Synthesis and characterization of highly dispersed bimetallic Au-Rh nanoparticles supported on titanate nanotubes for CO oxidation reaction at low temperature

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Low-temperature CO oxidation was carried out by using rhodium incorporated into titanate nanotubes (Rh/NTs) prepared by the sol-gel and hydrothermal...     

Analysis of the impact of the Arganda metro line on alternative road route emission levels

The object of the present work was to carry out the environmental assessment of a new metro line in Madrid by means of an emission model using a down – up methodology, calculation parameters of which were taken from the European Union-sponsored programmes CORINAIR 99 and COPERT 2000. The study assesses emissions over different time horizons, taking into account the resulting variations in traffic speed and intensity upon the opening of the new infrastructure. The results obtained show that the construction of the line has led to a significant reduction in the various pollutant emission levels, particularly in the areas closer to the city. The most significant reductions are expected to be even greater in future scenarios.     

Delineation of Environmental Units by Multivariate Techniques in the Duero River Watershed,Michoacán,Mexico

Environmental or hydrological landscape units can integrate various environmental characteristics to support proper management of natural resources. To delineate these units, quantitative methods such as ordination, clustering, and classification of abiotic factor information are used. In the present work, environmental units were delineated in the Duero River watershed of Michoacán, Mexico. This will enhance understanding of the hydrologic landscape, which is a fundamental to natural resource management. A digital elevation model was used to generate sub-basins. Climatic data were obtained from 16 meteorological stations. Sixty-nine soil and 150 water samples were collected and analyzed in the laboratory. Geostatistical methods for spatial prediction of the environmental variables were used. Mean data for each sub-basin were obtained from the environmental variable grids, generating an abiotic factor data matrix. A multivariate analysis was conducted. Exponential, linear, spherical, and Gaussian models were fit to an empirical variogram. Spatial prediction of the environmental data was done via universal and ordinary kriging. Based on principal component analysis, abiotic factors evaporation, total nitrogen, soil pH, and sodium absorption ratio of water were selected for cluster analysis. Five environmental units were delineated in the Duero watershed. One environmental unit (number 4) provided greater than 50 % of the payment for ecosystem services. The general trend is an increase of urban area. The urban surface in 1983 and 2014 was 1724 and 4750 ha, respectively, an increase of 275 %. Environmental unit 1 showed the greatest urban area growth (1336 ha) during the latter period.     

Textural characterization of media composed of compacted pieces of cardboard and polyethylene using a gas tracer method

The aim of this work is the experimental determination of effective transport properties of porous media consisting of compacted pieces of cardboard and polyethylene (PE). The proposed method itself is more general and can be applied to many different materials and contexts. Three major transport properties were determined: porosity, tortuosity factor and permeability. Three parameters characterizing the media were varied over a wide range: the bulk density, the size of the elements entering the mix, and the proportion of cardboard and PE in the mix. The properties were measured by means of a specially designed experimental device based on miscible gas tracing. The porosity and tortuosity factor were simultaneously determined by parametric identification, based on the experimental sample output response to an inlet gas concentration step change compared to the results of a direct numerical model. Permeability was calculated in the standard way from the measurement of the pressure drop across the sample. The reproducibility of the measurements was very good. It was found that changing the material density of the medium significantly affects all three structural properties. When the bulk density is varied between 300 and 900 kg m(-3), the tortuosity factor varies in a range as large as 18-8 and the permeability decreases by a ratio of 2-3. The tortuosity factor shows unusual variation, characterized by a decrease when density is increased above 500 kg m(-3). The size of the elements does not significantly affect the structural properties of the medium in the range of parameters studied.     

Organochlorine pesticide distribution in an organic production system for cow's milk in Chiapas,Mexico

The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of organochlorine pesticides in samples of forage, soil, water, and milk in four units of an organic production system for cow´s milk (samples of forage, milk, soil, and water) in Tecpatan, Chiapas, Mexico. The organochlorine pesticides were extracted from forage, soil and water based on the USEPA (2005) guideline and from milk based on the IDF 1991 guideline. The pesticides were identified and quantified by gas chromatography with electron capture detector (CG-ECD). In general, the highest average concentration of total pesticides was found in the samples of milk and forage (311 ± 328 and 116.5 ±77 ng g^?1 respectively). Although, the production systems analyzed are organic, organochlorine pesticides were detected in all environmental samples (forage, soil, water, and organic milk). Although no values surpassed the defined limits of Mexican and International regulation it is advisable that a monitoring program of contaminants in these production systems is continued.     

Eutrophication and Sedimentation Patterns in Complete Exploitation of Water Resources Scenarios: An Example from Northwestern Semi-arid Mexico

Water requirements to supply human needs lead water stakeholders to store more water during surplus periods to fulfil the demand during – not only – scarcity periods. At the reservoirs, mostly those in semi-arid regions, water level then fluctuates extremely between rises and downward during one single year. Besides of water management implications, changes on physical, chemical and biological dynamics of these drawdown and refilling are little known yet. This paper shows the results, throughout a year, on solids, nutrients (N and P), chlorophyll-a, and sedimentation changes on the dynamics, when the former policy was applied in a reservoir from the semi-arid Northwestern Mexico. Water level sinusoidal trend impinged changes on thermal stratification and mixing, modifying nutrient cycling and primary producer responses. According to nitrogen and phosphorus concentration as well as chlorophyll-a, reservoir was mesotrophic, becoming hypertrophic during drawdown. Nutrient concentrations were high (1.22 ± 0.70 and 0.14 ± 0.12 mg P l⁻¹), increasing phosphorus and lowering N:P significantly throughout the study period, although no intensive agricultural, no urban development, neither industrial activities take place in the watershed. This suggests nutrient recycling complex mechanisms, including nutrient release from the sediment–water interface as the main nutrient pathway when shallowness, at the same time as mineralization, increases. Outflows controlled nitrogen and phosphorus availability on the ecosystem while organic matter depended on river inflows. As on other subtropical aquatic ecosystems, nitrogen limited primary productivity (Spearman correlation R = 0.75) but chlorophyll-a seasonal pattern showed an irregular trend, prompting other no-nutrient related limitants. Shallowness induced a homogeneous temporal pattern on water quality. This observed temporal variability was mainly explained statistically by changes on solids (mineral and organic), chlorophyll-a and flows (62.3%). Annual sedimentation rates of total solids ranged from 11.73 to 16.29 kg m⁻² year⁻¹ with organic matter comprising around 30%. N:P ratio on sedimentation rates were as high as could be expected in a resuspension dominated ecosystem, and spatially inverse related with N:P ratio on bottom sediments. Distance from river inlet into the reservoir reveals a marked spatial heterogeneity on solid and nitrogen sedimentation, showing the system dependence on river inflows and supporting resuspension as the main phosphorus pathway. Accretion rates (2.19 ± 0.40 cm year⁻¹) were not related to hydrological variability but decreased with the distance to the river input. Total sediment accumulation (9,895 tons km⁻² year⁻¹) denotes siltation as other serious environmental problem in reservoirs but possibly not related with operational procedures.     

Public expenditure and the environmental management of Brazilian municipalities: a panel data model

Environmental expenditure can be classified as an indicator to measure the efforts of public agents with the environment. Cities and countries seek to understand the determinants of environmental spending over time. This research aims to analyze the variables that influence the environmental spending of Brazilian municipalities between the years 2012 and 2016. Thus, this research helps fill the gap on lack of longitudinal research that involves local contexts in relation to public municipal expenditures on the environment. The research method consists of the panel data model. Data were collected on the environmental expenditures of the municipalities and other variables of 4269 Brazilian municipalities, the collection generated 21,329 observations. The results showed that the municipalities of the state of Amapá had better relative expenditure averages, it was also observed that the municipalities in the Northeast region show the worst results. The municipality of Itamaracá, located in the state of Pernambuco, presented the best percentage of the country, 9.47% of the environmental expenditure in relation to total expenditure. Regarding the results of panel data, the variables revenue, population, density, GDP, and HDI presented significance in all models; the models estimated by fixed effects ensure the consistency of the parameters.     

Evaluating seasonal dynamics of bacterial communities in marine fish aquaculture: a preliminary study before applying phage therapy

The increasing problem of antibiotic resistance in common pathogenic bacteria and the concern about the spreading of antibiotics in the environment bring the need to find new methods to control fish pathogens. Phage therapy represents a potential alternative to antibiotics, but its use in aquaculture requires a detailed understanding of bacterial communities, namely of fish pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, in this study the seasonal dynamics of the overall bacterial communities, microbiological water quality and disease-causing bacteria were followed in a marine aquaculture system of Ria de Aveiro (Portugal). Analysis of the bacterial diversity of the water samples by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 16S rRNA gene fragments indicates that the bacterial community structure varied seasonally, showing a higher complexity during the warm season. The diversity of the main fish pathogenic bacteria, assessed by DGGE targeting the Vibrio genus, showed lower seasonal variation, with new dominating populations appearing mainly in the spring. Bacterial indicators, faecal coliforms and enterococci, enumerated by the filter-membrane method, also varied seasonally. The fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) results showed that the specific groups of bacteria varied during the study period and that the non-indigenous Enterobactereaceae family was the most abundant group followed by Vibrio and Aeromonas. The seasonal variation detected in terms of density and structure of total and pathogenic bacterial communities demonstrates the need for a careful monitoring of water through the year in order to select the suitable phages to inactivate fish pathogenic bacteria. The spring season seems to be the critical time period when phage therapy should be applied.     

Kinetic and morphology study of alginate-vineyard pruning waste biocomposite vs. non modified vineyard pruning waste for dye removal

In this work a comparative bioadsorption study between a biocomposite consisting of hydrolysed vineyard pruning waste entrapped in calcium alginate spheres and non entrapped vineyard residue was carried out.Results have demonstrated that the biocomposite based on lignocellulose-calcium alginate spheres removed 77.3% of dyes,while non entrapped lignocellulose eliminated only removed 27.8% of colour compounds.The experimental data were fitted to several kinetic models(pseudo-first order,pseudo-second order,Chien–Clayton model,intraparticle diffusion model and Bangham model); being pseudo-second order the kinetic model that better described the adsorption of dyes onto both bioadsorbents.In addition,a morphological study(roughness and shape) of alginate-vineyard biocomposite was established under extreme conditions,observing significant differences between hydrated and dehydrated alginate-vineyard biocomposite.The techniques used to carry out this morphological study consisted of scanning electron microscopy(SEM),perfilometry and 3D surface analysis.