Abstract: The incidences of dengue hemorrhagic disease (DHF)
over the long term exhibit a seasonal behavior. It has been
hypothesized that these behaviors are due to the seasonal climate
changes which in turn induce a seasonal variation in the incubation
period of the virus while it is developing the mosquito. The standard
dynamic analysis is applied for analysis the Susceptible-Exposed-
Infectious-Recovered (SEIR) model which includes an annual
variation in the length of the extrinsic incubation period (EIP). The
presence of both asymptomatic and symptomatic infections is
allowed in the present model. We found that dynamic behavior of the
endemic state changes as the influence of the seasonal variation of
the EIP becomes stronger. As the influence is further increased, the
trajectory exhibits sustained oscillations when it leaves the chaotic
region.
Abstract: This study aims to explore the differences and
similarities in perceptions of affective climate antecedents at the
workplace (intimacy, flexibility, employment stability, and team)
among Japanese and Thai Generations X and Y. The samples in this
study were Thai and Japanese workers who completed a work
environment questionnaire and provided demographic information.
Generational differences in perceptions (beliefs) of what factors
contribute to affective climate were investigated using t-test analysis.
Mean scores for each antecedent were ranked to determine how each
generation in each group prioritized the importance of all affective
climate antecedents. Japanese Generation Y perceived the importance
of employment stability for affective climate of their workplaces to be
significantly higher than did Japanese Generation X. Thai Generation
Y considered flexibility with a higher priority than did Thai
Generation X. Intimacy was perceived as highly important across
generations and countries in regard to affective climate. Results
suggest that managers should design workplaces for a mixture of
diverse generations, resulting in a better affective climate. Differences
in the importance of antecedents for affective climate among
Generations X and Y in two countries were clarified. In addition,
different preferences regarding work environment across Japanese
Generations X and Y and Thai Generations X and Y were discussed.
Abstract: Changes in stem diameter of orchid plants were
investigated in a control growing climate. Previous studies have
focused on stem diameter in relation to plant water on terrestrial
plants in order to schedule the irrigation. The objective of this work
was to evaluate the ability of the strain gauges to capture changes in
the epiphytes plant stem. Experiments were carried out by using the
sympodial orchid, Dendrobium Sonia in a stressed condition. From
the findings, the sensor can detect changes in the plant stem and the
result can easily be used as a reference for further studies for the
development of a proper watering system.
Abstract: In a world of climate change and limited fossil fuel resources, renewable energy sources are playing an increasingly important role. Due to industrializations and population growth our economy and technologies today largely depend upon natural resources, which are not replaceable. Approximately 90% of our energy consumption comes from fossil fuels (viz. coal, oil and natural gas). The irony is that these resources are depleting. Also, the huge consumption of fossil fuels has caused visible damage to the environment in various forms viz. global warming, acid rains etc.
Abstract: Recently electric vehicles are becoming popular as an
alternative of conventional fossil fuel vehicles. Conventional Internal
Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle uses fossil fuel which contributing
a major part of overall carbon emission in the environment. Carbon
and other green house gas emission are responsible for global
warming and resulting climate change. It becomes vital to evaluate
performance of vehicle based on emission. In this paper an effort has
been made to depict the picture of emission caused by vehicle and
scenario of Australia has taken into account. Effort has been made to
compare the fossil based vehicle with electric vehicle in phases. The
study also evaluates advancement in electric vehicle technology,
required infrastructure for sustainability and future scope of
developments. This paper also includes the evaluation of electric
vehicle concept for pollution control and sustainable transport
systems in future. This study can be a benchmark for development of
electric vehicle as low carbon emission alternative for the cities of
tomorrow.
Abstract: Banishing hunger from the face of earth has been
frequently expressed in various international, national and regional
level conferences since 1974. Providing food security has become
important issue across the world particularly in developing countries.
In a developing country like India, where growth rate of population is
more than that of the food grains production, food security is a
question of great concern. According to the International Food Policy
Research Institute's Global Hunger Index, 2011, India ranks 67 of the
81 countries of the world with the worst food security status. After
Green Revolution, India became a food surplus country. Its
production has increased from 74.23 million tonnes in 1966-67 to
257.44 million tonnes in 2011-12. But after achieving selfsufficiency
in food during last three decades, the country is now
facing new challenges due to increasing population, climate change,
stagnation in farm productivity. Therefore, the main objective of the
present paper is to examine the food security situation at national
level in the country and further to explain the paradox of food
insecurity in a food surplus state of India i.e in Punjab at micro level.
In order to achieve the said objectives, secondary data collected from
the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agriculture department of Punjab
State was analyzed. The result of the study showed that despite
having surplus food production the country is still facing food
insecurity problem at micro level. Within the Kandi belt of Punjab
state, the area adjacent to plains is food secure while the area along
the hills falls in food insecure zone.
The present paper is divided into following three sections (i)
Introduction, (ii) Analysis of food security situation at national level
as well as micro level (Kandi belt of Punjab State) (iii) Concluding
Observations
Abstract: Perth will run out of available sustainable natural
water resources by 2015 if nothing is done to slow usage rates,
according to a Western Australian study [1]. Alternative water
technology options need to be considered for the long-term
guaranteed supply of water for agricultural, commercial, domestic
and industrial purposes. Seawater is an alternative source of water for
human consumption, because seawater can be desalinated and
supplied in large quantities to a very high quality.
While seawater desalination is a promising option, the technology
requires a large amount of energy which is typically generated from
fossil fuels. The combustion of fossil fuels emits greenhouse gases
(GHG) and, is implicated in climate change. In addition to
environmental emissions from electricity generation for desalination,
greenhouse gases are emitted in the production of chemicals and
membranes for water treatment. Since Australia is a signatory to the
Kyoto Protocol, it is important to quantify greenhouse gas emissions
from desalinated water production.
A life cycle assessment (LCA) has been carried out to determine
the greenhouse gas emissions from the production of 1 gigalitre (GL)
of water from the new plant. In this LCA analysis, a new desalination
plant that will be installed in Bunbury, Western Australia, and known
as Southern Seawater Desalinization Plant (SSDP), was taken as a
case study. The system boundary of the LCA mainly consists of three
stages: seawater extraction, treatment and delivery. The analysis
found that the equivalent of 3,890 tonnes of CO2 could be emitted
from the production of 1 GL of desalinated water. This LCA analysis
has also identified that the reverse osmosis process would cause the
most significant greenhouse emissions as a result of the electricity
used if this is generated from fossil fuels
Abstract: Global warming and continental changes have been
one of the people's issues in the recent years and its consequences
have appeared in the most parts of the earth planet or will appear in
the future. Temperature and Precipitation are two main parameters in
climatology. Any changes in these two parameters in this region
cause widespread changes in the ecosystem and its natural and
humanistic structure. One of the important consequences of this
procedure is change in surface and underground water resources.
Zayanderood watershed basin which is the main central river in Iran
has faced water shortage in the recent years and also it has resulted in
drought in Gavkhuni swamp and the river itself. Managers and
experts in provinces which are the Zayanderood water consumers
believe that global warming; raining decrease and continental
changes are the main reason of water decrease. By statistical
investigation of annual Precipitation and 46 years temperature of
internal and external areas of Zayanderood watershed basin's stations
and by using Kendal-man method, Precipitation and temperature
procedure changes have been analyzed in this basin. According to
obtained results, there was not any noticeable decrease or increase
procedure in Precipitation and annual temperature in the basin during
this period. However, regarding to Precipitation, a noticeable
decrease and increase have been observed in small part of western
and some parts of eastern and southern basin, respectively.
Furthermore, the investigation of annual temperature procedure has
shown that a noticeable increase has been observed in some parts of
western and eastern basin, and also a noticeable increasing procedure
of temperature in the central parts of metropolitan Esfahan can be
observed.
Abstract: The benefits of rooftop greenery systems (such as
energy savings, reduction of greenhouse gas emission for mitigating
climate change and maintaining sustainable development, indoor
temperature control etc.) in buildings are well recognized, however
there remains very little research conducted for quantifying the
benefits in subtropical climates such as in Australia. This study
mainly focuses on measuring/determining temperature profile and air
conditioning energy savings by implementing rooftop greenery
systems in subtropical Central Queensland in Australia. An
experimental set-up was installed at Rockhampton campus of Central
Queensland University, where two standard shipping containers (6m
x 2.4m x 2.4m) were converted into small offices, one with green
roof and one without. These were used for temperature, humidity and
energy consumption data collection. The study found that an energy
savings of up to 11.70% and temperature difference of up to 4°C can
be achieved in March in subtropical Central Queensland climate in
Australia. It is expected that more energy can be saved in peak
summer days (December/February) as temperature difference
between green roof and non-green roof is higher in December-
February.
Abstract: There are three distinct stages in the evolution of
economic thought, namely:
1. in the first stage, the major concern was to accelerate
economic growth with increased availability of material
goods, especially in developing economies with very low
living standards, because poverty eradication meant faster
economic growth.
2. in the second stage, economists made distinction between
growth and development. Development was seen as going
beyond economic growth, and bringing certain changes in
the structure of the economy with more equitable
distribution of the benefits of growth, with the growth
coming automatic and sustained.
3. the third stage is now reached. Our concern is now with
“sustainable development", that is, development not only
for the present but also of the future.
Thus the focus changed from “sustained growth" to “sustained
development". Sustained development brings to the fore the long
term relationship between the ecology and economic development.
Since the creation of UNEP in 1972 it has worked for
development without destruction for environmentally sound and
sustained development. It was realised that the environment cannot
be viewed in a vaccum, it is not separate from development, nor is it
competing. It suggested for the integration of the environment with
development whereby ecological factors enter development planning,
socio-economic policies, cost-benefit analysis, trade, technology
transfer, waste management, educational and other specific areas.
Industrialisation has contributed to the growth of economy of
several countries. It has improved the standards of living of its people
and provided benefits to the society. It has also created in the process
great environmental problems like climate change, forest destruction
and denudation, soil erosion and desertification etc.
On the other hand, industry has provided jobs and improved the
prospects of wealth for the industrialists. The working class
communities had to simply put up with the high levels of pollution in
order to keep up their jobs and also to save their income.
There are many roots of the environmental problem. They may be
political, economic, cultural and technological conditions of the
modern society. The experts concede that industrial growth lies
somewhere close to the heart of the matter. Therefore, the objective
of this paper is not to document all roots of an environmental crisis
but rather to discuss the effects of industrial growth and
development.
We have come to the conclusion that although public intervention
is often unnecessary to ensure that perfectly competitive markets will
function in society-s best interests, such intervention is necessary
when firms or consumers pollute.
Abstract: Long term rainfall analysis and prediction is a
challenging task especially in the modern world where the impact of
global warming is creating complications in environmental issues.
These factors which are data intensive require high performance
computational modeling for accurate prediction. This research paper
describes a prototype which is designed and developed on grid
environment using a number of coupled software infrastructural
building blocks. This grid enabled system provides the demanding
computational power, efficiency, resources, user-friendly interface,
secured job submission and high throughput. The results obtained
using sequential execution and grid enabled execution shows that
computational performance has enhanced among 36% to 75%, for
decade of climate parameters. Large variation in performance can be
attributed to varying degree of computational resources available for
job execution.
Grid Computing enables the dynamic runtime selection, sharing
and aggregation of distributed and autonomous resources which plays
an important role not only in business, but also in scientific
implications and social surroundings. This research paper attempts to
explore the grid enabled computing capabilities on weather indices
from HOAPS data for climate impact modeling and change
detection.
Abstract: This purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a
model to accurately predict the cell temperature of a PV module that
adapts to various mounting configurations, mounting locations, and
climates while only requiring readily available data from the module
manufacturer. Results from this model are also compared to results
from published cell temperature models. The models were used to
predict real-time performance from a PV water pumping systems in
the desert of Medenine, south of Tunisia using 60-min intervals of
measured performance data during one complete year. Statistical
analysis of the predicted results and measured data highlight possible
sources of errors and the limitations and/or adequacy of existing
models, to describe the temperature and efficiency of PV-cells and
consequently, the accuracy of performance of PV water pumping
systems prediction models.
Abstract: This paper examines the relationships between and
among the various drivers of climate change that have both climatic
and ecological consequences for vegetation and land cover change in
arctic areas, particularly in arctic Alaska. It discusses the various
processes that have created spatial and climatic structures that have
facilitated observable vegetation and land cover changes in the
Arctic. Also, it indicates that the drivers of both climatic and
ecological changes in the Arctic are multi-faceted and operate in a
system with both positive and negative feedbacks that largely results
in further increases or decreases of the initial drivers of climatic and
vegetation change mainly at the local and regional scales. It
demonstrates that the impact of arctic warming on land cover change
and the Arctic ecosystems is not unidirectional and one dimensional
in nature but it represents a multi-directional and multi-dimensional
forces operating in a feedback system.
Abstract: This study aims to assess the vulnerability and risk of
the coastal areas of Taijiang to abnormal oceanographic phenomena.
In addition, this study aims to investigate and collect data regarding
the disaster losses, land utilization, and other social, economic, and
environmental issues in these coastal areas to construct a coastal
vulnerability and risk map based on the obtained climate-change risk
assessment results. Considering the indexes of the three coastal
vulnerability dimensions, namely, man-made facilities, environmental
geography, and social economy, this study adopted the equal
weighting process and Analytic Hierarchy Process to analyze the
vulnerability of these coastal areas to disasters caused by climatic
changes. Among the areas with high coastal vulnerability to climatic
changes, three towns had the highest coastal vulnerability and four had
the highest relative vulnerability. Areas with lower disaster risks were
found to be increasingly vulnerable to disasters caused by climatic
changes as time progresses.
Abstract: This study assessed the effects of climate change on
Thai soybeans under simulation situations. Our study is focused on
temperature variability and effects on growth, yield, and genetic
changes in 2 generations of Chiang Mai 60 cultivars. In the
experiment, soybeans were exposed to 3 levels of air temperature for
8 h day-1 in an open top chamber for 2 cropping periods. Air
temperature levels in each treatment were controlled at 30-33°C (±
2.3) for LT-treatment, 33-36°C ( ± 2.4) for AT-treatment, and 36-40
°C ( ± 3.2) for HT-treatment, respectively. Positive effects of high
temperature became obvious at the maturing stage when yield
significantly increased in both cropping periods. Results in growth
indicated that shoot length at the pre-maturing stage
(V3-R3) was more positively affected by high temperature than at the
maturing stage. However, the positive effect on growth under high
temperature was not found in the 2nd cropping period. Finally, genetic
changes were examined in phenotype characteristics by the AFLPs
technique. The results showed that the high temperature factor clearly
caused genetic change in the soybeans and showed more alteration in
the 2nd cropping period.
Abstract: Large scale climate signals and their teleconnections can influence hydro-meteorological variables on a local scale. Several extreme flow and timing measures, including high flow and low flow measures, from 62 hydrometric stations in Canada are investigated to detect possible linkages with several large scale climate indices. The streamflow data used in this study are derived from the Canadian Reference Hydrometric Basin Network and are characterized by relatively pristine and stable land-use conditions with a minimum of 40 years of record. A composite analysis approach was used to identify linkages between extreme flow and timing measures and climate indices. The approach involves determining the 10 highest and 10 lowest values of various climate indices from the data record. Extreme flow and timing measures for each station were examined for the years associated with the 10 largest values and the years associated with the 10 smallest values. In each case, a re-sampling approach was applied to determine if the 10 values of extreme flow measures differed significantly from the series mean. Results indicate that several stations are impacted by the large scale climate indices considered in this study. The results allow the determination of any relationship between stations that exhibit a statistically significant trend and stations for which the extreme measures exhibit a linkage with the climate indices.
Abstract: The data presented in this work show that in Armenia
a rise of air temperature is expected in the season, and annual terms.
As a result of the noted increase in temperature, a significant growth
of vulnerability of the territory of Armenia in relation to malaria is
expected. Zoning by the risk of renewed malaria transmission has
been performed.
Abstract: Oxygen and carbon isotopes records of multi-species planktonic, benthic foraminifera and bulk carbonate sample from Central Java Indonesia demonstrate that warm sea surface temperature occurred during the Miocene. Planktonic δ18O values from this study consistently lighter (-4 to -3 ‰PDB) than previous studies that indicate sea surface temperature during Miocene in this area was warm than tropical/equatorial localities. A surprising decrease of oxygen isotopic composition was recorded at ±14 Ma where the maximum of δ18O values is -4.87 ‰PDB for Orbulina universa, -5.02 ‰PDB for Globigerinoides sacculifer and -4.30 ‰PDB for Globoquadrina dehiscens, this event we predict as Middle Miocene Optimum. Warming of sea surface temperature we interpret as related to the development of Western Pacific Warm Pool where warm water from Pacific Ocean through the Indonesian seaway appears to remain during Miocene. Our result also show increasing suddenly of oxygen isotope values of planktic, benthic and bulk carbonate sample from ± 12 Ma, the increasing cooled surface water relatively high degree with Late Miocene global cooling climate or we predict that due to closing of Indonesian Gateway.
Abstract: Plants are commonly known for its positive
correlation in reducing temperature. Since it can benefit buildings by
modifying the microclimate, it-s also believed capable of reducing
the internal temperature. Various experiments have been done in
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang to investigate the comparison in
thermal benefits between two rooms, one being a typical control
room (exposed wall) and the other a biofacade room (plant shaded
wall). The investigations were conducted during non-rainy season for
approximately a month. Climbing plant Psophocarpus
tetrogonobulus from legume species was selected as insulation for
the biofacade wall. Conclusions were made on whether the biofacade
can be used to tackle the energy efficiency, based on the parameters
taken into consideration.
Abstract: In the traditional architecture, buildings were designed
to achieve human comfort by using locally available building materials and construction technology which were more responsive to
their climatic and geographic condition. This paper will try to bring out the wisdom of the local masons and builders, often the inhabitants
themselves, about their way of living, and shaping their built environment, indoor and outdoor spaces, as a response to the local
climatic conditions, from the findings of a field
settlement.