A Policy-Driven Large Scale Ecological Restoration: Quantifying Ecosystem Services Changes in the Loess Plateau of China

As one of the key tools for regulating human-ecosystem relations, environmental conservation policies can promote ecological rehabilitation across a variety of spatiotemporal scales. However, quantifying the ecological effects of such policies at the regional level is difficult. A case study was conducted at the regional level in the ecologically vulnerable region of the Loess Plateau, China, through the use of several methods including the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), hydrological modeling and multivariate analysis. An assessment of the changes over the period of 2000–2008 in four key ecosystem services was undertaken to determine the effects of the Chinese government's ecological rehabilitation initiatives implemented in 1999. These ecosystem services included water regulation, soil conservation, carbon sequestration and grain production. Significant conversions of farmland to woodland and grassland were found to have resulted in enhanced soil conservation and carbon sequestration, but decreased regional water yield under a warming and drying climate trend. The total grain production increased in spite of a significant decline in farmland acreage. These trends have been attributed to the strong socioeconomic incentives embedded in the ecological rehabilitation policy. Although some positive policy results have been achieved over the last decade, large uncertainty remains regarding long-term policy effects on the sustainability of ecological rehabilitation performance and ecosystem service enhancement. To reduce such uncertainty, this study calls for an adaptive management approach to regional ecological rehabilitation policy to be adopted, with a focus on the dynamic interactions between people and their environments in a changing world

Observation of the Decay B=> J/psi eta K and Search for X(3872)=> J/psi eta

We report the observation of the $B$ meson decay $B^\pm\to J/\psi \eta K^\pm$ and evidence for the decay $B^0\to J/\psi \eta K^0_S$, using {90} million $BBbar$ events collected at the \ensuremath{\Upsilon{(4S)}}\xspace resonance with the $BaBar$ detector at the PEP-II $e^+ e^-$ asymmetric-energy storage ring. We obtain branching fractions of $\cal{B}$$(B^\pm\to J/\psi \eta K^{\pm}$)=$(10.8\pm 2.3(\rm{stat.})\pm 2.4(\rm{syst.}))\times 10^{-5}$ and $\cal{B}$$(B^0\to J/\psi\eta K_{\rm{S}}^{0}$)=$(8.4\pm 2.6(\rm{stat.})\pm 2.7(\rm{syst.}))\times 10^{-5}$. We search for the new narrow mass state, the X(3872), recently reported by the Belle Collaboration, in the decay B^\pm\to X(3872)K^\pm, X(3872)\to \jpsi \eta and determine an upper limit of $\cal{B}$(B^\pm \to X(3872) K^\pm \to \jpsi \eta K^\pm) $<7.7\times 10^{-6}$ at 90% C.L.Comment: 7 pages and two figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett

Measurement of time-dependent CP asymmetries in B-0 -> D-(*)+/-pi(-/+) decays and constraints on sin(2 beta+gamma)

We present a measurement of CP-violating asymmetries in fully reconstructed B-0-->D((*)+/-)pi(-/+) decays in approximately 88x10(6) Y(4S)-->B (B) over bar decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B factory at SLAC. From a time-dependent maximum-likelihood fit we obtain the following for the CP-violating parameters: a=-0.022+/-0.038 (stat)+/-0.020 (syst), a(*)=-0.068+/-0.038 (stat)+/-0.020 (syst), c(lep)=+0.025+/-0.068 (stat)+/-0.033 (syst), and c(lep)(*)=+0.031+/-0.070 (stat)+/-0.033 (syst). Using other measurements and theoretical assumptions we interpret the results in terms of the angles of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa unitarity triangle, and find parallel tosin(2beta+gamma)parallel to>0.69 at 68% confidence level. We exclude the hypothesis of no CP violation [sin(2beta+gamma)=0] at 83% confidence level

Are green buildings more liveable than conventional buildings? An examination from the perspective of occupants

In response to excessive energy consumption and severe pollution, green building has gained increasing attention around the world. Governments’ top-down incentive schemes and consumers’ bottom-up choice preferences are two major channels of residential green building promotion. Regarding the bottom-up route, high liveability performance is critical to ensuring that occupants are willing to make secondary purchases or provide recommendations. Therefore, this paper, using post-occupancy evaluation, aims to evaluate and compare the liveability performance of green and conventional buildings from the perspectives of occupants. The results verified that the eco-label effect (i.e., subjective differences for building types) influenced the occupants’ evaluations of building performance. When controlling for eco-label bias, we found that green buildings were not superior to conventional buildings in terms of liveability. This is highly relevant to evaluations of the orientation of green building certifications that concentrate on the consumption of energy and material resources but neglect the living experience of occupants. In addition, indicators related to thermal comfort (e.g., indoor temperature or frequency of air conditioner use) played an important role in the occupants’ liveability evaluations. These findings provide concrete guidance regarding how the evaluation systems of green building certifications in various countries should be upgraded in the near future.</p

Achieving Sustainable Urban Development with an Ageing Population: An “Age-Friendly City and Community” Approach

The ageing population tends to be seen as a burden of cities’ future development. Thus, the public funds for older residents’ wellbeing are at risk of being cut back under the economic austerity due to the prevalent neoliberalism policy atmosphere. However, some cities set good examples to turn their older citizens into active contributors to sustainable urban development (SUD) by developing age-friendly cities and communities (AFCC). Taking Hong Kong as an example, this study aims to raise a strategy for policymakers, especially at the municipal level, to incorporate the concept of AFCC in SUD. Data were retrieved for our analysis from a published report of the Hong Kong Public Policy Research Fund project. A total of 15 AFCC and SUD policy factors were identified by using factor analysis. The correlations between these policy factors were evaluated and visualised in a synergetic effect network. According to the network, this study indicates that developing the silver hair market can be a suitable entry point to realise SUD by adopting an AFCC development. Isolation prevention, social sustainability and low-energy-consumption development are the supportive policy factors for the silver hair market. Specifically, respect, discrimination prevention, communication and information, age-friendly facilities, environmental safety and public transportation accessibility are five AFCC policy factors incorporated in the policy integration to enhance older residents’ wellbeing further. This study is an innovative attempt to develop a comprehensive model for the synergy between sustainable urban development and an age-friendly city and community using a correlation network. This study also provides a reference for other city governments to respond to population ageing positively.Housing Quality and Process Innovatio