Organic pollution of the Büyük Menderes River,Turkey and effects on aquaculture

Water quality was measured at eight stations on the Buyuk Menderes River in Turkey (Ad?güzel dam, Yenice regülator, Sarayköy bridge, Feslek regülator, Yenipazar bridge, Ayd?n bridge, Koçarl? bridge, Söke regülator) between 2000 and 2013 in February, April, June, August, October and December. The resulting data were evaluated in terms of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen (DO), ammoniac–nitrogen (NH₃–N), nitrite–nitrogen (NO₂–N), nitrate–nitrogen (NO₃–N) and orthophosphate (o-PO₄) aquaculture. According to the analysis, while river water pollution generally varied during each year, samples from certain measurement points demonstrated high pollution levels throughout the year. In this study, water parameters were classified according to the “Turkish water pollution control regulation.” The studied parameters are also compared with TS 266 and WHO guidelines. While levels at Sarayköy station were generally higher than other stations, values at Ad?güzel dam were the lowest, giving it the best water quality of the eight stations. The highest values on a yearly basis were obtained in 2007 due to the severe drought in the Menderes basin within which irrigation water levels fell to 4255 m³/ha. The BOD, COD levels are the lowest in 2009 and highest in 2007; the DO level is lowest in 2007 and highest in 2009; NH₃–N, NO₂–N, and NO₃–N parameters are the lowest in 2007 and highest in 2009; and the o-PO₄ are at the lowest level in 2004 and seen as the highest in 2007. Analysis of the data was performed by SPSS 21 statistics program. One direction ANOVA was applied to the data, which were also subject to Tukey multiple comparison tests. Differences between groups were evaluated at p?<?0.05. Box–plot graphs were used to demonstrate the data distribution. In the study, it was analyzed, the effect of fish species and pollution involved in the Büyük Menderes River so far on fish species.     

Recycling of printed circuit board e-wastes: a combined study of pyrolysis characteristics,kinetics and evolved gas analyses at various particle sizes

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - The current study aimed to determine the characteristics and kinetic parameters for the pyrolysis of printed circuit board (PCB) wastes including...     

Development of an efficient and sensitive analytical method for the determination of copper at trace levels by slotted quartz tube atomic absorption spectrometry after vortex-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction in biota and water samples using a novel ligand

This study describes the determination of trace levels of copper by slotted quartz tube atomic absorption spectrometry after dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction. A ligand synthesized from the reaction of salicylaldehyde and 1-naphthylamine was used to form coordinate copper complex prior to extraction. All parameters that influence the output of complex formation, extraction, and instrumental measurement were optimized to enhance the absorbance signal of copper. Under the optimum conditions, about 104-fold enhancement in sensitivity was recorded over the conventional flame atomic absorption spectrometer, corresponding to a 0.51 ng/mL detection limit. The percent relative standard deviation calculated for the lowest concentration (4.8%) indicated high precision for the experimental procedure. Accuracy and applicability of the optimum method were determined by performing spiked recovery tests on urine, lake water, and mineral water samples. Satisfactory recovery results were obtained between 82.2 and 106.3% at four different concentrations. Matrix matching method was also performed to increase the accuracy of quantification, and the percent recovery calculated for 175 ng/mL was 105.14%.     

Solid waste management practices in Turkey

As an economically developing country, Turkey has very well operated integrated solid waste management applications structured on modern facilities, besides over 2,000 scattered open dump areas in the country. Integrated waste management applications seem eligible for the metropolitan cities like Istanbul and Izmit (Kocaeli). Attempts have not been encouraging for the scattered regional settlements using central storage sites due to financial shortages and received rejections from nearby settlements. Small-scale compact solid waste management systems with materials recycling and composting can be more suitable alternatives in the small-scale regional settlements. The major constituents of municipal solid waste are organic in nature and approximately a quarter of municipal solid waste is recyclable. Although paper, including cardboard, is the main constituent, the composition of recyclable waste varies strongly by the source or the type of collection point. Solid wastes need primary treatment in order to be suitable for incineration and composting. Turkey needs to give more emphasis on the usage of modern solid waste removal technologies to overcome the overgrowing solid waste disposal problems.     

Gender (in)difference in private offices: A holistic approach for assessing satisfaction and personalization

This research is a combination of gender studies, which highlights differences between men and women, and workplace research, which focuses on the performances that are assumed to affect employee satisfaction. The study proposes a multi-dimensional assessment model that enables consideration of several workplace issues in tandem. Focusing on user satisfaction, the first part of the study is a holistic approach concerned with technical, functional and behavioral variables that provides a broad understanding about gender (in)differences. Personalization, the core issue of the second part of the study, is measured through personal display items, autonomous behavior and office layout preferences of men and women employees. The findings indicate the presence of significant gender differences in terms of satisfaction felt with regard to the behavioral variables. The results also support previous findings indicating that men and women use different personal display items in order to personalize their offices. More women were diagnosed to be changing their room layout on a temporary basis whereas men and women were evidenced for having similar attitudes in making permanent changes and in preferring an office layout for themselves. The findings suggest that gender difference is still a valid subject in workplace research although the differences may not be as sharp as the conventional gender difference myth claims, implying a better understanding of the issues that differently satisfy men and women.     

Effects of environmental illiteracy and environmental awareness among middle school students on environmental behavior

This study proposes and employs a structural model to examine the effects of environmental literacy, environmental awareness, environmental attitudes, and environmental behavior among middle school students in Eski?ehir on their purchase of environmentally friendly products. In the proposed structural model, environmental illiteracy and environmental awareness were the exogenous latent variables, while pro-environmental attitude, pro-environmental behavior, and the purchase of environmentally friendly products were the endogenous latent variables. The latent variable of environmental illiteracy did not have a statistically significant effect on environmental attitudes and purchase of environmentally friendly products, whereas environmental awareness had a positive effect on pro-environmental attitudes and the purchase of environmentally friendly products. These findings indicate that students with environmental awareness also develop positive attitudes toward the environment, and the presence of a positive attitude toward the environment leads them to display pro-environmental behaviors and adopt a positive attitude toward environmentally friendly products.     

Nearest neighbor methods for testing reflexivity

Nearest neighbor (NN) methods are widely employed for drawing inferences about spatial point patterns of two or more classes. We introduce a method for testing reflexivity in the NN structure (i.e., NN reflexivity) based on a contingency table which will be called reflexivity contingency table (RCT) henceforth. The RCT is based on the NN relationships among the data points and was used for testing niche specificity in literature, but we demonstrate that it is actually more appropriate for testing the NN reflexivity pattern. We derive the asymptotic distribution of the entries of the RCT under random labeling and introduce tests of reflexivity based on these entries. We also consider Pielou’s approach on RCT and show that it is not appropriate for completely mapped spatial data. We determine the appropriate null hypotheses and the underlying conditions/assumptions required for all tests considered. We investigate the finite sample performance of the tests in terms of empirical size and power by extensive Monte Carlo simulations and illustrate the methods on two real-life ecological data sets.     

Multiple comparisons of organic,microbial, and fine particulate pollutants in typical indoor environments: Diurnal and seasonal variations

This study was performed to investigate the possible sources as well as seasonal and diurnal variations of indoor air pollutants in widely used four different environments (house, office, kindergarten, and primary school) in which people spend most of their time. Bioaerosol levels and species, volatile organic compound (VOC) levels, and PM_2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 μm) levels were determined in different parts of these environments in parallel with outdoor sampling. Air pollution samplings were carried out in each microenvironment during five subsequent days in both winter and summer in Ankara, Turkey. The results indicated that bioaerosol, VOC, and PM_2.5 levels were higher in the winter than in the summer. Moreover, PM_2.5 and bioaerosol levels showed remarkable daily and diurnal variations, whereas a good correlation was found between the VOC levels measured in the morning and in the afternoon. Bacteria levels were, in general, higher than fungi levels. Among the VOCs, toluene was the most predominant, whereas elevated n-hexane levels were also observed in the kindergarten and the primary school, probably due to the frequent wet cleaning during school days. According to factor analysis, several factors were found to be significantly influencing the indoor air quality (IAQ), and amongst them, VOC-based products used indoors ranked first. The overall results indicate that grab sampling in naturally ventilated places may overestimate or underestimate the IAQ due to the inhomogeneous composition of indoor air caused by irregular exchanges with the outdoor air according to the season and/or occupants' habits.

Implications Seasonal and diurnal variations of VOCs, PM_2.5, bioaerosols in house, office, and schools were observed, in which PM_2.5 and bioaeorosols showed marked both intra- and interday variability, but VOCs did not. VOC-containing products were the most common source of air pollutants affecting the indoor air quality. External factors affecting the indoor air quality were season and indirectly ventilation. A grab sample cannot be representative in evaluating the air quality of a naturally ventilated environment precisely.     

Petroleum hydrocarbon contamination of the Southern Black Sea Shelf, Turkey

Introduction  

In this study, total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) contents and some aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations were analysed in coastal sediments of hot points collected from along the Southern Black Sea Shelf.     

Review of environmental aspects and waste management of stone cutting and fabrication industries

Iran is the second largest stockholder of construction stones with 10 % of world production ;and there are more than 4000 stone cutting and fabrication industries (SCFIs). In the processing of raw stones, a considerable part of stone is turned into waste. Generated wastes include excess parts of different stones and sludge. The present paper reviews the state of SCFIs waste management using multiple data sources including site, analysis of effluent and sludge samples, and conducting interviews with people who are involved in 286 SCFIs in Qom and Tabriz. The results revealed that currently almost 35 to 52.5 % of raw stones were converted to solid wastes depending on stone cutting and processing methods, type of stones and their quality, which seemed a high percentage. Also, the effluents between 0.8 and 2.8 m³ were generated per ton of processed stone. Based on the analysis of heavy metals with atomic absorption spectroscopy, sludge samples contained a considerable amount of Pb, Cu, Cr, and Cd. It was also found that the lack of specific recycling, reuse and disposal programs and suitable supervision has led to uncontrolled disposal of stone wastes and sludge in different areas. However, there are good opportunities for reuse and recycling of the SCFIs wastes.