Incommensurability and property rights in the natural environment

Cost–benefit analysis has been criticised on the grounds that it cannot compute the value of environmental goods whose value constitutively defies monetary valuation. Two forms of incommensurability make monetary valuation problematic: constitutive incommensurability and quantitative incommensurability. These pose a threat only to shadow pricing, and not the formation of prices in an actual market. Where property rights to environmental goods are appropriately assigned, the prices that form reflect the actual uses persons put them to, given their value commitments. In a real market, the formation of prices does not depend upon the assignment of cardinal values via monetary valuation; rather, the formation of prices is a side effect of the way in which environmental goods are used. A property right gives one the right to reject terms of exchange one deems inappropriate. Where sale of an environmental good is deemed inappropriate, it is kept out of the cash nexus. Incommensurability therefore precludes cost–benefit analysis, but not markets in environmental goods where property rights are appropriately allocated.     

Journalistic Norms,Cultural Values,and Coverage of Climate Change in the Philippines

Developing nations have tended to have been overlooked in studies of climate reporting. This study is based upon a content analysis of three daily newspapers in the Philippines to examine climate change coverage compared to reporting by Western wire services. In addition, the study draws on individualist–collectivist theory to theorize about differences in reporting between the Philippine and Western wire sources. Despite the historic influence of the American news system on Philippine journalism, the study finds that Western journalistic norms do not describe Philippine climate reporting well and that Filipino-penned articles are more likely to include the value of collectivism rather than individualism. This suggests that national cultural differences may be reflected in climate reporting.     

Psychosocial and Ergonomic Factors,and Their Relation to Musculoskeletal Complaints in the Swedish Workforce

A random sample of 1 000 subjects (20–65 years old) from the national population of Sweden received a questionnaire; 70% (n = 695) replied, of whom 532 were occupationally active. Female gender, working with neck and/or body bent forward, arms above shoulders, and precision work tasks were predictors of musculoskeletal symptoms. Neck, shoulder, and upper back symptoms were more common in a strained situation at work (high demands, low control) (adjusted odds ratios [adjOR] 2.76, 2.80, and 2.26, respectively). Among females, neck and shoulder symptoms were more common in an iso-strain situation (high demands, low control and low social support) (adjOR 4.43 and 3.69, respectively), and low back symptoms were more common at low social support combined with a passive work situation (adjOR 3.35). No associations were found between iso-strain model and symptoms among males. In conclusion, iso-strain work situation was associated with neck symptoms among females, even when controlling for ergonomic factors.     

3D simulation of hydrogen ignition in a rapid compression machine

Low-temperature (at T < 900–950 K) ignition delays of hydrogen–air mixtures are mainly measured in rapid compression machines (RCM). This communication is aimed at numerical simulation of ignition delays of hydrogen–air mixtures in the RCM by means of a coupled three-dimensional (3D) Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) – Particle Method (PM) simulation of RCM operation capable of catching turbulence–chemistry interaction. The study indicates that the time history of piston motion in an RCM affects the final state of a test mixture at the end of compression stroke and therefore influences the phenomena relevant to test mixture ignition. More specifically, the calculations show that different laws of piston motion at a fixed average piston velocity (i.e., fixed piston displacement and fixed compression time) and fixed compression ratio result in different evolution of mean pressure, temperature and velocity fields in the RCM test section leading to different ignition behavior. The reasons for the arising differences lie in the fact that the local instantaneous piston velocity determines the roll-up vortex structure, strength and turbulence dissipation in it, heat transfer in test-section walls, and mass leakage through piston rings.     

Analysis of dust distribution in silo during axial filling using computational fluid dynamics: Assessment on dust explosion likelihood

In this study, the dust distribution in a silo during axial filling was modelled using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The work focused on the dust concentration distribution in the silo, for evaluating the likelihood of a dust explosion in the silo. The simulation was conducted using a combination of renormalized (RNG) k-epsilon and discrete phase models, with standard pressure interpolation and a second order upwind scheme. The predicted dust concentration distribution showed a good agreement with experimental data adopted from the literature. It was found that the dust concentration distribution was influenced by mean velocity and turbulence flow. The simulation results suggest that the cornstarch concentration inside the silo was always above the lower explosion limit (LEL), hence requiring a mitigating action or a control system to reduce the explosion risk.     

Community perspectives on managing health of peri-urban river system: evidence from the Hawkesbury-Nepean river catchment,Australia

In this study, we examine aspects of community values and perspectives on goods and services received from the river along with issues related to sustainable management of the river. The study reveals that the contemporary values placed on rivers by communities are mostly associated with recreational and leisure activities. The distance from the river and age of the participants appeared as the most influential social demographic factors affecting participants' perspectives on river health. The study indicates that people tend to develop a strong bond with the natural resources around them and the amount of time spent at a location is directly related to the strength of this relationship. To assess the general river condition and health, a number of visual indicators (e.g., floating debris) were suggested. If properly standardised and calibrated, such indicators have the potential to develop cost-effective monitoring tools for detecting seasonal and spatial changes in river health.     

Influence of pedestrian age and gender on spatial and temporal distribution of pedestrian crashes

Objectives: Every year, about 1.24 million people are killed in traffic crashes worldwide and more than 22% of these deaths are pedestrians. Therefore, pedestrian safety has become a significant traffic safety issue worldwide. In order to develop effective and targeted safety programs, the location- and time-specific influences on vehicle–pedestrian crashes must be assessed. The main purpose of this research is to explore the influence of pedestrian age and gender on the temporal and spatial distribution of vehicle–pedestrian crashes to identify the hotspots and hot times.

Methods: Data for all vehicle–pedestrian crashes on public roadways in the Melbourne metropolitan area from 2004 to 2013 are used in this research. Spatial autocorrelation is applied in examining the vehicle–pedestrian crashes in geographic information systems (GIS) to identify any dependency between time and location of these crashes. Spider plots and kernel density estimation (KDE) are then used to determine the temporal and spatial patterns of vehicle–pedestrian crashes for different age groups and genders.

Results: Temporal analysis shows that pedestrian age has a significant influence on the temporal distribution of vehicle–pedestrian crashes. Furthermore, men and women have different crash patterns. In addition, results of the spatial analysis shows that areas with high risk of vehicle–pedestrian crashes can vary during different times of the day for different age groups and genders. For example, for those between ages 18 and 65, most vehicle–pedestrian crashes occur in the central business district (CBD) during the day, but between 7:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., crashes among this age group occur mostly around hotels, clubs, and bars.

Conclusions: This research reveals that temporal and spatial distributions of vehicle–pedestrian crashes vary for different pedestrian age groups and genders. Therefore, specific safety measures should be in place during high crash times at different locations for different age groups and genders to increase the effectiveness of the countermeasures in preventing and reducing vehicle–pedestrian crashes.     

Inventory and treatment of compost maturation emissions in a municipal solid waste treatment facility

Emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the compost maturation building in a municipal solid waste treatment facility were inventoried by solid phase microextraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. A large diversity of chemical classes and compounds were found. The highest concentrations were found for n-butanol, methyl ethyl ketone and limonene (ppm_v level). Also, a range of compounds exceeded their odor threshold evidencing that treatment was needed. Performance of a chemical scrubber followed by two parallel biofilters packed with an advanced packing material and treating an average airflow of 99,300 m³ h^?1 was assessed in the treatment of the VOCs inventoried. Performance of the odor abatement system was evaluated in terms of removal efficiency by comparing inlet and outlet abundances. Outlet concentrations of selected VOCs permitted to identify critical odorants emitted to the atmosphere. In particular, limonene was found as the most critical VOC in the present study. Only six compounds from the odorant group were removed with efficiencies higher than 90%. Low removal efficiencies were found for most of the compounds present in the emission showing a significant relation with their chemical properties (functionality and solubility) and operational parameters (temperature, pH and inlet concentration). Interestingly, benzaldehyde and benzyl alcohol were found to be produced in the treatment system.     

Enhanced styrene recovery from waste polystyrene pyrolysis using response surface methodology coupled with Box–Behnken design

A work applied response surface methodology coupled with Box–Behnken design (RSM-BBD) has been developed to enhance styrene recovery from waste polystyrene (WPS) through pyrolysis. The relationship between styrene yield and three selected operating parameters (i.e., temperature, heating rate, and carrier gas flow rate) was investigated. A second order polynomial equation was successfully built to describe the process and predict styrene yield under the study conditions. The factors identified as statistically significant to styrene production were: temperature, with a quadratic effect; heating rate, with a linear effect; carrier gas flow rate, with a quadratic effect; interaction between temperature and carrier gas flow rate; and interaction between heating rate and carrier gas flow rate. The optimum conditions for the current system were determined to be at a temperature range of 470–505 °C, a heating rate of 40 °C/min, and a carrier gas flow rate range of 115–140 mL/min. Under such conditions, 64.52% WPS was recovered as styrene, which was 12% more than the highest reported yield for reactors of similar size. It is concluded that RSM-BBD is an effective approach for yield optimization of styrene recovery from WPS pyrolysis.     

Reduction–melting combined with a Na2CO3 flux recycling process for lead recovery from cathode ray tube funnel glass

With large quantity of flux (Na₂CO₃), lead can be recovered from the funnel glass of waste cathode-ray tubes via reduction–melting at 1000 °C. To reduce flux cost, a technique to recover added flux from the generated oxide phase is also important in order to recycle the flux recovered from the reduction–melting process. In this study, the phase separation of sodium and the crystallization of water-soluble sodium silicates were induced after the reduction–melting process to enhance the leachability of sodium in the oxide phase and to extract the sodium from the phase for the recovery of Na₂CO₃ as flux. A reductive atmosphere promoted the phase separation and crystallization, and the leachability of sodium from the oxide phase was enhanced. The optimum temperature and treatment time for increasing the leachability were 700 °C and 2 h, respectively. After treatment, more than 90% of the sodium in the oxide phase was extracted in water. NaHCO₃ can be recovered by carbonization of the solution containing sodium ions using carbon dioxide gas, decomposed to Na₂CO₃ at 50 °C and recycled for use in the reduction–melting process.