From Iran: Does Improvement in Corporate Environmental Performance Affect Corporate Risk Taking?

Superior corporate environmental performance (CEP) has become essential to the competitive advantage and financial success of businesses. However, the main reasons managers pay attention to environmental performance are improved reputation in the capital market and profitability, as well as reductions in operating costs and risks. This article describes the findings of a study that examines the relationship between CEP, using a reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions as a measure, and corporate risk taking. In addition to indicating a significant negative relationship between CEP and firm risk, the study results also show that a 1% improvement of CEP decreases corporate risk by 3%.     

Daily Precipitation Extremes in Iran: Decadal Anomalies and Possible Drivers

This study focuses on the empirical statistical analysis of the anomalies in daily precipitation extremes by applying the quantile perturbation method (QPM) to data from 31 Iranian weather stations during the period between 1961 and 2005. The possible causes behind the anomalies in precipitation extremes are identified by analyzing their relationship with the anomalies in eight atmospheric indices (i.e., NAO, SOI, PDO, AMO, NCP, DMI, WeMO, SSN). In terms of decadal oscillations, the country was generally wet in the 1960s and 1970s with most stations exhibiting periods of higher quantile perturbations, whereas lower quantile perturbations were dominant in the 1980s and 1990s. The highest perturbation in extreme precipitation quantiles prevails in Central Iran during the early 1980s, in which the quantiles are about 50% higher than the ones based on the full time series. The frequency of significant precipitation anomalies for winter season was greater than that for spring and autumn seasons. For the summer season, the humid region in North Iran demonstrates strong positive anomalies. The results highlight the noticeable role of large‐scale climatic factors in the anomalous behavior of precipitation extremes in Iran. The atmospheric drivers of the quantile anomalies in extreme precipitation were found to differ from one season to another.     

The influence of crime prevention through environmental design on victimisation and fear of crime

People's perception of crime and incivilities vary considerably depending on their attitudes towards environmental conditions. This paper investigated the hypothesised relationships between Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), victimisation and fear of crime. The checklist was administered by using on-site observation to measure the CPTED construct followed by a self-administered questionnaire to explore the residents' perceptions of victimisation and fear of crime in their area of residency. In all, 164 respondents from a selected group of residents were involved in this study. The structural equation modelling technique was employed and the results indicate that CPTED is negatively related to victimisation. The model also shows that there is a significant positive direct influence of victimisation on fear of crime. However, no direct significant relationship was found between CPTED and fear of crime, but a negative indirect relationship between CPTED and fear of crime was observed through victimisation.     

Mathematical Model for Pollution Source Identification in Rivers

Release of pollution into rivers is required to be handled with special consideration to environmental standards. For this purpose, it is essential to specify the contribution of each pollution source in contamination of water resources. In this study, a mathematical model is proposed for determining locations and concentration release histories of polluting point sources using measured downstream river concentrations via an inverse problem framework. The inverse solution is based on the integral equation obtained from applying the Green's function method on the one-dimensional advection-dispersion contaminant transport equation. Discretization of this integral equation results in a linear, over-determined and ill-posed system of algebraic equations that are solved by using the Tikhonov regularization method. Several examples and some real field data are investigated to illustrate the abilities of the proposed model. Results imply that the proposed method is effective and can identify the pollution sources in rivers with acceptable accuracy.     

Community attitudes toward forest conservation programs through collaborative protected area management in Bangladesh

The formulation of conservation policies with options for creating protected areas is significantly influenced by the social factors of the surrounding communities. Therefore, indigenous knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of the local communities need to be explored during the planning and implementation stages of conservation projects. A government-initiated experiment in co-management was conducted in the Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary, Bangladesh. This paper analyzes the attitudes toward conservation by members of local communities living in and around the wildlife sanctuary. Training incentives on alternative income-generating (AIG) activities and allotment of agricultural lands were distributed among the Forest User Groups. It is of interest to policy makers and resource managers whether this technique leads to improved attitudes on the part of local people. Although there were different attitudes toward protected areas and conservation, overall, a favorable attitude of the respondents was observed. The opinions of respondents also varied based on factors such as village position, village dependency level on forest resources, ethnicity and gender. Increase in annual income resulting from the augmented skills by trainings on AIG activities and getting agricultural lands leased from the Forest Department contributed significantly to the variation in respondents’ conservation attitudes. It is suggested that eliminating inequity and inequality in incentive distribution, discovering and launching training on more need-based livelihood activities, and liberalizing the restriction of resource extraction from the protected area by fixing the harvesting limit would encourage the community to be more cordially and actively involved in the conservation efforts of the sanctuary.     

An integrated assessment of seawater intrusion in a small tropical island using geophysical,geochemical, and geostatistical techniques

In this study, geophysics, geochemistry, and geostatistical techniques were integrated to assess seawater intrusion in Kapas Island due to its geological complexity and multiple contamination sources. Five resistivity profiles were measured using an electric resistivity technique. The results reveal very low resistivity <1 Ωm, suggesting either marine clay deposit or seawater intrusion or both along the majority of the resistivity images. As a result, geochemistry was further employed to verify the resistivity evidence. The Chadha and Stiff diagrams classify the island groundwater into Ca-HCO₃, Ca-Na-HCO₃, Na-HCO₃, and Na-Cl water types, with Ca-HCO₃ as the dominant. The Mg²⁺/Mg²⁺+Ca²⁺, HCO₃ ^?/anion, Cl^?/HCO₃ ^?, Na⁺/Cl^?, and SO₄ ^2?/Cl^? ratios show that some sampling sites are affected by seawater intrusion; these sampling sites fall within the same areas that show low-resistivity values. The resulting ratios and resistivity values were then used in the geographical information system (GIS) environment to create the geostatistical map of individual indicators. These maps were then overlaid to create the final map showing seawater-affected areas. The final map successfully delineates the area that is actually undergoing seawater intrusion. The proposed technique is not area specific, and hence, it can work in any place with similar completed characteristics or under the influence of multiple contaminants so as to distinguish the area that is truly affected by any targeted pollutants from the rest. This information would provide managers and policy makers with the knowledge of the current situation and will serve as a guide and standard in water research for sustainable management plan.     

Removal of toxic heavy metal ions from waste water by functionalized magnetic core–zeolitic shell nanocomposites as adsorbents

Functionalized magnetic core–zeolitic shell nanocomposites were prepared via hydrothermal and precipitation methods. The products were characterized by vibrating sample magnetometer, X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms, and transmission electron microscopy analysis. The growth of mordenite nanocrystals on the outer surface of silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles at the presence of organic templates was well approved. The removal performance and the selectivity of mixed metal ions (Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺) in aqueous solution were investigated via the sorption process. The batch method was employed to study the sorption kinetic, sorption isotherms, and pH effect. The removal mechanism of metal ions was done by chem–phys sorption and ion exchange processes through the zeolitic channels and pores. The experimental data were well fitted by the appropriate kinetic models. The sorption rate and sorption capacity of metal ions could be significantly improved by optimizing the parameter values.     

Seasonal variations in cholinesterase activity, nerve conduction velocity and lung function among sprayers exposed to mixture of pesticides

Pesticide spraying operation is associated with the increased risk of adverse health effects among sprayers who do not follow safe farm work practices. A study was conducted among pesticide sprayers in North India to evaluate the clinical and subclinical variations in their vital health parameters before and after the pesticide spraying season. Blood cholinesterase levels, pulmonary function test, nerve conduction velocity and self-reported symptoms were studied among 18 eligible and consenting male sprayers. Mean acetylcholinesterase activity was reduced by 55 % in the post-exposure assessment (P?<?0.001) as compared to pre-exposure levels. Mean forced expiratory volume in 1 s was 20 % lower in the post-exposure assessment as compared to the pre-exposure level (P?<?0.05). No significant change was observed in the motor and sensory nerve conduction velocity in the median nerve of sprayers before and after the spraying activity. Also, no significant variation was observed with respect to self-reported symptoms except weakness in arms and legs (P?<?0.05). The significant decline in lung function and acetylcholinesterase level after pesticide exposure reflects the strongly negative effect of exposure to pesticides during spraying activity. More longitudinal studies among pesticide sprayers must be undertaken to further substantiate the cause–effect relationship between pesticide exposure and its subclinical effects. There is a strong necessity to minimise the exposure through the use of personal protective equipment in pesticide sprayers.     

Sulfur Toxicity and Media Capacity for H2S Removal in Biofilters Packed with a Natural or a Commercial Granular Medium

Abstract

Two types of media, a natural medium (wood chips) and a commercially engineered medium, were evaluated for sulfur inhibition and capacity for removal of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S). Sulfate was added artificially (40, 65, and 100 mg of S/g of medium) to test its effect on removal efficiency and the media. A humidified gas stream of 50 ppm by volume H₂S was passed through the media-packed columns, and effluent readings for H₂S at the outlet were measured continuously. The overall H₂S baseline removal efficiencies of the column packed with natural medium remained >95% over a 2-day period even with the accumulated sulfur species. Added sulfate at a concentration high enough to saturate the biofilter moisture phase did not appear to affect the H₂S removal process efficiency. The results of additional experiments with a commercial granular medium also demonstrated that the accumulation of amounts of sulfate sufficient enough to saturate the moisture phase of the medium did not have a significant effect on H₂S removal.

When the pH of the biofilter medium was lowered to 4, H₂S removal efficiency did drop to 36%. This work suggests that sulfate mass transfer through the moisture phase to the biofilm phase does not appear to inhibit H₂S removal rates in biofilters. Thus, performance degradation for odor-removing biofilters or H₂S breakthrough in field applications is probably caused by other consequences of high H₂S loading, such as sulfur precipitation.