Scavenging of atmospheric particulates by snow in Changji, China

<p>Changji is an arid city in the north west of China which suffers from severe air pollution due to increasing vehicle use and heating with coal. Samples (TSP, PM10, PM5, PM2.5) were collected before and after several snow events, for revealing the snow scavenging effect and influencing mechanisms. The result indicated that the snow scavenging effect was obvious. The highest snow scavenging quantity and scavenging ratio is TSP, followed by PM10, PM5 and PM2.5. Snow scavenging quantity was dependent on the particulate diameter. Snow intensity, drying time and amount of snow influenced scavenging ratio, and snow intensity is the key influencing factor. Scavenging ratio increases with the increase of snow intensity. Higher snow intensity can reduce the selective scavenging of particulate diameters, the scavenging ratio of different particulate diameter will get close to each other. The lower snow intensity was, the higher selectivity was. Light snow will scavenge large particles obviously, but little for small particle.</p>

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Life before and after implementation of an acoustic noise reduction enclosure

The Aeronautical Journal ◽

10.1017/s0001924000000567 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 109 (1092) ◽

pp. 65-74

Author(s):

B. Timmins

Keyword(s):

Wind Tunnel ◽

Noise Reduction ◽

Acoustic Noise ◽

Financial Health ◽

Two Phase ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

Close Proximity ◽

Before And After ◽

Increase Productivity

Abstract This paper looks back on the designs and ambitions of ARA in resolving a long term acoustic noise problem which threatened ARA with closure. This paper today briefly looks back to the original issues but deals more fully with the later phases of a two phase project implementation and construction. ARA is now a truly ‘silent site’, where closure was once threatened, ARA has achieved the implementation of a bespoke noise reduction enclosure where 24-hour running has proved to be a reality. This paper looks at the design and construction phases, the ‘before and after’ noise footprints and at some of the financial benefits ARA has achieved. The ARA transonic wind tunnel is sited on an industrial estate on the north west perimeter of Bedford. When it was first built it was on an original farm site with no appreciable residential houses in close proximity. Since the early 1950s there has been considerable residential development around the ARA site resulting in the local householders complaining about the wind tunnel acoustic noise. In early 1999 ARA was obliged to consider several options for noise reduction measures to reduce the noise to within UK government statutory requirements. This paper deals briefly with the original noise nuisance characteristics and footprint, the noise reduction design and method that ARA selected and shows the construction phases, the further noise treatment ARA had to do on other major ancillary equipment to make ARA a truly quiet industrial site. The paper shows how ARA has utilised the resulting benefits of these investments to increase productivity and reduce costs, and the influence it has had on ARA’s financial health.

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PETROLEUM EXPLORATION PREVIEW FOR 1967

The APPEA Journal ◽

10.1071/aj66003 ◽

1967 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 16

Author(s):

M. A. Condon

Keyword(s):

Financial Incentives ◽

Petroleum Exploration ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

Oil Markets ◽

Before And After ◽

Timor Sea ◽

The Government ◽

Average Size ◽

The Cost

Exploration for petroleum in Australia paused in 1966 and this pause is likely to continue in 1967.The number of wells drilled and seismic activity will both be slightly less in 1967 than in 1966, but the work will generally be directed to more specific targets. The cost of exploration will be somewhat higher than in 1966.During the year off-shore drilling should increase and it is expected that five mobile rigs will be drilling in the offshore areas by the end of the year. The immediate structural targets available for these rigs are in the Gippsland, Bass and Otway Basins (Victoria-Tasmania), the North-West Shelf and Timor Sea-Bonaparte Gulf, and in the Gulf of Papua.Onshore exploration will be concentrated in the western Australian basins, the Surat Basin, the central Great Artesian Basin, and the Gidgealpa region of the southwestern Great Artesian Basin.The success or otherwise of the off-shore drilling will determine the rate of exploration over the next few years. If important discoveries are made off-shore, these may and probably would result in more intensive exploration of the same stratigraphic intervals onshore.The exploration patterns of Australia and several other countries before and after first commercial discovery are compared. This indicates that Australian discovery came early, as compared with other countries, where production has developed since the war, but that post-discovery effort in Australia has been very much less. The main obvious differences appear to be that in Australia the average size of the exploration concession is very much larger and the number of operators (having regard to the areas concerned) is much smaller, than in the other successful countries.There has been a gradual movement towards reducing the size of operating areas in Australia either by obligatory relinquihment or by farmout, but if discoveries are to be made at a satisfactory rate more operators are needed in every basin.The economic environment of Australia vis-a-vis Middle East oil and oil markets is probably the main basic reason for the peculiar exploratory pattern, which has impelled the Government to provide financial incentives to encourage exploration and development.

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The Happy Seeder enables direct drilling of wheat into rice stubble

Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture ◽

10.1071/ea06225 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 47 (7) ◽

pp. 844 ◽

Cited By ~ 76

Author(s):

H. S. Sidhu ◽

Manpreet-Singh ◽

E. Humphreys ◽

Yadvinder-Singh ◽

Balwinder-Singh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Plant Density ◽

Bare Soil ◽

Optimum Time ◽

North West ◽

Yield Increase ◽

The North ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Direct Drilling ◽

Rice Residues

Lack of suitable machinery is a major constraint to direct drilling into combine-harvested rice residues due to the heavy straw load, and the presence of loose tough straw deposited by the harvester. Therefore, most rice stubbles are burnt in the mechanised rice–wheat systems of south Asia and Australia, as this is a rapid and cheap option, and allows for quick turn around between crops. As well as loss of organic matter and nutrients, rice stubble burning causes very serious and widespread air pollution in the north-west Indo-Gangetic Plains, where rice–wheat systems predominate. A novel approach with much promise is the Happy Seeder, which combines the stubble mulching and seed drilling functions in the one machine. The stubble is cut and picked up in front of the sowing tynes, which engage bare soil, and deposited behind the seed drill as mulch. Evaluation of the technology over 3 years in replicated experiments and farmers’ fields in Punjab, India, showed that establishment of wheat sown into rice residues with the Happy Seeder was comparable with establishment using conventional methods (straw burnt followed by direct drilling or cultivation before sowing) for sowings around the optimum time into stubbles up to 7.5 t/ha. For late sowings, plant density declined significantly at straw loads above 5 t/ha. The mulch also reduced weed biomass by ~60%, and reduced soil evaporation. Yield of wheat sown around the optimum time into rice residues, using the Happy Seeder, was comparable with or higher than yield after straw removal or burning, in replicated experiments and farmers’ fields, for straw loads up to 9 t/ha. In farmers’ fields there was an average yield increase of 9 and 11% in 2004–05 and 2005–06, respectively, compared with farmer practice. For sowings after the optimum time, yield declined significantly at straw loads greater than 7.5 t/ha. The Happy Seeder offers the means of drilling wheat into rice stubble without burning, eliminating air pollution and loss of nutrients and organic carbon due to burning, at the same time as maintaining or increasing yield.

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Economic burden of cardiovascular diseases before and after Iran’s health transformation plan: evidence from a referral hospital of Iran

Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation ◽

10.1186/s12962-020-00250-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Vahid Alipour ◽

Hamed Zandian ◽

Vahid Yazdi-Feyzabadi ◽

Leili Avesta ◽

Telma Zahirian Moghadam

Keyword(s):

Cardiovascular Diseases ◽

Economic Burden ◽

Indirect Costs ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Direct And Indirect Costs ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

Hospitalization Costs ◽

Before And After

Abstract Background Different countries have set different policies to control and decrease the costs of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Iran was aiming to reduce the economic burden of different disease by a recent reform from named as health transformation plan (HTP). This study aimed to examine the economic burden of CVDs before and after of HTP. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on 600 patients with CVDs, who were randomly selected from a specialized cardiovascular hospital in the north-west of Iran. Direct and indirect costs of CVDs were calculated using the cost of illness and human capital approaches. Data were collected using a researcher-made checklist obtained from several sources including structured interviews, the Statistical Center of Iran, Iran’s Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, the central bank of Iran, and the data of global burden of disease obtained from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation to estimate direct and mortality costs. All costs were calculated in Iranian Rials (IRR). Results Total costs of CVDs were about 5571 and 6700 billion IRR before and after the HTP, respectively. More than 62% of the total costs of CVDs accounted for premature death before (64.89%) and after (62.01%) the HTP. The total hospitalization costs of CVDs was significantly increased after the HTP (p = 0.038). In both times, surgical services and visiting had the highest and lowest share of hospitalization costs, respectively. The OOP expenditure decreased significantly and reached from 54.2 to 36.7%. All hospitalization costs, except patients’ OOP expenditure, were significantly increased after the HTP about 1.3 times. Direct non-medical costs reached from 2.4 to 3.3 billion before and after the HTP, respectively. Conclusion Economic burden of CVDs increased in the north-west of Iran after the HTP due to the increase of all direct and indirect costs, except the OOP expenditure. Non-allocation of defined resources, which coincided with the international and national political and economic challenges in Iran, led to unsustainable resources of the HTP. So, no results of this study can be attributed solely to the HTP. Therefore, more detailed studies should be carried out on the reasons for the significant increase in CVDs costs in the region.

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Economic Burden of Cardiovascular Diseases Before and After the Iran’s Health Transformation Plan: A Cross-Sectional Study on Referral Hospital in the North-West of Iran

10.21203/rs.2.22249/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Vahid Alipour ◽

Hamed Zandian ◽

Vahid Yazdi-Feyzabadi ◽

Leili Avesta ◽

Telma Zahirian Moghadam

Keyword(s):

Economic Burden ◽

Indirect Costs ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Direct And Indirect Costs ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

Hospitalization Costs ◽

Before And After

Abstract Background Different countries have set different policies to control and decrease the costs of Cardiovascular Diseases(CVDs). Iran aiming reducing the economic burden of different disease by a recent reform from named as health transformation plan(HTP). This study aimed to examine economic burden of CVDs before and after of HTP, Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on 600 patients with CVDs, who were randomly selected from a specialized cardiovascular hospital in the north-west of Iran. Direct and indirect costs of CVDs were calculated using cost of illness and human capital approaches. Data were collected using a researcher-made checklist obtained from several sources including structured interviews, the Statistical Center of Iran, Iran's Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, central bank of the Iran, and the data of global burden of disease obtained from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation to estimate direct and mortality costs. All costs were calculated in Iranian Rials(IRR). Results Total costs of CVDs were about 5571 and 6700 billion IRR before and after the HTP, respectively. More than 62% of the total costs of CVDs accounted for premature death before (64.89%) and after(62.01%) the HTP. The total hospitalization costs of CVDs was significantly increased after the HTP (p=0.038). In both times, surgical services and visiting had the highest and lowest share of hospitalization costs, respectively. The OOP expenditure decreased significantly and reached from 54.2% to 36.7%. All hospitalization costs, except patients' OOP expenditure, were significantly increased after the HTP about 1.3 times. Direct non-medical costs reached from 2.4 to 3.3 billion before and after the HTP, respectively. Conclusion The economic burden of CVDs after the HTP increased in the north-west of Iran due to the increase of all direct and indirect costs, except the OOP expenditure. Non-allocation of defined resources, which coincided with the international and national political and economic challenges in Iran, led to unsustainable resources of the HTP. So, no results of this study can be attributed solely to the HTP. Therefore, studies that are more detailed should be carried out on the reasons for the significant increase in CVDs costs in the region.

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The structure of the Central-Eastern Rif (Morocco) and the disregarded subduction of the North-West African paleo-margin

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-18249 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Oriol Gimeno ◽

Dominique Frizon de Lamotte ◽

Rémi Leprêtre ◽

Faouziya Haissen ◽

Achraf Atouabat ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Late Eocene ◽

West African ◽

North African ◽

Tectonic Event ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

Before And After ◽

Rif Belt ◽

Thrust Sheets ◽

Gravity Driven

<p>The Rif Belt (Northern Morocco) forms the western edge of the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic system developed during the convergence between the Africa and Eurasia plates. Compared to other mountains belts, the External Rif, which preserves remnants of the North African paleo-margin, presents two unusual features: (1) the presence of metamorphic massifs [External Metamorphic Massifs (EMMs)] and (2) the existence of large allochthonous thrust-sheets that travelled far away [the Higher Nappes]. In this contribution, we combined structural, stratigraphic and metamorphic data, complemented by new field observation and thermochronology results, to revisit the structure of the External Rif and to review its Cenozoic evolution. The External Rif was the site of a poly-phased tectonic evolution recorded before and after of a major unconformity: the so-called &#8220;Mesorif Unconformity&#8221; postdating an important Midde-Late Eocene deformation. This tectonic event is well-preserved in the North-African paleo-margin because of its under-thrusting (&#8220;subduction&#8221;) below the Maghrebian Tethys, the former oceanic domain separating Iberia from Africa. The MP-LT metamorphism, recorded in the EMMs (Temsamane Units in Morocco), is a direct vestige of this process.&#160; By contrast, traces of this event are absent in the oceanic units of the Intrarif Domain, element of the Maghrebian Tethys. After the &#8220;Mesorif Unconformity&#8221;, i.e. during the Miocene, the regional geodynamics is dominated by the westward translation of the Alboran Domain and the coeval deformation of the Ketama Unit (Intrarif) in front of it. This process results directly from the subduction of the Maghrebian Tethys, which happened at that time. The docking of the Ketama Unit against the already exhumed EMMs allowed an uplift and the subsequent detachment of the top of its lithostratigraphic pile, individualizing the Higher Nappes. During their gravity-driven travel towards the foredeep basin, they dragged at their floor the already exhumed Senhadja Nappes, inherited from the distal-most part of the NW African margin. All these elements are integrated in a coherent model integrating the External Rif in the geodynamics of the West Mediterranean.</p>

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Zooplankton community structure before and after Mnemiopsis leidyi arrival

Journal of Plankton Research ◽

10.1093/plankt/fbz060 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 41 (6) ◽

pp. 803-820

Author(s):

Emanuela Fiori ◽

Margherita Benzi ◽

Carla Rita Ferrari ◽

Cristina Mazziotti

Keyword(s):

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Zooplankton Community ◽

Mnemiopsis Leidyi ◽

Zooplankton Abundance ◽

Zooplankton Community Structure ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

Before And After ◽

Emilia Romagna Region ◽

Time Periods

Abstract In the present study, the temporal dynamics of zooplankton community of the North West Adriatic Sea (coastal area of Emilia-Romagna region, Italy) was monitored over 12 years. The distribution and abundance of zooplankton species were investigated in relation to physical and biological parameters (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll-a). Since November 2015 the non-indigenous copepod Pseudodiaptomus marinus, Sato, 1913 has been observed in the study area. During summer 2016, the American comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi, A. Agassiz, 1865 was recorded there for the first time and its presence was continuously monitored since that time (weekly observations from August 2016 to December 2017). Our study confirmed that the environmental conditions of the study area were suitable for M. leidyi growth. In addition, due to the combined effects of temperature, salinity and food availability M. leidyi was able to survive during winter months. Particular attention was then given to zooplankton abundance and community changes between two time periods: before and after M. leidyi arrival. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences in zooplankton abundance between the two time periods and a decrease in species diversity and evenness was observed during summer 2016.

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Exploration of the views of traditional healers regarding the Termination of Pregnancy (TOP) law

Curationis ◽

10.4102/curationis.v29i3.1099 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

MA Rakhudu ◽

AMM Mmelesi ◽

CPH Myburgh ◽

M Poggenpoel

Keyword(s):

Rural Communities ◽

Rural Area ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Traditional Healers ◽

Termination Of Pregnancy ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

Educational Programmes ◽

Before And After ◽

Field Notes

The North-West Province is predominantly a rural area, and traditional healers remain the most important and influential members of the rural communities. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was used. In-depth, individual focused and interactive interviews were held with eight traditional healers from the rural areas of Mmabatho-Mafikeng. In addition, field notes and observations were utilised. The objective of this article is to explore the views of the traditional healers regarding termination of pregnancy (TOP) law. The results reflected the following themes: termination of pregnancy is killing; a child is a precious gift from God and the ancestors; there are alternatives to TOP; people who had any type of abortion should be cleansed with “dipitsa” or herbs; TOP may be allowed only in case of rape and incest, rape and incest offenders should be severely punished; and the traditional healers were not consulted during formulation of the TOP Law. It is therefore recommended that traditional should be involved in TOP workshops and educational programmes to enable them to provide counselling before and after abortion.

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The spatio-temporal evolution of black carbon in the North-West European ‘air pollution hotspot’

Atmospheric Environment ◽

10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117874 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 243 ◽

pp. 117874 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

K.P. Wyche ◽

R.L. Cordell ◽

L. Smith M ◽

K.L. Smallbone ◽

P. Lyons ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Black Carbon ◽

Temporal Evolution ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

West European

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Animal Husbandry and Hunting Practices in Hispania Tarraconensis: An Overview

European Journal of Archaeology ◽

10.1017/eaa.2016.30 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 510-534 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Lídia Colominas ◽

Carlos Fernández Rodríguez ◽

Maria Pilar Iborra Eres

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

Animal Husbandry ◽

Fifth Century ◽

Third Century ◽

Faunal Remains ◽

North West ◽

North East ◽

The North ◽

Before And After ◽

Territorial Organization

With the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Roman Empire, the different societies in the north, north-west, north-east, east, and centre were grouped into the same province, Hispania Tarraconensis. This article sets out to assess whether this new, Roman, territorial organization affected previous animal husbandry and hunting practices. The taxonomic and osteometric study of faunal remains from ninety-four sites dated between the fifth century bc and third century ad provides an overview of animal husbandry and hunting before and after the Roman conquest. It shows that important changes took place and that this province was differentially exploited in terms of animal husbandry.

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