Green Power is the energy produced from renewable power. Internationally, the sales of green power, which are different from regular merchandise of power, are viewed as a market mechanism based on voluntarily-purchased-by-users. The system of green power, one of the nation¡¦s policies of renewable energy, is also an efficient means to increase the percentage of generating power by renewable energy. To differentiate green power from regular power, the price of green power will be higher in advanced countries in order to establish the market mechanism based on voluntarily-purchased-by-users. The money received by green power is mainly used to develop renewable energy, to depreciate high costs of renewable energy constructions and to provide the opportunities for the public to involve in environmental protection and enhance their awareness of environmental protection. Several countries, such as the US, Canada, European Union (EU), Australia and Japan have the sales system of the green power. In 2005, Shanghai, China also started such a system. In Taiwan, the Act of Renewable Energy Development, which is highly critical to the energy development of the country, has been passed on June 12, 2009 in the Legislative Yuan. The thesis has analyzed several foreign green power cases and gleaned experiences from their system. Combined with the circumstances, including the project of renewable power development and the source and the productivity of green power, the thesis has tried to build a green power system suitable for the country. The thesis also used different methods to develop pricing of green power. The thesis has combined today¡¦s circumstances and experiences learned from foreign cases to provide a suitable system of sales and pricing of green power under the legal restrictions in Taiwan.

This thesis examines ways to reduce energy consumption in university buildings. Occupancy based controls and other advanced building technologies being studied at the Intelligent Workplace (IW) at Carnegie Melon University were examined to see if they could be applied in at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU). Additionally, a sustainability assessment for the current TAMIU campus was performed with an analysis of the potential for TAMIU to obtain LEED certification from the US Green Building Council. First, occupancy-based controls that would shut off lighting, utilize power management features on computer equipment, and reduce airflow when a space is unoccupied were examined. An estimated annual savings of $525 could be obtained in the test office at Texas A&M by implementing these controls. If same controls were applied to the proposed green building at TAMIU, approximately $203,422 could be saved annually. Secondly, advanced building technologies used at the IW were examined to see if they are feasible in the new green building at TAMIU. Biodiesel cogeneration was found to be economically infeasible as a main power supply using the loads calculated for the building. A feasibility calculation for a radiant heating and cooling system with ventilation was performed and it was estimated that using one of these systems could have potential at TAMIU if the building envelope is designed correctly. Displacement ventilation could be implemented for research purposes in the test bed, but should not be implemented on a broader basis until more is known about the performance of these systems in hot and humid climates. Daylighting should be used in the new building whenever its implementation will not significantly increase solar loads. Thirdly, a sustainability assessment of the current TAMIU campus was performed. Several good practices and areas for improvement were identified in nine sustainability-related areas. The current TAMIU campus was examined to see what scope of work would be required to achieve LEED certification from the US Green Building Council. It was found that 39 credits, which is enough to achieve LEED certification, are either achievable as-is, achievable with a policy change, or achievable with a minor retrofit scope.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) is the fifth most economically important cereal grown worldwide and is a source of food, feed, fiber and fuel. Sorghum, a C4 grass and a close relative to sugarcane, is adapted to hot, dry adverse environments. Some genotypes of sorghum called stay-green have delayed leaf senescence during grain ripening under drought stress conditions which allows normal grain filling whereas most sorghum lines senesce early under post-anthesis drought. Eight sources of stay-green have been identified in the sorghum germplasm collection, most originating from Sudan and Ethiopia. The diversity of the eight sources of staygreen was analyzed using 55 simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers with genome coverage. This analysis showed that the sources of stay-green are quite diverse and can be divided into five groups based on race or working group. Three sources of stay-green have been used to identify 12 major quantitative trait loci (QTL) that modulate this trait. The origin of favorable alleles for stay-green was traced backward to ancestral lines and forward into breeding materials derived from stay-green germplasm. The analysis of the origin of favorable alleles for stay-green helped explain why subsets of stay-green QTL were identified in different studies and provided evidence that there may be more than one favorable allele in the sorghum germplasm for several of the stay-green QTL. Analysis of stay-green breeding lines from three public sorghum-breeding programs revealed that one of the main QTL identified in mapping studies was not being used in the breeding programs (0/13), most likely due to its association with an allele for lemon yellow seeds. In addition, a subset of the regions containing favorable alleles for staygreen from the genotype BTx642 were over represented in stay-green breeding lines. Nearly isogenic lines containing favorable alleles from BTx642 for Stg1, Stg2, Stg3, and Stg4 in a RTx7000 (senescent) background were characterized and each NIL was shown to exhibit a stay-green phenotype. Based in part on this information, fine-mapping of Stg1 was undertaken by crossing the Stg1 NIL to RTx7000. Overall, these results revealed the origin of favorable alleles for stay-green and the current utilization of alleles for stay-green in public breeding programs. In addition, this study identified additional stay-green sources that could be used for further QTL analysis and highlighted the genetic complexity of the stay-green trait.

South Korea is among a host of countries trying to achieve sustainable development across whole industry sectors by adopting "Green Growth" as the vision of the national development in the Korean government. The government has executed a vast effort regarding the policy, and these efforts have produced several successful results. However, the vision of the Green Growth does not appear to be settled in the construction industry, which is a sector that has a huge impact on sustainability and has made striking economic impacts over the last several decades to Korea's growth and development. Although the performances under the Green Growth are difficult to be evaluated because the Green Growth policy is now in the process of revisions and supplement, this is the time to diagnose the current situation and efforts of Green Growth in the Korean construction industry. A primary goal of the thesis is developing a preliminary framework to promote Green Growth in the Korean construction industry in order to reduce possible trials and errors in the early phase of the implementation of Green Growth. To accomplish this goal, a detailed analysis of the current Korean sustainability system, Green Growth, was then undertaken given this is the current policy guidance for the Korean construction industry. To garner further input on the direction of sustainability policy and methods in Korea, in-depth interviews with professionals in relevant construction-related businesses were conducted. In addition, the study conducts an analysis how sustainable development has occurred in the U.S. construction industry to determine what the driving forces that could transfer and be of assistance to Korea. A preliminary sustainability system framework is developed along with associated guidelines. The guidelines suggest that sustainability policy directed towards the Korean construction industry should be apparent so that stakeholder can implement it with consistency and detail. Also suggested is a movement away from the current policy that largely focuses on green building to one that is more holistic and includes infrastructure and other aspects of the built, environmental, and socio-economic systems. In this light, the primary concept of the policy aligns with the sustainability concept of the triple bottom line: environment, economy and society. Through the feedback from a performance measurement system, the policy is evaluated and is adjusted to stimulate the Green Growth over the construction industry in South Korea.

Green rusts (GRs), a group of layered Fe(II)-Fe(III) hydroxide salts, have been observed to be effective reductants for degrading organic and inorganic contaminants under suboxic conditions. Furthermore, the addition of a transition metal to GRs can produce high-activity modified green rusts (HMGRs) that demonstrate higher degradation rates. Methods of modifying GRs to obtain high reactivity for degradation of PCE and nitrate were developed and reduction kinetics of PCE and nitrate by HMGRs were characterized in this study. First, the most promising HMGRs were developed through screening tests. GRs modified with Pt, Cu, Ag, or Pb were found to be effective in improving degradation rates of PCE. GR-F(Pt) and GR-F(Cu) were chosen because they showed high reactivity and produced non-chlorinated by-products. Pt and Cu showed the capability of improving reduction kinetics of nitrate by GRs. GR-F(Pt) and GR-F(Cu) were selected for further study. Second, degradation of PCE by GR-F(Cu) and GR-F(Pt) was characterized using a batch reactor system. The reaction kinetics of PCE degradation by GR-F(Cu) and GR-F(Pt) was strongly dependent on pH over the range of pH 7.5-11, with the fastest rate at pH 11. Increasing concentrations of Cu(II) over the range of 0 to 5 mM resulted in improving the reduction kinetics by a factor of more than 400, although the rate at 7.5 mM of Cu(II) was unexpectedly lower than that at 5 mM. Surface saturation behavior was observed in the rates of dechlorination of PCE by GR-F(Cu). Finally, nitrate reduction by GR-F(Cu) and GR-F(Pt) was further studied to determine the effects on degradation rates of pH, Cu(II) addition, and initial nitrate concentration. A reaction model with four sequential steps was proposed to describe the process of nitrate being reduced to ammonium and GR being oxidized to magnetite. The reaction rates of nitrate reduction by GR-F(Cu) and GR-F(Pt) was highest at pH 9. The reaction rates of GR-NO3 were improved by three orders of magnitude when Cu(II) was added in the range of 0 to 2.5 mM, while reaction rate decreased at concentrations above 2.5 mM. Saturation behavior was also observed in nitrate reduction by GR-F(Cu).

This thesis examines ways to reduce energy consumption in university buildings. Occupancy based controls and other advanced building technologies being studied at the Intelligent Workplace (IW) at Carnegie Melon University were examined to see if they could be applied in at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU). Additionally, a sustainability assessment for the current TAMIU campus was performed with an analysis of the potential for TAMIU to obtain LEED certification from the US Green Building Council. First, occupancy-based controls that would shut off lighting, utilize power management features on computer equipment, and reduce airflow when a space is unoccupied were examined. An estimated annual savings of $525 could be obtained in the test office at Texas A&M by implementing these controls. If same controls were applied to the proposed green building at TAMIU, approximately $203,422 could be saved annually. Secondly, advanced building technologies used at the IW were examined to see if they are feasible in the new green building at TAMIU. Biodiesel cogeneration was found to be economically infeasible as a main power supply using the loads calculated for the building. A feasibility calculation for a radiant heating and cooling system with ventilation was performed and it was estimated that using one of these systems could have potential at TAMIU if the building envelope is designed correctly. Displacement ventilation could be implemented for research purposes in the test bed, but should not be implemented on a broader basis until more is known about the performance of these systems in hot and humid climates. Daylighting should be used in the new building whenever its implementation will not significantly increase solar loads. Thirdly, a sustainability assessment of the current TAMIU campus was performed. Several good practices and areas for improvement were identified in nine sustainability-related areas. The current TAMIU campus was examined to see what scope of work would be required to achieve LEED certification from the US Green Building Council. It was found that 39 credits, which is enough to achieve LEED certification, are either achievable as-is, achievable with a policy change, or achievable with a minor retrofit scope.

Texte remanié de: Doct. th.--York, 1999. / Bibliogr. p. 191-211. Index.

Thesis (M. Med. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-53).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-157). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-109). Also available in print.