Microplastic and Nanoplastic Pollution: Characterization,Transport, Fate,and Remediation Strategies

Plastics continues to have a critical and essential role in human society such as food packing,product packages and building materials.In the meantime,it has be...     

Local level sustainability planning for livelihoods: A Cambodian experience

How do Cambodian villagers perceive sustainability and what do they do 'on the ground'? Looking at sustainability issues through the lens of two local resource management committees, and using a triangulation of social science research methods, this paper examines the roles and responsibilities of these groups and how they grapple with resource degradation and related activities. The committees have experimented with a range of resource management strategies, from creating fishing sanctuaries to resolving fishing gear theft. The results indicate that one reason villagers are willing to engage in community-based management is when they believe that they can improve livelihoods within their community. Community-based management is being carried out in the absence of formal legislation; it is recognized through government policy and administrative approvals. In this regard, local-level support and leadership has been key, and the current arrangement has created the political space for experimentation and learning.     

Aggregation and dissolution of silver nanoparticles in a laboratory-based freshwater microcosm under simulated environmental conditions

Silver nanoparticles (NP) are used in several applications, including their use as antimicrobial agents in textiles, personal care, and other domestic products. As such, there is a high potential for the release of silver nanoparticles (AgNP) in the aquatic environment. In aquatic ecosystems, nanomaterials are affected by abiotic factors, such as temperature, that alter their chemistry and influence their fate in the environment. Preliminary studies indicate that NP tend to form aggregates which are potentially more recalcitrant than unaggregated NP. These and other fate processes are largely dependent on both the characteristics of the NP and that of the environment. In this study, lab experiments were conducted to investigate the physicochemical properties and temperature solubility of AgNP (<100 nm) that may potentially influence the fate and behavior of AgNP in the aqueous environment. Results indicated that, under these tested conditions, AgNP may be transformed in size and thereby affect fate, bioavailability, and toxicity. In this study, a novel method was used to determine whether AgNP would form agglomerates, or behave as isolated particles, or dissolve when in aqueous media and under different environmental conditions. The new aspects evaluated in this study demonstrated that AgNP are transformed in both size and state under variable environmental conditions.     

“They’re lunatics on the road”: Exploring the normative influences of parents,friends, and police on young novices’ risky driving decisions

PurposeYoung novice drivers experience significantly greater risk of being injured or killed in car crashes than older more experienced drivers. This research utilised a qualitative approach guided by the framework of Akers’ social learning theory. It explored young novice drivers’ perspectives on risky driving including rewards and punishments expected from and administered by parents, friends, and police, imitation of parents’ and friends’ driving, and advantages and disadvantages of risky driving.MethodsTwenty-one young drivers (12 females, 9 males) aged 16–25 years (M = 17.71 years, SD = 2.15) with a Learner (n = 11) or Provisional (n = 10) driver licence participated in individual or small group interviews.Findings and conclusionsContent analysis supported four themes: (1) rewards and (2) punishments for risky driving, and the influence of (3) parents and (4) friends. The young novice drivers differed in their vulnerability to the negative influences of friends and parents, with some novices advising they were able to resist risky normative influences whilst others felt they could not. The authority of the police as enforcers of road rules was either accepted and respected or seen as being used to persecute young novices. These findings suggest that road safety interventions should consider the normative influence of parents and friends on the risky and safe behaviour of young novices. Police were also seen as influential upon behaviour. Future research should explore the complicated relationship between parents, friends, the police, young novices, and their risky driving behaviour.     

Denitrification as a nitrogen removal mechanism in a Vermont peatland

Atmospheric deposition of nitrogenous compounds to ombrotrophic peatlands (i.e., those that have peat layers higher than their surroundings and receive nutrients and minerals exclusively by precipitation) has the potential to significantly alter ecosystem functioning. This study utilized the acetylene inhibition technique to estimate the relative importance of denitrification in nitrogen removal from a primarily ombrotrophic peatland, in an attempt to estimate the threat of increased nitrogen loadings to these areas. Estimates of mean rates of denitrification ranged from -2.76 to 84.0 ng N(2)O-N cm(-3) h(-1) (equivalent to -150 to 4800 microg N(2)O-N m(-2) h(-1)) using an ex situ core technique and from -8.30 to 5.98 microg N(2)O-N m(-2) h(-1) using an in situ chamber technique. Core rates may have been elevated over natural field levels due to effects of disturbance on substrate availability, and chamber rates may have been low due to diffusional constraints on acetylene and N(2)O. Net nitrification was also measured in an attempt to evaluate this process as a source of nitrate for denitrifiers. The low rates of net nitrification measured, in combination with the low rates of in situ denitrification and the very low amounts of free nitrate measured in this peatland, suggests that inorganic N turnover in this wetland is low. Results showed that nitrate was a limiting factor for denitrification in this peatland, with mean rates from nitrate-amended cores ranging from 13.1 to 260 ng N(2)O-N cm(-3) h(-1), and it is expected that increases in nitrogen loadings will increase denitrification rates in this ecosystem.     

Size of sexual swellings reflects ovarian function in chimpanzees (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pan troglodytes</Emphasis>)

While many theories exist on the evolution of the sexual swelling signal in female primates, the significance of the very large and variable swellings found in some catarrhine primates is still debated. As suggested by Pagel [(1994) Anim Behav 47:1333–1341], these exaggerated and costly signals have the potential to provide information about differential female reproductive quality to males. While Domb [(2000) Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge] and Domb and Pagel [(2001) Nature 410:204–206] propose that swellings serve to reliably indicate between-female fitness differences, we hypothesize that they may indicate current reproductive cycle quality, within or between females. This study examines the between-cycle relationship between ovarian function, gauged via fecal steroid analysis, and absolute size of sexual swellings, yielded through photogrammetric methods. Fourteen cycles from eight captive, group-living chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) exhibited considerable variability both in ovarian steroid levels and maximum sexual swelling size. Nearly all measures of a female's maximal swelling in a cycle correlated with early follicular and early luteal estradiol averages and the duration of luteal progesterone elevation. Swelling area was also correlated with late follicular estradiol. Given past evidence that such measures of ovarian function predict conceptive success, these data strongly suggest that swellings could convey information to competing males about the fecundability of a potential mate.Communicated by C. Nunn     

An examination of shared leadership configurations and their effectiveness in teams

A key challenge in the shared leadership literature has been a limited understanding of how multiple leadership activities are shared across team members and roles. We address this issue by conceptualizing and operationalizing shared leadership using both its content (i.e., what leadership roles are shared) and distribution (i.e., how leadership is shared across members and roles). In an exploratory study comprised of 129 work teams, we use latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify multiple shared leadership configurations that vary in the extent of sharing. Our second study of 103 MBA teams supports these findings and further (a) considers what shared leadership configurations have the greatest influence on team effectiveness, (b) examines the mediating role of teamwork processes, and (c) investigates the moderating role of temporal dispersion. We advance current research by demonstrating that shared leadership typically manifests in collective (i.e., members share all leadership roles) and distributed configurations (i.e., members hold one leadership role while other members hold other leadership roles), which has implications for team processes and effectiveness. Specifically, we show that collective configurations have higher team effectiveness (compared to distributed configurations) owing to improved teamwork processes and observe that these effects are more pronounced when temporal dispersion is high.     

Nanogreen is the new future: the conversion of lignin and lignocellulosic wastes into nanomaterials

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The lignocellulose biorefinery industry has assumed an important role within the current scenario. Lignin is an abundant and available biopolymer and...