26 research outputs found

    Green buildings as sustainability education tools

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    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of green building technologies and practices and illustrate how public libraries can use them as tools to teach their communities about sustainability and foster behavior change. Design/methodology/approach – Through literature searches, case studies analysis, and individual phone and e-mail interviews, the author identified ways that public libraries can use their buildings to demonstrate green technologies and practices and show their patrons how to apply them at home, at work, and in the community. Findings – Education is a component of LEED certification. Many LEED certified libraries publicize a list of the green technologies used in their building projects. Some sponsor programs related to the green building and include permanent displays in the library to explain how the technology works. The Fayetteville Public Library went beyond these basic techniques to not only improve the sustainability of their operations but also become a community test bed for a renewable energy project. Originality/value – This paper sheds light on how building projects can be used not only to educate the public about green technologies and practices, but also inspire others to begin using similar techniques at home, at work, and in the community.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

    A first worldwide multispecies survey of invasive Mediterranean pine bark beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae)

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    Several European and Mediterranean species of pine bark beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) have become established in North America and the southern hemisphere, posing a novel threat to planted and naturally-occurring pine forests. Our objectives were to investigate (1) the occurrence and relative abundance of pine bark beetles in these regions, and (2) the trapping performance of different blends of multispecies lures. In 2016–2017 a network of interception traps was installed in six non-European countries (Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, and Uruguay), and in six European countries (France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) for comparison. Half of the traps were baited with alpha-pinene and ethanol, and the other half with alpha-pinene, ethanol, and a combination of bark beetle pheromones (ipsdienol, ipsenol, and Z-verbenol). Five Mediterranean scolytine species (Hylurgus ligniperda, Hylastes ater, H. angustatus, Orthotomicus erosus, and O. laricis) were found in non-European countries. Hylurgus ligniperda and Hylastes ater were the most widespread species found in several of the invaded regions, while O. laricis and H. angustatus occurred only in Argentina and South Africa, respectively. Despite large variation among species and countries, most species were trapped with the blend containing bark beetle pheromones, except O. erosus, which was more attracted to alpha-pinene and ethanol alone. This study represents the first step towards the development of an international monitoring protocol based on multi-lure traps for the survey and early-interception of invasive alien bark beetle species.MBIE (New Zealand, contract C04X1104), from PICT 2016-0705 (Argentina), from FCT UID/AGR/00239/2013 (Portugal) and from DOR-UNIPD (Italy).http://link.springer.com/journal/10530hj2021Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)Zoology and Entomolog

    Assessing the utility of the TET-1 hotspot detection and characterization algorithm for determining wildfire size and temperature

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    The detection and characterization of wildfires using satellite remote-sensing systems has improved considerably over the last 30 years, with daily, global coverage maintained by a number of satellite systems. The recent deployment of new satellite systems, such as Technologie-Erprobungs-Träger-1 (TET-1/Technology-Experiments-Carrier-1), with a higher spatial resolution than the current satellite sensing systems employed for global fire detection, presents an opportunity to investigate the utility and accuracy of the TET-1 detection and characterization algorithm in detecting fires over a range of areas and temperatures. In this study, simulated fire landscapes were generated based on varying fire area (1–100,000 m2) and fire temperature (450–1200 K) and passed through the TET-1 algorithm. The results indicate the TET-1 algorithm to estimate fire area to ±12% and fire temperature to ±3%, which implies that under the test conditions, the products generated by TET-1 have a low systematic error
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