Planning,governance and rural futures in Australia and the USA: revisiting the case for rural regional planning

Rural regions in post-industrial countries confront significant new challenges, particularly in relation to climate, biodiversity, unconventional resource development and energy. Yet at a time when the contours of these challenges are still being sketched, and preliminary, planned interventions undertaken, the practice of rural planning finds itself at a low ebb. We examine two ‘critical cases’, one each from Australia and the USA, to explore the issues and options for capacity of rural regional planning to surmount these new challenges. Our examination indicates the urgent need for a renewed discourse on rural regional planning.     

Small‐Capacity Gold Production Tests From Waste Desktop Computers

This article describes a procedure for the hydrometallurgical recovery of gold from waste computer printed circuit boards (PCBs) and central processing units (CPUs). The wastes processed within the recovery installation described in this article were derived from desktop computers, the parts of which were manually sorted to select those components found to be rich in gold content. X‐ray fluorescence measurements showed that considerable amounts of gold are contained in the “finger” terminals of the PCBs as well as in the CPUs. This article describes the chemical processes for recovering gold from these parts. In addition, the article covers the emissions control apparatus that is capable of eliminating the nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions produced by the recovery process. The main costs arising from the overall procedure are for personnel utilization. Approximately 60 work hours from one worker are required to process 1.75–1.85 tons of unprocessed desktop computer waste to produce gold in the form of sediments. The quantity of gold recovered from this amount of waste computers can reach up to 35 grams with a standardized purity of 21 karats. The overall recovery procedure takes eight consecutive calendar days to accomplish.     

Investigation of Environmental Effects Based on Exergetic Irreversibility for Display Cases’ Units in Commercial Cooling

This study examines energetic and exergetic performances of display cases’ units used in market applications depending on different refrigerants. Besides CO₂ emission potential of each refrigerant based on exergetic irreversibility obtained from analyses is calculated by the method of Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI). In this study, 1 kW cooling capacity and vapor compression cooling cycle is taken as reference and refrigerants of R-22, R-134a, R-404A, and R-507 together with alternative refrigerant R-407C and R152a are examined separately. According to analyses, R-404A gas, used widely in market applications, has low performance with average COP 3.89 and average exergy efficiency 55.20%. R-152a gas has the best performance by the thermodynamics parameters including COP 4.49, exergy efficiency 63.79%, and 0.23 kW power consumption and emission parameter 14097.490 ton CO₂/year. Although COP is used as a criterion to evaluate the systems, this study finally emphasizes the importance of exergy analysis and TEWI method which are important methods to determine irreversibility and emission potential of the systems.     

Investigation of Nanoparticle Additives to Biodiesel for Improvement of the Performance and Exhaust Emissions in a Compression Ignition Engine

Worldwide energy demand has been growing steadily during the past five decades and most experts believe that this trend will continue to rise. The amount of emitted harmful emission gases increases in parallel with increasing energy consumption. This increase has forced many countries to take various precautions, and various restrictions on emitted emissions have been carried. In this study, effects of addition of oxygen containing nanoparticle additives to biodiesel on fuel properties and effects on diesel engine performance and exhaust emissions were investigated. Two different nanoparticle additives, namely MgO and SiO₂, were added to biodiesel at the addition dosage of 25 and 50 ppm. Fuel properties, engine performance, and exhaust emission characteristics of obtained modified fuels were examined. As a result of this study, engine emission values NO_x and CO were decreased and engine performance values slightly increased with the addition of nanoparticle additives.     

Calibration and Verification of SWMM for Low Impact Development

The Storm Water Management Model was used to simulate runoff and nutrient export from a low impact development (LID) watershed and a watershed using traditional runoff controls. Predictions were compared to observed values. Uncalibrated simulations underpredicted weekly runoff volume and average peak flow rates from the multiple subcatchment LID watershed by over 80%; the single subcatchment traditional watershed had better predictions. Saturated hydraulic conductivity, Manning's n for swales, and initial soil moisture deficit were sensitive parameters. After calibration, prediction of total weekly runoff volume for the LID and traditional watersheds improved to within 12 and 5% of observed values, respectively. For the validation period, predicted total weekly runoff volumes for the LID and traditional watersheds were within 6 and 2% of observed values, respectively. Water quality simulation was less successful, Nash–Sutcliffe coefficients >0.5 for both calibration and validation periods were only achieved for prediction of total nitrogen export from the LID watershed. Simulation of a 100‐year, 24‐h storm resulted in a runoff coefficient of 0.46 for the LID watershed and 0.59 for the traditional watershed. Results suggest either calibration is needed to improve predictions for LID watersheds or expanded look‐up tables for Green–Ampt infiltration parameter values that account for compaction of urban soil and antecedent conditions are needed.     

Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning,response, and research

A comprehensive review of online, official, and scientific literature was carried out in 2012–13 to develop a framework of disaster social media. This framework can be used to facilitate the creation of disaster social media tools, the formulation of disaster social media implementation processes, and the scientific study of disaster social media effects. Disaster social media users in the framework include communities, government, individuals, organisations, and media outlets. Fifteen distinct disaster social media uses were identified, ranging from preparing and receiving disaster preparedness information and warnings and signalling and detecting disasters prior to an event to (re)connecting community members following a disaster. The framework illustrates that a variety of entities may utilise and produce disaster social media content. Consequently, disaster social media use can be conceptualised as occurring at a number of levels, even within the same disaster. Suggestions are provided on how the proposed framework can inform future disaster social media development and research.     

A fouling suppression system in submerged membrane bioreactors using dielectrophoretic forces

A novel method was developed to suppress membrane fouling in submerged membrane bioreactors. The method is based on the dielectrophoretic (DEP) motion of particles in an inhomogeneous electrical field. Using a real sample of biomass as feed, the fouling-suppression performance using DEP with different electrical field intensities (60–160 V) and different frequencies (50–1000 Hz) was investigated. The fouling-suppression performance was found to relate closely with the intensity and frequency of the electrical field. A stronger electrical field was found to better recover the filtrate flux. This is because of a stronger DEP force acting on the biomass particles close to the membrane's surface. Above an intensity and frequency value of 130 V and 1 kHz, respectively the permeate flux was reduced due to an electrothermal effect.     

Consumption of rice and fish in an electronic waste recycling area contributes significantly to total daily intake of mercury

<正>Mercury is a global pollutant due to its widespread use,emission,and long-range transport(Blum,2013;Pacyna et al.,2010).It is considered a priority pollutant due to its neurological toxicity,persistence,and bioaccumulation(Pacyna et al.,2010;Sharma et al.,2015).Mercury pollution can occur when products that contain mercury are improperly disposed of and mercury is released into the air,water,and soil(Zhang and Wong,2007).An estimated 22%of the annual world usage of mercury is in electrical equipment such as batteries,thermometers,and discharge lamps,and electronic devices such as monitors and