Assessment of outdoor school environments and physical activity in Ankara's primary schools

Outdoor school environments are sites for play and physical activity for many children, and shortcomings within these environments are considered significant factors that contribute to children's inactive lifestyles and high levels of childhood obesity. This study explores the associations between the physical characteristics of schoolyards and the physical activity of third and fourth year students in five Turkish primary schools. Data were collected through multiple methods, including behavior mapping of student activities during recess, physical assessments of schoolyards, and interviews with students, teachers and administrations. The findings show similarities in the landscape features and physical qualities of schoolyards, particularly in the types of play and activities in which students engage. Results indicated that active students who walk to and from schools have lower body mass index (BMI) values than passive students, and students in schools with larger yards have lower BMI values. Most of the students prefer spacious and vegetated yards. A major concern is the crowdedness of the yards during recess that limit children's activity. Schoolyards with advanced landscape features are preferred more, and this in turn affects students’ positive satisfaction. Outdoor school environments have a correlation to health outcomes and should be designed to promote more activity. Improving the physical and landscape qualities of the public schoolyards should be the primary concern of the designers in order to increase awareness of natural environment and more important, increase the health of children.     

The effects of cement raw mix waste dust on thermal properties of ceramic wall tile bodies

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - The recycling of industrial wastes has in recent years become a priority issue. The relevant work on reducing the adverse effects of industrial...     

Stability of some quality traits in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) genotypes

This study was carried out in order to determine some quality traits such as thousand grain weight (TGW), hectoliter weight (HW), grain protein content (GPC), Zeleny sedimentation volume (ZSV) and stability of quality traits of 25 bread wheat genotypes. The experiment was conducted at seven environmental conditions during 2 growing periods (2003-2004 and 2004-2005) using randomized complete block design with four replicates. The ANOVA showed that out of the total sum of squares, 48.4, 28.0 and 23.6% for TGW, 71.4, 14.9 and 13.7% for HW, 54.4, 23.0 and 22.6% for GPC, 44.7, 41.7 and 13.6% for ZSV was attributable to E, G and G x E interaction effects, respectively. Thousand grain weight, hectoliter weight, grain protein content and Zeleny sedimentasyon volume of genotypes changed from 34.5 to 41.4 g, from 76.5 to 80.4 Kg, from 11.49 to 13.37% and from 22.1 to 46.0 ml, respectively. Seven stability parameters, covering a wide range of statistical approaches, were used so as to predict the genotypes. The study of genotypic stability showed that Bezostaya and advanced lines numbered 11 and 24 had high stability for quality traits and proved to be the best within the pool of the studied genotypes. Also, 8 and 17 numbered genotypes demonstrated high stability for TGW, HW, GPC and HW, GPC and ZSV, respectively.     

Advanced oxidation treatment of physico-chemically pre-treated olive mill industry effluent

In this study, the applicability of physico-chemical methods was investigated for the pre-treatment of the olive mill effluents prior to the discharge into the common sewerage ending with a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The samples were taken from an olive oil industry operated as three-phase process located in Turkey. Various pre-treatment methods including acid craking, polyelectrolyte and lime additions were applied. Advanced oxidation study using Fenton's process was also investigated following pre-treatment by acid cracking and cationic polyelectrolyte. Acid cracking alone gave satisfactory treatment efficiencies and polyelectrolite additions to the acid-cracked samples enhanced treatment efficiency. Since a complete treatment plant is available at the end of the sewer system, results indicated that the effluents of the investigated industry could be discharged into the municipal sewerage in the case of total chemical oxygen demand (COD_tot), suspended solid (SS) and volatile suspended solid (VSS) concentrations according to the Turkish Water Pollution Control Regulation after pre-treatment with 5 ppm anionic polyelectrolyte following acid cracking. The minimum COD_tot, SS and VSS removals were observed when raw wastewater was pre-treated with lime and the discharge standards to the municipal sewer system could not be met. Advanced oxidation with Fenton's process was applied after acid cracking and cationic polyelectrolyte treatment in order to investigate further reduction in chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration for minimizing the influence of this industrial discharge on the existing municipal wastewater treatment plant. Results indicated that COD_tot removal increased up to 89% from 74% after Fenton's oxidation for the acid cracked samples in which cationic polyelectrolite (10 ppm) was added.     

14C‐dimethoate residues in olive oil during oil processing

Abstract

An olive tree was treated twice in the field with ¹⁴C‐dimethoate (237.7 (μCi, 2.4 g) and ¹⁴C residues were determined in the olive fruits at harvest. The fruits were crushed and pressed to extract the crude oil, then refined by neutralization, bleaching and deodorization. The crude oil contained 14.1% of the total ¹⁴C in the olive fruits. Neutralization resulted in a reduction of ¹⁴C by about 50% of the total ¹⁴C residues in oil. Bleaching and deodorization processes further reduced the ¹⁴C residues and the refined oil contained 31.6% (which corresponds to 4.4% of ^I4C residues of the total ¹⁴C in olive fruits) of the total ¹⁴C in the crude oil. Industrially extracted crude oil was fortified with ¹⁴C‐dimethoate at 1.8 mg kg^‐1 (0.02 μCi) level and subjected to the same refining process. A sharp decrease in the amount of ¹⁴C was observed by neutralization and the amount of ¹⁴C remaining in the refined oil was about 7.3% of the total ^l4C in the crude fortified oil. The data suggest that the ¹⁴C residues in the aged and the fortified oil amples were not of the same nature. The terminal ¹⁴C residue in the refined oil obtained from the field experiment did not contain dimethoate and/or its oxon.     

Riparian Grazing Impacts on Streambank Erosion and Phosphorus Loss Via Surface Runoff1

Tufekcioglu, Mustafa, Richard C. Schultz, George N. Zaimes, Thomas M. Isenhart, and Aydin Tufekcioglu, 2012. Riparian Grazing Impacts on Streambank Erosion and Phosphorus Loss via Surface Runoff. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 1‐11. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2012.12004.x Abstract: Surface runoff is one of the major pathways of sediment and phosphorus (P) transport to surface waters. Rainfall simulations were conducted on nine grazed pasture sites with different stocking rates in three different Iowa (United States) regions. The purpose of the simulations was to determine the impacts of cattle grazing on the amounts of sediment and P in surface runoff within a 15‐m wide strip on both sides of the stream from different source areas (SAs). These riparian SAs included stream‐side loafing areas, cattle streambank access paths to the stream, and the other vegetated areas adjacent to the streambanks. The runoff samples collected during the simulations were analyzed for suspended sediment (SS) and total phosphorus (TP). Soil bulk density and antecedent soil moisture samples were collected around the rainfall simulation plots to identify differences in compaction, infiltration, and surface runoff among the SAs. SS and TP losses from access paths and loafing areas within the 15‐m wide strips accounted for up to 72 and 55% of the total losses, respectively, even though they accounted for only 2.7% of the total area within the 15‐m wide strips. This suggests that access paths and loafing areas require special attention to mitigate the impacts of cattle on stream water pollution. Significant correlations were found between stocking rates and both SS and TP losses suggesting that low stocking rates can reduce sediment and P export to streams from the SAs.     

Efficacy of a Levulinic Acid Plus Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS)-Based Sanitizer on Inactivation of Influenza A Virus on Eggshells

Influenza A virus poses a major public health concern and is associated with annual epidemics and occasional pandemics. Influenza A H3N2 viruses, which are an important cause of human influenza, can infect birds and mammals. Contaminated undercooked poultry products including eggs with avian influenza virus constitute a possible risk of transmission to humans. In this study, a novel levulinic acid plus sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) sanitizer was evaluated for eggshell decontamination. Influenza A H3N2 virus-inoculated chicken eggshells were treated with a 5 % levulinic acid plus 2 % SDS, 2 % levulinic acid plus 1 % SDS, and 0.5 % levulinic acid plus 0.5 % SDS liquid solution for 1 min. Log reductions of viable viruses were observed by plaque assay. The 5 % levulinic acid plus 2 % SDS sanitizer provided the greatest level of influenza A H3N2 virus inactivation (2.23 log PFU), and differences in virus inactivation were observed for the various levulinic acid plus SDS concentrations tested (P ≤ 0.05). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating influenza A H3N2 virus inactivation on eggshells using a novel levulinic acid plus SDS sanitizer. The sanitizer may be useful for reducing egg contamination and preventing the spread of avian influenza virus to humans.