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Green roofs (GR) have gained widespread popularity in cities due to their multiple benefits. This review synthesizes the latest knowledge around GR ageing and the associated changes in nutrient runoff quality from GRs. Most GR studies have focused on water quality trends for the first 10 years. Information about nutrient levels in runoff, vegetation, and substrate for older GRs (>10 years) is extremely limited and based on monitoring at snapshot points in time, rather than continuously over time, mainly for GRs in Europe, UK and the USA. Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) levels in GR runoff are initially high, especially in the first-year post-installation (NO3: 0.08-100 mg/L, PO4: 0.01-13 mg/L) and subsequently decline to lower concentrations over time (NO3: 0.05-7 mg/L, PO4: 0.01-1.2 mg/L for GRs over 10 years old). Green roof substrate received most research attention but there is growing interest in how vegetation and microbiome characteristics change with time. The review provides a conceptual model of GR ageing that includes the impacts of seasonal changes and other disturbances (e.g., fertilizer applications, extreme events) on nutrient runoff quality. Recommendations for GR design and management are also provided. Future areas of research should focus on long-term holistic monitoring of all GR components across more climate zones, especially arid and tropical climate zones. Studies comparing GRs of different ages are encouraged. Ageing experiments conducted under controlled laboratory conditions complement field monitoring studies and provide a continuous timeline of changes in GR components and runoff quality as they age.

Ozone (O3) is a radiatively active trace gas, and naturally present in our atmosphere, that plays a prominent role in atmosphere heating rates due to its good capability to absorb the infrared radiation. O3 occurs both naturally in the Earth’s upper atmosphere and at the ground level. As we breathe the air on Earth, O3 causes damage to the lung tissue and plants as it is an injurious pollutant; it is a major constituent of smog. The atmospheric O3 observations can only be made on global and continental scales by remote sensing instruments situated in the space. The satellite-borne sensor, namely the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) included on the EOS Aqua satellite, was employed to investigate the spatial and temporal variations of diurnal total column Ozone burden over Peninsular Malaysia for the year 2011. The analysis of O3 above five dispersed stations in the study area shows the seasonal variation in the O3 fluctuated considerably observed between NEM and SWM seasons. The mean and the standard deviation of monthly O3 was 244.7 ± 26.8 DU for the entire period, and O3 values strongly correlated with weather conditions. The highest O3 values occurred over industrial and congested urban zones (271.5 DU) on May at Johor. The lowest O3 values were observed during NEM in the pristine coastal environment on December at Kuantan (217 DU; at 3.45°N, 103.20°E). The O3 has an inverse relationship with the rain and positive with temperature. The monthly O3 maps were obtained from the NASA-operated Giovanni portal (http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/giovanni). The AIRS data and the satellite measurements are able to measure the increase of the atmosphere O3 concentrations over different areas.

Cloud computing is an undeniable shift paradigm due to the rapid advancement in processors, distributed grid computing, disk storage and performance, Internet networking and virtualization techniques. Adoption of cloud computing in business creates some considerable business values. So basically this paper will concentrate on the study of the cloud adoption in business. Besides, this paper also aims to investigate the business benefit gained by adopting cloud computing in the business as well as the key challenges of cloud adoption in business.

The velocity angular dispersion of Rayleigh surface and bulk acoustic modes propagating parallel to surfaces of (100), (110), and (111) SrTiO3 plats are measured by surface Brillouin scattering. Findings show that simulations fit to the experimental data on the bulk acoustic modes for the three crystal orientations yields elastic constants that are used to accurately predict the various velocity angular dispersion branches of the Rayleigh surface mode.

The topic of permanent magnetism has aroused much interest in recent years because the measured coercivity only approaches 20%-40% of the theoretical nucleation fields as derived from micromagnetic theory. Two mechanisms are proposed for the discrepancy that is the presence of hindrances to domain wall displacement and the nucleation of reversely magnetized volume.

The longitudinal magnetic-field dependence of quantized spin waves in ordered permalloy nanowire arrays in two dimensions (2D) was studied by Brillouin spectroscopy. The results were analyzed on the basis of collective spin waves in a hexagonal 2D nanowire array and compared with the results obtained from an analysis of spin waves in an isolated wire.

Background: It has been reported that hypertension carries a greater risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in South Asians living in the UK than in the indigenous British population. This has been attributed to some specifically Asian susceptibility factor. Design: Using a longitudinal approach, we investigated the relationship between coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors amongst hypertension patients attending Sandwell and City Hospitals, and the onset of cardiovascular events over a 5-year follow-up period. Results: A total of 350 Caucasian (83.7% male) and 104 South Asian (66.3% male) patients with hypertension [age 63.7 (7.6) years and 57.1 (11.1) years respectively, P < 0.001] were followed-up for a mean (SD) period of 64.7(12.1) months. There were 11 (6.4/1000 patient years) cases of MI in Caucasian patients vs. 11 (17.8/1000 patient years) in South Asians, with event-free survival times being significantly lower amongst South Asians (log-rank test P = 0.04). The prevalence of diabetes mellitus was 22.9% higher amongst South Asians (P < 0.001), whilst mean serum cholesterol and fasting triglyceride levels were higher amongst Caucasians (P = 0.001). There were no ethnic differences in HDL cholesterol concentrations, the use of tobacco, statin therapy or anti-platelet therapies (all P = NS), or in composite endpoint (MI, angina, peripheral vascular disease, stroke, revascularization or death; P = 0.74). On Cox regression analysis of all independent cardiovascular risk variables, associated treatments and ethnicity, MI risk was associated with diabetes mellitus (odds ratio 3.77, 95%CI 1.55–9.15, P = 0.003) but not ethnicity per se (P = 0.26). Conclusion: Increased risk of MI in hypertensive South Asians in the United Kingdom appears to be the result of a higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus. Further work is required to understand the pathophysiological basis with which diabetes increases CHD risk in this ethnic group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RESUMO Este trabalho analisa o efeito larvicida do óleo Zingiber officinale Roscoe contra larvas em terceiro estágio do mosquito Aedes aegypti. Extraiu-se quantitativamente o óleo essencial por hidrodestilação e calculou-se a CL50 do óleo, a partir dos métodos de Reed-Muench e Pizzi, respectivamente. O óleo essencial obteve CL50 de 76,07 (±2,24) μg mL-1 e rendimento de 0,52% m/v. Os resultados indicam que o óleo essencial avaliado é composto por substâncias que propiciam efeito larvicida contra Aedes aegypti.