Source Of Nuisance Research Articles

Congestion Awareness Meets Zone-Based Pricing Policies for Efficient Urban Parking

Parking is at the heart of any modern city, considering its spatial influence and its role in urban mobility. It is also a key component of its urban landscape management and a critical component of an efficient transportation system. However, parking is still a source of environmental nuisance and quality of living collapse. There are many challenging issues that arise, such as land consumption, occupancy of public space, economic impact, pedestrian safety and social fairness. This becomes even more alarming in dense and ultra-dense urban environments where the availability of parking places significantly affects the traffic fluidity, and where a lack of parking spots is the main trigger of parking/traffic congestion. In this article, we propose a set of dynamic and zone-aware pricing strategies to solve the parking issues and traffic congestion. As a case study, we consider the administrative district of Casablanca city, the economic capital of Morocco. Our scheme is suitable for mixed-use areas, as it takes into account the presence of different driver profiles with different parking needs. Here, we aim to improve the rotation of attractive spots (located nearby zones of interest) and set a usage-based parking assignment via appropriate incentives. Inherently, this is equivalent to use strategic pricing to strategically control the parking dwell time, which ensures a usage-based fair sharing of public space among users and improves the traffic conditions in the target area.

Lighting of urban green areas – the case of Grabiszyn Park in Wrocław. Searching for the balance between light and darkness through social and technical issues

Illuminating the urban green spaces could lead to conflicts of spatial, technical and social nature. This relatively new, though already global, problem is expected to grow bigger with the further increase of urban areas artificial brightness. The case of Grabiszyn Park in Wrocław is an example of how difficult it is to find a balance between big-city lights and a natural darkness. The situation is even more difficult if the light is not legally recognized as a significant source of air pollution and direct nuisance at the legal level. The aim of the paper is to recognize the broader perspective of urban greenery lighting issues, global recommendations basis and the local awareness. The authors also made an attempt to analyze and assess the project implementation, as well as to characterize the components of the quality of an urban green areas lighting.

Conflicts with Glis glis and Eliomys quercinus in households: a practical guideline for sufferers (Rodentia: Gliridae)

Abstract Across Europe, the edible dormouse (Glis glis) and the garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus) are listed as protected species. In areas where households are close to habitats where these dormice are present, they easily penetrate into the houses. While dormice are admired by the public as cute animals, conflicts are common when dormice enter houses and cause damage, mostly on the wooden construction parts, insulation or electrical installations. Another source of nuisance is that property owners are faced with damage to stored food or dormouse urine/faeces are deposited and represent a potential source of zoonoses. In addition, the nocturnal activity of dormice disturbs the sleep regime of sensitive household owners. Here we show that while in many countries the dormice have high legal protection status, apart from few local exceptions, the house owners get little practical help from the governmental agencies on how to tackle the conflicting issue of sharing their property with protected rodents. We outline reasons why dormice enter households and identify the most common ways the animals get in. We also provide some practical recommendations on how to deal with the conflicts that arise.

Indonesian Waste Management: Municipal Biowaste Inventory at Yogyakarta City in 2017

Municipal solid waste is the most waste problem which should be manages by the city. Biodegradable components of municipal solid wastes such as fruit and vegetable wastes are produced in large quantities in markets, and constitute a source of nuisance in municipal landfills because of their biodegradability. In this research, those wastes are known as biowaste. The objectives of this research were to calculate the inventory of municipal biowaste at Yogyakarta city and determine the source of municipal biowaste. Methods used in this research were field observation, mapping, and also municipal waste measurement and sampling based on Indonesian National Standard SNI 19-3964-1994, Method of Collecting and Measurement of Samples and Composition of Urban Waste. The result form the research showed that the waste composition generally contain 47 municipal biowaste. This research classified the result based on the waste produced by residences and waste produce by city public facility. Residences at Yogyakarta City produce around 61,12% municipal biowaste. Public facilities at Yogyakarta city produce around 30% of municipal biowaste. Most of biowaste in public facility was generate from traditional market and restaurant. From the result of inventory calculation, recommendation of biowaste treatment and management at Yogyakarta city could be determined.

Parameter sensitivity to concentrations and transport distance of odorous compounds from solid waste facilities

Treatment facilities dealing with municipal solid waste (MSW) are typical pollution sources of urban odor nuisance which threatens public health and environmental safety. Dispersion simulation with specialized models is an important approach for simulating the concentration distribution and estimating the transport distances of the released odorous compounds. Given that the temporal and spatial distribution are affected by many factors with different variations and functions. This study investigated the influence of key parameters on the dispersion of odor compounds on the basis of a numerical atmospheric dispersion model. The sensitivity analysis was applied to quantitatively identify their influence on the concentration distributions and transport distances. The results reveal that source intensity is a sensitive parameter in the whole domain under the specified dispersion conditions, with the sensitivity ratios around 1 to concentrations and of 1.5–2.5 to transport distances. Wind speed possesses higher sensitivity ratios at the upwind direction than the downwind direction. Horizontal diffusion coefficient is sensitive to concentrations only in the area of a typical radius of 500 m from the source. Degradation reaction constant and wet deposition are not sensitive in either concentration distribution or transport distances. The most sensitive parameters present respective importance to the transport distances when different olfactory thresholds of compounds are applied to determine the protection area of odor pollution. This study thus provides important information to the application of dispersion models and the data collection of the most sensitive parameters in odor pollution evaluation and management.

Evaluation of noise along selected communication routes of the Upper Silesian agglomeration

Due to the constantly growing number of vehicles on the roads and the progressive development of cities, road infrastructure and the construction of new communication routes, noise has become an indispensable element of our lives. It accompanies us practically around the clock and is one of the factors that degrade the environment and is a source of nuisance for people living near roads. The article presents the results of the research on traffic noise occurring in the vicinity of selected communication routes of the Upper Silesian agglomeration.

Neighbourhood change and neighbour complaints: How gentrification and densification influence the prevalence of problems between neighbours

As people who live in closest proximity to us, the conduct of neighbours can have an impact upon our lives, even if they are relative strangers. While previous research has generally examined the positive effects of good neighbour interactions, neighbours can also be a source of nuisance, conflict and distress. In the advent of socio-structural processes of urban policy and change – such as gentrification and densification – the taken-for-granted conventions that once regulated neighbour interactions are being eroded, potentially leading to greater levels of neighbour problems and complaints. In this paper, we apply a latent modelling approach to identify subgroups of neighbourhoods based on their profiles of neighbour problems and to assess whether these subgroups are characterised by the degree of social change in the neighbourhood towards the dual processes of gentrification and densification. The findings show that high intensity problems are associated with both processes, but that class factors of gentrification are more influential than density in accounting for neighbour tensions.

Reduction in the noise pollution within residential environments - what has been achieved so far?

Surveys show that noise in its various forms is among the most severe environmental burdens. According to estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO), there is aloss of one million healthy life years per year in Europe due to the effects of environmental noise. This paper discusses the harmful effects of noise with the example of traffic noise, for which the highest number of environmental noise effect studies are available. An increasing number of studies show associations between traffic noise and vascular, metabolic and psychic diseases. Too little is still known about the causal mechanisms, even though a number of explanatory models are available. However, it is clear that today it is no longer a question of whether noise is responsible for extra-aural diseases, but under what conditions and to what extent are the risks.The high degree of noise nuisance shows that more action is needed with regard to noise control policy.Over the past few years, federal, regional and local governments have taken countless initiatives on traffic noise control - for instance, within the framework of action plans. Especially notable are the innovative measures, instruments and programs regarding railway noise. In the most important source of nuisance, road traffic noise, less progress has been made. In air traffic noise, too, the revision and development of important laws are still lacking. To promote inner urban development, the level of protection against industrial and sports noise has been reduced.Significant health-related reductions in noise pollution (except regarding the railways), therefore, cannot be expected in the near future.

A case study of odour nuisance evaluation in the context of integrated urban planning

Odour nuisance poses a serious problem in many urban areas, yet its evaluation and mitigation is often omitted in the urban planning process. By identifying its range and spatio-temporal variations, it could be taken into consideration by planners in urban development strategies and land use decisions. The aim of the study was to present the application of odour evaluation techniques in the improvement of the quality of life in the built environment. The problem of odours is discussed in regard to human health, social aspects and current practices in the management of spatial development. The application possibilities of field olfactometry are demonstrated based on a case study of a municipal landfill which is a major source of odour nuisance for the adjacent areas. The results of odour nuisance measurements were field olfactometry combined with topographical and meteorological data. Using dispersion modelling (non-steady-state Lagrangian Gaussian puff model CALPUFF with dedicated meteorological pre-processor CALMET) it was possible to calculate odour concentrations and to place the measured odour concentrations in a specific spatial context. The obtained results were juxtaposed with local development strategies and discussed in the context of environmental-based planning. We suggest that odour evaluation and dispersion modelling are valid tools in managing the dynamics of urban growth.

Impact of global signal regression on characterizing dynamic functional connectivity and brain states

Recently, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have been extended to explore fluctuations in correlations over shorter timescales, referred to as dynamic functional connectivity (dFC). However, the impact of global signal regression (GSR) on dFC is not well established, despite the intensive investigations of the influence of GSR on static functional connectivity (sFC). This study aimed to examine the effect of GSR on the performance of the sliding-window correlation, a commonly used method for capturing functional connectivity (FC) dynamics based on resting-state fMRI and simultaneous electroencephalograph (EEG)-fMRI data. The results revealed that the impact of GSR on dFC was spatially heterogeneous, with some susceptible regions including the occipital cortex, sensorimotor area, precuneus, posterior insula and superior temporal gyrus, and that the impact was temporally modulated by the mean global signal (GS) magnitude across windows. Furthermore, GSR substantially changed the connectivity structures of the FC states responding to a high GS magnitude, as well as their temporal features, and even led to the emergence of new FC states. Conversely, those FC states marked by obvious anti-correlation structures associated with the default model network (DMN) were largely unaffected by GSR. Finally, we reported an association between the fluctuations in the windowed magnitude of GS and the time-varying EEG power within subjects, which implied changes in mental states underlying GS dynamics. Overall, this study suggested a potential neuropsychological basis, in addition to nuisance sources, for GS dynamics and highlighted the need for caution in applying GSR to sliding-window correlation analyses. At a minimum, the mental fluctuations of an individual subject, possibly related to ongoing vigilance, should be evaluated during the entire scan when the dynamics of FC is estimated.

Development of an electronic nose to characterize odours emitted from different stages in a wastewater treatment plant

Wastewater treatment plants have widely been described as a significant source of odour nuisance, which has led to an increase of neighbourhood complaints. Therefore, to mitigate the negative impact of odours, the detection and analysis of these emissions are required. This paper presents a measurement system based on an electronic nose for quantitative and qualitative odour analysis of samples collected from six different stages on a wastewater plant. Hence, two features vectors were performed in order to represent quantitative trends of the gaseous mixture sampled on the facility. In addition, odour fingerprints and a PCA were computed to discriminate odours from its sources and to detect relationships among the samples. This approach also comprises a dynamic dilution olfactometer. A PLS regression model was performed to predict the odour concentration by the electronic nose in term of odour units per cubic meter. The results show that the developed electronic nose is a promising and feasible instrument to characterize odours from wastewater plants.

An Efficient Multi-sensing and GSM Equipped Fire Monitoring System

The principal goal of fire monitoring system is to react promptly to a fire and not to misleading particulate signatures produced by nuisance sources. In this paper we proposed a system that not only able to detect and prevent fire at early stages but also capable of interact with surround environment. Recent researches lead us to detect fire by light and heat sensor, image processing, smoke detection mechanism but failed to integrate those in one The advancement on fire detection technologies has been significant over the last few decade due to rapid progress in communication technologies, advances in sensing devices and greater understanding of fire physics. But lack of intelligence among fire monitoring system often failed to make an impact on fire incidents. Our proposed fire monitoring system is incorporated in such a way that can communicate with environment by itself through the help of GSM Modem. Here we introduce an intelligent and advance fire monitoring system that can communicate by itself with fire station and can detect fire at its early stage and extinguish it in the shortest time subject to a few effective factors.

Larvicidal and Synergic Effects of two Biopesticides (Azadirachta indica and Metarhizium anisopliae) against Larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera, Culicidae) (Say, 1823)

Mosquitoes in general and Culex quinquefasciatus in particular have for a long time constituted a source of nuisance due to the diseases they transmit, stings and annoying buzzing. They are also a public health problem. This is why this study is aimed at finding a biopesticide that can fight effectively but also be an alternative to chemical residual pesticides in the environment. Concentrations of biopesticides used are ranged from 2.5 108 to 12.5 108 spores/ml with intervals of 2.5 108 spores/ml for Metarhizium anisopliae. Concentrations ranging beetween 8 10-4g/ml to 40 10-4 g/ml with intervals of 8 10-4 g/ml of Azadirachta indica (Suneem 1%) were used to fight against 100 three instars larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus. Concentrations of the mixture of Azadirachta indica (Sunnem 1%) and Metharhium anisopliae ranging from 0.02 ml +2 108 spores/ml to 0.02 ml + 1 108 spores/ml were used to study synergic effects of these two biopesticides. One hundred (100) of three instars larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus are used as control and placed in the same jars with 500 ml of distilled water. Metarhizium anisopliae (green muscle) have caused 50% mortality of three instars larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus after 3 days. Azadirachia indica (Suneem 1%) have gaved a mortality more than 60% after 2 days. The mixture Azadirachta indica (Suneem1%) and Metarhizuim anisopliae caused a high mortality with a rate that exceeds 90% in 3 days. The mixture also prevented a larval moult thus stopping their growth and development. In summary, both Metharizium anisopliae and Azadirachta indica (Suneem 1%) are effective against three instars larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus. Their mixture caused a synergic effect and thus increased their individual efficacy of two biopesticides.

Etude Ecologique Et Entomologique Des Culicides Larvaires Des Gites De La Province De Kenitra (Maroc)

Mosquitoes are considered the source of nuisances and used as vectors of major pathogens for humans and animals. Despite the existence of many ways of control, supervising their populations remains a challenge forced by a delicate knowledge of their dynamics in space and time. Hence the need to conduct an entomological and ecological study of breeding sites in the province of Kenitra in order to acheive an inventory of culicidiennes species collected at eight stations of surface water with the measurement of physical-chemical parameters of these waters during several month from April to June 2012. The results revealed the presence of two species of mosquitoes, the Anopheles labranchiae and the Culex pipiens. The first type has a very low density at three stations, while the second one has a very high density in five stations. Furthermore, concentrations and measured values of the physico-chemical parameters allowed to highlight a correlation between the quality of waterin the stations and dynamics of mosquitoes. Thus, the Anopheles attend frequently the well-oxygenated and unpolluted stations (O2 between 2,53 and 3,65 mg/l; BOD5 between 3 and 15 mg/l) against the Culex (O2 between 3,85 and 8,12mg/l, BOD5 between 10 and 100 mg/ l).

The Waste-Value Dialectic

Capitalist value making is underwritten by the production and disposal of waste through a complex, often invisible economy of informal waste recycling. This infra-economy is anchored by nodes that process and circulate variegated forms of waste generated in cities and their adjoining hinterlands. Bholakpur, in the city of Hyderabad, India, is one such place. There are hundreds like it scattered around the country. Even as they perform the double function of reproducing the urban economy while inoculating it from the injurious effects of its own detritus, places like Bholakpur and the people who work and reside there are continuously abjected by civil society's propertied classes, which view them with anxiety and loathing, as a source of crime, nuisance and detriment. Thus, “waste” as concept-matter but also a locus where labor and ecology meet is a neglected but powerful site for a critique of both postcolonial capitalism and contemporary urbanization in countries like India.

Sandfly and Leishmaniasis: A Review

Sandfly has a long history of association with humans, which still are suffering from its harmful impacts. It parasites humans and other animals and acts as a source of nuisance and annoyance to them. The present bibliographical study explains the role of Sandfly as a disease vector of Leishmaniasis. This article highlights various aspects of the life of the vector which includes its general description of morphology, biology, life cycle, and major control strategies. Regarding to control strategies of the vector, it was reviewed that chemical control is the most common and efficient technique but sensitivity to is decreasing due to increased insecticide resistance and environmental constraints. This article also highlights the different types of Leishmaniasis and symptoms, treatment, mortality rate and species diversity of Sandfly in Pakistan.

Detection of radioactive sources in urban scenes using Bayesian Aggregation of data from mobile spectrometers

Mobile radiation detector systems aim to help identify dangerous sources of radiation while minimizing frequency of false alarms caused by non-threatening nuisance sources prevalent in cluttered urban scenes. We develop methods for spatially aggregating evidence from multiple spectral observations to simultaneously detect and infer properties of threatening radiation sources.Our Bayesian Aggregation (BA) framework allows sensor fusion across multiple measurements to boost detection capability of a radioactive point source, providing several key innovations previously unexplored in the literature. Our method learns the expected Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) trend as a function of source exposure using Bayesian nonparametrics to enable robust detection. The method scales well in spatial search by leveraging conditional independence and locality in Bayesian updates. The framework also allows modeling of source parameters such as intensity or type to enable property characterization of detected sources. Approaches for incorporating modeling information into BA are compared and benchmarked with respect to other data fusion techniques.

Smoke Alarm Nuisance Source Characterization: Review and Recommendations

Nuisance alarms have been identified as a leading cause of disabled smoke alarms in homes. In the 2013 Edition of NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code, the Technical Committee approved requiring household alarms and detectors installed between 6 ft (1.8 m) and 20 ft (6.1 m) of cooking appliances to be listed for resistance to common cooking sources 2016 and for all household alarms, and detectors to be listed for resistance to common nuisances by 2019, respectively. There is currently no clear understanding of how “resistance to common nuisance sources” should be defined within these requirements. In this paper, Statistical data, surveys, and alarm installations were assessed to quantify the potential impacts of reducing nuisance alarms toward overall public safety and reduction of fire loss. Based on these reports, it has been estimated that elimination of nuisance alarms may reduce annual U.S. fire deaths by as much as 10%, or 214 deaths per year (1050 injuries). This number does not account for negative potential consequences on death and injury rates, such as increased alarm costs or decreased sensitivity to real fires. A review of laboratory test data and studies evaluating household installation performance was conducted to identify and characterize common household nuisance sources, such as cooking (60% to 80% of nuisance alarms), water mist (1% to 40%), or increased sensitivity from long term contamination (up to 70% of nuisance alarms). Detailed recommendations are made based on existing data to address remaining information gaps and develop new performance test protocols in ANSI/UL 217 and ANSI/UL 268 product standards in order to meet the NFPA 72-2013 requirements.

Frailty Models and Frailty-Mixture Models for Recurrent Event Times

The analysis of recurrent event times faces three challenges: between-subject heterogeneity (frailty), within-subject event dependence, and the possibility of a cured fraction. Frailty can be handled by including a latent random-effects term in a Cox-type model. Event dependence may be considered as contributing to the intervention effect, or it may be considered as a source of nuisance, depending on the analysts’ specific research questions. If it is seen as a nuisance, the analysis can stratify the recurrent event times according to event order. If it is seen as contributing to the intervention effect, stratification should not be used. Models with and without stratification for event order estimate two types of treatment effects. They are analogous to per-protocol analysis and intention-to-treat analysis, respectively. In the context of chronic disease treatment, we want to estimate whether there is a cured fraction; for infectious disease prevention, this is called a nonsusceptible fraction. In infectious disease prevention, we want to understand whether an intervention protects each of its recipients to some extent (“leaky” model) or whether it totally protects some recipients but offers no protection to the rest (“all-or-none” model). The truth may be a mixture of the two modes of protection. We describe a class of regression models that can handle all three issues in the analysis of recurrent event times. The model parameters are estimated by the expectation-maximization algorithm, and their variances are estimated by Louis's formula. We provide a new command, strmcure, for implementing these models.

Analysis of the Response of Smoke Detectors to Smoldering Fires and Nuisance Sources

Since the initial smoke detector was developed, research has been ongoing to reduce the response times to fire sources and improve the ability of detectors to ignore nuisance sources. Research has been conducted to analyze the signatures from cooking activities, ranging from normal cooking to the flaming ignition of food products with the intent of identifying the precursors to flaming ignition. In particular, the goal of the research is to provide an alarm sufficiently prior to flaming ignition to allow homeowners to take corrective actions to prevent a fire. For the 11 experiments analyzed, the optical density measured in the range hood was the most accurate precursor signal, having the greatest ability to predict the imminent transition to a flaming fire with a minimum of false positives. Though plagued by false positives, the temperature of the heating element and response of an ionization detector provided a faster response than the optical density measure. Given that this research only included 11 experiments, further research should be conducted on a broader range of cooking styles and items being cooked.