Identification of Workers at Increased Risk of Infection During a COVID-19 Outbreak in a Meat Processing Plant,France, May 2020

Food and Environmental Virology - On 13 May 2020, a COVID-19 cluster was detected in a French processing plant. Infected workers were described. The associations between the SARS-CoV-2 infection...     

Handgrip and Box Tilting Strategies in Handling: Effect on Stability and Trunk and Knee Efforts

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of four handgrip/box tilting strategies (right, left, backward, and no tilt of the box) on trunk and knee efforts, body posture, and the stability of 14 participants with limited experience in handling. The tasks consisted of transferring a low-lying box placed in front of the participant to a shelf of the same height at the participant’s left. It was hypothesized that tilting the box could reduce trunk and knee efforts as well as body asymmetry and improve stability. A tridimensional dynamic rigid body model was used to estimate the triaxial net muscular moment magnitudes at the trunk (L5/SI) and at the knees. An approach to quantify the participants’ dynamic stability was also included. Finally, five angles were computed to characterize body asymmetries. The results showed that tilting the box affected specific trunk efforts, but did not succeed in reducing trunk asymmetric efforts. However, the tilts were executed in a single direction, and it may be possible that combined tilts of the box could help reduce trunk asymmetric efforts. Tilting the box had little effect on knee loadings, and the left tilt strategy reduced participants’ stability. This study showed the importance of considering the position of the box when assessing the risks encountered in asymmetrical handling.     

Forest dynamics modelling under natural fire cycles: A tool to define natural mosaic diversity for forest management

In natural boreal forests, disturbances such as fire and variation in surficial deposits create a mosaic of forest stands with different species composition and age. At the landscape level, this variety of stands can be considered as the natural mosaic diversity. In this paper, we describe a model that can be used to estimate the natural diversity level of landscapes. We sampled 624 stands for tree species composition and surficial deposits in eight stand-age classes corresponding to eight fire episodes in the region of Lake Duparquet, Abitibi, Québec at the southern fringe of the Boreal Forest. For six surficial deposit types, stand composition data were used to define equations for vegetation changes with time for a chronosequence of 230 years for four forest types. Using Van Wagner's (1978) model of age class distribution of stands, the proportion of each forest type for several lengths of fire cycle were defined. Finally, for real landscapes (ecological districts) of the ecological region of the Basses-Terres d'Amos, the proportion of forest types were weighted by the proportion of each surficial deposit type using ecological map information. Examples of the possible uses of the model for management purposes, such as biodiversity conservation and comparisons of different landscapes in terms of diversity and sensitivity to fire regime changes, are discussed.     

How to Take into Account Uncertainty in Species Extinction Probabilities for Phylogenetic Conservation Prioritization

In this article, we are concerned with the general problem of choosing from a set of taxa T a subset S to protect in order to try to contribute to halting biodiversity loss as efficiently as possible given limited resources. The protection of a taxon decreases its extinction probability, and the impact of protecting the taxa of S is measured by the resulting expected phylogenetic diversity (ePD) of the set T. The primary challenge posed by this approach lies in determining the extinction probability of a taxon (protected or unprotected). To deal with this difficulty, the uncertainty about the extinction probabilities can be described through a set of possible scenarios, each corresponding to different extinction probability values for each taxon. We show how to determine an “optimal robust set” of taxa to protect, defined as the set of taxa that minimizes the maximum “regret,” i.e., the maximum relative gap, over all the scenarios, between (1) the ePD of T obtained by protecting the taxa of this set and (2) the ePD of T which would be produced by protecting the subset of taxa optimal for the considered scenario. In our experimental conditions covering 100 cases, this gap is almost always less than 1%. Consequently, the ePD of T obtained by protecting the taxa of the optimal robust set is not far from the maximum ePD of T that could have been obtained if we had known the true scenario. In other words, a way of escaping (in large part, at least) from the uncertainty related to the extinction probabilities of the taxa consists of choosing to protect those belonging to the optimal robust set. We also compare the optimal robust set to other relevant subsets of T.     

Assessing and selecting interventions for river water quality improvement within the context of population growth and urbanization: a case study of the Cau River basin in Vietnam

In this study, a multi-criteria methodology is proposed to identify and prioritize interventions for water quality improvement with the aid of computer simulation models. The methodology can be used to elaborate and compare future socio-economic development scenarios to select the best interventions based on three criteria: (1) ideas of experts and stakeholders about the importance of scenarios, (2) impacts of each scenario on surface water quality in watershed, and (3) benefit–cost analysis for each scenario. A score is computed for each scenario based on a weighted sum technique which enables to take into consideration different level of importance for the three criteria. The methodology is applied to Cau River basin in Vietnam, with the aid of a computer tool, to assess interventions for river water quality improvement within the context of population growth and urbanization. The results show that fast future population growth in upstream has significant impacts. In 2020, an increase of 116 % of the population in Bac Kan town can lead to an increase of 120 and 135 % in BOD₅ and NH₄ ⁺ median concentrations, respectively, with the implementation of a treatment plant for 10,000 people in Bac Kan town. Therefore, the increase of the domestic wastewater treatment plant’s capacity in Bac Kan town, at least twice as the projection of local government, is necessary. These results will help decision makers to select the best interventions for Cau River basin management.     

Degradation of diuron by the electro-Fenton process

The degradation of the herbicide diuron has been undertaken by electrochemical advanced oxidation in aqueous solution. This process generates catalytically hydroxyl radicals that are strong oxidizing reagents for the oxidation of organic substances. Hydroxyl radicals degrade diuron in less than 10 min. Kinetic results evidence a pseudo-first-order degradation, with a rate constant of reaction between diuron and hydroxyl radicals of 4.8x10⁹ M^–1 s^–1. Several degradation products were identified by chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The mineralization degree of a 1.7x10^–4 M diuron solution reached 93% at 1,000 coulombs.     

Proposal to optimize ecotoxicological evaluation of wastewater treated by conventional biological and ozonation processes

A mixture of urban and hospital effluents (50 % v/v) was evaluated for ecotoxicity with an advanced bioassay battery. Mixed effluents were tested before any treatment, after biological treatment alone, and after biological treatment followed by a tertiary ozonation (15 mg O₃/L). Laying a high value on the continuance of organisms’ fitness, essential to preserve a healthy receiving ecosystem, the main objective of this study was to combine normalized bioassays with newly developed in vivo and in vitro tests in order to assess alteration of embryo development, growth and reproduction, as well as genotoxic effects in aquatic organisms exposed to complex wastewater effluents. Comparison of the bioassays sensitivity was considered. Contrary to the lack of toxicity observed with normalized ecotoxicity tests, endpoints measured on zebrafish embryos such as developmental abnormalities and genotoxicity demonstrated a residual toxicity in wastewater both after a biological treatment followed or not by a tertiary O₃ treatment. However, the ozonation step allowed to alleviate the residual endocrine disrupting potential measure in the biologically treated effluent. This study shows that normalized bioassays are not sensitive enough for the ecotoxicological evaluation of wastewaters and that there is a great need for the development of suitable sensitive bioassays in order to characterize properly the possible residual toxicity of treated effluents.     

Passive environmental residential exposure to agricultural pesticides and hematological malignancies in the general population: a systematic review

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Incidence rates of hematological malignancies have been constantly increasing over the past 40 years. In parallel, an expanding use of agricultural...     

Listening to Inuit and Naskapi peoples in the eastern Canadian Subarctic: a quantitative comparison of local observations with gridded climate data

Regional Environmental Change - For Inuit and Naskapi living in the eastern Canadian Subarctic, local meteorological and environmental conditions (e.g., snow and ice cover extent, thickness, and...