Is there a Relation Between Ecological Practices and Spirituality? The Case of Benedictine Monasteries

For decades there has been a controversial debate over how far religious faith communities are specifically engaged in ecological practices (EP). Therefore we studied four Austrian and two German Benedictine monasteries religious ethics and spirituality as a means of a driving force for initiating EP. We draw upon theories of organizational learning processes and capacity-building of sustainability to interpret our empirical findings. The majority of monasteries are highly engaged in EP, initiated either as an outcome of individual activities or through a specific mostly informally acting group, but rarely an organizationally or systematically integrated goal of the monasteries, or a focus of capacity building. Monasteries follow a technical and economic decision-making process in implementing EP. Spirituality plays a limited role in the initiation of EP. The environment of monasteries–acceptance or critique against ecological practices–influences the monasteries decisions. Institutionalization of ecological practices into the monasteries organizational structure is rare.     

Comparison of four measuring techniques to assess growth inhibition in standardized tests with seven freshwater algae and cyanobacteria

As representatives of primary producers, algae and cyanobacteria play an important role in assessing the risk of chemicals. However, the list of standard algal species commonly used for toxicity testing comprises very few species so that there is an urgent demand to identify further non-standard species which can be used for higher-tier risk assessment in general and the analysis of species sensitivity distributions in particular. In this study, four measuring techniques to assess growth inhibition were compared using five non-standard and two standard algal species and 3,5-dichlorophenol as reference substance. Regarding sensitivity and suitability, the measuring techniques were ranked in the following descending order: delayed fluorescence, prompt fluorescence, photometric absorbance, and microscopic cell count. All five non-standard species fulfilled the validity criteria if tested with delayed fluorescence.     

Eulerian and lagrangian transport time scales of a tidal active coastal basin

In this work the flushing features of a tidal active coastal basin, the Venice lagoon, have been investigated. The water transport time scale (TTS) has been computed by means of both an eulerian and a lagrangian approach. The obtained results have been compared in order to identify the main differences between the two methods.     

A performance-based tabular approach for joint systematic improvement of risk control and resilience applied to telecommunication grid,gas network,and ultrasound localization system

Environment Systems and Decisions - Organizational and technical approaches have proven successful in increasing the performance and preventing risks at socio-technical systems at all scales....     

New beach in a shallow estuarine lagoon: a model-based <Emphasis Type="Italic">E. coli</Emphasis> pollution risk assessment

A 3D hydrodynamic model has been applied to the Curonian Lagoon to study the pollution impact of E. coli on a new beach that might be opened in the lagoon. Through a field survey the E. coli inputs were measured and then used in the numerical model, and through laboratory experiments the decay rate of E. coli was established. The model has been calibrated and validated for the year 2015, and several scenarios have been studied, such as sewage system breakdown, severe weather conditions or high river loads. The model has then been run for a period of 12 years to obtain a robust statistics for the pollution on the planned beach. Results show that the decay rate of E. coli is between 0.55 days and 2.3 days and the modeled decay times are compatible with these numbers. The only scenario that would create a risk for the bathing waters of the beach is a breakdown of the sewage system on the Curonian Spit. In this case the hours (and days) over legally allowable bathing threshold were computed in order to estimate the number of days the beach could be closed. These results have been confirmed by the 12 year simulations. With an influence map analysis the two most critical sewage systems could be identified.     

Trihalomethane reactivity of water- and sodium hydroxide-extractable organic carbon fractions from peat soils

Certain organic carbon moieties in drinking source waters of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta can react with chlorine during disinfection to form potentially carcinogenic and mutagenic trihalomethanes. The properties of reactive organic carbon in Delta waters, particularly those of soil origin, have been poorly understood. This study attempts to characterize trihalomethane reactivity of soil organic carbon from three representative Delta peat soils. Soil organic carbon was extracted from all three soils with either deionized H2O or 0.1 M NaOH and sequentially separated into humic acids, fulvic acids, and nonhumic substances for quantitation of trihalomethane formation potential. Water-extractable organic carbon represented only 0.4 to 0.7% of total soil organic carbon, whereas NaOH extracted 38 to 51% of total soil organic carbon. The sizes and specific trihalomethane formation potential (STHMFP) of individual organic carbon fractions differed with extractants. Fulvic acids were the largest fraction in H2O-extractable organic carbon, whereas humic acids were the largest fraction in NaOH-extractable organic carbon. Among the fractions derived from H2O-extractable carbon, fulvic acids had the greatest specific ultraviolet absorbance and STHMFP and had the majority of reactive organic carbon. Among the fractions from NaOH-extractable organic carbon, humic acids and fulvic acids had similar STHMFP and, thus, were equally reactive. Humic acids were associated with the majority of trihalomethane reactivity of NaOH-extractable organic carbon. The nonhumic substances were less reactive than either humic acids or fulvic acids regardless of extractants. Specific ultraviolet absorbance was not a good predictor of trihalomethane reactivity of organic carbon fractions separated from the soils.     

Determinants of brominated flame retardants in breast milk from a large scale Norwegian study

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs), particularly polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), are widely present in human populations. In order to investigate human exposure pathways and associations with socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, 393 breast milk samples from mothers living in various regions throughout Norway were analyzed. Up to ten PBDE congeners were measured in all the samples, hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) and BDE-209 in subsets of 310 and 46, respectively. The median concentrations of the sum of the seven most prominent PBDEs (BDE-28, 47, 99, 100, 153, 154 and 183), BDE-209 and HBCD were 2.1, 0.32 and 0.86 ng/g lipids, respectively. These concentrations are comparable to the levels generally observed in human populations in Europe. The frequency distributions were quite skewed with long tails towards higher concentrations. Maternal age, parity, education, having a cohabitant employed as electrician, and ventilation were factors significantly associated with some of the BFRs, although these factors only explained a small amount of the variability (R² 0.04–0.16). The mothers' diet was not found to influence the breast milk PBDE and HBCD levels. Our results show that sources other than the diet are important for the variability seen in breast milk BFR concentrations and that exposure from the indoor atmosphere should be emphasized in future studies.