Environmental issues include various elements. The complex relationship between environmental information should be illustrated and systematized to solve environmental issues. In this study, the appearance frequency of environmental terminology was analyzed on the media such as Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, newspaper, academic paper, Minutes, National Diet Library, and the White Paper. The following environmental terms were studied: “Global warming”, “biomass”, “dioxin”, “asbestos”, “ozone layer”, “environmental hormone”, “carbon dioxide”, “carbon trading”, “renewable energy”, “recycling”, “solar power” and “greenhouse gas”. Graphical modeling was employed to analyze environmental information transmission. Based on the similarity level of the graphical models, the environmental terms were classified into the 3 groups: “Global warming”, “biomass” and “dioxin” groups. It is suggested that “dioxin” group terms are media-related; “biomass” group terms are expert-related; and “Global warming” group terms are government-related. It was clarified that each group has similarity concerning the feature of environmental issues and environmental information transmission structure. In conclusion, some part of environmental information transmission structure was illustrated based on the structure analysis by graphical modeling.

View full abstract

Air pollutions in some cities of developing countries are becoming serious, and it is desired to evaluate the value of a good atmosphere for the assessment of the effect of policies and international cooperation. We consider the evaluation of impacts by damages on human health by air pollution in monetary unit. A social survey was launched in Beijing for the economic valuation of human health damage caused by air pollution. Seven hundred subjects were sampled by multistage area sampling. Subjects were sampled from six districts in the central of Beijing. The main part of the survey is based on contingent valuation method and for evaluation of willingness to pay for a nebulizer to avoid health damages. Questions based on the method of conjoint analysis have been asked for the analysis of trade-off between convenience, environment and monetary burden. The answers were analyzed statistically and factors that affect the answers have been analyzed. Annual household income was the most important factor, but there were other factors that affected the willingness to pay.

View full abstract

For producing cellulosic bioethanol stably, quality control indexes of feedstock are required. From the fact that Napiergrass can be harvested throughout the year in tropical region, growth was used as quality control indexes of feedstock. Each Napiergrass which grew 3-7 months at same field was carried out ammonia pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification under the same condition. Enzymatic saccharification efficiency decreased as Napiergrass grew. However, when Napiergrass samples which grew 5 months under various different conditions were compared, enzymatic saccharification efficiency and content of components were obviously different. Therefore, growth was not suitable for quality control indexes. Correlation coefficient between enzymatic saccharification efficiency and each component in Napiergrass was investigated. There was moderately strong correlation between enzymatic saccharification efficiency and lignin content (thioglycolic acid method , TGAL). From the above, TGAL was suitable for quality control indexes of feedstock for cellulosic bioethanol production. Furthermore, multiple linear regression analysis using saccharification efficiency as objective variable and contents of each component as explanatory variables, revealed that saccharification efficiency can be predicted from the contents of TGAL, glucose and crude protein with standard error of 3.50.

View full abstract