Changes in electrical generator cooling systems: Are they cost-effective sources of water now and under climate change?

In the United States, thermal power plant electrical generators (EGs) are large water diverters and consumptive users who need water for cooling. Retrofitting existing cooling systems to dry cooling and building new facilities with dry cooling can save water and reduce EG's vulnerability to drought. However, this can be an expensive source of water. We estimate that the cost of water saved by retrofitting cooling in existing EGs ranges from $0.04/m³ to $18/m³ depending on facility characteristics. Also water savings from building new EGs with dry cooling ranges in cost per unit water from $1.29/m³ to $2.24/m³. We compare costs with that for water development projects identified in the Texas State Water Plan. We find the water cost from converting to dry cooling is lower than many of the water development possibilities. We then estimate the impact of climate change on the cost of water saved, finding climate change can increase EG water use by up to 9.3% and lower the costs of water saved. Generally, it appears that water planners might consider cooling alterations as a cost competitive water development alternative whose cost would be further decreased by climate change.     

The nexus across water,energy and food (WEF): Learning from research,building on evidence,strengthening practice

While water-energy-food (WEF) Nexus is one of the most important, and widely investigated, environmental topics of our time, previous stock taking efforts possess notable limitations, namely (i) their focus is restricted to research articles, and (ii) there is less focus on nexus permutations that begin with energy and food. This paper assembled more than 900 documents and systematically categorized them according to more than 10 key parameters (e.g. scale, methods, limitations), to characterize approaches, achieved outcomes and presence of variables likely to support on-the-ground change. Our results reveal that WEF Nexus activities are often driven by the water sector, undertaken at global and national scale and authored by experts from diverse backgrounds. Among the utilized methods, modelling and review (i.e. systematic) are the most common. While climate change and governance are routinely considered in WEF Nexus documents, gender, stakeholders and capacity are not. These findings highlight areas for improvement in the design of WEF Nexus initiatives.     

Systematic review of conservation interventions to promote voluntary behavior change

Understanding human behavior is vital to developing interventions that effectively lead to proenvironmental behavior change, whether the focus is at the individual or societal level. However, interventions in many fields have historically lacked robust forms of evaluation, which makes it hard to be confident that these conservation interventions have successfully helped protect the environment. We conducted a systematic review to assess how effective nonpecuniary and nonregulatory interventions have been in changing environmental behavior. We applied the Office of Health Assessment and Translation systematic review methodology. We started with more than 300,000 papers and reports returned by our search terms and after critical appraisal of quality identified 128 individual studies that merited inclusion in the review. We classified interventions by thematic area, type of intervention, the number of times audiences were exposed to interventions, and the length of time interventions ran. Most studies reported a positive effect (n = 96). The next most common outcome was no effect (n = 28). Few studies reported negative (n = 1) or mixed (n = 3) effects. Education, prompts, and feedback interventions resulted in positive behavior change. Combining multiple interventions was the most effective. Neither exposure duration nor frequency affected the likelihood of desired behavioral change. Comparatively few studies tested the effects of voluntary interventions on non-Western populations (n = 17) or measured actual ecological outcome behavior (n = 1). Similarly, few studies examined conservation devices (e.g., energy-efficient stoves) (n = 9) and demonstrations (e.g., modeling the desired behavior) (n = 5). There is a clear need to both improve the quality of the impact evaluation conducted and the reporting standards for intervention results.     

Towards saving freshwater: halophytes as unconventional feedstuffs in livestock feed: a review

Water represents 71% of all earth area and about 97% of this water is salty water. So, only 3% of the overall world water quantity is freshwater. Human can benefit only from 1% of this water and the remaining 2% freeze at both poles of earth. Therefore, it is important to preserve the freshwater through increasing the plants consuming salty water. The future prosperity of feed resources in arid and semi-arid countries depends on economic use of alternative resources that have been marginalized for long periods of time, such as halophytic plants, which are one such potential future resource. Halophyte plants can grow in high salinity water and soil and to some extent during drought. The growth of these plants depends on the contact of the salted water with plant roots as in semi-desert saline water, mangrove swamps, marshes, and seashores. Halophyte plants need high levels of sodium chloride in the soil water for growth, and the soil water must also contain high levels of salts, as sodium hydroxide or magnesium sulfate. There are many uses for halophyte plants, including feed for animals, vegetables, drugs, sand dune stabilizers, wind shelter, soil cover, wetland cultivation, laundry detergents, and paper production. This paper will focus on the use of halophytes as a feed additive for animals. In spite of the good nutritional value of halophytes, some anti-nutritional factors as nitrates, nitrite complexes, tannins, glycosides, phenolic compounds, saponins, oxalates, and alkaloids may be present in some of them. The presence of such anti-nutritional agents makes halophytes unpalatable to animals, which tends to reduce feed intake and nutrient use. Therefore, the negative effects of these plants on animal performance are the only objection against using halophytes in animal feed diets. This review article highlights the beneficial impact of considering halophytes in animal feeding on saving freshwater and illustrates its nutritive value for livestock from different aspects.     

Air Quality Modeling Using the PSO-SVM-Based Approach,MLP Neural Network,and M5 Model Tree in the Metropolitan Area of Oviedo (Northern Spain)

The main aim of this study was to construct several regression models of air quality using techniques based on the statistical learning, in the metropolitan area of Oviedo, in northern Spain. In this research, a hybrid particle swarm optimization-based evolutionary support vector regression is implemented to predict the air quality from the experimental dataset (specifically, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, and dust) collected from 2013 to 2015 in the metropolitan area of Oviedo. Furthermore, a multilayer perceptron network (MLP) and the M5 model tree were also fitted to the experimental dataset for comparison purposes. Finally, the predicted results show that the hybrid proposed model is more robust than the MLP and M5 model tree prediction methods in terms of statistical estimators and testing performances.     

Behavioral intentions toward genetically modified crops in Southwest Iran: a multi-stakeholder analysis

This study examined the influencing factors of the self-reported behavioral intentions toward genetically modified (GM) crops using a multi-stakeholder approach in the Khuzestan Province in Southwest Iran. The study focused on three different groups, including: “agricultural students,” “agricultural private firms’ managers” and “rich-resource farmers.” Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire and was analyzed by SPSS (V20) and AMOS (V20). Results indicated that the respondents perceive more benefits than risks for GM crops and that the perception of benefits and risks, respectively, had positive and negative impacts on the self-reported behavioral intention of the respondents. The knowledge of the respondents regarding these crops had positive impacts on perception of benefits. The results showed that both managers and students worried about the food safety and impact of GM crops on human health while farmers worried about the environmental risks of GM crops. The results also revealed that those who are the most conscious about GM crops are more trusted. The findings also showed that the majority of the respondents hold a positive view of the potential of GM crops.     

Feasibility of coupling a thermal/optical carbon analyzer to a quadrupole mass spectrometer for enhanced PM2.5 speciation

A thermal/optical carbon analyzer (TOA), normally used for quantification of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in PM_2.5 (fine particulate matter) speciation networks, was adapted to direct thermally evolved gases to an electron impact quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS), creating a TOA-QMS. This approach produces spectra similar to those obtained by the Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS), but the ratios of the mass to charge (m/z) signals differ and must be remeasured using laboratory-generated standards. Linear relationships are found between TOA-QMS signals and ammonium (NH₄⁺), nitrate (NO₃^?), and sulfate (SO₄^2-) standards. For ambient samples, however, positive deviations are found for SO₄^2-, compensated by negative deviations for NO₃^?, at higher concentrations. This indicates the utility of mixed-compound standards for calibration or separate calibration curves for low and high ion concentrations. The sum of the QMS signals across all m/z after removal of the NH₄⁺, NO₃^?, and SO₄^2- signals was highly correlated with the carbon content of oxalic acid (C?H?O?) standards. For ambient samples, the OC derived from the TOA-QMS method was the same as the OC derived from the standard IMPROVE_A TOA method. This method has the potential to reduce complexity and costs for speciation networks, especially for highly polluted urban areas such as those in Asia and Africa.

Implications: Ammonium, nitrate, and sulfate can be quantified by the same thermal evolution analysis applied to organic and elemental carbon. This holds the potential to replace multiple parallel filter samples and separate laboratory analyses with a single filter and a single analysis to account for a large portion of the PM_2.5 mass concentration.     

Personal exposure to fine particulate matter concentrations in central business district of a tropical coastal city

In the present study, personal exposure to fine particulate matter (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <2.5 μm [PM_2.5]) concentrations in an urban hotspot (central business district [CBD]) was investigated. The PM monitoring campaigns were carried out at an urban hotspot from June to October 2015. The personal exposure monitoring was performed during three different time periods, i.e., morning (8 a.m.?9 a.m.), afternoon (12.30 p.m.–1.30 p.m.), and evening (4 p.m.–5 p.m.), to cover both the peak and lean hour activities of the CBD. The median PM_2.5 concentrations were 38.1, 34.9, and 40.4 µg/m³ during the morning, afternoon, and evening hours on the weekends. During weekdays, the median PM_2.5 concentrations were 59.5, 29.6, and 36.6 µg/m³ in the morning, afternoon, and evening hours, respectively. It was observed that the combined effect of traffic emissions, complex land use, and micrometeorological conditions created localized air pollution hotspots. Furthermore, the total PM_2.5 lung dose levels for an exposure duration of 1 hr were 8.7 ± 5.7 and 12.3 ± 5.2 µg at CBD during weekends and weekdays, respectively, as compared with 2.5 ± 0.8 µg at the urban background (UB). This study emphasizes the need for mobile measurement for short-term personal exposure assessment complementing the fixed air quality monitoring.

Implications: Personal exposure monitoring at an urban hotspot indicated space and time variation in PM concentrations that is not captured by the fixed air quality monitoring networks. The short-term exposure to higher concentrations can have a significant impact on health that need to be considered for the health risk–based air quality management. The study emphasizes the need of hotspot-based monitoring complementing the already existing fixed air quality monitoring in urban areas. The personal exposure patterns at hotspots can provide additional insight into sustainable urban planning.     

Are older drivers’ driving patterns during an on-road driving task representative of their real-world driving patterns?

Abstract

Objective: The current study investigated whether older drivers’ driving patterns during a customized on-road driving task were representative of their real-world driving patterns.

Methods: Two hundred and eight participants (male: 68.80%; mean age?=?81.52 years, SD?=?3.37 years, range?=?76.00–96.00 years) completed a customized on-road driving task that commenced from their home and was conducted in their own vehicle. Participants’ real-world driving patterns for the preceding 4-month period were also collected via an in-car recording device (ICRD) that was installed in each participant’s vehicle.

Results: During the 4-month period prior to completing the on-road driving task, participants’ median real-world driving trip distance was 2.66?km (interquartile range [IQR]?=?1.14–5.79?km) and their median on-road driving task trip distance was 4.41?km (IQR?=?2.83–6.35?km). Most participants’ on-road driving task trip distances were classified as representative of their real-world driving trip distances (95.2%, n?=?198).

Conclusions: These findings suggest that most older drivers were able to devise a driving route that was representative of their real-world driving trip distance. Future research will examine whether additional aspects of the on-road driving task (e.g., average speed, proportion of trips in different speed zones) are representative of participants’ real-world driving patterns.     

From conference abstract to publication in the conservation science literature

Every 2 years, the conservation community comes together at The Society for Conservation Biology's International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB) to share new developments in conservation science and practice. Publication of findings presented at conferences in scientific journals adds to the permanent record and helps increase the potential impact of the work presented. However, quantitative research on publication rates for meetings relevant to conservation is lacking. For the 25th ICCB, (Auckland, New Zealand in 2011), we examined study publication rates and presenter demographics, recorded titles, number of authors, presenter affiliations, gender, country of the study region, publication status, and elapsed time between presentation and publication. Of the 980 contributions (782 talks and 198 posters), 587 (60%) were published as peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters. Mean time to publication was 13.7 months for all presentation abstracts and 21.3 months excluding abstracts with corresponding articles that were published before the meeting. The gender breakdown of presenters was almost even (53% male, 47% female), but representation of the countries where the presenting authors were based was skewed. The political units with the most contributions were by far the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Presenters based in 16 different English-speaking countries made up 74% of the total sample, but this did not influence the likelihood of their abstract leading to a publication. Examination of conference presenters and publication of their presentations is useful to identify biases and potential challenges that need to be addressed to make conference communications permanent and increase their reach beyond conference attendees.