Effect of nitrogen fertilizer application on growing season soil carbon dioxide emission in a corn-soybean rotation

Nitrogen application can have a significant effect on soil carbon (C) pools, plant biomass production, and microbial biomass C processing. The focus of this study was to investigate the short-term effect of N fertilization on soil CO(2) emission and microbial biomass C. The study was conducted from 2001 to 2003 at four field sites in Iowa representing major soil associations and with a corn (Zea mays L.)-soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) rotation. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with four replications of four N rates (0, 90, 180, and 225 kg ha(-1)). In the corn year, season-long cumulative soil CO(2) emission was greatest with the zero N application. There was no effect of N applied in the prior year on CO(2) emission in the soybean year, except at one of three sites, where greater applied N decreased CO(2) emission. Soil microbial biomass C (MBC) and net mineralization in soil collected during the corn year was not significantly increased with increase in N rate in two out of three sites. At all sites, soil CO(2) emission from aerobically incubated soil showed a more consistent declining trend with increase in N rate than found in the field. Nitrogen fertilization of corn reduced the soil CO(2) emission rate and seasonal cumulative loss in two out of three sites, and increased MBC at only one site with the highest N rate. Nitrogen application resulted in a reduction of both emission rate and season-long cumulative emission of CO(2)-C from soil.     

Egyptian blue — Cuprorivaite a window to ancient Egyptian technology

Egyptian Blue, a multicomponent synthetic blue pigment has been recorded in ancient Egypt since the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom (2600–2480 B.C.). The pigment consisting of cuprorivaite (CaCuSi₄O₁₀) with variable amounts of wollastonite (CaSiO₃), Cu-rich glass and cuprite (Cu₃O) or tenorite (CuO) was prepared by melting the copper-rich ingredient with lime and desert sand. Low melting temperatures (below 742 °C) were achieved by addition of flux-like plant ashes. The high quality of the pigments collected from monuments of the Fifth Dynasty (2480–2320 B.C.) may indicate that the first manufacture was in early dynastic or perhaps predynastic eras. During the reign of Thutmosis III (18th Dynasty, 1490–1436 B.C.) probably bronze filings were first applied as starting material, thus indicating a technological innovation. This new method was employed till the Roman times.     

The effect of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on neuroinflammation response in rat brain

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂ NPs) are widely used for their whiteness and opacity in several applications such as food colorants, drug additives, biomedical ceramic, and implanted biomaterials. Research on the neurobiological response to orally administered TiO₂ NPs is still limited. In our study, we investigate the effects of anatase TiO₂ NPs on the brain of Wistar rats after oral intake. After daily intragastric administration of anatase TiO₂ NPs (5–10 nm) at 0, 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg body weight (BW) for 60 days, the coefficient of the brain, acethylcholinesterase (AChE) activities, the level of interleukin 6 (IL-6), and the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were assessed to quantify the brain damage. The results showed that high-dose anatase TiO₂ NPs could induce a downregulated level of AChE activities and showed an increase in plasmatic IL-6 level as compared to the control group accompanied by a dose-dependent decrease inter-doses, associated to an increase in the cerebral IL-6 level as a response to a local inflammation in brain. Furthermore, we observed elevated levels of immunoreactivity to GFAP in rat cerebral cortex. We concluded that oral intake of anatase TiO₂ NPs can induce neuroinflammation and could be neurotoxic and hazardous to health.     

A novel one-step synthesis for carbon-based nanomaterials from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles waste

Nowadays our planet suffers from an accumulation of plastic products that have the potential to cause great harm to the environment in the form of air, water, and land pollution. Plastic water bottles have become a great problem in the environment because of the large numbers consumed throughout the world. Certain types of plastic bottles can be recycled but most of them are not. This paper describes an economical solvent-free process that converts polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles waste into carbon nanostructure materials via thermal dissociation in a closed system under autogenic pressure together with additives and/or catalyst, which can act as cluster nuclei for carbon nanostructure materials such as fullerenes and carbon nanotubes. This research succeeded in producing and controlling the microstructure of various forms of carbon nanoparticles from the PET waste by optimizing the preparation parameters in terms of time, additives, and amounts of catalyst.

Implications: Plastic water bottles are becoming a growing segment of the municipal solid waste stream in the world; some are recycled but many are left in landfill sites. Recycling PET bottles waste can positively impact the environment in several ways: for instance, reduced waste, resource conservation, energy conservation, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and decreasing the amount of pollution in air and water sources. The main novelty of the present work is based on the acquisition of high-value carbon-based nanomaterials from PET waste by a simple solvent-free chemical technique. Thus, the prepared materials are considered to be promising, cheap, eco-friendly materials that may find use in different applications.     

The impact of pesticides on oxidative stress level in human organism and their activity as an endocrine disruptor

Pesticides cause serious environmental and health problems both to humans and animals. The aim of this review is to discuss selected herbicides and fungicides regarding their mode of action and their influence on basic oxidative stress parameters and endocrine disruption properties tested in selected cell cultures in vitro. Because of numerous difficulties which animal studies are subject to, cell cultures are an excellent experimental model reflecting human exposure to different pesticides through all relevant routes. This experimental model can be used to monitor aggregate and cumulative pesticide exposures.     

Polynomial Surrogates for Open-Channel Flows in Random Steady State

Assessing epistemic uncertainties is considered as a milestone for improving numerical predictions of a dynamical system. In hydrodynamics, uncertainties in input parameters translate into uncertainties in simulated water levels through the shallow water equations. We investigate the ability of generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) surrogate to evaluate the probabilistic features of water level simulated by a 1-D hydraulic model (MASCARET) with the same accuracy as a classical Monte Carlo method but at a reduced computational cost. This study highlights that the water level probability density function and covariance matrix are better estimated with the polynomial surrogate model than with a Monte Carlo approach on the forward model given a limited budget of MASCARET evaluations. The gPC-surrogate performance is first assessed on an idealized channel with uniform geometry and then applied on the more realistic case of the Garonne River (France) for which a global sensitivity analysis using sparse least-angle regression was performed to reduce the size of the stochastic problem. For both cases, Galerkin projection approximation coupled to Gaussian quadrature that involves a limited number of forward model evaluations is compared with least-square regression for computing the coefficients when the surrogate is parameterized with respect to the local friction coefficient and the upstream discharge. The results showed that a gPC-surrogate with total polynomial degree equal to 6 requiring 49 forward model evaluations is sufficient to represent the water level distribution (in the sense of the \(\ell _2\) norm), the probability density function and the water level covariance matrix for further use in the framework of data assimilation. In locations where the flow dynamics is more complex due to bathymetry, a higher polynomial degree is needed to retrieve the water level distribution. The use of a surrogate is thus a promising strategy for uncertainty quantification studies in open-channel flows and should be extended to unsteady flows. It also paves the way toward cost-effective ensemble-based data assimilation for flood forecasting and water resource management.     

Conditions for the development of anaerobic digestion technologies using the organic fraction of municipal solid waste: perspectives for Poland

This article outlines problems related to the location of facilities designed to treat the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). Anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities are investigated as a treatment option, while taking into account the aspects of renewable energy generation. This research has been spurred on by the relationship between waste management, energy generation issues and spatial planning procedures. The analysis is focused on urban and semi-urban areas of medium and large cities. One of the most difficult issues associated with siting of waste processing plants is its integration with local infrastructures, avoiding conflicts and negative environmental impacts at the same time. This research aims to analyse possible locations for AD plants fuelled by OFMSW in Poland. Based on the experience gained from other countries and lessons learnt from the analysis of existing facilities in Europe, conditions for the location of this type of waste treatment plants have been defined, with the focus on economic, environmental and social issues. Most likely, the results of the multicriteria decision analysis for siting of municipal solid waste AD plants (M-BIST tool) could be transferred to other countries, especially those with a comparable GDP level and a similar framework for a waste management system.