Measurement of ethylene emission from Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora) under field conditions in NOx-polluted areas

Emission of ethylene from the needles of Japanese red pine, Pinus densiflora, was measured in air-polluted areas in Hiroshima, Japan. We applied a suitable protocol to determine the rate of ethylene emission from the excised needles. The influence of excision of needles on ethylene emission was not detected during the first 4 h of incubation at 20 degrees C. Ethylene emissions were low in the unpolluted (clean) areas regardless of the altitude or season. The emission of stress ethylene increased with the atmospheric NO2 concentration, suggesting that atmospheric NOx or related substances induced the higher ethylene emission in the polluted areas (near urban and industrial areas). In all cases, 1-year-old needles emitted significantly larger amounts of ethylene than the current needles. Ethylene emission did not increase evenly in the polluted areas, but the frequency of trees emitting high ethylene increased. Therefore, threshold rates for the baseline ethylene emission were proposed.     

The effect of bidirectional opinion diffusion on social license to operate

This is a companion paper to an earlier work in which an agent-based model is proposed by Nakagawa et al. for exploring the emergent phenomena of social license to operate (SLO) of a mining company. In this paper, the structure of the original model is described, along with the enhanced ability for the two-way diffusion of information and opinion among agents. This is achieved through the addition of a global “dialogue” variable, which dictates the extent to which higher influence agents accept opinion from agents of lower influence. Initial findings suggest that the bidirectional diffusion of information has a large effect on the time that the modelling population takes to reach a Social License consensus, and the effect is especially pronounced for low dialogue values. In other words, the Social License of communities characterized by a low preference for dialogue (as opposed to “top-down” mandated communication) will be largely affected by small changes in the preference for dialogue. Findings also suggest that as a modelling community becomes more and more open to dialogue, the effect on the time to consensus becomes less and less pronounced until it becomes negligible at a fairly low dialogue level.     

Update of daily intake of PCDDs, PCDFs, and dioxin-like PCBs from food in Japan

Total diet study (TDS) samples of 14 food groups from 16 locations in Japan, collected in 1999 and 2000, were analyzed for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dioxin-like PCBs) to estimate the update of daily intake of these contaminants from food. The mean daily intake of toxic equivalency (TEQ) for an adult weighing 50 kg, calculated at non-detected isomer concentrations equal to zero (ND=0), was estimated to be 2.25 pg TEQ/kg b.w./day. When non-detected isomer concentrations are assumed to be equal to half of the limits of detection (ND=1/2 LOD), the mean daily intake was estimated to be 3.22 pg TEQ/kg b.w./day. These values were below the tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 4 pg TEQ/kg b.w. for PCDD/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs set in Japan. In both the estimates, the mean daily intakes were highest from fish and shellfish (76.9% at ND=0 and 53.9% at ND=1/2 LOD of the total TEQs), followed by those from meat and eggs (15.5% at ND=0 and 11.7% at ND=1/2 LOD of the total TEQs). Congener specific data revealed that these total TEQ levels were dominated by 1,2,3,7,8-PeCDD, 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF and 3,3^′,4,4^′,5-PeCB in each case (71.7% at ND=0 and 63.1% at ND=1/2 LOD of the total TEQs). The dioxin-like PCBs (non-ortho and mono-ortho PCBs) accounted for about 50% of these total TEQs. These data will be very useful in the risk assessment of PCDD/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs from food in Japan.     

Scientific understanding of stakeholders’ behavior in mining community

We attempt to understand, scientifically, how different members of the mining concession, impacted communities, and government authorities behave when a conflicting situation arises. The main purpose of our effort is to start developing a framework for the scientific modeling of stakeholders’ behavior, and we create a reality-driven generic scenario of conflict. We assume that the managers and superintendants of a mining operation currently envision a problem; one that tests the limits of the commitment of the company’s mission statement, and of the spectrum of actions taken which are embedded in the “culture” of the company’s corporate social responsibility. It is an “event” that highlights the nature of an overall problem that the company would like to predict and act proactively: the integration of scientific tools, sustainability, and cultural realities within a mining framework. We adapt an agent-based modeling approach and start with a theoretical understanding of certain social behavior, build a model, and simulate “what if” scenarios to understand its dynamics to gain a better insight of the complexity of a seemingly simple social system of interest.     

Influence of transportation and pumping on the properties of concrete with large amount of copper slag fine aggregate in actual construction of port and harbor structures

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Copper slag fine aggregate (CUS) is 30% denser than normal aggregate is an effective material for port and harbor structures demanding high-density...     

Model averaging,missing data and multiple imputation: a case study for behavioural ecology

Model averaging, specifically information theoretic approaches based on Akaike’s information criterion (IT-AIC approaches), has had a major influence on statistical practices in the field of ecology and evolution. However, a neglected issue is that in common with most other model fitting approaches, IT-AIC methods are sensitive to the presence of missing observations. The commonest way of handling missing data is the complete-case analysis (the complete deletion from the dataset of cases containing any missing values). It is well-known that this results in reduced estimation precision (or reduced statistical power), biased parameter estimates; however, the implications for model selection have not been explored. Here we employ an example from behavioural ecology to illustrate how missing data can affect the conclusions drawn from model selection or based on hypothesis testing. We show how missing observations can be recovered to give accurate estimates for IT-related indices (e.g. AIC and Akaike weight) as well as parameters (and their standard errors) by utilizing ‘multiple imputation’. We use this paper to illustrate key concepts from missing data theory and as a basis for discussing available methods for handling missing data. The example is intended to serve as a practically oriented case study for behavioural ecologists deciding on how to handle missing data in their own datasets and also as a first attempt to consider the problems of conducting model selection and averaging in the presence of missing observations.     

Spatiotemporal classification of environmental monitoring data in the Yeongsan River basin, Korea, using self-organizing maps

Environmental monitoring data for planning, implementing and evaluating the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) management system have been measured at about 8-day intervals in a number of rivers in Korea since 2004. In the present study, water quality parameters such as Suspended Solids (SS), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Total Nitrogen (TN), and Total Phosphorus (TP) and the corresponding runoff were collected from six stations in the Yeongsan River basin for six years and transformed into monthly mean values. With the primary objective to understand spatiotemporal characteristics of the data, a methodologically systematic application of a Self-Organizing Map (SOM) was made. The SOM application classified the environmental monitoring data into nine clusters showing exclusively distinguishable patterns. Data frequency at each station on a monthly basis identified the spatiotemporal distribution for the first time in the study area. Consequently, the SOM application provided useful information that the sub-basin containing a metropolitan city is associated with deteriorating water quality and should be monitored and managed carefully during spring and summer for water quality improvement in the river basin.