The “New Transamazonian Highway”: BR-319 and Its Current Environmental Degradation

The Brazilian government intends to complete the paving of the BR-319 highway, which connects Porto Velho in the deforestation arc region with Manaus in the middle of the Amazon Forest. This paving is being planned despite environmental legislation, and there is concern that its effectiveness will cause additional deforestation, threatening large portions of forest, conservation units (CUs), and indigenous lands (ILs) in the surrounding areas. In this study, we evaluated environmental degradation along the BR-319 highway from 2008 to 2020 and verified whether highway maintenance has contributed to deforestation. For this purpose, we created a 20 km buffer adjacent to the BR-319 highway and evaluated variables extracted from remote sensing information between 2008 and 2020. Fire foci, burned areas, and rainfall data were used to calculate a drought index using statistical tests for a time series. Furthermore, these were related to data on deforestation, CUs, and ILs using principal component analysis and Pearson’s correlation. Our results showed that 743 km2 of forest was deforested during the period evaluated, most of which occurred in the last four years. A total of 16,472 fire foci were identified. Both deforestation and fire foci occurred mainly outside the CUs and ILs. The most affected areas were close to capital cities, and after resuming road maintenance in 2015, deforestation increased outside the capital cities. Current government policy for Amazon occupation promotes deforestation and will compromise Brazil’s climate goals of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and deforestation.

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Fires Drive Long-Term Environmental Degradation in the Amazon Basin

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs14020338 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 338

Author(s):

Carlos Antonio da Silva Junior ◽

Mendelson Lima ◽

Paulo Eduardo Teodoro ◽

José Francisco de Oliveira-Júnior ◽

Fernando Saragosa Rossi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Degradation ◽

Amazon Basin ◽

Gross Primary Production ◽

Standardized Precipitation Index ◽

Burned Area ◽

Conservation Areas ◽

Conservation Units ◽

Burned Areas ◽

Indigenous Lands

The Amazon Basin is undergoing extensive environmental degradation as a result of deforestation and the rising occurrence of fires. The degradation caused by fires is exacerbated by the occurrence of anomalously dry periods in the Amazon Basin. The objectives of this study were: (i) to quantify the extent of areas that burned between 2001 and 2019 and relate them to extreme drought events in a 20-year time series; (ii) to identify the proportion of countries comprising the Amazon Basin in which environmental degradation was strongly observed, relating the spatial patterns of fires; and (iii) examine the Amazon Basin carbon balance following the occurrence of fires. To this end, the following variables were evaluated by remote sensing between 2001 and 2019: gross primary production, standardized precipitation index, burned areas, fire foci, and carbon emissions. During the examined period, fires affected 23.78% of the total Amazon Basin. Brazil had the largest affected area (220,087 fire foci, 773,360 km2 burned area, 54.7% of the total burned in the Amazon Basin), followed by Bolivia (102,499 fire foci, 571,250 km2 burned area, 40.4%). Overall, these fires have not only affected forests in agricultural frontier areas (76.91%), but also those in indigenous lands (17.16%) and conservation units (5.93%), which are recognized as biodiversity conservation areas. During the study period, the forest absorbed 1,092,037 Mg of C, but emitted 2908 Tg of C, which is 2.66-fold greater than the C absorbed, thereby compromising the role of the forest in acting as a C sink. Our findings show that environmental degradation caused by fires is related to the occurrence of dry periods in the Amazon Basin.

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Exploring Residents’ Perceptions of the Socio-Cultural Benefits of Tourism Development in the Mountain Area

Societies ◽

10.3390/soc11030083 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 83

Author(s):

Iulia C. Muresan ◽

Rezhen Harun ◽

Felix H. Arion ◽

Ava Omar Fatah ◽

Diana E. Dumitras

Keyword(s):

Positive Attitude ◽

Statistical Tests ◽

Tourism Development ◽

Principal Component ◽

Local Communities ◽

Three Dimensions ◽

Development Economic ◽

Mountain Area ◽

Sustainable Tourism Development ◽

The Impact

Development of tourism affected the socio-cultural environment of many destinations. Previous studies have focused more on analyzing the impact of tourism on all three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, environment and socio-cultural); therefore, the present paper examines tourism development’s impact with regard to the socio-cultural benefits that enhance sustainable tourism development. A survey based on a questionnaire was employed in June 2018 in a mountain village in Cluj County, Romania. The collected data were analyzed using principal component analysis, and several statistical tests were conducted. The results indicated that the respondents have a positive attitude towards tourism development and socio-cultural perceived benefits. Older people and those running a business tend to perceive more positively the benefits of tourism development. The findings of the research could contribute to future development strategies, as it is well known that supporting local communities influences the success of tourism destination.

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How to Choose Pollution Indicators for Monitoring Landfill Leachates

Proceedings ◽

10.3390/proceedings2020051023 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

pp. 23

Author(s):

Aleksandra Wdowczyk ◽

Agata Szymańska-Pulikowska

Keyword(s):

Negative Impact ◽

Statistical Tests ◽

Water Environment ◽

Oxygen Demand ◽

Principal Component ◽

Ammonium Nitrogen ◽

Landfill Leachates ◽

Limit Of Quantification ◽

Pollution Indicators ◽

The Impact

Leachates are one of the main factors polluting the ground and water environment in the vicinity of landfills. This is connected with the need to systematically control the elements of the environment that are exposed to the negative impact of landfill emissions. In Poland, the scope of landfill leachate quality monitoring includes 10 obligatory parameters (pollution indicators). The paper presents an example of the application of selected statistical methods (basic statistics, statistical tests, principal component analysis) to assess the impact of individual pollution indicators on the quality of landfill leachates. Four landfills from the area of Lower Silesia were selected for analyzes, for which in the years 2018–2019 tests of leachate properties were conducted in an extended scope (in relation to the scope applicable during monitoring). Analyses of the obtained results showed significant differences between landfills, depending mainly on their age and method of operation. Specific factors for assessing differences between landfills were as follows: electrolytic conductivity, chemical oxygen demand (COD(Cr)), organic nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen, chlorides and calcium. The values of some of the parameters included in the monitoring studies did not show variability, remaining below the limit of quantification. The conducted analyses permit the determination of the level of leachate contamination from selected landfills and the proposal of indicators that could complement the monitoring range of landfills for many years.

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A City Capability Assessment Framework Focusing on Planning, Financing, and Implementing Sustainable Energy Projects

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12208447 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (20) ◽

pp. 8447

Author(s):

Niki-Artemis Spyridaki ◽

Nikos Kleanthis ◽

Dimitra Tzani ◽

Mia Dragović Matosović ◽

Alexandros Flamos

Keyword(s):

City Planning ◽

Sustainable Energy ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Principal Component ◽

Project Planning ◽

Successful Implementation ◽

Assessment Framework ◽

Implementation Barriers ◽

Investment Projects ◽

Implementation Capacity

Cities are critical actors in reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; the level of knowledge, skills, and capacity, especially regarding innovative project planning such as sustainable energy (SE) projects, is fundamental for cities to meet their untapped potential. A range of indicator-based frameworks have been developed, focusing on general city economic competitiveness, yet these are often disconnected from the actual city operation and processes relevant to the investment cycle of SE projects. This paper proposes an integrated methodology for developing a City Capability Assessment Framework focusing on city planning, financing, and implementation capacity for SE projects. A principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the results of a European city-survey to uncover areas highly relevant for the successful implementation of local SE projects. The insights gained aid policymakers to better understand implementation barriers, leading to the development of more effective actions and policy interventions towards the implementation of SE projects. The proposed framework can further enhance cities’ efforts with the implementation of local SE projects and guide potential investors to properly evaluate city capabilities and potential, when choosing local investment projects.

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Corpus Statistics for Empirical Translation Studies

The Oxford Handbook of Translation and Social Practices ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190067205.013.5 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 541-559

Author(s):

Michael Oakes

Keyword(s):

Statistical Tests ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

Principal Component ◽

Hierarchical Cluster ◽

Translation Studies ◽

Linguistic Features ◽

Honestly Significant Difference ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Chi Squared ◽

Visualization Techniques

In recent years a number of authors have made good use of statistical texts in empirical translation studies. These tests are well established in the scientific literature but have only recently been applied to the comparison of original and translated texts for the identification of the characteristics of “translationese.” There has also been interest in the comparison between professional and student translations and between machine and human translation. In this chapter, various statistical tests are examined in the context of real-world empirical studies in translation: analysis of variance and Tukey’s “honestly significant difference” test, the chi-squared test and the G-statistic, and the visualization techniques of hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis. The chapter finishes with a discussion of the linguistic features chosen or found to characterize the original and translated texts.

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Determinants of Environmental Quality in Nigeria: Assessing the Role of Financial Development

Econometric Research in Finance ◽

10.33119/erfin.2018.3.1.3 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 55-78 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Ekundayo Peter Mesagan ◽

Mike I. Nwachukwu

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

Financial Development ◽

Environmental Degradation ◽

Environmental Quality ◽

Capital Investment ◽

Principal Component ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Bounds Testing ◽

Analyze Data

In this study, we analyze the determinants of environmental quality in Nigeria, focusing on the role of financial development. It is a time series analysis covering the period from 1981 to 2016. The study uses the ARDL bounds testing approach to analyze data on urbanization, per capita income, environmental degradation, energy consumption, trade intensity, and capital investment. We generate the environmental degradation index using principal component analysis (PCA). Empirical results suggest that income, financial development, energy consumption, and trade are significant in explaining environmental quality, whereas investment and urbanization are insignificant in the model. Moreover, we find no causality between the capital investment, financial development, and environmental quality, although urbanization and income unidirectionally cause environmental degradation. Also, there exists a bidirectional causality between energy consumption and environmental degradation. Therefore, to ensure efficient credit allocation to low carbon emitting firms, financial sector operators should adequately screen investment proposals before committing funds to them.

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Projection in genomic analysis: A theoretical basis to rationalize tensor decomposition and principal component analysis as feature selection tools

10.1101/2020.10.02.324616 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Y-h. Taguchi ◽

Turki Turki

Keyword(s):

Principal Component Analysis ◽

Gene Selection ◽

Statistical Tests ◽

Projection Pursuit ◽

Null Distribution ◽

Genomic Analysis ◽

Principal Component ◽

Tensor Decomposition ◽

Component Analysis ◽

Singular Value

ABSTRACTIdentifying differentially expressed genes is difficult because of the small number of available samples compared with the large number of genes. Conventional gene selection methods employing statistical tests have the critical problem of heavy dependence of P-values on sample size. Although the recently proposed principal component analysis (PCA) and tensor decomposition (TD)-based unsupervised feature extraction (FE) has often outperformed these statistical test-based methods, the reason why they worked so well is unclear. In this study, we aim to understand this reason in the context of projection pursuit that was proposed a long time ago to solve the problem of dimensions; we can relate the space spanned by singular value vectors with that spanned by the optimal cluster centroids obtained from K-means. Thus, the success of PCA- and TD-based unsupervised FE can be understood by this equivalence. In addition to this, empirical threshold adjusted P-values of 0.01 assuming the null hypothesis that singular value vectors attributed to genes obey the Gaussian distribution empirically corresponds to threshold-adjusted P-values of 0.1 when the null distribution is generated by gene order shuffling. These findings thus rationalize the success of PCA- and TD-based unsupervised FE for the first time.

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Spatial configuration of the occurrence of bat species (Mammalia: Chiroptera) in eastern Mato Grosso, Brazil

Biota Neotropica ◽

10.1590/1676-06032014012214 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sérgio Lopes de Oliveira ◽

Loana Araújo Silva Souza ◽

Hellen Kezia Silva ◽

Karina de Cassia Faria

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Spatial Configuration ◽

Grid Cell ◽

Amazon Forest ◽

Conservation Units ◽

Mato Grosso ◽

Central Brazil ◽

Cerrado Savanna ◽

Scientific Collections ◽

First Time

Given the substantial lacunas in the understanding of the occurrence and distribution of bat species in the eastern portion of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso (Araguaia basin), this study presents an inventory of the species known to occur in the region, highlighting the areas sampled adequately and the species known to occur in conservation units. Georeferenced records of the occurrence of bat species in the region were obtained from published studies, scientific collections, through either the SpeciesLink network or directly from the curator, as well as the capture of specimens by our research group between 2008 and 2013. A 0.5° x 0.5° (latitude/longitude) grid was added to the map of the region for the quantification of the bat species richness of each grid cell. A total of 63 chiropteran species were recorded for the study area. Only 10 of the 30 grid cells had records of bats, and just three contained more than 20 species, and were considered to be sampled adequately on a minimal level. Bat species have been recorded in three conservation units, two state and one municipal. The number of species recorded represents 82.7% of the total of chiropterans known to occur in Mato Grosso, although 12 species were recorded in the state for the first time, reinforcing the paucity of data available on the distribution of bats in the region. The high bat species richness recorded in the present study reinforces the importance of eastern Mato Grosso, a transition zone between the Amazon forest and the Cerrado savanna of central Brazil, for the conservation of Neotropical chiropterans.

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Students’ Behaviours in using Learning Resources in Higher Education: How do behaviours reflect success in Programming Education?

10.4995/head21.2021.12939 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tai Tan Mai ◽

Martin Crane ◽

Marija Bezbradica

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Matrix Theory ◽

Statistical Tests ◽

Principal Component ◽

Learning System ◽

Drop Out ◽

Programming Education ◽

Depth Analysis ◽

Learning Behaviours

Programming education traditionally has been an important part of Information Technology-related degrees but, more recently, it is also becoming essential in many STEM domains as well. Despite this, drop-out rates in programming courses in higher education institutions are considerable and cannot be ignored. At the same time, analysing learning behaviours has been reported to be an effective way to support the improvement of teaching and learning quality. This article aims to deliver an in-depth analysis of students’ learning behaviours when using course material items. We analyse an introductory programming course at a University in Dublin. The dataset is extracted from automatically logged learning data from a bespoke online learning system. The analysis makes use of the power of Principal Component Analysis and Random Matrix Theory to reduce dimensionality in, and to extract information from, the data, verifying the results with rigorous statistical tests. Overall, we found that all the students follow a common learning pattern in accessing all given learning items. However, there is a noticeable difference between higher and lower-performing cohorts of students when using practical and theoretical learning items. The high performing students have been consistently active in practice during the study progress. On the other hand, the students who failed the exam have more recorded activities in reading lecture notes and appear to become discouraged and unmotivated from the practical activities, especially in the later stage of the semester.

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VIABILIDADE DO TURISMO DE BASE COMUNITÁRIA NO PARQUE NACIONAL DA SERRA DO CIPÓ/MG. É POSSÍVEL?

GEOgraphia ◽

10.22409/geographia2021.v23i50.a38433 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 23 (50) ◽

Author(s):

Euripedes Junior Pontes ◽

Geraldo Wilson Fernandes

Keyword(s):

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Financial Burden ◽

Lower Class ◽

Conservation Units ◽

Community Based ◽

Geographic Space ◽

Serra Do Cipó ◽

Brazilian Government ◽

The Face ◽

Social Environmental

O orçamento destinado pelo Governo Federal ao Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade – ICMBio para que o mesmo faça a gestão das mais de 300 Unidades de Conservação (UC) Federais não é suficiente para uma excelência gerencial de tais áreas, o que tem imposto desafios crescentes para a sustentabilidade socio-econômico-ambiental das áreas protegidas. Uma das estratégias adotadas pelo ICMBio perante o desafio de gerir as UCs é a concessão de serviços turísticos em Unidades de Conservação para a iniciativa privada. Por outro lado, a atividade turística tem no espaço geográfico seu objeto de consumo, sendo que para que a mesma ocorra faz-se a apropriação dos territórios e redes, situação que, se não bem planejada, pode levar a uma ótica que privilegia classes mais abastadas em detrimento do local, que fica com o ônus social, ambiental e financeiro. Apesar dos estudos disponíveis na literatura demonstrarem a importância do Turismo de Base Comunitária - TBC enquanto justiça ambiental, percebe-se a escassez de dados sobre o viés da sustentabilidade econômica de tais iniciativas. O artigo buscou, através de um estudo de caso, apresentar dados que demonstram a viabilidade econômica do TBC, de forma a enriquecer o debate sobre esta possibilidade de arranjo gerencial.Palavras-chave: Concessão de serviços ecoturísticos, Gestão de Unidades de Conservação, Turismo de Base Comunitária VIABILITY OF COMMUNITY BASED TOURISM IN THE SERRA DO CIPÓ NATIONAL PARK. IS IT POSSIBLE?Abstract: The budget allocated by the Brazilian Government to the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation – ICMBio – to manage more than 300 Federal Conservation Units (UC) is not enough to achieve excellence in the management of such areas. This has posed increasing challenges for the socio-economic-environmental sustainability of protected areas. One of the strategies adopted by ICMBio in the face of the challenge of managing UCs is the concession of tourism services by the private sector. On the other hand, tourism activity has its object of consumption in the geographic space, and for it to take place, territories and networks are appropriated, a situation that, if not well planned, can lead to increased privileges to higher class levels in detriment of lower class levels of the local communities, which bears the social, environmental and financial burden. Although the studies available in the literature demonstrate the importance of Community Based Tourism – TBC as environmental justice, there is a lack of data on the economic sustainability bias of such initiatives. The article sought, through a case study, to present data that demonstrate the economic viability of the TBC to enrich the debate on this possibility of managerial arrangement.Keywords: Conservation Units management; Community-based tourism, Concession of ecotourism services. VIABILIDAD DEL TURISMO COMUNITARIO EN EL PARQUE NACIONAL SERRA DO CIPÓ: ¿ES POSIBLE? Resumen: El presupuesto assignado por el Gobierno brasileño al Instituto Chico Mendes para la Conservación de la Biodiversidad – ICMBio – para administrar más de 300 Unidades Federales de Conservación (UC) no es suficiente para lograr la excelencia em el manejo de dichas áreas. Esto há planteado desafios crecientes para la sostenibilidad socioeconómica y ambiental de las áreas protegidas. Uma de las estratégias adoptadas por el ICMBio ante el desafio de la gestión de las UC es la concesión de servicios turísticos por parte del sector privado. Por outro lado, la actividad turística tiene su objeto de consumo en el espacio geográfico, y para que se lleve a cabo se apropian territórios y redes, situación que, si no se planifica bien, puede llevar a um aumento de privilégios a niveles de clase superiores em detrimento de los niveles de clase más baja de las comunidades locales, que soporta la carga social, ambiental y financeira. Aunque los estudios disponibles en la literatura demuestran la importancia del Turismo Comunitario (TBC) como justicia ambiental, faltan datos sobre el sesgo de sostenibilidad económica de tales inciativas. El artículo buscó, a través de un estúdio de caso, presentar datos que demuestren la viabilidad económica de la TBC para enriquecer el debate sobre esta posibilidad de ordenamiento gerencial.Palabras clave: Manejo de Unidades de Conservación; Turismo Comunitario; Concesión de servicios de ecoturismo.

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