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AbstractPhenolic compounds are secondary metabolites involved in plant innate chemical defence against pests and diseases. Their concentration varies depending on plant tissue and also on genetic and environmental factors, e.g. availability of nutrient resources. This study examines specific effects of low (LN) and high (HN) nitrogen supply on organ (root, stem and leaf) growth and accumulation of major phenolics [chlorogenic acid (CGA); rutin; kaempferol rutinoside (KR)] in nine hydroponically grown tomato cultivars. LN limited shoot growth but did not affect root growth, and increased concentrations of each individual phenolic in all organs. The strength of the response was organ‐dependent, roots being more responsive than leaves and stems. Significant differences were observed between genotypes. Nitrogen limitation did not change the phenolic content in shoots, whereas it stimulated accumulation in roots. The results show that this trade‐off between growth and defence in a LN environment can be discussed within the framework of the growth–differentiation balance hypothesis (i.e. GDBH), but highlight the need to integrate all plant organs in future modelling approaches regarding the impact of nitrogen limitation on primary and secondary metabolism.

The Chinese electric power industry, including its coal industry and other energy industries that are not efficient, contributes to China’s serious energy shortages and environmental contamination. The governing authority considers energy conservation to be one of the most prominent national targets, and has formulated various plans for decarbonizing the power system. Applying the trans-log cost function, this paper examined the trans-log cost function to analyze the potential inter-factor substitution among energy, capital and labor. We also investigated what role human capital played in energy substitution for the electric power sector during the period from 1981 to 2017. Three key results were derived: (1) energy is price-insensitive, (2) there exists large substitution sustainability between both capital and labor with energy, and (3) human capital input not only enhances the extent of energy substitutability with capital and labor but also is a substitute to energy itself. These findings imply that the liberalization of the electric price mechanism is conducive to lessening energy use and augmenting non-energy intensiveness, and that energy conservation technology could become more sustainable by investing more capital in the electricity sector, thereby achieving a capital–energy substitution and a decrease of CO2 emissions. We further suggest that the priority for the Chinese electric power industry should be to attach more importance to increasing human capital input.

In order to increase national rice production, the Ministry of Agriculture has released some high yielding varieties. The research was aimed to obtain superior rice varieties adapted to irrigated lowland agro-ecosystems of Southeast Sulawesi. In the first planting season, research was carried out in Olo-oloho Village, Uepai sub district and the second season at the Wawotobi Experimental Garden. Eight varieties were tested, i.e. Inpari 31, Inpari 34, Inpari 35, Inpari 38, Inpari 39, Inpari 41, Inpari 42, Inpari 43 and Mekongga. The variables observed were growth, yield and pest and disease dynamics. The results shows that there was variation growth and yield of the tested varieties. The growth and yield also varied depend on the season. In the first planting season, Inpari 34 and Inpari 43 showed better growth than others, but Inpari 31 resulted the highest rice yield (4.83 t/ha). In the second planting season, only Inpari 34 showed consistent growth, but the variety that had showed the highest yield was Inpari 43 (8.13 t/ha).

SignificanceEstimates of nutrient allocation in different plant tissues and the relationships between the nutrient contents and photosynthetic capacity are critical to predicting ecosystem carbon sequestration under global change. Here, we provide an assessment of large-scale patterns of community-level nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in different plant tissues and then examine how nutrient allocations are coupled with plant productivity. The results show that nutrient concentrations in leaves are less responsive to abiotic environments than those in woody stems and roots (stable leaf nutrient concentration hypothesis); the relationships between vegetation primary productivity and leaf nutrient contents are stronger when less nutrients are allocated to the woody tissues (productivity–nutrient allocation hypothesis) and are stronger in deciduous than in evergreen vegetation (productivity–leaf lifespan hypothesis).

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a sustainable and energy efficient technology, which uses graphite as cathode for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production often with simultaneous power production. Nevertheless, slow kinetics of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the surface of graphite often results in poor performance of MFC. In an attempt to improve the performance of MFC for in‐situ H2O2 production, a treatment of graphite cathode using nitric acid was performed. The treatment was conducted in three steps (i) heat treatment at 450°C for 2 h; (ii) acid treatment with concentrated nitric acid for 5 h; and (iii) drying at 120°C for 2 h. After the treatment, four times increase in surface area of treated cathode (GR‐HA) was observed. Energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis revealed the presence of nitrogen and quinone based functional groups on the surface of GR‐HA. Cyclic voltammetric (CV) analysis of GR‐HA cathode further confirmed the production of H2O2 at the peak current value of −3.7 mA and on‐set potential of −0.1 V. Following CV analysis, H2O2 production experiments were performed in a dual chamber MFC using GR‐HA as cathode. Maximum 150 mg/L of H2O2 was produced with simultaneous power production of 36.438 mW/m2. Approximately, 25% increase in both H2O2 and power production was observed in the case of G cathode. Subsequently, Fenton oxidation experiments were performed (with GR‐HA and GR‐CA cathodes) to determine the efficacy of in‐situ produced H2O2. This resulted in an increase of 8.28%, 11.04%, and 31.32% in decolorization, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) removal efficiency, respectively. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 36: 382–393, 2017

The net energy (NE) system takes into account the metabolic utilisation of energy and has been proposed as a superior system for characterising the energy value of feeds. In growing pigs, the inefficiency of ME utilisation for NE (or the heat increment, HI) is dependent on many factors, among them the genotype, which implies that published NE prediction equations may not apply across all genotypes. We conducted a study to investigate the effect of two genotypes (Yorkshire-Hampshire♀ × Duroc♂; YH × D) and Large white♀ × Landrace♂; LW × LR) on heat production (HP) and NE value of a corn soybean meal-based diet fed to growing pigs. The diet met or exceeded the nutrient specifications of 20-50 kg b.w. pigs according to NRC (1998). A total of sixteen barrows were used, eight of each genotype (initial b.w. of 20.1 ± 1.1 and 19.0 ± 0.9 kg for YH ×D and LW × LR, respectively). Pigs were initially fed at 550 kcal/kg b.w.-0.60/day (high ME intake) for determination of DE and ME in metabolism crates. Thereafter, HP was measured using an indirect calorimeter at either high ME or 330 kcal/kg b.w.-0.60/day (low ME intake) to estimate fasting HP (FHP) by regression. Pigs were allowed a 3-d adaptation period at low ME intake before measurement of HP. Irrespective of the genotype, a reduction of ME intake resulted in a decrease (P < 0.0001) of HP (352 for high ME vs. 292 kcal/kg b.w.-0.60/day for low ME). Pigs of LW × LR tended (P = 0.07) to have higher HP than those of YH× D and their estimated FHP was 175 and 103 kcal/kg b.w.-0.60/day, respectively. The determined diet NE value was lower for the YHxD genotype (2,307 vs. 2633 kcal/kg DMI, P = 0.01) than for the LW × LR genotype. Pigs of LW × LR genotype showed lower (179 vs. 226 kcal/kg b.w.-0.60/day, P = 0.003) HI than YH × D genotype and were determined to retain less energy as protein (100 vs. 123 kcal/kg b.w.-0.60/day, P =0.04) and more energy as fat (73 vs. 42 kcal/kg b.w.-0.60/day, P = 0.04). The diet NE value was 96% (LW × LR) and 81% (YH × D) of the predicted NE from published equations. In conclusion, a corn-soybean meal fed at equal amounts resulted in different HP and NE value depending on genotype.

Even with the benefits of sustainability and climate change reporting, there is limited information on how municipalities are reporting on performance for external stakeholders in comparison with private sector organizations. The purpose of this research was to gain an understanding of the current state of sustainability and climate change reporting at the local level and to investigate the extent to which municipalities across Ontario, Canada, report. We used content analysis to identify the presence or non-presence of information on the websites of 38 municipalities and analyzed the results using descriptive statistics. Our analysis showed that the sample municipalities were not widely reporting on sustainability or climate change performance. Also, we identified a gap between the number of plans and reports produced by sample municipalities, with the latter being less common, indicating a need for an improved evaluation of plan implementation. Further, we found that a provincial regulation that required municipalities to make their energy conservation and demand management plans public did not guarantee publication of the plan on a municipality’s website. This study contributes to the growing field of sustainability and climate change planning and reporting by local governments and offers empirical evidence specific to Ontario, Canada.

{"references": ["Retrieved on April 12, 2013 from website http://www.peakbagger.com/range.aspx?rid=432", "Alexander, Christopher, \"Notes on the Synthesis of Form, 1st ed.\", Harvard University Press, 1964, pp. 1-224.", "Borucke, Michael, David Moore, Gemma Cranston, Kyle Gracey, Katsunori Iha, Joy Larson, Elias Lazarus, Juan Carlos Morales, Mathis Wackernagel, Alessandro Galli, 2012, \"Accounting for demand and supply of the biosphere's regenerative capacity: The National Footprint Accounts' underlying methodology and framework\", Ecological Indicators 24 (2013) 518\u2013533, Elsevier Ltd.", "Adams, W.M., \"The Future of Sustainability: Re-thinking Environment and Development in the Twenty-first Century\", 2006, Report of the IUCN Renowned Thinkers Meeting, 29\u201331 January 2006.", "Abdaei, Kaveh, Ahadollag Azami, \"Sustainability Analyses of Passive Cooling Systems in Iranian Traditional Buildings approaching Wind-Catchers\", Recent Advances in Energy, Environment and Development, pp.124-129.", "Afrasiabian, Shaghayegh, Mohammadjavad Mahdavinejad, Negar Badri, \"Nature as a Source of Sustainable Design in Architecture of Original Countries (Case Study: Traditional Architecture of Iran)\", Archi-Cultural Translations through the Silk Road 2nd International Conference, Mukogawa Women's Univ., Nishinomiya, Japan, July 14-16, 2012 Proceedings, pp.257-261.", "Azami.A, Y., \"Climate passive architecture in hot and dry regions of iran, Passive and low energy cooling for the built environment\", Greece: Santorini, 2005, pp. 613-617.", "Fardpour, Tohid, \"Analysis of Iranian Traditional Architecture Through the Lens of Kenneth Frampton's \"Critical Regionalism\"\", American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 2013, 6 (2): 205-210.", "Ghobadian. Vahid, \"Climate Analysis of the Traditional Iranian Buildings\", 5th ed., Tehran: University of Tehran Press, 2008.\n[10]\tKasmai, Morteza, \"Climate & Architecture\", 4nd ed., 2006, pp. 107-130.\n[11]\tKiani, W. K., \"Cultural heritage organization of Iran\", Tehran, 1995.\n[12]\tPourvahidi, Parastoo, \"Bioclimatic Analysis of Vernacular Iranian Architecture\", Master diss., Eastern Mediterranean University, Gazimagusa, North Cyprus, 2010, 1-161.\n[13]\tPourvahidi, Parastoo, Mesut B. Ozdeniz, \"Bioclimatic analysis of Iranian climate for energy conservation in architecture\", Scientific Research and Essays, 2013, Vol. 8(1), pp. 6-16.\n[14]\tShojaei, S.A.R., Zahra khodayari, \"Sustainable Architecture In Arid Regions of Iran\", 5th Symposium on Advances in Science & Technology, May 12-17, 2011.\n[15]\tUtaberta, N., N. Sharifi, M. Surat, A. I. Che-Ani and N.M. Tawil, \"The Experience of Iranian Architecture in Direction of Urban Passages and Forming of Urban Structures to Increase Climatic Comfort\", World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 2012, Vol. 67, pp. 637-641.\n[16]\tRetrieved on June 2, 2013 from website http://news.discovery.com/earth/global-warming/hottest-spot-on-earth-120416.htm\n[17]\tAttmann, Osman , \"Green architecture: overview\", Green architecture: advanced technologies and materials. definitions and operationalizations of green architecture, McGraw-Hill Professional, AccessEngineering, ICC (International Code Council), 2010, pp. 1-26.\n[18]\tRetrieved on May 28, 2013 from Website http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=965506\n[19]\tPirnia, Mohammad Karim, Stylistic of Iranian Architecturem, 3rd ed., 1383, pp. 32.\n[20]\tRetrieved on April 18, 2013 from website Website: http://n-a-c.blogfa.com/cat-12.aspx\n[21]\tShokouhian.M, S., \"Enviromental effect of the courtyard in sustainable architecture of Iran\", Tehran: Islamic azad university, 2007.\n[22]\tRetrieved on April 26, 2013 from website http://www.gardenhistorysociety.org/post/agenda/the-gardens-of-persia/\n[23]\tLe Corbusier \"The Modulor: A Harmonious Measure to the Human Scale, Universally Applicable to Architecture and Mechanics\". Basel & Boston: Birkh\u00e4user, (2004) (First published in two volumes in 1954 and 1958.).\n[24]\tRetrieved on May 06, 2013 from website http://ghoolabad.com/index2.asp?id=26"]} Iran Central Plateau encompasses a large proportion of this country. The weather in these flat plains is warm and arid with very little precipitation. Different attempts in architecture have been done to alleviate the weather severity of this area and create a living place compatible with humans’ comfort criteria. Investigations have showed that some of the most successful approaches in traditional architecture of the area has been forgotten or are not being used widely. As sustainability is defined as an appropriate solution for environmental, economical, and social disorders, this research is a try to demonstrate the sustainability in aforementioned architecture and based on these studies, propounds solutions for today architecture in hot arid zones.