Solid-state nitrogen-15 nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of biologically reduced 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene in a soil slurry remediation

Soil contaminated with 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and spiked with [14C]- and [15N3]-TNT was subjected to an anaerobic-aerobic soil slurry treatment and subsequently analyzed by radiocounting and solid-state 15N nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. This treatment led to a complete disappearance of extractable radioactivity originating from TNT and almost all of the radioactivity was recovered in the insoluble soil fraction. As revealed by solid-state 15N NMR, a major fraction of partially reduced metabolites of TNT was immobilized into the soil during the early stage of the anaerobic treatment, although some of the compounds (i.e., aminodinitrotoluenes and azoxy compounds) were extractable by methanol. Considerable 15N intensity was assigned to condensation products of TNT metabolites. A smaller signal indicated the formation of azoxy N. This signal and the signal for nitro groups were not observed at the end of the anaerobic phase, revealing further reduction and/or transformation of their corresponding compounds. An increase of the relative proportion of the condensation products occurred with increasing anaerobic incubation. Aerobic incubation resulted in a further decrease of aromatic amines, presumably due to oxidative transformations or their involvement in further condensation reactions. The results of the study demonstrate that the anaerobic-aerobic soil slurry treatment represents an efficient strategy for immobilizing reduced TNT in soils.     

Iron interference on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectra of condensed tannins

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) was used to reveal the influence of iron on the detectability of condensed tannins extracted from Picea abies. Iron chloride mixed with condensed tannins suppresses the detection of tannins by MALDI-TOF MS in a dose-dependent manner. Total suppression is observed at concentrations of 250 and 500 mg FeCl₃ g^–1 of sample. At lower concentrations, spectrum quality is still greatly reduced, but short chain tannins are detected. At 100 mg FeCl₃ g^–1 of sample, iron increased the intensity of the tannin galloyl ester peaks above those of the corresponding tannin polymers. This points to an antagonistic effect of the galloyl ester moiety on iron complexation with condensed tannins and, thus, their reduced susceptibility to iron interference during MALDI-TOF MS.     

The EU-project ERAPharm. Incentives for the further development of guidance documents?

- Triggered by the detection of a large variety of pharmaceuticals in surface waters, soils and groundwaters across the world (e.g. Halling- Sørensen et al. 1998, Daughton & Ternes 1999, Jones et al. 2001, Heberer 2002) and the widespread occurrence of endocrine active compounds and related effects in the environment (e.g. Purdom et al. 1994, Tyler et al. 1998, Vethaak et al. 2002), pharmaceuticals in the environment have become an issue for both the scientific and the public community. During the last few years, our understanding of the fate and effects of pharmaceuticals in the environment has progressed significantly. However, there are still a number of uncertainties concerning the effects of pharmaceuticals on the environment and the assessment of potential exposure (e.g. Hanisch et al. 2004, Salomon 2005). These uncertainties will be addressed by the EU-project ‘Environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals’ (ERAPharm). This project, a specific targeted research project, is carried out within the priority ‘Global change and ecosystems’ of the 6th framework programme of the European Union. ERAPharm has started on 1st October 2004; the project duration is three years.     

Consensus Conferences – A Case Study: Publiforum in Switzerland with Special Respect to the Role of Lay Persons and Ethics

This paper focuses on experiences from a case study dealing with the Swiss type of a consensus conference called “PubliForum” concerning “Genetic Technology and Nutrition” (1999). Societal and ethical aspects of genetically modified food meanwhile can be seen as prototypes of topics depending on the involvement of the public through a participatory process. The important role of the lay perspective in this field seems to be accepted in practice. Nevertheless, there is still some theoretical controversy about the necessity and democratic legitimacy of participatory processes in general, and especially about those dealing with technological or environmental problems (sustainable development) concerning society. From an ethical point of view, a lot of heterogeneous problems concerning contents and procedures of public participation can be pointed out, not only on the theoretical level but also in practice, e.g., concerning the communication process between laypersons and experts. The intention of our paper is to give hints and to clarify criteria that support the communication process leading to a dialog of autonomous citizens and which especially consider ethical aspects in the field. One important result is that there must be an orientation for all members of a consensus conference having clear rules and knowing their different roles that support transparency, credibility, and fairness of the whole procedure and a “good product”: a substantial final document or citizens’ report. This paper presents results of the project Ethical Bio-TA Tools as funded by the European Commission, DG Research, under FP5, Quality of Life Programme.     

Clutch loss affects the operational sex ratio in the strawberry poison frog Dendrobates pumilio

Both modelling and field data from three breeding seasons show that an environmental factor, clutch loss (CL), affects the operational sex ratio (OSR) and therefore male mating frequency in strawberry poison frogs. Clutch loss affects the length of reproductive cycles of both sexes: with increasing clutch losses, males spend proportionately more time than females in parental investment activities. Because of this, males spend relatively less time in the mating pool, i.e. exhibit proportionately more time-out than females in comparison to a situation with low or no clutch loss. Hence, clutch loss leads to a less male-biased OSR, coupled with a decrease in the opportunity for sexual selection. Furthermore, this study resolves an apparent paradox, the negative correlation between mating frequency and reproductive success (=number of produced tadpoles) of individual males in one breeding season. Clutch loss decouples the correlation between mating frequency and reproductive success because females re-enter the mating pool when they lose their offspring. However, clutch loss diminishes the reproductive output. Similar consequences of clutch loss on the OSR may be true for many species where both sexes reproduce frequently in one breeding season.Communicated by J. Christensen-Dalsgaard     

Beyond the mean: Understanding firm‐level consequences of variability in diversity climate perceptions

We develop and test an organizational‐level model of the consequences of diversity climate for company performance. Drawing from affective events theory and the organizational climate literature, we highlight the role of idiosyncrasies in employees' diversity climate perceptions. Specifically, we consider diversity climate strength (i.e., agreement in employees' climate perceptions) as a boundary condition of diversity climate's organizational‐level effects and expect high climate strength to be particularly beneficial in demographically diverse organizations. Moreover, we introduce collective positive affect as an underlying mechanism of diversity climate's conditional effects on company performance. Hypotheses are tested in a study of 82 German small‐and‐medium‐sized companies with 13,695 surveyed employees. Results show a moderated mediation relationship where diversity climate is only positively related to organizational performance (via collective positive affect) at relatively high diversity climate strength. Although this finding holds for both demographically diverse and homogeneous organizations, post hoc analyses provide initial evidence that a strong climate only helps to realize the effects of diversity climate on collective positive affect when members of age‐ and gender‐related demographic subgroups converge in their climate perceptions. Our study contributes to a better understanding of diversity climate as an effective lever for managing diversity.     

“It's optional,not mandatory”: Environmental justice in local environmental agencies in Germany

Environmental justice is increasingly becoming a subject of academic debate in Germany. However, the realisation that environmental goods and hazards as well as the impacts of environmental policies are unequally distributed among social groups has not had many practical consequences yet. There are scattered initiatives and pilot projects aiming to address issues of environmental justice. Nevertheless, in the design and implementation of environmental policies there is no systematic consideration of their social dimension. In this paper, we outline the perspective of employees in German local environmental agencies on environmental justice. For this purpose, we conducted six qualitative interviews, which focused on the example of low emission zones. We identified three crucial aspects in these interviews: problem perception, motivation to act and perceived scope of action. Our main finding is that environmental justice is hardly an issue for environmental agencies and that this is the case because there is no necessity for them to consider social aspects in their work as this is neither legally required nor demanded in the public debate.     

Acute effects of removing large fish from a near-pristine coral reef

Large animals are severely depleted in many ecosystems, yet we are only beginning to understand the ecological implications of their loss. To empirically measure the short-term effects of removing large animals from an ocean ecosystem, we used exclosures to remove large fish from a near-pristine coral reef at Palmyra Atoll, Central Pacific Ocean. We identified a range of effects that followed from the removal of these large fish. These effects were revealed within weeks of their removal. Removing large fish (1) altered the behavior of prey fish; (2) reduced rates of herbivory on certain species of reef algae; (3) had both direct positive (reduced mortality of coral recruits) and indirect negative (through reduced grazing pressure on competitive algae) impacts on recruiting corals; and (4) tended to decrease abundances of small mobile benthic invertebrates. Results of this kind help advance our understanding of the ecological importance of large animals in ecosystems.