The aim of this paper is to disclose livelihood strategy-poverty links and gain a better understanding by developing typologies
of rural households. Based on qualitative and quantitative data, we group households into different typologies and explore
interactions. We identified six main agronomic strategies, four dominant livelihood diversification strategies, and income
quartiles (proxies for poverty) using cluster and principal component factor analysis. We found that nearly 82% of the surveyed
farmers in the study area belong to the bottom income quartiles while about 18% are on the upper quartiles. Households in
the bottom income quartiles engaged in casual off-farm work and cereal-dominated livelihood strategies that tend to pursue
subsistence farming by growing cereals and oil crops. Contrarily, farmers in the upper income quartiles adapted intensive
agronomic strategies by integrating root crops, legumes, and vegetables with livestock. This was largely attributed to access
to key livelihood assets such as land, livestock, education, and institutional support in which the upper quartiles were more
endowed. Improving availability of the key assets for the bottom income quartiles might be a way out of poverty and ensuring
sustainable development. It is crucial to recognize local-level heterogeneities of rural households when targeting development
interventions. 相似文献
This paper studies climatic drivers (air and water temperature, precipitation rates, river discharge, sea level and storm
patterns) in four Mediterranean regions: the Catalan-Valencia Coast (Spain), the Oran (Algeria) and Gabès (Tunisia) Gulfs
and the western Nile Delta (Egypt). The paper also considers the potential hazards that these drivers can induce. It first
analyses climatic trends in the drivers, taking into account the available time series of recorded and simulated meteo-oceanographic
data from different sources. Next, it presents the general framework to assess biogeophysical hazards (flooding, erosion,
droughts and water quality), followed by a simple and yet robust evaluation of those hazards for the four studied coastal
sites. Assuming climate change projections under different scenarios and considering the observed trends in drivers, the resulting
erosion rates due to sea-level rise and wave storm effects have been estimated. The Nile and Ebro Deltas, together with the
Oran Gulf, are more vulnerable than the Gulfs of Valencia and Gabès. Regarding water quality in terms of (a) precipitation
and dissolved oxygen in the water column and (b) sea surface temperature, the results show that the most vulnerable zones
for the projected conditions (a) are the Gulfs of Oran, Valencia and Gabès, while the Nile Delta is the region where the decrease
in water quality will be less pronounced. For the projected conditions (b), the most vulnerable zone is the Ebro Delta, while
the impact in the other three cases will be smaller and of comparable magnitude. Finally, the overall future impact of these
hazards (associated to climatic change) in the four sites is discussed in comparative terms, deriving some conclusions. 相似文献
Disasters have potential short-term and long-term impacts on employment and employment structures in affected regions. While measuring the full economic impact of a disaster requires sophisticated econometrics and mathematical simulations, conventional regional economic models such as shift-share analysis can be used to assess some of these effects. This paper applies shift-share analysis to understand potential long-term impacts of disasters on employment using the December 2003 Bam earthquake as a case study. The results provide further evidence that disasters could have significant long-term effects on the employment structure of affected regions. 相似文献
Religion in its most ideal form is seen as a powerful force to create ecological transformations to succeeding generations
that share similar religious beliefs. This provides an interesting argument for enhancing their role in sustainability transitions.
Malaysia is a relevant geographical context in this regard since almost all of its citizens formally embrace some kind of
religious belief. However, such ideas are discussed mostly at the theoretical level with little systematic empirical investigation.
This paper aims to fill this gap by presenting theoretically informed empirical insights on how a number of religious communities
are currently creating successful experiments in recycling within the context of an urban community in Malaysia. The paper
argues that such evidence may demonstrate the ‘potential’ role of religious communities to provide localised resources for
recycling experiments that can be advantageous for the transition towards a more sustainable municipal solid waste management
in Malaysia. The empirical basis of this paper is based on an exploratory multiple case study of successful recycling programmes
conducted by selected religious communities from four key religions in Malaysia—Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam.
The theoretical framework for this research is based on the sustainability transitions literature, particularly the ‘transition
experiment’ framework. 相似文献
Ferric antimonate, a cation-exchanger, has been investigated as an adsorbent for the removal of phenol and polyhydric phenols from aqueous solution. It has been found that ferric antimonate in H+ form selectively adsorbs polyhydric phenols having hydroxyl groups on adjacent positions. While phenol, resorcinol, and quinol did not show any appreciable adsorption, catechol, pyrogallol, and gallic acid having hydroxyl groups on adjacent positions exhibited considerable adsorption on ferric antimonate. Batch equilibrium experiments were carried out to study the effect of contact time, initial concentration of phenolic compounds, and temperature on the adsorption of phenolic compounds on ferric antimonate. The equilibrium time was found to be 1.5 hours for gallic acid and pyrogallol and 2 hours for catechol and salicylic acid. The adsorption data of the phenols at temperatures of 30 degrees, 40 degrees, and 50 degrees C have been described by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The best fit was obtained with the Langmuir model in the whole range of concentrations studied at all temperatures, indicating a monolayer adsorption onto a homogeneous adsorption surface. On the basis of the Langmuir isotherm, the maximum adsorption capacity of ferric antimonate for gallic acid, pyrogallol, catechol, and salicylic acid was found to be 3.915, 3.734, 2.397, and 2.758 mg/g, respectively at 30 degrees C. The maximum sorption capacity of ferric antimonate for the phenolic compounds studied is in the following order: gallic acid > pyrogallol > salicylic acid > catechol. The adsorption of phenolic compounds was found to decrease with an increase in temperature. Thermodynamic parameters like free energy, enthalpy, and entropy changes were calculated and discussed. The adsorption of polyhydric phenols on ferric antimonate is exothermic and spontaneous in nature. 相似文献
The influence of the blending ratio of biodegradable starch/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/glycerol in encapsulating urea has been investigated. It is found that water absorption capacity increased approximately 135 % as the amounts of starch, PVA and glycerol in the composite film increase. Therefore, the swell ability of the composite film is increased and the urea is released from the composite film in the wet environment. The FTIR shows that the urea had been encapsulated successfully in the composite films. Moreover, the soil burial biodegradation results indicated that the biodegradability of the starch/PVA/glycerol/urea composite film strongly depended on the PVA proportion in the composite film matrix. The DSC results show that the higher the amount of PVA in the composite film, the less change of the melting enthalpy value. The crystalline region of PVA remains after biodegradation. 相似文献
Abstract The goal of this study was to test the following hypotheses:(1) exposure to mobile emissions from mobile sources close to a heavily trafficked roadway will exacerbate airway inflammation and allergic airway responses in a sensitized mouse model, and (2) the magnitude of allergic airway disease responses will decrease with increasing distance from the roadway. A particle concentrator and a mobile exposure facility were used to expose ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized BALB/c mice to purified air and concentrated fine and concentrated ultrafine ambient particles at 50 m and 150 m downwind from a roadway that was heavily impacted by emissions from heavy duty diesel-powered vehicles. After exposure, we assessed interleukin (IL)-5, IL-13, OVA-specific immunoglobulin E, OVA-specific immunoglobulin G1, and eosinophil influx as biomarkers of allergic responses and numbers of polymorphonuclear leukocytes as a marker of inflammation. The study was performed over a two-year period, and there were differences in the concentrations and compositions of ambient particulate matter across those years that could have influenced our results. However, averaged over the two-year period, exposure to concentrated ambient particles (CAPs) increased the biomarkers associated with airway allergies (IL-5, immunoglobulin E, immunoglobulin G1 and eosinophils). In addition, mice exposed to CAPs 50 m downwind of the roadway had, on the average, greater allergic responses and showed greater indications of inflammation than did mice exposed to CAPs 150 m downwind. This study is consistent with the hypothesis that exposure to CAPs close to a heavily trafficked roadway influenced allergic airway responses. 相似文献
Cellulase production was carried out by solid state bioconversion (SSB) method using rice straw, a lignocellulosic material and agricultural waste, as the substrate of three Trichoderma spp. and Phanerochaete chrysosporium in lab-scale experiments. The results were compared to select the best fungi among them for the production of cellulase. Phanerochaete chrysosporium was found to be the best among these species of fungi, which produced the highest cellulase enzyme of 1.43 IU/mL of filter paper activity (FPase) and 2.40 IU/mL of carboxymethylcellulose activity (CMCase). The “glucosamine” and “reducing sugar” parameters were observed to evaluate the growth and substrate utilization in the experiments. In the case of Phanerochaete Chrysosporium, the highest glucosamine concentration was 1.60 g/L and a high concentration of the release of reducing sugar was measured as 2.58 g/L obtained on the 4th day of fermentation. The pH values were also recorded. The range of the pH was about 5.15 to 5.56 in the case of Phanerochaete Chrysosporium.相似文献
In this study, the applicability of physico-chemical methods was investigated for the pre-treatment of the olive mill effluents prior to the discharge into the common sewerage ending with a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The samples were taken from an olive oil industry operated as three-phase process located in Turkey. Various pre-treatment methods including acid craking, polyelectrolyte and lime additions were applied. Advanced oxidation study using Fenton's process was also investigated following pre-treatment by acid cracking and cationic polyelectrolyte. Acid cracking alone gave satisfactory treatment efficiencies and polyelectrolite additions to the acid-cracked samples enhanced treatment efficiency. Since a complete treatment plant is available at the end of the sewer system, results indicated that the effluents of the investigated industry could be discharged into the municipal sewerage in the case of total chemical oxygen demand (CODtot), suspended solid (SS) and volatile suspended solid (VSS) concentrations according to the Turkish Water Pollution Control Regulation after pre-treatment with 5 ppm anionic polyelectrolyte following acid cracking. The minimum CODtot, SS and VSS removals were observed when raw wastewater was pre-treated with lime and the discharge standards to the municipal sewer system could not be met. Advanced oxidation with Fenton's process was applied after acid cracking and cationic polyelectrolyte treatment in order to investigate further reduction in chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration for minimizing the influence of this industrial discharge on the existing municipal wastewater treatment plant. Results indicated that CODtot removal increased up to 89% from 74% after Fenton's oxidation for the acid cracked samples in which cationic polyelectrolite (10 ppm) was added. 相似文献
Data reconciliation and mass balance analysis were conducted for the first time to improve the data obtained from a petrochemical wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), and the results were applied to evaluate the performance of the plant. Daily average values for 209 days from the inlet and outlet of the plant obtained from WWTP documentation center along with the results of four sampling runs in this work were used for data reconciliation and performance evaluation of the plant. Results showed that standard deviation and relative errors in the balanced data of each measurement decreased, especially for the process wastewater from 24.5 to 8.6 % for flow and 24.5 to 1.5 % for chemical oxygen demand (COD). The errors of measured data were −137 m3/day (−4.41 %) and 281 kg/day (7.92 %) for flow and COD, respectively. According to the balanced data, the removal rates of COD and 5-day biological oxygen demand (BOD5) through the aeration unit were equal to 37 and 46 %, respectively. In addition, the COD and BOD5 concentrations were reduced by about 61.9 % (2137 kg/day) and 78.1 % (1976 kg/day), respectively, prior to the biological process. At the same time, the removal rates of benzene, toluene, and styrene were 56, 38, and 69 %, respectively. The results revealed that about 40 % of influent benzene (75.5 kg/day) is emitted to the ambient air at the overhead of the equalization basin. It can be concluded that the volatilization of organic compounds is the basic mechanism for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and it corresponds to the main part of total COD removal from the WWTP.