波莫纳加州州立理工大学

Environmental injustice remains a critical challenge in rapidly urbanizing regions, particularly in cities characterized by profound socio-economic inequalities. While natural and anthropogenic hazards such as extreme heat and air pollution are widespread, their impacts are not evenly distributed; vulnerability emerges where environmental exposure intersects with social disadvantage and limited adaptive capacity. This study develops and applies a novel Population-Density-Weighted Community Health Vulnerability Index (CHVI-P) to assess the spatial distribution of combined environmental and socioeconomic vulnerabilities in Los Angeles. This study integrates satellite remote sensing data, including Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature (LST) products for urban heat island identification and Sentinel-5P observations for atmospheric pollutant monitoring Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Formaldehyde (HCHO), and surface ozone (O3), with authoritative institutional datasets, namely CalEnviroScreen and the Disease Control and Prevention (CDC's) Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), to assess community health and socio-economic conditions across Los Angeles. To achieve this, a correlation matrix was first constructed among 19 environmental and socioeconomic parameters. Subsequently, after preparing the required components, the CHVI-P was calculated by integrating exposure (E), sensitivity (S), adaptive capacity (A), and population-density. Finally, spatial clustering patterns of the index were examined using Moran's I and the GetisOrd Gi* statistics. The spatial clustering analysis confirms that vulnerability follows non-random, structurally embedded patterns, disproportionately exposing low-income and racial minority communities to environmental hazards. Moreover, findings indicate that approximately 45% of the population resides in areas classified as very high vulnerability, primarily in south central Los Angeles, Downtown, and Westlake neighborhoods. These results underscore the pressing need for targeted, evidence-based policies to address systemic environmental inequities especilaly in an ideal world with no data limitations.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate how a firm’s engagement in foreign direct investments (FDIs) affects the firm’s audit outcomes. Design/methodology/approachUsing project-level FDI information from Orbis provided by the Bureau van Dijk, the authors use OLS and probit regressions in their empirical analyses. They also undertake instrumental variable regressions using natural disaster shocks in destination countries, identified using the EM-DAT database administered by the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, to address potential endogeneity issues and establish causal inferences. FindingsThe authors find that firms that announce FDI, engage in a larger number of FDI projects, or undertake more intensive FDI engagements incur higher audit fees. The authors also find that FDI-active firms exhibit a higher likelihood of receiving going-concern audit opinions when they engage in FDI activities or their FDI engagements are more intensive. These findings suggest that auditors recognize elevated audit risks arising from the complexity and uncertainty associated with FDI activities. Further analysis indicates that country-level corruption influences how FDI engagement affects auditors’ risk assessments, highlighting the role of both project attributes and host country attributes. Originality/valueThe findings of this study suggest that not only does a firm’s FDI facilitate the firm’s strategic business objectives but FDI also has significant implications for its financial reporting environment and audit outcomes.

This work investigates desalination salt thermal energy storage (TES) using a benchtop air-to-salt module and a complementary CFD study of an electro-thermal concept with embedded electrical heaters. Experiments were conducted at inlet air temperatures of 200, 300, and 400 °C for charging, storage, and discharge performance of the TES module. Dimensionless analysis using the Fourier number captured consistent charge-discharge behavior across setpoints. CFD simulations (ANSYS Fluent) of an electro-thermal TES system with desalination salt investigated corner vs. center heater placement at two heat generation rates for 110 V and a 220 V setups. The collected data for temperature gradients, heat flux, and heat transfer coefficient demonstrate technical feasibility, identify loss mechanisms at lab scale, and outline design levers–heater layout, flow rate, geometry, and insulation–for scalable desalination salt-based TES systems.

ABSTRACT Landscape planners in semi‐arid and arid regions often plant native shrubs to reduce water and fertilizer use; however, landscape management practices might alter shrub resource use and make them more dependent on irrigation and fertilization. Our objective was to assess whether water and nutrient subsidies in managed landscapes affected plant resource use. We measured carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotopes and tissue N concentrations in leaves of native Mediterranean‐type vegetation growing in adjacent urban and natural areas at six different universities throughout Southern California. These data are used to test the hypothesis that native shrubs growing in natural areas with no or infrequent irrigation would have higher δ13C but lower δ15N values than conspecifics growing in managed landscapes. Leaf δ13C declined as aridity increased across our six campuses, but only for plants growing in natural areas, suggesting that irrigation decoupled water use efficiency (WUE) from natural climate conditions. Plants growing in urban landscapes had lower δ13C values than conspecifics growing in natural areas, suggesting that irrigated plants had lower WUE. Plants also had higher leaf δ15N in managed settings, suggesting that fertilization and irrigation increased N availability and mobility. Our results indicate that semi‐arid plants that normally exhibit stomatal control over water loss in natural areas might be more sensitive to drought if irrigation systems fail or are shut off due to high water costs. Using native plants in urban landscapes may not result in water savings because native plants are less efficient in their water use.

Incorporating conductive fillers into resins has played an important role in tuning the electric property of adhesives. This allows the formed joints to possess the functions for advanced engineering applications such as antilightening, static discharge dissipation, and electromagnetic wave interference shielding. In current study, a composite adhesive was made by adding the optimized content of 30 wt% aluminum particles to epoxy. The composite adhesive obtained showed decrease in electric resistance. When it was used to bond 6061-T6, solid joints can be produced. Electrical and mechanical properties were tested for evaluating the behavior of the composite adhesive bonded joints. It has been found that the addition of aluminum particles changed the adhesive from insulating to semiconducting nature. The bonded interface showed capacitive performance due to the aluminum particle addition. The shear modulus and shear strength of the adhesive/metal interfaces were determined by pure torsion tests. Aluminum particles increased the ductility of the interface but decreased the interfacial strength from 49.98 to 35.10 MPa. The rigidity of joints also dropped with aluminum-particle addition. This is revealed by the fact that the shear modulus decreased from 23.45 GPa for the pure epoxy bonded joint to 8.84 GPa for the aluminum particle-containing adhesive bonded one.