Use of biochar for the sorption of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from cattle manure

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The ability of biochar to be used as filter or as additive for the adsorption of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from cattle manure is...     

Human mortality in Cyprus: the role of temperature and particulate air pollution

Climatic change results in increased occurrence of heat waves, and the thermal stress caused by such phenomena is leading to higher levels of heat-related mortality worldwide. This study is the first to examine the effect of extreme weather on mortality in Cyprus. It investigates the individual effect of meteorological indicators on mortality, as well as the role of particulate air pollution (PM₁₀). A generalized linear model (GLM) with quasi-Poisson regression was implemented. GLM included a temperature function and was adjusted for relative humidity and seasonality. The temperature function was developed under a newly developed framework of distributed lag nonlinear models, which capture nonlinearities and delayed effects of heat simultaneously. GLM was extended to examine the confounding effect of air pollution. All the results on heat effects are presented. High temperatures had a significant effect on mortality with increased mortality rates, independent of humidity and seasonality. Mortality risk increased steeply above a temperature threshold. A direct heat effect was shown, with higher risk on the current and next day of a severe heat event. PM₁₀ was not found to have a confounding effect on the temperature–mortality relationship, since the strength of this relationship remained after the inclusion of PM₁₀ in the model. Differences existed between urban and coastal areas.     

Mixture of paraquat and linuron formulations examined for genotoxicity in Wistar rats by the in vivo micronucleus test--evaluation by different statistical tests

The purposes of the present study were the evaluation of the genotoxic effect of mixture of paraquat and linuron commercial formulations. the evaluation of the possible interaction between the two pesticides and the comparison of different statistical tests used for the data analysis. For this purposes the bone marrow micronucleus test was used. Dose levels were determined in the base of the LD50 of each component. According the experimental design, three dose levels of the mixture were administered at groups of five Wistar rats from each sex. Sampling time was 24 h for all groups plus 48 h for the highest dose and the positive control groups. In addition, the formulations were studied separately at two dose levels. Cyclophosphamide was used as positive control. For the statistical analysis of the results different parametric and nonparametric tests were used. The mixture of the two pesticides under the study conditions was not proven to be genotoxic. However, cytotoxicity and no signs of interaction were indicated. Minor declinations between the statistical tests used for data analysis observed.     

Spatial Patterns for Watersheds Erosion

This article describes a simultaneously autoregressive model applied to the erosion data collected at 17 natural lake watersheds in Greece. The methodology considers spatially correlated random area effects taking into account the information provided by neighbouring torrents/streams. The article discusses the gain obtained from modelling the spatial correlation among small area random effects useful in representing the unexplained variation of the small area target quantities.