Cross‐cultural comparisons between the earthquake preparedness models of Taiwan and New Zealand

Taiwan and New Zealand are both located in the Pacific Rim where 81 per cent of the world's largest earthquakes occur. Effective programmes for increasing people's preparedness for these hazards are essential. This paper tests the applicability of the community engagement theory of hazard preparedness in two distinct cultural contexts. Structural equation modelling analysis provides support for this theory. The paper suggests that the close fit between theory and data that is achieved by excluding trust supports the theoretical prediction that familiarity with a hazard negates the need to trust external sources. The results demonstrate that the hazard preparedness theory is applicable to communities that have previously experienced earthquakes and are therefore familiar with the associated hazards and the need for earthquake preparedness. The paper also argues that cross‐cultural comparisons provide opportunities for collaborative research and learning as well as access to a wider range of potential earthquake risk management strategies.     

PM<Subscript>2.5</Subscript> particulates and metallic elements (Ni,Cu, Zn,Cd and Pb) study in a mixed area of summer season in Shalu,Taiwan

PM_2.5 has become an important environmental issue in Taiwan during the past few years. Moreover, electricity increased significantly during the summertime and TTPP generated by coal burning base is the main electricity provider in central Taiwan. Therefore, summer season has become the main research target in this study. The ambient air concentrations of particulate matter PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ collected by using VAPS at a mixed characteristic sampling site were studied in central Taiwan. The results indicated that the average daytime PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ particulate concentrations were occurred in May and they were 44.75 and 57.77 µg/m³ in this study. The results also indicated that the average nighttime PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ particulate concentrations were occurred in June and they were 38.19 and 45.79 µg/m³ in this study. The average PM_2.5/PM₁₀ ratios were 0.7 for daytime, nighttime and 24-h sampling periods in the summer for this study. This value was ranked as the lowest ratios when compared to the other seasons in previous study. Noteworthy, the results further indicated that the metallic element Pb has the mean highest concentrations for 24-h, daytime and nighttime sampling periods when compared to those of the other metallic elements (Ni, Cu, Zn and Cd). The average mean highest metallic Pb concentrations in PM10 were 110.7, 203.0 and 207.2 ng/m³ for 24-h, daytime and nighttime sampling periods in this study. And there were 59.53, 105.2 and 106.6 ng/m³ for Pb in PM2.5 for 24-h, daytime and nighttime sampling periods, respectively. Moreover, the results further indicated that mean metallic element Pb concentrations on PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ were all higher than those of the other elements for 24 h, day and nighttime.     

The effects assessment of firm environmental strategy and customer environmental conscious on green product development

The purpose of this study is to examine why both parties (industry and consumer market) have mutual interests in protecting the environment but they still are hesitant to act green. The study used two-stage sampling from consumer market to depict ideal green product characteristics and reliable toy companies, and visit these companies for the second sample collection to examine whether the organizational eco-innovation strategy with customer value has a positive effect on green product development. In other words, the customer's benefit is an important factor for new product development strategy for green toys. This research shows that the willingness to buy green toys increases if most people in society buy green toys. This represents that customers are environmentally conscious and care about protecting the environment, or buying green toys is the result of a new economic trend and childhood education. The willingness to buy green toys increases if customers think that green products implies an enhancement on new product development to toy manufacturers. Further, if manufacturers are able to manage the difficulty of cooperation with all parties in the supply chain and difficulties related to production, they are willing to adopt customers' perceived value on green toys for their new product development strategy. It is rare to find academic research discussing the perspectives of both consumers and manufacturers in the same study because the research topic is very broad and many conditions must be considered. This research aims to find the effect of consumer-perceived value and company eco-innovation on green product development.     

A model for the implementation of a two-shift municipal solid waste and recyclable material collection plan that offers greater convenience to residents

Separating recyclables from municipal solid waste (MSW) before collection reduces not only the quantity of MSW that needs to be treated but also the depletion of resources. However, the participation of residents is essential for a successful recycling program, and the level of participation usually depends on the degree of convenience associated with accessing recycling collection points. The residential accessing convenience (RAC) of a collection plan is determined by the proximity of its collection points to all residents and its temporal flexibility in response to resident requirements. The degree of proximity to all residents is determined by using a coverage radius that represents the maximum distance residents need to travel to access a recycling point. The temporal flexibility is assessed by the availability of proximal recycling points at times suitable to the lifestyles of all residents concerned. In Taiwan, the MSW collection is implemented at fixed locations and at fixed times. Residents must deposit their garbage directly into the collection vehicle. To facilitate the assignment of collection vehicles and to encourage residents to thoroughly separate their recyclables, in Taiwan MSW and recyclable materials are usually collected at the same time by different vehicles. A heuristic procedure including an integer programming (IP) model and ant colony optimization (ACO) is explored in this study to determine an efficient two-shift collection plan that takes into account RAC factors. The IP model has been developed to determine convenient collection points in each shift on the basis of proximity, and then the ACO algorithm is applied to determine the most effective routing plan of each shift. With the use of a case study involving a city in Taiwan, this study has demonstrated that collection plans generated using the above procedure are superior to current collection plans on the basis of proximity and total collection distance.     

Environmental hazards and health risk of common liquid perfluoro-n-alkanes, potent greenhouse gases

This article aimed at introducing the main physical properties and commercial/industrial uses of common liquid perfluoro-n-alkanes (including perfluoropentane, perfluorohexane, perfluoroheptane, perfluorooctane, and perfluorononane) and the environment and health hazards posed by their toxic decomposition products (especially in hydrogen fluoride and perfluoroisobutylene) because these perfluorocompounds are potent greenhouse gases, which have been blanketed into the Kyoto Protocol, but was rarely described in the National Inventory Reports by Annex I Parties. The environmental properties (including octanol-water partition coefficient, water solubility and Henry's law constant) of liquid perfluoro-n-alkanes were evaluated, and further discussed were its atmospheric implications according to the predicted properties and possible proposal for the formation of trifluoroacetic acid (CF(3)COOH) in the atmosphere by the ionized photolysis. These predicted values revealed that liquid perfluoro-n-alkanes tend to be hydrophobic and partitioned into organic matter, and they have exceptionally low solubility in water and extremely high vaporization from the water bodies, suggesting that it will sink into the atmosphere if it is released into the environment.     

Bioavailability links mode of action can improve the long-term field risk assessment for tilapia exposed to arsenic

The objective of this paper was to develop a mechanistic-based framework to explicitly incorporate the factors controlling the bioavailability, toxicodynamics and mode of action to enhance predictive ability of arsenic (As) toxicity to protect the health of farmed tilapia Oreochromis mossambicus. We linked the biotic ligand model and damage assessment model to develop a toxicokinetic model for elucidating the site-specific temporal changes of As bioavailability and to characterize how the fish regulate the metal toxicity. We built a bioavailability-mode of action-based growth toxicity model by linking a bioenergetic growth model and damage assessment model to predict how the As affects on the tilapia growth in the entire life span in site-specific field ecosystems. Here we show that the proposed model well describes the water-chemistry-dependent toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics variations of As to tilapia. We selected two local tilapia farms with different water chemistries located at southwestern Taiwan coast region to implement the proposed algorithm to predict the risk of As exposure. Results indicate that the growth toxicity of O. mossambicus in Taihsi is more sensitive than that in Peimen. We found that the effect of ion competition on the As bioavailability and their ecotoxicological effects on tilapia are more obvious in Taihsi comparing with that in Peimen. We suggested that the proposed bioavailability- and mode of action-based framework can be used to capture the biological response and regulation of tilapia to As exposures. It is applicable for a site-specific and long-term ecotoxicological risk assessment.     

NH4+, NO3−, and SO42− in roadside and rural size-resolved particles and transformation of NO2/SO2 to nanoparticle-bound NO3−/SO42−

This study investigates ammonium, nitrate, and sulfate (NH₄⁺, NO₃^?, and SO₄^2?) in size-resolved particles (particularly nano (PM_0.01–0.056)/ultrafine (PM_0.01–0.1)) and NO_x/SO₂ collected near a busy road and at a rural site. The average (mass) cumulative fraction of secondary inorganic aerosols (SO₄^2?+NO₃^?+NH₄⁺) in nano or ultrafine particles at the roadside was found to be three to four times that at the rural site. The above three secondary inorganic aerosol species were present in similar cumulative fractions in particles of size 1–18 μm at both sites; however, dissimilar fractions were observed for Cl^?, Na⁺, and K⁺. The nitrogen ratios (NRs: NR = NO₃^??N/(NO₃^??N + NO₂–N)), sulfur ratios (SRs: SR = SO₄^2??S/(SO₄^2??S + SO₂–S)), dNR/D_P (derivative of NR with respect to D_P (particle diameter)), and dSR/D_P (derivative of SR with respect to D_P) at the roadside were higher than those at the rural site for nano/ultrafine particles. At both sites (particularly the roadside), the nanoparticles had significantly higher dNR/D_P and dSR/D_P values than differently sized particles, implying that NO₃^?/SO₄^2? (from NO₂/SO₂ transformation or NO₃^?/SO₄^2? deposition) were present on these particles.     

Characterization of carbon fractions for atmospheric fine particles and nanoparticles in a highway tunnel

Fine particles (PM_2.5) and nanoparticles (PM_0.1) were sampled using Dichotomous sampler and MOUDI, respectively, in Xueshan Tunnel, Taiwan. Eight carbon fractions were analyzed using IMPROVE thermal-optical reflectance (TOR) method. The concentrations of different temperature carbon fractions (OC1–OC4, EC1–EC3) in both PM_2.5 and PM_0.1 were measured and the correlations between OC and EC were discussed. Results showed that the ratios of OC/EC were 1.26 and 0.67 for PM_2.5 and PM_0.1, respectively. The concentration of EC1 was found to be more abundant than other elemental carbon fractions in PM_2.5, while the most abundant EC fraction in PM_0.1 was found to be EC2. The variation of contributions for elemental carbon fractions was different among PM_2.5 and PM_0.1 samples, which was partly owing to the metal catalysts for soot oxidation. The correlations between char-EC and soot-EC showed that char-EC dominated EC in PM_2.5 while soot-EC dominated EC in PM_0.1. Using eight individual carbon fractions, the gasoline and diesel source profiles of PM_0.1 and PM_2.5 were extracted and analyzed with the positive matrix factorization (PMF) method.     

Biohydrogen production by Clostridium butyricum and Rhodopseudomonas palustris in Co-cultures

This study evaluated biohydrogen production by co-culture of Clostridium butyricum and Rhodopseudomonas palustris. C. butyricum and R. palustris were grown separately and together as batch cultures. Hydrogen production, growth, NH₄-N, total volatile fatty acid production, and sucrose degradation were monitored. The hydrogen production of the co-culture produced 562 ml, R. palustris 426 ml, and C. butyricum 333 ml. The co-culture produced 2.16 mol H₂/mol sucrose, C. butyricum and R. palustris produced 1.77 and 1.64 mol H₂/mol sucrose, respectively. The co-culture was more efficient in the hydrogen production. Therefore, the co-culture is a good method for biohydrogen fermentation.     

TiO2 nanotube-supported cu as the catalyst for selective NO reduction with NH3

Catalyst supports composed of titanate nanotubes were prepared from hydrothermal treatment on TiO2 nanoparticles in NaOH followed by HCl washing. The nanotubes exhibited well-defined TiO2 anatase phase after calcination at 400 degrees C. The nanotube aggregates and other commercially available TiO2 nanoparticles, all with surface areas >300 m(2)/g, were impregnated with Cu and examined in selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3. In catalyst preparation, the nanotubes were found to be more thermally stable than nanoparticles, withstanding agglomeration at elevated temperatures. The Cu species supported on the nanotubes showed a higher catalytic activity than those supported on the nanoparticles. Analysis with temperature programmed reduction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and NO adsorption reflected that the layered-titanate feature of the tube wall was advantageous for even distribution of the Cu species, thus leading to the high-catalytic activity of the tubular Cu/TiO2 catalyst.