Analysis of ecotoxic influence of waste from the biomass gasification process

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The purpose of this research was evaluation of the effect of soil contamination with waste coming from biomass gasification on chosen indicators of...     

Deliberative democracy meets democratised science: a deliberative systems approach to global environmental governance

The main achievements of the debates on deliberative democracy and democratised science are investigated in order to analyse the reasons, meanings and prospects for a democratisation of global environmental policy. A deliberative systems approach, which emphasises the need to explore how processes in societal spheres interact to shape the deliberative qualities of the system as a whole, is adopted. Although science plays a key role in this, its potential to enhance deliberative capacity has hardly been addressed in deliberative theories. The democratisation of science has potential to contribute to the democratisation of global environmental policy, in that it also shapes the potential of deliberative arrangements in the policy sphere. Deliberative arrangements within the policy sphere may stimulate the democratisation of science to different degrees.     

Catalyst-free synthesis of α-acyloxycarboxamides in aqueous media

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Organic syntheses in aqueous solutions are being developed because water is an environmentally friendly, inexpensive, non-toxic and non-flammable solvent....     

The informal rules of working relationships

It was expected that there would be informal rules of several kinds for working relationships. In the first study subjects rated 33 common rules and a number of relationship-specific rules for three work roles. It was found that certain rules were strongly endorsed for work-mates, superiors and subordinates. These provide a maintenance function by regulating general and relationship-specific sources of conflict. Rules about cooperation, help and fairness applied strongly to work-mates, rules about consideration and skilful use of power to supervisors, rules about using initiative and accepting orders and criticism to subordinates. Rules about reward were also obtained and these tended to be task-focused rather than intimacy sustaining. In the second study one hundred and twenty-four subjects rated the degree of dissatisfaction which they would feel for 11 types of rule violation by each of four work colleagues varying in degree of intimacy. Some level of dissatisfaction was expressed for each rule violation particularly maintenance rules, and the degree of expressed dissatisfaction increased with increased closeness to the work colleague. Study I was replicated in three other countries — Italy, Hong Kong and Japan, and cross-cultural comparisons were made. While there was some cross-cultural consistency for certain maintenance rules, there were cultural differences both in the type of rules endorsed and the strength of endorsement. Japanese relationships in particular were most dissimilar to other countries, characterized by greater homogeneity of overall rule structure within the four work roles, and by lower levels of intimacy and emotional expressiveness towards the other person in each relationship.     

Adaptation to environmental stress in Daphnia magna simultaneously exposed to a xenobiotic

In standardized ecotoxicological testing chemicals are investigated under optimal conditions for the test organisms despite the fact that environmental factors such as predation pressure and food availability are important parameters regulating natural populations. Food limitation and predator presence can induce shifts in life-history traits in various Daphnia species, especially trade-offs in reproductive biomass allocation. These adaptive responses are thought to ensure survival of the population in a highly variable environment. A xenobiotic dispersant (used in textile dyeing processes) also shifted the biomass allocation of Daphnia magna. To assess whether the dispersant could hinder D. magna adaptation to varying environmental conditions, we conducted experiments with food level and presence of Chaoborus larvae as environmental factors and simultaneous exposure to the dispersant. At low food level and in presence of the predator, D. magna produced fewer but larger sized neonates, regardless of dispersant exposure. The dispersant shifted biomass allocation towards more but smaller sized offspring in all experiments. However, the adaptive response to the environmental factors and the dispersant effect cancelled each other out in that they induced independently from each other opposite shifts in biomass allocation. In summary, the dispersant exposure resulted not in an inhibition of the adaptive response but in a reduction of the value of the response. Our study with this model substance demonstrates that xenobiotics can affect the adaptation of organisms to environmental stress which can result in effects likely to be overlooked in standardized testing.     

Quinones in cockchafers: additional function of a sex attractant as an antimicrobial agent

Summary. Females of the forest cockchafer, Melolontha hippocastani Fabr. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Melolonthinae), are known to produce toluquinone and 1,4-benzoquinone. The latter component has been shown in our earlier studies to act as a sex attractant that enhances synergistically the attraction of males towards plant volatiles induced by feeding females. Analyses of whole body extracts from adults and grubs (L3) of M. hippocastani by coupled gas chromatography--mass spectrometry revealed the presence of 1,4-benzoquinone and toluquinone also in males and larvae. Quantitative analyses showed that extracts from females contained significantly more of 1,4-benzoquinone and toluquinone than extracts from males. Remarkably, extracts from grubs contained significantly higher amounts of both compounds than extracts from females. Inhibition assays using Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria brongniartii revealed inhibitory effects of 1,4-benzoquinone and toluquinone against all tested microorganisms. However, the amounts necessary for inhibition of entomopathogenic fungi and S. cerevisiae in the laboratory assay were higher than those found in the extracts from M. hippocastani.     

A strategy for the next decade to address data deficiency in neglected biodiversity

Measuring progress toward international biodiversity targets requires robust information on the conservation status of species, which the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species provides. However, data and capacity are lacking for most hyperdiverse groups, such as invertebrates, plants, and fungi, particularly in megadiverse or high-endemism regions. Conservation policies and biodiversity strategies aimed at halting biodiversity loss by 2020 need to be adapted to tackle these information shortfalls after 2020. We devised an 8-point strategy to close existing data gaps by reviving explorative field research on the distribution, abundance, and ecology of species; linking taxonomic research more closely with conservation; improving global biodiversity databases by making the submission of spatially explicit data mandatory for scientific publications; developing a global spatial database on threats to biodiversity to facilitate IUCN Red List assessments; automating preassessments by integrating distribution data and spatial threat data; building capacity in taxonomy, ecology, and biodiversity monitoring in countries with high species richness or endemism; creating species monitoring programs for lesser-known taxa; and developing sufficient funding mechanisms to reduce reliance on voluntary efforts. Implementing these strategies in the post-2020 biodiversity framework will help to overcome the lack of capacity and data regarding the conservation status of biodiversity. This will require a collaborative effort among scientists, policy makers, and conservation practitioners.