Knowledge of the state of fragmentation and transformation of a forested landscape is crucial for proper planning and biodiversity conservation. Chile is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots; within it is the Nahuelbuta mountain range, which is considered an area of high biodiversity value and intense anthropic pressure. Despite this, there is no precise information on the degree of transformation of its landscape and its conservation status. The objective of this work was to evaluate the state of the landscape and the spatio-temporal changes of the native forests in this mountain range. Using Landsat images from 1986 and 2011, thematic maps of land use were generated. A 33% loss of native forest in 25 years was observed, mainly associated to the substitution by forest plantations. Changes in the spatial patterns of land cover and land use reveal a profound transformation of the landscape and advanced fragmentation of forests. We discuss how these patterns of change threaten the persistence of several endemic species at high risk of extinction. If these anthropogenic processes continue, these species could face an increased risk of extinction.

In this study, daily averages of air quality parameters were measured in two stations (S1 and S2) of the organized industrial district in Samsun. The meteorological variables were measured at only one station (S1), such as temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, and ambient pressure in 2007, and the daily promised limit for nitrogen dioxide has been especially exceeded at 206 times for 1^st station. However, exceeds of the limit value in 2006 for 1^st station was reduced by approximately 3.5 times. The daily nitrogen dioxide concentration did not exceed the daily limit of WHO^[1] as for 2^nd station. The results obtained showed that under the influence of dominant wind direction, the second station measurement results are higher than that of the first station. To determine all of the possible environmental effects, the measurements should be analyzed from a multi-point perspective.

This paper proposes a floating-interest-rate infrastructure bond, where the interest of a government bond is paid to investors during the period of construction and the early period of operation. Unlike the usual government bond, which provides a fixed interest rate, the proposed floating-interest-rate infrastructure bond pays a floating interest, the rate of which depends on spillover tax revenues. Effective infrastructure projects have a positive effect on the economic growth of a region, known as the spillover effect. When user charges and the return from spillover tax revenues are below the fixed rate of the government bond, the interest rate will equal to the fixed rate of the government bond. In this case, investors in the infrastructure will receive interest on the government bond at the minimum rate. As the spillover effect of the infrastructure increases, the rate of return for infrastructure investment will become greater than the fixed rate of the government bond. The success of the floating-interest-rate infrastructure bond depends on the spillover effect and on transparency and accountability. Policy recommendations are provided in this paper on how to increase the spillover effect and improve transparency and accountability. 

Based on first-principles methods, the authors of this paper investigate spin thermoelectric effects of one-dimensional spin-based devices consisting of zigzag-edged graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs), carbon chains and graphene nanoflake. It is found that the spin-down transmission function is suppressed to zero, while the spin-up transmission function is about 0.25. Therefore, an ideal half-metallic property is achieved. In addition, the phonon thermal conductance is obviously smaller than the electronic thermal conductance. Meantime, the spin Seebeck effects are obviously enhanced at the low-temperature regime (about 80K), resulting in the fact that spin thermoelectric figure of merit can reach about 40. Moreover, the spin thermoelectric figure of merit is always larger than the corresponding charge thermoelectric figure of merit. Therefore, the study shows that they can be used to prepare the ideal thermospin devices.

Phytomediation is an environmentally friendly green rehabilitation technology that is often incorporated with an application to improve calcium peroxide and phytohormones required for the growth of agricultural plants with the expectation to improve the effectiveness of plant rehabilitation. This study mainly consists of two parts: (1) water culture experiment and (2) pot culture experiment. In the water culture experiment, we attempt to understand the influence of the addition of calcium peroxide, phytohormones (IAA and GA₃) and a chelating agent on the growth of sunflower plants. However, in the pot culture experiment, when hormones and the chelating agent EDTA are introduced to different plant groups at the same time, if the nutrition in the water required by plants is not available, the addition of the hormone cannot negate the toxicity caused by EDTA. In terms of calcium peroxide, due to quick release of oxygen in water, this study fails to apply calcium peroxide to the water culture experiment.

When the pot culture experiment is used to examine the influence of hormones at different concentration levels on the growth of sunflowers, GA₃ 10^-8 M is reported to have the optimal effectiveness, followed by IAA 10^-8 M; IAA 10^-12 M has the lowest effectiveness. According to an accumulation analysis of heavy metals at different levels, GA₃ concentrates in leaves to transport nutrition in soil to leaves. This results in an excellent TF value of 2.329G of GA₃ than 1.845 of the control group indicating that the addition of the hormone and chelating agent to GA₃ increases the TF value and the chelating agent is beneficial to the sunflower plant. If we examine phytoattenuation ability, the one-month experiment was divided into three stages for ten days each. The concentration level of heavy metals in the soil at each stage dropped continuously while that of the control group decreased from 31.63 mg/kg to 23.96 mg/kg, GA₃ from 32.09 mg/kg to 23.04 mg/kg and EDTA from 30.65 mg/kg to 25.93 mg/kg indicating the quickest growth period of the sunflowers from the formation of the bud to blossom. During the stage, the quick upward transportation of nutrition results in quick accumulation of heavy metals; the accumulated speed of heavy metals is found higher than that of directly planted plants. This study shows an improvement in the effectiveness of the addition of hormones on plant extraction and when rehabilitation is incorporated with sunflowers with the beginning bud formation, better treatment effectiveness can be reached.