Barbecued desi chicken: an investigation on the impact of polluted milieu upon formation and ingestion of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in commercial versus laboratory barbecued organs along with stochastic cancer risk assessments in people from an industrial district of Punjab,Pakistan

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - 8∑PAHs in 2- and 4-month-old desi chicken organs collected from Faisalabad district, Punjab, Pakistan, were examined via high-performance liquid...     

Social comfort zones for transformative conservation decisions in a changing climate

Novel management interventions intended to mitigate the impacts of climate change on biodiversity are increasingly being considered by scientists and practitioners. However, resistance to more transformative interventions remains common across both specialist and lay communities and is generally assumed to be strongly entrenched. We used a decision-pathways survey of the public in Canada and the United States (n = 1490) to test two propositions relating to climate-motivated interventions for conservation: most public groups are uncomfortable with interventionist options for conserving biodiversity and given the strong values basis for preferences regarding biodiversity and natural systems more broadly, people are unlikely to change their minds. Our pathways design tested and retested levels of comfort with interventions for forest ecosystems at three different points in the survey. Comfort was reexamined given different nudges (including new information from trusted experts) and in reference to a particular species (bristlecone pine [Pinus longaeva]). In contrast with expectations of public unease, baseline levels of public comfort with climate interventions in forests was moderately high (46% comfortable) and increased further when respondents were given new information and the opportunity to change their choice after consideration of a particular species. People who were initially comfortable with interventions tended to remain so (79%), whereas 42% of those who were initially uncomfortable and 40% of those who were uncertain shifted to comfortable by the end of the survey. In short and across questions, comfort levels with interventions were high, and where discomfort or uncertainty existed, such positions did not appear to be strongly held. We argue that a new decision logic, one based on anthropogenic responsibility, is beginning to replace a default reluctance to intervene with nature.     

Impregnation on activated carbon for removal of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and radioactive content

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare (NBC) agents cause an inevitable threat to defense forces and civilians. Exposure to these toxic agents...     

Decision framework for evaluating the macroeconomic risks and policy impacts of cyber attacks

Increased reliance on the Internet for critical infrastructure and the global nature of supply chains provides an opportunity for adversaries to leverage dependencies and gain access to vital infrastructure. Traditional approaches to assessing risk in the cyber domain, including estimation of impacts, fall short due to uncertainty in how interconnected systems react to cyber attack. This paper describes a method to represent the pathways of disruption propagation, evaluate the macroeconomic impact of cyber threats and aid in selecting among various cybersecurity policies. Based on state of the art agent-based modeling, multicriteria decision analysis, and macroeconomic modeling tools, this framework provides dynamic macroeconomic, demographic and fiscal insights regarding shocks caused by cyber attacks to the regional economy over time. The interlinkage of these models will provide a robust and adaptive system that allows policy makers to evaluate complex issues such as cybersecurity threats and their impacts on the geopolitical, social, environmental, and macroeconomic landscape.     

A study of spreading of crude oil in an ice channel

An oil spill on solid ice poses unique challenges to that of a spill on water or land. One challenge, which this study has elected to investigate, is the tendency of ice to crack and form channels. These channels are able to transport the oil away from the main mass of the spill making efficient cleanup difficult. Within the context of in situ burning, the oil channels may expedite the critical thickness of the oil spill being reached. A series of bench scale tests using a 100 cm long ice channel were conducted to study the effects of varying ice channel widths on the spread of an oil mixture, to mimic solid sea ice conditions that may be found in higher latitudes. Results suggest that spread rates of oil in ice channels approximately follows a viscous two-dimensional box model. The implication of these results on in situ burning of oil in icy conditions is discussed.     

Active Surveillance and Genetic Characterization of Prevalent Velogenic Newcastle Disease and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N8 Viruses Among Migratory Wild Birds in Southern Egypt During 2015–2018

Food and Environmental Virology - A total of 1007 samples (910 fecal droplets and 97 cloacal swabs) were collected from 14 species of migratory wild birds in most wetlands during 3 successive...     

Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 in Indoor Air of Sina and Shahid Beheshti Hospitals and Patients' Houses

Food and Environmental Virology - Side by side air sampling was conducted using a PTFE filter membrane as dry sampler and an impinger containing a suitable culture medium as a wet sampler. Most of...     

Polyphenols dynamics and phytotoxicity in a soil amended by olive mill wastewaters

The effects of unprocessed olive mill wastewaters (OMW) on soil characteristics were investigated. Phenolic compounds levels in the treated soil were compared to those of a control soil profile. Results showed that OMW infiltration caused a modification of soil physicochemical characteristics. Phenolic compounds were detected at a depth of 1.2m four months after the last application of OMW. A moderate phytotoxic residual phenolic fraction (F) was extracted from the superficial soil layer 1 year after the OMW application. This residual F had a phytotoxic potential comparable to that of 25-fold diluted OMW.