Climate and weather play a significant role in patterns of air pollution occurrence and severity. An analysis of the effect of weather on pollution parameters in Hong Kong was performed. Hong Kong is one of the world's most densely populated regions and air pollution can be problematic, which is a serious public health concern. Hong Kong is impacted by Tropical Cyclones which strongly affect weather patterns. In this research, a twelve-year record (2007-2018) of tropical cyclone (TC) and pollutant concentrations (carbon monoxide, ground-level ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter) were analyzed to investigate the effects of TC on air quality. It is found that the occurrences of TC are strongly related to days with elevated particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide concentrations (above 90th percentile), and low concentrations (below the 10th percentile) for nitrogen dioxide. In particular, the spatial location of TC with respect to Hong Kong is found to be clearly associated with high or low pollutant concentrations. When the TC is located to the North/Northeast of Hong Kong, the air quality tends to be poor because polluted air from mainland China is advected over the city. Conversely, TC located to the West resulted in good air quality by ventilating the city with relatively clean air from the ocean. / Graduate

In tropical regions, climate change is predicted to lead to increased drought frequency and intensity. The extent to which this will shift the functional diversity of tropical tree communities is unknown due to a limited understanding about the response of seedlings to variable soil moisture. We addressed this issue using an experimental approach in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. We exposed seedlings of eight tree species, representing different successional stages, to an experimental soil moisture gradient. We evaluated (1) How species mean trait values relate to species-specific demographic responses to drought, (2) How intraspecific variation in functional traits relates to a soil moisture gradient, (3) The extent to which demographic response to short-term experimental drought mirrored long-term demographic response of seedlings to natural variation in soil moisture. Growth and survival of species with more `conservative` functional strategies tended to be more sensitive to a change in soil moisture and more tolerant to drought compared to species with more `acquisitive` strategies. In addition, traits of individual seedlings within species varied with respect to soil moisture, suggesting a potential role for phenotypic plasticity in response to drought. Specifically, this response was significant for three species (Inga laurina, Guarea guidonia, Schefflera morototoni) and was primarily associated with relative carbon investment in leaves and roots. Species demographic responses to soil moisture in experimental and long-term studies were weakly positively correlated but more variables are at play under natural conditions, which partly decouples these responses. Overall, our results suggest that tree species with `conservative` functional strategies are likely to become more common under increasing drought frequency and intensity in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. However, understanding the broader implications of our findings will require considering the effects of other disturbances, including hurricanes, which may have contrasting effects. Furthermore, intraspecific variation in functional traits is likely to influence how the seedlings of tropical tree species cope with drought.

The world is facing two fundamental problems. The first problem is a rapidly increasing demand for energy. The second problem is increasing greenhouse gas emissions that are directly resulting from our energy consumption. The primary greenhouse gas in question here is carbon dioxide produced from the burning of fossil fuels. It has been demonstrated through scientific articles and studies that carbon dioxide is directly linked to rising atmospheric temperatures. Buildings represent a significant percentage of this CO2 production. Many architectural theses and treatises have been written advocating architecture that is more energy efficient and which uses sustainable materials and processes as necessary steps towards solving the global warming crisis. With the threat of global warming looming, everyday architecture must go through a transformation. Sustainable buildings should not be limited to rarefied architectural gems. Instead, sustainable architecture should become a commonplace condition in the built environment. In order to achieve this, we need sustainable architecture that not only addresses the environmental issues but also pays for itself and pays the building owner for taking on such a task. To answer this need, I intend to design a mixed-use multifamily building that exists in the environment as a living system. As all living things, it must function utilizing the resources available in that environment. It must have a practical and economically viable on-site energy production and storage methodology that is environmentally benign and takes advantage of freely available natural resources. It must react to changes in the environment to better manage its resources and it must be able to store resources for later use. Lastly, it should foster sustainable living practices of its occupants. By building in this way, architecture can take on a new role as symbiant rather than parasite in the environment, producing its own pollution free energy and clean water. Each building acts as a life support system for its inhabitants but is also part of a macro scale biosphere. If resources are managed carefully, an exportable energy surplus can be generated representing an economic benefit to the owner. This provides an economic directive to adopt sustainable practices.

La presente investigación aborda el proceso y desarrollo de los festivales musicales en el Perú que presentan propuestas del género tropical en su programación. Dentro de estas propuestas tropicales, se busca dar mayor énfasis a la inclusión de nuevas agrupaciones provenientes de la fusión de cumbia con rock, que son agrupaciones de una escena formada desde fines del 2000 y que actualmente están trabajando en el constante crecimiento de su marca, público, puesta en escena, marketing, entre otros aspectos. El objetivo general de esta investigación es averiguar el nivel de difusión que genera la participación de estas nuevas agrupaciones en festivales nacionales. Para ello, se mostrará un marco teórico y conceptual del festival de música y el desarrollo de conciertos en Perú de 2007 hasta 2019, mostrando que existe un aumento en la oferta de festivales musicales entre 2014 y 2019. Asimismo, se realizará un breve repaso del desarrollo de las agrupaciones del género tropical en el Perú hasta llegar a las agrupaciones consideradas en esta investigación como las nuevas propuestas musicales del género tropical; es importante mencionar que se abordará su formación, comunicación, estrategias de marketing, análisis musical, puesta en escena y su participación en festivales nacionales. Posterior a esto, se realiza un acercamiento a la relación entre festivales y agrupaciones proponiendo, por un lado, conocer qué cosas están buscando los programadores de festivales para decidir que agrupaciones convocarán y, por otro lado, saber si las agrupaciones están dispuestas o pueden acercarse a cumplir estos requisitos; para darle mayor profundidad a este tema se presenta el caso de cuatro agrupaciones tropicales. Finalmente, se presenta un análisis del resultado de una encuesta realizada a personas que asisten a festivales de música para conocer su percepción como público respecto a los festivales y a las nuevas propuestas del género tropical. / The present investigation addresses the process and development of music festivals in Peru that present proposals of the tropical genre in their programming. Within these musical proposals, it seeks to give greater emphasis to the inclusion of new groups from the fusion of cumbia with rock, which are groups from a scene formed in late 2000 and which are currently working on the constant growth of their brand, audience, staging, marketing, among other aspects. The general objective of this investigation is to find out the level of diffusion generated by the participation of these new groups in national festivals. To do this, a theoretical and conceptual framework of music festival and the development of concerts in Peru from 2007 to 2019 will be shown, showing that there is an increase in the offer of musical festivals between 2014 and 2019. Also, a brief revision will be made, from the development of tropical genre groups in Peru until reaching the groups considered in this investigation as the new musical proposals of the tropical genre; it is important to mention that their formation, communication, marketing strategies, musical analysis, staging and their participation in national festivals will be addressed. After this, an approach to the relationship between festivals and groups is made, proposing, in one hand, to know what things festivals programmers are looking for to decide which groups will call and, on the other hand, to know if the groups are willing or able to approach compliance these requirements; to give more depth to this topic, the case of four tropical groups is presented. Finally, an analysis of the results of a survey to people who attends music festivals is presented to find out their perception as a public regarding festivals and new proposals of the tropical genre. / Tesis

A Tropical Temperate Trough (TTT) is a type of weather system that links the tropics and the extra-tropics across southern Africa. TTT events have been studied statistically in detail, but very little research has been done to study this phenomenon dynamically and especially on a seasonal scale. This study therefore focuses on the predictability of the characteristics of TTTs across southern Africa on a seasonal scale, by using a state-of-the-art seasonal forecasting model, namely the GloSea5 developed by the UK Met Office. Gridded hindcast data for the months of November, December, January and February from 1996/1997 to 2009/2010 are compared to observed data. The different ensemble members of the GloSea5 model (with lead-times of 1 week up to 2 months) are first compared separately to the observed data, after which the model average, with a 0-month, a 1-month and a 2-month lead-time, is calculated and also compared to the observed dataset. TTT events have distinctive characteristics during the formation and the development phases. Most prominent of these characteristics are the cloud bands associated with these weather systems, which have a north-west to south-east orientation and move from west to east across southern Africa. To identify the TTTs, daily outgoing long-wave radiation values are processed by a Meteorological Robot (MetBot), with a strict criterion to identify the cloud bands that characterise these systems. The MetBot’s algorithm produces the information needed to further investigate the different characteristics of TTTs, such as the frequency, the location and the intensity of these systems. Analysis of the MetBot output includes calculating the Root Mean Square Error, the percentage error and in some cases the percentage deviation of the number of cloud bands, as well as the anchor point, the centroid position, the area, the tilt and the minimum and maximum OLR values of the cloud bands. This investigation revealed that the characteristics of TTT events can to some extent be predicted on a seasonal scale for the summer rainfall season of southern Africa. The model used in this study fared particularly well with a 1-month lead-time forecast (compared to a 0-month and a 2-month lead-time forecast). The intensity and the location of the cloud bands associated with TTT events are forecast with a smaller percentage error than the frequency of these systems, as the frequency of TTTs tend to be significantly under-predicted by the model. For some predicted quantities, such as the area of the cloud bands, a bias-adjustment is necessary which produces significantly better results with smaller percentage errors. In the conclusions, suggestions are made on possible future studies, and how to develop this study further to create seasonal forecasts with higher skill with special regards to TTT events. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / MSc / Unrestricted

A landscape perspective is critically important for understanding community structure, particularly in systems dominated by migratory fauna. I aimed to understand how the structure of riverscapes in Puerto Rico mediates potential anthropogenic impacts, predator-prey interactions, and the migratory behavior of a diadromous species. I surveyed fishes and shrimps at sites throughout two watersheds, designed transplant experiments that investigated the role of natural barriers on predator-prey interactions, and developed models of shrimp migration specific to a particular river network. I did not detect an effect of anthropogenic changes to the landscape on fish and shrimp species distributions in two watersheds that drain the Luquillo Experimental Forest. These communities were primarily affected by the position of natural barriers: predatory fish distributions were limited by waterfalls and most shrimp species were found upstream from fish barriers. Thus, steep terrain mediated predator-prey interactions between fishes and shrimps, with one shrimp (Atya lanipes) likely avoiding predation by migrating above fish barriers. Lab and field experiments provided the first mechanistic evidence for landscape-level predator-avoidance behavior by A. lanipes. Both postlarval and adult shrimp avoided the scent of three predatory fish species in a y-maze fluvarium. In natural streams above fish barriers, adult A. lanipes did not respond to the addition of fish scent, but adult abundances did decline when fish were added to in-stream cages. To integrate our ideas about how shrimp behaviors scale up to observed adult A. lanipes distributions across the landscape, we developed a set of nested models specific to a particular river network. The best models parameterized branch choice at nodes within the river network to be heavily weighted toward particular mid-elevation tributaries above fish barriers. Our models indicated that distance traveled above and below fish barriers had little effect on adult distributions. Because the number of migrants decreases with distance upstream, the latter result was likely an artifact of the model. In montane river systems with migratory fauna, scientists would benefit by creatively designing new experiments and models that incorporate river network structure, as this is the template upon which all processes occur.

Thesis. 1977. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Meteorology. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Bibliography : leaves 88-89. / M.S.

To secure the growing energy demand due to the rise in population and technological advancements, countries worldwide are looking for alternatives or complementary generation sources to support the existing grid infrastructure and power generating system. The increase in global temperature and climate change forces each country to switch to clean energy production.  Among the renewable energy sources, the Floating Photovoltaic (FPV) market is flourishing in various countries. It is a good source of power generation avoiding land constraint issues and adding extra benefits like cooling of panels and reducing evaporation and algal bloom problems of water sources where it is installed. In fact, as a part of a complementary generation, the idea of using unused reservoir water surface of reservoir for the deployment of photovoltaic (PV) is a considerable solution for meeting energy demand.  As hydropower and PV are dispatchable and non-dispatchable sources of energy, they can complement each other well. The floating PV and hydropower basics and factors that complement their mutual operation are discussed in this research work with a literature review. Case studies of tropical and mediterranean climatic countries like Myanmar and Albania are analyzed using HOMER Pro. The various challenges associated with this hybrid hydro-floating PV project are evaluated using risk analysis, and the highest risk elements are identified.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第20772号 / 農博第2255号 / 新制||農||1055(附属図書館) / 学位論文||H29||N5092(農学部図書室) / 京都大学大学院農学研究科森林科学専攻 / (主査)教授 德地 直子, 教授 神﨑 護, 教授 吉岡 崇仁 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

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