Understanding implications of consumer behavior for wildlife farming and sustainable wildlife trade

Unsustainable wildlife trade affects biodiversity and the livelihoods of communities dependent upon those resources. Wildlife farming has been proposed to promote sustainable trade, but characterizing markets and understanding consumer behavior remain neglected but essential steps in the design and evaluation of such operations. We used sea turtle trade in the Cayman Islands, where turtles have been farm raised for human consumption for almost 50 years, as a case study to explore consumer preferences toward wild‐sourced (illegal) and farmed (legal) products and potential conservation implications. Combining methods innovatively (including indirect questioning and choice experiments), we conducted a nationwide trade assessment through in‐person interviews from September to December 2014. Households were randomly selected using disproportionate stratified sampling, and responses were weighted based on district population size. We approached 597 individuals, of which 37 (6.2%) refused to participate. Although 30% of households had consumed turtle in the previous 12 months, the purchase and consumption of wild products was rare (e.g., 64–742 resident households consumed wild turtle meat [i.e., 0.3–3.5% of households] but represented a large threat to wild turtles in the area due to their reduced populations). Differences among groups of consumers were marked, as identified through choice experiments, and price and source of product played important roles in their decisions. Despite the long‐term practice of farming turtles, 13.5% of consumers showed a strong preference for wild products, which demonstrates the limitations of wildlife farming as a single tool for sustainable wildlife trade. By using a combination of indirect questioning, choice experiments, and sales data to investigate demand for wildlife products, we obtained insights about consumer behavior that can be used to develop conservation‐demand‐focused initiatives. Lack of data from long‐term social–ecological assessments hinders the evaluation of and learning from wildlife farming. This information is key to understanding under which conditions different interventions (e.g., bans, wildlife farming, social marketing) are likely to succeed.     

Impact of posture and upper-limb muscle activity on grip strength

Purpose. The current research was carried out to determine grip strength (GS) with change in posture and upper-limb muscle activity of manual workers and investigate the impacts of these changes. Methods. For the current research, 120 male and 80 female participants were selected and GS was assessed using a digital hand grip dynamometer in various conditions. Results. The outcomes showed that male participants had higher GS as compared to female participants. Maximum GS was found in a standing posture with the fixed forward shoulder at 45°, elbow at 90° and a neutral position of the wrist and forearm for all participants. Conclusions. Higher values of GS were attained in standing postures which may result in attainment of higher performance levels by the workers. The outcomes justify the importance of correct postures during manual work in industries employing traditional methods.     

Emerging applications of green coconut: A promising lignocellulosic biomass

Waste accumulation is a grave concern and becoming a transboundary challenge for environment. During Covid-19 pandemic, diverse type of waste were collected due to different practices employed in order to fight back the transmission rate of the virus. Covid-19 was proved to be capricious catastrophe of this 20th century and even not completely eradicated from the world. The havoc created by this imperceptible quick witted, pleomorphic deadly virus can't be ignored. Though a number of vaccines have been developed by the scientists but there is a fear of getting this virus again in our life. Medical studies prove that immunity drinks will help to reduce its reoccurrences. Coconut water is widely used among all drinks available globally. Its massive consumption created an incalculable pile of green coconut shells around the different corners of the world. This practice generating enormous problem of space acquisition for the environment. Both the environment and public health will benefit from an evaluation of quantity of coconut waste that is being thrown and its potential to generate value added products. With this context, present article has been planned to study different aspects like, coconut waste generation, its biological properties and environmental hazards associated with its accumulation. Additionally, this review illustrates, green technologies for production of different value added products from coconut waste.     

气质联用法测固定污染源中三氟甲烷、四氟甲烷、六氟乙烷和六氟化硫

建立了固定污染源排气中三氟甲烷、四氟甲烷、六氟乙烷和六氟化硫的采样和气质联用分析方法,检出限分别为0.06、0.15、0.21、0.71 mg/m3,精密度在3.2%以下,相关系数大于0.999 6,并对浙江省内2家典型企业排放的温室气体进行了监测,实际样品监测结果表明,该方法能够满足废气中4种温室气体的监测要求。     

Methodological Basis of Ecological Safety Standards for the Technogenic Impact of Mineral Resource Exploitation

A new methodological approach to the development of biological and technological safety standards for the impact of underground mining on the natural biota is proposed.     

Pt-Sn/Al2O3蜂窝催化剂催化氧化C6烃

采用等体积分浸法制备Pt-Sn/Al₂O₃蜂窝催化剂（Pt含量仅为0.06wt%）.运用X射线衍射（XRD）、透射电镜（TEM）等技术对催化剂理化性质进行表征,并选取4种代表性C₆烃（苯、环己酮、环己烷和正己烷）对催化剂性能进行评价.活性评价试验中,Pt/Sn比为3/1催化效果最佳.此时4种C₆烃转化率达到90%的温度（T₉₀）较Pt催化剂均降低约20℃,其原因在于Sn可将Pt分割为较小的团簇提高Pt分散度.寿命评价试验以环己烷为例同Pt-Sn蜂窝催化剂连续运行720h,催化活性无明显变化,其原因在于,Sn可有效抑制其粒径增长;Pt₃Sn合金降低表面对C₆烃的吸附,减少催化剂表面积炭.     

Long-term effects of silver nanoparticles on performance of phosphorus removal in a laboratory-scale vertical flow constructed wetland

Silver nanoparticles(AgNPs) have been widely used in many fields,which raised concerns about potential threats to biological sewage treatment systems.In this study,the phosphorus removal performance,enzymatic activity and microbial population dynamics in constructed wetlands(CWs) were evaluated under a long-term exposure to Ag NPs(0,50,and 200 μg/L) for 450 days.Results have shown that Ag NPs inhibited the phosphorus removal efficiency in a short-term exposure,whereas caused no obviously negative effects from a long-term perspective.Moreover,in the coexisting CW system of Ag NPs and phosphorus,competition exhibited in the initial exposure phase,however,cooperation between them was observed in later phase.Enzymatic activity of acid-phosphatase at the moderate temperature(10–20°C) was visibly higher than that at the high temperature(20–30℃) and CWs with Ag NPs addition had no appreciable differences compared with the control.High-throughput sequencing results indicated that the microbial richness,diversity and composition of CWs were distinctly affected with the extension of exposure time at different Ag NPs levels.However,the phosphorus removal performance of CWs did not decline with the decrease of polyphosphate accumulating organisms(PAOs),which also confirmed that adsorption precipitation was the main way of phosphorus removal in CWs.The study suggested that Ag NPs and phosphorus could be removed synergistically in the coexistence system.This work has some reference for evaluating the influences of Ag NPs on the phosphorus removal and the interrelation between them in CWs.     

Morphology-dependent interfacial interactions of Fe2O3 with Ag nanoparticles for determining the catalytic reduction of p-nitrophenol

In this work,we fabricated three kinds of Ag/Fe_2O_3 model catalysts with different morphologies to study the interfacial interactions between Ag and Fe_2O_3,and how they affected the catalytic activity in hydrogenation of p-nitrophenol was explored.The hydrothermal method was used to synthesize the metal oxide supported silver catalyst,with various morphologies including nanoplates(NPs),nanospheres(NSs),and nanocubes(NCs).The crystal structure,morphology and surface elements of the composite were investigated by various measurements,such as X-ray diffraction(XRD),scanning electron microscopy(SEM),transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS).The catalytic activity was also evaluated by the reduction of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol.It was found that the activities of the above catalysts varied with the morphology of the support.Among them,Ag/Fe_2O_3 NPs promoted the highest performance,Ag/Fe_2O_3 NSs were slightly inferior,and Ag/Fe_2O_3 NCs were the worst.At last,we ascribed the remarkable activity of Ag/Fe_2O_3 NPs to the strong metal-support interactions between Ag and Fe_2O_3.     

Pt负载暴露(001)晶面Bi2WO6催化剂合成及光催化性能

通过水热法制备了暴露（001）晶面的Bi₂WO₆纳米片,利用光还原法将Pt纳米颗粒负载于其表面.选择苯甲醇氧化和罗丹明B（RhB）降解为探针反应,评价了催化剂的光催化性能.在苯甲醇氧化实验中,Pt负载暴露001晶面的Bi₂WO₆样品的苯甲醇转化率为20.7%,约为未负载样品的2倍.在RhB降解实验中,Pt负载样品在光照40min后对RhB的矿化率可达81.1%,而未负载样品RhB矿化率仅为55.8%,表明Pt负载样品具有更优的降解速率和矿化能力.催化剂性能的提升归因于高能晶面暴露和Pt负载的协同作用.Pt纳米颗粒的负载作为助催化剂增加了催化剂表面的活性位点,同时提高了晶面光生电子空穴对的分离和迁移效率.