Photoactivation and photoregeneration of TiO2/PAC mixture applied in suspension in water treatments: approach to a real application

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The process TiO2/PAC/UV-vis has been under study and compared with the isolated treatments of adsorption and photocatalysis determining possible...     

Inflammation biomarkers associated with arsenic exposure by drinking water and respiratory outcomes in indigenous children from three Yaqui villages in southern Sonora,México

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Environmental arsenic exposure in adults and children has been associated with a reduction in the expression of club cell secretory protein (CC16) and...     

Hg concentrations and stable isotope variations in tropical fish species of a gold-mining-impacted watershed in French Guiana

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The aim of the study was to determine if gold-mining activities could impact the mercury (Hg) concentrations and isotopic signatures in freshwater...     

梁平县境内高滩河水质的空间分布及其对土地利用方式的响应

以梁平县境内高滩河流域为研究对象,综合应用GIS空间分析、Pearson相关分析和RDA冗余分析方法,研究在子流域尺度上COD、BOD5、氨氮和总磷4种水质要素对土地利用方式的生态响应。结果表明:高滩河流域土地利用类型对水质要素有着重要影响,林地能够改善河道水环境,旱地和城镇村和工矿用地是COD、BOD5和氨氮的主要污染来源,园地、交通运输用地以及水域对污染物的影响较弱,说明农业面源污染和农村居民生活污染是高滩河水质恶化的主要原因。     

Traffic behaviour among adolescents using mopeds and light motorcycles

INTRODUCTION: Motorcycling is recognized to be a relatively risky activity. Powered two wheelers (PTW) are classified as mopeds, light, and heavy motorcycles, the first two categories being denoted light PTWs. This paper reviews the scientific literature on accident risks and traffic behavior among users of light PTWs with the aim of clarifying the current state of knowledge. METHOD: Based on a risk analytical and an anthropological perspective on motorcycling, the paper discusses the significance of cultural and social factors as important aspects of safety. More targeted and effective safety measures, for example better training programs, are needed to prevent motorcycle accidents. This means developing a deeper understanding of the rider as an individual, and the individuals within different groups and settings. Why and how motorcyclists approach the road, its function as a social arena, the varieties of goals and values, and the motorcyclists' own perceptions of the behavior that ensures their "achievements" or "successes", are some of the issues. Today, this kind of knowledge is scarce and almost entirely absent from the scientific literature. RESULTS: We conclude that the massive quantities of data on numbers of accidents, the categorization of situations, the causal explanations related to speed, gender, age, lack of concentration so forth, can only be employed as support for safety measures as long as they are linked to social and cultural factors. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Risk informed decision making has become an integral part of authorities' and manufacturers' implementation of safety measures. This tendency is strengthened by the fact that the responsibility of product safety rests upon the manufacturers, cf. for example EU safety regulations. Therefore it is paramount that a thorough understanding of social and cultural factors related to the PTW driving is necessary for the industry to develop targeted and efficient safety measures.     

A new THOR shoulder design: a comparison with volunteers, the Hybrid III, and THOR NT

OBJECTIVE: Since the shoulders are rarely seriously injured in frontal or oblique collisions, they have been given low priority in the development of frontal impact crash test dummies. The shoulder complex geometry and its kinematics are of vital importance for the overall dummy kinematics. The shoulder complex also influences the risk of the safety belt slipping off the shoulder in oblique forward collisions. The first aim of this study was to develop a new 50th percentile male THOR shoulder design, while the second was to compare the new shoulder, mounted on a THOR NT dummy, with volunteer, THOR NT, and Hybrid III range of motion and stiffness data. The third aim was to test the repeatability of the new shoulder during dynamic testing and to see how the design behaves with respect to belt slippage in a 45 degrees far-side collision. METHODS: The new 50th percentile THOR shoulder design was developed with the aid of a shell model of the seated University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) 50th percentile male with coordinates for joints and bony landmarks (Schneider et al., 1983). The new shoulder design has human-like bony landmarks for the acromion and coracoid processes. The clavicle curvature and length are also made similar to that of a male human, as is the range of motion in the anterior-posterior, superior-inferior, and medial-lateral directions. The new shoulder design was manufactured and tested under the same conditions that T?rnvall et al. (2005b) used to compare the shoulder range of motion for the volunteers, Hybrid III, and THOR Alpha. The new design was also tested in two dynamic test configurations: the first was a 0 degrees full-frontal test and the second was a 45 degrees far-side test. The dummy tests were conducted with an R-16 seat with a three-point belt, the Delta V was 27.0+/-0.5 km/h and the maximum peak acceleration was approximately 14.6+/-0.5 g for each test. RESULTS: A new shoulder design with geometry close to that of humans was developed to be retrofitted to the THOR NT dummy. The results showed that the range of motion for the new shoulder complex during static loading was larger by at least a factor of three, for the maximum load (200 N/arm), than that of either the Hybrid III or the THOR NT; this means it was more similar to the volunteers' range of motion. It was observed that the THOR NT with the new shoulder did not slide out of the shoulder belt during a far-side collision. The performance of the new shoulder was reasonably repeatable and stable during both the static tests and the sled tests. CONCLUSION: A new shoulder for the THOR NT has been designed and developed, and data from static range of motion tests and sled tests indicate that the new shoulder complex has the potential to function in a more human-like manner on the THOR dummy.     

Experience,but not distance,influences the recruitment precision in the stingless bee <Emphasis Type="Italic">Scaptotrigona mexicana</Emphasis>

Recruitment precision, i.e. the proportion of recruits that reach an advertised food source, is a crucial adaptation of social bees to their environment. Studies with honeybees showed that recruitment precision is not a fixed feature, but it may be enhanced by factors like experience and distance. However, little is known regarding the recruitment precision of stingless bees. Hence, in this study, we examined the effects of experience and spatial distance on the precision of the food communication system of the stingless bee Scaptotrigona mexicana. We conducted the experiments by training bees to a three-dimensional artificial patch at several distances from the colony. We recorded the choices of individual recruited foragers, either being newcomers (foragers without experience with the advertised food source) or experienced (foragers that had previously visited the feeder). We found that the average precision of newcomers (95.6 ± 2.61%) was significantly higher than that of experienced bees (80.2 ± 1.12%). While this might seem counter-intuitive on first sight, this “loss” of precision can be explained by the tendency of experienced recruits to explore nearby areas to find new rewarding food sources after they had initially learned the exact location of the food source. Increasing the distance from the colony had no significant effect on the precision of the foraging bees. Thus, our data show that experience, but not the distance of the food source, affected the patch precision of S. mexicana foragers.     

中国地区经济差距及其演化的产业变动因素

20世纪90年代以来中国地区经济差距扩大具有深刻的产业变动原因。以人均GDP为基本指标,通过对基尼系数进行产业分解和对泰尔指数进行地区分解,深刻分析了1990~2004年中国地区经济差距的动态变化、地区构成和产业构成,揭示了中国地区经济差距及其演变的产业结构变动与产业地区集中因素。结果表明,1990年以来中国地区经济差距的决定性因素是第二产业发展水平的地区差距,而非农产业向东部沿海地区的集中又是推动中国地区经济差距扩大的主导性因素。20世纪90年代以来,随着以制造业为主的非农产业向东部沿海地区集中,中西部地区逐渐沦落为以农业与采掘业为主的外围区域,中国的地区经济差距也由此持续扩大。基于此,认为缩小地区差距的关键是推进中西部地区制造业发展,缓解非农产业地区分布的不平衡状况。     

Natural and man-made organobromine compounds in marine biota from Central Norway

Brominated organic pollutants were found in selected samples of mollusk tissue, fish liver, as well as in the eggs and livers of shag from three sites in Central Norway. More than 80 organobromines were identified owing to the defined isotope ratio acquired by GC/ECNI-MS. However, only a few peaks could be assigned to anthropogenic brominated flame retardants (polybrominated diphenyl ethers). Most of the organobromine compounds detected were unknown or halogenated natural products. The known halogenated natural products MHC-1 and TBA were abundant in all samples and usually between equally abundant, and up to 50 fold more concentrated than the major polybrominated diphenyl ether congener BDE 47. The halogenated natural products BC-2 (2-MeO-BDE 68) and BC-3 (6'-MeO-BDE 47), were on level with BDE 100 which was the second most abundant BDE congener in many samples. The previously identified natural polybrominated hexahydroxanthene derivatives (PBHDs) were detected for the first time in bird eggs. Being major contaminants in bird eggs, PBHDs were only present at low levels in bird liver from nestlings originating from the same clutch. Such differences were detected for several other major contaminants. One unknown tetrabromo compound particularly abundant in mussels from Munkholmen was studied by GC/MS and the molecular ion was detected at m/z 446. The abundance of the most important unknown compounds did not correlate with BDEs and they most likely represent halogenated natural products. This study supports that halogenated natural products have to be treated as serious contaminants of marine coastal waters. Our data suggest that their abundance is highest in habitats along the shoreline. Thorough examination of these compounds in environmental samples is an important task.     

Insights into the role of age and social interactions on the sexual attractiveness of queens in an eusocial bee, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Melipona flavolineata</Emphasis> (Apidae,Meliponini)

The attraction of sexual partners is a vital necessity among insects, and it involves conflict of interests and complex communication systems among male and female. In this study, we investigated the developing of sexual attractiveness in virgin queens (i.e., gynes) of Melipona flavolineata, an eusocial stingless bee. We followed the development of sexual attractiveness in 64 gynes, belonging to seven age classes (0, 3, 6, 9, 15, 18 days post-emergence), and we also evaluated the effect of different social interactions (such as competition between queens and interactions with workers) on the development of attractiveness in other 60 gynes. We used the number of males that tried to mate with a focal gyne as a representative variable of its sexual attractiveness. During the essays, each gyne was individually presented to 10 sexually mature males, and during 3 min, we counted the number of males that everted their genitalia in response to the presence of a gyne. Here, we show that M. flavolineata gynes are capable to (i) maintain their sexual attractiveness for long periods through adult life, (ii) they need a minimum social interaction to trigger the development of sexual attractiveness, and (iii) that gynes express this trait only within a social context. We conclude that the effective occurrence of matings is conditional on potential social interactions that gynes experienced before taking the nuptial flight, when they are still in the nest. These findings bring insights into the factors determining reproductive success in social insects.