Fabric hybrid building : a renovation hypothesis for Vancouver’s downtown eastside

This project attempts to break down categorization and systems of thought based on opposing qualities. Instead, disparate elements are considered to work together to increase their individual properties by creating a new property - a condition comprised of the individual elments yet also surpassing them. The word "hybrid" is appropriated to describe the nature of this investigation - the renovation of a turn-of-the-century warehouse building into a multi-use building. The project attempts to describe how a building that contains a range of disparate programmatic elements can go beyond each element's exclusivity to produce a condition in which the resultant is greater than the sum of the individual parts. The project looks at breaking down specific delimitors of adjacent programmatic elements and promotes cross-fertilization between them with the intended result of blurring the seams that separate one from the other. The intent is to investigate, through a series of minimal moves dictated by the conditions of the site and program, whether a condition of richer and more varied experience can be achieved and, as a result, provide a start for defining a condition of architectural hybridity. Due to the size of the building that is investigated, this project focuses on two areas of the building, the insertion of a courtyard and the insertion of a fissure, or crack. The point of these investigations is to provide a tactical solution for the specificities of this particular site while at the same time implying a larger, global strategy that not only infers the remainder of this building but includes similar building types in other locations.Applied Science, Faculty ofArchitecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School ofGraduat

Relationship between the concentrations of dissolved organic matter and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in a typical U.K. upland stream

Concentrations of total and freely dissolved polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were measured in water collected during 4 sampling events at five sites from the River Wyre. The sites are typical of streams draining upland organically rich soils in northwest U.K. Freely dissolved PAHs were separated from those associated with DOC using a flocculation method. The sum of concentrations of the total and freely dissolved PAHs analysed ranged from 2.71 to 18.9 ng/L and 2.61 to 16.8 ng/L respectively. PAH concentrations, and PAH fluxes derived from concentrations and water flow rates, generally increased downstream, the trend in the latter being more pronounced. The concentration of individual PAHs containing five or more aromatic rings was found to be strongly correlated to the DOC concentration (p < 0.0001), suggesting common terrestrial sources and hydrological pathways. In contrast, no significant relationships were observed between concentrations of PAHs with four or less rings and DOC. Concentrations of PAHs with 4+ rings showed similar seasonal variation to DOC concentration (peaking in the late Summer), while variation in 2-3 ring PAHs was out of phase with DOC (peaking in the Winter). As the PAH-DOC relationship appeared partly dependent on the molecular weight of the PAHs, a linear regression function that included an interaction between this variable and DOC concentration was used to model PAH concentrations over a two year period to estimate annual fluxes. The relationship identified between PAH concentrations and DOC should help to enhance interpretation of PAH monitoring data that are currently sparse both spatially and temporally, and thus enable more robust assessments of the potential risks of these environmental pollutants to sensitive aquatic organisms and human water supplies

Occurrence and removal of free and conjugated estrogens in wastewater and sludge in five sewage treatment plants

The occurrence and fate of free and conjugated estrogens were investigated in wastewater and sludge from five sewage treatment plants (STPs) in Guangdong Province, China. Estrone (E1) and 17β-estradiol (E2) were found in all influent samples at concentrations of 69.3–280 ng L−1 and 1.3–30 ng L−1, respectively. The concentrations of conjugated estrogens were from ND (not detected) to 7.6 ng L−1. High concentrations (27.6–235 ng g−1) of E1 were found in sludge of some STPs indicating that sorption was an important estrogen removal mechanism. According to the mass flux analyses for estrogens in STP-A, E2 was mainly removed in the anaerobic process and E1 removal was the combined efforts of biodegradation and sorption. Abnormally high concentrations of EE2 (42.6–246 ng L−1), detected with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, were found in all influent samples of the STPs, therefore interlaboratory analysis with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was conducted for confirmation, which detected no EE2 at all. In consideration of the rather lower estimated EE2 concentration than the measured value, it was speculated that the presence of interfering substances like tetracosanic acid in the matrix could lead to overestimation of EE2 concentration. Overall, the effluents still pose potential estrogenic effect to the downstream aquatic organisms

situ polar organic chemical integrative sampling (POCIS) of steroidal estrogens in sewage treatment works discharge and river

A passive sampler (the polar organic chemical integrative sampler; POCIS) was assessed for its ability to sample natural estrogens (17b-estradiol, E2; estrone, E1 and estriol, E3) and the synthetic estrogen (17a-ethynylestradiol, EE2) in the outlet of a sewage treatment works over several weeks. The performance of the POCIS was investigated and optimised in the laboratory before field deployment with high recoveries (66-99%) were achieved for all estrogens. Moreover, it was shown that POCIS does not exhibit any preferential selectivity towards any of the target compounds. The sampling rates of E1, E2 and E3 were 0.018 AE 0.009, 0.025 AE 0.014 and 0.033 AE 0.019 L d À1 , respectively. Following field deployments of 28 days in the discharge of a sewage works, POCIS was shown to enhance the sensitivity of estrogen detection, especially for E3, and provide time-weighted average (TWA) concentrations of E1, E2 and E3, ranging from undetectable to 12 ng L À1 upstream of the outflow of a sewage treatment works, 13 to 91 ng L À1 at the outflow and 8 to 39 ng L À1 downstream of the outflow. This revealed that E1, E2 and E3 are not completely removed during sewage treatment, with concentrations most likely being maintained by contributions from conjugated estrogen analogues. Grab water samples showed considerable variation in the concentrations of estrogens over a longer period (6 months). The results confirm that POCIS is an effective and non-discriminatory method for the detection of low concentrations of estrogens in the aquatic environment

Prioritising anticancer drugs for environmental monitoring and risk assessment purposes

Anticancer drugs routinely used in chemotherapy enter wastewater through the excretion of the non-metabolised drug following administration to patients. This study considers the consumption and subsequent behaviour and occurrence of these chemicals in aquatic systems, with the aim of prioritising a selection of these drugs which are likely to persist in the environment and hence be considered for environmental screening programmes. Accurate consumption data were compiled from a hospital survey in NW England and combined with urinary excretion rates derived from clinical studies. Physical–chemical property data were compiled along with likely chemical fate and persistence during and after wastewater treatment. A shortlist of 15 chemicals (from 65) was prioritised based on their consumption, persistency and likelihood of occurrence in surface waters and supported by observational studies where possible. The ecological impact of these ‘prioritised’ chemicals is uncertain as the measured concentrations in surface waters generally fall below standard toxicity thresholds. Nonetheless, this prioritised sub-list should prove useful for developing environmental screening programmes

In situ polar organic chemical integrative sampling (POCIS) of steroidal estrogens in sewage treatment works discharge and river water

A passive sampler (the polar organic chemical integrative sampler; POCIS) was assessed for its ability to sample natural estrogens (17b-estradiol, E2; estrone, E1 and estriol, E3) and the synthetic estrogen (17a-ethynylestradiol, EE2) in the outlet of a sewage treatment works over several weeks. The performance of the POCIS was investigated and optimised in the laboratory before field deployment with high recoveries (66–99%) were achieved for all estrogens. Moreover, it was shown that POCIS does not exhibit any preferential selectivity towards any of the target compounds. The sampling rates of E1, E2 and E3 were 0.018 0.009, 0.025 0.014 and 0.033 0.019 L d1, respectively. Following field deployments of 28 days in the discharge of a sewage works, POCIS was shown to enhance the sensitivity of estrogen detection, especially for E3, and provide time-weighted average (TWA) concentrations of E1, E2 and E3, ranging from undetectable to 12 ng L1 upstream of the outflow of a sewage treatment works, 13 to 91 ng L1 at the outflow and 8 to 39 ng L1 downstream of the outflow. This revealed that E1, E2 and E3 are not completely removed during sewage treatment, with concentrations most likely being maintained by contributions from conjugated estrogen analogues. Grab water samples showed considerable variation in the concentrations of estrogens over a longer period (6 months). The results confirm that POCIS is an effective and non-discriminatory method for the detection of low concentrations of estrogens in the aquatic environment