Simulation of Drill Cuttings Dispersion and Deposition in South China Sea

Drill cuttings with various characteristics and sizes are produced in any offshore oil and gas exploration and production (EP) drilling of the seabed

Genetically Modified Mosquito: Myth and Reality

Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) has been applied successfully in some agricultural pest control programs in the past, but in many cases, success has not been sustainable in the long run. Various attempts have been made to duplicate this limited success SIT application in agriculture to other areas of applications, particularly in vector control. For example, a recent mosquito control program has been initiated in Malaysia to eliminate dengue-mosquitoes Aedes aegypti by releasing large amount of genetically modified GM male mosquitoes into the field to outcompete the wild male mosquitoes. Field experimental data that has been made available in the literature is limited, rendering it difficult to make independent assessment on its short-term efficacy and long-term sustainability of this GM control strategy. This paper presents a preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of GM mosquito in controlling dengue mosquito population by means of model simulations via DEER (Dengue Encephalitis Eradication Routines). Preliminary results indicate negative conclusion regarding the effectiveness of GM mosquitoes in controlling wild A. aegypti population over the long-term. Essentially, significant reduction of wild mosquito population is possible only if large over-flooding ratios are applied. Further, repeated releases must be maintained over an infinite time horizon to continue to sustain low population of mosquitoes. Major difficulty remains to be resolved. In particular, in-depth costbenefit analysis on this control program is essential to ensure long-term institutional and social support

Modeling Inner City Traffic Generated Air Pollution.

Rapid urban development in many cities in Malaysia has given rise to traffic congestions during peak hours. to overcome this congestion foe,more roads are being planned and built to help ease traffic away from city centers. Hence city outer rings roads are been constructed to diverts traffic flow. The outer ring roads may, however cut right through some parts of inner city with high concentration of population.Traffic generated air pollution may pose hazards to health of people living in the vicinity of the roads

Global Financial Crises: Origin and Management

The world has witnessed a succession of three global financial crises in the past two decades. During each crisis, many financial institutions failed. Credit became either unavailable or too costly for business, as seen in the recent financial turmoil in Greece. Similar situation also prevailed during the 1997-1998 Asian Financial crisis, requiring the International Monetary Fund to rescue Indonesia, Korea and Thailand. A major cause of these crises is the high levels of sovereign and corporate debts. Central banks were prompted to intervene by the injections of large liquidity with low interest rates into the financial systems. Cheap liquidity often leads to high asset valuations, a root cause of another future crisis. Cheap liquidity also might lead to future high inflation and unsustainable sovereign and corporate debts. This paper begins with providing a qualitative-quantitative appraisal of these three recent financial crises, beginning with the 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis, through the 2008 US Great Recession, and the ongoing global recession. We argue that the 2008 US Great Recession was an inevitable consequence of the action of Asian countries in building sufficient foreign reserves in an attempt to insulate the country from future external shocks. The 2008 contagious crisis quickly spread to the EU zone and ultimately worldwide. The paper ends with some suggestions for managing future financial crisis, with particular reference to Asia that entails the formation of a pan-Asia economic grouping to resolve unending currency issues and other trade related problems, with China and Japan playing the leading role. Keywords: Financial Crisis Management; Sovereign Debts JEL Classifications: G1; G2; G

Moeling Mercury Uptake In The Everglades Algae.

The presence of mercury in the aquatic food chain has always been a concern due to its accumulative effects in the chain. Over the last 100 years the average global atmospheric mercury concentration has increased by five fold from 0.3 ng m-3 to 1.5 ng m-3. The two main sources of atmospheric mercury emissions are natural sources such as volcanoes and solis, and anthropogenic sources that include combustion and waste incineration......

Modeling Near Field Air Pollution In USM : Effects Of Downwash.

Several research projects are currently undertaken to pursue the goals stipulated in the Healty Campus Program in USM. One Of the main concern is the air pollution coming from the School Of Chemical Sciences and its potential impact on the health of occupants in the surrounding buildings. A previous study has concluded that the potential negative health impact is negligible. The previous study however has ignored the effects of nearby buildings on the dispersion of air plumes. When the distance between the stack and the target building is short , the target building will produce wake effects that may in turn cause an increase in the concentrations of plumes behind the building. Hence the ability to simulate the effects of downwash due to the target buildings is desirable in order to provide a better estimation of the pollutant concentrations near the target buildings. Meteorology parameters such as wind conditions atmospheric stability play an important role in the distribution of th plumes. This paper will present a model analysis of air pollution including the effects of the downwash due to near buildings by using the ISC-AERMOD View models. Some result from the study will be presented to indicate that the air pollution levels will not pose a health hazard to the occupants despite the downwash

Modeling Air Pollution Due To Forest Fire.

Air pollution has long been a masjor environmental concernin many countries.The major sources of air pollution are vehicles exhausts,open burning and emission from industrial stacks and power generation stations as well as forest fires.Air pollution poses hazards to human health,poison rivers and lakes, damages trees and kills wildlife. Major pollutants are carbon monoxide,sulphur dioxide,nitrogenoxides and particulate matters. Forest fire is a large scale,unenclosed and free spreading natural combustionprocess that consumes various ages,sizes and types of vegetative matter of the forest

Modeling Air pollutin Due to Open Burning Of Scrap Tires In Rhinehart USA.

With approximately one scrap tire being generated per person each year in the USA, scrap tires present a disposal problem. Uncontrolled open burning of tires prodeuces many toxic products of incomplete combustion into the atmosphere. Air emissions from open burning of tires have been shown to be more toxic than those from combustor regardless of the fuel....

Application of a Coupled Vegetation Competition and Groundwater Simulation Model to Study Effects of Sea Level Rise and Storm Surges on Coastal Vegetation

Global climate change poses challenges to areas such as low-lying coastal zones, where sea level rise (SLR) and storm-surge overwash events can have long-term effects on vegetation and on soil and groundwater salinities, posing risks of habitat loss critical to native species. An early warning system is urgently needed to predict and prepare for the consequences of these climate-related impacts on both the short-term dynamics of salinity in the soil and groundwater and the long-term effects on vegetation. For this purpose, the U.S. Geological Survey’s spatially explicit model of vegetation community dynamics along coastal salinity gradients (MANHAM) is integrated into the USGS groundwater model (SUTRA) to create a coupled hydrology–salinity–vegetation model, MANTRA. In MANTRA, the uptake of water by plants is modeled as a fluid mass sink term. Groundwater salinity, water saturation and vegetation biomass determine the water available for plant transpiration. Formulations and assumptions used in the coupled model are presented. MANTRA is calibrated with salinity data and vegetation pattern for a coastal area of Florida Everglades vulnerable to storm surges. A possible regime shift at that site is investigated by simulating the vegetation responses to climate variability and disturbances, including SLR and storm surges based on empirical information

Modeling Mercury Contamination In The Evreglades Ecosystem : From Atmospheric Transport To Wetland.

The Florida Everglades is a vast wetland of about 10,000km located in Southern Floridaof The United States Of America.Bioaccumulation of mercury in the aquatic food chain in the Florida Everglades has been concert for seversl decades.High mercury burdens of 2.5mg/kg have been recorded by the Florida Department of Health in the largemouth bass in the Everglades,a level that is deemed unsafe by all health-based standards.The major sources of mecury in the Everglades wetlands are deprived from industrial combustions and waste incinerations transportedthrough the atmosphere over different lenght scales