BACKGROUND Gasoline station workers are exposed to volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX). OBJECTIVE To determine the level of exposure to BTEX compounds among gasoline station workers and measure the roadside concentrations of these compounds in the inner and outer areas of Bangkok, Thailand. METHODS 49 workers at 6 gasoline stations in the inne...

Plants inhabiting degraded habitats must contend with stressful environments. However, their ability to adapt may be constrained by available genetic variation and genetic correlations between traits. Here, we examine the correlation between salt and drought tolerance in germinating seeds from contrasting populations of common teasel (Dipsacus fullonum subsp. sylvestris) growing on roadsides th...

Roadside billboards containing negative and positive emotional content have been shown to influence driving performance, however, the impact of highly arousing taboo information is unknown. Taboo information more reliably evokes emotional arousal and can lead to greater attentional capture due to its inherent 'shock value.' The objective of the present study was to examine driver distraction as...

The development of organisms is changing drastically because of anthropogenic changes in once-limited nutrients. Although the importance of changing macronutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, is well-established, it is less clear how anthropogenic changes in micronutrients will affect organismal development, potentially changing dynamics of selection. We use butterflies as a study system ...

A detailed study has been conducted to determine the contamination of Thohoyandou roadside soils, vegetation, sewage and river waters by Zn, Cu, Cr, Pb, Cd, Fe, Pt and Pd. The study further investigated the correlation between these trace metals in roadside soils and vegetation in order to infer the potential impacts of roadside trace metals contamination of vegetation. Collected surface soil a...

This study examined the spatial, socioeconomic status (SES), and temporal patterns of ambient air pollution in Accra, Ghana. Over 22 months, integrated and continuous rooftop particulate matter (PM) monitors were placed at a total of 11 residential or roadside monitoring sites in four neighborhoods of varying SES and biomass fuel use. PM concentrations were highest in late December and January,...

VANETs has emerged as the new network environment for intelligent transportations systems. In this paper, we focus on two types of VANET applications and evaluate the effectiveness of our data dissemination protocol for these two types of applications. In particular, we investigate traffic monitoring (TM) and roadside message transfer (RMT) applications. The traffic monitoring application (TMA)...

Automobile catalytic converters are dispersing platinum-group elements (PGEs) Rh, Pt, and Pd into the environment (1-3). This paper represents the first detailed study to assess the PGE content of soils and grasses from U.S. roadsides. These soils were analyzed using cation exchange pretreatment and ultrasonic nebulizer-ICP-MS (4). Highway and several urban sites showed Pt abundances of 64-73 n...

0957-4174/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. A doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2008.12.006 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Y.-P. H (C.-H. Chen), [email protected] (Y.-T. Chang), frode License plate recognition techniques have been successfully applied to the management of stolen cars, management of parking lots and traffic flow control. This study proposes a license plate ba...