Environmental Geochemistry and Health - The results of biogeochemical and bioindication studies on the resistance of natural populations of macrophyte plant—cattail (Typha australis Schum.... 相似文献
Objective: Addressing drinking and driving remains a challenge in the United States. The present study aims to provide feedback on driving under the influence (DUI) in California by assessing whether drinking and driving behavior is associated with the DUI arrest rates in the city in which the driver lives; whether this is due to perceptions that one can get arrested for this behavior; and whether this differed by those drivers who would be most affected by deterrence efforts (those most likely to drink outside the home).
Methods: This study consisted of a 2012 roadside survey of 1,147 weekend nighttime drivers in California. City DUI arrest rates for 2009–2011 were used as an indicator of local enforcement efforts. Population average logistic modeling was conducted modeling the odds of perceived high arrest likelihood for DUI and drinking and driving behavior within the past year.
Results: As the DUI arrest rates for the city in which the driver lives increased, perceived high risk of DUI arrest increased. There was no significant relationship between either city DUI arrest rates or perceived high risk of DUI arrest with self-reported drinking and driving behavior in the full sample. Among a much smaller sample of those most likely to drink outside the home, self-reported drinking and driving behavior was negatively associated with DUI arrests rates in their city of residence but this was not mediated by perceptions.
Conclusion: The results of the present study suggest that perceptions are correlated with one aspect of DUI efforts in one's community. Those who were more likely to drink outside the home could be behaviorally influenced by these efforts. 相似文献
Alginates, extracted from algae are linear unbranched polymers containing β-(1→4)-linked d-mannuronic acid (M) and α-(1→4)-linked l-guluronic acid (G) residues. The conversion of alginic acid into the metal alginate is confirmed using FTIR spectroscopy.
Asymmetric and symmetric stretching of free carboxyl group present in metal alginate occurs almost at the same position in
various solvent compositions. Total intrusion volume of metal alginate prepared in propanol (0.0742 mL/g) is greater compared
to those in ethanol (0.0648 mL/g) and methanol (0.0393 mL/g) as solvent. Surface morphology as well as porosity and pore size
distribution of metal alginate are greatly influenced by solvent. It can be seen from thermal analysis results that calcium
alginate prepared using different solvent compositions started decomposing at 100 °C, but rapid degradation started around
200 °C. The results showed a stepwise weight loss during thermal sweep, indicating different types of reactions during degradation.
First and second step of rapid degradation was situated around 200–300 and 300–550 °C, respectively; whereas the final step
is situated around 550–650 °C. The trend of degradation was similar for all the solvents, although the amount of final residue
varied from one solvent to another. At the same time, lower thermal stability was also observed with higher heating rates.
Additionally, a kinetic analysis was performed to fit with TGA data, where the entire degradation process has been considered
as three consecutive first order reactions. 相似文献
Canada is a large nation with forested ecosystems that occupy over 60% of the national land base, and knowledge of the patterns
of Canada’s land cover is important to proper environmental management of this vast resource. To this end, a circa 2000 Landsat-derived
land cover map of the forested ecosystems of Canada has created a new window into understanding the composition and configuration
of land cover patterns in forested Canada. Strategies for summarizing such large expanses of land cover are increasingly important,
as land managers work to study and preserve distinctive areas, as well as to identify representative examples of current land-cover
and land-use assemblages. Meanwhile, the development of extremely efficient clustering algorithms has become increasingly
important in the world of computer science, in which billions of pieces of information on the internet are continually sifted
for meaning for a vast variety of applications. One recently developed clustering algorithm quickly groups large numbers of
items of any type in a given data set while simultaneously selecting a representative—or “exemplar”—from each cluster. In
this context, the availability of both advanced data processing methods and a nationally available set of landscape metrics
presents an opportunity to identify sets of representative landscapes to better understand landscape pattern, variation, and
distribution across the forested area of Canada. In this research, we first identify and provide context for a small, interpretable
set of exemplar landscapes that objectively represent land cover in each of Canada’s ten forested ecozones. Then, we demonstrate
how this approach can be used to identify flagship and satellite long-term study areas inside and outside protected areas
in the province of Ontario. These applications aid our understanding of Canada’s forest while augmenting its management toolbox,
and may signal a broad range of applications for this versatile approach. 相似文献
Several methods were developed to detect the cyclic volatile methylsiloxanes (cVMSs) including octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4), decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), and dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane (D6) in water, sediment, soil, biota, and biosolid samples. Analytical techniques employed to optimize measurement of this compound class in various matrices included membrane-assisted solvent extraction in water, liquid–solid extraction for sediment, soil, biota, and biosolid samples. A subsequent analysis of the extract was conducted by large-volume injection–gas chromatography−mass spectrometry (LVI−GC−MS). These methods employed no evaporative techniques to avoid potential losses and contamination of the volatile siloxanes. To compensate for the inability to improve detection limits by concentrating final sample extract volumes we used a LVI–GC–MS. Contamination during analysis was minimized by using a septumless GC configuration to avoid cVMS’s associated with septum bleed. These methods performed well achieving good linearity, low limits of detection, good precision, recovery, and a wide dynamic range. In addition, stability of cVMS in water and sediment was assessed under various storage conditions. D4 and D5 in Type-I (Milli-Q) water stored at 4 °C were stable within 29 d; however, significant depletion of D6 (60–70%) occurred only after 3 d. Whereas cVMS in sewage influent and effluent were stable at 4 °C within 21 d. cVMS in sediment sealed in amber glass jars at −20 °C and in pentane extracts in vials at −15 °C were stable during 1 month under both storage conditions. 相似文献
Amphipod crustaceans belong to the most successful invaders of aquatic environments. The work provides information concerning the spatial and temporal scales of expansion of four alien gammarid amphipods (three of them of Ponto-Caspian and one of North American origin): Pontogammarus robustoides (G.O. Sars, 1894), Obesogammarus crassus (G.O. Sars, 1894), Dikerogammarus haemobaphes (Eichwald, 1841), and Gammarus tigrinus Sexton, 1939 in the Vistula Lagoon (VL) and the Vistula Delta (VD) in 2008–2010. The mean abundance of these gammarids in nearshore zones was 382 ind?m?2 in VL and 89 ind?m?2 in VD. Their mean biomasses were likewise greater in VL (0.91 g?m?2) than in VD (0.49 g?m?2). G. tigrinus was the most dominant species in both nearshore zones of VL and VD and attained the highest frequency in these areas. The study gives evidence of total extinction of native gammarid species. 相似文献
Failure to account for interactions between endangered species may lead to unexpected population dynamics, inefficient management strategies, waste of scarce resources, and, at worst, increased extinction risk. The importance of species interactions is undisputed, yet recovery targets generally do not account for such interactions. This shortcoming is a consequence of species‐centered legislation, but also of uncertainty surrounding the dynamics of species interactions and the complexity of modeling such interactions. The northern sea otter (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) and one of its preferred prey, northern abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana), are endangered species for which recovery strategies have been developed without consideration of their strong predator–prey interactions. Using simulation‐based optimization procedures from artificial intelligence, namely reinforcement learning and stochastic dynamic programming, we combined sea otter and northern abalone population models with functional‐response models and examined how different management actions affect population dynamics and the likelihood of achieving recovery targets for each species through time. Recovery targets for these interacting species were difficult to achieve simultaneously in the absence of management. Although sea otters were predicted to recover, achieving abalone recovery targets failed even when threats to abalone such as predation and poaching were reduced. A management strategy entailing a 50% reduction in the poaching of northern abalone was a minimum requirement to reach short‐term recovery goals for northern abalone when sea otters were present. Removing sea otters had a marginally positive effect on the abalone population but only when we assumed a functional response with strong predation pressure. Our optimization method could be applied more generally to any interacting threatened or invasive species for which there are multiple conservation objectives. Definición de Metas de Recuperación Realistas para Dos Especies en Peligro Interactuantes, Enhydra lutris y Haliotis kamtschatkana相似文献
Global climatic change is likely to take place and could eventually affect Mediterranean deltas and other lowlying coastal
regions. This would have serious implications for the natural resources of these deltaic areas, as well as for human settlements
and related economic activities.
To achieve sound decision making, to prevent damages and to avoid risky investments, it is necessary to understand the integral
functioning of deltaic areas and to determine their vulnerability and response to large-scale change phenomena. Optimal use
of the available knowledge will require that existing and new field measurements are combined and that integrated (physical/ecological)
conceptual models of deltaic behaviour are developed with socio-economics scenarios as boundary conditions.
This paper illustrates the methodological effort towards organizing a modeling framework to conduct budget computations at
various scales with reference to the most significant ‘physiogrpahic units’ and to the most significant deltaic processes.
The final objective is to handle the problem of evaluating possible changes under different scenarios. 相似文献