Fate of PCBs, PAHs and their source characteristic ratios during composting and digestion of source-separated organic waste in full-scale plants

Composting and digestion are important waste management strategies. However, the resulting products can contain significant amounts of organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this study we followed the concentration changes of PCBs and PAHs during composting and digestion on field-scale for the first time. Concentrations of low-chlorinated PCBs increased during composting (about 30%), whereas a slight decrease was observed for the higher chlorinated congeners (about 10%). Enantiomeric fractions of atropisomeric PCBs were essentially racemic and stable over time. Levels of low-molecular-weight PAHs declined during composting (50-90% reduction), whereas high-molecular-weight compounds were stable. The PCBs and PAHs concentrations did not seem to vary during digestion. Source apportionment by applying characteristic PAH ratios and molecular markers in input material did not give any clear results. Some of these parameters changed considerably during composting. Hence, their diagnostic potential for finished compost must be questioned.     

A Food Handler-Associated, Foodborne Norovirus GII.4 Sydney 2012-Outbreak Following a Wedding Dinner, Austria, October 2012

On October 12, 2012, the provincial public health directorate of Salzburg reported a suspected norovirus (NV) outbreak among guests of a wedding–reception. The investigation aimed to confirm the causative agent, to identify the mode of transmission and to implement appropriate preventive measures. A probable outbreak case was defined as a wedding guest with diarrhoea or vomiting with disease onset from 7 to 10 October 2012 and who consumed food at the wedding dinner prepared by a hotel in the province Salzburg on 6 October 2012. A confirmed outbreak case fulfilled the criteria of a probable outbreak case and had a laboratory-confirmed NV infection. We conducted a cohort-investigation among the wedding guests. The case definitions were fulfilled in 26 wedding guests (25 %) including 2 confirmed cases. Females were 3.2 times more likely to develop disease (95 % CI 1.4–7.2) as compared to males. A mushroom dish was found to be associated with disease risk among females (risk ratio 2.3, 95 % CI 1.2–4.3). Two of 2 tested case-patients and 6 of 14 kitchen workers tested were positive for NV GII.4 Sydney. One kitchen staff-member worked during the wedding dinner despite diarrhoea. No food safety training was documented for the employees and the kitchen staff’s restroom was lacking operational facilities for hand hygiene. We report the first investigated outbreak due to GII.4 Sydney, which was likely due to a symptomatic kitchen worker. Gender-specific eating behaviour may have posed female guests at higher risk of NV infection.     

How to get fat: nutritional mechanisms of seasonal fat accumulation in migratory songbirds

Many migratory birds accumulate large amounts of lipids as the prime energy source for their long-distance flights. This fat accumulation is mostly under endogenous control, reflecting genetically programmed temporal shifts of the body mass set point. It is accompanied by an increase in daily food intake and food utilisation efficiency and by a seasonal shift in food selection. In particular, seasonal frugivory appears to play a key role in many migrants. Fruits have a high content of fatty acids indispensable for building up the specific depot lipids. In addition, plant secondary compounds seem to play some kind of supportive role, but the mechanisms are not yet known. The effect of being fat on the metabolic situation in migrant birds appears to be similar to the metabolic syndrome in obese humans. The fat migratory bird provides a model through which to study nutritional factors as well as the biochemical and endocrine regulation of food intake, body mass and obesity.     

How Socio-Economic Conditions Influence Forest Policy Development in Central and South-East Europe

In this article, several findings on socio-economic conditions derived from national reports and a web-based questionnaire are discussed and related to the changing role of forestry and the future forest policy development. A number of Central and South-eastern European countries taking part in a SEE-ERA-NET project ReForMan project (www.reforman.de) participated in data acquisition: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Serbia and Slovenia. The aim of the research was to illustrate the present structure of forestry sector, as well as investigate newly emerging topics in forestry of Central and South-eastern Europe. The results indicated certain patterns in attitudes and perceptions among stakeholders that can be related to socio-economic conditions defined for each country. Clear differences between member and non-member countries exist only in level of implementation of EU legislation. Results showed consensus on main threats to the forests among all countries, but also some country specifics in perceptions of factors influencing forestry, their importance and professional competencies. These results could be additionally explained by influence of historical conditions which shaped development of forest sector in SEE region especially in its organizational dimension as well as in perceived role of forestry expressed through recognition of main forest functions. The influence of European forest policy processes in the region is evident through adaptation of EU legislation and perceived implications of international processes on national levels. Based on this observation, two possible options for future development of the forestry sector can be foreseen: (i) focusing on the productive function of forests and fostering its' sustainable use; or (ii) putting an emphasis on environmental and social issues. In both cases supporting public participation in decision-making processes is recommendable. Another conclusion based on perceived medium to low professional competencies to cope with new topics, that there is lack of confidence and need for professional support in decisionmaking processes.     

Adaptive speciation theory: a conceptual review

Speciation—the origin of new species—is the source of the diversity of life. A theory of speciation is essential to link poorly understood macro-evolutionary processes, such as the origin of biodiversity and adaptive radiation, to well understood micro-evolutionary processes, such as allele frequency change due to natural or sexual selection. An important question is whether, and to what extent, the process of speciation is ‘adaptive’, i.e., driven by natural and/or sexual selection. Here, we discuss two main modelling approaches in adaptive speciation theory. Ecological models of speciation focus on the evolution of ecological differentiation through divergent natural selection. These models can explain the stable coexistence of the resulting daughter species in the face of interspecific competition, but they are often vague about the evolution of reproductive isolation. Most sexual selection models of speciation focus on the diversification of mating strategies through divergent sexual selection. These models can explain the evolution of prezygotic reproductive isolation, but they are typically vague on questions like ecological coexistence. By means of an integrated model, incorporating both ecological interactions and sexual selection, we demonstrate that disruptive selection on both ecological and mating strategies is necessary, but not sufficient, for speciation to occur. To achieve speciation, mating must at least partly reflect ecological characteristics. The interaction of natural and sexual selection is also pivotal in a model where sexual selection facilitates ecological speciation even in the absence of diverging female preferences. In view of these results, it is counterproductive to consider ecological and sexual selection models as contrasting and incompatible views on speciation, one being dominant over the other. Instead, an integrative perspective is needed to achieve a thorough and coherent understanding of adaptive speciation.     

Reconstruction of palaeosalinity using carbon isotopes and benthic associations: a comparison

Carbon and oxygen isotopes were determined on 40 recrystallized shells of Late Jurassic bivalves from the Lusitanian Basin of Portugal. In contrast with the oxygen isotopes, which exhibited considerable diagenetic distortion, the carbon isotopes are thought to preserve a record of the salinity of the Jurassic marginal marine seas in which these bivalves lived. The reconstructed palaeosalinities range from 35‰ (euhaline) to 5‰ (oligohaline). Comparing these values with the palaeosalinity reconstructed from a palaeoecological analysis of 17 stratigraphic levels within the basin, the independently derived values agree in most cases. Strongly differing values are explained as being due to biotic factors and to diagenetic distortion of the isotopic signal; they are less likely to be due to small-scale time-averaging or insufficient microstratigraphic sampling. On the whole, the carbon isotope analyses are thought to produce reasonable palaeosalinity values, although data from infaunal, originally aragonitic bivalves appear to be less reliable than those from epifaunal bivalves with a predominantly or exclusively calcitic shell. As diagenetic alteration of the carbon isotope signal is, however, unpredictable and biotic effects on the isotopic composition are insufficiently known, palaeosalinity reconstructions based on stable isotope data should be supported by palaeoecological data.     

Cardiac defects in chromosomally abnormal human embryos of 10–14 weeks' gestation

Cardiac defects were studied in five chromosomally abnormal embryos of 10–14 weeks' gestation by free-hand microdissection of hearts measuring 2·5–6 mm in diameter. The type of cardiac malformation alone or in association with other anomalies helped to confirm the chromosome diagnosis established prenatally by chorionic villus sampling or after spontaneous abortion. It was suggestive of a chromosomal disorder in one case in which cytogenetic investigation had failed.     

COLIWAVE a simulation model for survival of E. coli O157:H7 in dairy manure and manure-amended soil

A simulation model was developed to investigate the relative effects of temperature, oxygen concentration, substrate content and competition by autochthonous microbial community on the oscillatory behaviour and survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in manure and manure-amended soil. The overall decline in E. coli O157:H7 was primarily determined by competition with autochthonous copiotrophic bacteria simulated by an inter-specific competition term according to Lotka-Volterra. Oscillations of bacterial populations were attained by the relationships between relative growth and death rates with readily available substrate content. The model contains a logistic and exponential relation of relative growth and death rates, respectively, of E. coli O157:H7 and copiotrophic bacteria with temperature, resulting in optimum curves for net growth rates similar to the curves reported in the literature. The model has been both calibrated and validated on experimental data. The model was used to perform sensitivity analysis and to evaluate different manure and soil management scenarios in terms of survival of E. coli O157:H7. The relative effects of changes in temperature on simulated survival time of E. coli O157:H7 were more pronounced than changes in oxygen condition. Testing manure storage scenarios with realistic data revealed that manure stored in a heap that was turned every week resulted in almost 70% reduction of E. coli O157:H7 survival compared to unturned manure. At the surface of a heap with unturned manure, simulated survival time was the longest (2.4 times longer than inside the same heap). The simulation model provides a new approach to investigating dynamic changes of invasive microorganisms in natural substrates such as manure or manure-amended soil.