Treatment of hazardous waste incineration wastewater

This article outlines the general design concepts and new chemistry necessary to achieve truly cost-effective management of an important part of the hazardous waste incineration system—i.e., the unit operations needed to treat wastewater generated by rotary kiln incinerators burning wastes containing halogens and heavy metals.     

Rapid molecular prenatal diagnosis of ataxia-telangiectasia by direct mutational analysis

Mutations of the ataxia-telangiectasia-mutated (ATM) gene are responsible for the autosomal recessive disorder ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T). This study reports the first A-T prenatal diagnosis performed in Spain by direct molecular analysis. The pregnant woman had a previous child suffering from A-T due to a deletion in the ATM gene. The ATM coding region was sequenced in the A-T patient and her parents. Then, a specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect the deletion was performed for prenatal diagnosis. Additionally, polymorphic HLA loci were examined in order to exclude the possible contamination by maternal DNA. In this family of Gypsy origin, we carried out a rapid molecular diagnosis of A-T. Then, a prenatal diagnosis was carried out, identifying the deletion in the fetal DNA. Additionally, we performed a population study in unrelated Spanish Gypsies and in unrelated controls, showing that the deletion described could be a hotspot in the Spanish Gypsy population. The size of the coding region and the genomic structure, together with the absence of hotspots, make the mutation screening of the ATM gene difficult. The ability to identify ATM mutations provides a tool that can be applied in confirmatory diagnosis, genetic counselling, carrier prediction and prenatal diagnosis. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Structural and chromatographic predictors of n-octanol/water partition coefficients

The estimation of octanol/water coefficients by means of chromatographic and structural parameters may be a useful method for the prediction of ecotoxicological behaviour of chemical compounds. Experimental aspects and validity of some parameters are discussed with respect to heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, including benzofurans. It is concluded that reverse phase chromatographic systems and molecular connectivities are promising predictors of log K_ow.     

Rotavirus Occurrence in Shellfish with Low Levels of E. coli

The purpose of this study was to evaluate “in field” the accumulation of virus in shellfish and compare it with the concentration of bacterial indicators. Individuals of Mytilus galloprovincialis were placed in two sampling station located in a contaminated coastal bay and in one control station located one kilometer offshore. The presence of Rotavirus and E. coli was assessed weekly both in seawater and in shellfish samples. The Rotavirus genome was detected in water, preliminarily concentrated by tangential flow ultrafiltration method, and in hepatopancreas of mussels by Real-Time PCR. E. coli was enumerated in water matrices by a filtering method and in mussels by the MPN method. Rotaviruses were not recorded in seawater, while in mussels they were detected since third week after placement. E. coli in mussels were always below the limits set in the Regulation (EC) 854/2004. This study suggests the need for a viral indicator to insure the safety for consumption of shellfish.     

Incentives and outcomes: Evaluation of a Swedish environmental subsidy programme

This paper empirically evaluates a Swedish government subsidy to environmental sustainability, the Local Investment Programme (LIP). During the programme period, 1998 – 2002, more than 670 million was granted to 1814 different municipal projects, making it the largest Swedish subsidization to ecological sustainability to date. For the 682 projects evaluated here, it was found that the projects were rewarded smaller subsidies than granted. To explain the gap between granted and rewarded subsidies, the gap was decomposed into a quantity effect, depending on the quantified environmental and employment outcomes of the projects, and a price effect, depending on the government's valuation of these outcomes. Whereas no statistically significant quantity effect was found, there was a large statistically significant price effect, indicating that the government paid the municipalities less than promised in the granting decision.