Geochemistry and therapeutic properties of Caucasian mineral waters: a review

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - The Caucasian mineral water (CMW) region is a unique area where mineral waters differ by their chemical composition and balneological properties. The...     

基于T-Hg2+-T结构的Hg2+生物传感器研究进展

Hg²⁺不仅污染环境,还会引发多种疾病,危害人体健康.因此,实现对Hg²⁺的快速灵敏检测十分必要.传统的Hg²⁺检测方法存在一定的局限性,而基于T-Hg²⁺-T结构的汞离子生物传感器具有高特异性、高稳定性的优势,近些年得到广泛研究和应用.本文简要介绍了T-Hg²⁺-T结构的概念和特点,并从荧光型、比色型和电化学型3个方面综述了基于T-Hg²⁺-T结构的汞离子生物传感器的研究进展,对未来的发展前景进行了展望.     

Moon orientation in sandhoppers: effects of lighting treatments on the persistence of orientation ability

The moon orientation rhythm persists in sandhoppers removed from environmental entrainments relative to moon periodicity. In order to investigate the underlying mechanism, the crustacean amphipods Talorchestia capensis and Talitrus saltator were collected at new moon and exposed in the laboratory to an artificial light during the day, but to a variety of lighting treatments during the night: (1) continuous dark, (2) dim light in phase with the natural moon, (3) continuous dim light. The animals were tested under the moon 9–21 days later by using a new type of arena. The ability to orientate in a direction perpendicular to the shore persisted in sandhoppers under treatments 1 and 2, but not under treatment 3. A disturbance due to a phototactic tendency in Talorchestia was also observed in animals captured on the day of the test when exposed to unnatural lighting, but not when they were kept under natural light. The present findings show that the timing mechanism allowing compensation for changes in the moon’s position also persists in animals that have been long removed from entraining factors. The dependence of this orientation ability on nocturnal lighting and the disturbing effect of sudden changes in light intensity support the idea that the phasal lighting of the moon, and perhaps sunrise and sunset act as resetting factors for the moon’s orientation rhythm.     

Limited trophodynamics effects of trawling on three Mediterranean fishes

Trawling has a significant effect on the structure of marine communities, yet the ubiquity of trawling impacts makes testing such effects difficult. This study examines trawling impacts on trophodynamics of three fishes among the Gulfs of Castellammare and Termini Imerese (northern Sicily), the first of which has been subject to a trawling ban since 1990 that initially resulted in an eightfold increase in total fish biomass. The Gulf of Termini Imerese remains heavily fished and was treated as a control site. Nitrogen and carbon stable isotope data were used to assess fishing induced changes in trophic levels or source of production supporting three demersal fish species; Mullus barbatus, Merluccius merluccius and Lophius budegassa following a control-impact approach. The exclusion of trawling resulted in only small alteration of δ¹⁵N in two of the three-three species. There were no systematic changes in the δ¹³C of any species sampled. Thus, a large influence of trawling on the trophodynamics of the studied species at sampled size was discounted. Although stable isotopes do not have spatial or temporal resolution to identify detailed shifts in diet composition, their integrative nature highlights that the trophic role these species play is robust to fishing impacts at scales over which the fishery operates. This is despite a significant increase in the abundance of these species and of total fish biomass within the protected area.

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Institutional challenges of adopting ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change

In view of past environmental degradation and anticipated climate change impacts, we assessed the potential for ecosystem-based adaptation in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. In a workshop with staff from three Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) who had jurisdiction over three sub-basins, as well as technical experts, nine adaptation options were identified that ranged from environmental flows, restoring river channel habitat, reoperating infrastructure and controlling invasive species. A Catchment Adaptation Framework was developed and used to assess and compare these adaptation options with each of the CMAs, drawing on interviews with their key stakeholders, to identify the risks, benefits and costs. We found that ecosystem-based adaptation can augment catchment management programs and requires investment in a suite of different but complementary measures to lower risk. Our research found institutional challenges in implementing this approach, including the complexities of multi-agency management, constricting legal requirements, narrow funding arrangements, under-developed institutional capacity, difficulties of implementing catchment-scale programs on private property and the need to adhere to community expectations. These institutional issues are ubiquitous internationally and point to the wider issues of providing sufficient management capacity to support adaptation. The Catchment Adaptation Framework presented here enables river basin managers to systematically assess the adaptation options to better inform their decision-making.     

Conditions for the development of anaerobic digestion technologies using the organic fraction of municipal solid waste: perspectives for Poland

This article outlines problems related to the location of facilities designed to treat the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). Anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities are investigated as a treatment option, while taking into account the aspects of renewable energy generation. This research has been spurred on by the relationship between waste management, energy generation issues and spatial planning procedures. The analysis is focused on urban and semi-urban areas of medium and large cities. One of the most difficult issues associated with siting of waste processing plants is its integration with local infrastructures, avoiding conflicts and negative environmental impacts at the same time. This research aims to analyse possible locations for AD plants fuelled by OFMSW in Poland. Based on the experience gained from other countries and lessons learnt from the analysis of existing facilities in Europe, conditions for the location of this type of waste treatment plants have been defined, with the focus on economic, environmental and social issues. Most likely, the results of the multicriteria decision analysis for siting of municipal solid waste AD plants (M-BIST tool) could be transferred to other countries, especially those with a comparable GDP level and a similar framework for a waste management system.     

Influence of Technological Process on Biodegradation of PVA/Waxy Starch Blends in an Aerobic and Anaerobic Environment

Improving biodegradability of PVA/starch blends is a reality already documented by a number of works. Admittedly, mechanical properties of products (for example, tensile strength) are somewhat worse, but suitable composition optimizing or chemical modifying of starch may eliminate the problem to a large degree. This work is an attempt to find another potential effect influencing biodegradability, that of technological procedure for producing films from these blends on an extruder. The procedure with a so-called pre-extrusion step (two-stage) and dry-blend (single-stage) produced blends of slightest differences in achieved biodegradability (virtually within limits of experimental error) in aerobic (76 vs. 79%) as well as anaerobic breakdown (48 vs. 52%). Conversely, morphological analysis exhibited superior homogeneity of films prepared by the two-stage process; their tensile strength was also higher.     

Life cycle assessment of a national policy proposal - the case of a Swedish waste incineration tax

At the core of EU and Swedish waste policy is the so-called waste hierarchy, according to which waste should first be prevented, but should otherwise be treated in the following order of prioritisation: reuse, recycling when environmentally motivated, energy recovery, and last landfilling. Some recent policy decisions in Sweden aim to influence waste management in the direction of the waste hierarchy. In 2001 a governmental commission assessed the economic and environmental impacts of introducing a weight-based tax on waste incineration, the purpose of which would be to encourage waste reduction and increase materials recycling and biological treatment. This paper presents the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the waste incineration tax proposal. It was done in the context of a larger research project concerning the development and testing of a framework for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The aim of this paper is to assess the life cycle environmental impacts of the waste incineration tax proposal, and to investigate whether there are any possibilities of more optimal design of such a tax. The proposed design of the waste incineration tax results in increased recycling, but only in small environmental improvements. A more elaborate tax design is suggested, in which the tax level would partly be related to the fossil carbon content of the waste.     

Flexible and robust strategies for waste management in Sweden

Treatment of solid waste continues to be on the political agenda. Waste disposal issues are often viewed from an environmental perspective, but economic and social aspects also need to be considered when deciding on waste strategies and policy instruments. The aim of this paper is to suggest flexible and robust strategies for waste management in Sweden, and to discuss different policy instruments. Emphasis is on environmental aspects, but social and economic aspects are also considered. The results show that most waste treatment methods have a role to play in a robust and flexible integrated waste management system, and that the waste hierarchy is valid as a rule of thumb from an environmental perspective. A review of social aspects shows that there is a general willingness among people to source separate wastes. A package of policy instruments can include landfill tax, an incineration tax which is differentiated with respect to the content of fossil fuels and a weight based incineration tax, as well as support to the use of biogas and recycled materials.     

The typology for allocations of societal risk and safety management tasks at the local governmental level – Framing the current directions in Sweden

The starting point for this article is the need to develop empirical insights about contemporary societal risk and safety management practice and executive structures. In order to facilitate insights about societal risk and safety management in a Scandinavian welfare context we use Sweden and its local governmental level (municipal) as an empirical frame in this paper. The aim for this article is to analyse how a variety of risk and safety management tasks are divided within the Swedish municipalities. The objectives are to frame the current directions for internal allocations of risk and safety issues by providing an empirically based executive typology and to contemplate the implications and future research needs that arise from that management pattern.The analysis is based on statistical analysis of information from a web-survey with chief officials (n = 1283) with responsibilities for different municipal functions and sectors. In this study the responses to one of the survey questions are used for statistical analysis. The analyzed question focused on the degree that the respondents estimated that their administrative sector or function handled a selection of risk and safety management assignments (n = 45). A factor analysis was applied to identify patterns in the dataset. The analysis resulted in an eight factor solution with a high degree of explained variance (74.3%). The results provide an elementary contribution to the understanding of the current societal risks and safety management directions.