The fate of pharmaceuticals after discharged from hospital into wastewater was clarified experimentally by using a new lab-scale conventional activated sludge (CAS) treatment reactor. The 43 target compounds belong to nine therapeutic classes (antivirals, antibacterials, anticancer drugs, psychotropics, antihypertensives, analgesic–antipyretics, contrast media, herbal medicines, and phytoestrogens) were selected with inclusion of 16 newly estimated compounds. The efficiency of the present reactor was estimated by comparing the reaction rate constant of the solid-water partition coefficients (log Kd) between liquid and solid samples and half-life during 48-h experiment obtained by using hospital effluents with those obtained by using STP wastewater. The results that no significant difference in removal efficiency was observed between both water samples (P?>?0.05) indicate high reliability of the present lab-scale reactor. The actual rates of removal when hospital effluent was applied varied widely (mean, 59?±?40%) independent of type of the pharmaceuticals. More than 90% of 17 compounds were removed after 8 h of treatment. However, the values for psychotropics (mean, 19?±?26%) and contrast media (mean, 24?±?17%) were generally low, indicating high stability. The log Kd values ranged from 1.3 to 4.8. Notably, clarithromycin, acridine, and glycitein could be removed in both liquid and solid phases. The dominant removal mechanisms were found to be different for individual pharmaceutical. These results suggest the effectiveness of introduction of the lab-scale biological treatment system for development of a new solution for discharge of pharmaceuticals from hospital.
Compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) can be used to examine the source and transformation processes of organic pollutants in the environment. We performed a carbon stable isotope analysis of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners in the PCB heat-transfer medium (heat medium) and the original Kanechlor-400 (KC-400, a commercial brand of PCBs) involved in the Yusho incident. The main purpose is to investigate whether isotope fractionation occurred in the rice oil deodorization process that caused the incident. The carbon isotope ratios (δ13C values) of the targeted PCB congeners ranged from ? 29.39 to ? 27.00‰ in the heat medium and from ? 28.77 to ? 27.05‰ in the original KC-400. No significant differences were found in the δ13C values, suggesting carbon isotope fractionation did not occur for the targeted PCB congeners in the heat medium when deodorization of rice oil occurred at temperatures above 200 °C. Furthermore, we also conducted a congener-specific analysis of 64 PCB congeners found in the heat medium and rice oil contaminated by it. The total PCB congener concentrations were 503 mg/g in the heat medium and 81 μg/g in the rice oil. The concentrations of the highly chlorinated congeners were significantly lower in the heat medium than in the original KC-400, and the compositional ratios of the lowly chlorinated congeners were relatively lower in the rice oil than in the heat medium. These results suggest that the PCB congener patterns gradually changed from that of the original KC-400 in the deodorization process and subsequent contamination into the rice oil. Thus, a combination of CSIA and congener-specific analysis is a new approach for investigating the changing PCB congener profiles in samples from the Yusho incident. 相似文献
Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The treatment of agricultural waste plays an important role in the sustainability of agricultural production and the well-being of rural communities.... 相似文献
Summary We studied the behavior and copulatory success of fallow deer (Cervus dama) males at a lek. We recorded 471 copulations in 3 years. Most males did not copulate. The top three males accounted for between 60 and 90% of copulations each year. Lek attendance time was the major determinant of male copulatory success, but territory location also affected the number of copulations achieved. Copulatory success was correlated with the number of females in a male's territory and possibly with dominance status, but not with fighting success or fighting rate. All males that defended lek territories were 5 years of age or older. Copulatory success may improve with age. Body condition appears to be an important determinant of male copulatory success, because only males in superior condition could defend a lek territory for up to 2 weeks. Males do not feed while defending lek territories. Foraging ability during the year probably determines condition at the onset of the rut. Females appear to choose mates at least partially on the basis of location, preferring males located near traditional routes. Females may ultimately select mates in the best body condition. 相似文献
Previous studies of loggerhead sea turtles have concluded that drifting longlines were the main threat for immature specimens
in the western Mediterranean, because immature loggerhead sea turtles mainly inhabit oceanic waters. However, recent aerial
surveys have revealed large numbers of immature loggerhead sea turtles over the continental shelf of eastern mainland Spain,
where turtles are exposed to neritic fishing gears but not to drifting longlines. We satellite-tracked seven loggerhead sea
turtles (minimum straight carapace length (SCLmin) range: 36.5–55.0 cm) to assess whether the turtles in this region are vagrants
from the adjoining oceanic regions or whether these loggerheads mostly inhabit the continental shelf. Satellite-tracking revealed
that six of the tagged turtles avoided the oceanic realm and made extended use of the continental shelf, whereas only one
individual could be considered a true vagrant as it avoided the continental shelf and primarily used the oceanic habitat.
These results are in sharp contrast with those previously reported for immature loggerhead sea turtles of similar size from
the south-western Mediterranean and fit well a relaxed ontogenic model that was recently proposed for loggerhead sea turtles
in the central Mediterranean. Furthermore, these results demonstrate the vulnerability of loggerhead sea turtles of eastern
mainland Spain to neritic fishing gears, as three of the seven turtles died and one was bycaught incidentally while being
tracked over the continental shelf. 相似文献
Landscape evaluation is now widely recognised as a powerful, interdisciplinary, environmental research method. The aim of the present work was to compare two landscape evaluation methods as part of a physical planning process: the cartographic assessment method and the in situ assessment method. This comparison was performed using an area of the Montes de Toledo, in the centre of Spain. Both methods provided similar results for the majority of the landscape units studied. This shows that the cartographic method can be successfully used in landscape evaluation, allowing important savings in terms of fieldwork. However, this is only the case when the information provided by the available maps is sufficiently accurate to allow the correct assignment of coefficients by a panel of experts. 相似文献
Food supplementation experiments have been widely used to get detailed insight into how food supply contributes to the reproductive performance of wild animals. Surprisingly, even though food seldom is distributed evenly in space, variation in local habitat quality has usually not been controlled for in food supplementation studies. With results from a two-year feeding experiment involving a habitat-sensitive avian top predator, the Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis, we show that treatment effects on goshawk reproductive performance are habitat dependent. Extra food reduced nestling mortality in low-quality territories where prime habitat (forest) is scarce, but not in high-quality territories where prime habitat is abundant. Consequently, brood size did not differ between treatment categories in heavily forested territories, but fledgling numbers differed between unfed and fed goshawk pairs breeding in territories where forest is scarce. However, because extra food was not superabundant, this artificial increase in offspring number induced a dramatic decrease in nestling condition in low-quality territories. Treatment effects were detected even after controlling statistically for other potentially confounding effects (year, territory identity) and strongly covaried with territory-specific abundances of the most important summer prey species. These results highlight the importance of acknowledging the effect that small-scale variation in habitat quality and availability of natural food may have on the results of food supplementation experiments. In order to assess the generality of food supplementation effects, the integration of habitat heterogeneity and variation in food abundance is thus needed, especially among species in which small-scale variation in habitat quality influences demographic patterns. 相似文献
Remarkably little is known about the life histories of the many tropical anguillid eels distributed across the Indo-Pacific region, and since the Danish expedition to study eels in the region in 1928 and 1929, research on these eels has only begun again in recent years. Sampling for anguillid leptocephali in the Indonesian Seas has been carried out recently to learn about the spawning ecology and larval distributions of tropical eels there. The leptocephali of Anguilla marmorata, Anguilla bicolor pacifica, Anguilla borneensis, Anguilla interioris, and Anguilla celebesensis were collected around Sulawesi Island both in May 2001 and October of 2002. The development of genetic identification techniques has enabled these leptocephali to be identified to species, and their distributions and sizes during different seasons indicated that there are differing life history patterns among sympatric species in the region. A. celebesensis was found to have been spawning in Tomini Bay of northeastern Sulawesi Island in March and April 2001, but apparently, no spawning had occurred in the late summer and fall of 2002. Studies on anguillid glass eels have suggested that tropical anguillids may spawn throughout much of year, but our research on leptocephali in Tomini Bay and data on the downstream migration of tropical anguillids in the major tributary to Tomini Bay indicate that A. celebesensis may have a distinct seasonal pattern of spawning possibly related to the regional monsoon cycles. This is the first evidence of seasonality of spawning in tropical anguillid eels whose life histories are only just beginning to be revealed. 相似文献
The effect of surfactant alkyl chain length on soil Cd desorption was studied using nonionic surfactants of polyethylene oxide (PEO) of PEO chain lengths of 7.5 (Triton X-114), 9.5 (Triton X-100), 30 (Triton X-305), or 40 units (Triton X-405) in combination with the I- ligand. Triplicate 1 g soil samples were equilibrated with 15 ml of surfactant-ligand mixture, at concentrations of 0.025, 0.50 or 0.10, and 0.0, 0.168 or 0.336 mol/l, respectively. After shaking the samples for 24 h, the supernatant fraction was analyzed for Cd content to determine the percent of Cd desorbed from the soil. After five successive washings, 53%, 40% and 25% of Cd had been desorbed by 0.025, 0.050 or 0.10 mol/l of Triton X-114, respectively, in the presence of 0.336 mol/l of I-, whereas with the same conditions, Triton X-100 desorbed 61%, 57% and 56% Cd and either Triton X-305 or Triton X-405 desorbed 51, 40 and 14 to 16% Cd. The most efficient Cd desorption was obtained using 0.025 mol/l Triton X-100 in admixture with 0.336 mol/l I-. Increased surfactant concentration was detrimental to Cd desorption consistent with a process that blocked ligand access to the soil particle surface. After 5 washings,the cumulative cadmium desorption decreased with increasing surfactant alkyl chain length, indicating that the metal-ligand complexes are preferably stabilized by the micelles' hydrophobic octyl phenyl (OP) group rather than by the hydrophilic PEO group. In the absence of ligand, the surfactants alone desorbed less than 1% Cd from the contaminated soil, suggesting that the ligand, rather than the surfactant, extracts the metal, to be subsequently stabilized within the surfactant micelles. 相似文献