Inland Cities Research Articles

David W. Schindler—Icon and Iconoclast

David W. Schindler—Icon and Iconoclast

Characteristics and sources of atmospheric pollutants in typical inland cities in arid regions of central Asia: A case study of Urumqi city.

The arid zone of central Asia secluded inland and has the typical features of the atmosphere. Human activities have had a significant impact on the air quality in this region. Urumqi is a key city in the core area of the Silk Road and an important economic center in Northwestern China. The urban environment is playing an increasingly important role in regional development. To study the characteristics and influencing factors of the main atmospheric pollutants in Urumqi, this study selected Urumqi’s daily air quality index (AQI) data and observation data of six major pollutants including fine particulate matter (PM2.5), breathable particulate matter (PM10), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3_8h) from 2014 to 2018 in conjunction with meteorological data to use a backward trajectory analysis method to study the main characteristics of atmospheric pollutants and their sources in Urumqi from 2014 to 2018. The results showed that: (1) From 2014 to 2018, the annual average of PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2 and CO concentrations showed a downward trend, and O3_8h concentrations first increased, then decreased, and then increased, reaching the highest value in 2018 (82.15 μg·m-3); The seasonal changes of PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2 and CO concentrations were characterized by low values in summer and fall seasons and high values in winter and spring seasons. The concentration of O3_8h, however, was in the opposite trend, showing the high values in summer and fall seasons, and low values in winter and spring seasons. From 2014 to 2018, with the exception of O3_8h, the concentration changes of the other five major air pollutants were high in December, January, and February, and low in May, June, and July; the daily changes showed a “U-shaped” change during the year. The high-value areas of the "U-shaped" mode formed around the 50th day and the 350th day. (2) The high-value area of AQI was from the end of fall (November) to the beginning of the following spring (March), and the low-value area was from April to October. It showed a U-shaped change trend during the year and the value was mainly distributed between 50 and 100. (3) The concentrations of major air pollutants in Urumqi were significantly negatively correlated with precipitation, temperature, and humidity (P<0.01), and had the highest correlation coefficients with temperature. (4) Based on the above analysis results, this study analyzed two severe pollution events from late November to early December. Analysis showed that the PM2.5/PM10 ratio in two events remained at about 0.1 when the pollution occurred, but was higher before and after the pollution (up to 1.46). It was shown that the pollution was a simple sandstorm process. Backward trajectory analysis clustered the airflow trajectories reaching Urumqi into 4 categories, and the trajectories from central Asia contributed the maximum values of average PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations.

Changes in net anthropogenic nitrogen input in the watershed region of Zhanjiang Bay in south China from 1978 to 2018

Due to the intensive human activities and rapid economic development during the past few decades, the anthropogenic sourced nitrogen (N) input into coastal waters has increased dramatically. In this study, the net anthropogenic nitrogen input (NANI), including the deposition of atmospheric N, the application of N fertiliser, the fixation of biological N, and the net N inputs from food and feed, into the Zhanjiang Bay watershed from 1978 to 2018 were estimated using statistical data, and the driving forces were analysed using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) factor decomposition approach. The results show that the NANI dramatically increased from 5269 to 20 639 kg N km−2. The cause of this increase was related to high input from N fertilisers and the net food and feed N input (with average contributions of 56.45% and 41.42%, respectively), which was accompanied by rapid economic development in Zhanjiang Bay. The output from the LMDI illustrates that the cause of the changes in the NANI was a shift in the dietary structure instead of an increase in the human population, which suggests that the impact of human population on the increase in the NANI using simple relational analysis may be overestimated. Remarkably, we found that the N from aquatic protein and animal protein comprised a significant proportion of the total N consumption in this coastal city, which differs from previous studies of inland cities. This is likely due to the fact that aquaculture is significantly developed in this coastal city.

Spatiotemporal analysis of bubonic plague in Pernambuco, northeast of Brazil: Case study in the municipality of Exu.

Along with other countries in America, plague reached Brazil through the sea routes during the third pandemic. A brief ports phase was followed by an urban phase that took place in smaller inland cities and finally, it attained the rural area and established several foci where the ecological conditions were suitable for its continued existence. However, the geographic dispersion of plague in Brazil is still poorly studied. To better understand the disease dynamics, we accessed satellite-based data to trace the spatial occurrence and distribution of human plague cases in Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil and using the municipality of Exu as study case area. Along with the satellite data, a historical survey using the Plague Control Program files was applied to characterize the spatial and temporal dispersion of cases in the period of 1945-1976. Kernel density estimation, spatial and temporal clusters with statistical significance and maximum entropy modeling were used for spatial data analysis, by means of the spatial analysis software packages. The use of geostatistical tools allowed evidencing the shift of the infection from the urban to the wild-sylvatic areas and the reemergence of cases after a period of quiescence, independent of the reintroduction from other plague areas.

Applied LGBT Museology: a management experience at the Museu das Bandeiras

This article will present the actions involving the themes of gender and sexual dissent developed by the Museu das Bandeiras between 2018 and 2020. The referred museum, starts to prioritize such themes from a new management, where the referred author is the direct of the institution. Thus, for two years, strategic actions were intensified that aimed at making women and LGBT people visible. It is noteworthy that the Museum of Flags, is located in an inland city located 200 km from the capital. The City of Goiás is known for the poems of Cora Coralina, in addition to its title of historical heritage of humanity and well-preserved houses and churches. In this article, we will use the concept of LGBT Museology, aiming to present in practice the activities developed in this institution that can be worked on in other conventional museums. As a methodology, a mapping of the actions carried out and the museum plan of the Museu das Bandeiras was carried out, which was divided into three phases; a) institutionalization; b) training and research; c) Dissemination actions based on the demands of the local community. To this end, the actions could only be carried out with the collaboration of the team and the local community that supported and stimulated the development of this project. Keywords: LGBT museology; Flags Museum; Museological Management; Gender; Sexual Dissent.

A tale of fish in two cities: consumption patterns of low-income households in South India

While much is known about fish production patterns and consumption at an aggregate level, there is little understanding of consumption behavior among low-income households in city regions. Given that fish is an important and possibly cheap source of nutrition for millions of poor people, this paper attempts to understand patterns of fish consumption among low-income households in two urban sites in South India, namely Chennai (coastal city) and Bangalore (inland city). By analyzing survey data collected in three different seasons from the same (around 250) households, we are able to infer diverse patterns of fish consumption by low-income households, including purchasing behavior, quality inferences, and trust relations with traders. Our analysis shows that Chennai’s fish consumers rely more on informal markets and possess stronger preferences for certain species of fish while those in Bangalore make more use of formal market structures, displaying indifference toward the type of fish consumed. Our analysis helps to understand low-income consumer behavior while promoting fish for food and nutrition security among these populations in city regions.

Short-term effects of ambient temperature and pollutants on the mortality of respiratory diseases: A time-series analysis in Hefei, China

BackgroundThe air pollution has become an important environmental health problem due to its adverse health effect. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of ambient temperature and pollutants on mortality of respiratory diseases (RD) in Hefei, China, a typical inland city. MethodsNonlinear exposure–response dependencies and delayed effects of urban daily mean temperature (DMT) and pollutants were evaluated by distributed lag non-linear models (DLNM). To further explore this effect, different genders and ages were also examined by stratified analysis. ResultsA total of 12876 deaths from RD were collected from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2018 in Hefei, China. There was a U-shaped correlation between DMT and RD mortality, and the RD mortality rised by 11.6% (95% CI: 2.2–22.0%) when the DMT was 35.8 °C (reference temperature is 20 °C). The results show that risk of death with short-term exposure to elevated concentrations of PM10 and SO2 was not significant. The maximum hysteresis and cumulative relative risk (RR) of RD mortality were 1.012 (95% CI: 1.003 ~ 1.021, lag 0 day) and 1.072 (95% CI: 1.014 ~1.133, lag 10 days) for each 10 μg/m3 augment in NO2; 1.005 (95% CI: 1.001–1.009, lag 0 day) and 1.027 (95% CI: 1.004–1.051, lag 10 days) for each 10 μg/m3 augment in O3; a negative association between CO exposure and the cumulative risk of death was observed (RR = 0.964, 95% CI: 0.935–0.993, lag 07 days). Subgroup analysis showed the effect of high temperatures, NO2, O3 and CO exposure was still statistically significant for the elderly and male. ConclusionThe present study found that short-term exposure to high temperature, NO2, O3 and CO were significantly associated with the risk of RD mortality and male as well as elderly are more susceptible to these factors.

The developing trends and driving factors of environmental information disclosure in China

Environmental Information Disclosure (EID) is a new tool for environmental governance in the era of big data and information. Based on the Pollution Information Disclosure Index (PITI) of 120 cities in China from 2003 to 2019, spatial data exploratory analysis and dynamic spatial panel model were adopted to analyze the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of EID in China. The results show that (1) great progress of China's EID has been made in legislation and practice and its ways and channels are gradually becoming diversified, while it is accompanied by the problem of inadequate and unbalanced development; (2) EID shows the “superposition effect” promoted by previous accumulation has the “peer effect” of mutual imitation and learning and presents “demonstration effect”, which shows significant agglomeration distribution pattern of spatial “club”, while the spillover effect within the region is significant while the radiation effect between regions is weak. (3) In a dynamic process, cities with better economic development, firm performance, environmental performance and regulation, disclosure more environmental information, while the role of government competition and public participation needs further discussion. (4) Negative factors have a great influence during the economic crisis, while positive factors play a significant role in promoting the disclosure of environmental information during the economic expansion after crises. Cities in the developed regions (coastal, east and large cities) disclosure more than developing regions (inland, west, and small cities), and the positive factors are more likely to take effect.

Loading Rates of Dust and Bioburden in Dwellings in an Inland City of Southern Europe

Sampling campaigns indoors have shown that occupants exposed to contaminated air generally exhibit diverse health outcomes. This study intends to assess the deposition rates of total settleable dust and bioburden in the indoor air of dwellings onto quartz fiber filters and electrostatic dust collectors (EDCs), respectively. EDC extracts were inoculated onto malt extract agar (MEA) and dichloran glycerol (DG18) agar-based media used for fungal contamination characterization, while tryptic soy agar (TSA) was applied for total bacteria assessment, and violet red bile agar (VRBA) for Gram-negative bacteria. Azole-resistance screening and molecular detection by qPCR was also performed. Dust loading rates ranged from 0.111 to 3.52, averaging 0.675 μg cm−2 day−1. Bacterial counts ranged from undetectable to 16.3 colony-forming units (CFU) m−2 day−1 and to 2.95 CFU m−2 day−1 in TSA and VRBA, respectively. Fungal contamination ranged from 1.97 to 35.4 CFU m−2 day−1 in MEA, and from undetectable to 48.8 CFU m−2 day−1 in DG18. Penicillium sp. presented the highest prevalence in MEA media (36.2%) and Cladosporium sp. in DG18 (39.2%). It was possible to observe: (a) settleable dust loadings and fungal contamination higher in dwellings with pets; (b) fungal species considered indicators of harmful fungal contamination; (c) Aspergillus section Candidi identified in supplemented media with voriconazole and posaconazole; (d) specific housing typologies and (e) specific housing characteristics influencing the microbial contamination.

Inter- and intra-city comparisons of PM2.5 concentration changes under COVID-19\xa0social distancing in seven major cities of South Korea

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted governments around the world to impose mitigation strategies of unprecedented scales, typically involving some form of restrictions on social activities and transportation. The South Korean government has been recommending a collection of guidelines now known as social distancing, leading to reduced human activities. This study analyzes changes in the concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) during the 30-day periods before and since the start of social distancing on 29 February 2020 using measurement data from air quality monitoring stations at various locations of the seven major cities of South Korea, namely, Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Daegu, Daejeon, Gwangju, and Ulsan. All seven cities experienced decreased levels of PM2.5 concentration by up to 25% and smaller fluctuations during the period of social distancing. Inter-city comparisons show that the PM2.5 concentration changes are positively correlated with the city-wide PM2.5 emission fractions for mobile sources and negatively correlated with the city-wide PM2.5 emission fractions for combustion and industrial process sources. In addition, the meteorological influences favorable for transboundary pollutant transport have weakened during the period under COVID-19 social distancing. Intra-city comparisons show that decreases in the intra-city variability of PM2.5 concentration were larger in coastal cities than in inland cities. Comparisons between the inter- and intra-city variabilities in the PM2.5 concentration changes under social distancing highlight the importance of taking into account intra-city variabilities in addition to inter-city variabilities.

A Probe into the Popularization Ways of Early Childhood Educational Drama in Kindergartens

Early childhood education drama lessons can be simply explained as educationally meaningful drama training for children before the compulsory education stage. Its educational characteristics are preschool children as the main body of education, paying attention to the preservation and protection of children’s nature, and through educational drama Symbolic games, imagination games, pretend games, social drama games and other links further expand children's social cognition. Its purpose is to inspire the development of students in moral education through the art form of educational drama, and use drama as a carrier to further liberate children’s nature, enlighten children’s minds, improve children’s personality and through participating in drama appreciation, creation, performance, and imitation. Play a vital role in children's creativity and other aspects. However, there are still many huge problems in the general acceptance and large-scale promotion of early childhood education drama classes in our inland cities. I have discovered the current promotion of kindergarten education drama classes by exploring the promotion methods of early childhood education drama classes in kindergartens. The biggest problem is the lack of professional teachers' resources and the kindergarten's insufficient understanding of the importance of educational drama.

High-speed railway and tourism development in China

High-speed railway (HSR) is a new and increasingly popular transportation mode in China bringing about a significant impact on the economy, including tourism development. This article investigates the effect of HSR on tourism development in China based on a time-varying difference-in-differences model. Cities connected by HSR in 2013 and 2014 are regarded as the treatment group, while those without HSR services until 2017 are placed in the control group. The empirical analyses cover a large panel dataset comprising 163 cities in 2009–2017. The empirical results suggest that both domestic tourism revenue and tourist number are positively affected by HSR, and the effect is stronger for the undeveloped or geopolitically less important regions such as the inland or prefecture-level cities. Other relevant determinants of tourism include the availability of airports and the number of hotels in the cities. Our research findings have important policy implications for tourism development in China with respect to HSR.

A New Indicator to Assess Public Perception of Air Pollution Based on Complaint Data

Severe air pollution problems have led to a rise in the Chinese public’s concern, and it is necessary to use monitoring stations to monitor and evaluate pollutant levels. However, monitoring stations are limited, and the public is everywhere. It is also essential to understand the public’s awareness and behavioral response to air pollution. Air pollution complaint data can more directly reflect the public’s real air quality perception than social media data. Therefore, based on air pollution complaint data and sentiment analysis, we proposed a new air pollution perception index (APPI) in this paper. Firstly, we constructed the emotional dictionary for air pollution and used sentiment analysis to calculate public complaints’ emotional intensity. Secondly, we used the piecewise function to obtain the APPI based on the complaint Kernel density and complaint emotion Kriging interpolation, and we further analyzed the change of center of gravity of the APPI. Finally, we used the proposed APPI to examine the 2012 to 2017 air pollution complaint data in Shandong Province, China. The results were verified by the POI (points of interest) data and word cloud analysis. The results show that: (1) the statistical analysis and spatial distribution of air pollution complaint density and public complaint emotion intensity are not entirely consistent. The proposed APPI can more reasonably evaluate the public perception of air pollution. (2) The public perception of air pollution tends to the southwest of Shandong Province, while coastal cities are relatively weak. (3) The content of public complaints about air pollution mainly focuses on the exhaust emissions of enterprises. Moreover, the more enterprises gather in inland cities, the public perception of air pollution is stronger.

Regional Credit Environment Evaluation Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Method and Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE)

Taking the data of the sixteen prefecture-level cities in Shandong Province as an example, this paper attempts to construct regional credit environment indicators and quantify these indicators. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE) have been used to empower the indicators. Meanwhile, this paper has obtained the AHP score through calculation. The corresponding credit ranking has been given using the factor analysis. The research result shows that the credit environment evaluation scores of Shandong eastern coastal cities centered on Qingdao and neighboring cities centered on provincial capital Jinan are often higher than those of inland cities such as southwestern Shandong and northwestern Shandong. The construction of regional credit environment should be based on economy, culture and government. Three aspects go hand in hand. On this basis, this paper puts forward the feasible countermeasures and suggestions for constructing regional credit environment from the perspective of policy.

The effects of windstorm in African medium-sized cities: An analysis of the degree of damage using KDE hotspots and EF-scale matrix

Violent windstorms are becoming more prevalent in African inland towns and cities. Yet, very few studies have reported on their increasing occurrences in sub-Saharan Africa's low-density and medium-sized cities and towns. This study uses Enhanced Fujita's F-scale matrix to estimate the intensity and rank the damage severity of a windstorm on June 16, 2018 that ruined more than 30 lives and thousand buildings and other essential structures within the 2-h of its destructive span in Bauchi city in northern Nigeria. A pictorial ranking of some typical damage was carried out to supplement the results of the F-scale decision matrix. In total, 1,236 buildings and structures were identified with varying levels of damage. Two techniques - Average Nearest Neighbor and Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) were implemented using Geographic information system (GIS) in mapping out the spatial patterns and damage hotspots. The results of the F-scale matrix reveal that the dominant wind speed with the most significant damage to buildings and structures is 67 ± 20 ms – 1 with the traditional parts of the city being the worst hit by the disaster. The art and science of visual ranking and hotspots mapping can support policymakers, first respondents, and other stakeholders to co-design strategies and co-produce effective solutions for the increasing climate extreme events and their related disaster risk.

Organic Iodine Compounds in Fine Particulate Matter from a Continental Urban Region: Insights into Secondary Formation in the Atmosphere.

Atmospheric iodine chemistry can significantly affect the atmospheric oxidation capacity in certain regions. In such processes, particle-phase organic iodine compounds (OICs) are key reservoir species in their loss processes. However, their presence and formation mechanism remain unclear, especially in continental regions. Using gas chromatography and time-of-flight mass spectrometry coupled with both electron capture negative ionization and electron impact sources, this study systematically identified unknown OICs in 2-year samples of ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) collected in Beijing, an inland city. We determined the molecular structure of 37 unknown OICs, among which six species were confirmed by reference standards. The higher concentrations for ∑37OICs (median: 280 pg m-3; range: 49.0-770 pg m-3) measured in the heating season indicate intensive coal combustion sources of atmospheric iodine. 1-Iodo-2-naphthol and 4-iodoresorcinol are the most abundant species mainly from primary combustion emission and secondary formation, respectively. The detection of 2- and 4-iodoresorcinols, but not of iodine-substituted catechol/hydroquinone or 5-iodoresorcinol, suggests that they are formed via the electrophilic substitution of resorcinol by hypoiodous acid, a product of the reaction of iodine with ozone. This study reports isomeric information on OICs in continental urban PM2.5 and provides valuable evidence on the formation mechanism of OICs in ambient particles.

Research on the Innovation Imbalance Between Coastal and Inland Port Cities Along the Belt and Road: Based on the Three Helix Theory

Port cities will be the important growth poles along the Belt and Road, including coastal and inland ports. But the innovation stimulus driven by the Belt and Road Initiative on the coastal and inland port cities is imbalance. This research takes two groups of Chinese port cities as empirical objects, one has coastal port and the other has inland port, and then establishes a system dynamics model based on the theory of triple helix to analyze port cities’ innovation features. The empirical case shows that the positive stimulation of Belt and Road Initiative to innovation activities of coastal port cities is better than that of inland cities in general. If the decision makers of inland cities want to achieve innovation output like that of developed coastal areas, they need to encourage local universities and research institutes to conduct more market-oriented research on one hand. On the other hand, they need to cooperate with multinational companies; meanwhile, they need to provide more technical resources for local start-ups. In addition, stimulating local house prices and living pressure in a reasonable range can stimulate the innovation enthusiasm of existing R&amp;D personnel, attract top talents to join in, and then drive the innovation output of the whole region.

ADHESION TO TREATMENT BY CHILDREN WITH CONGENITAL HYPOTHYROIDISM: KNOWLEDGE OF CAREGIVERS IN BAHIA STATE, BRAZIL.

ABSTRACTObjective: To investigate knowledge of caregivers of children with congenital hypothyroidism (CH), followed in a public reference service, as well as their associations with treatment adherence.Methods: Exploratory, descriptive, cross-sectional study with convenience sample. Medical records of 158 patients diagnosed with congenital hypothyroidism were analyzed, and data were evaluated by applying a previously prepared questionnaire to caregivers from 2014 to 2016. Statistical analysis used the chi-square and the Spearman’s correlation tests, being significant p-value ≤0.05.Results: Females were predominant among caregivers (94.3%), with a mean age of 31 years, from inland cities (77.8%). There was a predominance of socioeconomic class C (59.5%) and incomplete primary education (35.7%). More than half of patients (53.2%) with CH had an adequate hormonal control. Approximately one third of caregivers had poor knowledge (37.3%) or was unaware (24.1%) about the meaning of congenital hypothyroidism. The low knowledge level of the disease was observed to be related to caregivers’ educational level (p=0.004).Conclusions: Lack of education of caregivers was a barrier to be faced when monitoring children with CH. This reality requires greater attention from health professionals to ensure that they use clear language when giving instructions to caregivers, and that caregivers have adequately understood the proposed recommendations.

Threats to national security from trafficking network from urban environments to the transnational circulation of illicit drugs

Increased cocaine production and hegemony of transnational routes have strengthened South American drug trafficking networks. This expansion has unfolded into armed violence in Brazil, as Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO) compete over hegemony of drug corridors and distribution not only in metropolitan regions but, especially, in inner cities. Thus, this study aims to analyze how the new territories of South American drug trafficking relate to the nature and spatiality of violence in Brazil, and to assess what type of direct threat this brings to national security. We have collected georeferenced quantitative data in the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), the Homicide Monitor of the Igarapé Institute, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). We built our maps and performed our spatial analysis with the Philcarto software. Finally, we observed that the capillarization and hegemony of drug trafficking territories drive the violence in the internal borders and inland cities in Brazil.

Influence of Leather Fiber on Modulus of Elasticity in Bending Test and of Bend Strength of Particleboards

Abstract The society’s development provides consequences such as the increasing generation of industrial waste. In the city of Franca, Sao Paulo’s inland city, there are footwear industries that generate a large amount of leather waste during their production process. In most cases, there’s no use of this waste and they’re disposed of in landfills. A reuse alternative is the production of particleboards used in construction sectors. Therefore, one of the biggest challenges is the use of this leather waste adding value to the product and enabling the production of sustainable material. This work proposes the production of particleboards from Eucalyptus wood and leather fibers using castor oil polyurethane adhesive. In addition, the assessment of the leather fiber influence on modulus of rupture and elasticity obtained from a static bending test. The study investigated the proportion of 10%, 25% e 50% leather waste in relation to Eucalyptus particles and 10% castor oil polyurethane adhesive. The mechanical performance of the panels was evaluated based on ABNT NBR 14810-1 and 2 (2013; 2018). The results allowed us to ascertain that the incorporation of 10% leather waste in particleboard rated them, according to NBR 14810-1 and 2 (2013; 2018), as structural panels of type P4 for use in dry conditions.