Arsenic,selenium, and chromium speciation in fly ash

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Arsenic (As), selenium (Se), and chromium (Cr) are harmful to humans at certain concentrations, and can possibly be eluted from coal ash (fly ash)...     

Ethical Opportunities in Global Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry: The Role for FAO

FAO has a unique and essential rolein addressing the ethical problems facinghumanity and in making these problems intoopportunities for practical resolution. A broadrange of ethical issues in agriculture,fisheries, and forestry were identified byanalysis of the literature and by interviewswith FAO staff. Issues include sharing accessto and preserving natural resources,introduction of new technology, conservatismover the use of genetic engineering, ethics inanimal agriculture, access to information, foodsecurity, sustainable rural development,ensuring participation of all people indecision making and in receiving benefits ofagriculture, reducing corruption, andinvolvement of private and public sectors indecision making. Rather than viewing theseissues as problems, they should be viewed asopportunities for debate, learning aboutothers' views, and resolution. The UnitedNations has an important role to play in howdecisions are made in the global ethical debatein food and agriculture. The ethical role ofFAO is to promote global food security,balanced conservation, management andutilization of natural resources, andsustainable rural development. FAO should fullyand publicly assume its ethicalresponsibilities, gathering and sharinginformation on ethics in its areas of mandate,acting as an interactive forum, and providingexpert guidance on policy options and choicesbased on practical ethical analysis.     

Feasibility Study of Airbag Concept Applicable to Motorcycles Without Sufficient Reaction Structure

Objectives: An airbag system for motorcycle applications was developed and marketed in 2006 followed by many research projects on the system. In the airbag system, the bag should be supported during the kinetic energy–absorbing period of a rider in a collision. The previously developed system employed a configuration in which motorcycle structures support the airbag, such as a gauge unit and/or a steering structure. The supporting structure functions to receive the reaction force to hold the airbag during a crash to properly absorb the rider's kinetic energy. However, the previous system requires a larger area for this reaction structure and is applicable only to the motorcycles that can provide that area. To overcome this limitation, we propose an airbag system employing another concept. In this concept, the airbag does not use its vehicle structures as a reaction structure but uses the structures of an opposing vehicle, such as doors and/or pillars of an opposing vehicle. In this project, we aim to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system when installed in a motorcycle that cannot provide a larger area for the reaction structure.

Methods: In the system with this concept, it is assumed that the occupant protection performance is largely affected depending on impact configurations. Accordingly, full-scale motorcycle-to-car crash tests using 125 cm³ scooter-type models with and without the proposed system were conducted in various impact configurations. The 7 impact configurations specified in ISO 13232 were selected as the test configurations. Injury variables and injury indices of head, neck, chest, and abdomen were evaluated with the motorcyclist dummy.

Results: Injury variables and indices obtained from the crash tests with the airbag were compared to those of the baseline tests. In 2 impact configurations, the airbags were supported by the side structures of the opposing vehicle and performed to reduce the injury variable of head and/or chest compared to that of the baseline test.

Conclusion: Through the crash tests, beneficial protection effects of the airbag system were confirmed in particular impact configurations. No significant risk for the occupant due to the airbag was observed in the conducted crash tests. It was concluded that the proposed airbag system has feasibility to reduce rider injury in a collision of a motorcycle without sufficient reaction structure.     

The effects of pH on fluoxetine in Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes): acute toxicity in fish larvae and bioaccumulation in juvenile fish

Recent detection of fluoxetine in the aquatic environment and fish suggests a possibly high accumulation of fluoxetine; however, no report is available on the bioaccumulation of fluoxetine in aquatic organisms. Since bioaccumulation of fluoxetine was probably dependent on pH near the pK(a) value of 10.1, experiments were conducted approximately at pH 7, 8, and 9. Distribution coefficients between 1-octanol and water (D(ow)), and those between synthetic membrane vesicles (liposomes) and water (D(lip-wat)) were determined at pH 7, 8, and 9. The D(ow) and D(lip-wat) values increased significantly with increasing pH. Acute toxicity tests were performed using Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) prior to the bioaccumulation test, and 96-h LC(50) values were 5.5, 1.3, and 0.20mgl(-1) at pH 7, 8, and 9, respectively. In the bioaccumulation test, concentrations of fluoxetine and its major metabolite, norfluoxetine, in the fish body and liver were measured. The bioconcentration factors (BCF) of fluoxetine for Japanese medaka were 8.8, 3.0x10, and 2.6x10(2) in the body and 3.3x10(2), 5.8x10(2), and 3.1x10(3) in the liver at pH 7, 8, and 9, respectively. The BCF values were lower at pH 7 and higher at pH 9 mainly because of the increase in nonionized species with significantly higher hydrophobicity than the ionized species at pH values closer to pK(a). A similar trend was obtained for the concentration of norfluoxetine in the fish but the pseudo-BCF values (the ratio of the norfluoxetine concentration in the fish and the fluoxetine concentration in test water) were higher than the BCF value of fluoxetine at all pH conditions.     

Distribution analysis and speciation of arsenic and selenium in soils containing framboidal pyrite

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Soils and rocks containing framboidal pyrite are prone to be oxidized and cause problems of the elution of sulfuric acid, heavy metals, and...     

Relationship between traffic fatalities and drunk driving in Japan

OBJECTIVE: The present study was performed to clarify the relation between alcohol use and traffic fatalities in accidents involving motor vehicles in Japan. METHODS: Data on traffic accidents were collected from Fukuoka Prefectural Police records of traffic accidents which occurred in that prefecture between 1987 and 1996. Multiple logistic regression models were used to assess the effect of alcohol use on the risk of traffic-accident death. RESULTS: The data showed that 58,421 male drivers were involved in traffic accidents during the 10-year study period, and that 271 of these were killed as a result of the accident. Alcohol use was significantly associated with speed, seat belt use, time, and road form. Among male motorcar drivers, the odds ratio of alcohol use before driving, after adjusting for age, calendar year, time, and road form, was 4.08 (95% confidence interval, 3.08-5.40), which means that about 75% of fatalities (attributable risk percent among exposed) might have been prevented if drivers had not drunk before driving. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol use before driving resulted in a 4.08-fold increase in the risk of death in a traffic accident. It is suggested that alcohol use is considered an important risk factor for fatality in traffic accidents.     

Seasonality of spawning by tropical anguillid eels around Sulawesi Island, Indonesia

Remarkably little is known about the life histories of the many tropical anguillid eels distributed across the Indo-Pacific region, and since the Danish expedition to study eels in the region in 1928 and 1929, research on these eels has only begun again in recent years. Sampling for anguillid leptocephali in the Indonesian Seas has been carried out recently to learn about the spawning ecology and larval distributions of tropical eels there. The leptocephali of Anguilla marmorata, Anguilla bicolor pacifica, Anguilla borneensis, Anguilla interioris, and Anguilla celebesensis were collected around Sulawesi Island both in May 2001 and October of 2002. The development of genetic identification techniques has enabled these leptocephali to be identified to species, and their distributions and sizes during different seasons indicated that there are differing life history patterns among sympatric species in the region. A. celebesensis was found to have been spawning in Tomini Bay of northeastern Sulawesi Island in March and April 2001, but apparently, no spawning had occurred in the late summer and fall of 2002. Studies on anguillid glass eels have suggested that tropical anguillids may spawn throughout much of year, but our research on leptocephali in Tomini Bay and data on the downstream migration of tropical anguillids in the major tributary to Tomini Bay indicate that A. celebesensis may have a distinct seasonal pattern of spawning possibly related to the regional monsoon cycles. This is the first evidence of seasonality of spawning in tropical anguillid eels whose life histories are only just beginning to be revealed.     

Do we need to examine the quantitative data obtained from toxicity studies for both normality and homogeneity of variance?

Most of the statistical techniques used to evaluate the data obtained from toxicity studies are based on the assumption that the data show a normal distribution and homogeneity of variance. Literature review on toxicity studies on laboratory animals reveals that in most of the cases homogeneity of variance alone is examined for the data obtained from these studies. But the data that show homogeneity of variance need not always show a normal distribution. In fact, most of the data derived from toxicity studies, including hematological and biochemical parameters show a non-normal distribution. On examining normality of data obtained from various toxicity studies using different normality tests, we observed that Shapiro-Wilk test is more appropriate than Kolmogorov-Smimov test, Lilliefors test, the normal probability paper analysis and Chi square test. But there are situations, especially in the long-term toxicity studies, where normality is not shown by one or more than one of the dosage groups. In this situation, we propose that the data maybe analyzed using Dunnett multiple comparison test after excluding the data of the groups that do not show normality However, the biological relevance of the excluded data has to be carefully scrutinized. We also observed that the tendency of the data to show a normal distribution seems to be related to the age of the animals. Present paper describes various tests commonly used to test normality and their power, and also emphasizes the need of subjecting the data obtained from toxicity studies to both normality and homogeneity tests. A flow chart suggesting the statistical techniques that maybe used for both the types of data showing a normal or non-normal distribution is also proposed.