Estimated crop yield losses due to surface ozone exposure and economic damage in India

In this study, we estimate yield losses and economic damage of two major crops (winter wheat and rabi rice) due to surface ozone (O₃) exposure using hourly O₃ concentrations for the period 2002–2007 in India. This study estimates crop yield losses according to two indices of O₃ exposure: 7-h seasonal daytime (0900–1600 hours) mean measured O₃ concentration (M7) and AOT40 (accumulation exposure of O₃ concentration over a threshold of 40 parts per billion by volume during daylight hours (0700–1800 hours), established by field studies. Our results indicate that relative yield loss from 5 to 11 % (6–30 %) for winter wheat and 3–6 % (9–16 %) for rabi rice using M7 (AOT40) index of the mean total winter wheat 81 million metric tons (Mt) and rabi rice 12 Mt production per year for the period 2002–2007. The estimated mean crop production loss (CPL) for winter wheat are from 9 to 29 Mt, account for economic cost loss was from 1,222 to 4,091 million US$ annually. Similarly, the mean CPL for rabi rice are from 0.64 to 2.1 Mt, worth 86–276 million US$. Our calculated winter wheat and rabi rice losses agree well with previous results, providing the further evidence that large crop yield losses occurring in India due to current O₃ concentration and further elevated O₃ concentration in future may pose threat to food security.     

The effect of aerosol optical depth on rainfall with reference to meteorology over metro cities in India

Rainfall is a key link in the global water cycle and a proxy for changing climate; therefore, proper assessment of the urban environment’s impact on rainfall will be increasingly important in ongoing climate diagnostics and prediction. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements on the monsoon seasons of the years 2008 to 2010 were made over four metro regional hotspots in India. The highest average of AOD was in the months of June and July for the four cities during 3 years and lowest was in September. Comparing the four regions, Kolkata was in the peak of aerosol contamination and Chennai was in least. Pearson correlation was made between AOD with climatic parameters. Some changes in the parameters were found during drought year. Temperature, cloud parameters, and humidity play an important role for the drought conditions. The role of aerosols, meteorological parameters, and their impacts towards the precipitation during the monsoon was studied.     

Distribution of PAHs and trace metals in urban stormwater sediments: combination of density fractionation,mineralogy and microanalysis

Sediment management from stormwater infiltration basins represents a real environmental and economic issue for stakeholders due to the pollution load and important tonnages of these by-products. To reduce the sediment volumes to treat, organic and metal micropollutant-bearing phases should be identified. A combination of density fractionation procedure and microanalysis techniques was used to evaluate the distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and trace metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) within variable density fractions for three urban stormwater basin sediments. The results confirm that PAHs are found in the lightest fractions (d?d??3) whereas trace metals are equally distributed within the light, intermediary, and highest fractions (d?d?d?d?>?2.8 g cm^?3) and are mostly in the 2.3?d??3 fraction. The characterization of the five fractions by global analyses and microanalysis techniques (XRD and MEB-EDX) allowed us to identify pollutant-bearing phases. PAHs are bound to the organic matter (OM) and trace metals to OM, clays, carbonates and dense particles. Moreover, the microanalysis study underlines that OM is the main constituent responsible for the aggregation, particularly for microaggregation. In terms of sediment management, it was shown that density fractionation is not suitable for trace metals but could be adapted to separate PAH-enriched phases.     

Total and Methylmercury in Soft Tissues of White-Tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) and Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) Collected in Poland

Mercury (Hg) contamination in piscivorous birds, especially methylmercury (MeHg), has been drawing much attention worldwide in regard to its bioaccumulation and biomagnification in food chains. In this study on Hg in the soft tissues of white-tailed eagles (n = 22) and ospreys (n = 2) from Poland, total Hg (THg) range was 0.15–47.6 while MeHg range was 0.11–8.05 mg kg⁻¹ dry weight. In both species, median THg and MeHg concentrations were lower in the muscle and brain than in the liver and kidney. Median nephric residues were just under 3 and 5 mgTHg kg⁻¹ or 0.9 and 3.7 mgMeHg kg⁻¹ for white-tailed eagle and osprey, respectively. In Norwegian data from the 1970s and in our results, MeHg in the muscle of white-tailed eagle was ~60 % THg (%MeHg = MeHg/THg × 100), lower than in other piscivorous birds. A clear similarity in THg tissue levels was found between Polish and German populations of white-tailed eagles.     

斜发沸石在废水处理中的应用研究进展

天然斜发沸石是一种廉价矿物,经改性后可有效去除废水中氨氮、有机物、重金属离子、砷及放射性物质,并可用作杀菌剂。文章简述了天然斜发沸石的主要改性技术,并着重论述了近年来天然斜发沸石及各种改性斜发沸石在废水处理中的应用研究动态。同时,展望了其应用前景,探讨了目前应用斜发沸石处理废水时仍亟待解决的一些问题。     

Second-trimester maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MSAFP) iselevated in women with adverse pregnancy outcome associated with inherited thrombophilias

Obstetric complications, such as severe pre-eclampsia, fetal growth restriction, abruptio placentae, or stillbirth are associated with abnormally elevated second-trimester maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MSAFP) and β subunit of human chorionic gonadotrophin (βhCG). This has been attributed to placental abnormalities. Women with thrombophilias have been shown to have abnormalities of the placenta resulting in adverse pregnancy outcome in these patients. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether women with pregnancy complications and inherited thrombophilias have abnormally elevated second-trimester MSAFP or βhCG. Sixty-two women with pregnancy complications were tested for inherited thrombophilias several months after delivery. The thrombophilia group included 29 women with pregnancy complications and an inherited thrombophilia and the control group included 33 other patients without thrombophilia. Patients in the thrombophilia group had a higher median MoM MSAFP compared to the controls (1.337 vs 1.086, p=0.0516). The incidence of abnormally elevated MSAFP (>2.5 MoM) was also significantly higher in the thrombophilia group compared to controls (21% vs 3%, p=0.04). Neither the median MoM βhCG nor the incidence of abnormally elevated βhCG were significantly different between the groups. We conclude that second trimester MSAFP, but not βhCG, is abnormally elevated in patients with thrombophilia and obstetric complications. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prenatal diagnosis of a homologous Robertsonian translocation involving chromosome 15

We report the prenatal diagnosis of a fetus with a de novo Robertsonian translocation: 45,XY,der(15;15)(q10;q10). Although Robertsonian translocations are common chromosomal rearrangements, those involving homologous chromosomes are infrequent. Since chromosome 15 is imprinted, uniparental disomy (UPD) is a concern when chromosomal rearrangements involving chromosome 15 are identified. In the present case, UPD studies showed normal biparental inheritance. In contrast to the fact that most homologous acrocentric rearrangements are isochromosomes, these results indicate postzygotic formation of a Robertsonian translocation between biparentally inherited chromosomes 15. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC)-based prenatal diagnosis for tuberous sclerosis

Tuberous sclerosis (TSC) is a frequent autosomal-dominant condition (affecting 1 in 6000 individuals) caused by various mutations in either the hamartin (TSC1) or the tuberin gene (TSC2). This allelic and non-allelic heterogeneity makes genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis difficult, especially as a significant proportion of TSC cases are due to de novo mutations. For this reason the identification of the disease causing mutation is mandatory for accurate counseling, yet current mutation detection methods such as single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) or denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) are labor intensive with limited detection efficiency. Denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) is a high-throughput, semi-automated mutation detection system with a reported mutation detection rate close to 100% for PCR fragments of up to 800 bp. We used a recently described DHPLC assay allowing the efficient detection of mutations in TSC1 to analyze the DNA extracted from a chorion villus sample in order to perform a prenatal diagnosis for TSC. The fetus was found not to have inherited the deleterious mutation and the DHPLC diagnosis was confirmed by haplotype analysis. This represents the first DHPLC-based prenatal diagnosis of a genetic disease. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prenatal diagnosis of congenital cytomegalovirus infection in 189 pregnancies with known outcome

An Erratum has been published for this article in Prenatal Diagnosis 21(7) 2001, 605. Prenatal diagnosis (PD) of fetal cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection was performed in 242 pregnancies, with known outcome in 189 cases. In 141/189 pregnancies, PD was carried out on account of suspicious maternal CMV serology up to gestational week (WG) 23, and in 48 cases on account of abnormal ultrasonic findings detected between WG 18 and 39. Chorionic villus samples (n=6), amniotic fluid (AF, n=176) and/or fetal blood specimens (n=80) were investigated for detection of virus by cell culture, shell vial assay, PCR and/or CMV-specific IgM antibodies. Of 189 fetuses correctly evaluated by CMV detection either in fetal tissue following therapeutic abortion/stillbirth (n=24) or in urine of neonates within the first 2 weeks of life (n=33), 57 were congenitally infected. In women with proven or suspected primary infection, the intrauterine transmission rates were 20.6% (7/34) and 24.4% (10/41), respectively. Of the congenitally infected live-born infants, 57.6% (19/33) had symptoms of varying degree. The overall sensitivity of PD in the serologic and ultrasound risk groups was 89.5% (51/57). A sensitivity of 100% was achieved by combining detection of CMV-DNA and CMV-specific IgM in fetal blood or by combined testing of AF and fetal blood for CMV-DNA or IgM antibodies. There was no instance of intrauterine death following the invasive procedure. The predictive value of PD for fetal infection was 95.7% (132/138) for negative results and 100% (51/51) for positive results. Correct results for congenital CMV infection by testing AF samples can be expected with samples obtained after WG 21 and after a time interval of at least 6 weeks between first diagnosis of maternal infection and PD. In case of negative findings in AF or fetal blood and the absence of ultrasound abnormalities at WG 22–23, fetal infection and neonatal disease could be excluded with high confidence. Positive findings for CMV infection in AF and/or fetal blood in combination with CMV suspicious ultrasound abnormalities predicted a high risk of cytomegalic inclusion disease (CID). Furthermore, detection of specific IgM antibodies in fetal blood was significantly correlated with severe outcome for the fetus or the newborn (p=0.0224). However, normal ultrasound of infected fetuses at WG 22–23 can neither completely exclude an abnormal ultrasound at a later WG and the birth of a severely damaged child nor the birth of neonates which are afflicted by single manifestations at birth or later and of the kind which are not detectable by currently available ultrasonographic techniques. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Partition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on organobentonites from water

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