ALBERT

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6 Sarah Cornell, Cat Downy ESS2010 was the first Open Science Conference of the international collaborative initiative AIMES, and was convened and organized by QUEST, the UK's directed research programme for Earth System science. The conference showcased advances in Earth system modelling, deploying observations and process understanding to develop more quantitative and predictive understanding of the interactions of the climate system, the biosphere and the anthroposphere. These tools extend understanding of the system dynamics of biogeochemical cycles, and give perspectives on the relationships between climate, ecosystems and human needs. As Earth system science is a global research endeavour, and its remit has important societal and policy implications, a recurrent theme in the conference was the responsibility of scientists working on knowledge integration in the global environmental change context.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 4 Ma Chun, Ju Mei-ting, Zhang Xiao-chun, Li Hong-yuan Analyses of energy consumption and carbon emissions in Tianjin are ways to understand the dynamics of developing cities in China. Using carbon emission calculation methodology recommended by IPCC, the amount of energy consumption and carbon emissions in Tianjin were calculated from 1995 to 2007. The results showed that the energy consumption structure in Tianjin relied on coal. Annual carbon emission was 26.37 million tons with growth of 4.48% per year; Sc (carbon emission per GDP) reduced year by year, and Se (carbon emission per energy consumption) decreased overall. We also proposed countermeasures to reduce carbon emissions from energy consumption.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 10, Part B Yanhong Yan, Zhining Jia, Yulin Yang The polytetrafluroethylene (PTFE) polymer-based nanocomposites filled with nanoscale lamellar structure expanded graphite (nano-EG) and reinforced with different nanoparticles, such as nano-Al 2 O 3 , nano-copper, nano-SiO 2 and nano-TiO 2 , were prepared by using cold briquetting and hot-press sintering technologies. The quasi-static tensile experiments and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DTMA) were carried out. The results showed that the mechanical properties of these nanocomposites stronger depend on the variety of nanoparticles. Stress-displacement and stress relaxation curves indicate that theses composites are typical viscoelastic materials. However, due to the addition of nano-EG and other nano-particles, some composites showed relatively brittle to some extent. These research findings are believed to be helpful for providing practical guide in harsh environments.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 11, Part C Liu Hongmin Crew's health and productivity is strongly affected by cabins’ thermal environment. This paper focuses on the numerical simulation of the indoor thermal environment in air-conditioned vessel cabins. The original airconditioning system of the cabin was analyzed. Three modified air-conditioning systems with different air-supply outlet locations and under-supply air-conditioning system were put forward for optimization. Air temperature, air velocity and PMV distribution were discussed under Airpak simulation. The results show that under-supply airconditioning system has good performance with little eddies and can contribute to energy saving. Indoor air temperature with under-supply air-conditioning system was 2∼4 lower than that °C with original air-conditioning system, leading to lower predicted mean vote (PMV).

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 8 Parvinder Singh Sandhu

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 10, Part C Xin Zhou, Ziru Lian, Jiangtao Wang, Liju Tan, Zhichao Zhao Estrogens (estrone, estradiol and estriol) and synthetic compound (ethynyl estradiol) in the water and sediment of Licun River-Jiaozhou Bay area in Qingdao were monitored. Estrogens in waters were concentrated using modified C- 18 SPE cartridges, and estrogens in sediments were extracted by liquid-solid extraction. Silane derivatives of the extracted and concentrated estrogens were analyzed by GC-MS. The concentration of estrogens ranged from ND (below the detection limit) to 180 ng/L in waters and ND to 10.8 colong/kg (dry weight) in sediment. The concentrations of estrogen in river water were higher than those in seawater during the monitoring periods. The distribution of estrogen concentration along Licun river suggested that estrogens were different with distance from the respective effluent sites. The highest concentrations were detected at station 5 which directly receives huge quantities of pollutants from adjacent rivers containing large amounts of farming and industrial wastewater.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 9 Jean-Christophe Lata, Sébastien Barot, Gérard Lacroix The International Congress “Ecological Engineering; from concepts to applications”, Paris, was held on 2-4 December, 2009 [3]. These three days were dedicated to the exploration of new breakthroughs in ecological engineering and reflections on the way to develop the field and ground it on sound ecological and conceptual bases

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6 Cat Downy, Sarah Cornell

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 11, Part B Shuzhou Wang, Bo Meng Neural networks with good nonlinear mapping abilities can be applied to build simulation model of helicopter. But they have some difficulties such as hardness of selecting network structure, slow convergence speed, local minimum, and over-fitting. To avoid above problems, a modeling method for dynamic nonlinear system based on support vector machine was proposed. This method was applied to build simulation model of helicopter. Compared with neural network model, SVM model possess some advantages such as simple structure, fast convergence speed and high generalization ability.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 10, Part C Xu Shujian, Wang Tao The grain size records of loess-paleosol deposit in China are some of the most important terrestrial records of the Quaternary. It systematically carried out fieldwork on loess profile of Tuoji Island on Miaodao Islands and Changyi profile on the Laizhou Bay plain, analyzed grain size of 220 and 86 samples respectively. It shows the grain size of loess in Tuoji Island profile coarser than Changyi profile. The environment-sensitive size fractions of Tuoji Island and Changyi loess section respectively are 89.1-100.0colonm and 70.8-79.4colonm, by analyzing grain-size class vs. standard deviation values method. The changes of grain size characteristics of loess-paleosol recorded in different sections implicated the much plentiful materials in the Changyi profile on Laizhou Bay plain than Tuoji profile on Miaodao Islands.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 11, Part C Zhiming Fang, Xiaochun Li This paper presents a preliminary assessment of the potential for CO2 geological storage in Chongqing, China. Currently, there are about 116 large stationary CO2 point emission sources which emit 85.57 MtCO2/yr totally. These stationary sources are mainly belonged to four industries: cement, power plant, iron & steel and synthetic ammonia industries. In the three kinds of geological storage formations, namely, deep saline formations (DSFs), unmineable coalbeds and depleted gas fields, the total basin-scale theoretical storage capacities of CO2 reach 24.36 Gt, equivalent to about 285 times of the annual total CO2 emissions in Chongqing. The DSFs have the largest potential storage capacity accounting for 98% of the total storage capacities. The matching results between CO2 point emission sources and candidate geological storage formations show that 94.8% of the point emission sources (accounting for 97.1% of annual total emissions) can find at least one candidate geological storage formation in its adjacent areas. This means that, for Chongqing, the CO2 transport cost is likely very low. The research findings indicate that there is great potential for CO2 geological storage technology to deploy in Chongqing and for this technology to deliver profound and sustaining impacts on reducing CO2 emissions and developing low-carbon economy in Chongqing. This preliminary study is expected to stimulate more researches, critical thinking and policy actions to promote positive measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so as to mitigate the impact of global climate change, as well as to set a good example for other regions in China.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 7 M.D. Ruiz-Medina, R.M. Espejo Montes Functional Statistics provides a suitable framework for the analysis of large dimensional data sets. In this paper, we consider the spatial autoregressive functional series (SARH(1)) framework. This framework allows the incorporation of spatial interaction to the statistical analysis of functional data (see Ruiz-Medina [1] , [2] ). The SARH(1) model is fitted to the average ocean temporal temperature profiles, collected in different spatial locations, during the years 1998, 1999 and 2000. We have used the public oceanographic bio-optical database, The World-wide Ocean Optics Database (WOOD). The SARH(1) plug-in extrapolator is then computed, from the previously derived infinite-dimensional projection parameter estimator.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 3 Fabio Sigrist, Hans R. Künsch, Werner A. Stahel A spatio-temporal model for precipitation is presented. It is assumed that precipitation follows a censored and power-transformed normal distribution. Through a regression term, precipitation is linked to covariates. Spatial and temporal dependencies are accounted for by a latent Gaussian variable that follows a Markovian temporal evolution combined with spatially correlated innovations. Such a specification allows for nonseparable covariances in space and time. Further, the Markovian structure yields computational efficiency and it exploits in a natural way the unidirectional flow of time. In addition, the model is space as well as time resolution consistent. The model is applied to three-hourly Swiss rainfall data, collected at 26 stations.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 11, Part B Shuzhou Wang, Bo Meng Support Vector Machine (SVM) is a new modeling method. It has shown good performance in many field and mostly outperformed neural networks. The parameter selection should to be done before training SVM. Modified particle swarm optimization (POS) was adpoted to select parameters of SVM. It is shown by simulation that the modified POS algorithm can derive a set of optimal parameters of SVM. Compared with neural networks, SVM model possess some advantages such as simple structure, fast convergence speed with high generalization ability.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 11, Part A Li Xiaonian, Zhu Yi, Zhang Fuhao, Liu Xiaodong According to domestic and foreign rural geographic information system construction, this article points out the problems of domestic new socialist countryside construction. Combined with the reality of Xinjiang new socialist countryside construction, it has constructed the geographic information platform of new socialist countryside comprehensive services, which is easier to realize farmland protection, cadastre management, central village plan and many other basic services in rural areas, and provided reliable and real-time information technology services for Xinjiang new socialist countryside construction.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 9 Lino José Alvarez-Vázquez, Aurea Martínez, Miguel Ernesto Vázquez-Méndez, Miguel Angel Vilar The main objective of this work is showing how numerical simulation and optimal control theory can be useful tools in practical ecological engineering. We take attention into diadromous fish (salmon, trout, eel…) and their river migrations, and particularly, we focus on fishways, hydraulic structures that enable fish to overcome stream obstructions as dams or weirs. We use mathematical modelling to formulate the problems of design and management of a fishway providing a good hydraulic performance for fish. By solving these problems for a standard vertical slot fishway, we can observe that controlling the flux of inflow water is a useful technique for the management of an already built fishway, but a correct shape design is mandatory in order to guarantee a correct hydraulic performance, especially for a new fishway.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 5 Dacheng Liu, Ning Li, Xianchun Tan, Xiaoou Yang, Li Wang, Jianbing Liu Chinese government committed to reducing carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 40% to 45% by 2020. As the capital and one of the biggest cites, Beijing expected to both keep higher GDP growth than average and cut unit GDP carbon emission, and has to adjust the relevant energy strategy in near future. The paper analysis the characteristics of energy supply and energy consumption in Beijing, and setups the economic-energy-environment-oriented reference energy system (RES), selects MARKAL as the optimal model and constructs districted multi-period linear programming matrix, which including 15 energy carriers, 4 energy processes, 17 energy conversions, and 18 energy end-use sets. Furthermore, the paper designs 11 scenarios in various pollute emission restrictions, and establishes the total economic cost as the optimize target, the low-carbon emission as main restriction, to obtain the suitable energy supply structure and end-use technology structure. At last, we have the conclusion that Beijing can attach the demands of cutting carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 45% under the scheduled GDP growth.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 4 Elena Paoletti, Tommaso Bardelli, Gianluca Giovannini, Leonella Pecchioli The Urban Forest Effects (UFORE) model, a computer model designed to use tree allometric, air pollution and meteorological data to statistically estimate urban forest characteristics and various urban forest functions, was applied to the main park in the city of Florence, Italy (Cascine Park), in 1985 and 2004, in order to study how the natural and man-made evolution of the park affected its ability to control air quality. Plant data were for both the years, while climate and pollutant data were for year 2004 only, in order to remove the variability due to changes in the atmospheric variables. The results show that the forest growth compensated the losses due to cuttings and damages by extreme climatic events, so that the overall amount of pollutants removed from the air did not change from 1985 to 2004 (72.4–69.0 kg/ha). In contrast, the amount of carbon storing and biogenic volatile organic compound emission decreased over time, because of a reduction in the number of large trees and of isoprene-emitting individuals, but the results were very variable plot by plot. The species were ranked according to their ability of controlling air quality. These data can be used as a decision tool for establishing cuttings and new plantings in urban planning and their effects on air quality under Mediterranean climate conditions.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 10, Part C Liu-Zhihong, Yu-Jinhui, Zhang-Deng Under the low-carbon time of globalization, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as the one of the many provinces in western China, it is necessary that to open Beibu Gulf for getting sustainable development in the new time and situation. Exactly the basic way for the development is the strategy of sustainable development that of construction Beibu Gulf economic zone consist of low-carbon, ecological and harmonious. With the development and construction of Beibu Gulf, a lot of towns are stepping into the progress of urbanization one by one. However, in the background for urbanization of ecological and low-carbon, study on low-carbon building and ecological city construction in harmonious Beibu Gulf culture that would be necessary and of great significance.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 5 Shaoqing Chen, Bin Chen, Meirong Su The importance of addressing cumulative environmental impact of large development projects on rivers has been increasingly highlighted. Consideration to potential impact pathways may be difficult, however, without appropriate analytical methods. By introducing ecological network model, this paper focuses on the quantification of the cause-effect relationships inherent the cumulative effects of dam construction from a holistic perspective. With Lancang river of Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region (LRGR) as an example, the risk-based interaction instead of the conventional energy or material flow of ecological network model has been created to conceptualize the cumulative effects network model. Based on this model, the network structural and functional analysis were adjusted for the assessment of potential eco-environmental impact within the ecosystem, thus demonstrating how the risk-based ecological network analysis can be used to characterize the holistic cumulative effects of dams on the temporal and spatial scale.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 7 Daniel K. Heersink, Reinhard Furrer Modern compaction rollers monitor soil properties by observing vibrational characteristics of the soil. A vibrating drum traverses the compaction site measuring soil stiffness and collecting GPS coordinates that are together termed roller measurement values (RMVs). These RMVs can be modeled as a random spatial field and additively decomposed into any sensible combination of mean terms, spatial terms, spline terms, and ridge regression terms. The goal of this modeling is to implement intelligent compaction for quality control and quality assurance purposes. Proper modeling of such data (stationarity, anisotropy,.) is then of paramount concern. Each layer of the compaction site can be modeled by the n-vector y = Xβ+α+γ+ ɛ, where Xβ is a low-order (linear) polynomial trend, α is a mean term estimated using ridge regression or splines modeling the large-scale variation, γ is a (zero-mean Gaussian) spatial process modeling the small-scale variation, and ɛ is the noise. Here, X is the (n × p) design matrix with rank p. There are many general approaches to working with such an additive mixed model, including a backfitting procedure for maximum-likelihood estimation and generalized cross-validation. Due to computational complexity of maximum-likelihood estimation a backfitting procedure, Furrer and Sain (2009) [1] , was extended to the more general models used here and employed in the estimation. The extended backfitting procedure has been shown to converge and the iterative least-squares estimates have been shown to converge to the generalized least-squares estimate. A simulation study has been conducted to analyze estimates of this general model using a penalized likelihood and generalized cross-validation (GCV) approach as well. Results of the cross-validation study using a spline structure indicate there are some random fields that can be generated that do not have a minimum GCV.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 4 S.M. Salim, R. Buccolieri, A. Chan, S. Di Sabatino, S.C. Cheah This paper presents numerical simulations of the aerodynamic effects of trees on the flow field and dispersion of trafficoriginated pollutants in an urban street canyon of W/H = 1 with a perpendicular approach flow. Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is employed for the investigation and is validated against wind tunnel (WT) experiment. Comparisons is made between an empty street canyon and one containing avenue-like tree planting of pore volume, Pvol = 96%. In the presence of trees, both measurements and simulations show considerably larger pollutant concentrations near the leeward wall and slightly lower concentrations near the windward wall in comparison to the tree-free case.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 10, Part B Shuo Zhou, Zongxing Chen, Xiaoyang Liu, Hao Tang In this paper we focus on augment reality (AR) used in mobile device and analysis advantages of touch-screen devices in facilitating user experience for elder people. We developed a virtual system on symbian^3 platform considering the characteristic of elder people. The assessment of the system at the end suggests the potential of mobile AR for elders.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6 Muhammad Afzal, Martin G. Mansell, Alexandre S. Gagnon The objective of this research is to analyse temporal changes in historic rainfall variability across Scotland using different measures of variability. The CUSUM and sequential Mann-Kendall test applied to records from 28 weather stations with up to 80 years of daily precipitation data reveal the occurrence of abrupt changes in the rainfall trends. Most weather stations show a turning point between 1978 and 1985, although some stations situated in Eastern Scotland have more than one turning point. The temporal changes in rainfall variability across Scotland are presented using a number of measures of variability.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 9 Adil Baghli, Philippe Thiévent R&D activities at Egis Environnement (a civil engineering-based environmental consultancy) facilitated the development of OptiFlux, a spatial analysis tool designed to predict and visualize the effects of implementing a linear infrastructure upon wildlife habitats. It also tests the relevance of positioning fauna passages to ensure the restoration of habitat connectivity and therefore allows the optimization of the number and location of potential fauna passages. OptiFlux makes use of habitat quality maps which correlated with ecological requirements of each studied species. The concept is based on the evaluation of the spatial distribution of wildlife in their natural habitats. It also allows the evaluation of the impact of a project that modifies landscape structures and contributes to territory fragmentation. OptiFlux is a project optimization instrument which helps in the decisionmaking process. Major applications are: • Identification of routes with the least impact on wildlife population fluxes and their habitats, • Optimization of the number and location of fauna passages for the benefit of wildlife and reduction of the conflict points between infrastructures (road, highway, railway) and ecological networks, • Simulation of the positive effects of the proposed fauna passages or biotopes (amphibian ponds, for example) for a better choice of installations and for a better reconnection of the fragmented habitats.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 11, Part C Zhou Yan, Jing Guang-e, Liu Xiao-hui, Li Qing-ling Theoretical research and numerical simulation for ventilation properties of solar chimney with vertical collector are performanced and they are compared with experimental results. Results show that: there are many factors to affect solar chimney ventilation that include heat collection height and width, solar radiation intensity, inlet and outlet area ratio of chimney and air inlet velocity, etc. When the collector height is increased, chimney ventilation is getting higher; but the ventilation increases slowly even decreases; the ventilation increases first and then decreases as the growing of the air layer thickness under the same chimney height and width; there exists an optimal ratio between heat collector height and width which makes the ventilation largest; considering the urban architecture image and the influence of the air layer thickness on chimney ventilation, the best air layer thickness is between 0.2m and 0.4m. Besides, the airflow temperature in solar chimney increases with chimney height in certain solar radiation intensity. It is consistent with the theoretical analysis and simulation results.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 8

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 10, Part A Ye Yun, Xu Xi-shan, Qi Zhi-chang To protect critical resources in networked environments, it is important to quantify the likelihood of potential multi- step attacks in attack graphs. Aimed at the problems that probabilistic incorrect computing caused by shared dependencies in nodes, a methodology for security risk analysis that is based on the model of attack graphs and the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) was presented, and the problem of probabilistic incorrect computing was solved successfully by proposing the probabilistic computing approach of accurate calculation and approximate calculation, While ensuring the accuracy of the probability of attack graph-based nodes, quickly Calculated the probability of each node, which can be adapted to a large-scale network. Reasonableness and effectiveness of proposed method was verified in the simulation. Compared with the related research, our approach can be adapted to a more complex attack graph, and had good scalability.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 11, Part A Xin Jin, Xin Zhou Electric power enterprises are one important part of pillar industries in our country. There are many factors to cause risks which might bring trouble and disaster, so that we ought to manage those risks so as to reduce and avoid those risks, therefore we need to evaluate the risks which could happen. In this paper, in order to evaluate the risks of some thermal power enterprises in East China which are belong to one power group, we use text content analysis method to analyze a lot of risk exploration reports to build risk evaluation index system and every index’ weight, then evaluate risk level for every risk factor with AHP, and discuss the risk comprehensive evaluation of enterprises.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 8 Suqin Li, Xue Zhang Reverse osmosis approach was used to dispose pulp and paper wastewater from a papermaking company. To meet the requirements of reverse osmosis membranes for water quality, a proper pretreatment had been done before raw water into RO membranes. A new efficient composite flocculant named PAFSSB had been used in the pre-treatment of pulp and paper wastewater. In the paper, the results showed that the treatment effect of PAFSSB was better, COD content was down to 10 mg/L and COD removal rate was up to 75%. The pre-treatment process was simplified and processing costs were reduced.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 3 Sarah E. Nevillea, M.P. Wand We devise a variational Bayes algorithm for fast approximate inference in Bayesian Generalized Extreme Value additive model analysis. Such models are useful for flexibly assessing the impact of continuous predictor variables on sample extremes. The new methodology allows large Bayesian models to be fitted and assessed without the significant computing costs of Monte Carlo methods. © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Alfred Stein.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 10, Part A Wang Yong, Liu Yanping, Su Youpo According to the GPS data provided by International GNSS Service, the author adopted the software of GAMIT/GLOBK to solve the GPS data. The deformation of GPS stations’ coordinates during the Mw 9.0 Japan Earthquake was achieved which was utilized to infer physical processes at earthquake sources. It was computed six GPS stations’ data by GAMIT/GLOBK software and analyzed the GPS stations’ coordinate series. The changes of six stations were subsiding in the Vertical direction, while the changes of each station were moving north in the earthquake time in the North direction. The change values among KGNI, TSK2 and TSKB in North and Vertical direction reached 0.4m, or nearly 0.5m. It can be concluded that KGNI, TSK2 and TSKB were greater changes in the earthquake, which were close to the earthquake epicenter.

Beschreibung: Effects of seawater p CO 2 changes on the calcifying fluid of scleractinian corals Biogeosciences Discussions, 9, 2655-2689, 2012 Author(s): S. Hohn and A. Merico Rising atmospheric CO 2 concentrations due to anthropogenic emissions induce changes in the ocean carbonate chemistry and a drop in ocean pH. This acidification process is expected to harm calcifying organisms like coccolithophores, molluscs, echinoderms, and corals. A severe decline in coral abundance is, for example, expected by the end of this century with associated disastrous effects on reef ecosystems. Despite the growing importance of the topic, little progress has been made with respect to modelling the impact of acidification on coral calcification. Here we present a model for a coral polyp that simulates the carbonate system in four different compartments: the seawater, the polyp tissue, the coelenteron, and the calicoblastic layer. Precipitation of calcium carbonate takes place in the metabolically controlled calicoblastic layer beneath the polyp tissue. The model is adjusted to a state of activity as observed by direct microsensor measurements in the calcifying fluid. Simulated CO 2 perturbation experiments reveal decreasing calcification rates under elevated p CO 2 despite strong metabolic control of the calcifying fluid. Diffusion of CO 2 through the tissue into the calicoblastic layer increases with increasing seawater p CO 2 leading to decreased aragonite saturation in the calcifying fluid of the coral polyp. Our modelling study provides important insights into the complexity of the calcification process at the organism level and helps to quantify the effect of ocean acidification on corals.

Beschreibung: The role of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica in the cycling of trace elements Biogeosciences Discussions, 9, 2623-2653, 2012 Author(s): C. Sanz-Lázaro, P. Malea, E. T. Apostolaki, I. Kalantzi, A. Marín, and I. Karakassis The aim of this work was to study the role of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica on the cycling of a wide set of trace elements (Ag, As, Ba, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, Li, Mn, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sr, Tl, V and Zn). We measured the concentration of these trace elements in the different compartments of P. oceanica (leaves, rhizomes, roots and epibiota) in a non-polluted seagrass meadow representative of the Mediterranean and calculated the annual budget from a mass balance. We provide novel data on accumulation dynamics of many trace elements in P. oceanica compartments and demonstrate that trace element accumulation patterns are mainly determined by plant compartment rather than by temporal variability. Epibiota was the compartment which showed the greatest concentrations for most trace elements. Thus, they constitute a key compartment when estimating trace element transfer to higher trophic levels by P. oceanica . For most trace elements, translocation seemed to be low and acropetal. Zn, Cd, Sr and Rb were the trace elements that showed the highest release rate through decomposition of plant detritus, while Cs, Tl and Bi the lowest. P. oceanica acts as a sink of potentially toxic trace elements (Ni, Cr, As and Ag), which can be sequestered, decreasing their bioavailability. P. oceanica may have a relevant role in the cycling of trace elements in the Mediterranean.

Beschreibung: This study assessed the concentrations of cadmium in the gills, livers and muscles of a commercially important tilapia fish (Sarotherodon melanotheron) from Aby Lagoon in Adiaké, Côte d’Ivoire, between January and December, 2010. The organisms were grouped into two composite samples (juvenile and adult) of five individuals. Levels of cadmium were determined in tissues using Perkin-Elmer (AAnalyst 200) Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS) after a digestion method. Fish muscle appeared to have a significantly higher tendency to accumulate cadmium (1.19–5.18 µg/g dw) while gills and livers had minimum concentrations (0.07–1.32 and 0.12–1.25 µg/g dw). This study has revealed that the concentrations of Cd in Sarotherodon melanotheron muscle tissue were above the maximum acceptable concentrations for human consumption, thus precautions need to be taken in order to prevent future contamination.

Beschreibung: Direct observations of diel biological CO 2 fixation in the oceans Biogeosciences Discussions, 9, 2153-2168, 2012 Author(s): H. Thomas, S. E. Craig, B. J. W. Greenan, W. Burt, G. J. Herndl, S. Higginson, L. Salt, E. H. Shadwick, and J. Urrego-Blanco Much of the variability in the surface ocean's carbon cycle can be attributed to the availability of sunlight, through processes such as heat fluxes and photosynthesis, which regulate over a wide range of time scales. The critical processes occurring on timescales of a day or less, however, have undergone few investigations, and most of these have been limited to a time span of several days to months, or exceptionally, for longer periods. Optical methods have helped to infer short-term biological variability, however corresponding investigations of the oceanic CO 2 system are lacking. We employ high-frequency CO 2 and optical observations covering the full seasonal cycle on the Scotian Shelf, Northwestern Atlantic Ocean, in order to unravel diel periodicity of the surface ocean carbon cycle and its effects on annual budgets. Significant diel periodicity occurs only if the water column is sufficiently stable as observed during seasonal warming. During that time biological CO 2 drawdown, or net community production (NCP), is delayed for several hours relative to the onset of photosynthetically available radiation (PAR), due to diel cycles in chlorophyll- a concentration and to grazing, both of which, we suggest, inhibit NCP in the early morning hours. In summer, NCP decreases by more than 90 %, coinciding with the seasonal minimum of the mixed layer depth and resulting in the disappearance of the diel CO 2 periodicity in the surface waters.

Beschreibung: Abdul Wadood Khan, Sabna Kotta, Shahid Hussain Ansari, Rakesh Kumar Sharma, Vinod Kumar et al. With the increase in the intensity of threats perception and possibility of mass casualties in case of a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) emergency, there is a need to develop novel and effective systems for decontamination. The natural calamity in Japan leading to world's most ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 012704 (2012)] published Fri Feb 24, 2012.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 Makoto Ooba, Tsuyoshi Fujita, Motoyuki Mizuochi, Shogo Murakami, Qinxue Wang, Kunio Kohata Forest ecosystem services (ES), including water resources, carbon sequestration, nitrogen absorption, timber production, and sediment production in the Ise Bay basin, were estimated using a process-based biogeochemical forest model (the BGC-ES model and the RUSLE). This model was proposed and studied in the Yahagi river basin by some of the authors. To evaluate the ES on a 5-km-mesh scale, simulations from 1960 to 2040 were carried out under the following scenarios: an artificial forest under standard management (FM) and under forest management abounded from 1990 (AFM). Forest management practices strongly affected carbon sequestration and timber volume compared to other ES related to forest area.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 Wei Dong, Jianmin Shu, Ping He, Guangwen Ma, Ming Dong Wetland ecosystem occupies an important position in the global carbon cycle with a strong ability of carbon storage and fixation. On the basis of field investigation and laboratory measurement, in the paper, the standing biomass and primary production of wetland Phragmites australis in Baiyangdian were study, and its ability of carbon storage and fixation in accordance with the principle of photosynthesis was measured, and then the potential ability of carbon storage from the perspective of efficiency for solar energy utilization was discussed. The results show that carbon storage of wetland Phragmites australis is large in Baiyangdian with 5.81 kg • m -2 , 7.14 kg • m -2 and 8.72 kg • m -2 respectively; carbon fixation is also very large with 2.54 kg • m -2 , 3.12 kg • m -2 and 3.81 kg • m -2 respectively. In addition, the underground biomass is larger than the aboveground biomass, and the ratio of the two is 2.38-3.30 with the average of 2.90. The underground carbon storage is nearly 3 times as much as the aboveground carbon storage. Wetland Phragmites australis in Baiyangdian has a strong ability of carbon fixation with 1.17 kg • m -2 • a -1 , 1.49 kg • m -2 • a-1 and 1.76 kg • m -2 • a-1 respectively, which is 1.7-3.4 times as much as the average ability of carbon fixation of the national terrestrial plants and 2.0- 4.0 times of that of the global plants.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 Rasoul Ghorbani, Ahad Ebrahimpour, Somayeh Noshad Most of the recreational places in Iran have constructed based on physical principles with less attention to user's mental and behavioral needs. Whereas these needs effect on increasing the number of users of these places; in this paper we attempt to analysis the motivation of users with Seeking-escaping and Pull and Push theory. At first we survey the people's principle motive of using the nature of Oun-Ebn-Ali recreational place with these models and then, the relationships between perceived emotions as intermediary and improved the quality of life as final reward, have evaluated. The results show that, the users go to Oun-Ebn-Ali natural place for escaping from pressure of everyday life and to achieving peace, watching the nature, doing sport and meeting friends. Although some undesirable factors such as shortage of trees shade and street furniture, congestion and unsuitable accessibility, influence the process of using recreational places and restrict the number of users. According to results, increasing natural attractions, recreational furniture, good accessibility and distribution of furniture in different parts of the site, will increase the desirability of using Oun-Ebn-Ali recreational place.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 Madhumita Roy, Santanu Ray, Phani Bhusan Ghosh Decomposition and subsequent remineralization of mangrove detritus is important in nutrient dynamics within the forest as well as in offshore system. In order to study the impact of detritivorous fish on the mangrove estuarine detritus food web, a five compartment model of detritus food web dynamics has been developed for mangrove estuarine creeks of Hooghly- Matla Estuarine complex, Sundarban. The model simulates concentration of nutrient, biomass of phytoplankton, zooplankton, detritus and detritivorous fishes. Almost 70% of the detritus formed in the soil was being washed in the estuarine water to act as source or sink of nutrient for the primary producers of aquatic food chain. A significant amount of detritus in the estuarine water is readily consumed by a group of detritivorous fishes before it is being rematerialized completely in to inorganic nutrient form. The model has been calibrated and validated using field data accordingly. Increased detrital nitrogen values in the late monsoon and post monsoon months, assists the growth and high yield of detritivorous fishes as found in simulated and field observations. Comparison of simulated and observed results demonstrates the dependence of phytoplankton growth is a function of nutrient concentration and zooplankton grazing. Model results also show the dependence of detritivorous fishes on detritus which is a function of detritus biomass. In turn, detritus biomass is dependent upon several factors like mortality of phytoplankton, zooplankton, and detritivorous fishes; and chiefly on litter biomass and litter decomposition.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 S.I. Bartsev Uniqueness which is inherent to an ecological system leads to situation when necessary requirement of science research - the reproducibility of an experiment - can not be fully satisfied when ecological systems are studied. A possible solution to the problem of experiment reproducibility and transfering obtained results to other ecosystems is developing some formal procedures for establishing a relationship of similarity (scaling) between models of ecosystems. Based on the concept of functional symmetry and Lie groups of continuous transformations a procedure for constructing ecosystem models, which are similar with respect to selected indicator is suggested. Applicability of this procedure to detecting similarities and to reducing complexity of ecosystem models is illustrated.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 Joyita Mukherjee, Santanu Ray Carbon cycle has a fundamental role in changing climate of the earth. Recent models of the estuary-atmosphere system demonstrate the potentially great importance of estuarine environment to the regulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Carbon, the key element of life is available in organic and inorganic forms as different compounds in air, water and soil. Our study site, Hooghly - Matla estuarine system receives a large load of nutrients throughout the year. This is mainly due to high litterfall from the adjacent luxuriant mangroves and yield of huge suspended sediment carried along with the river Ganges which is flowing through the western part of the Sundarban mangrove ecosystem.Keeping in view the crucial role of carbon, a seven compartment model has been proposed to study the dynamics of carbon in this estuarine system. Different forms of carbon present in soil (as soil organic carbon (SOC), soil inorganic carbon (SIC)) and in water (as dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), dissolved carbon dioxide (DCO2), dissolved bicarbonate (DBC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC)) are taken as state variables. Litter biomass, dissolved oxygen, primary productivity, community respiration, temperature of water, pH of water, pH of soil, air-water exchange of carbon dioxide and conversion rates among different forms of carbon are considered as graph time functions. The data used in the present model are collected for over two years from our field works and experiments. Other sensitive rate parameters which are not possible to collect from survey or experiment, calibrated following standard procedure. Sensitivity analysis is performed along with calibration. Model simulation results are validated with observed data. Results show seasonal variations of litterfall and which is the main source of SOC pool and ultimately transported to the estuary. Other than litterfall, death of organisms in soil and water enriches the SOC and POC respectively. pH of water is governing factor and depending on this factor, DIC is converted to DCO2 and DBC, which are taken up by phytoplankton during photosynthesis. Mineralization rate of SOC to SIC and uptake rate of DCO2 and DBC are the sensitive parameters.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 A.S. Komarov, Yu.S. Khoraskina, S.S. Bykhovets, M.G. Bezrukova Soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics is an important pool in biological turnover of carbon and other elements of plants nutrition in forest ecosystems. Problems at its modelling are: quantification of SOM fractions which are decomposing with specific rates; description of humification, obtaining dependencies of SOM rates of transformation in dependence on external factors. Different methods of fractionating of SOM are now in use based on different solubility of fractions/ This approach presents difficulties at model's initialization. We expanded a model of SOM dynamics ROMUL based on successive stages of mineralization and transformation of fresh litter, which correspond to SOM pools in horizons L, F and H of forest floor. A1 et al. are horizons in mineral soil. Rates of transformation of one SOM pool into another in these horizons can be obtained from experimental data. The dynamics of N, Ca and Mg is described using main equations of SOM transformations with inserting of additional constants or functions as independent multipliers for rates of transformation. Pools of elements available for plants nutrition, and some intermediate pools such as secondary soil minerals have been added to the model. New ROMUL has been successfully applied to ICP Forest plots in Russia.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 Yang Zhang, Chen Yiyun, Ding Qing, Ping Jiang Urban heat island effect has obtained more and more attention because environmental problems caused by the urban heat island have affected people's normal life. In this paper, qualitative and quantitative analyses have been used to study the relationship between normalized difference vegetated index (NDVI) and surface radiation temperature. The relationship of NDVI and surface radiation temperature has been studied in spatial profile. On that basis, the paper has studied the spatial distribution of heat island in Wuhan city and explained the features of the Wuhan spatial distribution of heat island. Research results has showed that there is obvious negative correlation between NDVI and the surface radiation Heating island strength is higher in industrial and commercial areas than others; Water and green space perform a distinct role to divide and mitigate the heat island effect.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 Narouchit Dampin, Wit Tarnchalanukit, Kasem Chunkao, Montri Maleewong The bioenergetics fish growth model of Nile Tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) cultured in the cages in wastewater oxidation pond is presented. The oxidation pond is located in the very successful project area “The Leam Phak Bia Environmental Study Research and Development Project under Royal Initiatives Petchaburi Province” in Thailand. There are five oxidation ponds connected in series in the research area. The measurement of Nile tilapia growth is taken in the third pond in which the water quality is in the effluent standard. The water quality and fish weight are measured in each month for one year period. The fish growth model in the form of ordinary differential equation is introduced to understand the behavior of fish growth due to various environmental factors which are dissolved oxygen demand (DO), water temperature, concentration of plankton, ammonia and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). In this presented model, we have introduced a new form of food assimilation efficiency as a function of fish weight. It is found that the predicted fish weight obtained from the model is in good agreement with the measurements. Also, this presented model can be applied to predict the fish weight in a wastewater stabilization pond when environmental factors have been changed.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 C.Q. Yan, T.X. Yue, G. Zhao High Accuracy Surface Modelling (HASM) can model surface with high accuracy, while its speed is a major limitation for its application in large scale data. This paper presents HASM-GA, a Graphic Processor Unit (GPU) accelerated High Accuracy Surface Modelling, to construct surface with a significant boost performance. Modern GPU has a highly parallel architecture with hundreds ofprocessors and stream processors, which is a powerful tool for bothgraphics processing and general purpose computation. Weparallel the most computationally-intensive portion of the HASM through NVIDA'sCompute Unified Development Architecture(CUDA)andQuadro 2000 GPU. The results show that one order of magnitude speedupcan be achieved by fully using the parallel processing power of theGPU compared with the traditional CPU method.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 L. Wu, Q. Jiang, X.M. Yang Eco-city planning has been a prevailing concern throughout China and beyond over the past few decades. Least-cost planning is a life-cycle costing approach for alternative analysis and decision-making, determining the preferred option that provides the optimal mix of financial, social and environmental outcomes for stakeholders throughout the project lifespan. A more sustainable approach is to incorporate the low carbon context into this economic analysis. Case studies, Tianjin Eco-city and Ningbo-Cixi Wetland Centre, granted by GEF, are presented and reviewed on how to foster key coastal areas of China into eco-cities by means of carbon footprint and costing. It is demonstrated that consideration should include carbon impact, carbon costs and accounting processes in the planning and management of the relevant plots, with achievement of key performance indicators relating to greenhouse gasses. Tertiary wastewater treatment, the selection of low carbon emission technology, and the utilization of constructed wetland configurations, green buildings and facilities are particularly demonstrated and modelled, employing energy software and economics tools repectively.

Beschreibung: The present study aims to develop a thermoeconomic-based approach for optimization of steam levels in a steam production and distribution system by use of the specific exergy costing (SPECO) method for determining optimum steam levels to minimize the cost caused by exergy destruction. In the field of total site optimization, incremental cost of the utility system caused by exergy destruction has been selected as an objective function and the result is compared with the case that energy minimization has been selected as the prime objective. The steam levels are optimized considering steam demand at each level, output power generated by turbines, boiler duty, fuel and cold utility requirements as well as capital cost of equipments. The analysis showed that thermoeconomic (exergoeconomic) approach in optimization not only can change the optimum structure of steam levels but also may reduce the total cost of utility system up to 8%.

Beschreibung: Dan Nchelatebe Nkwetta and Mervyn Smyth The performances of solar water heating systems have improved steadily over recent years due to improved component quality and design. Solar water heating systems in Northern Maritime climates, however, are still not viable economically. In order to make a significant impact on the domestic hot wate ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 023103 (2012)] published Tue Mar 13, 2012.

Beschreibung: Monitoring of progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) drinking water target relies on classification of water sources as “improved” or “unimproved” as an indicator for water safety. We adjust the current Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) estimate by accounting for microbial water quality and sanitary risk using the only-nationally representative water quality data currently available, that from the WHO and UNICEF “Rapid Assessment of Drinking Water Quality”. A principal components analysis (PCA) of national environmental and development indicators was used to create models that predicted, for most countries, the proportions of piped and of other-improved water supplies that are faecally contaminated; and of these sources, the proportions that lack basic sanitary protection against contamination. We estimate that 1.8 billion people (28% of the global population) used unsafe water in 2010. The 2010 JMP estimate is that 783 million people (11%) use unimproved sources. Our estimates revise the 1990 baseline from 23% to 37%, and the target from 12% to 18%, resulting in a shortfall of 10% of the global population towards the MDG target in 2010. In contrast, using the indicator “use of an improved source” suggests that the MDG target for drinking-water has already been achieved. We estimate that an additional 1.2 billion (18%) use water from sources or systems with significant sanitary risks. While our estimate is imprecise, the magnitude of the estimate and the health and development implications suggest that greater attention is needed to better understand and manage drinking water safety.

Beschreibung: Assessing variable speed pump efficiency in water distribution systems Drinking Water Engineering and Science Discussions, 5, 47-65, 2012 Author(s): A. Marchi, A. R. Simpson, and N. Ertugrul Energy savings and greenhouse gas emission reductions are increasingly becoming important design targets in many industrial systems where fossil fuel based electrical energy is heavily utilised. In water distribution systems (WDSs) a significant portion of operational cost is related to pumping. Recent studies have considered variable speed pumps (VSPs) which aim to vary the operating point of the pump to match demand to pumping rate. Depending on the system characteristics, this approach can lead to considerable savings in operational costs. In particular, cost reductions can take advantage of the demand variability and can decrease energy consumption significantly. One of the issues in using variable speed pumping systems, however, is the total efficiency of the electric motor/pump arrangement under a given operating condition. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive discussion about the components of WDS that incorporate variable speed pumps (including electric motors, inverters and the pumps themselves) to provide an insight of ways of increasing the system efficiency and hence to reduce energy consumption. In addition, specific attention is given to selection of motor types, sizing, duty cycle of pump (ratio of on-time and time period), losses due to installation and motor faults. All these factors affect the efficiency of motor drive/pump system.

Beschreibung: In order to study the flashover mechanism of polluted insulators under AC voltage, a new arc propagation criterion which is based on an arc root voltage gradient is proposed. This criterion can explain the variation of the arc root voltage gradient in the arc propagation process. Based on this criterion, a new distributed parameter electrical circuit flashover model of polluted insulators is presented. The arc channel is considered as an equivalent distributed parameter circuit model instead of using the arc voltage-gradient equation. The parameters of the arc model are obtained from the electromagnetic field distribution of the arc and the gas discharge theories. The arc root is considered as parallel paths including the polluted layer. The variation of the voltage on the arc root is related to the capability of arc propagation. This model takes the microscopic mechanism of arc root ionization into consideration, which can improve the accuracy of the flashover model. The results obtained from the presented model are in good agreement with other mathematical and experimental results.

Beschreibung: Qiang Sun, Jing Zhang, Peiqing Wang, Jun Zheng, Xunni Zhang et al. Sulfur-doped TiO is prepared by a mechanical process with ball milling the thiourea with commercial P25 TiO nanoparticles and successfully used as photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results indicate that sulfur-doped TiO are locally distorted by in ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 023104 (2012)] published Thu Mar 15, 2012.

Beschreibung: Aim: To assess suicide mortality in comparison to traffic accidents and homicide deaths in Germany in the year 2010 and to compare years of life lost (YLL) due to these unnatural deaths. Methods: Mortality data were provided by the Federal Statistical Office giving death rates (related to 100,000 inhabitants) and proportions (related to 100 deaths of individuals) for suicide, traffic accidents and homicide as well as YLL data. Results: A total of 14,441 unnatural deaths (suicide, traffic accidents, homicide) were reported in 2010 in Germany. Of those, 10,021 subjects (69.4%) committed suicide, 3,942 (27.3%) died in traffic accidents, 478 (3.3%) were murdered. Suicide death rates were by far the highest, with rates for men (18.6) three times higher than for women (6.1). For both sexes, suicide rates increased with age, whereas suicide as a proportion of all causes of death was higher in younger age groups. In both sexes, suicide was the leading cause of YLL (men: 314 YLL, women: 90 YLL). Conclusions: Suicide is the leading cause of unnatural death and YLL. The sex- and age- specific patterns in suicide mortality call for different action plans to target high risk groups.

Beschreibung: The objective of this cross-sectional questionnaire study was to assess associations of a self-report index of sun protection habit strength with sunscreen use in sporting environments and outdoor physical activity. Participants (n = 234) in field hockey, soccer, tennis and surf sports in Queensland, Australia, completed a self-administered survey on sun protection during organized sport, and during general outdoor physical activity during 2005/2006. The sun protection habit strength index was dichotomized into two categories. Multinomial logistic regression analyses assessed the associations of low versus high sun protection habit strength with three categories of sunscreen use (no or rare use; inadequate use; and adequate use). Compared to participants with low sun protection habit strength, those with high sun protection habit strength had significantly greater odds of any sunscreen use during organized sport and during general outdoor physical activity. This association was strongest for adequate sunscreen use in both settings. In conclusion, this study suggests that the measure of sun protection habit strength is a potentially useful assessment tool for future sun protection studies.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 M.N. Islam, D. Kitazawa, H.D. Park The paper investigates the predominant algal (Microcystis aeruginosa, Microcystis viridis, Microcystis ichthyoblabe, and Mirocystis wasenbergii ) bloom, their transition behaviors and toxin produced as Microcystin-Leucine+Arginine (MC-LR) , Microcystin-Arginine+Arginine (MC-RR) and Microcystin-Tyosine+Arginine (MC-YR) by cyanobacteria within the ecosystem of Lake Kasumigaura, Japan by using hydrodynamic ecosystem coupled model. Integrating the famous Monod functions ’ concept the second mode of toxin production and Grover et al., 2011 river reservoirs toxin modeling theoretical notion assumes that the rate of toxin production by cyanobacteria depends on proportional to blue green algal composition and their abundance. Conceptualizing these two novel idea we have developed a three dimensional numerical model and to elucidate the structure of algal species and prediction of toxin production within the lake ecosystem. The simulation results compare the toxin (MC-LR, MC-RR and MC-YR ) production of some stations in the Lake Kasumigaura with the observational data in the month of July, August and September for 2005, 2006 and 2007.The simulation result shows that there are some dominant species (Microcystis aeruginosa and Mycrocystis viridis are highly toxic) with regard to toxin produce in July, August and September in 2005. But in 2006 and 2007 there is no toxin produced by cyanobacteria (dominant species by Microcystis ichthyoblabe is toxic/nontoxic) in the ecosystem of Lake Kasumigaura. Because of timing and duration of the cyanobacteria bloom, making scum or colony and dying depends on the selecting parameters i.e. light intensity, temperature, water depth, wind direction, buoyancy and N: P ratio etc. But in some cases, toxin production depends on the Microcystis species toxic and non-toxic characteristics. The numerical modeling was calibrated by tuning toxin decay coefficient and other parameters for achieving a good agreement between the observations and the predictions.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 T. Nakayama In China, hydro-climate is diverse between north and south. Here process-based eco-hydrology model was coupled with complex sub-systems to develop coupled human and natural systems and to analyze impact of anthropogenic activity on eco-hydrologic change in continental scales. The model presented impact of irrigation on eco-hydrological processes. Furthermore, spatial pattern of Time-Integrated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (TINDVI) gradient in agricultural fields showed heterogeneous characteristics of crop yield, which implied the increase in irrigation water use is one of the reasons for the increase in crop production. These results suggest strongly the needs of trans-boundary and -authority solutions of water management for sustainable development under sound socio-economic conditions contributory to national and global securities.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 Tao Li, Jun Hua Zhang, Guang Ming Tan, Huai Bao Ma, Shu Xia Li Based on former research on the turbidity current, and learning lessons from the study on turbidity current,11 flume experiments has been operated with combined factors on different sediment concentration and different width. From the surveyed data turbidity current head going through the changing width section have been analyzed. Taken use of mathematical statistics method, local resistance coefficient of turbidity current head has been acquired on the changing width section.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 T. Tsujimoto, Y. Toda, T. Tashiro, H. Takaoka, K. Anbutsu, M. Obana River basin is a unit of natural runoff process and it can be considered as an assembly of flux network of water and various materials including sediment and nutrients. Inside a river basin, various landscapes are distributed, and landscape is composed of physical background, bio-chemical actions and biological aspects in associated with the local ecosystem. When the fluxes pass through a landscape, they are changed in quantity and quality and bring about various ecosystem services. Due to population increase and economic efficiency with urbanization, artificial facilities and flux networks have been added to connect multiple basins. These artificial systems have consumed fossil fuels, emitted green house gas, and degraded ecosystem. Outflow fluxes from multiple rivers degrade our facing coastal area in particular bay area. Multiple river basins connected with artificial flux networks, including a facing bay area, is here called river basin complex, where eco-compatible management methodology is required. In the present study, we have developed an integrated numerical model for eco-compatible management of river basin complex around Ise bay in Japan, which includes following 2 sub-models: (1) Flux network model and (2) Ecosystem models of various landscapes. The model can describe the change of the material fluxes and ecosystem services under the various social scenarios on the Ise bay river basin complex.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 H. Higashi, H. Koshikawa, S. Murakami, K. Kohata, M. Mizuochi, T. Tsujimoto Integrated Coastal Area and River basin Management (ICARM) is important to maintain/improve the sustainability of the coastal ecosystem services. We describe the effects of the land-based pollution reduction on the water quality in Ise Bay, Japan, based on the numerical simulations. The numerical model for water and material flow-flux in the bay consists of the hydrodynamic and the pelagic-benthic ecosystem models. The hydrodynamic model could predict the 3D current, pressure, salinity, and temperature. The pelagic-benthic ecosystem model simulated the available evaluation for the C-N-P-O biogeochemical cycle. The numerical simulations were carried out in order to investigate the response of coastal hypoxia in Ise Bay to the pollutant loading reductions predicted by the river basin model under the various social scenarios. These simulated results indicated that hypoxia volume could be reduced to 67% of the present loading condition if the most effective control of the point and nonpoint sources was adopted

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 X.C. Zhang, C. Ma, S.F. Zhan, W.P. Chen The objective of this study is to evaluate and simulate the ecological risk level of a coastal city, Tianjin's urbanization through an emergy synthesis model. In this study, an ecological risk index system was developed corresponding to the factors of urban ecosystem risk including in Pressure-State-Response model (PSR). Thus, an emergy-based ecological risk evaluation model (EERM) was proposed to evaluate and simulate the risk levels for urban expansion, which offers an integrated evaluation tool in view of urban ecosystem pressure, state and response. Emergy analysis methods are explained, illustrated and used to diagram the urban ecosystem, to evaluate environmental and economic inputs and harvested yield, and to assess the sustainability of the Tianjin during 1995 to 2009. The results have shown that, from 1995 to 2009, the pressure rating of the urban ecology risk in this area had been rising continually. These results comply with relevant laws of correlativity between urbanization and ecological protection in this research area. It is hoped that the evaluation and simulation for ecological risk will provide scientific basis for appraisal of the security and sustainable development of urbanization.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 A.I. Abakumov, V.A. Silkin, L.A. Pautova The phytoplankton production is a basis for a life activity of all species in every aquatic ecological system. Remote sounding methods make it possible to estimate chlorophyll concentration on the ocean surface. The data from remote sounding methods and the data of a nutrient concentration enable us to calculate and model the phytoplankton abundance. These calculations provide a possibility for the description of the phytoplankton production processes. We present here some models for the dynamics of the phytoplankton biomass. The qualitative properties of the solutions of these models are investigated. Strategically activities of the cell are defined by its internal state and by the environmental conditions. The state of the cell depends on nutrients. Our mathematical models describe the abundance dynamics for phytoplankton's community and dynamics of the cellular nutrients content. The models are based on the systems of differential equations. These models may be open or closed relative to the matter. The open models describe the chemostat processes. We investigate the property of the solutions of these models. The closed models have a infinite set of the positive solutions. The open models have a finite set of the non-negative solutions. The algorithm for finding the stable equilibrium solutions in open models is constructed. The theorems about the stable equilibrium solutions are proved with help the methods of structural analysis. These models describe the phytoplankton dynamics in the Black Sea.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 Q.Y. Jia, F.H. Sun Liao river delta within Liao river Plain is an important commodity grain base in China. It is frequently affected by meteorological disasters. A large flood occurs on average of 7∼8 years. However, the basin has not yet achieved for the prediction of flood disaster. In this article, the HBV model-based distributed hydrological model was used to model and predict the runoff of Liao river delta. It is used in more than 45 countries all over the world, but the first time applied for Liao river Basin. The input data was obtained from the 5 automatic weather stations (AWS) installed at various places and altitudes in Liaoning Province which located in Liao river delta. Model input parameters include daily Tmax, Tmin, Tmean for 40 years. The watershed hydrological stations were used to calibrate the model parameters.This was the first application of the HBV model to simulate the in Liao rive basin runoff, the next step should be the actual runoff data by improving data accuracy and the length of time to adjust the model parameters.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 S.D. Wang, L.L. Miao, G.X. Peng Using the characteristics of the environment and disaster monitoring and forecasting small satellite constellation (HJ), the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) forest fire detection contextual algorithm was improved to adapt the HJ-infrared sensor (HJ-IRS). The enhanced method consisted of potential fire pixel identification, absolute and relative fire pixel judgment, background characteristics analysis, and fire pixel confidence. The improved algorithm was programmed in IDL7.1 and tested using HJ forest fire data from Heilongjiang Province in 2009. Results show that improving the forest fire detection contextual algorithm to adapt HJ-IRS is feasible and highly accurate. HJ data are much more sensitive to smaller and cooler fires than MODIS or the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) data, and the improved capabilities offers a good potential for application in forest fire detection.

Beschreibung: Publication year: 2012 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13 Y. Liu, Y.P. Cai, G.H. Huang, C. Dong System planning of energy resources management is an effective way for supporting socio-economic development and enhancing eco-environmental sustainability. In this study, an inexact coupled coal and power management model with ecological restoration and pollutants mitigation was developed to analyze the impacts of growing coal use and electricity production on eco-environmental quality by integrating a complete set of ecological and environmental constraints. The model can not only effectively handle the uncertainties and complexities of the coupled coal and power management systems, but can also facilitate a dynamic analysis of capacity expansion, facility installation, energy resource inventory, coal blending and environmental regulation changes within a multi-period and multi-option context. The developed model was applied to a long-term coupled coal and power management system planning problem to support the regional eco-environmental sustainability in north China. The interval solutions associated with different risk levels of the constraint violations were obtained, which could be used to formulate decision alternative options. The results generated could also aid decision makers in identifying desirable strategies under various social-economic, environmental and system-reliability constraints with the highest system reliability and the lowest system cost and ecological environment impact. In addition, the tradeoffs between system costs and constraint-violation risks could also be tackled.

Beschreibung: Contribution of flowering trees to urban atmospheric biogenic volatile organic compound emissions Biogeosciences Discussions, 9, 3145-3172, 2012 Author(s): R. Baghi, D. Helmig, A. Guenther, T. Duhl, and R. Daly Emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) from urban trees during and after blooming were measured during spring and early summer 2009 in Boulder, Colorado. Air samples were collected onto solid adsorbent cartridges from branch enclosures on the tree species crabapple, horse chestnut, honey locust, and hawthorn. These species constitute ~65 % of the insect-pollinated fraction of the flowering tree canopy (excluding catkin-producing trees) from the street area managed by the City of Boulder. Samples were analyzed for C 10 –C 15 BVOC by thermal desorption and gas chromatography coupled to a flame ionization detector and a mass spectrometer (GC/FID/MS). Identified emissions and emission rates from these four tree species during the flowering phase were found to vary over a wide range. Monoterpene emissions were identified for honey locust, horse chestnut and hawthorn. Sesquiterpene emissions were observed in horse chestnut and hawthorn samples. Crabapple flowers were found to emit significant amounts of benzyl alcohol and benzaldehyde. Floral BVOC emissions increased with temperature, generally exhibiting exponential temperature dependence. Changes in BVOC speciation during and after the flowering period were observed for every tree studied. Emission rates were significantly higher during the blooming compared to the vegetative state for crabapple and honey locust. Total normalized (30 °C) monoterpene emissions from honey locust were higher during flowering (5.26 μg Cg −1 h −1 ) than after flowering (1.23 μg Cg −1 h −1 ). The total normalized BVOC emission rate from crabapple (93 μg Cg −1 h −1 ) during the flowering period is of the same order as isoprene emissions from oak trees, which are among the highest BVOC emissions observed from plants to date. These findings illustrate that during the relatively brief springtime flowering period, floral emissions constitute by far the most significant contribution to the BVOC flux from these tree species, some of which are leafless at this time. Experimental results were integrated into the MEGAN biogenic emission model and simulations were performed to estimate the contribution of floral BVOC emissions to the total urban BVOC flux during the spring flowering period. The floral BVOC emitted during this three-month simulation are equivalent to 11 % of the cumulative monoterpene flux for the Boulder urban area.

Beschreibung: Contributions of ectomycorrhizal fungal mats to forest soil respiration Biogeosciences Discussions, 9, 1635-1666, 2012 Author(s): C. L. Phillips, L. A. Kluber, J. P. Martin, B. A. Caldwell, and B. J. Bond Distinct aggregations of fungal hyphae and rhizomorphs, or "mats" formed by some genera of ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi are common features of soils in coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest. We measured in situ respiration rates of Piloderma mats and neighboring non-mat soils in an old-growth Douglas-fir forest in Western Oregon to investigate whether there was an incremental increase in respiration from mat soils, and to estimate mat contributions to total soil respiration. We found that areas where Piloderma mats colonized the organic horizon often had higher soil surface flux than non-mats, with the incremental increase in respiration averaging 16 % across two growing seasons. Both soil physical factors and biochemistry were related to the higher surface flux of mat soils. When air-filled pore space was low (high soil moisture), soil CO 2 production was concentrated into near-surface soil horizons where mats tend to colonize, resulting in greater apparent differences in respiration between mat and non-mat soils. Respiration rates were also correlated with the activity of chitin-degrading soil enzymes. This suggests that the elevated activity of fungal mats may be related to consumption or turnover of chitinous fungal cell-wall materials. We found Piloderma mats present across 57 % of the soil surface in the study area, and use this value to estimate a respiratory contribution from mats at the stand-scale of about 9 % of total soil respiration. The activity of EcM mats, which includes both EcM fungi and microbial associates, was estimated to constitute a substantial portion of total soil respiration in this old-growth Douglas-fir forest.

Beschreibung: Ben Rowlinson, Don Gunasekera, and Alberto Troccoli With projected increases in population and urbanisation in Australia, the sustainable supply of water and energy over the medium to long term will be an important challenge. In this context, meeting a part of the growing demand for urban water may involve reliance upon desalinated water in the futur ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013108 (2012)] published Wed Feb 8, 2012.

Beschreibung: Remote sensing-based estimation of gross primary production in a subalpine grassland Biogeosciences Discussions, 9, 1711-1758, 2012 Author(s): M. Rossini, S. Cogliati, M. Meroni, M. Migliavacca, M. Galvagno, L. Busetto, E. Cremonese, T. Julitta, C. Siniscalco, U. Morra di Cella, and R. Colombo This study investigates the performances in a terrestrial ecosystem of gross primary production (GPP) estimation of a suite of spectral vegetation indexes (VIs) that can be computed from currently orbiting platforms. Vegetation indexes were computed from near-surface field spectroscopy measurements collected using an automatic system designed for high temporal frequency acquisition of spectral measurements in the visible near-infrared region. Spectral observations were collected for two consecutive years in Italy in a subalpine grassland equipped with an Eddy Covariance (EC) flux tower which provides continuous measurements of net ecosystem carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) exchange (NEE) and the derived GPP. Different VIs were calculated based on ESA-MERIS and NASA-MODIS spectral bands and correlated with biophysical (Leaf Area Index, LAI; fraction of photosynthetically active radiation intercepted by green vegetation, f IPAR g ), biochemical (chlorophyll concentration) and ecophysiological (green light-use efficiency, LUE g ) canopy variables. In this study, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) showed better correlations with LAI and f PAR g ( r = 0.90 and 0.95, respectively), the MERIS terrestrial chlorophyll index (MTCI) with leaf chlorophyll content ( r = 0.91) and the Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI 551 ), computed as ( R 531 − R 551 )/( R 531 + R 551 ) with LUE g ( r = 0.64). Subsequently, these VIs were used to estimate GPP using different modelling solutions based on the light-use efficiency model describing the GPP as driven by the photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by green vegetation (APAR g ) and by the efficiency (ε) with which plants use the absorbed radiation to fix carbon via photosynthesis. Results show that GPP can be successfully modelled with a combination of VIs and meteorological data or VIs only. Vegetation indexes designed to be more sensitive to chlorophyll content explained most of the variability in GPP in the ecosystem investigated, characterized by a strong seasonal dynamic of GPP. Accuracy in GPP estimation slightly improves when taking into account high frequency modulations of GPP driven by incident PAR or modelling LUE g with the PRI in model formulation. Similar results were obtained for both measured daily VIs and VIs obtained as 16-day composite time series and then downscaled from the compositing period to daily scale (resampled data). However, the use of resampled data rather than measured daily input data decreases the accuracy of the total GPP estimation on an annual basis.

Beschreibung: Soil organic carbon storage changes in coastal wetlands of the modern Yellow River Delta from 2000 to 2009 Biogeosciences Discussions, 9, 1759-1779, 2012 Author(s): J. Yu, Y. Wang, Y. Li, H. Dong, D. Zhou, G. Han, H. Wu, G. Wang, P. Mao, and Y. Gao Soil carbon sequestration plays an essential role in mitigating CO 2 increases and the subsequently global greenhouse effect. The storages and dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) of 0–30 cm soil depth in different landscape types including beaches, reservoir and pond, reed wetland, forest wetland, bush wetland, farmland, building land, bare land (severe saline land) and salt field in the modern Yellow River Delta (YRD), were studied based on the data of the regional survey and laboratory analysis. The landscape types were classified by the interpretation of remote sensing images of 2000 and 2009, which was calibrated by field survey results. The results revealed an increase of 10.59 km 2 in the modem YRD area from 2000 to 2009. The SOC density varied ranging from 0.73 kg m −2 to 21.60 kg m −2 at depth of 30 cm. There were ~3.97 × 10 6 t and 3.98 × 10 6 t SOC stored in the YRD in 2000 and 2009, respectively. The SOC storages changed greatly in beaches, bush wetland, farm land and salt field which were affected dominantly by anthropogenic activities. The area of the YRD increased greatly within 10 yr, however, the small increase of SOC storage in the region was observed due to landscape changes, indicating that the modern YRD was a potential carbon sink and anthropogenic activity was a key factor for SOC change.

Beschreibung: Micro-relief heterogeneity can lead to substantial variability in microclimate and hence niche opportunities on a small scale. We explored the relationship between plant species richness and small-scale heterogeneity of micro-relief on the subtropical island of La Palma, Canary Islands. Overall, we sampled 40 plots in laurel and pine forests at four altitudinal bands. Species richness was recorded separately for various growth forms (i.e., mosses, herbaceous and woody plants). Site conditions such as altitude, slope, aspect, and tree density were measured. Micro-relief heterogeneity was characterized by surface structure and a subsequently derived surface heterogeneity index. The effect of micro-relief heterogeneity on species richness was analysed by means of linear mixed effect models and variance partitioning. Effects of micro-relief heterogeneity on species richness varied considerably between growth forms. While moss richness was affected significantly by micro-relief heterogeneity, herbaceous and woody plants richness responded mainly to larger-scale site conditions such as aspect and tree density. Our results stress the importance of small-scale relief heterogeneity for the explanation of spatial patterns of species richness. This poses new challenges as small-scale heterogeneity is largely underrepresented, e.g. with regard to its application in species distribution models.

Beschreibung: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of suicidal ideation in patients who were tested for HIV-infection and whether along with their HIV status, age and gender influenced their risk for suicidal ideation. The sample consisted of 189 patients who attended a voluntary HIV counseling and testing clinic (VCT) at a general state hospital in Durban, South Africa. Their mean age at baseline was 34.2 years, with an age range of between 16–79 years. Seropositivity, age and gender were significantly associated with suicidal ideation. The majority of these patients were in the younger age group, and young males had a 1.8 times higher risk for suicidal ideation than females. Although risk factors for seropositive-related suicidal ideation can be complex and multi-factorial, this study identified a young age and male gender as important high risk factors in the sample studied. It is recommended that all, but especially young male HIV-infected patients seen at a VCT clinic be screened for suicidal ideation and that early intervention to prevent subsequent suicides or suicidal attempts be included in pre- and post-test HIV counseling.

Beschreibung: David Labrecque, Dan Wheeler, and Eugene Katsman Due to the rising demand for low-cost clean energy, the development of efficient wind and water energy-generating systems is one of the major goals of this century. A novel approach for extracting energy efficiently from wind and water currents utilizes a tail-weighted wing following a figure-eight ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013111 (2012)] published Fri Feb 10, 2012.

Beschreibung: Hussain H. Al-Kayiem and Mohammed H. Alhamdo The performance of thermal solar systems can be enhanced by extending its operational time by the aid of thermal energy storage. In the present work, the transient behavior of packed bed thermal energy storage (TES) was investigated experimentally and numerically. An experimental setup was designed ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013112 (2012)] published Fri Feb 10, 2012.

Beschreibung: Implications of observed inconsistencies in carbonate chemistry measurements for ocean acidification studies Biogeosciences Discussions, 9, 1781-1792, 2012 Author(s): C. J. M. Hoppe, G. Langer, S. D. Rokitta, D. A. Wolf-Gladrow, and B. Rost The growing field of ocean acidification research is concerned with the investigation of organisms' responses to increasing p CO 2 values. One important approach in this context is culture work using seawater with adjusted CO 2 levels. As aqueous p CO 2 is difficult to measure directly in small scale experiments, it is generally calculated from two other measured parameters of the carbonate system (often A T , C T or pH). Unfortunately, the overall uncertainties of measured and subsequently calculated values are often unknown. Especially under high p CO 2 , this can become a severe problem with respect to the interpretation of physiological and ecological data. In the few datasets from ocean acidification research where all three of these parameters were measured, p CO 2 values calculated from A T and C T are typically about 30 % lower (i.e. ~300 μatm at a target p CO 2 of 1000 μatm) than those calculated from A T and pH or C T and pH. This study presents and discusses these discrepancies as well as likely consequences for the ocean acidification community. Until this problem is solved, one has to consider that calculated parameters of the carbonate system (e.g. p CO 2 , calcite saturation state) may not be comparable between studies, and that this may have important implications for the interpretation of CO 2 perturbation experiments.

Beschreibung: Currently, hydropower accounts for close to 16% of the world’s total power supply and is the world’s most dominant (86%) source of renewable electrical energy. The key resource for hydropower generation is runoff, which is dependent on precipitation. The future global climate is uncertain and thus poses some risk for the hydropower generation sector. The crucial question and challenge then is what will be the impact of climate change on global hydropower generation and what are the resulting regional variations in hydropower generation potential? This paper is a study that aims to evaluate the changes in global hydropower generation resulting from predicted changes in climate. The study uses an ensemble of simulations of regional patterns of changes in runoff, computed from global circulation models (GCM) simulations with 12 different models. Based on these runoff changes, hydropower generation is estimated by relating the runoff changes to hydropower generation potential through geographical information system (GIS), based on 2005 hydropower generation. Hydropower data obtained from EIA (energy generation), national sites, FAO (water resources) and UNEP were used in the analysis. The countries/states were used as computational units to reduce the complexities of the analysis. The results indicate that there are large variations of changes (increases/decreases) in hydropower generation across regions and even within regions. Globally, hydropower generation is predicted to change very little by the year 2050 for the hydropower system in operation today. This change amounts to an increase of less than 1% of the current (2005) generation level although it is necessary to carry out basin level detailed assessment for local impacts which may differ from the country based values. There are many regions where runoff and hydropower generation will increase due to increasing precipitation, but also many regions where there will be a decrease. Based on this evaluation, it has been concluded that even if individual countries and regions may experience significant impacts, climate change will not lead to significant changes in the global hydropower generation, at least for the existing hydropower system.

Beschreibung: As part of its climate strategy, the EU aims at increasing the share of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E) in overall electricity generation. Attaining this target poses a considerable challenge as the electricity sector is “locked” into a carbon-intensive system, which hampers the adoption of RES-E technologies. Electricity generation, transmission and distribution grids as well as storage and demand response are subject to important path dependences, which put existing, non-renewable energy sources at an advantage. This paper examines how an EU framework for RES-E support policies should be designed to facilitate a carbon lock-out. For this purpose, we specify the major technological, economic and institutional barriers to RES-E. For each of the barriers, a policy review is carried out which assesses the performance of existing policy instruments and identifies needs for reform. The review reveals several shortcomings: while policies targeting generation are widely in place, measures to address barriers associated with electricity grids, storage and demand are still in their infancy and have to be extended. Moreover, the implementation of policies has been fragmented across EU Member States. In this respect, national policies should be embedded into an integrated EU-wide planning of the RES-E system with overarching energy scenarios and partially harmonized policy rules.

Beschreibung: California’s development and success have been shaped by its ability to manage floods. This management has varied over the history of California’s economic and political development and continues in various forms today. California will always have flood problems. A range of options are available to aid in flood management problems and have been used over time. These options can be contrasted with flood management elsewhere and the types of options used to manage other types of hazards in California, such as earthquakes, wildfires, and droughts. In the future, flood management in California will require greater reliance on local funding and leadership, reflecting diminished federal and state funding, with more effective state and federal guidance. Effective flood management will also tend to integrate flood management with actions to achieve environmental and other water supply objectives, both to gain revenues from a broader range of beneficiaries as well as to make more efficient use of land and water in a state where both are often scarce.

Beschreibung: Riverine influence on the tropical Atlantic Ocean biogeochemistry Biogeosciences Discussions, 9, 1945-1969, 2012 Author(s): L. Cotrim da Cunha and E. T. Buitenhuis We assess the role of riverine inputs of N, Si, Fe, organic and inorganic C in the tropical Atlantic Ocean using a global ocean biogeochemistry model. We use two sensitivity tests to investigate the role of the western (South American Rivers) and eastern (African Rivers) riverine nutrient inputs on the tropical Atlantic Ocean biogeochemistry (between 20° S–20° N and 70° W–20°). Increased nutrient availability from river inputs in this area (compared to an extreme scenario with no river nutrients) leads to an increase in 14 % (0.7 Pg C a −1 ) in open ocean primary production (PP), and 21 % (0.2 Pg C a −1 ) in coastal ocean PP. We estimate very modest increases in open and coastal ocean export production and sea-air CO 2 fluxes. Results suggest that in the tropical Atlantic Ocean, the large riverine nutrient inputs on the western side have a larger impact on primary production and sea-air CO 2 exchanges. On the other hand, African river inputs, although smaller than South American inputs, have larger impact on the coastal and open tropical Atlantic Ocean export production. This is probably due to a combination of nutrient trapping in upwelling areas off the Congo River outflow, and differences in delivered nutrient ratios leading to alleviation in limitation conditions mainly for diatoms.

Beschreibung: Due to the movement and complexity of the carbon market, traditional monoscale forecasting approaches often fail to capture its nonstationary and nonlinear properties and accurately describe its moving tendencies. In this study, a multiscale ensemble forecasting model integrating empirical mode decomposition (EMD), genetic algorithm (GA) and artificial neural network (ANN) is proposed to forecast carbon price. Firstly, the proposed model uses EMD to decompose carbon price data into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and one residue. Then, the IMFs and residue are composed into a high frequency component, a low frequency component and a trend component which have similar frequency characteristics, simple components and strong regularity using the fine-to-coarse reconstruction algorithm. Finally, those three components are predicted using an ANN trained by GA, i.e., a GAANN model, and the final forecasting results can be obtained by the sum of these three forecasting results. For verification and testing, two main carbon future prices with different maturity in the European Climate Exchange (ECX) are used to test the effectiveness of the proposed multiscale ensemble forecasting model. Empirical results obtained demonstrate that the proposed multiscale ensemble forecasting model can outperform the single random walk (RW), ARIMA, ANN and GAANN models without EMD preprocessing and the ensemble ARIMA model with EMD preprocessing.

Beschreibung: Reporting on contributions to community development is one way gold mining companies communicate the expanse and depth of their commitment to social responsibility. These projects are intended to provide the mine-proximate communities with some of the wealth and other benefits generated by mine development in their locales. We raise questions about reporting and evaluation of community development projects undertaken by AngloGold Ashanti in the two communities of Nyakabale and Nyamalembo, near its Geita mining projects in the Lake Victoria goldfields of Tanzania. We use archival data and data obtained from field research conducted during different periods throughout 2005, 2007 and 2010 to compare what the company reports to have done with what is found on the ground. Our findings revealed that the corporate reporting is misleading, ambiguous, and omissive. Much of the effort labeled “community development” benefited the companies directly via infrastructure development, food supplies to the mine cafeteria, and worker health. We argue that, if Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects are to be the primary way local people directly benefit from mine development, the relationship between the value of those projects and the wealth taken from the location should be considered, community projects should be well defined and differentiated from company-oriented projects, and community representatives should participate in monitoring the success and impact of community development projects.

Beschreibung: For achieving the European renewable electricity targets, a significant contribution is foreseen to come from offshore wind energy. Considering the large scale of the future planned offshore wind farms and the increasing distances to shore, grid integration through a transnational DC network is desirable for several reasons. This article investigates a nine-node DC grid connecting three northern European countries—namely UK, The Netherlands and Germany. The power-flow control inside the multi-terminal DC grid based on voltage-source converters is achieved through a novel method, called distributed voltage control (DVC). In this method, an optimal power flow (OPF) is solved in order to minimize the transmission losses in the network. The main contribution of the paper is the utilization of a genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the OPF problem while maintaining an N-1 security constraint. After describing main DC network component models, several case studies illustrate the dynamic behavior of the proposed control method.

Beschreibung: This article focuses on the psychosocial work environment of immigrant cleaners at a Danish workplace. Today, many cleaners working in Danish cleaning jobs are women from the established immigrant communities, but also labour migrants from the newer EU member states have found their way to the cleaning industry. Studies have drawn attention to immigrants’ low position in the cleaning industry and their increased risk of work injuries. This article is based on a case study of an intervention called “Make a Difference” designed to improve the work environment among cleaners at a multi-ethnic workplace. We used semi-structured interviews, photo logs, observation and participation to investigate how the cleaners experienced their work environment. The cleaners reported an overload of heavy work, related to the concept of a classroom’s “readiness for cleaning”, and they expressed strained social relations and communication in addition to a lack of social recognition and invisibility at the workplace, a school. We analysed these psychosocial work environmental problems by investigating the different forms of social relationships and communication within the group of cleaners, and between the cleaners and the teachers and pupils at the school. Moreover, we discussed why the intervention, based on training of language and cleaning skills and social interaction, only partially improved the cleaners’ psychosocial work environment problems. In this article, we argue that social divisions based on ethnicity between the new and the established group of cleaners, combined with their marginal position and poor work organisation at the school, reinforced the cleaners’ experiences of psychosocial work environment problems. This article suggests that increased effort towards social inclusion at work and improved work organisation, especially for the new labour migrants from newer EU-countries, should be considered.

Beschreibung: The risk to public health from the large number of dog stools present on streets of urban areas is cause for concern. Dog faeces may be a serious hazard because they may contain microorganisms that are both pathogenic to humans and resistant to several classes of antibiotics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential for zoonotic infections and for the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in canine faeces which contaminates the urban environment. A total of 418 canine faecal samples were collected from streets in seven areas of Bari, Southern Italy. We have isolated multi-drug resistant Enterococci and meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from these dog faecal samples. The presence of the resistant bacteria in an urban environment may represent a public health hazard which requires control measures by competent authorities. No Salmonella, Yersinia or Campylobacter species were isolated. Giardia cysts were detected in 1.9% of the samples. The predominant Enterococcus species were E. faecium (61.6%), E. gallinarum (23.3%) and E. casseliflavus (5.5%). Other species, including E. faecalis were also isolated. These strains were resistant to clindamycin (86.3%), tetracycline (65.7%), erythromycin (60.27%) and ampicillin (47.9%). High-level aminoglycoside resistance (HLAR) was found in 65.7% of enterococci. Resistance to three or more antibiotics and six or more antibiotics were observed in 67.12% and 38.4% of Enterococcus spp., respectively. Resistance to vancomycin and teicoplanin was not detected in any of the Enterococcus spp. isolated. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was isolated in 0.7% of the faecal samples. Canine faeces left on the streets may represent a risk factor for transmission of microorganisms and a reservoir of multidrug- resistant bacteria thus contributing to the spread of resistance genes into an urban area.

Beschreibung: 27 December 2012 Publication year: 2012 Source: Cell Reports, Volume 2, Issue 6 Insulin stimulates glucose uptake through the membrane translocation of GLUT4 and GLUT1. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) enhances insulin sensitivity. Here, we demonstrate that insulin stimulates GLUT4 and GLUT1 translocation, and glucose uptake, by activating the signaling pathway involving nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP), a calcium mobilizer, in adipocytes. We also demonstrate that PPARγ mediates insulin sensitization by enhancing NAADP production through upregulation of CD38, the only enzyme identified for NAADP synthesis. Insulin produced NAADP by both CD38-dependent and -independent pathways, whereas PPARγ produced NAADP by CD38-dependent pathway. Blocking the NAADP signaling pathway abrogated both insulin-stimulated and PPARγ-induced GLUT4 and GLUT1 translocation, thereby inhibiting glucose uptake. CD38 knockout partially inhibited insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. However, CD38 knockout completely blocked PPARγ-induced glucose uptake in adipocytes and PPARγ-mediated amelioration of glucose tolerance in diabetic mice. These results demonstrated that the NAADP signaling pathway is a critical molecular target for PPARγ-mediated insulin sensitization. Graphical abstract Highlights ► Insulin induces glucose uptake via NAADP-mediated calcium increase ► PPARγ mediates insulin sensitization by upregulating the NAADP-producing enzyme CD38 ► PPARγ agonists ameliorate glucose tolerance by CD38 upregulation

Beschreibung: Available online 27 December 2012 Publication year: 2012 Source: Cell Reports Enveloped viruses have developed various adroit mechanisms to invade their host cells. This process requires one or more viral envelope glycoprotein to achieve cell attachment and membrane fusion. Members of the Flaviviridae such as flaviviruses possess only one envelope glycoprotein, E, whereas pestiviruses and hepacivirus encode two glycoproteins, E1 and E2. Although E2 is involved in cell attachment, it has been unclear which protein is responsible for membrane fusion. We report the crystal structures of the homodimeric glycoprotein E2 from the pestivirus bovine viral diarrhea virus 1 (BVDV1) at both neutral and low pH. Unexpectedly, BVDV1 E2 does not have a class II fusion protein fold, and at low pH the N-terminal domain is disordered, similarly to the intermediate postfusion state of E2 from sindbis virus, an alphavirus. Our results suggest that the pestivirus and possibly the hepacivirus fusion machinery are unlike any previously observed. Graphical abstract Highlights ► Structure of the major antigenically dominant protein of BVDV ► The overall fold of BVDV E2 shows no similarity to the class II fusion proteins ► At low pH, BVDV E2 N-terminal domain is disordered ► Entry mechanism of BVDV is probably applicable to hepatitis C virus

Beschreibung: Municipal solid waste (MSW) is an important energy resource for combined heat and power (CHP) production. This study summarized an overview of CHP by MSW to energy (WtE) plants in South Korea and discussed the issues related to energy efficiency improvement. Given the dominant housing culture of apartment living in South Korea, the primary energy output of WtE plants has been for district heating. In 2010, approximately half of the 51 large WtE plants were CHP, while the rest produced heat. Power generation in the WtE CHP plants was estimated to be only 3.65% of the thermal input, while heat production was 60.79%. The R1 efficiency when compared to that in Europe was similar for the CHP plants and higher for heat-only plants. Improving power generation efficiency is required for new power plants producing steam at pressures higher than the current level of 20–30 bar. Over ten of the existing plants needed to increase their energy efficiency by installing new equipment such as steam turbines for excess steam. Finally, transboundary centralization of WtE plants between neighboring local authorities is essential for heat utilization since many existing small-scale plants (〈50 t/day capacity) do not recover heat.

Beschreibung: Ecological studies of suicide and self-harm have established the importance of area variables (e.g., deprivation, social fragmentation) in explaining variations in suicide risk. However, there are likely to be unobserved influences on risk, typically spatially clustered, which can be modeled as random effects. Regression impacts may be biased if no account is taken of spatially structured influences on risk. Furthermore a default assumption of linear effects of area variables may also misstate or understate their impact. This paper considers variations in suicide outcomes for small areas across England, and investigates the impact on them of area socio-economic variables, while also investigating potential nonlinearity in their impact and allowing for spatially clustered unobserved factors. The outcomes are self-harm hospitalisations and suicide mortality over 6,781 Middle Level Super Output Areas.

Beschreibung: As the number of cancer survivors treated with radiation as a part of their therapy regimen is constantly increasing, so is concern about radiation-induced cancers. This increases the need for therapeutic and mitigating agents against secondary neoplasias. Development and efficacy testing of these agents requires not only extensive in vitro assessment, but also a set of reliable animal models of radiation-induced carcinogenesis. The laboratory mouse (Mus musculus) remains one of the best animal model systems for cancer research due to its molecular and physiological similarities to man, small size, ease of breeding in captivity and a fully sequenced genome. This work reviews relevant M. musculus inbred and F1 hybrid animal models and methodologies of induction of radiation-induced leukemia, thymic lymphoma, breast, and lung cancer in these models. Where available, the associated molecular pathologies are also included.

Beschreibung: 27 December 2012 Publication year: 2012 Source: Cell Reports, Volume 2, Issue 6 Controversy has recently arisen over the role of sirtuins in metazoan aging. In this issue of Cell Reports , Banerjee et al. demonstrate that Drosophila Sir2 is necessary for life span extension in response to dietary restriction and that its overexpression in the fat body increases the life span.

Beschreibung: 27 December 2012 Publication year: 2012 Source: Cell Reports, Volume 2, Issue 6 Inhibition of sirtuin 2 (SIRT2) deacetylase mediates protective effects in cell and invertebrate models of Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease (HD). Here we report the in vivo efficacy of a brain-permeable SIRT2 inhibitor in two genetic mouse models of HD. Compound treatment resulted in improved motor function, extended survival, and reduced brain atrophy and is associated with marked reduction of aggregated mutant huntingtin, a hallmark of HD pathology. Our results provide preclinical validation of SIRT2 inhibition as a potential therapeutic target for HD and support the further development of SIRT2 inhibitors for testing in humans. Graphical abstract Highlights ► Sirtuin 2 (SIRT2) inhibition is neuroprotective in two HD mouse models ► SIRT2 inhibitor treatment markedly reduces huntingtin aggregates in HD mouse brain ► SIRT2 is a promising therapeutic target for neurological protein aggregation disorders

Beschreibung: 27 December 2012 Publication year: 2012 Source: Cell Reports, Volume 2, Issue 6 Planar cell polarity (PCP) refers to the collective orientation of cells within the epithelial plane. We show that progenitor cells forming the ducts of the embryonic pancreas express PCP proteins and exhibit an active PCP pathway. Planar polarity proteins are acquired at embryonic day 11.5 synchronously to apicobasal polarization of pancreas progenitors. Loss of function of the two PCP core components Celsr2 and Celsr3 shows that they control the differentiation of endocrine cells from polarized progenitors, with a prevalent effect on insulin-producing beta cells. This results in a decreased glucose clearance. Loss of Celsr2 and 3 leads to a reduction of Jun phosphorylation in progenitors, which, in turn, reduces beta cell differentiation from endocrine progenitors. These results highlight the importance of the PCP pathway in cell differentiation in vertebrates. In addition, they reveal that tridimensional organization and collective communication of cells are needed in the pancreatic epithelium in order to generate appropriate numbers of endocrine cells. Graphical abstract Highlights ► PCP proteins are restricted to progenitor cells in the embryonic pancreas ► The PCP core components Celsr2 and Celsr3 control endocrine cell differentiation ► This effect is mediated by the JNK pathway

Beschreibung: 27 December 2012 Publication year: 2012 Source: Cell Reports, Volume 2, Issue 6 MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNAs that inhibit translation and promote mRNA decay. The levels of mature miRNAs are the result of different rates of transcription, processing, and turnover. The noncanonical polymerase Gld2 has been implicated in the stabilization of miR-122, possibly through catalyzing 3′ monoadenylation; however, there is little evidence that this relationship is one of cause and effect. Here, we biochemically characterize Gld2’s involvement in miRNA monoadenylation and its effect on miRNA stability. We find that Gld2 directly monoadenylates and stabilizes specific miRNA populations in human fibroblasts and that sensitivity to monoadenylation-induced stability depends on nucleotides in the miRNA 3′ end. These results establish a mechanism of miRNA stability and resulting posttranscriptional gene regulation. Graphical abstract Highlights ► Gld2 monoadenylates specific microRNAs (miRNAs) ► Monoadenylation stabilizes miRNA subpopulations and prolongs their activity ► Sensitivity to monoadenylation and stability depends on nucleotides in the miRNA 3′ end

Beschreibung: 27 December 2012 Publication year: 2012 Source: Cell Reports, Volume 2, Issue 6 In the cytoplasm, the correct delivery of membrane proteins is an essential and highly regulated process. The posttranslational targeting of the important tail-anchor membrane (TA) proteins has recently been under intense investigation. A specialized pathway, called the guided entry of TA proteins (GET) pathway in yeast and the transmembrane domain recognition complex (TRC) pathway in vertebrates, recognizes endoplasmic-reticulum-targeted TA proteins and delivers them through a complex series of handoffs. An early step is the formation of a complex between Sgt2/SGTA, a cochaperone with a presumed ubiquitin-like-binding domain (UBD), and Get5/UBL4A, a ubiquitin-like domain (UBL)-containing protein. We structurally characterize this UBD/UBL interaction for both yeast and human proteins. This characterization is supported by biophysical studies that demonstrate that complex formation is mediated by electrostatics, generating an interface that has high-affinity with rapid kinetics. In total, this work provides a refined model of the interplay of Sgt2 homologs in TA targeting. Graphical abstract Highlights ► Sgt2 homologs contain dimerization motifs that are novel UBDs ► The UBL of Get5 homologs has features that distinguish it from other UBLs ► Complex formation of Sgt2 and Get5 includes a conserved and dynamic interface ► The system can rapidly discriminate between other UBL pathways

Beschreibung: 27 December 2012 Publication year: 2012 Source: Cell Reports, Volume 2, Issue 6 Chimera formation after blastocyst injection or morula aggregation is the principal functional assay of the developmental potential of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). This property, which demonstrates functional equivalence between ESCs and the preimplantation epiblast, is not shared by epiblast stem cell (EpiSC) lines. Here, we show that EpiSCs derived either from postimplantation embryos or from ESCs in vitro readily generate chimeras when grafted to postimplantation embryos in whole embryo culture. EpiSC derivatives integrate and differentiate to derivatives of all three embryonic germ layers and primordial germ cells. In contrast, grafted ESCs seldom proliferate in postimplantation embryos, and fail to acquire the identity of their host-derived neighbors. EpiSCs do not incorporate efficiently into embryonic day 8.5 embryos, a stage by which pluripotency has been lost. Thus, chimera formation by EpiSCs requires a permissive environment, the postimplantation epiblast, and demonstrates functional equivalence between this cell type and EpiSCs. Graphical abstract Highlights ► Epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs) form chimeras when injected into postimplantation epiblast ► Embryonic stem cells do not form postimplantation chimeras ► EpiSCs do not integrate if they are injected after gastrulation

Beschreibung: 27 December 2012 Publication year: 2012 Source: Cell Reports, Volume 2, Issue 6 An increased understanding of antitumor immunity is necessary for improving cell-based immunotherapies against human cancers. Here, we investigated the roles of two immune system-expressed microRNAs (miRNAs), miR-155 and miR-146a, in the regulation of antitumor immune responses. Our results indicate that miR-155 promotes and miR-146a inhibits interferon γ (IFNγ) responses by T cells and reduces solid tumor growth in vivo. Using a double-knockout (DKO) mouse strain deficient in both miR-155 and miR-146a, we have also identified an epistatic relationship between these two miRNAs. DKO mice had defective T cell responses and tumor growth phenotypes similar to miR-155 −/− mice. Further analysis of the T cell compartment revealed that miR-155 modulates IFNγ expression through a mechanism involving repression of Ship1. Our work reveals critical roles for miRNAs in the reciprocal regulation of CD4 + and CD8 + T cell-mediated antitumor immunity and demonstrates the dominant nature of miR-155 during its promotion of immune responses. Graphical abstract Highlights ► miR-155 promotes and miR-146a inhibits both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell antitumor responses ► DKO mice reveal epistasis between miR-155 and miR-146a during tumor immunity ► miR-155 regulation of IFNγ involves repression of its target Ship1 in T cells

Beschreibung: Land use and land cover (LULC) information is an important component influencing watershed modeling with regards to hydrology and water quality in the river basin. In this study, the sensitivity of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to LULC datasets with three points in time and three levels of detail was assessed in a coastal subtropical watershed located in Southeast China. The results showed good agreement between observed and simulated values for both monthly and daily streamflow and monthly NH4+-N and TP loads. Three LULC datasets in 2002, 2007 and 2010 had relatively little influence on simulated monthly and daily streamflow, whereas they exhibited greater effects on simulated monthly NH4+-N and TP loads. When using the two LULC datasets in 2007 and 2010 compared with that in 2002, the relative differences in predicted monthly NH4+-N and TP loads were −11.0 to −7.8% and −4.8 to −9.0%, respectively. There were no significant differences in simulated monthly and daily streamflow when using the three LULC datasets with ten, five and three categories. When using LULC datasets from ten categories compared to five and three categories, the relative differences in predicted monthly NH4+-N and TP loads were −6.6 to −6.5% and −13.3 to −7.3%, respectively. Overall, the sensitivity of the SWAT model to LULC datasets with different points in time and levels of detail was lower in monthly and daily streamflow simulation than in monthly NH4+-N and TP loads prediction. This research provided helpful insights into the influence of LULC datasets on watershed modeling.

Beschreibung: Available online 29 December 2012 Publication year: 2012 Source: FEBS Open Bio A water-soluble selenoxide (DHS ox ) having a five-membered ring structure enables rapid and selective conversion of cysteinyl SH groups in a polypeptide chain into SS bonds in a wide pH and temperature range. It was previously demonstrated that the second-order rate constants for the SS formation with DHS ox would be proportional to the number of the free SH groups present in the substrate if there is no steric congestion around the SH groups. In the present study, kinetics of the SS formation with DHS ox was extensively studied at pH 4–10 and 25°C by using reduced ribonuclease A, recombinant hirudin variant (CX-397), insulin A- and B-chains, and relaxin A-chain, which have two to eight cysteine residues, as polythiol substrates. The obtained rate constants showed stochastic SS formation behaviors under most conditions. However, the rate constants for CX-397 at pH 8.0 and 10.0 were not proportional to the number of the free SH groups, suggesting that the SS intermediate ensembles possess densely packed structures under weakly basic conditions. The high two-electron redox potential of DHS ox (375 mV at 25°C) compared to L-cystine supported the high ability of DHS ox for SS formation in a polypeptide chain. Interestingly, the rate constants of the SS formation jumped up at a pH around the p K a value of the cysteinyl SH groups. The SS formation velocity was slightly decreased by addition of a denaturant due probably to the interaction between the denaturant and the peptide. The stochastic behaviors as well as the absolute values of the second-order rate constants in comparison to dithiothreitol (DTT red ) are useful to probe the chemical reactivity and conformation, hence the folding, of polypeptide chains. Graphical abstract Highlights ▸ DHS ox was applied as a SS-forming reagent for five polythiol peptides and DTT red . ▸ The SS formation velocities depend on the kind of substrate and solvent conditions. ▸ The SS-formation rate constants are proportional to the number of free SH groups. ▸ Folded structures and SH p K a modify the stochastic nature and absolute values of the rate constants. ▸ DHS ox is a useful probe of chemical reactivity and intermediate structures in oxidative protein folding.

Beschreibung: This paper analyzes the formation of Tulou villages and the characteristics of Tulou buildings. The genes of the Tulou are examined within the unique physical forms and the significant social culture background. The paper is concerned with how to apply the valuable genes in the preservation and sustainable development of Tulou with a special case analysis.