Examples of the role of analytical chemistry in environmental risk management research

Analytical chemistry is an important tier of environmental protection and has been traditionally linked to compliance and/or exposure monitoring activities for environmental contaminants. The adoption of the risk management paradigm has led to special challenges for analytical chemistry applied to environmental risk analysis. Namely, methods developed for regulated contaminants may not be appropriate and/or applicable to risk management scenarios. This paper contains examples of analytical chemistry applied to risk management challenges broken down by the analytical approach and analyte for some selected work in our laboratory. Specific techniques discussed include stable association complex electrospray mass spectrometry (cESI-MS), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), split-flow thin cell (SPLITT) fractionation and matrix-assisted laser desorption time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF-MS). Specific analytes include haloacetic acids (HAA9), perchlorate, bromate, triazine degradation products, metal-contaminated colloids and Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts.     

Information needs for marine pollution studies

Information needed for the resolution of environmental problems is a commodity with an economic value. The minimum necessary information implies minimal costs. The formulation of the information is considered for the case of biocides that can disrupt marine ecosystems.     

Exclusion of chromosomal mosaicism in amniotic fluid cultures: Efficacy of in situ versus flask techniques

Accurate diagnosis of mosaicism in amniotic fluid cell cultures represents a major problem. If insufficient cells are analysed, true fetal mosaicism may go undetected. False-positive diagnosis is also possible since a second cell line may arise in vitro and not reflect the true fetal genetic constitution. These difficulties apply to both flask and in situ culture techniques, to varying degrees. The relative accuracy of flask versus in situ culture techniques in excluding mosaicism was determined by statistical analysis of experimental data from ten pairs of mixed male-female amniotic fluid specimens. The data support the idea that the majority of in situ colonies are independent of one another. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) analysis of a single metaphase from a number of different colonies enhances the confidence for excluding mosaicism; (2) analysis of more than one cell per colony offers little advantage; (3) exclusion of a given level of mosaicism requires analysis of fewer metaphases using the in situ method; (4) the confidence for excluding mosaicism is high with both in situ and flask techniques, using the provided guidelines; and (5) it is shown that the two-stage approach used by many laboratories is currently the most efficient way to exclude mosaicism.     

试论Java与木材加工业自动化控制和安全生产的关系

Java(Java也是美国加里福尼亚州Sun Microsystems公司的注册商标)正快速成为一种用于加工制造业和系统集成的计算机编程语言。相对于标准C和C^ 计算机语言而言，Java的多功能性和支持众多计算机操作系统和平台的显著特点，使它能在装备有不同计算机平台和控制系统的机械设备上使用提供了最大的方便性。从而提高了木材产品加工过程的安全性。本文就Java软件系统在木材加工和家具加工过程中的应用以及潜在问题进行探讨。     

Potassium carbonate-based ternary transition temperature mixture (deep eutectic analogues) for CO2 absorption: Characterizations and DFT analysis

•Addition of hindered amine increased thermal stability and viscosity of TTTM. •Addition of hindered amine improved the CO₂ absorption performance of TTTM. •Good the CO₂ absorption of recycled solvents after two regenerations. •Important role of amine group in CO₂ absorption of TTTM confirmed by DFT analysis. Is it possible to improve CO₂ solubility in potassium carbonate (K₂CO₃)-based transition temperature mixtures (TTMs)? To assess this possibility, a ternary transition-temperature mixture (TTTM) was prepared by using a hindered amine, 2-amino-2-methyl-1,3-propanediol (AMPD). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was employed to detect the functional groups including hydroxyl, amine, carbonate ion, and aliphatic functional groups in the prepared solvents. From thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), it was found that the addition of AMPD to the binary mixture can increase the thermal stability of TTTM. The viscosity findings showed that TTTM has a higher viscosity than TTM while their difference was decreased by increasing temperature. In addition, Eyring’s absolute rate theory was used to compute the activation parameters (ΔG*, ΔH*, and ΔS*). The CO₂ solubility in liquids was measured at a temperature of 303.15 K and pressures up to 1.8 MPa. The results disclosed that the CO₂ solubility of TTTM was improved by the addition of AMPD. At the pressure of about 1.8 MPa, the CO₂ mole fractions of TTM and TTTM were 0.1697 and 0.2022, respectively. To confirm the experimental data, density functional theory (DFT) was employed. From the DFT analysis, it was found that the TTTM+ CO₂ system has higher interaction energy (|ΔE |) than the TTM+ CO₂ system indicating the higher CO₂ affinity of the former system. This study might help scientists to better understand and to improve CO₂ solubility in these types of solvents by choosing a suitable amine as HBD and finding the best combination of HBA and HBD.     

Enhancement of the anaerobic hydrolysis and fermentation of municipal solid waste in leachbed reactors by varying flow direction during water addition and leachate recycle

Poor performance of leachbed reactors (LBRs) is attributed to channelling, compaction from waste loading, unidirectional water addition and leachate flow causing reduced hydraulic conductivity and leachate flow blockage. Performance enhancement was evaluated in three LBRs M, D and U at 22 ± 3 °C using three water addition and leachate recycle strategies; water addition was downflow in D throughout, intermittently upflow and downflow in M and U with 77% volume downflow in M, 54% volume downflow in U while the rest were upflow. Leachate recycle was downflow in D, alternately downflow and upflow in M and upflow in U. The strategy adopted in U led to more water addition (30.3%), leachate production (33%) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) solubilisation (33%; 1609 g against 1210 g) compared to D (control). The total and volatile solids (TS and VS) reductions were similar but the highest COD yield (g-COD/g-TS and g-COD/g-VS removed) was in U (1.6 and 1.9); the values were 1.33 and 1.57 for M, and 1.18 and 1.41 for D respectively. The strategy adopted in U showed superior performance with more COD and leachate production compared to reactors M and D.     

Testing for between individual correlations of personality and physiological traits in a wild bird

Recently, integration of personality traits into a ‘pace-of-life syndrome’ (POLS) context has been advocated. To be able to understand how an individual’s behavioural, physiological and life history traits may coevolve, we need to jointly quantify these traits in order to study their covariance. Few studies have established links between personality and immunity properties of an individual. We here examined covariation of a measure of skeletal size (tarsus length), three behavioural traits (activity, handling aggression and breath rate) and two immunological traits (IgG level and haematocrit), in 592 wild caught blue tits. Many individuals (201) were tested more than once, allowing quantification of individual consistency of all traits and partition of the covariances between the traits, using a multivariate mixed model, into between individual and residual covariances. We find individual consistency of all behavioural traits, indicating that these capture aspects of blue tit adult personality and also the physiological measures are repeatable. Contrary to the POLS expectation, we find no overall significant individual level correlation structure between these traits and a factor analytical approach confirmed that between individual correlations across traits were not due to a common (POLS) factor or driven by size (tarsus length). Based on a published power study, we conclude that there is no common syndrome of individual level covariance between personality and physiological traits in wild blue tits or that the effect sizes, such a syndrome generates, are too low (r?<?0.3) to detect. Future field-based work should be designed to explore low effect sizes and strive to measure specific traits whose involvement is implicated to have large effect sizes as based on, e.g. laboratory findings.     

The Importance of Natural Processes in Understanding Ecosystem Change: A Case Study of Limed Lakes

In order to determine what effects human activities have on natural processes, it is important to thoroughly understand those processes. Unfortunately, we know little about what natural processes are operating, and even less about how they have functioned historically. This paper discusses the importance of natural processes in affecting surface water acidification and the necessity for developing quantitative estimates of natural, as well as anthropogenic, contributions to the acidification of surface waters. A review of the literature and the analysis of chemistry data from six limed lakes in New York and Massachusetts have identified a number of possible processes that may play important roles in acidifying surface waters. At present, these processes are poorly understood and require further research. Once we have such knowledge, we will be able to clearly see the effects of human activities on natural processes and modify those activities in ways that will mitigate negative impact in a predictable manner.