Urban air pollution is a matter of concern in many of the newly independent sates of Central Asia and the Caucasus. The poor quality of the fuel used by the largely poorly maintained vehicle stock just worsens emissions problems. It is estimated that nearly 40,000 people die prematurely and about 100,000 people fall ill every year in the big cities of the region as a result of exposure to excessive air pollution. The projections for the next 10 to 15 years are for higher vehicle numbers and increased vehicle use leading to a steady rise of damaging pollutants if current policies regarding fuel specifications and vehicle standards are not addressed quickly. This report gives the World Bank's assessment of the problem faced by the countries in the region. It puts forward a framework for short- and medium-term measures for improving fuel quality and vehicle emission s performance.
Because evidence that shows that diesel fumes are more toxic than was previously thought, there has been increased interest in the use of natural gas for vehicles operating in cities. Transit buses, traditionally fueled by diesel, are one of the cheapest forms of mass transit. They are also significant polluters and typically operate in heavily congested urban areas, where significant air pollution problems exist. The report provides an overview of the issues that must be considered when evaluating natural gas an alternative to diesel for use in transit buses.
This book details the context within which policy decisions and objectives for the property tax system are made in the transitional economies of Central and Eastern Europe. It shows how these policy decisions evolve as a part of the transitional reforms still in process. This book offers the chance to review the experiences of transitional countries in initiating and implementing fiscal instruments during a decade of enormous transformations. The research for the case studies, included in this book, was sponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
The review sets out to highlight the major developments in this field over the last decade. The different techniques used to prepare PLS nanocomposites are covered. The physicochemical characterisation of PLS nanocomposites and the improved materials properties that those materials can display are discussed. An additional indexed section containing several hundred abstracts from the Rapra Polymer Library database provides useful references for further reading.
With little existing scholarship on LGBT diaspora from Asia, this groundbreaking book examines the intersectionality of migration, sexuality, and gender, as well as race and ethnicity, through an analysis of the transnational experiences of Japanese LGBT diasporas in the USA, Canada and Australia. Employing a variety of methods, including a questionnaire, ethnographic analysis and case studies, the author demonstrates and analyses LGBT experiences where the notion of “gay-friendly” Japan prevails, looking at their reasons to flee the country and their diverse experiences in their host country. These include their needs and want for social services for Japanese LGBT diaspora. Findings are comparatively examined with LGBT refugees’ experiences, among LGBT subgroups, as well as across the three countries, highlighting the significance of gender, race and ethnicity, as well as immigration policy, in the experiences of LGBT diasporas from Japan. This book will appeal to students and scholars interested in Migration, Race and Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality, and Asian Studies. Masami Tamagawa is Senior Teaching Professor of Japanese Studies, Gender Studies, and Asian Studies at Skidmore College, USA.
This open access book is a must-read for students of and beginners in soil science. In a well-organized and easy-to-follow manner, it provides basic outlines of soil minerals, new methods and recent developments in the field, with a special focus on visual aids. The chapters on primary minerals, secondary minerals, non-crystalline inorganic constituents and inorganic constituents sensitive to varying redox conditions will help readers understand the basic components of soils. Further, readers are introduced to new analytical methods with the aid of microscopy and recent developments in the field. Uniquely, the book features case studies on the identification and isolation methods for vivianite crystals from paddy field soils, as well as a useful procedure for identifying noncrystalline constituents such as volcanic glasses and plant opals, which can also be applied to other soils depending on the local conditions. Given its focus and coverage, the book will be useful to all readers who are interested in agronomy, plant production science, agricultural chemistry and environmental science. In addition, it can help biogeochemists further expand their research work on the rhizosphere of wetland plant roots, iron and phosphate dynamics, etc.
This book presents the frontier research of toxicology and health risk assessment of chemicals. First, it provides an overview of the current methods of evaluating safety amounts of chemicals and provides a new aspect of the principle of toxicology. Secondly, it shows recent research where the new method of health risk evaluation is adopted, followed by an integrated health risk assessment of chemicals. Finally, it describes the epigenetic inheritance of chemical impact on health throughout several generations. Estimating the safety amount of chemicals surrounding our lives is not sufficient for health risk evaluation, particularly for carcinogenic compounds, endocrine disruptors, and nano materials. The author’s group has found a family of chemicals linked to ADHD through animal screening and identified its chemical nature using chemoinformatics methods. Based on these new developments, this book proposes to utilize the biomarker common to those chemicals for health risk assessment, independent of exposure routes and physiological dimensions. The book appeals to researchers and students in the field of toxicology, health risk assessment, pharmacology, and public health.
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