Heavy Metal Distribution in Valley Sediments in Wadi Al-Karak Catchment Area, South Jordan

Valley sediments samples collected from the major and minor valleys of Al-Karak catchment area (southern Jordan) were leached with hot dilute HCl and analysed for their heavy metals content. The results of leachable metal concentrations indicated the absence of anomalous values for metal occurrences. However, appreciable contamination of the sediments with Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd and Cr was observed. Using an index of pollution the extent of contamination was better delineated. The geographical distribution of the samples showed higher Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd and Cr concentrations mainly around heavily inhabited areas indicating an anthropogenic source of contamination. Lithological influence indicated from the anomalies of Fe and Mn was found to be very low.     

Deterioration of water quality of Surma river

Surma River is polluted day by day by human activities, poor structured sewerage and drainage system, discharging industrial and household wastes. The charas (natural channels) are responsible for surface runoff conveyance from its urban catchments to the receiving Surma River. Water samples have been collected from a part of Surma River along different points and analyzed for various water quality parameters during dry and monsoon periods. Effects of industrial wastes, municipal sewage, and agricultural runoff on river water quality have been investigated. The study was conducted within the Chattak to Sunamganj portion of Surma River, which is significant due to the presence of two major industries – a paper mill and a cement factory. The other significant feature is the conveyors that travel from India to Chattak. The river was found to be highly turbid in the monsoon season. But BOD and fecal coliform concentration was found higher in the dry season. The water was found slightly acidic. The mean values of parameters were Conductivity 84–805 μs; DO: dry-5.52 mg/l, monsoon-5.72 mg/l; BOD: dry-1mg/l, monsoon-0.878 mg/l; Total Solid: dry-149.4 mg/l, monsoon-145.7 mg/l. In this study, an effort has been taken to investigate the status of concentration of phosphate (PO⁻⁴) and ammonia–nitrogen (NH₄–N) at four entrance points of Malnichara to the city, Guali chara, Gaviar khal and Bolramer khal. Data has been collected from March–April and September–October of 2004. Concentrations have been measured using UV Spectrophotometer. Although the phosphate concentration has been found within the limit set by DOE for fishing, irrigation and recreational purposes, however ammonia–nitrogen has been found to exceed the limit.     

Prenatal diagnosis of β-thalassemia in Southern Punjab,Pakistan

Pakistan has a large population of more than 150 million people with an overall carrier frequency of approximately 5.6% for β-thalassemia. Punjab is the largest province of the country having more than 50% of the population. The state of β-thalassemia is alarming as consanguinity is very high (>81%) and the literacy rate is low in South Punjab. A thalassemia prevention program is the need of the hour in this part of Pakistan. In this study, we initiated awareness, screening, and characterization of the mutations causing β-thalassemia as well as a genetic counseling program mainly in the districts of Faisalabad and D.G. Khan to establish prenatal diagnosis, a facility previously unavailable in this region for disease prevention. A total of 248 unrelated transfusion-dependent children and the available members of their families were screened to characterize the mutations and identify the carriers. Genetic counseling was provided to these families and prenatal diagnosis offered. In the samples analyzed, 11 β-thalassemia mutations and three hemoglobin variants were detected mainly by using the Monoplex and Multiplex ARMS-PCR. First-trimester prenatal diagnosis was carried out through chorionic villus sampling (CVS) in seven pregnancies at risk. As a result of our campaign, 145 carrier couples planning to have more children gave their consent to have retrospective prenatal diagnosis in every pregnancy in future. A cooperative trend and a positive attitude toward the prevention of β-thalassemia were noticed in the families with affected children and in the general population. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A cross-validation of safety climate scale using confirmatory factor analytic approach

PROBLEM: Given the lack of a consistent factor structure of safety climate, this study tested the stability of a factor structure of a safety climate scale developed through an extensive literature review using confirmatory factor analytic approach and cross-validation. METHODS: A cross-sectional sample of 722 U.S. grain industry workers participated in the questionnaire survey. RESULTS: The safety climate scale developed through the generation of an item pool based on a table of specifications, subsequent scientific item reduction procedures, reviews from experts, and pilot test yielded adequate reliabilities for each dimension. Each item showed proper discriminative power based on both internal and external criteria. Criterion validity was manifested by the significant positive correlation of the scale with five criteria. Evidence of construct validity was provided by both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Both calibration and validation samples supported a consistent factor structure. Management commitment and supervisor support were found to influence other dimensions of safety climate. DISCUSSION: This study provides an insight into the primary reason why previous attempts have failed to find a consistent factor structure of safety climate: No specification of the influence of management commitment and supervisor support on other dimensions of safety in their models. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The findings of this study provide a framework upon which accident prevention efforts can be effectively organized and underscore the importance of management commitment and supervisor support as they affect employee safety perceptions.     

Safety beliefs and safe behavior among midwestern college students

PROBLEM: This study investigated the impact of safety beliefs on safe behavior and the effect of age, gender, class standing, and geographic region on these beliefs and behaviors. It also compares the level of safety beliefs and safe behavior of Midwestern college students in 1993 to those in 2002. METHOD: A total of 1,059 undergraduate students at four Midwestern universities completed the 33-item questionnaire developed by Crowe (J. Saf. Res. 26 (1995) 187) during the spring semester of 2002. RESULTS: Significant main effects for gender and age on safety beliefs and safe behavior were found as well as a significant interaction between gender and age for both outcome variables. The regression model with the independent variables of personal responsibility and gender yielded a multiple R of.58, which explained 34% of the variance of the self-reported safe behavior. Midwestern college students in 2002 were found less safety-conscious in terms of self-reported safety beliefs and safe behavior than those in 1993. DISCUSSION: The findings indicate that safety education of adolescents and young adults in the United States has not been effective, at least for the last decade, or today's social and school environment is less conducive to the students' safe behavior and beliefs than a decade ago. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Proactive multidisciplinary approaches to enhance safe behavior and beliefs of young adults should be made based on critical evaluation of current approaches.     

Preparation of GO/MIL-101(Fe,Cu) composite and its adsorption mechanisms for phosphate in aqueous solution

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this study, MIL-101(Fe), MIL-101(Fe,Cu), and graphene oxide (GO)/MIL-101(Fe,Cu) were synthesized to compose a novel sorbent. The adsorption...     

Randomly selected order statistics in ranked set sampling: A less expensive comparable alternative to simple random sampling

Rank-based sampling designs are powerful alternatives to simple random sampling (SRS) and often provide large improvements in the precision of estimators. In many environmental, ecological, agricultural, industrial and/or medical applications the interest lies in sampling designs that are cheaper than SRS and provide comparable estimates. In this paper, we propose a new variation of ranked set sampling (RSS) for estimating the population mean based on the random selection technique to measure a smaller number of observations than RSS design. We study the properties of the population mean estimator using the proposed design and provide conditions under which the mean estimator performs better than SRS and some existing rank-based sampling designs. Theoretical results are augmented with some numerical studies and a real-life example, where we also study the performance of our proposed design under perfect and imperfect ranking situations.