Environmental planning and management

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -     

Predominance of clade D <Emphasis Type="Italic">Symbiodinium</Emphasis> in shallow-water reef-building corals off Kish and Larak Islands (Persian Gulf,Iran)

Scleractinian coral species harbour communities of photosynthetic taxa of the genus Symbiodinium. As many as eight genetic clades (A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H) of Symbiodinium have been discovered using molecular biology. These clades may differ from each other in their physiology, and thus influence the ecological distribution and resilience of their host corals to environmental stresses. Corals of the Persian Gulf are normally subject to extreme environmental conditions including high salinity and seasonal variation in temperature. This study is the first to use molecular techniques to identify the Symbiodinium of the Iranian coral reefs to the level of phylogenetic clades. Samples of eight coral species were collected at two different depths from the eastern part of Kish Island in the northern Persian Gulf, and Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Partial 28S nuclear ribosomal (nr) DNA of Symbiodinium (D1/D2 domains) were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR products were analyzed using single stranded conformational polymorphism and phylogenetic analyses of the LSU DNA sequences from a subset of the samples. The results showed that Symbiodinium populations were generally uniform among and within the populations of eight coral species studied, and there are at least two clades of Symbiodinium from Kish and Larak islands. Clade D was detected from eight of the coral species while clade C was found in two of species only (one species hosted two clades simultaneously). The dominance of clade D might be explained by high temperatures or the extreme temperature variation, typical of the Persian Gulf. Publication of this article was held up owing to technical problems. The publisher apologizes sincerely for this lengthy delay.     

Pedestrian road crossing behavior (PEROB): Development and psychometric evaluation

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a theory-based questionnaire to measure road crossing attitudes and potentially risky pedestrian behavior.

Methods: A cross-sectional validation study was carried out on a total sample of 380 young adults aged 18 to 25 years who live in Tehran, Iran. Data were collected from January 27 to May 20, 2015, using a self-administered structured pool of 76 items that was developed from research on the theory of planned behavior. A panel of subject-matter experts evaluated the items for content validity index and content validity ratio, and the questionnaire was pretested. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to test construct validity. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) analyses were done to assess internal consistency and stability of the scale.

Results: From the initial 76 items, 38 items were found to be appropriate for assessing the pedestrian road crossing behavior (PEROB) of young adults in Tehran. A 9-factor solution revealed an exploratory factor analysis that jointly accounted for 63.8% of the variance observed. Additional analyses also indicated acceptable results for the internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha value ranging from 0.67 to 0.88 and ICC values ranging from 0.64 to 0.96.

Conclusions: This psychometric evaluation of a self-administered instrument resulted in a reliable and valid instrument to assess young adult pedestrians' self-reported road crossing attitudes and behaviors in Tehran. Further development of the instrument is needed to assess its applicability to other road users, particularly older pedestrians.     

An observational study of child safety seat use in an international safe community: Tehran,Iran

Objective: Despite strong evidence of the effectiveness of child safety seats in reducing injuries, the use of these devices in some communities is still rare. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of child safety seat use and the factors influencing its use in the safe community of Tehran.

Methods: This roadside observational study was conducted in 2015 and 2,178 personal cars with a child under 12 years aboard were observed on Tehran's streets in regard to use of child safety seats. Other variables such as the gender of the driver, driver's age group, type of street, region of municipality, time of day, and day of the week were also collected.

Results: Prevalence of child safety seat use was 4.3% and was significantly higher among women drivers, on freeways, and in municipal regions 1, 4, and 7.

Conclusions: The prevalence of child safety seat use in Tehran as a most populous member of the international safe community was very low and most children commuted in insecure situations in the vehicle. Therefore, it is proposed that plans should be made to increase the use of child safety seats in international safe communities.     

Design and cognitive evaluation of 6 dynamic lane departure warning symbols

Objective: Lane departure, caused by inattention, distraction, drowsiness, or any unusual driver behavior, is a typical risk threatening the driver as well as other road users. Accurate perception of such situations through effective warnings would help drivers to avoid serious consequences. With regard to critical functions of warning symbols for risk communication, the present study focused on providing effective and easily perceivable symbols, compatible with human cognitive capabilities. Thus, the main purpose of the present study was to design and cognitively appraise 6 newly designed dynamic symbols, candidates for a new type of lane departure warning system.

Methods: Simplicity, familiarity, concreteness, meaningfulness, and semantic closeness were the major assessment criteria, defining cognitive features by the earlier researchers in the field. A total number of 187 driving license applicants, with a mean age of 20.58 years (SD = 3.20), participated in the present survey. The participants rated cognitive features of the 6 dynamic symbols along a 0–100 scale.

Results: Significant main effect of the element factor type of the designed symbols on rating cognitive features revealed that the existence of car element was the best predictor for illustrating lane departure. The interaction of both element factor and location of element factor significantly affected the ratings. However, the location of element factor did not solely have any strong effect on the ratings. The results also demonstrated that semantic closeness received the highest overall mean score across symbols (M = 61.80), especially within the symbols that include the car element (M = 75.67). Moreover, a significant difference was observed between the average ratings of the cognitive features, despite the fact that a significant correlation was found between cognitive features.

Conclusion: The most considerable result of the current study was the match between the symbol with the highest ratings and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)-related icon in appearance. Because previous studies demonstrated a strong correlation between comprehension scores of the symbol and both semantic closeness and meaningfulness, high-level comprehensibility of the best ranked symbol is expected.     

Spatial variance and assessment of nitrogen dioxide pollution in major cities of Pakistan along N5-Highway

This paper discusses the findings of the first car MAX-DOAS (multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy) field campaign (300 km long) along the National Highway-05 (N5-Highway) of Pakistan conducted on 13 and 14 November, 2012. The main objective of the field campaign was to assess the spatial distribution of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) columns and corresponding concentrations along the N5-Highway from Islamabad to Lahore. Source identification of NO₂ revealed that the concentrations were higher within major cities along the highway. The highest NO₂ vertical column densities (NO₂ VCDs) were found around two major cities of Rawalpindi and Lahore. This study also presents a comparison of NO₂ VCDs measured by the ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) and car MAX-DOAS observations. The comparison revealed similar spatial distribution of the NO₂ columns with both car MAX-DOAS and satellite observations, but the car MAX-DOAS observations show much more spatial details. Maximum NO₂ VCD retrieved from car MAX-DOAS observations was up to an order of magnitude larger than the OMI observations in urban areas.     

Multi-objective conflict resolution optimization model for reservoir’s selective depth water withdrawal considering water quality

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This paper develops a multi-objective conflict resolution simulation-optimization model based on a leader-follower game to resolve conflicts between...     

Assessment of geochemical modeling applications and research hot spots—a year in review

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - Geochemical modeling has been employed in several fields of science and engineering in recent years. This review seeks to provide an overview of case studies...     

Photocatalytic degradation of the acetaminophen by nanocrystal-engineered TiO2 thin film in batch and continuous system

• Photocatalytic activity was improved in TiO₂ thin film by rapid thermal annealing. • Photoreactor was designed for TiO₂ thin film. • Considerable reusability and durability of prepared photocatalysts were studied. Un-biodegradable pharmaceuticals are one of the major growing threats in the wastewaters. In the current study, TiO₂ thin film photocatalysts were designed by nanocrystal engineering and fabricated for degradation of the acetaminophen (ACE) in a photocatalytic reaction under UV light irradiation in batch and continuous systems. The photocatalyst was prepared by sputtering and then engineered by thermal treatment (annealing at 300℃ (T300) and 650℃ (T650)). The annealing effects on the crystallinity and photocatalytic activity of the TiO₂ film were completely studied; it was found that annealing at higher temperatures increases the surface roughness and grain size which are favorable for photocatalytic activity due to the reduction in the recombination rate of photo-generated electron-hole pairs. For the continuous system, a flat plate reactor (FPR) was designed and manufactured. The photocatalytic performance was decreased with the increase of flow rate because the higher flow rate caused to form the thicker film of the liquid in the reactor and reduced the UV light received by photocatalyst. The reusability and durability of the samples after 6 h of photocatalytic reaction showed promising performance for the T650 sample (annealed samples in higher temperatures).