<Emphasis Type="Italic">Lyngbya majuscula</Emphasis> blooms and the diet of small subtropical benthivorous fishes

Increasing concerns about the ecological impacts of ongoing and possibly worsening blooms of the toxic, carcinogenic cyanobacteria Lyngbya majuscula in Moreton Bay, Australia, led us to assess differences in meiofaunal prey assemblages between bloom and non-bloom substrates and the potential dietary impacts of dense L. majuscula blooms on the omnivorous benthivore, the Eastern Long-finned Goby, Favonigobius lentiginosus and the obligate meiobenthivorous juveniles of Trumpeter Whiting, Sillago maculata. Marked differences in invertebrate communities were found between sandy and L. majuscula bloom foraging substrates, with copepods significantly more abundant (18.49% vs. 70.44% numerical abundance) and nematodes significantly less abundant (55.91% vs. 1.21% numerical abundance) within bloom material. Gut analyses showed that bentho-planktivorous fishes exposed to L. majuscula in captivity had consumed a significantly greater quantity of prey by both total number (P < 0.0019) and volume (P < 0.0006) than fish exposed to sand treatments. Thus, it is likely for such fishes that L. majuscula blooms increase rates of prey encounter and consumption, with consequent changes in trophic relationships through shifts in predator–prey interactions between small benthivorous fishes and their meiofaunal prey.     

Transboundary Pollution and Absorptive Capacity

The impact of the investment in absorptive capacity on transboundary pollution is studied by considering two countries, each of them regulating a firm. Firms can invest in inventive research and in absorptive research to lower their pollution intensity. The absorptive research enables a firm to capture part of the inventive research made by the other one. We show that by means of adequate emission taxes, original and absorptive research and development (R&D) subsidies, regulators can reach the non-cooperative social optimum. Interestingly, we show that the investment in absorptive research enables non-cooperating regulators to better internalize transboundary pollution. The higher is the learning parameter of absorption, the greater is the proportion of transboundary pollution internalized. Therefore, it is recommended for the international community to make the patent laws more flexible and enabling learning from the research made by others more interesting. Moreover, the investment in absorptive R&D may lead to multiple equilibria necessitating non-cooperating countries to coordinate on an equilibrium, which constitutes an incentive for them to cooperate.     

Monitoring of methylene blue monomers and dimers to control the bacterialogical water quality including application to photocatalysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this study, we propose the development of a rapid and reliable method to control and to monitor microbial water quality. The methylene blue (MB)...     

鄱阳湖一些水文特征和整治战略

本文分析研究了鄱阳湖湖水面积和容积大,随水位变动月际变化也大,过境水径流的年际、月际变化大,但对“五河”和长江水量调节量小、又不适时的水文特征。提出了驯服“五河”,人工控制鄱阳湖,协调长江、“五河”与鄱阳湖的关系,整治鄱阳湖的战略。     

修正的BP神经网络森林火灾成灾面积预测研究

以1997-2012年《中国林业统计年鉴》的全国森林火灾成灾面积为依据,应用BP神经网络模型对成灾面积进行了预测,对预测方法进行了检验.在此基础上,利用残差提出了修正的BP神经网络模型,并对预测方法进行了改进.研究结果表明,修正的BP神经网络预测精度高于BP神经网络,预测相对误差平均为7.2％,可应用于森林火灾成灾面积的预测.     

农村生活垃圾分类治理的奖惩激励机制——基于复杂网络演化博弈模型

充分考虑农村"熟人社会"特点,首次采用复杂网络演化博弈模型,通过数值仿真分析了声誉损失和奖励政策对农户垃圾分类行为扩散深度的动态影响.结果表明：政府不干预时,垃圾分类将无法在农村自发持续而普遍推广;在一定范围内提高声誉损失或奖励均可显著促进农户分类;仅依靠单一政策,无法实现分类的深度扩散,若依靠声誉损失与奖励相互配合,可实现低政策强度、高扩散深度的合意效果;搭便车收益的提高会抑制垃圾分类扩散深度;注重经验学习和适应能力的EWA学习策略更有助于促进垃圾分类扩散.上述结论广泛适用于分类初始状态、学习能力、人口规模不同的农村,对中国农村垃圾分类具有普遍性的启发意义.最后,提出了充分利用"熟人社会"优势构建与农村社会经济特征相契合的垃圾分类激励政策建议.     

α-Amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitor effects and pancreatic response to diabetes mellitus on Wistar rats of Ephedra alata areal part decoction with immunohistochemical analyses

Ephedra alata, known as a medicinal plant in China, was used in this study as aqueous extract from aerial parts, for diabetes mellitus treatment. This study was carried out on two parts, in vitro, we tested the effect of the studied extract on the inhibition of α-glucosidase and α-amylase activities, and in vivo on Wistar male rats receiving alloxan intraperitoneally at a rate of 125 mg/kg. Extract (100, 200, and 300 mg/kg of body weight) was administrated for 28 days by oral gavage. Blood glucose, amylase, lipase, and lipid profile level were determined. Oxidative stress was evaluated by enzymatic activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and by estimation of lipid peroxidation and protein carbonyl (PC) level. Histopathological changes in pancreas were investigated under photonic microscopy using immunohistochemical procedure. Our findings showed that aqueous extract inhibited in vitro both α-glucosidase and α-amylase activities and its use in vivo at 300 mg/kg of body weight restored pancreas weight and weight gain, ameliorated significantly (p ? 0.05) biochemical parameters; it prevented the increase in lipid and protein oxidation and the decrease in enzymatic and non-enzymatic defense system. Histological study of treated animals showed a comparable healed regeneration of beta cells.

     

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles: synthesis,characterisations and aquatic ecotoxicity effects

Little information is available on the potential ecotoxicity of nanomaterials in the marine environment. In particular, the aquatic ecotoxicity impact of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) has been rarely reported. To carefully address this issue, we report on the synthesis of TiO₂ NPs using solvothermal process. The structure and morphology of the prepared TiO₂ nanoparticles were characterised using different techniques. To study the potential ecotoxicity effect of TiO₂, antioxidant system of mediterranean bivalves (Mytilus galloprovincialis) was used, measuring three oxidative biomarkers (ROS production, SOD activity and GSH/GSSG level). No considerable effect was found in the digestive glands of any of the groups treated with TiO₂ with concentration gradients ranging from 1 to 100?mg/L. Thus, the level of the superoxide anion, the activity of an antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the GSH/GSSG ratio showed no significantly differences in digestive glands of all treated groups compared to the control. However, slight modifications were observed in the gills at high concentrations. These results demonstrated that TiO₂ appears to exert little toxicity on marine mussels after a short-term exposure at high concentration. However, before considering the use of this nanomaterial in various applications, further complementary studies are required in order to ensure the environmental safety of these NPs.