Multivariate data analysis of organochlorines and brominated flame retardants in Baltic Sea guillemot (Uria aalge) egg and muscle

Concentrations of organochlorines (OCs) and brominated flame-retardants (BFRs) were determined in guillemot (Uria aalge) eggs from the island of Stora Karls? in the Baltic Sea where 10 eggs/year were collected in the years 2000, 2001 and 2002. The dominating contaminant in egg was p,p'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE) with a geometric mean (GM) concentration of 18200 ng/g lipid weight (lw). The GM concentration in egg of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) of 140 ng/glw, was significantly higher than that of polybrominated diphenyl ether (summation operatorPBDE) of 77 ng/glw. For the evaluation of the data multivariate data analysis techniques namely principal components analysis (PCA), partial least squares regression (PLS), soft independent modelling of class analogy (SIMCA classification), and PLS discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), were used. We investigated whether the eggs' biological characteristics co-varied with egg concentrations of OCs and BFRs, and found e.g., significant negative correlations between egg weight and concentrations of HCB and p,p'-DDE. A PLS model with analyzed BFRs as the Y matrix and OCs as the X matrix could, with varying accuracy, calculate the concentrations of BFRs in the individual egg from their concentrations of OCs (e.g., R(2)Y of 0.89 for BDE47, and of 0.50 for HBCD). Lastly, we compared the contaminant concentrations in the eggs to those in previously analyzed pectoral muscles from adult guillemots from Stora Karls?, from the year 2000. A PLS-DA model, showed that some of the contaminants (e.g., HBCD and CB28) had significantly higher concentrations in egg than in muscle, although 7 of the 14 contaminants showed no difference in concentrations between the two matrices.     

Differences in Long-term Medical Consequences Depending on Impact Direction Involving Passenger Cars

Objective: There is limited knowledge of the long-term medical consequences for occupants injured in car crashes in various impact directions. Thus, the objective was to evaluate whether injuries leading to permanent medical impairment differ depending on impact direction.

Methods: In total, 36,743 injured occupants in car crashes that occurred between 1995 and 2011 were included. All initial injuries (n = 61,440) were classified according to the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) 2005. Injured car occupants were followed for at least 3 years to assess permanent medical impairment. The data were divided into different groups according to impact direction and levels of permanent impairment. The risk of permanent medical impairment was established for different body regions and injury severity levels, according to AIS.

Results: It was found that almost 12% of all car occupants sustained a permanent medical impairment. Given an injury, car occupants involved in rollover crashes had the highest overall risk to sustain a permanent medical impairment. Half of the head injuries leading to long-term consequences occurred in frontal impacts. Far-side occupants had almost the same risk as near-side occupants. Occupants who sustained a permanent medical impairment from cervical spine injuries had similar risk in all impact directions (13%) except from rollover (17%). However, these injuries occurred more often in rear crashes. Most of the injuries leading to long-term consequences were classified as minor injuries by AIS for all impact directions.

Conclusions: Studying crash data from a perspective of medical impairment is important to identify injuries that might not be prioritized only considering the AIS but might lead to lower quality of life for the occupant and also costs for society. These results can be used for road transport system strategies and for making priority decisions in vehicle design.     

Solidification with water as a treatment method for air pollution control residues

The process of solidification with water was studied on air pollution control (APC) residues from incineration of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) regarding mechanical strength and leaching behaviour of solidified material. Factorial design in two levels was applied to investigate the impact of water addition, time, and temperature to mechanical strength of solidified material. Factors time and temperature, as well as the interaction between the addition of water and time significantly (alpha=0.05) influenced the mechanical strength of solidified material. The diffusion-leaching test NEN 7345 was performed to investigate if the leaching behaviour of elements from solidified material was determined by diffusion. Since it was found that leaching is not diffusion controlled, the long-term leaching behaviour was not assessed. However, the investigation showed that some of the studied components (Al, Hg, Mn, Pb, Si, and Zn) could be considerably demobilised by solidification with water. Concentrations of As, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, and Ni were either below or not quite above the detection limits to be included in the analysis of leaching behaviour. The elements least demobilised by solidification were Cl, Cr, K, and Na.     

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) in seven different marine bird species from Iceland

Data on distribution, concentration and trends of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs) is scarce in biota from the sub-Arctic region of the Atlantic. The present study is an investigation on PBDE and HBCD concentrations in eggs from seven marine bird species from Iceland, i.e. common eider (Somateria mollissima), arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea), guillemot (Uria aalge), fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus), great black-backed gull (Larus marinus) and great skua (Stercorarius skua). Concentrations of sum PBDEs ranged from 44 ng g⁻¹ fat in eider eggs to 2400 ng g⁻¹ fat in great skua eggs. The contribution of different PBDE congeners to the sum concentration differed between species. Concentration of HBCDs (sum of α−,β⁻ and γ−HBCD) ranged from 1.3 ng g⁻¹ fat in arctic tern eggs to 41 ng g⁻¹ fat in great black-backed gull. PCA on PBDE and HBCD shows different trends between the two BFR groups, further indicating different sources/usage. Investigations on any potential health or population effects of environmental pollutants on the great skua are advised since both the PBDE and HBCD concentrations are high.     

Avoiding CO2 capture effort and cost for negative CO2 emissions using industrial waste in chemical-looping combustion/gasification of biomass

Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) is a combustion process with inherent separation of carbon dioxide (CO₂), which is achieved by oxidizing the fuel with a solid oxygen carrier rather than with air. As fuel and combustion air are never mixed, no gas separation is necessary and, consequently, there is no direct cost or energy penalty for the separation of gases. The most common form of design of chemical-looping combustion systems uses circulating fluidized beds, which is an established and widely spread technology. Experiments were conducted in two different laboratory-scale CLC reactors with continuous fuel feeding and nominal fuel inputs of 300 W_th and 10 kW_th, respectively. As an oxygen carrier material, ground steel converter slag from the Linz–Donawitz process was used. This material is the second largest flow in an integrated steel mill and it is available in huge quantities, for which there is currently limited demand. Steel converter slag consists mainly of oxides of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), silicon (Si), and manganese (Mn). In the 300 W unit, chemical-looping combustion experiments were conducted with model fuels syngas (50 vol% hydrogen (H₂) in carbon monoxide (CO)) and methane (CH₄) at varied reactor temperature, fuel input, and oxygen-carrier circulation. Further, the ability of the oxygen-carrier material to release oxygen to the gas phase was investigated. In the 10 kW unit, the fuels used for combustion tests were steam-exploded pellets and wood char. The purpose of these experiments was to study more realistic biomass fuels and to assess the lifetime of the slag when employed as oxygen carrier. In addition, chemical-looping gasification was investigated in the 10 kW unit using both steam-exploded pellets and regular wood pellets as fuels. In the 300 W unit, up to 99.9% of syngas conversion was achieved at 280 kg/MW_th and 900 °C, while the highest conversion achieved with methane was 60% at 280 kg/MW_th and 950 °C. The material’s ability to release oxygen to the gas phase, i.e., CLOU property, was developed during the initial hours with fuel operation and the activated material released 1–2 vol% of O₂ into a flow of argon between 850 and 950 °C. The material’s initial low density decreased somewhat during CLC operation. In the 10 kW, CO₂ yields of 75–82% were achieved with all three fuels tested in CLC conditions, while carbon leakage was very low in most cases, i.e., below 1%. With wood char as fuel, at a fuel input of 1.8 kW_th, a CO₂ yield of 92% could be achieved. The carbon fraction of C₂-species was usually below 2.5% and no C₃-species were detected. During chemical-looping gasification investigation a raw gas was produced that contained mostly H₂. The oxygen carrier lifetime was estimated to be about 110–170 h. However, due to its high availability and potentially low cost, this type of slag could be suitable for large-scale operation. The study also includes a discussion on the potential advantages of this technology over other technologies available for Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage, BECCS. Furthermore, the paper calls for the use of adequate policy instruments to foster the development of this kind of technologies, with great potential for cost reduction but presently without commercial application because of lack of incentives.

     

Promise and performance of agricultural nutrient management policy: Lessons from the Baltic Sea

Following decades of international collaboration to restore the Baltic Sea, we provide an assessment of the domestic implementation of measures agreed to limit diffuse agricultural pollution and the patterns of policy instruments applied. Despite the Helsinki Convention being unusually specific in detailing what measures countries should introduce, we find many shortcomings. These are most pronounced in the larger countries (Poland, Germany and Russia), while smaller countries perform better, notably Sweden and Estonia. The patterns of policy instruments applied differ, influenced by domestic politics. The limited use of complementary policy instruments suggests that other priorities overrule full and effective implementation, with engagement mirroring the advantages that a restored Baltic Sea can bring to countries. Using the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development to support farmers in managing nutrients, particularly advisory services and investments in modern manure management technologies, represents a significant opportunity for reducing agricultural pollution in most countries.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01549-3.     

In situ tracer tests to determine retention properties of a block scale fracture network in granitic rock at the Aspö Hard Rock Laboratory, Sweden

Experiments were conducted at the Asp? Hard Rock Laboratory in order to improve the understanding of radionuclide retention properties of fractured crystalline bedrock in the 10-100 m scale (TRUE Block Scale Project, jointly funded by ANDRA, ENRESA, Nirex, JNC, Posiva and SKB). A series of tracer experiments were performed using sorbing tracers in three different flow paths. The different flow paths had Euclidian lengths of 14, 17 and 33 m, respectively, and one to three water conducting structures. Four tests were performed using different cocktails made up of radioactive sorbing tracers (22,24Na+, 42K+, 47Ca2+, 85Sr2+, 83,86Rb+, 131,133Ba2+ and 134,137Cs+). For each tracer injection, the breakthrough of sorbing tracers was compared to the breakthrough of a conservative tracer, 82Br-, 131I-, HTO and 186ReO4-, respectively. In the two longer flow paths, no breakthrough of 83Rb+ and 137Cs+ was observed after 8 months of pumping. Selected tracer tests were subject to basic modelling in which a one-dimensional (1D) advection-dispersion model, including surface sorption, and an unlimited matrix diffusion were used for the interpretation of the results. The results of the modelling indicated that there is a slightly higher mass transfer into a highly porous material in the block-scale experiment compared with in situ experiments performed over shorter distances and significantly higher than what would have been expected from laboratory data obtained from studies of the interactions in nonaltered intact rock.     

Parent-offspring resemblance in degree of sociality in a passerine bird

The tendency to aggregate with conspecifics is a common type of social behavior, and interspecific differences in degree of sociality may indicate that evolutionary changes in sociality have been shaped by past selection pressures. A pre-requisite for such evolutionary change is that the behavior in question has an additive genetic basis. I investigated parent-offspring resemblance in two characteristics of sociality (colony size and nearest neighbor distance) in the semi-colonial barn swallow Hirundo rustica. Heritability estimates of these phenotypic characters were statistically significant. Offspring that were transferred to foster nests as part of brood size manipulation or cross-fostering experiments resembled their original parents more than their foster parents with respect to sociality. There was little evidence of phenotypic characteristics of mothers being significantly related to colony size or nearest neighbor distance of their offspring. Maintenance of genetic variation in sociality in this species may be related to the facts that the relationship between reproductive success and colony size differs among years, and that individuals differing in phenotypic quality have different optimal colony sizes.     

Method for evaluating learning from incidents using the idea of “level of learning”

Learning from incidents is considered a very important source for learning and improving safety in the process industries. However, the effectiveness of learning from reported incidents can often be questioned. Therefore, there is a need to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of learning from incidents, and for that purpose we need methods and tools. In this paper, a method is described for evaluating the effectiveness of learning, based on the idea of “level of learning” of the lessons learned. The level of learning is expressed in terms of how broadly the lesson learned is applied geographically, how much organizational learning is involved and how long-lasting the effect of learning is. In the 6-step method, the incidents reported in a typical incident learning system are evaluated both for the actual and the potential level of learning in a semi-quantitative way with different tools. The method was applied in six process industries on a large number of incidents. The method was found to be very useful and to give insights of aspects that influence the learning from incidents.