The effects of bisphenol A given in ovo on bursa of Fabricius development and percentage of acid phosphatase positive lymphocyte in chicken

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Bisphenol A (BPA), one of the endocrine disrupting chemicals, is the object of great concern because of its widespread use throughout the world. In...     

Ethanol mediated As(III) adsorption onto Zn-loaded pinecone biochar: Experimental investigation, modeling, and optimization using hybrid artificial neural network-genetic algorithm approach

Organic matters (OMs) and their oxidization products often influence the fate and transport of heavy metals in the subsurface aqueous systems through interaction with the mineral surfaces. This study investigates the ethanol (EtOH)-mediated As(III) adsorption onto Zn-loaded pinecone (PC) biochar through batch experiments conducted under Box–Behnken design. The effect of EtOH on As(III) adsorption mechanism was quantitatively elucidated by fitting the experimental data using artificial neural network and quadratic modeling approaches. The quadratic model could describe the limiting nature of EtOH and pH on As(III) adsorption, whereas neural network revealed the stronger influence of EtOH (64.5%) followed by pH (20.75%) and As(III) concentration (14.75%) on the adsorption phenomena. Besides, the interaction among process variables indicated that EtOH enhances As(III) adsorption over a pH range of 2 to 7, possibly due to facilitation of ligand–metal(Zn) binding complexation mechanism. Eventually, hybrid response surface model–genetic algorithm (RSM–GA) approach predicted a better optimal solution than RSM, i.e., the adsorptive removal of As(III) (10.47 μg/g) is facilitated at 30.22 mg C/L of EtOH with initial As(III) concentration of 196.77 μg/L at pH 5.8. The implication of this investigation might help in understanding the application of biochar for removal of various As(III) species in the presence of OM.     

有机胺脱硫工艺在高硫煤地区火电厂的应用分析

近年来,电力行业发展迅速,燃煤电厂大气污染物控制取得很大成就。在电力行业"十二五"规划中,对节能减排工作提出了更高的要求,其中二氧化硫的削减仍占主要地位。本文就高硫煤地区实施有机胺脱硫工艺进行探讨,论述其应用情况、工艺原理,与传统工艺相比的优势、特点及发展方向。     

An in vitro/in vivo screening assay as a sensitive tool to assess endocrine disruptive activity in surface water

Adult male fathead minnow were exposed for 14 or 28-days under flow-through conditions to undiluted filtered water samples from the rivers Meuse and Rhine in the Netherlands. The experiment included two vessels per treatment each containing 10 fish and samples of five fish were taken after 14 and 28 days. Additional groups were exposed to 17alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2) as a reference and untreated drinking water as a negative control. Major endpoints examined included induction of vitellogenin (VTG) synthesis, VTG mRNA activity, hepato- and gonadosomatic indices (HSI and GSI) and gonadal histology. No significant difference was recorded in body weight or mean GSI values between the various treatments. Only exposure to Meuse water resulted in significantly higher HSI means after 14 days. Histological examination showed no apparent effects on gonadal tissue except for eosinophilic blood plasma in fish exposed to Meuse water or EE2. After 14 and 28 days, elevated VTG and VTG mRNA levels were measured in most livers of the fish exposed to Meuse water, but not in the fish exposed to Rhine water. This was confirmed by measuring estrogenic responses in the in vitro ER CALUX assay. Induction of VTG synthesis proved to be the most sensitive endpoint in the Non Spawning Male Fish Assay for in vivo detection of bio-available estrogenic activity supplementary to a sensitive in vitro assay. The other endpoints examined varied too much and required a higher number of fish or replicates to achieve sufficient power for statistical testing making them less animal friendly.     

污水处理厂絮凝剂最佳浓度的小试实践

聚丙烯酰胺作为絮凝剂在污水处理行业使用已很普遍,使用前通过精确小试更准确把握其使用浓度及使用量,可节约生产成本。本文介绍了一种简易的试验装置,用其测定得到污水处理厂絮凝剂的最佳使用浓度。     

Forest resources and household welfare: Empirical evidence from North Central Vietnam

Using secondary data from a socio-economic quantitative household survey of the North Central region of Vietnam, the main aim of our study is to analyze the causal effect of forest resources on household income and poverty. Based on the observed characteristics of a forest-based livelihood and forest-related activities, we use a propensity score matching (PSM) method to control for potential bias arising from self-selection. The PSM results indicate that households with a forest-based livelihood had a higher level of income and lower poverty rates than did those without. Interestingly, our findings confirm that a forest-based livelihood offers much higher income than any other type of livelihood adopted by local households. Also, the poverty rate among households with a forest-based livelihood is lower than those earning non-labor income or engaged in wage/crop and crop livelihoods. Among households and provinces, we find varying opportunities deriving from forest resources, suggesting that there are potential barriers hindering local households from pursuing a forest livelihood or participating in some forest activities. Therefore, government policy and regulations on forest management should focus on improving the access of households to forest resources, while enhancing the sustainability of these resources.     

Determination of protective effect of carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) extract against cobalt(II) nitrate-induced toxicity

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Cobalt (Co) is widely used in many industrial fields such as batteries and paints. Cobalt, a dangerous heavy metal, can be found in high...     

Using Relative Risk to Compare the Effects of Aquatic Stressors at a Regional Scale

The regional-scale importance of an aquatic stressor depends both on its regional extent (i.e., how widespread it is) and on the severity of its effects in ecosystems where it is found. Sample surveys, such as those developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), are designed to estimate and compare the extents, throughout a large region, of elevated conditions for various aquatic stressors. In this article, we propose relative risk as a complementary measure of the severity of each stressor’s effect on a response variable that characterizes aquatic ecological condition. Specifically, relative risk measures the strength of association between stressor and response variables that can be classified as either “good” (i.e., reference) or “poor” (i.e., different from reference). We present formulae for estimating relative risk and its confidence interval, adapted for the unequal sample inclusion probabilities employed in EMAP surveys. For a recent EMAP survey of streams in five Mid-Atlantic states, we estimated the relative extents of eight stressors as well as their relative risks to aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages, with assemblage condition measured by an index of biotic integrity (IBI). For example, a measure of excess sedimentation had a relative risk of 1.60 for macroinvertebrate IBI, with the meaning that poor IBI conditions were 1.6 times more likely to be found in streams having poor conditions of sedimentation than in streams having good sedimentation conditions. We show how stressor extent and relative risk estimates, viewed together, offer a compact and comprehensive assessment of the relative importances of multiple stressors.     

流动注射催化光度法测定环境水样中的痕量亚硝酸根

基于在pH为2.7的一氯乙酸缓冲溶液中亚硝酸根对溴酸钾氧化亮绿具有催化作用,建立了测定环境水样中痕量亚硝酸根的流动注射催化光度法。在室温下,当溴酸钾浓度为0.15mol/L、亮绿溶液浓度为1.12×10-3mol/L时,该方法的线性范围为0.04～0.36mg/L,检出限为7.44×10-4mg/L,测定频率为60次/h,相对标准偏差为1.1%(n=11)。     

化学氧化絮凝技术在强化处理受污染河水中的应用

采用化学氧化絮凝技术(COF)对东莞市某河流的受污染河水进行处理,通过烧杯搅拌试验,考察了COF技术除污效能,在此基础上进行现场试验.结果表明,COD、BOD5、TP和NH3-N的去除率分别可达到71.2%、77.4%、91.1%和68.7%,出水指标达到了国家一级排放要求,为工程设计提供了依据.