The Effects of Traffic Related Air Pollution and Proposed Legal Remedies

This paper intends to examine the environmental issues that accompany air pollution generated from traffic related incidents, and the implications that this mass-generated pollution has on air quality, as well as the quality of life of humans exposed chronically to airborne carcinogens. Traffic related air pollution is an environmental problem that is heightened by urban design and population demographics such as urban sprawl, spatial distribution, population density, and infrastructure design. Furthermore, this paper will scrutinize Canadian legislation that regulates traffic related air pollutants, and develop an argument for how to apply legislation going forward. As Cartier, Benmarinha, and Brousselle (2015) identify, the mechanisms of air quality intervention are overlooked, which is necessary for producing effective legislation. The objective of this paper is to gain insight on a quantifiable problem, and to prescribe solutions through legislation, in order to regulate an issue which presents heath complications on a generational level

Joutsenmerkin merkitys suomalaisissa painotaloissa

Insinöörityön tarkoituksena oli selvittää, mikä merkitys joutsenmerkillä on suomalaisissa painotaloissa. Työn selvityksen kohteena olivat joutsenmerkin voimassa olevan kriteeriversion 5.5 haltijat ja edellisen kriteeriversion haltijat. Työssä perehdyttiin myös ympäristövastuuseen graafisella alalla ja joutsenmerkin lisäksi muihin ympäristötyökaluihin. Insinöörityössä selvitettiin myös joutsenmerkin kriteerit ympäristövaatimuksineen ja joutsenmerkin hakemisen pääpiirteet. Joutsenmerkin kriteerit tiukentuvat aina, kun uusi versio vaatimuksista julkaistaan. Tämä vaatii tarkkuutta ja työtä myös yrityksiltä materiaalivalinnoissa, työskentelytavoissa ja monessa muussa. Ensisijaisesti tutkimus tehtiin nykyisille luvanhaltijoille. Työn edetessä päätettiin tutkia myös yrityksiä, jotka eivät olleet päivittäneet uuteen kriteeriversioon. Näin pystyttiin kartoittamaan joutsenmerkin merkitys sekä niille, joilla se on vielä käytössä, että niille, jotka olivat siitä jo luopuneet. Työ toteutettiin kyselytutkimuksena sähköisesti suomalaisille painotaloille helmikuun 2015 aikana. Kyselytutkimus joutsenmerkityille painotaloille lähetettiin 31 yritykselle ja toinen kyselytutkimus joutsenmerkistä luopuneille painotaloille lähetettiin 13 yritykselle. Joutsenmerkityistä painotaloista kyselyyn vastasi noin 58 % ja joutsenmerkistä luopuneista paintaloista vastaava luku oli noin 38 %. Vastausprosentteihin ja vastausten sisällöllisiin anteihin oltiin tyytyväisiä. Myös tutkimukset onnistuivat hyvin, ja ne antoivat tarvittavan määrän informaatiota. Työn tavoitteena oli saada mahdollisimman monta vastausta painotaloilta ja analysoida sekä tehdä johtopäätöksiä niin joutsenmerkin merkityksestä kuin ympäristöasioiden nykytilasta painotaloissa. Insinöörityössä selvisi, että joutsenmerkin pääasialliset merkitykset yrityksille ovat sen ympäristöhyödyt ja imagollinen arvo. Suurella osalla painotaloista on myös vahva usko siihen, että ympäristöasioiden merkitys kasvaa tulevaisuudessa.The purpose of this final year project was to study the significance of the Nordic Swan label in Finnish printing houses. The targets of the study were printing houses that have the current criteria version 5.5 and printing houses that had the previous criteria version. Research also focused on environmental responsibility in the graphic field and other environmental tools. The criteria and environmental requirements for the Nordic Swan label and the main points of applying the label were studied in the project. The criteria for the Nordic Swan label are tightening each time as the new version is published. This requires precision and work from the companies in material choices, working methods and in many other things. Primarily the study was conducted among the current criteria version holders. As the study proceeded it was decided that it would also include those companies that have not updated to the current criteria version. This way it was possible to find out how significant the Nordic Swan label is for those who have it, as well as for those who have given it up. The research was conducted as an online survey and targeted at the Finnish printing houses during February 2015. The survey for the Nordic Swan labeled printing houses was sent to 31 companies and the other survey was sent to 13 companies that have given up the Nordic Swan label. Approximately 58 % of the companies with The Nordic Swan label and about 38 % of the companies without the label responded to the survey. The response percentages and the contents of the responses were satisfying. Also the studies succeeded well and gave enough information. The aim of the thesis was to get as many responses from the printing houses as possible and to analyze and make conclusions about the significance of the Nordic Swan label and the current state of environmental issues. It was found out that the main significance of the Nordic Swan label for the companies is linked to its environmental benefits and image value. Most of the printing houses also strongly believe that the significance of the environmental issues is increasing in the future

High-speed turbulent gas jets: an LES investigation of Mach and Reynolds number effects on the velocity decay and spreading rate

AbstractThe aim of this work is the investigation of Mach and Reynolds numbers effects on the behaviour of turbulent gas jets in order to gain new insights into the fluid dynamic process of turbulent jet mixing and spreading. An in-house solver (Flow-Large Eddy and Direct Simulation, FLEDS) of the Favre-filtered Navier Stokes equations has been used. Compressibility has been analyzed by considering gas jets with Mach number equal to 0.8, 1.4, 2.0 and 2.6, and Re equal to 10,000. As concerns the influence of Re on gas jets, four cases have been investigated, i.e. $$\mathrm{Re} = 2500$$ Re = 2500 , 5000, 10,000 and 20,000, with Mach number equal to 1.4. The results show that, in accordance with previous experimental and numerical studies, the potential core length increases with Mach number. As regards the velocity decay and the spreading rate downstream of the potential core, compressibility effects are not relevant except for the jet with Mach number of 2.6. The normalized turbulent kinetic energy along the centerline as a function of the normalized streamwise distance shows a similar peak at the end of the potential core for all jets, except for the case with Mach number of 2.6. By increasing Re, the length of the potential core decreases up to the same value for all Re higher than 10,000. In the region downstream of the potential core, the velocity decay decreases as Re number increases from 10,000 to 20,000, whereas, for lower values of Re, the influence is almost negligible

Tourism based Black Economic Empowerment [BEE]: Initiatives for local community development

The South African government through a variety of tourism policies and strategies has tried to utilise the Black economic empowerment [BEE] initiative to improve economic benefits for the previously disadvantaged communities. This is to bear in mind that the BEE initiative has been criticised in that “transformation has come to represent a way of compensating previously disadvantaged people, rather than creating opportunities for all citizens to contribute their talents and energies to the process of developing our country” (Ramphele, 2008: 265). This paper aims at discussing the viewpoints, practicalities and challenges of the tourism related BEE initiatives towards achieving community empowerment and development in KwaZulu-Natal. It also focuses on identifying tourism business opportunities available to the previously neglected communities and social groups. Some of the more specific objectives are: (a) To reveal the extent to which Black people are aware of tourism based BEE opportunities. (b) To establish the levels of tourism stakeholder participation in the BEE initiatives within the study area. (c) To investigate whether the BEE policy is perceived as contributing adequately to tourism entrepreneurship in the study area. It is anticipated that the findings of this study will reflect outcomes that represent the true nature of Black economic empowerment opportunities in the area. It was established that the implementation of BEE policies was not adequately stimulating tourism development, and needed the introduction of a new tourism strategy for entrepreneurial development. Keywords: Black economic empowerment, entrepreneurship, tourism, tourism development, community development, previously disadvantaged communities, stakeholder, strategy, perception

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationBiological membranes are important structural units in the cell. Composed of a lipid bilayer with embedded proteins, most exploration of membranes has focused on the proteins. While proteins play a vital role in membrane function, the lipids themselves can behave in dynamic ways which affect membrane structure and function. Furthermore, the dynamic behavior of the lipids can affect and be affected by membrane geometry. A novel fluid membrane model is developed in which two different types of lipids flow in a deforming membrane, modelled as a two-dimensional Riemannian manifold that resists bending. The two lipids behave like viscous Newtonian fluids whose motion is determined by realistic physical forces. By examining the stability of various shapes, it is shown that instability may result if the two lipids forming the membrane possess biophysical qualities, which cause them to respond dierently to membrane curvature. By means of numerical simulation of a simplied model, it is shown that this instability results in curvature induced phase separation. Applying the simplied model to the Golgi apparatus, it is hypothesized that curvature induced phase separation may occur in a Golgi cisterna, aiding in the process of protein sorting. In addition to flowing tangentially in the membrane, lipids also flip back and forth between the two leaflets in the bilayer. While traditionally assumed to occur very slowly, recent experiments have indicated that lipid flip-flop may occur rapidly. Two models are developed that explore the eect of rapid flip-flop on membrane geometry and the effect of a pH gradient on the distribution of charged lipids in the leafets of the bilayer. By means of a stochastic model, it is shown that even the rapid flip-flop rates observed are unlikely to be signicant inducers of membrane curvature. By means of a nonlinear Poisson{Boltzmann model, it is shown that pH gradients are unlikely to be signicant inducers of bilayer asymmetry under physiological conditions