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There is a great need to reduce energy consumption in high-rise office buildings due to escalating environmental problems such as Urban Heat Island effect and global warming. The creation of landscape spaces in high-rise buildings today is not only for reducing building heat but to provide views and psychological get-away spaces for its occupants. This paper focuses on thermal comfort and users' perception of three different landscape gardens in a 21-storey high-rise office building in Penang, Malaysia. The four parameters of thermal comfort that were measured are: air temperature, wind velocity, humidity, and solar radiation. In addition, a questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate occupants' perceptions of comfort, use of the garden space and landscape preference. The findings from the field measurement reveal significant differences in all four thermal comfort parameters measured in the three landscape gardens. However, users only perceived lighting and wind velocity to be different.

The mesozooplankton of the south-western Caspian Sea, off Anzali, sampled from 1996–2010, had undergone severe changes, especially after the year 2001, when the invasive ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi bloomed for the first time. Native species vanished or decreased, while invasive species such as Pleopis polyphemoides, Acartia tonsa, M. leidyi and the larvae of Balanus sp., plus Hediste diversicolor dominated the zooplankton. It could be stated that the increasing amount of nutrients since the early 1980s led to a decrease of endemic species and smoothed the way for opportunistic invader species, which outcompeted and depleted the endemic species in their turn. However, the major changes in the zooplankton community and possibly the blooming of M. leidyi during 2001–2002 were triggered by changing weather patterns, when a period with heavy rain at the end of the 1990s was followed by a prolonged drought (2001–2002). It is not clear to what extent M. leidyi was responsible for the disappearance of endemic Copepoda and Cladocera species such as Eurytemora grimmi, Limnocalanus grimaldii, Cercopagis pengoi, and Polyphemus exiguous, because the mesozooplantic invader species seemed to be more successful competitors than the endemic Caspian Sea fauna. Compared with other areas of the Caspian Sea, the development of the M. leidyi stock was moderate in the area under investigation. Mnemiopsis leidyi numbers and biomass increased from the beginning of sampling in 2001 to about 600 n.m−3 and 40–60 g wet weight m−3 until 2003. Since then the stock oscillated in this range until 2010.

The Antarctic continent is known to be an unpopulated region due to its extreme weather and climate conditions. However, the air quality over this continent can be affected by long-lived anthropogenic pollutants from the mainland. The Argentinian region of Ushuaia is often the main source area of accumulated hazardous gases over the Antarctic Peninsula. The main objective of this study is to report the first in situ observations yet known of surface ozone (O) over Ushuaia, the Drake Passage, and Coastal Antarctic Peninsula (CAP) on board the RV Australis during the Malaysian Antarctic Scientific Expedition Cruise 2016 (MASEC'16). Hourly O data was measured continuously for 23 days using an EcoTech O analyzer. To understand more about the distribution of surface O over the Antarctic, we present the spatial and temporal of surface O of long-term data (2009-2015) obtained online from the World Meteorology Organization of World Data Centre for greenhouse gases (WMO WDCGG). Furthermore, surface O satellite data from the free online NOAA-Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) database and online data assimilation from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)-Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) were used. The data from both online products are compared to document the data sets and to give an indication of its quality towards in situ data. Finally, we used past carbon monoxide (CO) data as a proxy of surface O formation over Ushuaia and the Antarctic region. Our key findings were that the surface O mixing ratio during MASEC'16 increased from a minimum of 5 ppb to ~ 10-13 ppb approaching the Drake Passage and the Coastal Antarctic Peninsula (CAP) region. The anthropogenic and biogenic O precursors from Ushuaia and the marine region influenced the mixing ratio of surface O over the Drake Passage and CAP region. The past data from WDCGG showed that the annual O cycle has a maximum during the winter of 30 to 35 ppb between June and August and a minimum during the summer (January to February) of 10 to 20 ppb. The surface O mixing ratio during the summer was controlled by photochemical processes in the presence of sunlight, leading to the depletion process. During the winter, the photochemical production of surface O was more dominant. The NOAA-AIRS and ECMWF-MACC analysis agreed well with the MASEC'16 data but twice were higher during the expedition period. Finally, the CO past data showed the surface O mixing ratio was influenced by the CO mixing ratio over both the Ushuaia and Antarctic regions. Peak surface O and CO hourly mixing ratios reached up to ~ 38 ppb (O) and ~ 500 ppb (CO) over Ushuaia. High CO over Ushuaia led to the depletion process of surface O over the region. Monthly CO mixing ratio over Antarctic (South Pole) were low, leading to the production of surface O over the Antarctic region.

Chitinases in terrestrial plants have been reported these are involved in heavy metal tolerance/detoxification. This is the first attempt to reveal chitinase gene (AcCHI I) and its function on metal detoxification in mangroves Aegiceras corniculatum. RT-PCR and RACE techniques were used to clone AcCHI I, while real-time quantitative PCR was employed to assess AcCHI I mRNA expressions in response to Cadmium (Cd). The deduced AcCHI I protein consists of 316 amino acids, including a signal peptide region, a chitin-binding domain (CBD) and a catalytic domain. Protein homology modeling was performed to identify potential features in AcCHI I. The CBD structure of AcCHI I might be critical for metal tolerance/homeostasis of the plant. Clear tissue-specific differences in AcCHI I expression were detected, with higher transcript levels detected in leaves. Results demonstrated that a short duration of Cd exposure (e.g., 3 days) promoted AcCHI I expression in roots. Upregulated expression was also detected in leaves under 10 mg/kg Cd concentration stress. The present study demonstrates that AcCHI I may play an important role in Cd tolerance/homeostasis in the plant. Further studies of the AcCHI I protein, gene overexpression, the promoter and upstream regulation will be necessary for clarifying the functions of AcCHI I.