Information Management System for Site Remediation Efforts

/ Environmental regulatory agencies are responsible for protecting human health and the environment in their constituencies. Their responsibilities include the identification, evaluation, and cleanup of contaminated sites. Leaking underground storage tanks (USTs) constitute a major source of subsurface and groundwater contamination. A significant portion of a regulatory body's efforts may be directed toward the management of UST-contaminated sites. In order to manage remedial sites effectively, vast quantities of information must be maintained, including analytical dataon chemical contaminants, remedial design features, and performance details. Currently, most regulatory agencies maintain such information manually. This makes it difficult to manage the data effectively. Some agencies have introduced automated record-keeping systems. However, the ad hoc approach in these endeavors makes it difficult to efficiently analyze, disseminate, and utilize the data. This paper identifies the information requirements for UST-contaminated site management at the Waste Cleanup Section of the Department of Environmental Resources Management in Dade County, Florida. It presents a viable design for an information management system to meet these requirements. The proposed solution is based on a back-end relational database management system with relevant tools for sophisticated data analysis and data mining. The database is designed with all tables in the third normal form to ensure data integrity, flexible access, and efficient query processing. In addition to all standard reports required by the agency, the system provides answers to ad hoc queries that are typically difficult to answer under the existing system. The database also serves as a repository of information for a decision support system to aid engineering design and risk analysis. The system may be integrated with a geographic information system for effective presentation and dissemination of spatial data.     

An ergonomic study on posture-related discomfort among preadolescent agricultural workers of West Bengal, India.

In India, particularly in West Bengal, preadolescents are primarily associated with agricultural work in rural areas. Owing to poor socio-economic conditions, they are compelled to carry out a considerable number of manual, rigorous tasks in agricultural fields. The main aim of this study was to investigate postures adopted by preadolescent agricultural workers during individual agricultural activities and to analyze the causes of discomfort related to those postures. Fifty male and 50 female preadolescent agricultural workers were randomly selected and a detailed posture analysis was performed with the Ovako Working Posture Analysis System (OWAS). It was observed that those workers worked continuously in awkward postures during certain agricultural activities. Consequently they suffered from discomfort in different parts of their body. Even though they were very young, they were likely to suffer from serious musculoskeletal disorders in the future.     

A comparative study on the dissipation and microbial metabolism of organophosphate and carbamate insecticides in orchaqualf and fluvaquent soils of West Bengal

An experiment has been conducted under laboratory conditions to investigate the effect of phorate (an organophosphate insecticide) and carbofuran (a carbamate insecticide) at their recommended field rates (1.5 and 1.0 kga.i.ha-1, respectively) on the growth and multiplication of microorganisms as well as rate of dissipation and persistence of the insecticidal residues including their metabolites in laterite (typic orchaqualf) and alluvial (typic fluvaquent) soils of West Bengal. Application of phorate and carbofuran in general, induced growth and development of bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, N2-fixing bacteria and phosphate solubilizing microorganisms in both the soils and the stimulation was more pronounced with phorate as compared to carbofuran. Application of phorate recorded highest stimulation of fungi in laterite and actinomycetes in alluvial soil. Carbofuran on the other hand, augmented fungi and N2-fixing bacteria in laterite and actinomycetes in alluvial soil. Bacterial population was inhibited due to the application of carbofuran in alluvial soil. Phorate sulfoxide and phorate sulfone, the two metabolites of phorate and 3-hydroxycarbofuran and 3-ketocarbofuran, the two metabolites of carbofuran isolated were less persistent in both the soils. Phorate persisted in laterite and alluvial soils up to 45 and 60 days, respectively depicting the half-life (T1/2) 9.7 and 11.5 days, respectively while the T1/2 of carbofuran for the said soils were 16.9 and 8.8 days, respectively. No metabolite of carbofuran was detected in soils after 30 days of incubation while phorate sulfone persisted in alluvial soil even after 60 days of application of the insecticide.     

An Ergonomie Study on Posture-Related Discomfort Among Preadolescent Agricultural Workers of West Bengal,India

In India, particularly in West Bengal, preadolescents are primarily associated with agricultural work in rural areas. Owing to poor socio-economic conditions, they are compelled to carry out a considerable number of manual, rigorous tasks in agricultural fields. The main aim of this study was to investigate postures adopted by preadolescent agricultural workers during individual agricultural activities and to analyze the causes of discomfort related to those postures. Fifty male and 50 female preadolescent agricultural workers were randomly selected and a detailed posture analysis was performed with the Ovako Working Posture Analysis System (OWAS). It was observed that those workers worked continuously in awkward postures during certain agricultural activities. Consequently they suffered from discomfort in different parts of their body. Even though they were very young, they were likely to suffer from serious musculoskeletal disorders in the future.     

Can we measure carrying capacity with foraging behavior?

Carrying capacity is one of the most important, yet least understood and rarely estimated, parameters in population management and modeling. A simple behavioral metric of carrying capacity would advance theory, conservation, and management of biological populations. Such a metric should be possible because behavior is finely attuned to variation in environment including population density. We connect optimal foraging theory with population dynamics and life history to develop a simple model that predicts this sort of adaptive density-dependent change in food consumption. We then confirm the model's unexpected and manifold predictions with field experiments. The theory predicts reproductive thresholds that alter the marginal value of energy as well as the value of time. Both effects cause a pronounced discontinuity in quitting-harvest rate that we revealed with foraging experiments. Red-backed voles maintained across a range of high densities foraged at a lower density-dependent rate than the same animals exposed to low-density treatments. The change in harvest rate is diagnostic of populations that exceed their carrying capacity. Ecologists, conservation biologists, and wildlife managers may thus be able to use simple and efficient foraging experiments to estimate carrying capacity and habitat quality.     

Free-energy change in the transfer of H+ion from ethanol to water

The Science of Nature -     

Heavy metals alter photosynthetic pigment profiles as well as activities of chlorophyllase and 5-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) in Amaranthus lividus seedlings

Varied concentrations of PbCl2 and CdCl2 in the germinating media reduced the total chlorophyll and carotenoid contents in primary leaves of Amaranthus lividus seedlings (168 h old). When chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b contents were measured separately, greater loss of chl b than chl a under the identical conditions of heavy metal treatment was observed In addition, the loss of total chlorophyll was more than carotenoids under the same magnitude of heavy metal treatment. The effect of heavy metal treatment at germination stage was further studied on chlorophyll accumulation in primary leaves in relation to the activities of 5-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) and chlorophyllase. The activities of ALAD gradually diminished in response to both the heavy metals in a concentration-guided manner, while the activities of chlorophyllase did not exhibit any significant change.     

Ultra-structural observations on the lymphoid organs of the freshwater catfish, Clarias batrachus (Linnaeus)

Light microscopic and ultra-structural studies of the lymphoid tissues such as blood immunocytes, spleen and pronephros of the freshwater catfish, Clarias batrachus, were carried out. The peripheral blood showed nucleated erythrocytes, total leucocytic count (TLC) more than that observed in mammalian blood and leucocytes with morphological appearance similar to the mammalian white blood cells (WBCs). The spleen and pronephros showed presence of numerous lymphocytes, monocytes and nucleated red blood cells (RBCs) along with hemosiderin-containing macrophages. The morphology of lymphoid organs of the catfish has been discussed in light of the evolution of the immune system in this class of vertebrates.