Occupant behavior in a six-storey office building fallowing severe earthquake damage

In the Imperial County, California, earthquake of 15th October 1979, the Imperial County Services Building was seriously damaged — and has subsequently been demolished. At the time of the earthquake there were approximately 123 occupants in the six-storey reinforced concrete building which housed a number of county service departments. This paper investigates occupant behavior in a building subjected to an earthquake, and describes, in detail, what people do during and immediately subsequent to the shock.     

Conservation planning at the landscape scale: A landscape ecology method for regional land trusts

This paper illustrates a landscape ecology approach for land trusts undertaking conservation at the watershed scale. A conservation plan was created for the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC) in the headwaters of Michigan's Manistee River Watershed (USA). Eight conservation drivers were devised to identify Conservation Focus Areas (CFAs) of highest ecological importance. The CFAs were ranked based on ecological importance, feasibility of protection and size. Parcels were ranked, totalling nearly 5000 ha, within the three highest-ranking CFAs in one key county. This approach is useful to land trusts trying to operationalize three distinct goals in conservation planning: to find areas of high ecological importance, to promote the landscape's spatial integrity and to delineate threats to ecological systems and processes.     

The two faces of high self‐monitors: Chameleonic moderating effects of self‐monitoring on the relationships between personality traits and counterproductive work behaviors

This study examines whether and how self‐monitoring moderates the relationships between two personality traits (agreeableness and conscientiousness) and counterproductive work behavior directed toward the organization (CWB‐O) and toward other employees (CWB‐I). High self‐monitors strive to attain personal goals related to status and prestige enhancement by adjusting their behavior to what the situation requires or allows for. We propose that the status enhancement motive can take on two different yet related forms—impression management (interpersonal potency) and opportunism (win‐at‐all‐costs)—depending on relevant situational cues. We hypothesize that in public, interpersonal settings where their behavior is visible to others, high self‐monitors' desire to enhance their status by looking good to others suppresses the natural expression of low agreeableness via increased engagement in CWB‐I. Conversely, we hypothesize that in private, non‐interpersonal settings where their behavior is rarely visible to others, high self‐monitors' desire to enhance their status by doing whatever it takes to get what they want intensifies the natural expression of low conscientiousness via increased engagement in CWB‐O. On the basis of two independent samples of participants, results of moderated multiple regression analyses provided support for the hypotheses. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Life cycle assessment of ACQ-treated lumber with comparison to wood plastic composite decking

A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment was done to identify the environmental impacts related to alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ)-treated lumber used for decking and to determine how the impacts compare to the primary alternative product, wood plastic composite (WPC) decking. A model of ACQ-treated lumber life cycle stages was created and used to calculate inputs and outputs during the lumber production, treating, use, and disposal stages. Lumber production data are based on published sources. Primary wood preservative treatment data were obtained by surveying wood treatment facilities in the United States. Product use and disposal inventory data are based on published data and professional judgment. Life cycle inventory inputs, outputs, and impact indicators for ACQ-treated lumber were quantified using functional units of 1000 board feet and per representative deck (assumed to be 320 square feet (30 square meters) of surface decking material) per year of use. In a similar manner, an inventory model was developed for the manufacture, use, and disposal of the primary alternative product, WPC. Impact indicator values, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, fossil fuel use, water use, acidification, smog forming potential, ecological toxicity, and eutrophication were quantified for each of the two decking products. National normalization was done to compare the significance of a representative deck surface per year of use to a family’s total annual impact footprint.If an average U.S. family adds or replaces a deck surfaced with ACQ-treated lumber, their impact “footprint” for GHG emissions, fossil fuel use, acidification, smog forming potential, ecological toxicity, and eutrophication releases each is less than one-tenth of a percent of the family’s annual impact. ACQ-treated lumber impacts were fourteen times less for fossil fuel use, almost three times less for GHG emissions, potential smog emissions, and water use, four times less for acidification, and almost half for ecological toxicity than those for WPC decking. Impacts were approximately equal for eutrophication.     

Impact of Residential Soil Disturbance on Infiltration Rate and Stormwater Runoff1

Woltemade, Christopher J., 2010. Impact of Residential Soil Disturbance on Infiltration Rate and Stormwater Runoff. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(4): 700-711. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00442.x Abstract: Soil disturbances such as excavation and compaction in residential developments affect lawn infiltration rates and stormwater runoff. These effects were investigated via measuring saturated infiltration rates at 108 residential sites and 18 agricultural sites near Shippensburg, south-central Pennsylvania, using a double-ring infiltrometer. Residential sites included four neighborhoods distributed across three soil series classified as hydrologic soil group (HSG) B. Additional parcel data included date of house construction, percentage impervious area, lawn condition, and woody vegetation condition. Measured infiltration rates ranged from 0 to >40 cm/hour. Analysis of variance indicated significantly different mean infiltration rates (p < 0.001) for lots constructed pre-2000 (9.0 cm/hour) and those constructed post-2000 (2.8 cm/hour). Test results were used to determine a “field-tested” HSG for each site, representing disturbed soil conditions. Stormwater runoff was estimated from residential lots for a range of 24-hour design storms using the TR-55 model and several alternative methods of determining curve numbers, including five different representations of soil conditions. Curve numbers and stormwater runoff were substantially higher when based on field-tested HSGs for lots constructed post-2000 compared with lots built pre-2000 and when based on the HSG for undisturbed soils, documenting the magnitude of possible error in stormwater runoff models that neglect soil disturbance.     

A macroinvertebrate assessment of Ozark streams located in lead–zinc mining areas of the Viburnum Trend in southeastern Missouri, USA

The Viburnum Trend lead–zinc mining subdistrict is located in the southeast Missouri portion of the Ozark Plateau. In 2003 and 2004, we assessed the ecological effects of mining in several watersheds in the region. We included macroinvertebrate surveys, habitat assessments, and analysis of metals in sediment, pore water, and aquatic biota. Macroinvertebrates were sampled at 21 sites to determine aquatic life impairment status (full, partial, or nonsupport) and relative biotic condition scores. Macroinvertebrate biotic condition scores were significantly correlated with cadmium, nickel, lead, zinc, and specific conductance in 2003 (r?=??0.61 to ?0.68) and with cadmium, lead, and pore water toxic units in 2004 (r?=??0.55 to ?0.57). Reference sites were fully supporting of aquatic life and had the lowest metals concentrations and among the highest biotic condition scores in both years. Sites directly downstream from mining and related activities were partially supporting, with biotic condition scores 10% to 58% lower than reference sites. Sites located greater distances downstream from mining activities had intermediate scores and concentrations of metals. Results indicate that elevated concentrations of metals originating from mining activities were the underlying cause of aquatic life impairment in several of the streams studied. There was general concurrence among the adversely affected sites in how the various indicators responded to mining activities during the overall study.     

Simultaneous Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Dioxide Removal by Calcium Hydroxide and Calcium Silicate Solids

ABSTRACT

At conditions typical of a bag filter exposed to a coal-fired flue gas that has been adiabatically cooled with water, calcium hydroxide and calcium silicate solids were exposed to a dilute, humidified gas stream of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂) in a packed-bed reactor. A prior study found that NO₂ reacted readily with surface water of alkaline and non-alkaline solids to produce nitrate, nitrite, and nitric oxide (NO). With SO₂ present in the gas stream, NO₂ also reacted with S(IV), a product of SO₂ removal, on the exterior of an alkaline solid. The oxidation of S(IV) to S(VI) by oxygen reduced the availability of S(IV) and lowered removal of NO₂. Subsequent acidification of the sorbent by the removal of NO₂ and SO₂ facilitated the production of NO. However, the conversion of nitrous acid to sulfur-nitrogen compounds reduced NO production and enhanced SO₂ removal. A reactor model based on empirical and semi-empirical rate expressions predicted rates of SO₂ removal, NO₂ removal, and NO production by calcium silicate solids. Rate expressions from the reactor model were inserted into a second program, which predicted the removal of SO₂ and NO_x by a continuous process, such as the collection of alkaline solids in a baghouse. The continuous process model, depending upon inlet conditions, predicted 30-40% removal for NO and 50-90% removal for SO₂. These x 2 results are relevant to dry scrubbing technology for combined SO₂ and NO_x removal that first oxidizes NO to NO₂ by the addition of methanol into the flue duct.     

Sensitivities of Australian and New Zealand amphipods to copper and zinc in waters and metal-spiked sediments

The sensitivities of eight benthic amphipods, Chaetocorophium cf. lucasi, Corophium colo, Grandidierella japonica, Hyale crassicornis, Hyale longicornis, Melita awa, Melita matilda and Melita plumulosa, to copper and zinc in water-only and whole-sediment toxicity tests were compared. Whole-sediment tests used copper- (1300 mg/kg) and zinc- (4000 mg/kg) spiked sediments after equilibration for sufficient time to produce pore water and overlying water concentrations below the lowest observable effect concentrations of water-only exposures. Survival of adults (after 10 d) and juveniles (after 96 h), and the metal concentrations in the body tissues of adults, were determined at the end of the tests. Two epibenthic amphipods from the genus Melita were the most sensitive species to aqueous copper and zinc, with a 96-h LC50 value of 120 microg Cu/l for both M. awa and M. plumulosa juveniles, and a 96-h LC50 value of 640 microg Zn/l for juveniles of M. plumulosa. Juvenile amphipods (7-d old) were more sensitive than adult amphipods (>30-d old) in both water-only and whole-sediment tests, with adult-LC50/juvenile-LC50 ratios in water-only tests ranging from 1.2 to l.5 for copper and 1 to 1.4 for zinc. All species except C. colo, C. cf. lucasi and M. matilda were sensitive to the copper-spiked sediment, with survival between 14% and 74% of controls. Similarly, all species except C. colo and G. japonica, showed a response to the zinc-spiked sediment (26-81% of control survival). The epibenthic amphipods were more sensitive than the infaunal tube-dwelling amphipods and are recommended as test species.