Effects of alcohol at 0.05% blood alcohol concentration (BAC) on low speed urban driving

ABSTRACT

Objective: Alcohol-impaired driving presents a continued risk for traffic safety and results in a significant proportion of fatalities on the roadway. We examined how alcohol at a 0.05% blood alcohol concentration (BAC) compares to 0.10% BAC (above the current U.S. legal limit) in terms of impact on driving performance.

Methods: Utilizing a within-subjects design, we recruited 108 healthy experienced drivers who were moderate to heavy drinkers. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design, we administered placebo and alcohol at the 0.05% and 0.10% BAC levels in a standardized simulated driving protocol. Drives occurred on the descending limb of the blood alcohol curve. This analysis focuses on the urban portion of the drive

Results: The study observed clear differences in performance for lateral and longitudinal driving performance and glance behavior. Variability in lane keeping and average speed increased with BAC level, with degraded performance observed at 0.05% BAC. The frequency of lane departures and percentage of time focused on the forward roadway at 0.05% BAC did not differ from placebo but differed from the 0.10% BAC level.

Conclusions: Overall, our results show that there is degraded performance in the urban driving environment and that much of that begins at or below the 0.05% BAC level.     

A review of regulations and guidelines related to winter manure application

Winter manure application elevates nutrient losses and impairment of water quality as compared to manure applications in other seasons. In conjunction with reviewing global distribution of animal densities, we reviewed worldwide mandatory regulations and voluntary guidelines on efforts to reduce off-site nutrient losses associated with winter manure applications. Most of the developed countries implement regulations or guidelines to restrict winter manure application, which range from a regulative ban to guidelines based upon weather and field management conditions. In contrast, developing countries lack such official directives, despite an increasing animal production industry and concern over water quality. An analysis of five case studies reveals that directives are derived from a common rationale to reduce off-site manure nutrient losses, but they are also affected by local socio-economic and biophysical considerations. Successful programs combine site-specific management strategies along with expansion of manure storage to offer farmers greater flexibility in winter manure management.     

Nutrients Availability Shapes Fungal Community Composition and Diversity in the Rare Earth Mine Tailings of Southern Jiangxi,China

Russian Journal of Ecology - The present study characterized the nutrients availability of three rare earth tailings deserted in different time stages in Southern Jiangxi of China, and revealed the...     

CS/PEG/PFT膜制备及对含铜废水的处理

实验将溶胶凝胶法和高分子辅助倒相法结合,制备出一种新型的壳聚糖/聚乙二醇/亚铁氰化钾钛(CS/PEG/PFT)复合膜,通过FT-IR和SEM对膜进行表征后,将其用于模拟铜废水的吸附和脱附实验,并探究出膜吸附的最佳工艺条件为:p H 5.50、实验温度55℃、实验时间2 h,该条件下,膜对铜离子最大吸附量为9.85 mg/g,去除率达到95%以上。CS/PEG/PFT膜的除铜过程符合Langmuir等温吸附方程(y=0.0597x+0.0168),线性相关度达到0.9917。     

β-环糊精接枝羧甲基壳聚糖吸附剂的制备及其性能

采用γ-氨丙基三乙氧基硅烷化学修饰活化后的硅胶,以戊二醛为交联剂,接上羧甲基壳聚糖,继而接枝上β-环糊精作为功能单体,制备了一种用于分离富集水样中Cu(Ⅱ)的固相萃取新材料。利用红外光谱(FT-IR)、比表面分析(BET)、X射线衍射光谱(XRD)以及热重分析(TG)等方法对吸附剂进行结构表征。采用火焰原子吸收(FAAS)作为检测手段,考察了溶液p H、振荡时间、吸附剂用量、样品流速、洗脱液浓度和体积等对吸附剂吸附Cu(Ⅱ)的影响。吸附剂饱和吸附容量为9.37 mg/g,最大富集倍数高达350。吸附过程能用准二级动力学模型和Langmuir等温吸附方程进行很好的拟合。应用于环境水样中Cu(Ⅱ)的分离富集与测定,回收率在96.8%~105.2%之间,效果较好。     

高效液相色谱-串联质谱法同时检测地表水中13种药物及个人护理品

采用高效液相色谱-串联质谱(HPLC-MS/MS)检测,建立了地表水中13种药物及个人护理品的测定方法。水样用盐酸与氢氧化钠溶液调p H值至7.0左右,过固相萃取小柱进行富集,用14 m L甲醇洗脱。以C18柱为分离柱,0.01%甲酸的甲醇-0.01%甲酸水溶液为流动相,目标物在10 min内分离,在0.50~250μg/L范围内,13种化合物峰面积与内标物质峰面积之比与质量浓度的线性关系良好(0.99),检出限在0.05~0.5 ng/L范围内。基质加标实验结果表明,13种化合物在水中的回收率分别在56.2%~123.2%之间(加标水平5 ng/m L)和58.0%~107.8%(加标水平50 ng/m L),相对标准偏差在1.60%~19.9%(n=6)之间。应用该方法测定了从2条纳污河流采集的10份水样,结果表明,除美托诺尔和普洛萘尔未被检出外,其余11药物的检出频率在30%~100%之间。在13种目标物质中,咖啡因的检测浓度最高达287.5ng/L,舒必利次之,为277.5 ng/L。本方法快速、准确,适用于地表水中PPCPs类的快速测定。     

基于压力响应关系法的湖泊营养物基准制定

湖泊富营养化与氮、磷及有机物含量过高密切相关,建立数字型营养物基准能够防止富营养化对水体指定用途造成影响.太湖流域是我国华东地区经济腹地,近年来流域内湖泊水质每况愈下,对其基准研究可为湖泊治理提供依据.详细介绍了压力响应关系法制定湖泊营养物基准的步骤,并将此方法运用到太湖流域营养物基准制定研究中.为满足大多数水体指定用途,研究中将该流域湖泊基本功能确定为娱乐、永生生物栖息地及饮用水,以此构建流域概念模型.选择压力变量为总氮(TN)、总磷(TP)和有机物,响应变量为叶绿素a(chl-a).用非参数分析法和线性回归法分别建立压力-响应模型,通过2种方法相互验证得到TN、TP和CODMn基准分别为0.593、0.067和4.092 mg/L.     

Using the past to contextualize anthropogenic impacts on the present and future distribution of an endemic Caribbean mammal

Island species are difficult to conserve because they face the synergy of climate change, invasive species, deforestation, and increasing human population densities in areas where land mass is shrinking. The Caribbean island of Hispaniola presents particular challenges because of geopolitical complexities that span 2 countries and hinder coordinated management of species across the island. We employed species distribution modeling to evaluate the impacts of climatic change and anthropogenic activities on the distribution of an endemic mammal of conservation concern, the Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus). We aggregated occurrence points for this poorly known species for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the present (1975–2016) based on museum collections, online biodiversity databases, and new field surveys. We quantified degree of overlap between periods and scenarios with Schoener's D. Through a conservation paleobiology lens, we found that over time humans played an increasing role in shaping the distribution of S. paradoxus, thus, providing a foundation for developing conservation strategies on appropriate spatiotemporal scales. Human population density was the single most important predictor of S. paradoxus occurrence. Densities >166 people/km² corresponded to a near-zero probability of occurrence. Models that accounted for climate but not anthropogenic variables falsely identified suitable habitat in Haiti, where on-the-ground surveys confirm habitat is unavailable. Climate-only models also significantly overestimated the potential for habitat connectivity between isolated populations. Our work highlights that alternative fates for S. paradoxus in the Anthropocene exist across the political border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti due to the fundamentally different economic and political realities of each country. Relationships in the fossil record confirm that Hispaniola's sociopolitical boundary is not biologically significant but instead represents one imposed on the island's fauna in the past 500 years by colonial activity. Our approach reveals how a paleontological perspective can contribute to concrete management insights.