Emerging applications of green coconut: A promising lignocellulosic biomass

Waste accumulation is a grave concern and becoming a transboundary challenge for environment. During Covid-19 pandemic, diverse type of waste were collected due to different practices employed in order to fight back the transmission rate of the virus. Covid-19 was proved to be capricious catastrophe of this 20th century and even not completely eradicated from the world. The havoc created by this imperceptible quick witted, pleomorphic deadly virus can't be ignored. Though a number of vaccines have been developed by the scientists but there is a fear of getting this virus again in our life. Medical studies prove that immunity drinks will help to reduce its reoccurrences. Coconut water is widely used among all drinks available globally. Its massive consumption created an incalculable pile of green coconut shells around the different corners of the world. This practice generating enormous problem of space acquisition for the environment. Both the environment and public health will benefit from an evaluation of quantity of coconut waste that is being thrown and its potential to generate value added products. With this context, present article has been planned to study different aspects like, coconut waste generation, its biological properties and environmental hazards associated with its accumulation. Additionally, this review illustrates, green technologies for production of different value added products from coconut waste.     

Citizen participation in disaster recovery projects and programmes in rural communities: a comparison of the Haiti earthquake and Hurricane Katrina

This study investigates predictors of local participation in recovery projects and programmes following Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005 and the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Using two sets of survey data, it examines whether disaster impacts and social capital (social trust and civic engagement) are associated with disaster recovery participation and compares predictors of such engagement in the two locations. Multivariate logistic regression results reveal that physical injuries, limited community mobility, and government trust increase recovery participation in Haiti (n=278), whereas emotional distress and homeownership decrease it. On the Gulf Coast of the US (n=259), physical injuries and higher civic engagement augment recovery participation, while homeownership and age reduce it. The confounding factors of national contexts and post‐disaster time frames might explain the differences in the results. The discussion addresses the relation between country‐specific vulnerability and recovery participation and suggests implications for policy and practice to improve local citizens’ capabilities to participate in sustainable recovery processes.     

Racemic,R-, and S-tebuconazole altered chitinase and chitobiase activity of Daphnia magna

Tebuconazole is a chiral trizole fungicide and widely used in many crops for controlling disease. Tebuconazole is potential toxic to some aquatic organisms but relative information of its isomers is scarce. To detect the endocrine disrupting effects and difference of rac-, R-, and S-tebuconazole, the chitinase activity in Daphnia magna and chitobiase activity in each test medium were used as biomonitors after a 14-day exposure. Results showed that chitinase activity was significantly reduced by rac-, R-, and S-tebuconazole. The chitobiase activity in the test medium was reduced by rac- and R-tebuconazole before day 10, and only one peak was observed at day 10 or day 12 compared with two obvious peaks in the control group (days 6 and 12). S-tebuconazole delayed and reduced the reproduction of D. magna, but did not delay the first chitobiase activity peak, whereas the second peak could not be characterized as the exposure concentration and time increased. Compared with chitinase activity, chitobiase activity can still be used as a rudimentary model for identifying molt-interfering xenobiotics, and further studies should focus on the analysis of correlations between these parameters.     

Assessing ecological function in the context of species recovery

Species interactions matter to conservation. Setting an ambitious recovery target for a species requires considering the size, density, and demographic structure of its populations such that they fulfill the interactions, roles, and functions of the species in the ecosystems in which they are embedded. A recently proposed framework for an International Union for Conservation of Nature Green List of Species formalizes this requirement by defining a fully recovered species in terms of representation, viability, and functionality. Defining and quantifying ecological function from the viewpoint of species recovery is challenging in concept and application, but also an opportunity to insert ecological theory into conservation practice. We propose 2 complementary approaches to assessing a species’ ecological functions: confirmation (listing interactions of the species, identifying ecological processes and other species involved in these interactions, and quantifying the extent to which the species contributes to the identified ecological process) and elimination (inferring functionality by ruling out symptoms of reduced functionality, analogous to the red-list approach that focuses on symptoms of reduced viability). Despite the challenges, incorporation of functionality into species recovery planning is possible in most cases and it is essential to a conservation vision that goes beyond preventing extinctions and aims to restore a species to levels beyond what is required for its viability. This vision focuses on conservation and recovery at the species level and sees species as embedded in ecosystems, influencing and being influenced by the processes in those ecosystems. Thus, it connects and integrates conservation at the species and ecosystem levels.     

隧道与横通道交叉角对火灾烟气蔓延影响机制研究

为探索隧道与横通道交叉角对火灾烟气蔓延的影响机制，采用FDS数值模拟，研究横通道与隧道不同交叉角情况下火灾烟气温度、浓度、烟气层高度等的变化规律，建立开启火源下风向横通道时隧道内烟气最高温度修正公式，提出烟气纵向蔓延恢复长度的概念，并探讨其影响规律。 结果表明:隧道和横通道交叉角越小，隧道内同一位置烟气层高度越高，当交叉角由90°降低到30°时，烟气层高度最大增加32%；烟气纵向蔓延恢复长度与交叉角及通风速率呈正相关，而与火源功率几乎无关。研究结果对隧道通风排烟系统设计及相关标准的制定具有参考意义。     

Exploring the administrative mechanism of China's Paired Assistance to Disaster Affected Areas programme

The Paired Assistance to Disaster Affected Areas (PADAA) programme is a mutual aid initiative with Chinese characteristics, which speeded up the process of restoring and reconstructing regions affected by the Wenchuan earthquake on 12 May 2008. 1 The PADAA is an efficient instrument for catastrophe recovery, yet it remains a mysterious mechanism to many members of disaster management communities. This paper aims to lift the veil on it by assessing its origins and evolution. It draws on the multi‐level moderated competition model to explain how the PADAA functions within the Chinese administrative system. The country's top‐down political system allows the central authority to mandate provincial and local governments from more economically developed regions to assist devastated areas with post‐disaster reconstruction. The practices of local accountability complement vertical control by giving leaders from donor regions strong incentives to accomplish assigned reconstruction tasks, resulting in intense competition between them.     

Business recovery: an assessment framework

This paper presents a Business Recovery Assessment Framework (BRAF) to help researchers and practitioners design robust, repeatable, and comparable studies of business recovery in various post‐disruption contexts. Studies assessing business recovery without adequately considering the research aims, recovery definitions, and indicators can produce misleading findings. The BRAF is composed of a series of steps that guide the decisions that researchers need to make to ensure: (i) that recovery is indeed being measured; (ii) that the indicators of recovery that are selected align with the objectives of the study and the definition of recovery; and, where necessary, (iii) that appropriate comparative control variables are in place. The paper draws on a large dataset of business surveys collected following the earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand, on 4 September 2010 and 22 February 2011 to demonstrate the varied conclusions that different recovery indicators can produce and to justify the need for a systematic approach to business recovery assessments.     

微生物-光-电化学耦合技术降解污染物和回收能源的研究进展

微生物电化学技术能同时实现污染物去除和能量回收，但存在污染物去除种类有限及产能效率低的局限，近几年将可再生的太阳能引入微生物电化学技术的微生物-光-电化学耦合技术应运而生。本文简要介绍了微生物-光-电化学耦合技术的发展背景和研究现状，对该技术现有的耦合形式进行分类，并对各种形式的耦合机理进行详细的阐释，最后对其未来的发展进行了展望。     

中国大气中重金属钒的排放特征

化石燃料原油和原煤的燃烧、含钒矿石的开采和冶炼是大气中重金属钒的主要来源。文章利用重金属钒的排放系数分析了中国1978-2010年人为过程释放到大气中重金属钒的总量和行业重金属钒的排放,预测了2020年和2030年中国大气中重金属钒的排放量。结果表明,自1978年以来,中国钒的排放量增加了4倍,中国2010年人类活动向大气排放的重金属钒总量达3.18万吨,约占世界总量的12%。原油燃烧释放到大气中的钒约占总量的85%,煤炭燃烧的排放量占10.5%,其中工业耗油向大气中释放重金属钒的比例从1980的71%下降到2008年的42%,总量从3 721 t增加至9 361 t;交通运输行业从10%上升到36%,总量从547 t增加至7 967 t;其它行业(农林牧渔水利业、批发零售业和住宿餐饮业、生活消费)基本维持在20%左右,总量从986 t增加至5 052 t。因此,应加强大气中钒的监测和管理,预防大气钒污染事件的发生。     

广东省电子废物回收处理体系建设对策研究

广东省的电子废物产生量大,亟须建立规范的回收处理处置体系,实现资源的有序回收利用,避免电子废物的不当拆解处理造成环境污染。针对广东省电子废物回收处理的现状和存在问题,提出建设规模化的集中处理体系,产业化的回收利用体系和规范化的统一监管体系的相关对策,以促进电子废物的无害化、减量化和资源化处理处置。