Element concentration,daily intake of elements,and health risk indices of wild mushrooms collected from Belgrad Forest and Ilgaz Mountain National Park (Turkey)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The aim of this study was to determine the element content of wild edible and inedible mushroom species (Agaricus campestris, Armillaria ostoyae,...     

Metal concentration and health risk assessment of eight Russula mushrooms collected from Kizilcahamam-Ankara,Turkey

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The aim of this study was to determine the essential element (Zn, Ca, K, Fe, Na, and Mg), essential trace element (Co, Mn, Cr, and Cu), and...     

Improving collection efficiency through remote monitoring of charity assets

Collection costs associated with servicing a major UK charity’s donation banks and collecting unsold goods from their retail shops can account for up to 20% of the overall income gained. Bank and shop collections are commingled and are typically made on fixed days of the week irrespective of the amounts of materials waiting to be collected. Using collection records from a major UK charity, this paper considers what vehicle routing and scheduling benefits could accrue if bank and shop servicing requirements were monitored, the former using remote sensing technology to allow more proactive collection scheduling. A vehicle routing and scheduling algorithm employing tabu search methods was developed, and suggested time and distance savings of up to 30% over the current fixed schedules when a minimum bank and shop fill level of between 50% and 60% was used as a collection trigger. For the case study investigated, this led to a potential revenue gain of 5% for the charity and estimated CO₂ savings of around 0.5 tonnes per week across the fleet of six heterogeneous vehicles.     

Cadmium and nickel determinations in some food and water samples by the combination of carrier element-free coprecipitation and flame atomic absorption spectrometry

A procedure for separation and enrichment of Cd(II) and Ni(II) ions based upon carrier element-free coprecipitation by using an organic coprecipitant, 2-{4-[2-(1H-Indol-3-yl)ethyl]-3-(4-methylbenzyl)-5-oxo-4,5-dihydro-1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl}-N′-(3-fluoro-phenylmethyliden) acetohydrazide, prior to their flame atomic absorption spectrometric detections has been developed. The effects of varied experimental conditions on the performance of the developed method such as pH, sample volume, amount of coprecipitating agent, etc. were evaluated in detail on the recovery of analyte ions, and the influences of some anions and cations were investigated. The limits of detection for Cd(II) and Ni(II) ions based on three times the standard deviation of the blanks (N: 10) were obtained as 0.70 μg L^?1 and 1.21 μg L^?1, respectively. The accuracy of the method was tested by analyzing a certified reference material and by spike tests. The method was applied to determine the levels of cadmium and nickel in stream and sea water, rice, red lentil, and wheat samples.