Quantitative environmental equity analysis of perceived accessibility to urban parks in Osaka Prefecture, Japan

Environmental equity (EE) has become internationally recognized as an important research field, but in Japan limited quantitative research is available. In this paper we report the results of a quantitative study that tested whether objective and perceived accessibility to parks is disproportionately distributed between the affluent and the poor in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Perceived accessibility is considered to be a more accurate accessibility measure which reflects the socio-cultural background of people. We find inequities in both accessibility measures, and using multiple logistic regression analysis, we clarified that perceived accessibility is shaped by a range of factors (i.e., income level, objective accessibility to parks, and people’s perceptions of traffic accidents, crime, and the level of scenic beauty in the neighboring area). Our results provide some insight into remediation measures for the environmental inequity of perceived accessibility. Simply establishing a new urban park may not sufficiently increase the perceived accessibility of socioeconomically deprived groups. Identifying the underlying mechanisms that could explain how poverty-related factors undermine the perceived park accessibility or improving the quality of neighboring area are also important to ensure the effectiveness of remediation measures

Low-temperature (similar to 270 degrees C) growth of vertically aligned ZnO nanorods using photoinduced metal organic vapour phase epitaxy

We successfully produced a drastic decrease in the required growth temperature of single-crystalline ZnO nanorods, and enabled successful growth of vertically aligned ZnO nanorods on a Si(100) substrate using photoinduced metal organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE). We introduced 325 nm light during the MOVPE growth, and achieved vertical growth of single-crystalline ZnO nanorods with a hexagonal crystal structure on Si(100) at a growth temperature of 270 degrees C. The successful low-temperature growth of ZnO nanorods on the Si(100) substrate described here is a promising step toward designing nanoscale photonic and electronic devices required by future systems.The work at POSTECH was supported by the National Creative Research Initiative Project, Korea and AOARD 05-84 (Quotation No. FA5209-05-T0369), United States

Low-temperature (similar to 270 degrees C) growth of vertically aligned ZnO nanorods using photoinduced metal organic vapour phase epitaxy

We successfully produced a drastic decrease in the required growth temperature of single-crystalline ZnO nanorods, and enabled successful growth of vertically aligned ZnO nanorods on a Si(100) substrate using photoinduced metal organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE). We introduced 325 nm light during the MOVPE growth, and achieved vertical growth of single-crystalline ZnO nanorods with a hexagonal crystal structure on Si(100) at a growth temperature of 270 degrees C. The successful low-temperature growth of ZnO nanorods on the Si(100) substrate described here is a promising step toward designing nanoscale photonic and electronic devices required by future systems.X114sciescopu