How do local communities adapt to climate changes along heavily damaged coasts? A Stakeholder Delphi study in Ky Anh (Central Vietnam)

The Central Vietnamese coast faces increasing impacts on the local livelihoods of coastal communities as a result of the increasing natural hazards which include tropical storms, heavy rains, and floods. A challenge for the local populations is improving their adaptation capacity to climate change hazards in a sustainable way. This study deals with the impacts of climate change-associated hazards and adaptation capacity in coastal communes of the Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province along the coast in Central Vietnam. A combination of the Stakeholder Delphi technique and the DPSIR (drivers–pressures–states–impacts–responses) framework was used. Delphi questionnaires allowed assessing the consensus among the respondents of a stakeholder group. Twenty questions and 20 statements were listed reflecting the DPSIR components. Thirty-six panel members, which were randomly selected from four stakeholder groups which included local authorities, farmers, fishermen, and fish traders, were involved in a two-round Delphi process. The results show that, both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors are main drivers (D); migration, calamities, population growth, mineral mining, aquaculture processing, and agriculture are main pressures (P); changes in the frequency of extreme weather events, increasing intensity of storms, floods, and droughts indicate main states (S); changes in agricultural land use and productivity are main impacts (I); construction of and upgrading dykes and irrigation systems should be the principal responses (R) in the vision of the local stakeholders. The Kendall’s W value for the second round is 0.681, indicating a high degree of consensus among the panel members and confidence in the ranks. Overall, the study advocates developing sustainable ecosystems, an upgraded New Rural Planning, and renewable energy strategies as the main local adaptations to climate change hazards in this area.     

Interfacial-engineered CoTiO3-based composite for photocatalytic applications: a review

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Photocatalysis is a green chemical process that could partly solve energy and pollution issues. Catalysts such as cobalt titanate, CoTiO3, have intrigued...     

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in plastic products,indoor dust,sediment and fish from informal e-waste recycling sites in Vietnam: a comprehensive assessment of contamination,accumulation pattern,emissions, and human exposure

Residue concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in different kinds of samples including consumer products, indoor dust, sediment and fish collected from two e-waste recycling sites, and some industrial, urban and suburban areas in Vietnam were determined to provide a comprehensive assessment of the contamination levels, accumulation pattern, emission potential and human exposure through dust ingestion and fish consumption. There was a large variation of PBDE levels in plastic parts of obsolete electronic equipment (from 1730 to 97,300 ng/g), which is a common result observed in consumer plastic products reported elsewhere. PBDE levels in indoor dust samples collected from e-waste recycling sites ranged from 250 to 8740 ng/g, which were markedly higher than those in industrial areas and household offices. Emission rate of PBDEs from plastic parts of disposed electronic equipment to dust was estimated to be in a range from 3.4 × 10^?7 to 1.2 × 10^?5 (year^?1) for total PBDEs and from 2.9 × 10^?7 to 7.2 × 10^?6 (year^?1) for BDE-209. Some fish species collected from ponds in e-waste recycling villages contained elevated levels of PBDEs, especially BDE-209, which were markedly higher than those in fish previously reported. Overall, levels and patterns of PBDE accumulation in different kinds of samples suggest significant emission from e-waste sites and that these areas are potential sources of PBDE contamination. Intakes of PBDEs via fish consumption were generally higher than those estimated through dust ingestion. Intake of BDE-99 and BDE-209 through dust ingestion contributes a large proportion due to higher concentrations in dust and fish. Body weight normalized daily intake through dust ingestion estimated for the e-waste recycling sites (0.10–3.46 ng/day/kg body wt.) were in a high range as compared to those reported in other countries. Our results highlight the potential releases of PBDEs from informal recycling activities and the high degree of human exposure and suggest the need for continuous investigations on environmental pollution and toxic impacts of e-waste-related hazardous chemicals.     

Mercury recycling technologies in its’ end-of-life management: a review

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Mercury (Hg) is a naturally occurring chemical found in rock and coal deposits that can exist in various forms, including elemental Hg, inorganic...     

Bioelectrochemical technology for recovery of silver from contaminated aqueous solution: a review

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - A large amount of silver-rich wastewater is generated from different industrial processes. This wastewater is not considered a waste, but a valuable...     

Application of soft computing to predict water quality in wetland

Prediction of water quality is a critical issue because of its significant impact on human and ecosystem health. This research aims to predict water quality index (WQI) for the free surface wetland using three soft computing techniques namely, adaptive neuro-fuzzy system (ANFIS), artificial neural networks (ANNs), and group method of data handling (GMDH). Seventeen wetland points for a period of 14 months were considered for monitoring water quality parameters including conductivity, suspended solid (SS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), ammoniacal nitrogen (AN), chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen (DO), temperature, pH, phosphate nitrite, and nitrate. The sensitivity analysis performed by ANFIS indicates that the significant parameters to predict WQI are pH, COD, AN, and SS. The results indicated that ANFIS with Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE = 0.9634) and mean absolute error (MAE = 0.0219) has better performance to predict the WQI comparing with ANNs (NSE = 0.9617 and MAE = 0.0222) and GMDH (NSE = 0.9594 and MAE = 0.0245) models. However, ANNs provided a comparable prediction and the GMDH can be considered as a technique with an acceptable prediction for practical purposes. The findings of this study could be used as an effective reference for policy makers in the field of water resource management. Decreasing variables, reduction of running time, and high speed of these approaches are the most important reasons to employ them in any aquatic environment worldwide.

     

Experiences from a Community Nature Project in a Housing Estate in Singapore

A city farm concept called the Nature Corner project, which involves both animals and plants, was initiated in Ghim Moh housing estate, Singapore, in 1997. The objectives of the community project were to introduce nature to residents and to encourage social interaction. The paper analyses the project's set-up, assesses the funding, maintenance and other issues involved and discusses the findings of a 1998 sample survey of users and non-users of the project. It was found from the survey that the project has been quite successful in introducing nature to users but less successful in encouraging social interaction among them.     

分散元素镉的资源概况及其研究意义──来自牛角塘铅锌矿的线索

镉是一种分散元素，不易高度富集成矿，主要作为铅锌矿的伴生组分产出。我国拥有丰富的镉矿资源。牛角塘铅锌矿床高度富镉，矿石中的镉含量很少低于300×10－6，最高可达14300×10－6．闪锌矿中一般大干5000×10－6。镉的高度富集表明了镉在该矿区有着独特的地球化学行为，因而牛角也铅锌矿床是研究分散元素镉的地球化学行为的理想矿床。但是，镉的高度富集也是牛角塘地区环境的隐患（镉有剧毒）。故应采取合理的措施，以达到既充分利用矿产资源又不造成环境污染的目的。     

Dioxin induces expression of hsa-miR-146b-5p in human neuroblastoma cells

Dioxin can cause a series of neural toxicological effects. Micro RNAs(mi Rs) play important roles in regulating nervous system function and mediating cellular responses to environmental pollutants, such as dioxin. Hsa-mi R-146 b-5 p appears to be involved in neurodegenerative diseases and brain tumors. However, little is known about effects of dioxin on the expression of hsa-mi R-146 b-5 p. We found that the hsa-mi R-146 b-5 p expression and its promoter activity were significantly increased in dioxin treated SK-N-SH cells, a human-derived neuroblastoma cell line. Potential roles of hsa-mi R-146 b-5 p in mediating neural toxicological effects of dioxin may be due to the regulation of certain target genes. We further confirmed that hsa-mi R-146 b-5 p significantly suppressed acetylcholinesterase(ACh E) activity and targeted the3′-untranslated region of the ACh E T subunit, which has been down-regulated in dioxin treated SK-N-SH cells. Functional bioinformatic analysis showed that the known and predicted target genes of hsa-mi R-146 b-5 p were involved in some brain functions or cyto-toxicities related to known dioxin effects, including synapse transmission, in which ACh E may serve as a responsive gene for mediating the effect.     

草酸促进双酚A在黏土矿物悬浮液中光降解研究

选择两种常见的天然黏土矿物高岭石和蒙脱石,研究了有机污染物双酚A(BPA)在其表面的吸附及草酸对黏土矿物悬浮液中BPA光降解的影响.结果表明,BPA在两种黏土矿物表面的吸附量较小,吸附符合Langmuir等温式.在250W金属卤化物灯(λ≥360nm)照射下,草酸可显著促进BPA在高岭石和蒙脱石悬浮液中的光降解,降解动力学符合Langmuir-Hinshelwood方程. 降解速率受pH值的影响较大,pH=4.0时速度最快,光降解速率同时受草酸浓度的影响.最后,通过分析矿物中铁的化学环境及反应过程中铁浓度变化,分析了草酸促进BPA在黏土矿物悬浮液中光降解的可能机制.