Natural resource rents and capital accumulation nexus: do resource rents raise public human and physical capital expenditures?

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - This paper examines the effects of total, mineral, natural gas, and oil rents on the public total, education, health, and infrastructure expenditures...     

Testing the performance of European diatom indices for evaluating the ecological status in the Kızılırmak basin,Turkey: flowing waters

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The K?z?l?rmak River is the longest river (1.355 km) in Turkey and flows into the Black Sea. Main pressures in the basin are waste...     

Radiological hazard assessment of natural gross radioactivity in some cosmetic products

Many kinds of cosmetic products were analyzed to determine gross radioactivity. In this study, gross alpha/beta radioactivity concentrations in 51 cosmetic samples were determined. The examined cosmetic products consist of blusher, eye shadow, lipstick, nail polish, shampoo, hand cream, cellulite cream, baby powder, soap, and toothpaste. The gross alpha–beta activity concentrations were measured with a nuclear spectroscopic system which contains gas-flow proportional counters. The highest gross alpha/beta activity concentrations were found in eye shadow samples of 1.621Bq g^?1 for alpha and 6.471Bq g^?1 for beta. The total effective doses due to gross radioactivity for skin were calculated. Although the effective dose of eye shadow samples had the highest value, the effective doses due to gross radioactivity concentrations in this study were found to be lower than the radiological limits given by the authorities.     

Retro-techno-economic evaluation of acetic acid production using cotton stalk as feedstock

In value-added chemical industries, use of agricultural wastes as raw materials remains to be a major challenge in commercialization due to lack of competitiveness with respect to petrochemical processes. This work presents the techno-economic analysis of a novel bioprocessing plant converting 356,400 MT/year cotton stalks into 147,000 MT/year acetic acid. A production scheme integrating lignin separation with the main bioconversion stages has been proposed. Techno-economic assessment was performed through economic feasibility and retro-techno-economic analysis (RTEA) methods. The RTEA method has been extended to include the estimation of research and development funding for improving economic feasibility. Carbon offset of the proposed technology has been estimated and carbon credit results have been incorporated into the economic feasibility metrics.     

Prenatal diagnosis of autosomal recessive osteopetrosis,infantile type,by X-ray evaluation

Prenatal diagnosis for infantile osteopetrosis was attempted during the third pregnancy of a first-cousin marriage whose family history revealed an affected previous child. At the 25th week of pregnancy, fetal X-ray evaluation revealed marked sclerosis of osteopetrotic bone and metaphyseal splaying and clubbing of both femurs. The pregnancy was terminated and repeated X-rays and histopathological examination of fetal bone (femur) confirmed the diagnosis.     

Fifteen-spined stickleback (Spinachia spinachia) females prefer males with more secretional threads in their nests: an honest-condition display by males

In the fifteen-spined stickleback (Spinachia spinachia), the male alone builds a nest and provides care for the eggs until they hatch. The nest is made of filamentous algae held together with shiny secretional threads of a glycoprotein, here called tangspiggin. Tangspiggin is produced by transformed kidney cells. I investigated how tangspiggin production was related to food intake by giving males low or high food rations. Males in the high-food group produced significantly more tangspiggin than those in the low-food group. Since low food rations did not lead to a significant drop in resting metabolic rate (oxygen consumption), tangspiggin production appears to be one of the first energy-demanding processes to be dropped during food deprivation. Among males given equal food rations, females preferred to mate with those with elevated levels of tangspiggin in their nests. Tangspiggin threads may signal safety for the offspring by keeping the eggs within the nest and protecting them from egg predators. Moreover, the threads become less shiny with age, due to particle deposition, and older nests that may house older (more valuable) eggs are thereby well camouflaged. Tangspiggin provides an honest signal of male condition, acting as an extra-bodily ornament, signaling direct benefits to females or possibly also indirect benefits of "good genes" from a male who is a successful forager.     

Secretor Status is Associated with Susceptibility to Disease in a Large GII.6 Norovirus Foodborne Outbreak

Food and Environmental Virology - Norovirus is commonly associated with food and waterborne outbreaks. Genetic susceptibility to norovirus is largely dependent on presence of histo-blood group...     

Determination of Commonly Used Herbicides in Surface Water Using Solid-Phase Extraction and Dual-Column HPLC-DAD

The present study describes the application of different solid-phase extraction techniques for the extraction, separation, and quantitative determination of 10 commonly used herbicides with different chemical structures (chlorsulfuron, diuron, bentazone, linuron, chlorpropham, fenoxoprop-ethyl, MCPA, diclofop-methyl, fluazifop-butyl, trifluraline) in water. Octadecyl (C₁₈) Empore extraction disks, octadecyl (C₁₈), and stryene divinylbenzene (SDB) Bond Elut Env cartridges were compared for solid-phase extraction efficiency. Herbicides were separated and quantified by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection (HPLC-DAD) with simultaneous separation on two columns of differing polarity (C₁₈ and CN) to confirm identification. Analytical separation was performed simultaneously on C₁₈ and CN columns. Reanalysis of the sample extracts on a (cyano) CN column were used to confirm the identity of these compounds. Method optimization and validation parameters were presented in this work. Recoveries varied from 76.0% to 99.0% for C₁₈ disks, from 75.1% to 100.0% for C₁₈ cartridges, and from 54.0% to 98.0% for SDB cartridges over concentrations at 0.025–0.4 μg L^?1. The limits of detection were 0.012–0.035 μg L^?1.     

Commuter Exposures to VOCs in Boston,Massachusetts

This study examines the commuter’s exposure to six gasoline-related volatile organic compounds (VOCs): benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m-/p-xylene, o-xylene, and formaldehyde. The VOC concentrations to which commuters were exposed in four different commuting modes (driving, subway, walking, and biking) in Boston, Massachusetts, are compared. The VOC concentrations in participants’ homes and offices were also measured. Factors that could influence in-vehicle VOC concentrations, such as different traffic patterns, car model and vehicle ventilation conditions, were also evaluated. Driving a private car was associated with higher VOC concentrations and commuting on urban roadways resulted in the highest VOC concentrations. The use of car heaters resulted in higher in-vehicle VOC concentrations. The longer the subway commuters stayed underground, the higher their VOC exposures. The home-to-work car or subway commute represented about 10 to 20 percent of an individual’s total VOC exposure for these compounds.