For Whom the Tunnel Be Tolled: A Four-Factor Model for Explaining Willingness-to-Pay Tolls

This research examines citizen acceptance of tolls and road pricing, and specifically focuses on determinants of the individual’s expressed willingness-to-pay tolls to use a tunnel express lane that would be free of traffic delays. We answer the research question “What factors influence citizens’ willingness-to-pay tolls” by empirically estimating a four factor model of willingness-to-pay: (a) direct benefit to the respondent; (b) relative cost over time; (c) community concern; and (d) political and environmental liberalism. We use data about citizen perceptions from the Life in Hampton Roads Survey, a survey of residents of Hampton Roads, Virginia. We find that willingness-to-pay is primarily driven and motivated by self-interest, through a balancing of benefit to cost relative to individual income and frequency of use. In addition, concern for the community also contributes to willingness-to-pay tolls. The individual’s perception of government’s trustworthiness, a reflection of political and environmental beliefs, also influences the extent to which an individual is willing to pay tolls

Paying for Infrastructure in an Urban Environment: Roles of Ideological Beliefs and Self-Interest in Support for Two Funding Mechanisms

This study examines public preferences for two revenue options—fuel taxes and tolls—to finance transportation infrastructure in an urban area with the use of the results of a survey of residents of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia. Specifically, the study addresses two related research questions: (a) To what extent do residents support instituting tolls, increasing the fuel tax, or both? (b) What roles do self-interest and ideological beliefs play in support of increasing the fuel tax, imposing tolls, or doing both? The study finds that 50% of respondents expressed a willingness to support fuel taxes or tolls for infrastructure, 29% for increasing fuel taxes, and 28% for tolls, with 7% supporting both revenue options. The study also finds that the support for each funding source is associated with a different set of ideological beliefs and self-interest factors. Implications for generating public support for increases in revenue and funding for transportation facilities are discussed

Identification of a potential marker for Brugia malayi infection by Western Blot analysis

Brugia malayi adult antigen was electrophoresed on SDS-PAGE gels and electrophoretically transferred onto PVDF membranes. The membrane strips were incubated with different categories of human sera, followed by successive incubations with blocking solution, monoclonal anti-human IgG4 antibody and peroxidase rabbit anti-mouse IgG antibody; with adequate washings done in between each incubation steps. Chemiluminescence detection was used to develop the blots. Two antigenic epitopes (molecular weights of -67-68 kDa and -54-55 kDA) were found to be present in the Western blots of all microfilaraemic sera, all amicrofilaraemic sera with positive anti-filarial IgG4 antibodies, some treated patients and some elephantiasis patients. We hypothesized that last two groups are still harbouring live adult worms despite being treated or in the chronic stage respectively. The two epitopes did not simultaneously react with soil-transmitted helminth sera, normal endemic sera and sera of city dwellers.Therefore the simultaneous presence of both epitopes may potentially serve as a marker for Brugia malayi infection

Parasitological and serological investigation into lymphatic filariasis among immigrants at Semenyih Detention Centre, Selangor, West Malaysia

Parasitological and serological investigations for lymphatic filariasis were performed on 450 immigrants detained at the Immigration Centre at Semenyih, Seiangor, West Malaysia. The country of origin of these immigrants were Indonesia, The Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Brugia malayi adult worm homogenate (BmAH) antigen was used for the detection of antifilarial IgG. A monoclonal antibody-based ELISA (MAb.XC3~ELISA) specific for filarial circulating antigens and non-phosphorylcholine reactive was used to detect antigenemia in these immigrants. Parasitologically 67 (14.89 %) were positive for W, bancrofti and 54 (12.0%) for Brugia malayi. Serologically 63 % had antifilarial IgG titre to the BmAH antigen. While Bancroftian filariasis is now unknown in Peninsular Malaysia, the potential of it to be reintroduced into Peninsular Malaysia by the immigrant population is discussed

Recent advances on palm oil mill effluent (POME) pretreatment and anaerobic reactor for sustainable biogas production

Palm oil is one of the leading agricultural crops in the world, as it dominates 34% of the global vegetable oil market, with approximately 64.6*103 million kgs of production in 2017. However, along with its breakthrough, the generation of palm oil mill effluent (POME) as uncontrolled waste has become a serious matter and requires proper management to reduce its negative effects on the environment. Subsequently, the high organic content of POME makes it possible to convert waste into value-added products, such as biogas. A ratio of 0.5 for biological oxygen demand to chemical oxygen demand (BOD/COD) indicates a high possibility for biological treatment. Recently, the utilisation of POME as a cheap source for biogas production has gained an extraordinary amount of attention, and intensive research has been conducted on the upstream to downstream process. Finding the most suitable and efficient pretreatment technique and reactor configuration are vital parameters for the treatment and conversion of POME to biogas. This review describes existing pretreatment processes for POME and recommends recently manufactured high-rate anaerobic reactors as the most suitable and efficient pretreatment technique for maximising the extraction of biogas from POME

The potential of black ant (Dolichoderus sp.) as a biological control agents of the coconut leaf beetle (Brontispa longissima)

The study of coconut leaf beetle infestation, Brontispa longissima on palms and the effectiveness of biological agents as a method of control have been carried out in the laboratory. The study involves the effectiveness of potential black ants as biological agents in controlling beetle populations. The results of laboratory studies on the ability of black ant predation on the B. longissima found that the percentage of mean beetle are eaten by the group that has the number 100 black ants were higher and significantly different (P <0.05) as compared to group numbers 5, 20, 50 and 75 black ants. In addition, black ants also tend to attack and devour the B. longissima larvae and pupa stage compared to adult’s beetle via laboratory studies. It can be concluded that the B. longissima beetle has a great potential for causing considerable damage to the coconut tree which could affect coconut palm industry in Malaysia. However, the usage of biological agents as a control method had shown promising results in order to control the beetle infestation in coconut palm areas

Assessing Cross anisotropy of Small-Strain Stiffness Using the Resonant Column apparatus

Almost all soils exhibit cross-anisotropic stiffness to some extent. However, measuring the cross anisotropic properties of soils is difficult because of the need to determine the 3 independent stiffness parameters Eν, Eh, Gνh, and the associated Poisson’s ratios, nνh and nhh. Current techniques that are employed, for example using bender elements or field geophysics, are not always reliable, whilst preparing specimens in different orientations and subsequent testing using standard laboratory techniques has practical constraints. The resonant column is a laboratory apparatus that has been extensively used to measure the torsional stiffness (Gνh). Relatively recent development has also allowed the Stokoe resonant column to measure Young’s modulus from flexural excitation of the specimen. The apparatus has also been used to determine Eν through axial oscillation. Thus a modified resonant column apparatus can apply four different excitations (flexure in two directions, torsion and longitudinal excitation) to a soil. This paper reports a series of dynamic finite element numerical simulations of physical tests in the resonant column apparatus, carried out to model both the apparatus and a cross-anisotropic soil specimen. Forward modelling has been carried out to determine the impact of different degrees of anisotropy on the resonant frequencies of ‘specimens’ with their axes of anisotropy aligned in different directions relative to the vertical axis of the apparatus. Methods of determining the elastic parameters from these data are assessed

Engaging Residents in Policy and Planning for Sea Level Rise: Application of the Action-Oriented Stakeholder Engagement for a Resilient Tomorrow (ASERT) Framework

This chapter describes the application of the Action-oriented Stakeholder Engagement for a Resilient Tomorrow (ASERT) framework for communicating with and engaging both residents and community stakeholders in their localities’ efforts to prepare for and to respond to flooding and sea level rise. The application of ASERT incorporates communication, education/learning, and gamification elements that can be embedded into community meetings. We describe the way in which ASERT community meetings are designed (1) to provide an inclusive and engaging process that will allow residents to participate in their city’s resilience efforts; (2) to provide information about resilience in an environment that encourages social learning, including curiosity and reflection, to promote behavioral change that will result in improved resilience and public support for resilience solutions; and (3) to allow residents to offer real-time perceptions of risk to, and feedback about, resilience solutions in their communities and/or cities. This chapter briefly discusses the ASERT framework, illustrates its application (using two examples from Virginia Beach, Virginia), describes the use of gamification in the community meetings, and provides lessons learned regarding communication and stakeholder engagement efforts targeted at building resilience in coastal communities

ParaSitic iNFEctiON: a rEcUrriNg PHENOmENON iN maLaYSia

Abstract. A total of 255 patients including 179 (70.2%) of non-HIV and 76 (29.8%) HIV-infected patients were recruited in this descriptive study. The subjects was significantly found to be male Chinese (157; 61.6% vs 74; 47.1%) followed by female Malays (98; 38.4% vs 35; 35.7%) (p&lt;0.05). The majority of subjects (124; 48.6%) were in the age group of 21-39 years, however, no statistical difference was found between the various age groups (p&gt;0.05). Overall seroprevalence of latent Toxoplasma infection was 82/183 (44.8%) being; 3 (3.7%) positive for IgM, 74 (90.2%) for IgG, and 5 (6.1%) for IgG and IgM antibodies. The prevalence was more relatively found in the Chinese (28; 15.3%) and Malays (27; 14.8%) than others (p&lt;0.05). While, 23/76 (30.3%) of HIV-positive patients were shown Toxoplasma seropositivity. The majority of these subjects (138/181; 76.2%) were significantly asymptomatic (p = 0.000), while the others were clinically evident cases of toxoplasmosis. Of this, 37 patients were included in differential diagnosis relating to ocular diseases and only 4 patients were confirmed as having ocular toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmic encephalitis (TE) was based on presumptive diagnosis, particularly found in 5 patients with AIDS. Seventeen patients were clinically diagnosed as having malaria being; 8 for P. vivax, 4 for P. falciparum, 3 for P. malariae, and 2 for mixed infections. All cases resolved satisfactorily after treatment with antimalarial drugs. Other important emerging parasitic diseases were also detected in these patients including amebiasis (2), blastocystosis (1), cryptosporidiosis (1), filariasis (1), and giardiasis (2) during the time of this study