Dissertations / Theses: 'Quality of protection'

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Di, Giantomasso Sandra Elaine. "An assessment of local capacity for groundwater quality protection." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape8/PQDD_0005/MQ43159.pdf.

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Del, Valle Lemuel Alejandro. "Water Quality Internship with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1470088630.

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Lothian, Andrew. "Landscape quality assessment of South Australia." Title page, table of contents, abstract and detailed contents only, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/37804.

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The object of this thesis is to provide, through a thorough analysis of human perception and interaction with aesthetics and landscape quality, a comprehensive basis on which to develop a credible methodology for the large scale assessment of perceived landscape quality. The analysis of human perception and interaction with aesthetics and landscape quality is gained by inquiring in depth into a range of theoretical constructs from key disciplines, cultural aspects, and empirical studies covering : 1. the contribution of philosophers to aesthetics 2. the psychology of perception and colour 3. the contribution of Gestalt psychology to aesthetics 4. the psychoanalytical construct of human responses to aesthetics 5. the influence of culture on landscape preferences, tracing the changing perceptions of mountains, the portrayal of landscapes in art, and the design of parks and gardens 6. a review of over 200 surveys of landscape quality in the late 20th century, including typologies and theories of landscape quality Based on the analysis of these and the knowledge gained, an empirical study is formulated and conducted, comprising a study of landscape quality of South Australia, an area of nearly 1 million km - 1. This involves, firstly, the acquisition of data covering the delineation of landscape character regions for the State, photography of these landscapes, derivation of a set of representative slides, and rating of these by groups of participants. Secondly, these preference ratings are comprehensively analysed on the basis of the attributes of the scenes covering land form, land cover, land use, water bodies, naturalism, diversity and colour. Thirdly, the results are applied as follows: 1. a map of landscape quality of South Australia is derived 2. the results are used to predict the effect that changes in land use ( e.g. clearance of trees ) will have on landscape quality 3. the theoretical constructs of landscape quality are evaluated on the basis of the preference ratings 4. a protocol is detailed to guide the undertaking of large - scale landscape quality assessment. The thesis thus fulfils the objective of conducting a thorough analysis of human perception and interaction with, aesthetics and landscape quality, to provide a basis for developing a credible methodology for the large - scale assessment of perceived landscape quality.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Social Sciences, 2000.

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Shreya, Shivangi. "Water Quality Protection - A Comparative Study of India and Sweden." Thesis, KTH, Mark- och vattenteknik (flyttat 20130630), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-210926.

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This report is a comparative study of ground water and surface water quality protection of a developing country India and a developed country Sweden. It covers the basic water policies, laws, rules, regulations and human right to water provisions in both the countries. The main aim of this report is to compare water quality approaches in India and Sweden and find out the best possible practices in each country and assess the need & feasibility of their application in the other. It describes the present water laws in both the countries and discusses about the present scenario of ground water and surface water quality, problems in ground water and surface water and how to deal with the problems in an efficient and sustainable way. It includes role of EU Water Framework Directive (EU WFD) in water quality protection in Sweden. Some interviews with stakeholders who are working in the water sector in Sweden are also included here. The main focus of this report is to analyse comparatively the present situation of water quality protection approaches and make recommendation for improvement of water quality. It focuses on “What can a developing country like India can learn from a developed country like Sweden for water quality protection?” and “Which things Sweden can adopt from India for water quality protection?” In this study India is found in worse environmental condition than Sweden. Indian ground water and surface water is more polluted than Swedish surface and ground water. Sweden is in much better condition than India and this country has more environmental concern too. In India, the basic reason for deterioration of water quality is lack of environment friendly attitude among the public, religious activities in water, corruption, loss of traditional methods of water conservation and protection, useless and unnecessary westernisation etc. In Sweden the basic cause of water quality deterioration is eutrophication in lakes, climate change, morphological changes, presence of metals and connectivity changes due to construction works, acidification etc. Sweden is an advanced country having the foresight for environmental concerns. They are doing research for betterment of water quality. India can learn some technological advancement and proper implementation of community participation in order to establish decentralised wastewater treatment plants and beneficial production and monitoring of energy resources from wastewater. Maintenance of online database for water is also a good thing to learn from Sweden.

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Withaar, Ad. "Investor protection and the quality of the board of directors." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-277562.

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Flora, Jason. "Water Quality Assessment in Cypress Creek Nature Preserve." TopSCHOLAR®, 2003. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/591.

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Swamps are unique ecological communities that provide many valuable ecosystem services. In Kentucky, however, many swamps were altered by cypress removal and land development in their watersheds. Cypress Creek Swamp, which lies near Paducah in western Kentucky, is a good example of a swamp whose ecological integrity may be threatened by past and current nearby land use practices. This study was conducted to assess the water quality and macro- and microinvertebrate communities in the swamp. Three sites were monitored for temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductivity, depth, phosphorus measured as orthophosphate, nitrite (NO2") and nitrate (NO3", NOx collectively), and ammonia nitrogen (NH3). The temperature, dissolved oxygen, NH3 and NOx concentrations changed with the growing season, but pH demonstrated little variability among the sites. The specific conductivity and phosphorus levels were highly variable. Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated no significant difference in microinvertebrate taxa identified among locations or through time. A oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated no significant difference in macroinvertebrate population total densities between locations (P = 0.847), and a oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no significant difference in microinvertebrate population total densities among locations (P = 0.153) or through time (P = 0.294). As development continues in the watershed, this work provides an important baseline for future water quality monitoring in the preserve.

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Orie, Kenneth Kanu. "Legal aspects of groundwater quantity allocation and quality protection in Canada." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=41192.

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Groundwater quantity allocation and quality protection in Canada largely proceed in a fragmented fashion. Each jurisdiction pursues the management of its water resources and the aquatic environment separately as well as independently of other jurisdictions. This approach is at odds with the unity of the natural environment and the inter-connectedness of groundwater resources.
The challenge facing Canada is to make the law recognize and be more responsive to the unity of the aquatic environment and water resources. An active federal role in uniting and coordinating the efforts of the provinces in this regard is crucial if this challenge is to be met. However, since the constitutional division of powers in Canada encourages a fragmented approach to managing environment and water resources, the federal government is incapacitated, purely on a legal score, with respect to pulling together the efforts of the provinces. A cooperative approach, based on political rather than legal coordination, is therefore, the most realistic option for the federal government to meet the challenge.
In this work, the writer examines the various areas for federal-provincial cooperation regarding groundwater allocation and protection. Such institutional integration or cooperation cannot be effective unless groundwater is addressed together with the other component of the hydrologic cycle, namely: surface water and the ecosystem they support. At the same time, in adopting an integrated hydrologic cycle approach, specific groundwater management strategies canvassed in this work must be taken into account if groundwater is to be more efficiently allocated and protected. Pursuant to these considerations, this writer is of the opinion that groundwater resources in Canada should be managed in a way that meets both present and future needs of Canadians, thus in a sustainable fashion. This can best be achieved if resource management relies upon a combination of contaminant-focused and resource-focused approaches adopted under unified federal-provincial efforts as well as under an integrated hydrologic cycle management.

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Wang, Yuxin. "Source Water Quality Assessment and Source Water Characterization for Drinking Water Protection." Research Showcase @ CMU, 2014. http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/416.

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Source water quality plays a critical role in maintaining the quality and supply of drinking water, yet it can be negatively affected by human activities. In Pennsylvania, coal mining and treatment of conventional oil and gas drilling produced wastewaters have affected source water quality for over 100 years. The recent unconventional natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale formation produces significant volumes of wastewater containing bromide and has the potential to affect source water quality and downstream drinking water quality. Wastewater from coal-fired power plants also contains bromide that may be released into source water. Increasing source water bromide presents a challenge as even small amounts of bromide in source water can lead to carcinogenic disinfection by-products (DBPs) in chlorinated finished drinking water. However, bromide is not regulated in source water and is not removed by conventional drinking water treatment processes. The objective of this work is to evaluate the safe bromide concentration in source water to minimize the cancer risk of trihalomethanes - a group of DBPs - in treated drinking water. By evaluating three years of water sampling data from the Monongahela River in Southwestern Pennsylvania, the present analysis reached three conclusions. First, bromide monitoring for source water quality should be taken at drinking water intake points. Water sample types (river water samples vs drinking water intake samples) can lead to different water quality conclusions and thus affect regulatory compliance decision-making. Second, bromide monitoring at drinking water intake points can serve as a predictor for changes in heavily brominated trihalomethanes concentrations in finished water. Increasing bromide in source water can serve as an early warning sign of increasing formation of heavily brominated trihalomethanes and their associated cancer risks in drinking water. Finally, this work developed a statistical simulation model to evaluate the effect of source water bromide on trihalomethane formation and speciation and to analyze the changing cancer risks in water associated with these changing bromide concentrations in the Monongahela River. The statistical simulation method proposed in this work leads to the conclusion that the bromide concentration in source water must be very low to prevent the adverse health effects associated with brominated trihalomethanes in chlorinated drinking water. This method can be used by water utilities to determine the bromide concentration in their source water that might indicate a need for process changes or by regulatory agencies to evaluate source water bromide issues.

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Miller, Leigh Burgess. "Source Protection and Drinking Water Quality in the Comarca Ngabe-Bugle, Panama." Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10246067.

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The goal of this study was to identify practical, cost-effective drinking water source protection measures in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, a remote indigenous region of Panama. Water samples from 40 spring captures were tested for E. coli and total coliforms, and quality results were then compared with maintenance and source protection criteria using odds ratios. The water was contaminated; only two samples passed Panamanian drinking water standards--0 CFU/100 ml for E. coli and 3 CFU/100 ml for total coliforms. Mean E. coli was 187 CFU/100 ml and mean total coliforms was 2036 CFU/100 ml. Few odds ratio tests of source protection practices produced statistically significant results. However, the presence of animals within ten meters of the source and cleaning out the spring capture structure had statistically significant relationships with water quality at some contamination thresholds. Surprisingly, at one threshold, the presence of surface water near the spring was unrelated to water quality. Protecting water sources from livestock can be complicated in this region by ambiguous land tenure laws. Likewise, cleaning and basic maintenance are often done on a volunteer basis, and thus subject to the limitations of the community management model. Panamanian and foreign organizations seeking to improve drinking water source quality should consider these complex issues and offer financial and technical support as they encourage source protection improvements.

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Martin, Danielle L. "A case study of Pennsylvania's antidegradation program the Special Protection Waters Program /." Instructions for remote access. Click here to access this electronic resource. Access available to Kutztown University faculty, staff, and students only, 1996. http://www.kutztown.edu/library/services/remote_access.asp.

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Crouse, Anton. "The protection of water sources in developing countries." Thesis, Cape Technikon, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/2167.

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Thesis (Diploma (Civil Engineering))--Cape Technikon, 1986.
In rural areas in Southern Africa a nearby stream or spring is a village or kraal 's main water supply. The majority of these elementdry water sources are polluted. In this project the health hazard of polluted water and methods to protect water sources from pollution are discussed. The project consists of a report of fieldwork done in Southern Kwazula and compiling from the results a Technical Paper on water source protection.

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KIBRIT, EDUARDO. "Análise de requisitos normativos para o desenvolvimento e a implementação de um sistema de gestão da qualidade em instalações e atividades nucleares brasileiras." reponame:Repositório Institucional do IPEN, 2008. http://repositorio.ipen.br:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/11605.

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Dissertação (Mestrado)
IPEN/D
Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

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Copeland, Natalie Suzanne. "Evaluating a wood-strand material for wind erosion control and air quality protection." Online access for everyone, 2007. http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Thesis/Fall2007/n_copeland_113007.pdf.

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Petropoulou, Dimitra. "Information and quality in international trade and the political economy of trade protection." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2007. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2074/.

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This thesis examines how information costs, minimum quality standards and electoral incentives affect international trade and trade policy choice. First, a new pairwise matching model with two-sided information asymmetry is developed to analyse the impact of information costs on endogenous network-building and matching by information intermediaries. The framework innovates by examining the role of information costs on incentives for trade intermediation, thereby endogenising the pattern of direct and indirect trade. The model is extended to analyse the strategic interaction between two information intermediaries who compete in commission rates and network size, giving rise to a fragmented duopoly market structure. Second, unilateral minimum quality standards are endogenously determined as the outcome of a non-cooperative standard-setting game between the governments of two countries. Cross-country externalities from the implementation of minimum quality standards are shown to give rise to a Prisoners' Dilemma structure in the incentives of policy-makers leading to inefficient policy outcomes. The role of minimum quality standards as non-tariff barriers is examined and the scope for mutual gains from reciprocal adjustment in minimum standards analysed. Asymmetric externalities make a cooperative agreement at the world optimum infeasible. Third, a new multi-jurisdictional political agency model is developed to analyse electoral incentives for trade protection in an electoral college. A unique equilibrium is shown to exist where political incumbents build a reputation for protectionism through their policy decisions in their first term of office. A spatial dimension is introduced that shows how trade policy incentives hinge on the distribution of swing voters across decisive, swing states. The empirical analysis augments a benchmark test of the "Protection for Sale" mechanism to include a measure of how industries specialise geographically in swing and decisive states. The findings lend support to the theory.

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Ludka, John T. "Protection and reliability an examination of the quality and quantity of ant protection in the food-for- protection mutualism between Ferocactus viridescens, Crematogaster californica and the invasive Linepithema humile /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2009. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p1460999.

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Thesis (M.S.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009.
Title from first page of PDF file (viewed February 10, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Includes bibliographical references (p. 60-62).

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Kaliher, Thomas L. "Improve safety, health, and environmental protection through the introduction of Six Sigma." Online version, 2003. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2003/2003kalihert.pdf.

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Dubois, Loïc. "Protection de vidéo comprimée par chiffrement sélectif réduit." Thesis, Montpellier 2, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013MON20169/document.

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De nos jours, les vidéos et les images sont devenues un moyen de communication très important. L'acquisition, la transmission, l'archivage et la visualisation de ces données visuelles, que ce soit à titre professionnel ou privé, augmentent de manière exponentielle. En conséquence, la confidentialité de ces contenus est devenue un problème majeur. Pour répondre à ce problème, le chiffrement sélectif est une solution qui assure la confidentialité visuelle des données en ne chiffrant qu'une partie des données. Le chiffrement sélectif permet de conserver le débit initial et de rester conforme aux standards vidéo. Ces travaux de thèse proposent plusieurs méthodes de chiffrement sélectif pour le standard vidéo H.264/AVC. Des méthodes de réduction du chiffrement sélectif grâce à l'architecture du standard H.264/AVC sont étudiées afin de trouver le ratio de chiffrement minimum mais suffisant pour assurer la confidentialité visuelle des données. Les mesures de qualité objectives sont utilisées pour évaluer la confidentialité visuelle des vidéos chiffrées. De plus, une nouvelle mesure de qualité est proposée pour analyser le scintillement des vidéos au cours du temps. Enfin, une méthode de chiffrement sélectif réduit régulé par des mesures de qualité est étudiée afin d'adapter le chiffrement en fonction de la confidentialité visuelle fixée
Nowadays, videos and images are major sources of communication for professional or personal purposes. Their number grow exponentially and the confidentiality of the content has become a major problem for their acquisition, transmission, storage, and display. In order to solve this problem, selective encryption is a solution which provides visual privacy by encrypting only a part of the data. Selective encryption preserves the initial bit-rate and maintains compliance with the syntax of the standard video. This Ph.D thesis offers several methods of selective encryption for H.264/AVC video standard. Reduced selective encryption methods, based on the H.264/AVC architecture, are studied in order to find the minimum ratio of encryption but sufficient to ensure visual privacy. Objective quality measures are used to assess the visual privacy of encrypted videos. In addition, a new quality measure is proposed to analyze the video flicker over time. Finally, a method for a reduced selective encryption regulated by quality measures is studied to adapt the encryption depending on the visual privacy fixed

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Rodriguez, Monica. "Relationships Between Environmental Factors and Fungi on Occupants' Perceptions of Indoor Air Quality." TopSCHOLAR®, 2005. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/474.

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In recent decades, concerns about potential health effects resulting from exposure to contaminants that cause indoor air pollution have dramatically increased. The purpose of this study was to assess the indoor air quality of three buildings at Western Kentucky University and to examine and characterize indoor levels of basic comfort parameters, carbon dioxide, and fungi as well as occupants' perceptions of poor indoor air quality and the role of fungi on reported health symptoms. The three buildings included in the study were: Tate Page Hall (TPH), Jones Jagger Hall (JJH) and Science and Technology Hall (STH). Fifty-three questionnaires were completed by faculty and staff in the three buildings. The questionnaires, in addition to a walkthrough inspection and information from the Environmental Health and Safety Director and building coordinators formed the basis for classification of the three buildings (TPH and STH as complaint and JJH as noncomplaint). Comfort parameters, CO2, and fungi were measured indoors at selected offices for approximately five hours each day in summer of 2004. Measurements were also made outdoors for comparison of indoor samples. Airborne samples for viable fungi were collected onto malt Extract Agar using a single-stage Impactor calibrated at a flow rate of 28 liters per minute (L/min) for five minutes. Air samples for non-viable fungi were collected with Air-O-Cell Cassettes using the SKC Bio-Pump at a flow rate of 15L/min for ten minutes. Additionally, bulk samples were collected from areas with visible molds. The fungal samples were sent to two contract and accredited laboratories for analysis. The basic parameters were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. The results of the questionnaires showed response rates of 35 % for STH and TPH, and 30 %, for JJH. The most common indoor air quality (IAQ) complaints were allergies (27%), mold (27%), dust in the air (17%), temperature (13%), lack of airflow or stuffiness (10%), and physical symptoms (7%). The average indoor levels of basic parameters were within the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE's) recommended limits for both complaint buildings. ANOVA results showed that the levels of environmental measurements differed significantly across buildings. Airborne indoor concentrations of fungi were significantly higher than the outdoor in STH and TPH. Whereas JJH had less than 50% indoor fungi compared to outdoor. The most prevalent fungi were Aspergillus, Acremonium Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Yeast. However, certain toxin producing fungi (Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Stachybotrys species) that have been associated with human health effects such as asthma and allergies were isolated from a number of indoor samples at higher levels in the complaint buildings than the non-complaint building. The presence of higher indoor (compare to outdoor) levels and more species of toxigenic fungi would indicate inadequate ventilation and poor indoor air quality. Poor indoor air quality resulting from allergic diseases has been associated with increased rate of Absenteeism and reduced productivity. Remedial actions are recommended for improved building design, operation and maintenance with a view to improving indoor air quality, occupants comfort, and public health.

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Nezhadarya, Ehsan. "Image derivative estimation and its applications to edge detection, quality monitoring and copyright protection." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/44504.

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Multi-order image derivatives are used in many image processing and computer vision applications, such as edge detection, feature extraction, image enhancement, segmentation, matching, watermarking and quality assessment. In some applications, the image derivatives are modified and then inverse-transformed to the image domain. For example, one approach for image denoising is to keep the significant image derivatives and shrink the non-significant derivatives. The denoised image is then reconstructed from the modified derivatives. The main challenge here is how to inverse-transform the derivatives to the image domain. This thesis proposes different algorithms to estimate the image derivatives and apply them to image denosing , watermarking and quality assessment. For noisy color images, we present a method that yields accurate and robust estimates of the gradient magnitude and direction. This method obtains the gradient at a certain direction by applying a prefilter and a postﬁlter in the perpendicular direction. Simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art methods. We also present a multi-scale derivative transform, MSDT, that obtains the gradient at a given image scale using the detail horizontal, vertical and diagonal wavelet coefficients of the image at that scale. The inverse transform is designed such that any change in the image derivative results in the minimum possible change in the image. The MSDT transform is used to derive a novel multi-scale image watermarking method. This method embeds the watermark bits in the angles of the significant gradient vectors, at different image scales. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms other watermarking methods in terms of robustness to attacks, imperceptibility of the watermark and watermark capacity.The MSDT is then used to obtain a semi-blind method for video quality assessment. The method embeds pseudo-random binary watermarks in the derivative vectors of the original undistorted video. The quality of the distorted video is estimated based on the similarity between the embedded and the extracted watermarks. The simulation results on video distorted by compression/decompression show that the proposed method can accurately estimate the quality of a video and its frames for a wide range of compression ratios.

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Griffen, Lindsay M. "Reducing Pollutants in Industrial Stormwater Runoff: Improved Water Quality Protection Using Prioritized Facility Regulation." [Tampa, Fla.] : University of South Florida, 2005. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0001377.

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Ockenden, Mary Catherine. "Identification of catchment runoff processes as a basis for defining water quality protection zones." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2010. http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/66951/.

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'Protection zones' for water quality are often defined as areas within the landscape where potentially polluting activities are excluded or restricted, with the aim of reducing the quantity of pollutants reaching the waterways. Such protection zones are needed in relation to agrochemical pollution from farming. This study uses a combination of hydrological, hydrochemical and modelling approaches to identify the nature and likelihood of generation of different hydrological flow pathways and to recommend hydrology-based protection zones for overland flow within an agricultural catchment. The study is based in the 616 km2 Upper Eden catchment in Cumbria, and one of its subcatchments, Blind Beck (8.8 km2). Transfer function modelling of rainfall-flow is used to investigate how the dominant mode(s) of stream response varies for different scale catchments (1 km2 to 616 km2). This indicates more water taking slower pathways as the proportion of the catchment on permeable sandstone increases. Chemical sampling, high temporal resolution measurements of specific conductivity, stream water temperature and diurnal variations of stream ions show results consistent with the rainfall-flow modelling in identifying a higher proportion of water on slower pathways in a small catchment on sandstone. Spatial distributions of surface soil moisture at 10 plots in Blind Beck investigate how topography, slope and land use affect the local distribution of surface saturation that produces saturation overland flow. At the plot scale, wetness distributions predicted by the Kirkby topographic index show significant discrepancies with the observed soil moisture distributions. A conceptual model for defining hydrology-based protection zones for overland flow combines areas of highest pollutant source risk with areas likely to generate overland flow. Overall, this study shows that while the factors controlling the location of saturated areas are complex, identification of the dominant hydrological pathways is fundamental to the design of water protection zones.

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Kinzelman, Julie Lynn. "Investigating bathing water quality failures and initiating remediation for the protection of public health." Thesis, University of Surrey, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.421319.

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Speakman, Anne Kathryn. "A WATER QUALITY INTERNSHIP WITH THE OHIO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY’S DIVISION OF SURFACE WATER." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1417012918.

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Lu, Zhen. "Development of advanced power system protection and power quality measurement algorithms using mathematical morphology." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.433041.

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Bone, James. "Environmental quality management for soil protection : the role of citizen science in the process." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/10930.

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Soil is a vital and non-renewable resource, which performs many important functions. Soil quality management is faced with a number of challenges including overcoming objections to policies for soil protection, and the resource requirements implementation will entail. Further to this, soil is often neglected, as it is not high on the public or regulatory agenda. This work has focused on collecting large and cost effective data sets and raising awareness of soil, through the use of members of the public or ‘citizen scientists’. The aim of this PhD research was to assess the challenges facing soil protection and to evaluate role of citizen science for this purpose. The emergence of policies dealing with soil degradation is likely to increase the requirement for soil quality assessment. Despite this, there remains an issue with soil protection policy, which has not been implemented to the same extent as for water and air policy. To increase understanding of these issues, this work evaluated soil quality, and the reservations which it faces. Findings reveal the need for a method of assessment that is not soil function dependent, but uses a number of cross-functional indicators. Examination of the policy drivers for water and air highlight the importance of moving toward more holistic management and protection of soil. To help to address challenges for soil protection policy, this work proposes a set of indicators that can be collected by members of the public, and which can be used to direct further detailed soil quality assessment. With the need for evidence based policy, and recognition that involving the public in environmental monitoring is an effective way of increasing understanding and commitment, there has been growing interest in public surveys. The development of a mass public soil survey, the Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) Soil and Earthworm Survey, is presented as an example of public participation in soil surveys. This approach can deliver improvements in the quality of the evidence collected and provide effective public involvement in policymaking and implementation, on top of direct educational benefits. Such data from the public have been analysed to provide information about soils and earthworm distributions, and has indicated apparent differences in earthworm abundance across England. Investigation of the reliability of patterns shows the importance of following up apparent findings from public data with more detailed investigation. Examination of patterns in public data provided important information on threats to soil, and has allowed further examination of the main environmental drivers of earthworm distribution, as well as distribution and fate of contaminants. The work highlights the important role to be played by members of the public in the move toward a holistic and harmonised protection of soil resources, with great value in public participation in data collection, education and policy formation.

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Sarker, Shishir Kumar. "Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Total Phosphorus Concentration in Soil and Surface Water in the Everglades Protection Area." FIU Digital Commons, 2018. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3742.

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Draining of the Everglades allowed for the expansion of urban and agricultural development, reducing half of the size of the historic Everglades. The detrimental cascading effect on the Everglades ecosystem function is related to the total phosphorus (TP) concentrations of water inflow, the inflow rate and the distance from the discharge point. As Everglades restoration has approached 15 years since the inception of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), there is a need to assess its progress across the ecosystem. Available data from 2004 to 2014 were collected for soils and from 2004 to 2016 for water to understand a decade of trends. Both Geographic Information System (GIS) and statistical data analysis were applied to determine changes in water quality and soil chemistry. Key findings indicate a declining trend in water TP, with mixed results for soil. Higher TP concentrations (>10 µg/L) were prevalent the areas less than 1 km from a canal or water discharge point for both soil and water. The TP in surface water was higher in the wet season compared to the dry season across the EPA possibly associated with hydrologic, climatic or other factors.

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Longsmith, Rebecca Johnson. "A BIOLOGICAL MONITORING INTERNSHIP WITH THE OHIO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, DIVISION OF SURFACE WATER." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1451932666.

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Desrousseaux, Maylis. "La protection juridique de la qualité des sols." Thesis, Lyon 3, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014LYO30080.

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Le sol est la couche supérieure de l’écorce terrestre, la surface plane qui s’étire d’un horizon à un autre. Il est la terre que l’on laboure, le sable que l’on égraine, base que l’on piétine, point d’attache des hommes à un territoire : jardin, région ou Etat. Les sols, ces écosystèmes fragiles aux multiples fonctions, à l’origine de tout autant de services écologiques, sont les garants de la qualité de l’environnement. Le droit a intégré diverses conceptions de la notion de la qualité des sols. Mais loin de constituer un statut de protection, cette intégration éparse est indifférente, a priori, leurs qualités environnementales. Or, les sols sont une ressource finie et leur utilisation irraisonnée conduit à leur dégradation, souvent irréversible, et à leur raréfaction. Progressivement, le droit s’est enrichi d’éléments relatifs à la multifonctionnalité des sols, intégrant des pratiques garantissant leur utilisation durable ou organisant de façon cohérente leur affectation. Cette approche utilitariste de la qualité des sols s’avère sélective et demeure concentrée sur la préservation des services écologiques directement bénéfiques à l’homme, dont celui de production des matières premières alimentaires, au détriment des services indirects ou déterritorialisés, tel que celui de stockage de carbone. Cette approche est toutefois complétée par l’émergence d’une conception objectiviste de la qualité, qui révèle les propensions du droit à protéger la valeur intrinsèque des sols
The soil is the upper layer of the earth’s crust, the plan surface that stretches from one horizon to the other. It is the crop lands, the scattering sand, the ground we trample on, the link between men and their territory: garden, region, state. The soils, those fragile and multifunctional ecosystems, provide many ecological services and guarantee the environmental quality. The law contains several conceptions of the notion of soils quality. But, far from constituting a protection status, this integration ignores, a priori, their environmental qualities. However, the soils are a finite resource and their non-sustainable use leads to their degradation, often irreversible, and to their growing scarcity. Progressively, the law added elements of soils multifonctionality, integrating sustainable practices. This utilitarian approach of soil quality proves to be selective and remains focused on the preservation of a small part of all the ecological services: the ones that men directly need, like food production and ignores the indirect ones like carbon storage. Nevertheless, this approach is complemented by the raising of an objectivist conception of quality, which reveals the propensity of the law to take into account the intrinsic value of soils

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29

Jackson, Brendan R. "No Observed Adverse Effects: Developing Neurons, Organophosphate Insecticides, and the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act." Yale University, 2008. http://ymtdl.med.yale.edu/theses/available/etd-08092007-145203/.

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Physicians are familiar with organophosphates (OPs) as a classic, though obscure, cause of cholinergic poisoning. Many opportunities for human exposure existsixty million pounds of OPs are applied as insecticides to sixty million acres of U.S. land each year, and, until recently, over one-fifth of Americans used these chemicals in their homes. Most physicians, however, still know little about the dangers that these pesticides pose to the developing nervous system. By the late 1980s, toxicologists increasingly recognized that toxicants such as lead and mercury, even at doses well-below the level required to cause symptomatic poisoning, could induce subtle, yet permanent, neurological deficits if the exposure occurred during critical periods of brain development. In the early 1990s, scientists and regulators began to realize that developmental neurotoxicity (DNT), as this phenomenon was called, could also result from OPs. In 1996 Congress passed the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), marking a major turning point in the regulation of hazardous chemicals. Prior to the FQPA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) based its calculations of pesticide risk on adults and largely neglected the increased susceptibility of infants and children. The new law took a precautionary stance, protecting the vulnerable neural and physical development of the fetus and child with the inclusion of a 10-X safety factor, and shifting the burden of proof from health advocates to the pesticide manufacturers. The ensuing ten-year battle between health groups, pesticide manufacturers, and the EPA over the laws enforcement now provides an instructive lesson into the complex scientific, political, and economic world of environmental health, and serves as a relatively successful example of effective policy improving public health.

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Wente, Stephen P. "Optimizing land acquisition-conversion projects for water quality protection and enhancement using biological integrity endpoints." Virtual Press, 1996. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1036190.

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Biological monitoring and land use data analysis were performed for a small (79,800 acre) watershed in west-central Indiana. A model was developed between Hilsenhoff biotic index and percentage of water (volume) draining through forestland at each sample site (R2.92, P < .002). This water volume model was found to explain more of the variation in biological integrity than USEPA and Ohio EPA habitat assessment methods, as well as, a land use model based upon percentage watershed surface area. Based on this water volume model, maps were created depicting regions within the watershed that had the greatest potential to damage water quality. Land acquisition/conversion projects based upon these maps should improve biological integrity/water quality more efficiently (requiring less land acquisition/conversion, and therefore lowering project costs, while increasing water quality benefits).
Department of Biology

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31

Alkharam, Ali Salem. "Specification of the quality of ionising radiations for unified dosimetry in radiobiology and radiological protection." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13360.

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It is widely agreed in radiobiological and biophysical research that the DNA is the dominant target which can lead to terminal biological damage in the form of cancer or cell death. A main objective in radiation protection is to set the limits of the possible harmful effects to the general population exposed to ionising radiation at low level (environmental level). The initial slope of the dose-response curve is found to be an appropriate parameter to achieve this objective. Bench mark data sets of the initial effects of ionising radiation on cells in vitro were formed which include both physical characterisation of the radiation and the radiobiological parameters. These data-bases include the mammalian cell end-points: cellular inactivation, chromosome dicentrics, HPRT mutations and oncogenic transformations. On the molecular scale, the databases include single-strand and double strand breaks induced in the DNA of both mammalian and non-mammalian cells. Analysis of bio-effect mechanisms of damage to mammalian cells in terms of the quality parameter 'mean free path for linear primary ionisation' for ionising radiation, strongly suggest that there is a common mechanism for the biological endpoints of dicentrics, mutations, and oncogemc transformations. A unified response is obtained for all types of heavy ions and all cells which show: a common inflection point at inter-spacing distance equivalent to lambda0 = 1.4+/- 0.5 nm, a saturation region at lambda < lambda0 and almost constant slope for lambda < lambda0. The lethal lesions are identified as dsb's in the intracellular DNA. It follows that radiation risk factors can be determined on the basis of simple ratios to the inactivation cross sections. The size of these genes are found to be in close proximity to the optimised saturation levels. The probabilities of risk with respect to inactivation, for chromosome dicentrics, oncogenic transformations, and mutations of the HPRT gene are respectively 0.18, 1.6 x 10^-4and 2.91 x 10^-5. The same analysis shows that sparsely ionising radiations, which have lower effect cross-sections by an order of magnitude or more, can never reach saturation. Analysis of the molecular dsb's of DNA produced in mammalian cells by heavy ions shows a lower saturation cross-section of 0.83 mum2 which may be compared with the geometrical cross-section of 3.5 mum2. The difference is attributed to a higher packing factor. Calculations using earlier endpoint saturation cross-sections show that 4 dsb's in DNA of a human lymphocyte cell are needed to induce a chromosome dicentric, 100 dsb's in DNA of a C3H10T1/2 cell are needed to inactivate an oncogene, and 3500 dsb's in DNA of a V79 cell are needed on average to delete an HPRT mutant. The feasibility to design a new dosimetric system which would have a unified response, as described above, is considered. NE102A plastic scintillators of 20 mum thickness are found to be a potentially good prospect for detecting weak ionising radiation. By adjusting the concentration of the activator, the mean of the random distance between centres can be modified to simulate the strand-pair distribution of the DNA in mammalian cells. Thus it is possible to simulate the yield of dsb's in DNA damage as those paired centres spaced by about 1.8 nm and to distinguish them from other unwanted pairs of activated sites with different spacings. Using a 60Co-y radiation source, and starting from the knowledge of the equilibrium slowing down spectrum of electrons in plastic scintillator, the yields of photons and paired events with an inter-spacing distance of - 1.8 nm can be calculated. As may be expected, the results show that the combination from the paired events is very small compared to the total scintillation yield but of the same order as that of double strand breaks in mammalian cells. The resulted simulation showed a yield of 10^-2 dsb's/keV which is in close proximity with the theoretical result, for a 4 MeV alpha particle, of 7 x 10^-3 dsb's/keV. Both the theory and preliminary experimental investigation with a semi-infinite disc of plastic phosphor, 20 mum thick, reveals that the method is potential promising but more detailed study is required on the process for extraction of the desired signal from the practical device.

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Mahane, Mouna. "Qualité de protection des circuits intégrés contre les décharges électrostatiques." Thesis, Toulouse 3, 2020. http://www.theses.fr/2020TOU30323.

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Les travaux de cette thèse s'inscrivent dans un contexte concurrentiel, où les concepteurs de systèmes électroniques exigent que les solutions de protection contre les décharges électrostatiques (ESD) soient les plus performantes possibles. Dans ces travaux, les critères qui définissent la qualité de protection sont détaillées, et de nouvelles méthodes de test sont développées. Nous exposons les difficultés associées à la conception d'un dispositif de protection complet (dimension, robustesse, efficacité et transparence). Une nouvelle approche de conception est donc proposée. Elle vise à adresser une large gamme d'applications en s'appuyant sur une technologie de protection " flexible ". L'idée est d'exploiter les compromis géométriques et technologiques existants, en se basant sur des outils d'apprentissage machine et de simulation physique. In fine, l'objectif est d'obtenir des pistes d'optimisation rapides, avec un maximum de flexibilité durant la phase de conception
This work has been done in a highly competitive context, where electronic-system designers require electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection devices providing high performance levels. The purpose of protection device is to make circuits robust against ESD event, while being totally invisible to the system during normal operation. In this work, several aspects of ESD protection device are discussed, and new testing methods are proposed. An overview of design issues related to the several aspects of ESD protection is outlined. A new design approach is proposed which aims to address a large range of applications and is based on a "flexible" technology of protection. We achieve this challenge using machine learning tools and physical simulations to explore and yield profit from the existing compromises between designs and process parameters. The final goal is to allow maximum design flexibility while providing guidance to easily adapt ESD protection to the targeted application-requirements

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Jones, Danielle Yvonne. "Farmer Participation in the Conservation Reserve Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2007. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/JonesDY2007.pdf.

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Bankson, Rodney A. "Forces in the initiation and implementation of the rural groundwater protection process." Diss., Virginia Tech, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/39033.

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Groundwater contamination is a growing problem that is receiving increasing attention on the national scene. There is recognition that federal, state, and local, programs for the protection of the nation's groundwater lack coordinated, integrated policy. Consequently, much of the responsibility for groundwater protection in rural areas falls upon local elected officials and public administrators who may be ill equipped to deal with technically c01nplex issues that are becoming increasingly germane and costly for many communities. This dissertation examines a rural county in Virginia (Clarke County) noted for its progressive groundwater protection policies, with the intent of the examination to improve the knowledge base of the dynamics of the groundwater protection process in rural areas. Case study methodology, implementation theory, and ethnographic techniques are used to determine what factors and forces play the greatest role in initiating and influencing groundwater protection outcomes in a rural setting. Answers are suggested for questions such as: (1) why does Clarke County display a different attitude towards groundwater protection than many of its neighbors in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia; (2) how was Clarke County able to initiate and institute groundwater protection plans; and (3) is there a special role for the public administrator in the rural groundwater protection policy process?
Ph. D.

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Lillhök, Jan Erik. "The microdosimetric variance-covariance method used for beam quality characterization in radiation protection and radiation therapy." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm University, Medical Radiation Physics (together with KI), 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-6687.

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Radiation quality is described by the RBE (relative biological effectiveness) that varies with the ionizing ability of the radiation. Microdosimetric quantities describe distributions of energy imparted to small volumes and can be related to RBE. This has made microdosimetry a powerful tool for radiation quality determinations in both radiation protection and radiation therapy. The variance-covariance method determines the dose-average of the distributions and has traditionally been used with two detectors to correct for beam intensity variations. Methods to separate dose components in mixed radiation fields and to correct for beam variations using only one detector have been developed in this thesis. Quality factor relations have been optimized for different neutron energies, and a new algorithm that takes single energy deposition events from densely ionizing radiation into account has been formulated. The variance-covariance technique and the new methodology have been shown to work well in the cosmic radiation field onboard aircraft, in the mixed photon and neutron fields in the nuclear industry and in pulsed fields around accelerators.

The method has also been used for radiation quality characterization in therapy beams. The biological damage is related to track-structure and ionization clusters and requires descriptions of the energy depositions in nanometre sized volumes. It was shown that both measurements and Monte Carlo simulation (condensed history and track-structure) are needed for a reliable nanodosimetric beam characterization. The combined experimental and simulated results indicate that the dose-mean of the energy imparted to an object in the nanometre region is related to the clinical RBE in neutron, proton and photon beams. The results suggest that the variance-covariance technique and the dose-average of the microdosimetric quantities could be well suited for describing radiation quality also in therapy beams.

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Lillhök, Jan Erik. "The microdosimetric variance-covariance method used for beam quality characterization in radiation protection and radiation therapy /." Stockholm : Medical Radiation Physics, Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-6687.

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Sutton, Justin Corser IV. "Groundwater Recharge Areas: Identification and Protection within the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board Jurisdiction." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2011. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/584.

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This master’s project was conducted under the direction of the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) to assist with augmenting their Basin Plan. An investigation of the current practices for identifying and managing groundwater recharge areas was conducted, and strategies for protecting water quality by managing land uses in groundwater recharge areas were developed. Data sources included a review of agency documents, websites, and maps; interviews with stakeholders, and literature research. Data from these sources provided the foundation on which to base strategies for maintaining and improving groundwater quality in the Central Coast Hydrologic Region. This project recommends standard language for groundwater recharge areas, minimum criteria for identifying and mapping these areas, and protection strategies. The Water Board must establish minimum standards to protect groundwater recharge areas, and collaborate with local agencies to protect the quality of groundwater throughout their jurisdiction.

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Jabbour, Hani. "A real-time audio transcoder with watermark images for content protection and quality of service monitoring." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/27376.

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Audio streaming has become a popular application on the Internet over the past few years, and is expected to grow with the advent of high-speed Internet access. Content adaptability, copyright protection, and Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring of these streams are some of the major issues encountered in audio streaming. In this research study, we present a universal media access-compliant (UMA) transcoding module along with a watermarking-based data-hiding module that provides copyright protection as well as data integrity, authenticity assurance, and QoS monitoring. The audio was first adapted to multiple clients' needs on the server side, watermarked, and then sent to the connected clients. The content adaptability was done by down sampling and a sample size reduction of the live microphone-captured audio. The adaptation was done in conformance to the UMA paradigm. The watermarking, on the other hand, was done on different levels in order to provide guaranteed reliability and authenticity of the audio data as well as an efficient lightweight quality of service monitoring. The watermarking scheme was done on three different levels: First, the private watermark was watermarked by a public watermark. Second, the audio was watermarked by the watermarked private watermark using a private key. Third, the watermarked audio was watermarked again by a hashed value or itself using the same private key. The audio contains an image along with encryption and another image protecting it from temperament and allowing users to track the quality of the audio. The client would have the ability to extract the private watermark and the hash value with his private key, check the integrity of the audio using this hash value and the received audio, extract the public watermark from the private watermark, and compare it to its supposed value in order to obtain a broad idea of the quality of the service. The watermarking techniques used throughout this research were least significant bit (LSB) embedding and some variations of this technique. All the audio data that is outputted can be played with legacy audio players. The content adaptation and the watermarking will not change in any way the conformance of the audio to legacy standards.

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Farina, Gabriele. "Evaluation of leaf removal strategies and cluster radiation protection on Cabernet Sauvignon grape and wine quality." Master's thesis, ISA-UL, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/13354.

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Mestrado em Viticultura e Enologia - Instituto Superior de Agronomia - UL
With the goal to improve the characteristics of the grapes, a Cabernet sauvignon vineyard in Maule valley (Chile) was subjected to 5 different typologies of defoliation compared with a control not defoliated. Different timing and quality of defoliation were analysed. It was also compared a kaolin based product to reduce the warming effect of the direct light on the clusters. The study of the canopy, through the point quadrat and the leaf area analyses, gave objective parameters and enabled to have a repeatibility on the years. The amount of light in the canopy and the temperature of the clusters were registered for each treatment in three different occasions. At the harvest the berries were counted and divided according the dehydration to understand the damage done by the sun. The influence of the light and the temperature was studied on the chemical composition of the musts of the vintage 2016 and on the wines of the vintage 2015 to find the best correlation between the solar exposition and the quality parameters of the grapes as the flavonoids. The 2015 wine resulted from the same trial was also sensory analysed by a panel to find additional differences between the treatments. If on one hand, the solar light allows to diminish the quantity of green aromas and to improve the chemical characteristics, an over-exposition could be dangerous for the grape. The aim of this study was to find the right compromise to have the benefit of the light without the damage of the heat. According to this research a total defoliation of the cluster zone during the veraison could be a damage for the yield and the sensory characteristics of the wine. On the other hand the “no act” philosophy of the control doesn’t seem a valid solution because it has the worst sensory results. Seems that in this South American context, the best solution could be a treatment that allow the exposition to the light of the cluster avoiding the hottest hours of the day and limiting the warming of the berries
N/A

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Khoury, Vanessa El. "Semantic protection and personalization of video content PIAF : MPEG compliant adaptation framework preserving the user perceived quality." Thesis, Lyon, INSA, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013ISAL0086/document.

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Dans cette thèse, nous proposons un framework d’adaptation appelé "Personalized vIdeo Adaptation Framework" (PIAF) conçu à partir des standards MPEG. PIAF intègre les contraintes sémantiques et vise à maximiser la qualité perçue par l’utilisateur lors de la visualisation de la vidéo tout en respectant les droits de propriété intellectuelle. Les contributions de cette thèse peuvent être résumées comme suit. Dans un premier temps, nous avons utilisé et étendu les standards MPEG-7 et MPEG-21 afin de représenter les préférences des utilisateurs. Nous avons ensuite proposé un modèle formel du processus d’adaptation sémantique d’une vidéo et défini une fonction d’utilité régissant le mécanisme de prise de décision du MPDA. Cette fonction tient compte de différentes dimensions de qualité (qualité perceptuelle, sémantique, temps d’exécution nécessaire) afin d’évaluer quantitativement la qualité d’un plan d’adaptation. Le processus d’adaptation que nous proposons intègre les droits de propriété intellectuelle dans le processus de décision. Dans certains cas, le plan d’adaptation qui produirait la vidéo de meilleure qualité adaptée aux préférences de l’utilisateur peut être inapplicable car il ne respecte pas les contraintes du propriétaire. Trouver le meilleur plan d’adaptation devient alors un problème NP-complet. Nous avons proposé une solution pratique à ce problème sous la forme d’une heuristique capable de sélectionner un plan très proche de l’optimum en un temps de calcul raisonnable. Afin d’implémenter ce framework, nous avons également développé un outil d’annotation sémantique de contenu vidéo (SVCAT) qui produit des annotations sémantiques structurelles et de haut niveau selon un modèle objet basé sur du contenu vidéo. Nous avons validé nos travaux avec des évaluations qualitatives et quantitatives qui nous ont permis d’étudier la performance et l'efficacité du MPDA. Nous avons validé nos travaux avec des évaluations qualitatives et quantitatives qui nous ont permis d’étudier la performance et l'efficacité du MPDA. Les résultats obtenus démontrent que la fonction d’utilité proposée présente une forte corrélation avec les évaluations subjectives fournies par des utilisateurs concernant la qualité d’une vidéo adaptée, et constitue donc une base tout à fait pertinente pour le MPDA
Universal Multimedia Experience (UME) is the notion that a user should receive informative adapted content anytime and anywhere. Personalization of videos, which adapts their content according to user preferences, is a vital aspect of achieving the UME vision. User preferences can be translated into several types of constraints that must be considered by the adaptation process, including semantic constraints directly related to the content of the video. The overall goal of this adaptation process is to provide users with adapted content that maximizes their Quality of Experience (QoE). This QoE depends at the same time on the level of the user's satisfaction in perceiving the adapted content, the amount of knowledge assimilated by them, and the adaptation execution time. In video adaptation frameworks, the Adaptation Decision Taking Engine (ADTE), is responsible for achieving this goal. The task of the ADTE is challenging as many adaptation operations can satisfy the same semantic constraint, and thus arising in several feasible adaptation plans. Indeed, for each entity to be adapted, the ADTE must decide on the adequate adaptation operator that satisfies the user's preferences while maximizing his/her quality of experience. The first challenge to achieve in this is to objectively measure the quality of the adapted video, while considering the multiple aspects of the QoE. The second challenge is to assess beforehand this quality in order to choose the most appropriate adaptation plan among all possible ones. The third challenge is to resolve conflicting or overlapping semantic constraints, in particular conflicts arising from constraints expressed by owner's intellectual property rights (IPR) about the modification of the content. In this thesis, we tackled the aforementioned challenges by proposing a Utility Function (UF), which integrates semantic concerns with user's perceptual considerations. This UF models the relationships among adaptation operations, user preferences, and the quality of the video content. We integrated this UF into an ADTE. This ADTE performs a multi-level piecewise reasoning to choose the adaptation plan that maximizes the user-perceived quality. Furthermore, we included IPR in the adaptation process. Thereby, we modeled content owner constraints, and proposed a heuristic to resolve conflicting user and owner constraints. More, we developed SVCAT, which produces structural and high-level semantic annotation according to an original object-based video content model. We modeled as well the user's preferences proposing extensions to MPEG-7 and MPEG-21. All the developed contributions were carried out as part of a coherent framework called PIAF. We validated this research with qualitative and quantitative evaluations, which assess the performance and the efficiency of the proposed adaptation decision-taking engine within PIAF

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41

Marttila, H. (Hannu). "Managing erosion, sediment transport and water quality in drained peatland catchments." Doctoral thesis, Oulun yliopisto, 2011. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789514293306.

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Abstract Peatland drainage changes catchment conditions and increases the transport of suspended solids (SS) and nutrients. New knowledge and management methods are needed to reduce SS loading from these areas. This thesis examines sediment delivery and erosion processes in a number of peatland drainage areas and catchments in order to determine the effects of drainage on sediment and erosion dynamics and mechanics. Results from studies performed in peat mining, peatland forestry and disturbed headwater catchments in Finland are presented and potential sediment load management methods are discussed for drainage areas and headwater brooks. Particular attention is devoted to erosion of organic peat, sediment transport and methods to reduce the impacts of peatland drainage in boreal headwaters. This thesis consists of six articles. The first and second papers focus on the erosion and sediment transport processes at peat harvesting and peatland forestry drainage networks. The results indicate that in-channel processes are important in drained peatland, since the drainage network often constitutes temporary inter-storm storage for eroding and transporting material. Sediment properties determine the bed sediment erosion sensitivity, as fluffy organic peat sediment consolidates over time. As flashiness and peak runoff control sediment entrainment and transport from drained peatland areas, water quality management should include peak runoff management. The third, fourth and fifth papers studies use and application of peak runoff control (PRC) method to the peat harvesting and peatland forestry conditions for water protection. Results indicate that effective water quality management in drained peatland areas can be achieved using this method. Installation of the PRC structures is a useful and cost-effective way of storing storm runoff waters temporarily in the ditch system and providing a retention time for eroded sediment to settle to the ditch bed and drainage network. The main effect of the PRC is on SS and SS-bound nutrients. The sixth paper is concentrated to test new restoration structure to be used in degraded headwater brooks. The results show that addition of woody restoration structures to the channel is effective and simple sediment management methods in headwater areas. New information provided in this thesis on sediment erosion and transport processes in drained peatland areas can help to improve water quality control in these areas. In-channel processes are important for both peatland uses, since the drainage network often constitutes temporary inter-storm storage for eroding and transporting material. Therefore, controlling these processes is a key to effective water quality management, which can be achieved using the PRC method in drainage areas or by utilisation of natural fluvial processes in natural channels downstream.

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Liu, Hui. "The Development of a Water Quality Model in Baltimore Harbor, Back River, and the Adjacent Upper Chesapeake Bay." W&M ScholarWorks, 2002. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539617784.

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Sun, Huawei. "Theoretical and experimental study of a high rise hog building for improved utilization and environmental quality protection." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2004. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1079066940.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 200 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Frederick C. Michel, Jr., Dept. of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering. Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-181).

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Farrell-Poe, Kitt, Will Payne, and Robert Emanuel. "Arizona Watershed Stewardship Guide: Water Quality & Monitoring." College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/146901.

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18 pp.
Arizona Watershed Stewardship Guide (10 related modules to be published in combined form)
Arizona Watershed Stewardship Guide was created to help individuals and groups build a mutual foundation of basic knowledge about watersheds in Arizona. It is intended to help Arizonans understand and be good stewards of their watersheds. The guide was designed to compliment the mission of Arizona Master Watershed Steward program to educate and train citizens across the state of Arizona to serve as volunteers in the restoration, conservation, monitoring, and protection of their water and watersheds. The guide consists of 10 self-contained modules which teach about important aspects of watershed science and management.

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te, Velde Rob. "The Influence of Corporate Governance Quality and Growth Opportunities on Firms’ Payout Policy." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-377179.

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This paper examines the effect of corporate governance quality on firms’ payout policy. We analyze a global sample of 3,904 firms (25,773 firm-year observations) over the period 2002-2016. I find that corporate governance quality is positively related to payout ratios, consistent with the perspective of the free cash flow hypothesis (Jensen, 1986) and the outcome dividend model (LLSV, 2000). Moreover, consistent with findings of Mitton (2004) the positive relationship between firm’s corporate governance and dividend payout mainly holds for countries with strong shareholder or creditor protection, suggesting that firm-level corporate governance and country-level protection rights are complements rather than substitutes. This study also shows that firms with high corporate governance quality are less likely to disburse cash to their shareholders when controlling for country-level shareholder rights. Furthermore, this study contributes to the existing literature by investigating share repurchases and finds that well governed firms distribute less cash through share repurchases and total payout when they experience high growth opportunities. Moreover, the results suggest that countries that experience stronger shareholder and creditor rights reduce the positive impact that corporate governance quality has on share repurchases and total payout.

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Elbag, Jr Mark A. "Impact of Surrounding Land Uses on Surface Water Quality." Digital WPI, 2006. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-theses/665.

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Source water protection is important to maintain public health by keeping harmful pathogens out of drinking water. Non-point source pollution is often times a major contributor of pollution to surface waters, and this form of pollution can be difficult to quantify. This study examined physical, chemical, and microbiological water quality parameters that may indicate pollution and may help to identify sources of pollution. These included measures of organic matter, particles, and indicator organisms (fecal coliforms and E. coli). The parameters were quantified in the West Boylston Brook, which serves as a tributary to the Wachusett Reservoir and is part of the drinking water supply for the Metropolitan Boston area. Water quality was determined over four seasons at seven locations in the brook that were selected to isolate specific land uses. The water quality parameters were first analyzed for trends by site and by season. Then, a correlation analysis was performed to determine relationships among the water quality parameters. Lastly, ANOVA analyses were used to determine statistically significant variations in water quality along the tributary.

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Al, Zahed Khalid. "Coastal zone management in Dubai with reference to ecological characterization along Dubai Creek." Thesis, St Andrews, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/541.

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Ali, Ahmed. "Groundwater pollution threats of solid waste disposal in urban Kano, Nigeria : evaluation and protection strategies." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2013. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/groundwater-pollution-threats-of-solid-waste-disposal-in-urban-kano-nigeria-evaluation-and-protection-strategies(c5cb7758-d826-4b43-99b4-9fc5bce6aa70).html.

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The practices of solid waste management (SWM) and solid waste disposal (SWD) in Kano metropolis, Nigeria, were examined. The water quality of groundwater sources in the areas adjacent to the SWD sites was monitored in order to evaluate interactions and assess the possibility of groundwater contamination as a result of percolation of the leachates generated in the SWD sites. An integrated approach to the field investigation was employed in the study. This included an extensive desk study; a field survey of all existing SWD sites in the area; leachate and groundwater sampling; and laboratory-based experimental and instrumental analyses. The locations of the SWD sites relative to inhabited areas were examined, and eight sites and their environs were selected for leachate and groundwater sampling and quality assessments in May 2009 and May 2010. It was observed that SWM activities in Kano metropolis are unsystematic and pose a significant risk to both public health and environmental quality, especially in relation to local groundwater sources. It was also found that the leachates produced in the sampled sites contained significant concentrations of a wide range of contaminants; including nitrates, total alkalinity, total dissolved solids, chlorides and sulphates. The leachates were also observed to be in the methanogenic phase of biochemical degradation and were shown to have similar characteristics to other leachates from mature SWD sites in different parts of the world. Similarly, the physico-chemical characteristics of the groundwater samples around the selected SWD sites indicated high concentrations of nitrates, chlorides, total dissolved solids, total alkalinity, turbidity, iron and manganese, often above the WHO thresholds for acceptable drinking water quality. It is, therefore, concluded that the shallow groundwater sources analysed have been contaminated, due largely to improper SWM practice. This, in turn, affects not only the health and well-being of the local population, but also impedes developmental efforts and obstructs prosperity. Accordingly, some strategies for pollution prevention and control were developed for Kano metropolis, although they are also applicable to other urban areas with similar characteristics. These strategies, which are largely categorised as resource-focused, source-focused or remedial measures, can be achieved through: (1) identification and mapping of pollution sources; (2) establishment of databases and information management system; (3) vulnerability mapping; (4) establishment of functional monitoring and evaluation system; (5) promotion of public awareness and participation; (6) establishment of protection zones; and (7) the integration of pollution prevention and control strategy into urban planning, development and management of municipal services.

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Almeida, Henrique LuÃs de Paula e. Silva de. "Quality of life indicators,instrument for the participative monitoring of the quality of life of traditional communities into the coastal:the case of "Prainha do Canto Verde, Beberibe/CE"." Universidade Federal do CearÃ, 2002. http://www.teses.ufc.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=1612.

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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico
A crescente crise ambiental das Ãltimas dÃcadas vem impulsionando a elaboraÃÃo de novas propostas de desenvolvimento da sociedade, o que tem gerado a necessidade de se estabelecerem novas formas de monitorar o desenvolvimento. Assim, vem crescendo o interesse pela criaÃÃo de indicadores de sustentabilidade. Ao se tratar do desenvolvimento humano, estes indicadores tambÃm sÃo chamados de Indicadores de Qualidade de Vida. A escolha e o uso de indicadores, de forma participativa, alÃm de ser uma importante ferramenta de gestÃo, se apresenta como instrumento de educaÃÃo ambiental. Pelo princÃpio da subsidiaridade e pela prÃpria constataÃÃo da realidade, a dimensÃo comunitÃria tem sido evocada como elo fundamental para a gestÃo ambiental. O Plano Nacional de Gerenciamento Costeiro ainda nÃo chegou a este nÃvel de organizaÃÃo social, fato que compromete a eficiÃncia da GestÃo Costeira no Brasil. SÃ na orla do CearÃ, sÃo existentes mais de 100 comunidades tradicionais que, atravÃs de seu modo de vida, tendem a manter em equilÃbrio a relaÃÃo sociedade&natureza no litoral. Acreditando no potencial do Monitoramento Participativo da Qualidade de Vida ComunitÃria, como um instrumento para a inserÃÃo das comunidades tradicionais ao Gerenciamento Costeiro, nos propusemos estudar uma metodologia participativa para a escolha de Indicadores e Ãndices de Qualidade de Vida. Para tanto, nos apoiamos no princÃpio da pesquisa-aÃÃo de aprender fazendo, onde desenvolvemos, juntamente com moradores da comunidade da Prainha do Canto Verde, Beberibe/CE, um conjunto de Indicadores e Ãndices da Qualidade de Vida ComunitÃria. Tendo as necessidades da populaÃÃo como temas orientadores e a famÃlia como unidade de anÃlise, todos os indicadores foram padronizados em porcentagem, incluindo situaÃÃes concretas, atitudes e prÃticas, percepÃÃes e/ou grau de satisfaÃÃo de suas necessidades. Todo o processo envolve 8 passos, desde a formaÃÃo de um grupo de estudo atÃ a elaboraÃÃo dos Ãndices, um para cada necessidade. Para a coleta das informaÃÃes utilizamos questionÃrios, que foram construÃdos e aplicados com a participaÃÃo de 6 jovens da comunidade. O resultado aponta as necessidades de AlimentaÃÃo e OrganizaÃÃo como as mais carentes, e a SaÃde e Energia como as mais satisfatÃrias. Os indicadores deverÃo ser compartilhados com todos os grupos interessados, atravÃs das formas mais acessÃveis possÃveis. A metodologia proposta demonstrou-se satisfatÃria para o desenvolvimento do Monitoramento Participativo da Qualidade de Vida, o qual, alÃm de ser instrumento de gestÃo e educaÃÃo ambiental, pode ser utilizado em programas de CertificaÃÃo da Sustentabilidade ComunitÃria, constituindo-se num importante estÃmulo ao desenvolvimento comunitÃrio sustentÃvel.
The growing environmental crisis of the last decades has been impelling the elaboration of new proposals for the development of the society, and has been generating the need to establish new forms of monitoring the development process. Thus, the interest for the creation of sustainability indicators has been growing. When speaking about human development, these indicators are also called Quality of Life Indicators. The choice and the use of indicators, through participative arrangements, besides being an important administration tool, even turns out to be an instrument for environmental education. Due to the principles of subsidiarity and verification of the reality, the community dimension has been evoked as a fundamental link for environmental management. The National Plan of Coastal Management has not arrived at this level of social organisation yet, a fact that puts in danger the efficiency of Coastal Management in Brazil. Only in the sea border of the state of CearÃ dwell more than a 100 traditional communities, whose way of life tends to maintain the harmony of the relationship between Society&Nature on the coast. Believing in the potential of Participative Monitoring of the Quality of Life of the Community, as a tool to involve traditional communities into the coastal management process, we intended to study a participative methodology for choosing Quality of Life Indicators and Indexes. Hence, we founded this research on principles of Action-research, that learning by doing, developing together with the community of Prainha do Canto Verde, Beberibe/CE, a group of Indicators and Indexes of Quality of Life. Assuming the population's needs as focus and the family as unit of analysis, all indicators were standardised into percentages, including concrete situations, attitudes and practices, perceptions and/or degree of satisfaction of the needs. The whole process involves 8 steps, from the formation of a study group to the elaboration of the Indexes, one for each need. For collecting information we used a survey method, that were produced and used with the participation of 6 young people of the community. The results demonstrate nutrition and organisation needs as the most lacking ones, and health and energy as the most satisfactory. The indicators should be shared with all the interested community groups, through the most accessible forms. The methodology proposed revealed to be satisfactory with respect to the development of a Participative Monitoring of Quality of Life, which, besides being a tool for local administration and environmental education, can be used in Sustainable Community Certification Programs, and constitutes an important incentive for a Sustainable Community Development process.

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ESSIC, JEFFERSON FORREST. "APPLICATIONS OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR GROWTH MANAGEMENT PLANNINGAND WATER QUALITY PROTECTION IN THE COASTAL REGION OF NORTH CAROLINA." NCSU, 1998. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-19980105-155948.

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ESSIC, JEFFERSON FORREST. Applications of Geographic InformationSystems for Growth Management Planning and Water Quality Protection inthe Coastal Region of North Carolina. (Under the direction of Hugh A. Devine.)

Research efforts conducted in coastal areas of North Carolina andother regions have documented numerous examples of negative impacts toestuarine water quality as a result of unplanned and unmanaged development.However, new construction is continuing at a rapid pace in these areas,forcing local planners to make complex decisions regarding land uses andprotection of cultural and natural resources.

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer-driven toolthat has proven valuable in assisting with this decision making process.GIS technology provides the means to efficiently collect, store, and retrievevast amounts of spatial data. Then, this information may be visually displayedin a manner that supports better understanding and analysis of the physicalenvironment and the potential impacts of growth.

There have been many instances during the past decade in whichGIS has been used to meet the educational and informational needs of citizensand local officials who want to ensure a strong economy and healthy environmentis planned for the future of their community. Most of these projects haveoriginated at the state level, either through the North Carolina CooperativeExtension Service, or other agencies.

A number of zoning options and growth management planning measureshave recently been recommended that coastal government officials shouldconsider for promoting stewardship and protecting important natural resourceswhile continuing to maintain economic vitality. This paper focuses on theapplication of GIS for analyzing and implementing many of those strategieswith emphasis on local responsibility.

In particular, the natural suitability of cluster development forCurrituck County, North Carolina, is examined with GIS. Attention to growthmanagement planning in this coastal county is critical since the populationis projected to increase over 73 percent from 1990 to 2020. GIS data layersfrom the North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis,as well as digitized Federal Emergency Management Agency Flood InsuranceRate Maps, are used to determine the extent of Primary Conservation Areasin the county. In addition, Secondary Conservation Areas are identified

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