Increasing food production and mitigating agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union: impacts of carbon pricing and calorie production targeting

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - This study focuses on the links between food production and greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union. The analysis relies on two sets of...     

Illegal landfill in Italy (EU)—a multidisciplinary approach

Illegal dumping of solid waste is a matter of recent concern because of its numerous impacts. The regulatory framework of the European Union and Italy is disclosed. Degradation of air, bodies of water, groundwater, and soil can occur in the illegal landfill and surrounding sites causing e.g. acidification, eutrophication global warming and photochemical smog. Animals and plants are subjected to landfill borne pollutants that can damage them seriously. Landfill pollutants have also harmful effects on human beings raising the risk of illness such as cancer and cardiorespiratory disease. Finally illegal landfilling practices lead to economical, aesthetic impacts, and sociological discomfort that lead to multiple collective actions, blockages, and information campaigns, rising sense of belonging.     

基于风量-风压复合特征的通风系统阻变型故障诊断

为了避免风量单一特征进行故障位置诊断的不适定性,提出基于风量-风压复合特征的故障位置诊断方法,实现特征信息的多维互补,提高故障位置诊断的准确度。利用蒙特卡洛方法生成大致满足实际故障风阻值分布的故障仿真样本,为了避免不同变量之间不同量纲、不同数量级造成的数据损失,对原始风量、风压数据进行标准化处理,并分别以风量单一特征、风压单一特征、风量-风压复合特征作为支持向量机（SVM）的输入,构建通风系统阻变型故障位置诊断模型。通过故障模拟实验研究表明:风量、风压单一特征进行故障位置诊断的准确度分别为89.80%,90.34%,风量-风压复合特征进行故障位置诊断的准确度为98.23%,说明风量-风压复合特征进行故障诊断可以消除风量、风压单一特征进行故障诊断的不适定性,提高故障诊断的准确度。     

Heavy metals detection in river water with cantilever nanobiosensor

Abstract

Heavy metals can be highly toxic depending on the dose and the chemical form. In this context, sensing devices such as nanobiosensors have been presented as a promising tool to monitor contaminants at micro and nanoscale. In this work, cantilever nanobiosensors with phosphatase alkaline were developed and applied to detect heavy metals (Pb, Ni, Cd, Zn, Co, and Al) in river water. The nanobiosensor surface was functionalized by the self-assembled monolayers (SAM) technique using 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid, N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N′-ethylcarbodiimide (EDC) and N- hydroxysuccinimide (NHS), and phosphatase alkaline enzyme. The sensing layer deposited on the cantilever surface presented a uniform morphology, at nanoscale, with 80?nm of thickness. The nanobiosensor showed a detection limit in the ppb range and high sensitivity, with a stability of fifteen days. The developed cantilever nanobiosensor is a simple tool, suitable for the direct detection of contaminants in river water.     

Effects of air filtration on spring wheat grown in open-top field chambers at a rural site. II. Effects on mineral partitioning, sulphur and nitrogen metabolism and on grain quality

In 1988 the effect of ambient levels of air pollutants on the nutrients status and grain quality of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum cv. Pelican) was investigated by comparing plants grown in open-top chambers (OTC) ventilated with ambient air (NF treatments) and charcoal-filtered air (CF treatments) at a rural site (Tervuren, Belgium). Spring wheat cultivated in NF OTC showed only minor differences in the P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn and Na concentrations of the different plant parts at final harvest, as well as organic and inorganic S fractions, compared to those of the plants grown in CF air. The plants' total P content was reduced, as well as the P and K concentration of the flour. The total S concentration of the flour was increased by 4%. Effects on N concentrations and grain quality were much more pronounced. At final harvest the N concentrations of straw and flour of the NF air treated plants were much higher compared to CF air. However, the N content of the aerial biomass and the grain N yield were not significantly affected, implying a reduction of other structual compounds. Nitrogen harvest index (NHI) and the ratio of NHI over grain harvest index (GHI), indicated a significant reduction of N translocation from the above-ground biomass to the grain. Changes in the N status and partitioning of spring wheat had an effect on the baking quality of wheat flour. Several parameters that are commonly used as an indication of baking quality have been significantly increased in the NF treatment: total protein concentration, Zeleny value, dry and wet gluten concentration. A slightly increased Hagberg value indicated a reduced alpha-amylase activity. The possibility of foliar N uptake as an additional N source, especially after anthesis and implications of increased protein production instead of carbohydrate synthesis are discussed.     

A Mathematical Framework for Resilience: Dynamics,Uncertainties, Strategies,and Recovery Regimes

Resilience is a rehashed concept in natural hazard management—resilience of cities to earthquakes, to floods, to fire, etc. In a word, a system is said to be resilient if there exists a strategy that can drive the system state back to “normal” after any perturbation. What formal flesh can we put on such a malleable notion? We propose to frame the concept of resilience in the mathematical garbs of control theory under uncertainty. Our setting covers dynamical systems both in discrete or continuous time, deterministic or subject to uncertainties. We will say that a system state is resilient if there exists an adaptive strategy such that the generated state and control paths, contingent on uncertainties, lay within an acceptable domain of random processes, called recovery regimes. We point out how such recovery regimes can be delineated thanks to so-called risk measures, making the connection with resilience indicators. Our definition of resilience extends others, be they “à la Holling” or rooted in viability theory. Indeed, our definition of resilience is a form of controllability for whole random processes (regimes), whereas others require that the state values must belong to an acceptable subset of the state set.     

整流幕对香溪河库湾水温特性影响数值模拟

为了研究整流幕的作用机理并解决三峡水库支流库湾的水华问题,基于香溪河库湾2010年1~12月的水环境监测数据,利用CE QUAL W2模型,分析比较了整流幕设置前后香溪河库湾水温的时空变化规律。结果表明：整流幕的作用效果因季节、位置、高度的差异而有所不同。整流幕可改变其上游侧水温,尤其是表层水温,夏秋季对水温的影响较大,降温时段也集中在夏秋季;整流幕高度越大,越靠近库湾上游,对水温的影响越明显;整流幕拦截水流的同时,也会促进上下层水体的掺混,减弱水温分层。     

Easy and fast extraction methods to determine organochlorine pesticides in sewage sludge,soil, and water samples based at low temperature

Organochlorine pesticides present in sewage sludge can contaminate soil and water when they are used as either fertilizer or agricultural soil conditioner. In this study, the technique solid–liquid extraction with low temperature purification was optimized and validated for determination of ten organochlorine pesticides in sewage sludge and soil samples. Liquid–liquid extraction with low temperature purification was also validated for the same compounds in water. Analyses were performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry operating in the selective ion monitoring mode. After optimization, the methods showed recoveries between 70% and 115% with relative standard deviation lower than 13% for all target analytes in the three matrices. The linearity was demonstrated in the range of 20 to 70 µg L^?1, 0.5 to 60 µg L^?1, and 3 to 13 µg L^?1, for sludge, soil, and acetonitrile, respectively. The limit of quantification ranged between 2 and 40 µg kg^?1, 1 and 6 µg kg^?1, and 0.5 µg L^?1 for sludge, soil, and water, respectively. The methods were used in the study of pesticide lixiviation carried out in a poly vinyl chlorine column filled with soil, which had its surface layer mixed with sludge. The results showed that pesticides are not leached into soil, part of them is adsorbed by the sewage sludge (4–40%), and most pesticides are lost by volatilization.     

Pesticide dispersion by spraying under tropical conditions

Pesticide air pollution by spraying was evaluated under different temperature, humidity and wind climatic conditions in Brazil. Field experiments were performed with application towards the soil and in guava orchards, where spray dispersion was monitored by adding p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), a fluorescent substance, as a tracer to the water contained in the spray tanks. Samples were collected with filter membranes (Whatman 180025), and the PABA was extracted from the filters by shaking with water in a Petri dish and measured in a spectrofluorometer. A spray aimed towards the soil with filters positioned on the ground and hung at different heights did not show different upward dispersion as observed when lateral pulverization was conducted. In this case, a tractor with a sprayer moved through a 3 m high and 6 m wide frame with filter membranes mounted at 60 cm intervals. Spray dispersion patterns were modified by guava leaf resistance. No influence of temperature and humidity was observed in this short-lived spraying process. Nevertheless, wind drift can occur during airborne dispersion and is an important pesticide pollution source which requires control. Droplets with PABA powered by assisted spraying upwards returned to the ground by gravity and, therefore, did not constitute a vertical source of atmospheric pollution.     

Hospital admissions in Iran for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases attributed to the Middle Eastern Dust storms

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The main objective of this study was to assess the possible effects of airborne particulate matter less than 10 μm in diameter (PM10)...