Quantifying the role of a flexible transport service in reducing the accessibility gap in low density areas: A case-study in north-west Sydney

Plastic mulching is a common farming practice in arid and semi-arid regions. Inappropriate disposal of plastic films can lead to the contamination of macroplastics (MaPs) and microplastics (MiPs) in the soil. To study the effects of plastic mulching on the contamination of soil with MaPs and MiPs and the role of farm management on this contamination, research was done on two farming systems in Northwest China, where plastic mulching is intensively used. Farming in Wutong Village (S1) is characterized by small plots and low-intensity machinery tillage while farming in Shihezi (S2) is characterized by large plots and high-intensity machinery tillage. Soils were sampled to a depth of 30 cm and analysed. The results showed that MaPs ranged from 30.3 kg&#183;ha-1 to 82.3 kg&#183;ha-1 in S1 and from 43.5 kg&#183;ha-1 to 148 kg&#183;ha-1 in S2. The main macroplastics&#160; size categories were 2-10 cm2 and 10-50 cm2 in S1 and&#160; < 2 cm2 and 2-10 cm2 in S2. In S1, we found that 6-8 years of continuous mulching practice resulted in the accumulation of more MaPs as compared to the use of intermittent mulching over the span of 30 years. For S2,&#160; 6 to 15 years of plastic mulching use led to MaPs accumulation in fields but from 15 to18 years, the MaPs number and content in soils dropped due to further fragmentation of the plastic and its dispersal into the environment. MiPs were mainly detected in fields with > 30 years of mulching use in S1 and discovered in all fields in S2, this indicated that&#160; long-term cultivation and high-intensity machinery tillage could lead to more severe microplastic pollution. These results emphasized the impacts of&#160; farm management on the accumulation and spread of MaPs and MiPs in the soil and regulations are needed to prevent further contamination of the soil.

Download Full-text

The Role of History with regard to Evidence in Land Claims as Officially Proposed: A Case Study on the Farm Deelkraal IQ 142, North West Province

South African Historical Journal ◽

10.1080/02582470709464715 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 57 (1) ◽

pp. 179-200 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Elize S. Van Eeden

Keyword(s):

Land Claims ◽

North West ◽

North West Province

Download Full-text

The Mobilization of “Nature”: Perspectives from North-west Yunnan

The China Quarterly ◽

10.1017/s030574100400027x ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 178 ◽

pp. 488-504 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Ralph Litzinger

Keyword(s):

Development Project ◽

Cultural Knowledge ◽

Provincial Government ◽

North West ◽

Nature Conservancy ◽

Collaborative Conservation ◽

The Subject ◽

Environmental Activity

The Yunnan Great Rivers Project is a collaborative conservation and development project between the Yunnan provincial government and The Nature Conservancy. Transnational environmental projects of this kind must be brought more critically into view in order to understand the competing discourses and struggles over nature as the west is opened for investment. In this case the subject of ethnographic enquiry is a county-level workshop sponsored by The Nature Conservancy which drafted a petition eventually presented to the State Council requesting an end to mountaineering on a “sacred” Tibetan mountain. This case study raises a series of questions about the politics of ethnic minority empowerment and disempowerment and the transforming role of transnational environmental activity, including the production of biological and cultural knowledge.

Download Full-text

Academic Knowledge and Urban Development

Knowledge-Based Urban Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-59904-720-1.ch002 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 21-41 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Beth Perry

Keyword(s):

Urban Development ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

North West ◽

Academic Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Based ◽

The University ◽

The Relationship ◽

Process Product

The terrain of knowledge-based urban development currently is confused by a plethora of competing, implicit and unarticulated assumptions that have resulted from differing interpretations of knowledge and the urban, and the relationship between them. This chapter offers a conceptualization of the role of academic knowledge and, by extension, the university in processes of urban development through the lenses of theory, policy, and practice. A distinction between knowledge-based urban development as process-, product- or acquisition-driven is developed. It then assesses the relative balance of these roles in policy and practice through a case study of Manchester, North West England, and, in so doing, distinguishes between the rhetoric and the realities of attempts to do knowledge-based urban development.

Download Full-text

The Role of High-Density and Low-Density Amorphous Ice on Biomolecules at Cryogenic Temperatures: A Case Study with Polyalanine

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics ◽

10.1039/d1cp02734d ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ali Hussein Eltareb ◽

Gustavo E. Lopez ◽

Nicolas Giovambattista

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Biological Samples ◽

Bulk Water ◽

Experimental Techniques ◽

Low Density ◽

Cryogenic Temperatures ◽

Amorphous Ice ◽

Cryo Electron Microscopy

Experimental techniques, such as cryo-electron microscopy, require biological samples to be recovered at cryogenic temperatures (T ≈ 100 K) with water being in an amorphous ice state. However, (bulk) water...

Download Full-text