The past decade has witnessed remarkable economic development, marked by rapid industrialization and urbanization across Asian regions. This surge in economic activity has led to significant ...emissions, resulting in alarming levels of air pollution. Our study comprehensively assessed the spatial and temporal trends of key pollutants, namely nitrogen dioxide (NOsub.2), sulfur dioxide (SOsub.2), and aerosol (using aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 550 nm as an indicator), from 2011 to 2021. The data sources utilized include OMI onboard the Aura satellite for NOsub.2 and SOsub.2, as well as MODIS onboard Terra and Aqua satellites for AOD. The results from spatial and temporal trend analyses of the three parameters show that there is a clear declining trend over China and Republic of Korea (e.g., NOsub.2 is declining with an overall rate of −7.8 × 10sup.12 molecules/cmsup.2/year over China) due to the strict implementation of air pollution control policies. However, it is essential to note that both countries still grapple with substantial pollution levels, with proportions exceeding 0.5, indicating that air quality is improving but has not yet reached a safe threshold. In contrast, South Asian regions, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India, are experiencing an increasing trend (e.g., NOsub.2 is increasing with an overall rate of 1.2 × 10sup.12 molecules/cmsup.2/year in Bangladesh), primarily due to the lack of rigorous air pollution control policies. The average emissions of NOsub.2 and SOsub.2 were remarkably higher in winter than in summer. Notably, the identified hotspots are statistically significant and predominantly coincide with densely populated areas, such as the North China Plain (NCP). Furthermore, this study underscores the pivotal role of sector-wise emissions in air quality monitoring and improvement. Different cities are primarily influenced by emissions from specific sectors, emphasizing the need for targeted pollution control measures. The findings presented in this research contribute valuable insights to the air quality monitoring and improvement efforts in East and South Asian regions.
Decades of study indicate that copper oral exposures are typically not a human health concern. Ingesting high levels of soluble copper salts can cause acute gastrointestinal symptoms and, in uncommon ...cases, liver toxicity in susceptible individuals with repeated exposure. This focused toxicological review evaluated the current literature since the last comprehensive reviews (2007–2010). Our review identified limitations in the existing United States and international guidance for determining an oral reference dose (RfD) for essential metals like copper. Instead, an alternative method using categorical regression analysis to develop an optimal dose that considers deficiency, toxicity, and integrates information from human and animal studies was reviewed for interpreting an oral RfD for copper. We also considered subchronic or chronic toxicity from genetic susceptibility to copper dysregulation leading to rare occurrences of liver and other organ toxicity with elevated copper exposure. Based on this approach, an oral RfD of 0.04 mg Cu/kg/day would be protective of acute or chronic toxicity in adults and children. This RfD is also protective for possible genetic susceptibility to elevated copper exposure and allows for background dietary exposures. This dose is not intended to be protective of patients with rare genetic disorders for copper sensitivity within typical nutritional intake ranges, nor is it protective for those with excessive supplement intake. Less soluble mineral forms of copper in soil have reduced bioavailability as compared with more soluble copper in water and diet, which should be considered in using this RfD for risk assessments of copper.
One of the major challenges associated with microgrid protection is to devise an appropriate protection strategy that is effective in the grid-connected as well as islanded mode of operation. This ...paper proposes a protection strategy based on microprocessor-based relays for low-voltage microgrids. Further, the structure of a new relay enabling the proposed protection strategy is presented. One of the salient feature of the developed protection scheme is that it does not require communications or adaptive protective devices. Moreover, it is to a large extent independent of the fault current magnitude and the mode of operation. Transient time-domain simulation studies are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protection strategy and its enabling relay, using the PSCAD/EMTDC software package.
Although spending on cybersecurity continues to grow, companies, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations are still being breached, and sensitive personal, financial, and health information ...is still being compromised. This report sets out the results of a study of consumer attitudes toward data breaches, notifications that a breach has occurred, and company responses to such events.
Many methods have been widely carried out to develop the thermal protection system of hydrogen fueled scramjet to meet the cooling requirements of engine. A combined thermal protection system is ...designed and developed by combing active and passive thermal protection systems and proposed to endure the long duration safe operation of a scramjet at high flight Mach number. The combined thermal protection system proposed is designed in the light of the dangerous conditions for an active thermal protection system, and its performance is evaluated with a one-dimensional coupled heat transfer model of a hydrogen fueled scramjet at different Mach numbers and equivalence ratios. Test results indicate that the thermal protection system proposed could be used to expand the flight range of a scramjet by properly selecting conductivity and thickness of passive layer.
•A passive and active combined thermal protection system of scramjet is developed.•Combined thermal protection system decreases the requirement of coolant (hydrogen).•Combined thermal protection system solves over temperature problem of active layer.•The combined thermal protection system expands flight range of hydrogen scramjet.
InEmbattled River, David Schuyler describes the efforts to reverse the pollution and bleak future of the Hudson River that became evident in the 1950s. Through his investigative narrative, Schuyler ...uncovers the critical role of this iconic American waterway in the emergence of modern environmentalism in the United States.
Writing fifty-five years after Consolidated Edison announced plans to construct a pumped storage power plant at Storm King Mountain, Schuyler recounts how a loose coalition of activists took on corporate capitalism and defended the river. Led by Scenic Hudson, later joined by groups such as Riverkeeper, Clearwater, the Hudson River Valley Greenway, and the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, the coalition won the first of many legal and publicity battles that would halt pollution of the river, slowly reverse the damage of years of discharge into the river, and protect hundreds of thousands of acres of undeveloped land in the river valley.
As Schuyler shows, the environmental victories on the Hudson had broad impact. In the state at the heart of the story, the immediate result was the creation in 1970 of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to monitor, investigate, and litigate cases of pollution. At the national level, the environmental ferment in the Hudson Valley that Schuyler so richly describes contributed directly to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, and the creation of the Superfund in 1980 to fund the cleanup of toxic-dumping sites.
With these legal and regulatory means, the contest between environmental advocates and corporate power has continued well into the twenty-first century. Indeed, asEmbattled Rivershows, the past is prologue. The struggle to control the uses and maintain the ecological health of the Hudson River persists and the stories of the pioneering advocates told by Schuyler provide lessons, reminders, and inspiration for today's activists.
The Affordable Care Act is the most important health care legislation enacted in the United States since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. The law implemented comprehensive reforms ...designed to improve the accessibility, affordability, and quality of health care.
To review the factors influencing the decision to pursue health reform, summarize evidence on the effects of the law to date, recommend actions that could improve the health care system, and identify general lessons for public policy from the Affordable Care Act.
Analysis of publicly available data, data obtained from government agencies, and published research findings. The period examined extends from 1963 to early 2016.
The Affordable Care Act has made significant progress toward solving long-standing challenges facing the US health care system related to access, affordability, and quality of care. Since the Affordable Care Act became law, the uninsured rate has declined by 43%, from 16.0% in 2010 to 9.1% in 2015, primarily because of the law's reforms. Research has documented accompanying improvements in access to care (for example, an estimated reduction in the share of nonelderly adults unable to afford care of 5.5 percentage points), financial security (for example, an estimated reduction in debts sent to collection of $600-$1000 per person gaining Medicaid coverage), and health (for example, an estimated reduction in the share of nonelderly adults reporting fair or poor health of 3.4 percentage points). The law has also begun the process of transforming health care payment systems, with an estimated 30% of traditional Medicare payments now flowing through alternative payment models like bundled payments or accountable care organizations. These and related reforms have contributed to a sustained period of slow growth in per-enrollee health care spending and improvements in health care quality. Despite this progress, major opportunities to improve the health care system remain.
Policy makers should build on progress made by the Affordable Care Act by continuing to implement the Health Insurance Marketplaces and delivery system reform, increasing federal financial assistance for Marketplace enrollees, introducing a public plan option in areas lacking individual market competition, and taking actions to reduce prescription drug costs. Although partisanship and special interest opposition remain, experience with the Affordable Care Act demonstrates that positive change is achievable on some of the nation's most complex challenges.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are disproportionately represented in the statutory child protection system across Australia. A strategy gaining traction to address this ...disproportionate representation is to recruit more Indigenous practitioners into statutory child protection work. However, the experiences of Indigenous people who undertake child protection work have not been explored thoroughly, particularly in an Australian research context.
While it has been established in contemporary literature that exposure to trauma is an expected occupational hazard of undertaking statutory child protection work, the experience of racism as a potential source of traumatic stress for practitioners has not been explicitly explored.
This paper reports on results from a recent doctoral study which explored the experiences of Indigenous child protection practitioners based in Queensland, Australia.
This research relied on the stories of participants, shared through qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews, to answer the primary research question: what are the experiences of Indigenous child protection workers? The findings emerged from a research design that was underpinned by critical theory and decolonisation frameworks, which placed the participants as experts of their own experiences.
The experiences of the research participants tell the story of a deficiency within the statutory child protection system to meet the wellbeing needs of Indigenous workers and provide a workplace environment that is culturally safe. Participants described recurrent experiences of racist behaviour displayed by non-Indigenous colleagues and a lack of support that acknowledges the distinctive experience of Indigenous people who undertake child protection work.
Signs of Water Boschman, Robert; Jakubec, Sonya L; Sandford, Robert
02/2022, Volume:
3
eBook
Open access
Water is more important than ever before. It is increasingly controversial in direct proportion to its scarcity, demand, neglect, and commodification. There is no place on the planet where water is ...not, or will not be, of critical concern. Signs of Water brings together scholars and experts from five continents in an interdisciplinary exploration of the theoretical approaches, social and political issues, and anthropogenic hazards surrounding water in the twenty-first century. From the kitchen taps of Detroit, Michigan to the water-harvesting infrastructure of Tokyo, from the Upper Xingu Basin of Brazil to the Sunda Deep of the Java Trench, these essays flow through time and place to uncover the many issues surrounding water today. Asking key theoretical questions, exposing threats to vital water systems, and proposing paths forward, Signs of Water brims with histories, ontologies, and political struggles. Bringing together local experiences to tell a global story, it centers water as history, as politics, and as a human right.
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