Oyster Contamination with Human Noroviruses Impacted by Urban Drainage and Seasonal Flooding in Vietnam

This study investigated the level of norovirus contamination in oysters collected at a lagoon receiving urban drainage from Hue City for 17 months (August 2015–December 2016). We also investigated the genetic diversity of norovirus GI and GII in oyster and wastewater samples by using pyrosequencing to evaluate the effect of urban drainage on norovirus contamination of oysters. A total of 34 oyster samples were collected at two sampling sites (stations A and B) in a lagoon. Norovirus GI was more frequently detected than GII (positive rate 79 vs. 41%). Maximum concentrations of GI and GII were 2.4 × 10⁵ and 2.3 × 10⁴ copies/g, respectively. Co-contamination with GI and GII was observed in 35% of samples. Norovirus GII concentration was higher at station A in the flood season than in the dry season (P = 0.04, Wilcoxon signed-rank test). Six genotypes (GI.2, GI.3, GI.5, GII.2, GII.3, and GII.4) were identified in both wastewater and oyster samples, and genetically similar or identical sequences were obtained from the two types of samples. These observations suggest that urban drainage and seasonal flooding contribute to norovirus contamination of oysters in the study area.     

Application of nanoparticle tracking analysis for characterising the fate of engineered nanoparticles in sediment-water systems

Novel applications of nanotechnology may lead to the release of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs), which result in concerns over their potential environmental hazardous impact. It is essential for the research workers to be able to quantitatively characterise ENPs in the environment and subsequently to assist the risk assessment of the ENPs. This study hence explored the application of nanoparticle tracking system (NTA) to quantitatively describe the behaviour of the ENPs in natural sediment-water systems. The NTA allows the measurement of both particle number concentration (PNC) and particle size distribution (PSD) of the ENPs. The developed NTA method was applied to a range of gold and magnetite ENPs with a selection of surface properties. The results showed that the positively-charged ENPs interacted more strongly with the sediment than neutral and negatively-charged ENPs. It was also found that the citrate coated Au ENPs had a higher distribution percentage (53%) than 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid coated Au ENPs (20%) and citrate coated magnetite ENPs (21%). The principles of the electrostatic interactions between hard (and soft) acids and bases (HSAB) are used to explain such behaviours; the hard base coating (i.e. citrate ions) will interact more strongly with hard acid (i.e. magnetite) than soft acid (i.e. gold). The results indicate that NTA is a complementary method to existing approaches to characterise the fate and behaviour of ENPs in natural sediment.     

Major challenges of integrating agriculture into climate change mitigation policy frameworks

Taking the European Union (EU) as a case study, we simulate the application of non-uniform national mitigation targets to achieve a sectoral reduction in agricultural non-carbon dioxide (CO₂) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Scenario results show substantial impacts on EU agricultural production, in particular, the livestock sector. Significant increases in imports and decreases in exports result in rather moderate domestic consumption impacts but induce production increases in non-EU countries that are associated with considerable emission leakage effects. The results underline four major challenges for the general integration of agriculture into national and global climate change mitigation policy frameworks and strategies, as they strengthen requests for (1) a targeted but flexible implementation of mitigation obligations at national and global level and (2) the need for a wider consideration of technological mitigation options. The results also indicate that a globally effective reduction in agricultural emissions requires (3) multilateral commitments for agriculture to limit emission leakage and may have to (4) consider options that tackle the reduction in GHG emissions from the consumption side.     

Management and Limnology Interact to Drive Water Temperature Patterns in a Middle Rockies River‐Reservoir System

This study seeks to improve understanding of temperature patterns in reservoir outflows. We examined water temperatures in an irrigation storage reservoir, Island Park Reservoir, and its outflow, Henry’s Fork of the Snake River in eastern Idaho. Our objectives were to (1) quantify the extent to which daily temperature ranges in the reservoir outflow deviated from other reaches of the Henry’s Fork, and (2) test whether the reservoir’s net volume change during the summer — expressed as the volume of water remaining in the reservoir on September 1 — predicted mean summer temperature in the outflow. Two years of temperature data showed dampened diel temperature cycles in the reservoir outflow. Model selection with 17 years of climatic, hydrologic, and reservoir management variables found mean summer temperature in the outflow was best predicted by September 1 reservoir volume and average summer air temperature. Two years of weekly reservoir thermal profiles indicated large changes in reservoir volume eliminated cool hypolimnetic water and encouraged mixing, allowing warm epilimnetic water to be discharged into the outflow. Increases in future drought frequency and severity and increases in summer air temperatures could increase the frequency of occurrence of high mean summertime water temperatures in the outflow. Our study provides important information for local managers by quantifying influences on outflow temperatures and the downstream river ecosystem.     

A dynamic simulation of methane fermentation process receiving heterogeneous food wastes and modelling acidic failure

Microbial response on volatile fatty acids (VFAs) is a key for methane fermentation processes since accumulation of VFAs often causes an acidic failure, especially treating such organics as food wastes composed of mostly readily biodegradable materials. To evaluate the impact of VFA accumulation, a lab-scale continuous experiment was performed for 110 days with sequential feeding of heterogeneous food wastes. When the volumetric loading rate was increased from 6 to 8 kg-COD/m³/day, a sudden decrease of methane production was observed with an accumulation of acetate and propionate in the fermenter. After discontinuation of feeding for 10 days, the digestate in the fermenter was centrifuged and washed with tap water to reduce the VFAs to be acceptable concentration below 1000 mg-COD/L. Nevertheless, no recovery of methane production was observed and VFA concentrations consistently increased. To model the event, a modification of ADM1 was made assuming the methanogens in the fermenter were irreversibly inactivated under very high VFA. Also considering the different nature of the fed food wastes over 11 samples, decomposition kinetics of individual food wastes were manipulated. The modified ADM1 with methanogenic activity decay reasonably reproduced the responses for soluble material concentrations and methane gas production rate over the experimental period.     

Assumptions beyond the science: encouraging cautious conclusions about functional magnetic resonance imaging research on organizational behavior

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is likely to become the major tool for studying the neural underpinnings of organizational behavior. It is a technique for brain imaging that, according to advocates, provides information about which areas of the brain are activated during organizational processes (e.g., leadership and decision‐making). In this article, we take a critical look at this tool from a technical perspective. In particular, we take the reader through the assumptions that must be made at the three main steps of the research process (study design, data capture, and interpretation of results) in order to draw conclusions about organizational phenomena from fMRI research. Applying this analysis to three case studies demonstrates the gap between what fMRI can actually tell us and the claims often made about the contribution of fMRI to understanding and improving organizational behavior. Our discussion provides researchers with a series of recommendations oriented toward optimizing the use of fMRI to help it live up to its potential in the field of organizational behavior and consumers with a means of evaluating fMRI research in order to draw appropriate and warranted conclusions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Storm impacts along European coastlines. Part 2: lessons learned from the MICORE project

This paper describes the MICORE approach to quantify for nine field sites the crucial storm related physical hazards (hydrodynamic as well as morphodynamic) in support of early warning efforts and emergency response.As a first step historical storms that had a significant morphological impact on a representative number of sensitive European coastal stretches were reviewed and analysed in order to understand storm related morphological changes and how often they occur around Europe. Next, an on-line storm prediction system was set up to enable prediction of storm related hydro- and morphodynamic impacts. The system makes use of existing off-the-shelf models as well as a new open-source morphological model. To validate the models at least one year of fieldwork was done at nine pilot sites. The data was safeguarded and stored for future use in an open database that conforms to the OpenEarth protocols.To translate quantitative model results to useful information for Civil Protection agencies the Frame of Reference approach ( [Van Koningsveld et al., 2005] and [Van Koningsveld et al., 2007] ) was used to derive Storm Impact Indicators (SIIs) for relevant decision makers. The acquired knowledge is expected to be directly transferred to the civil society trough partnerships with end-users at the end of the MICORE project.     

Indicators for change: Taking a lead

The authors argue that sustainable development is a political concept arising from interactions between socio-economic and physical systems. As such, political values are implicit in many qualitative aspects of sustainability and its communication through indicators. In Great Britain, local government has played the lead role in Local Agenda 21, involving interest groups and community organisations in varying degrees, through public participation. However, the need for local solutions to sustainability problems also exists in Northern Ireland, where governmental bodies are unwilling or unable to accept responsibility for Local Agenda 21. In the Northern Ireland context, the evolving role of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the community sector in the indicators issue has been markedly different to that in the rest of the UK. There are potential problems concerning political values and mandates when the NGO/community sector assumes the lead in such tasks. The authors argue that, while criticisms of explicit and/or implied political values can be well grounded, addressing these must go beyond questions of objectivity in collection and presentation of indicators and projects must be understood by developing feedback and review mechanisms. The authors review the Northern Ireland sustainability indicators project and evaluate the feedback procedures in place. Lessons learnt from this exercise are explored with reference to (i) the current organisation of Local Agenda 21 within local government in Northern Ireland and (ii) national and international parallels.     

Trophic ecology of Rimicaris exoculata : a combined lipid abundance/stable isotope approach

The alvinocaridid shrimp Rimicaris exoculata is an abundant component of the biota of Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal vents. To determine the nutritional strategy of this organism, we analysed the molecular abundance and carbon isotopic composition of its phospholipid fatty acids. High abundances of n-7 fatty acids (>40% total fatty acids) were observed in R. exoculata muscle tissues, in bacterial epibionts scraped from its gill bailers, and from the bacterially infested metal sulphides that the shrimp ingest. The phospholipid fatty acid abundance data indicates that the bacteria in the sulphides are closely related to the bacterial epibiota inhabiting the shrimp gill bailers, carapace and other body parts. Compound specific δ¹³C analyses of the phospholipid fatty acids gave average values of −12‰ for the epibiont bacteria and −21‰ for the sulphide bacteria. This difference may be largely due to the expression of different forms of RuBisCO (Forms I and II) which fractionate against ¹³C to different extents. Carbon limitation within the shrimp epibiont population may be an additional factor. The δ¹³C values (mean = −13‰) of the saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids isolated from the muscle tissues of R. exoculata were very close to those of the epibionts, indicating that the predominant source of dietary carbon for the shrimp is their epibionts, with a lesser contribution from free-living bacteria. The δ¹³C values (−26‰) of shrimp cholesterol were much more negative than those of the fatty acids, and this cholesterol is likely to have derived from the oceanic photic zone. Received: 26 June 1997 / Accepted: 6 November 1998     

Patient demands,lack of reciprocity,and burnout: a five‐year longitudinal study among general practitioners

This study among a sample of 207 general practitioners (GPs) uses a five‐year longitudinal design to test a process model of burnout. On the basis of social exchange and equity theory, it is hypothesized and found that demanding patient contacts produce a lack of reciprocity in the GP–patient relationship, which, in turn, depletes GPs' emotional resources and initiates the burnout syndrome. More specifically, structural equation analyses confirmed that—both at T1 and T2—lack of reciprocity mediates the impact of patient demands on emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion, in turn, evokes negative attitudes toward patients (depersonalization), and toward oneself in relation to the job (reduced personal accomplishment). Moreover, this process model of burnout was confirmed at T2, even after controlling for T1‐scores on each of the model components. Finally, T1 depersonalization predicted the intensity and frequency of T2 patient demands, after controlling for T1 patient demands. This major finding suggests that GPs who attempt to gain emotional distance from their patients as a way of coping with their exhaustion, evoke demanding and threatening patient behaviors themselves. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.