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Made available in DSpace on 2022-03-04T19:00:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SILVIO-SEG-20.19.00.007.00.02-1-s2.0-S2666790822000611-main.pdf: 2575915 bytes, checksum: 6bad0ddc96cc08ed605820b3a414d23c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2022

Transportation demands large amounts of fuel. In particular, road transport greatly contributes to both criteria air pollutants and noise within cities. The influence of vehicular traffic on the environmental noise spectrum (as an indirect indicator of energy emission) was measured and assessed in the tourist route of Santa Marta along a 12-km road segment where five points were selected (three in the peripheral urban and two in the suburban areas). The number and type of vehicles as well as the noise levels were recorded at thirds of octave twice per day during two different weekdays. The traffic flow was composed of automobiles, with higher values in the peripheral urban area. According to the ANOVA, the noise spectrum indicated that low frequencies both had more energy than those with high frequencies and were influenced by the time of day. Low frequencies were influenced by all type of vehicles during the day, while high frequencies at both day and night, except for trucks (which were influenced in all spectrum). The results agreed with both the high velocities reached and the vehicle distribution. Keywords: Acoustic pollution, Freeway, Traffic flow dynamics, Urban air quality

Fermi has detected over 200 pulsars above 100 MeV. In a previous work, using 3 years of LAT data (1FHL catalog) we reported that 28 of these pulsars show emission above 10 GeV; only three of these, however, were millisecond pulsars (MSPs). The recently-released Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources (3FHL) contains over 1500 sources showing emission above 10 GeV, 17 of which are associated with gamma-ray MSPs. Using three times as much data as in our previous study (1FHL), we report on a systematic analysis of these pulsars to determine the highest energy (pulsed) emission fromMSPs and discuss the best possible candidates for follow-up observations with ground-based TeV instruments (H.E.S.S., MAGIC, VERITAS, and the upcoming CTA)., Presented at the 7th Fermi Symposium 2017, 15-20 October 2017, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Submitted to Proceedings of Science

Global environmental pressure dictates that South Africa reduces its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while national objectives focus on economic development. South Africa is faced with the dilemma of simultaneously alleviating poverty, reducing unemployment, growing the economy and responding to international pressure to reduce GHG emissions. As a result, policies that promote energy emissions reduction without being harmful to economic growth and national developmental priorities are needed. Environmental fiscal reform presents one such option. The impact of this is still unclear for South Africa, and this paper explores this issue. Energy balance data on energy consumption, energy emissions and input-output data for South Africa are used to assess the economic and environmental effects of environmental reform in the energy sector. Despite the high reduction in energy emissions, a tax on coal is not selected as the best alternative given the high negative impact on the economy. A tax on oil results in a low reduction in energy emissions, which limits its use as an environmental policy. The scenario using a petroleum products tax results in small decreases in economic growth but it has low energy emissions reduction, hence, this alternative is not selected as an option. Energy subsidy reform offers the second highest reduction in real energy emissions and a low decrease in economic growth, and this scenario is therefore recognised as the best option for carbon dioxide reduction in South Africa. The electricity tax offers moderate reductions in real energy emissions and a moderate decrease in economic growth, and therefore, it is deduced that the electricity tax option could be another option for carbon dioxide emissions reduction in South Africa.