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A review of research which points to the importance of behaviour in energy consumption is presented. The literature on ways of controlling energy consumption by behavioural means is reviewed. Understanding the consumer is highlighted as being important in explaining variation in energy utilization.This thesis investigates the idea that consumption could be reduced through an understanding of people's beliefs. A variety of methodologies was used to this end.(a) People in difficulties with paying their bills, contacted through a radio appeal, were interviewed.(b) Objective measurements of occupant behaviour were obtained which suggested reasons for differences in energy consumption.(c) Using a semi-structured interview and a ranking task a relationship was sought between knowledge of the relative running costs of appliances and energy consumption. Negative relationships were found.(d) Two studies of consumer understanding of Economy 7 electricity bills were undertaken in the public and private sectors. In the former, but not the latter case, a significant relationship was found between the bestunderstanding of Economy 7 and of bills, and lower costs.(e) Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate householder understanding of thermostats in two types of homes: those with gas radiator systems and those with electric underfloor heating.As a result of the studies many suboptimal strategies based on erroneous beliefs came to light. The research reported here has not only enabled practical recommendations to be made for immediate implementation but has also demonstrated the fruitfulness of investigating consumers' understanding of their heating systems as a means of promoting the efficient use of energy.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis is concerned with different aspects of laser cleaning of stone sculpture including the interaction of laser radiation with stone, evaluation and monitoring of the cleaning process and the development of a practical cleaning tool. Results show that a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser is the most suitable type of laser for the removal of black encrustations from marble and limestone surfaces. Measurements of the absorptivity of polluted and clean stone surfaces at 1.06 itm show that a typical black crust, resulting from atmospheric pollution, absorbs 2.5-3.5 times as much of the incident radiation as typical clean limestone and marble surfaces. This is shown to lead to the controlled removal of black crust material, by several thermal and mechanical mechanisms, without damaging the underlying stone. Measurements of ablation thresholds, by deflection of a probe beam, reveal that material is removed from a black crust at a fluence approximately half that required to remove material from a clean limestone or marble surface. Monitoring of the acoustic pulse generated during the laser beam/stone interaction is used to characterise the cleaning process. Results also show that cleaning is more efficient when a thin layer of water is applied to the surface prior to irradiation. Surface analysis techniques show that if cleaning is carried out below the damage threshold of the stone there is no modification to its physical or chemical structure. Cleaning of limestone sculpture from Lincoln Cathedral and terracotta sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum shows laser cleaning to be more refined than conventional cleaning techniques and to have considerable advantages in the area of health and safety.

This thesis describes a series of laboratory and field experiments that quantify the population dynamics of the heather beetle (Lochmaea suturalis Thomson), in relation to temperature and its host plant heather (Calluna vulgaris (L. ) Hull). The sex ratio, fecundity, egg laying threshold temperature, emergence threshold temperature, life stage development periods, and life stage mortalities were investigated. It was shown that the life stages were significantly dependent on temperature, whilst it was shown that there was no significant relationship between larval growth and Calluna vulgaris plants sourced from the study sites. The results of the population dynamics experiments were incorporated into a temperature driven, cohort based, and daily looped, stochastic population dynamics computer model. The temperature component of the model was derived from temperature data collected from nine moorland sites, at different altitudes, where there was shown to be a significant relationship between temperature and altitude. The population dynamics model was run for a fifty year period with a population of I million beetles at seven temperature regimes and five different altitudes. The model predicted that as daily mean temperatures rose, so there was a greater chance of increasing populations and that as altitude increases, so the chance of increasing populations decreases. At a predicted daily mean temperature rise of 2-3'C there was evidence of considerable population increases at lower altitudes, and with a daily mean temperature rise of 4-6'C the beetle population exhibited persistent, large, fluctuating populations in the region of three to sixty fold increases at all modelled altitudes over a number of years. An uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of the model was undertaken utilising a Latin Hypercube Swnpling regime, where it was shown that fecundity, egg mortality and pupal mortality were the most important life history variables in i contributing to the model output imprecision. The thesis discussesth eser esults in the light of predicted climate change and their use as an aid to moorland and heathland managers.

In this thesis I outline the different processes, operating at different scales, that influence the spatial distribution of mammals and review modelling approaches that have been used to represent these processes. I investigate the application of a selection of modelling approaches operating at different scales. A model based on the energetics and movements of individual foragers was developed to investigate population spacing patterns and applied to the red squirrel. At high food densities, small, similarly sized, non overlapping ranges were generated, whereas at low food densities ranges were larger, more overlapping and more variable in size. The model is a first step towards investigating the spacing patterns of ranging mammals. A model representing the positioning of dens was applied to predict the distribution of badger main setts. The model determined how many setts could be placed in suitable habitats while maintaining a pre-defined, minimum inter-sett distance. The representation of badger spacing behaviour and the utility of the approach is discussed. At a larger scale, a model based upon births and deaths within habitat patches and an explicit representation of dispersal between patches was used to assess plans to reintroduce the beaver. It predicted little or no population spread, in contrast to the application of a generic population viability analysis package that predicted rapid population spread. A difference in the representation of dispersal was identified as the most likely cause of the disparity. A general model based on these approaches was developed to investigate the interaction between dispersal and demographic processesing spatially explicit population models. The future of models to predict the spatial distribution of mammals is discussed in relation to issues of scale, management applications and modelling philosophies.

<p> The current biodiversity crisis is challenging the ability of conservation biologists to both monitor ongoing declines and create effective management plans. Ongoing habitat destruction, pollution, introduction of invasive species, and the initial stages of climate change are only some of the anthropogenic stresses that face today's biosphere. On human time scales, these changes are unprecedented, curtailing the availability of knowledge regarding ecological responses to stress and disturbance. The fossil record provides numerous disturbances of varying magnitudes throughout the history of life, and yet this resource has been often overlooked or dismissed by biologists. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of stress on communities using methods that allow integration of modern and fossil data. With this goal in mind, various levels of disturbance are investigated across increasing temporal and spatial scales.</p><p> At the smallest spatial and temporal scale, I examined the effect of recent lake acidification on plankton communities, using techniques commonly applied by ecologists, as well as introducing a new method based on a well-established technique. Throughout this thesis, I use the Buzas-Gibson evenness metric and Non-metric Multi-Dimensional Scaling analysis (an ordination technique), as well as applying Rank-Abundance Curve Kurtosis, which measures the shape of species-abundance distributions. Each of these techniques is a different way of representing community structure, with each metric providing slightly different information. Within the lake acidification system, all communities displayed a shift in community structure as pH dropped, and again when pH values returned to neutral, indicating a gradual recovery from acid stress. The timing of this change reveals the ability of different communities to resist acidification, and the resilience of those communities through the recovery phase.</p><p> To determine the feasibility of comparing modern and fossil data, I selected four unrelated datasets with distinct disturbance events to represent different time scales, from two decades to one million years. Each dataset displayed a similar pattern; the disturbance event created a distinct shift in community structure followed by a gradual recovery after the stress levels decreased. A major concern when comparing modern and fossil data is the difference in temporal resolution, and specifically the effect of time-averaging which is expected to obscure ecological signals. Instead, I found that applying a model of time-averaging across the community data reduced background noise, thereby clarifying the pattern of ecological change observed in the raw data.</p><p> Extending the temporal and spatial scale, I explored the ecological response of marine microfossil assemblages during three intervals of rapid global warming, as analogues for modern global warming. Four taxonomic groups were included, two benthic and two planktic. Overall, diversity within communities increased during global warming, however this was due to the response of the planktic groups, as both benthic groups showed decreases in diversity. These findings support the utility of the fossil record in examining past disturbances, by providing a useful prediction for biotic responses to global warming.</p><p> Representing the largest spatial and temporal scale is the Botomian mass extinction (mid-Early Cambrian). This mass extinction is the first recognized mass extinction in the history of life, and occurred during an interval of rapid evolution and faunal turnover. During the extinction interval, there was a distinct change in community structure and an associated increase in instability.</p><p> The findings of this study are unique; community structure displays a similar response to stress across various taxonomic groups, in different environments, and at multiple temporal scales. The commonality in community response to stress likely represents a fundamental feature of disturbed ecosystems. Not only is the comparison of modern and fossil data possible, such comparisons offer new discoveries relevant to conservation biology and about the very nature of life on Earth.</p>

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1978. / Bibliography: leaves 81-83. / Microfiche. / viii, 83 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

This thesis presents findings from research conducted in Southern Kyrgyzstan, which followed nongovernmental organization (NGO) efforts to support climate change adaptation, and to support more resilient community-managed irrigation systems. Findings suggest that current NGO partnerships with Water User Associations (WUAs) frequently amount to financial and technical transactions, to preserve inherited infrastructure and resist disturbance. Enhancing resilience is pursued in an effort to maintain existing technical configurations of canals and water resources, despite altered socio-political and environmental conditions. Findings suggest increasing disassociation between irrigation constituents and the institutions and managers that are supposed to direct their grievances through legitimate democratic channels. Instead of being based on current irrigation practices and needs, decisions about allocating resources to technical components of the irrigation system seem to be based on desires to maintain past dynamics of resource access and distribution. The irrigation infrastructure and policies that were inherited from the Soviet era inherently favor those who were well-positioned after independence, while often disenfranchising others. Allocating resources to WUAs for technical projects to repair or maintain these configurations serves, at the same time, to maintain or even exacerbate existing local power and resource-access inequalities. The research project presented here has sought to provide NGOs operating in this arena with some actionable recommendations, for how they might conceptualize and focus their efforts to enhance resilience for community-managed irrigation systems. The research finds the absence of locally-specific knowledge and information concerning current irrigation practice from decision-making represents a critical barrier and potential opportunity to fostering effective deliberation and supporting transitions to more resilient systems. Do to their ostensibly impartial status, technical experience, and cross-community interactions, NGOs could play an important role in helping co-create and aggregate locally-specific knowledge about post-independence water use and access, which has gone hitherto ignored to the detriment of equitable and forward-looking management opportunities. In this way, NGOs who partner with WUAs for irrigation projects should increasingly base that partnership on the collection and management of information about irrigation practice, land-use, water availability and other parameters, in order to help establish WUAs as local institutions grounded in responsiveness to local conditions.