International research into occupational safety and health protection.

Are we doing the right thing? Are we setting the right priorities for the future in occupational safety and health research? How does BG (Institution for Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention) research compare nationally and internationally? As a mosaic of answers to these questions, this article explores international research on priorities in occupational research and analyses these against the backdrop of the nearly 1,000 research projects conducted by 9 institutions from 8 countries in the year 2003.     

Umweltmanagement im landwirtschaftlichen Betrieb

Although problems may occur in the implementation of environmental management systems (EMS) in agriculture, an EMS can be a suitable farm management tool. In the past, pilot projects have revealed that the environmental audit as a base analysis still contains methodical weak points. A uniform procedure for the implementation process is not possible due to variations in the structure of farms in Germany with respect to size, employee structure and capital resources. While the resource costs which occur on larger farms can lead to a benefit due to increased efficiency, this has not yet been established for smaller farms. In these cases, other measures such as the implementation of generic management systems (especially environment and quality) or a farm-specific implementation of a management system without the cost-intensive certification may be a possible alternative.     

Quantifying the Impact of Renewable Energy Futures on Cooling Water Use

This article presents an empirically based model, WiCTS ( Wi thdrawal and C onsumption for T hermoelectric S ystems), to estimate regional water withdrawals and consumption implied by any electricity generation portfolio. WiTCS uses water use rates, developed at the substate level, to predict water use by scaling the rates with predicted energy generation. The capability of WiCTS is demonstrated by assessing the impact of renewable electricity generation scenarios on water use in the United States (U.S.) through 2050. The energy generation scenarios are taken from the Renewable Energy Futures Study performed by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy. Results indicate reductions in water use are achieved under these renewable energy scenarios. The analysis further explores the impact of two modifications to the modeling framework. The first modification presumes geothermal and concentrated solar power generation technologies employ water‐intensive cooling systems vs. cooling technology that requires no water. The second modification presumes all water‐intensive cooling technologies use closed cycle cooling (as opposed to once‐through cooling) technologies by 2050. Results based on one of the renewable generation scenarios indicate water use increases by over 20% under the first modification, and water consumption increases by approximately 40% while water withdrawals decrease by over 85% under the second modification.     

Safety Studies on Hydraulic Proportional Valves With Electrical Position Feedback

The authors analysed a proportional valve with electrical position feedback for its failure behaviour. Severalfailures were introduced into the feedback loop, especially into the 2 solenoids and the inductive positiontransducer. The behaviour of the valve for square and ramp reference signals was recorded and systematicallyanalysed. It was shown that failures could be detected by monitoring the residual signal from the equipmentunder control or the residual signal from the sensor. It was possible to achieve the safe position within twice thenormal response time of the valve by switching off the current of both solenoids. The application of these resultsfor a new generation of safe proportional valves is discussed. The use of the results of these investigationsobviates the need for redundancy of the electrical position monitoring arrangement in a safe proportionalvalve.     

Assessment of Population Dynamics of Specific Strains in Groundwater Bioaugmentation Experiments by Two Different Molecular Techniques

A set of microcosm experiments was performed to understand the behaviour of special degraders in bioaugmentation experiments. In the experiments the following chlorobenzene degraders were used: the genetically modified Pseudomonas putida F1CC, and the two wild-type strains Pseudomonas putida GJ31 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa RHO1. These strains were used at an initial cell density of 10⁵ cells mL^–1 groundwater which had been spiked with 1,2-dichlorobenzene (1,2-DCB), 1,4-dichlorobenzene (1,4-DCB) and, as main contaminant, chlorobenzene (CB). The population dynamics and behaviour of the three special degraders within the groundwater microcosms were studied by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis of 16S rDNA fragments amplified from directly extracted community DNA and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) with species-specific probes. RHO1 disappeared after 4 days as detected by FISH in contrast to SSCP-detection where RHO1 could be found during the whole incubation time. Whereas GEM F1CC and wild-type strain GJ31 survived the whole incubation for 20 days. With both methods we were able to detect all strains with high specificity among the indigenous microbial community. The data sets obtained from SSCP analysis and FISH were highly correlated. Specific band intensity within the SSCPfingerprints and the cell counts determined by FISH gave a quantitative overview about the introduced strains.     

Detection and analysis of xenon isotopes for the comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty international monitoring system

The use of the xenon isotopes for detection of nuclear explosions is of great interest for monitoring compliance with the comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty (CTBT). Recently, the automated radioxenon sampler-analyzer (ARSA) was tested at the Institute for Atmospheric Radioactivity (IAR) in Freiburg, Germany to ascertain its use for the CTBT by comparing its results to laboratory-based analyses, determining its detection sensitivity and analyzing its results in light of historical xenon isotope levels and known reactor operations in the area. Xe-133 was detected nearly every day throughout the test at activity concentrations ranging between approximately 0.1 mBq/m3 to as high as 120 mBq/m3. Xe-133m and 135Xe were also detected occasionally during the test at concentrations of less than 1 to a few mBq/m3.     

Phosphine in various matrixes

Matrix-bound phosphine was determined in the Jiaozhou Bay coastal sediment,in prawn-pond bottom soil,in the eutrophic lake Wulongtan,in the sewage sludge and in paddy soil as well.Results showed that matrix-bound phosphine levels in freshwater and coastal sediment,as well as in sewage sludge,are significantly higher than that in paddy soil.The correlation between matrix bound phosphine concentrations and organic phosphorus contents in sediment samples is disecussed.