DHC-IOTN. Thirty days later, further assessment was performed to determine the reproducibility. The duration of each exam was measured in seconds with a stopwatch. The indices were compared by a panel of three experts in orthodontics to evaluate validity. The intra-examiner reliability evaluation resulted in an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.89 for the DAI (95% CI = 0.64 to 1.0) and 0.87 for the DHC-IOTN (95% CI = 0.56 to 0.96). The time spent on the evaluation of the DHC-IOTN was less than the time spent on that of the DAI (P 〈 0.001). The accuracy of the indices, as reflected by the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve, was 61% for the DAI (95% CI = 51 to 70; p = 0.037) and 67% for the DHC-IOTN (95% CI = 58 to 77; p = 0.001). Both indices presented good reproducibility and validity.

Beschreibung: Forests deliver multiple ecosystem services to society. Management of forests must be able to deal with trade-offs when the delivery of different ecosystem services comes in conflict with each other. The research program Future Forests (http://www.futureforests.se) attempts to form a scientific basis for managing such trade-offs between conflicting interests in northern boreal forests. Some key characteristics of the research program are interdisciplinary and participatory research and a clear communication agenda for stakeholders. This paper gives a brief overview of the underlying ideas behind the program, and an introduction to the papers published in this Special Issue.

Beschreibung: A protocol that consisted of an isolation flux chamber and a portable gas chromatograph was used to directly quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at a dairy and a feedyard operation in the Texas Panhandle. Field sampling campaigns were performed 5 consecutive days only during daylight hours from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm each day. The objective of this research was to quantify and compare GHG emission rates (ERs) from ground level area sources (GLAS) at dairy and cattle feedyard operations during the summer. A total of 74 air samples using flux chamber were collected from the barn (manure lane and bedding area), loafing pen, open lot, settling basin, lagoons, and compost pile within the dairy operation. For the cattle feedyard, a total of 87 air samples were collected from four corner pens of a large feedlot, runoff holding pond, and compost pile. Three primary GHGs (methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide) were measured and quantified from both operations. The aggregate estimated ERs for CH4, CO2, and N2O were 836, 5573, 3.4 g hd−1 d−1 (collectively 27.5 kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) hd−1 d−1), respectively, at the dairy operation. The aggregate ERs for CH4, CO2, and N2O were 3.8, 1399, 0.68 g hd−1 d−1 (1.7 kg CO2e hd−1 d−1), respectively, from the feedyard. The estimated USEPA GHG ERs were about 13.2 and 1.16 kg CO2e hd−1 d−1, respectively, for dairy and feedyard operations. Aggregate CH4, CO2 and N2O ERs at the dairy facility were about 219, 4 and 5 times higher, respectively, than those at the feedyard. At the dairy, average CH4 ERs estimated from the settling basin, primary and secondary lagoons were significantly higher than those from the other GLAS, contributing about 98% of the aggregate CH4 emission. The runoff holding pond and pen surface of the feedyard contributed about 99% of the aggregate CH4 emission. Average CO2 and N2O ERs estimated from the pen surface area were significantly higher than those estimated from the compost pile and runoff pond. The pen surface alone contributed about 93% and 84% of the aggregate CO2 and N2O emission, respectively. Abatement and management practices that address GHG emissions from these sources will likely be most effective for reducing facility emissions.

Beschreibung: Context-aware technologies can make e-learning services smarter and more efficient since context-aware services are based on the user’s behavior. To add those technologies into existing e-learning services, a service architecture model is needed to transform the existing e-learning environment, which is situation-aware, into the environment that understands context as well. The context-awareness in e-learning may include the awareness of user profile and terminal context. In this paper, we propose a new notion of service that provides context-awareness to smart learning content in a cloud computing environment. We suggest the elastic four smarts (E4S)—smart pull, smart prospect, smart content, and smart push—concept to the cloud services so smart learning services are possible. The E4S focuses on meeting the users’ needs by collecting and analyzing users’ behavior, prospecting future services, building corresponding contents, and delivering the contents through cloud computing environment. Users’ behavior can be collected through mobile devices such as smart phones that have built-in sensors. As results, the proposed smart e-learning model in cloud computing environment provides personalized and customized learning services to its users.

Beschreibung: We investigate the mechanism of tactile transduction during active exploration of finely textured surfaces using a tactile sensor mimicking the human fingertip. We focus in particular on the role of exploratory conditions in shaping the subcutaneous mechanical signals. The sensor has been designed by integrating a linear array of MEMS micro-force sensors in an elastomer layer. We measure the response of the sensors to the passage of elementary topographical features at constant velocity and normal load, such as a small hole on a flat substrate. Each sensor’s response is found to strongly depend on its relative location with respect to the substrate/skin contact zone, a result which can be quantitatively understood within the scope of a linear model of tactile transduction. The modification of the response induced by varying other parameters, such as the thickness of the elastic layer and the confining load, are also correctly captured by this model. We further demonstrate that the knowledge of these characteristic responses allows one to dynamically evaluate the position of a small hole within the contact zone, based on the micro-force sensors signals, with a spatial resolution an order of magnitude better than the intrinsic resolution of individual sensors. Consequences of these observations on robotic tactile sensing are briefly discussed.

Beschreibung: We show that in vitro toxicity assay based on inhibition of the bioluminescence of recombinant Escherichia coli encoding thermostable luciferase from Photorhabdus luminescens is a versatile alternative to Vibrio fischeri MicrotoxTM test. Performance of two luxCDABE-transformed E. coli MC1061 constructs (pDNlux) and (pSLlux) otherwise identical, but having 100-fold different background luminescence was compared with the performance of V. fischeri. The microplate luminometer and a kinetic Flash-Assay test format was used that differently from Microtox test is also applicable for high throughput analysis. Toxic effects (30-s till 30-min EC50) of four heavy metals (Zn, Cd, Hg, Cu) and three organic chemicals (aniline, 3,5-dichloroaniline and 3,5-dichlorophenol) were studied. Both E. coli strains had comparable sensitivity and the respective 30-min EC50 values highly correlated (log-log R2 = 0.99; p 〈 0.01) showing that the sensitivity of the recombinant bacteria towards chemicals analyzed did not depend on the bioluminescence level of the recombinant cells. The most toxic chemical for all used bacterial strains (E. coli, V. fischeri) was mercury whereas the lowest EC50 values for Hg (0.04–0.05 mg/L) and highest EC50 values for aniline (1,300–1,700 mg/L) were observed for E. coli strains. Despite of that, toxicity results obtained with both E. coli strains (pSLlux and pDNlux) significantly correlated with V. fischeri results (log-log R2 = 0.70/0.75; p 〈 0.05/0.01). The use of amino acids (0.25%) and glucose (0.05%)-supplemented M9 medium instead of leucine-supplemented saline significantly (p 〈 0.05) reduced the apparent toxicity of heavy metals to both E. coli strains up to three orders of magnitude, but had little or no complexing effect on organic compounds. Thus, P. luminescens luxCDABE-transformed E. coli strains can be successfully used for the acute toxicity screening of various types of organic chemicals and heavy metals and can replace V. fischeri in certain cases where the thermostability of luciferase 〉30 °C is crucial. The kinetic Flash Assay test format of the bioluminescence inhibition assay facilitates high throughput analysis. The assay medium, especially in case of testing heavy metals should be a compromise: optimal for the viability/luminescence of the recombinant test strain and of minimum complexing potential.

Beschreibung: This article summarises the sometimes controversial contributions made by the different sciences to predict the path of ocean acidification impacts on the diversity of coral reefs during the present century. Although the seawater carbonate system has been known for a long time, the understanding of acidification impacts on marine biota is in its infancy. Most publications about ocean acidification are less than a decade old and over half are about coral reefs. Contributions from physiological studies, particularly of coral calcification, have covered such a wide spectrum of variables that no cohesive picture of the mechanisms involved has yet emerged. To date, these studies show that coral calcification varies with carbonate ion availability which, in turn controls aragonite saturation. They also reveal synergies between acidification and the better understood role of elevated temperature. Ecological studies are unlikely to reveal much detail except for the observations of the effects of carbon dioxide springs in reefs. Although ocean acidification events are not well constrained in the geological record, recent studies show that they are clearly linked to extinction events including four of the five greatest crises in the history of coral reefs. However, as ocean acidification is now occurring faster than at any know time in the past, future predictions based on past events are in unchartered waters. Pooled evidence to date indicates that ocean acidification will be severely affecting reefs by mid century and will have reduced them to ecologically collapsed carbonate platforms by the century’s end. This review concludes that most impacts will be synergistic and that the primary outcome will be a progressive reduction of species diversity correlated with habitat loss and widespread extinctions in most metazoan phyla.

Beschreibung: This research presents a time-effective approach for mapping streambed and riparian zone extent from high spatial resolution LiDAR derived products, i.e., digital terrain model, terrain slope and plant projective cover. Geographic object based image analysis (GEOBIA) has proven useful for feature extraction from high spatial resolution image data because of the capacity to reduce effects of reflectance variations of pixels making up individual objects and to include contextual and shape information. This functionality increases the likelihood of developing transferable and automated mapping approaches. LiDAR data covered parts of the Werribee Catchment in Victoria, Australia, which is characterized by urban, agricultural, and forested land cover types. Field data of streamside vegetation structure and physical form properties were used for both calibration of the mapping routines and validation of the mapping results. To improve the transferability of the rule set, the GEOBIA approach was developed for an area representing different riparian zone environments, i.e., urbanized, agricultural and hilly forested areas. Results show that mapping streambed extent (R2 = 0.93, RMSE = 3.6 m, n = 35) and riparian zone extent (R2 = 0.74, RMSE = 3.9, n = 35) from LiDAR derived products can be automated using GEOBIA to enable derivation of spatial information in an accurate and time-effective manner suited for natural resource management agencies.

Beschreibung: The importance of landscape and heritage recording and documentation with optical remote sensing sensors is well recognized at international level. The continuous development of new sensors, data capture methodologies and multi-resolution 3D representations, contributes significantly to the digital 3D documentation, mapping, conservation and representation of landscapes and heritages and to the growth of research in this field. This article reviews the actual optical 3D measurement sensors and 3D modeling techniques, with their limitations and potentialities, requirements and specifications. Examples of 3D surveying and modeling of heritage sites and objects are also shown throughout the paper.

Beschreibung: Within urban areas, green spaces play a critically important role in the quality of life. They have remarkable impact on the local microclimate and the regional climate of the city. Quantifying the ‘greenness’ of urban areas allows comparing urban areas at several levels, as well as monitoring the evolution of green spaces in urban areas, thus serving as a tool for urban and developmental planning. Different categories of vegetation have different impacts on recreation potential and microclimate, as well as on the individual perception of green spaces. However, when quantifying the ‘greenness’ of urban areas the reliability of the underlying information is important in order to qualify analysis results. The reliability of geo-information derived from remote sensing data is usually assessed by ground truth validation or by comparison with other reference data. When applying methods of object based image analysis (OBIA) and fuzzy classification, the degrees of fuzzy membership per object in general describe to what degree an object fits (prototypical) class descriptions. Thus, analyzing the fuzzy membership degrees can contribute to the estimation of reliability and stability of classification results, even when no reference data are available. This paper presents an object based method using fuzzy class assignments to outline and classify three different classes of vegetation from GeoEye imagery. The classification result, its reliability and stability are evaluated using the reference-free parameters Best Classification Result and Classification Stability as introduced by Benz et al. in 2004 and implemented in the software package eCognition (www.ecognition.com). To demonstrate the application potentials of results a scenario for quantifying urban ‘greenness’ is presented.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 1 June 2011 Claire A., Kaufman , Scott F., Lamoureux , Darrell S., Kaufman Sedimentological analyses of 289years (AD 1718–2006) of varved sediment from Shadow Bay, southwest Alaska, were used to investigate hydroclimate variability during and prior to the instrumental period. Varve thicknesses relate most strongly to total annual discharge (r2=0.75, n=43, p

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Quaternary Research, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 26 May 2011 David K., Wright , Steven L., Forman , Michael R., Waters , John C., Ravesloot Eolian sediments are common within the middle Gila River Valley, southern Arizona, and reflect variability in eolian and fluvial processes during the late Holocene. This study focuses on deciphering the stratigraphic record of eolian deposition and associated luminescence dating of quartz extracts by single aliquot regeneration (SAR) protocols. Stratigraphic assessment coupled with luminescence ages indicates that there are four broad eolian depositional events at ca. 3145±220yr, 1950–1360yr, 800±100yr, and 690–315yr. This nascent chronology, correlated with regional archeological evidence and paleoclimate proxy datasets, leads to two general conclusions: (1) loess deposits, transverse-dune formation and sand-sheet deposition in the late Holocene are...

Beschreibung: A new phenomenological model, the TP (Temperature Phase) model, is presented to carry out optimization calculations for turbulent diffusion combustion in a high-pressure common rail diesel engine. Temperature is the most important parameter in the TP model, which includes two parts: an auto-ignition and a soot model. In the auto-ignition phase, different reaction mechanisms are built for different zones. For the soot model, different methods are used for different temperatures. The TP model is then implemented in KIVA code instead of original model to carry out optimization. The results of cylinder pressures, the corresponding heat release rates, and soot with variation of injection time, variation of rail pressure and variation of speed among TP model, KIVA standard model and experimental data are analyzed. The results indicate that the TP model can carry out optimization and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) and can be a useful tool to study turbulent diffusion combustion.

Beschreibung: Usually, test automation scripts for a web application directly mirror the actions that the tester carries out in the browser, but they tend to be verbose and repetitive, making them expensive to maintain and ineffective in an agile setting. Our research has focussed on providing tool-support for business-level, example-based specifications that are mapped to the browser level for automatic verification. We provide refactoring support for the evolution of existing browser-level tests into business-level specifications. As resulting business rule tables may be incomplete, redundant or contradictory, our tool provides feedback on coverage.

Beschreibung: Control of non-point source (NPS) water pollution remains elusive in the United States (US). Many US water-bodies which have been primarily impacted by NPS pollution have not achieved water quality goals set by Clean Water Act. Technological advances have been made since 1972, yet many water resources fail to meet water quality standards. Common Pool Resources Theory is considered to understand the human dimension of NPS pollution by exploring anthropogenic activities superimposed upon dynamic ecosystems. In the final analysis, priority management zones (PMZs) for best management practice (BMP) implementation must have buy-in from land managers. TWAIM is an iterative systems thinking approach to planning, collecting landscape and land use information and communicating systems understanding to stakeholders. Hydrologic pathways that link the physical, chemical and biological characteristics influence processes occurring in a watershed which drive stream health and ecological function. With better systems understanding and application by technical specialists, there is potential for improved stakeholder interaction and dialogue which could then enable better land use decisions. Issues of pollutant origin, transport, storage and hydraulic residence must be defined and communicated effectively to land managers within a watershed context to observe trends in water quality change. The TWAIM concept provides a logical framework for locally-led assessment and a means to communicate ecohydrologic systems understanding over time to the key land managers such that PMZs can be defined for BMP implementation.

Beschreibung: This paper describes the hydrological assessment of an agricultural watershed in the Midwestern United States through the use of a watershed scale hydrologic model. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was applied to the Maquoketa River watershed, located in northeast Iowa, draining an agriculture intensive area of about 5,000 km2. The inputs to the model were obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency’s geographic information/database system called Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS). Meteorological input, including precipitation and temperature from six weather stations located in and around the watershed, and measured streamflow data at the watershed outlet, were used in the simulation. A sensitivity analysis was performed using an influence coefficient method to evaluate surface runoff and baseflow variations in response to changes in model input hydrologic parameters. The curve number, evaporation compensation factor, and soil available water capacity were found to be the most sensitive parameters among eight selected parameters. Model calibration, facilitated by the sensitivity analysis, was performed for the period 1988 through 1993, and validation was performed for 1982 through 1987. The model was found to explain at least 86% and 69% of the variability in the measured streamflow data for calibration and validation periods, respectively. This initial hydrologic assessment will facilitate future modeling applications using SWAT to the Maquoketa River watershed for various watershed analyses, including watershed assessment for water quality management, such as total maximum daily loads, impacts of land use and climate change, and impacts of alternate management practices.