Effects of glyphosate on the non-target leaf beetle Cerotoma arcuata (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in field and laboratory conditions

This study aimed to assess the glyphosate application effects on the Cerotoma arcuata Oliver (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) population in glyphosate-resistant soybean crops. Field studies were conducted with glyphosate and the insecticide endosulfan to observe the effects of these pesticides on C. arcuata, on its damages in the crop and on the populations of natural enemies in glyphosate-resistant soybean crops. Moreover, the lethal and behavioral sublethal response of C. arcuata to glyphosate and endosulfan was conducted in the laboratory. The results of the field and laboratory experiments showed that glyphosate caused moderate toxicity and high irritability in C. arcuata and that endosulfan caused high toxicity and irritability. Therefore, the direct effect of glyphosate on C. arcuata was negative and does not explain the population increases of this pest in glyphosate-resistant soybean. However, the glyphosate also decreased the density of predators. Thus, the negative effect of glyphosate on the predators may be related to population increases of C. arcuata in glyphosate-resistant soybean crops, however, more studies are needed to better evidence this relationship. This study suggests that glyphosate can impact other non-target organisms, such as herbivorous insects and natural enemies and that the use of this herbicide will need to be carefully stewarded to prevent potential disturbances in beneficial insect communities in agricultural systems.     

污染场地修复中二次污染防治措施探讨

土壤污染问题日益凸显,污染土壤修复成为环境保护工作的重点。本文从大气、水、噪声、固体废物及土壤环境等五个方面,对污染土壤修复过程中可能产生的二次污染进行分析,并对二次污染防治措施进行了探讨,以期为之后的污染土地修复工程中二次污染防治工作提供参考。     

A qualitative investigation of factors affecting school district administrators’ decision to adopt a national young worker curriculum

Introduction: Even though the majority of youth in the U.S. work, and workers under the age of 18 are seriously injured on the job at higher rates when compared to adults, most adolescents lack instruction on workplace safety and health. Method: This qualitative study examines the extent to which selected U.S. school districts provide workplace safety and health instruction to students and explores the factors that influence districts’ decision to adopt a free, foundational occupational safety and health (OSH) curriculum. Results: Results from key informant interviews conducted with a purposive sample of 34 school administrators revealed that only a third of the districts have at least 75% of their students receive some instruction on workplace safety and health, while 15% indicated they provide no instruction on this topic. District staff who indicated that they provide OSH instruction stated that it is most often taught through career and technical education (CTE; 65%) and/or health classes (26%). They believed the benefits of providing this instruction include assisting students to get jobs (38%) and helping students learn about safety (32%), while competing demands (44%) and time constraints (41%) were identified as barriers to providing OSH education to students. Conclusions: Given the importance of work to teens and their increased risk of work injury, interested stakeholders—including parents, teachers, employers, and the public health community—should promote the inclusion of workplace safety and health instruction in U.S. secondary schools. Practical Applications: This research fills a gap in current knowledge about the extent to which OSH is currently taught within U.S. secondary schools, enumerates barriers and facilitators to the inclusion of workplace safety and health instruction in schools, presents a free, foundational curriculum in workplace safety and health, and provides directions for future research on the vital role schools can play in preparing the future workforce for safe and healthy employment.     

Externalities of Fugitive Dust

It is known that fugitive dust can cause human health and environmental problems, alone or in combination with other air pollutants. These problems are referred to as ‘external costs’ that have been traditionally ignored. However, there is a growing interest towards quantifying externalities to assist policy and decision-making. With this in mind, the present study aimed at discussing the environmental regulations that deal with fugitive dust, the impact of fugitive dust on human health and global climate system, and the available methods for calculating fugitive dust externalities. The damage cost associated with human health and global environmental problems was predicted based on the environmental strategy priority model. The damage cost estimated by the model ranged from 40 to 374 EUR/kg of emitted fugitive dust with a mean value of 120 EUR/kg of emitted fugitive dust. It was also found that PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ have contributed to about 60% and 36% of the estimated damage cost, respectively. The remaining 4% was attributed to both nitrate and sulfate aerosols.     

Evaluation of the Trend of Air Quality in Taipei, Taiwan from 1994 to 2003

The data collected from the five air quality monitoring stations established by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (TEPA) in Taipei City were analyzed to assess the changes in air quality. The analyses reveal that the air quality in Taipei City improved over the last decade from 1994 to 2003, as evidenced by the significant downward trends of the various primary air pollutant concentrations, such as CO, NO_X, SO₂, and PM₁₀. An air pollution fee was collected by TEPA in 1995, and several air pollution control measures were likewise taken to improve the air quality in Taiwan. However, although the extreme daily maximum O₃ concentrations occurred more frequently in earlier years and showed a downward trend, its moderately high concentrations increased annually in recent years. It implied that after the reduction of various primary pollutant concentrations, the effective reduction of O₃ pollution still remains an important issue.     

A tool for estimating the contribution of water-soluble organic compounds to the particle mass and condensational growth in the atmosphere

In this theoretical investigation, we elucidated several factors governing the ability of organic, water-soluble vapours to participate into either the secondary organic aerosol formation or particle condensational growth in the atmosphere. The corresponding requirements for physico-chemical properties of the vapour were estimated. These estimates were also compared with the properties of several difunctional carboxylic acids identified in the atmosphere. Our analysis indicates that while many of the considered compounds are expected to contribute to the total particle mass in the atmosphere, their role in particle condensational growth process remains uncertain. This uncertainty emerges from the fact that the saturation ratio of an organic vapour does not alone determine its ability to act as a “nonvolatile” compound. Instead, the hygroscopic and chemical properties of the vapour, as well as the particle pH and size, have also to be taken into account.     

Adolescents’ attitudes towards nature and environment: Quantifying the 2-MEV model

This study identifies clearly the need for refinement of instrumentation in this area of environmental studies. A questionnaire battery designed to measure the factors Utilization (U) and Preservation (P) in the field of adolescent environmental perception was administered to 467 German secondary school pupils. Maximum likelihood factor analysis yielded the two hypothesized orthogonal factors U and P; we labelled this scale the 2-MEV model, i.e. the 2 factor Model of Environmental Values (sets of related attitudes). These analyses provide a basis for the construction of a questionnaire specifically designed to measure U and P. Confirmation of this factor structure was examined by comparing the factors extracted from two independent pseudorandom subsamples selected from the original sample.     

Characterization of particulate products for aging of ethylbenzene secondary organic aerosol in the presence of ammonium sulfate seed aerosol

Aging of secondary organic aerosol(SOA) particles formed from OH– initiated oxidation of ethylbenzene in the presence of high mass(100–300 μg/m~3) concentrations of(NH_4)_2SO_4seed aerosol was investigated in a home-made smog chamber in this study.The chemical composition of aged ethylbenzene SOA particles was measured using an aerosol laser time-of-flight mass spectrometer(ALTOFMS) coupled with a Fuzzy C-Means(FCM) clustering algorithm.Experimental results showed that nitrophenol,ethyl-nitrophenol,2,4-dinitrophenol,methyl glyoxylic acid,5-ethyl-6-oxo-2,4-hexadienoic acid,2-ethyl-2,4-hexadiendioic acid,2,3-dihydroxy-5-ethyl-6-oxo-4-hexenoic acid,1H-imidazole,hydrated N-glyoxal substituted1H-imidazole,hydrated glyoxal dimer substituted imidazole,1H-imidazole-2-carbaldehyde,N-glyoxal substituted hydrated 1H-imidazole-2-carbaldehyde and high-molecular-weight(HMW) components were the predominant products in the aged particles.Compared to the previous aromatic SOA aging studies,imidazole compounds,which can absorb solar radiation effectively,were newly detected in aged ethylbenzene SOA in the presence of high concentrations of(NH_4)_2SO_4seed aerosol.These findings provide new information for discussing aromatic SOA aging mechanisms.     

Comparative assessment of primary and secondary infection risks in a norovirus outbreak using a household model simulation

Diarrheal diseases can be transmitted via both primary infection due to exposures to contaminated materials from the environment and secondary infection due to personto-person contacts. Usually, the importance of secondary infection is empirically assessed by fitting mathematical models to the epidemic curves. However, these empirical models may not be applicable to other epidemic cases because they are developed only for the target epidemics and they don't consider the detail routes of infection. In our previous study, we developed a theoretical model taking into account the various routes of infection that commonly occur in households(e.g., shaking hands, food handling, and changing diapers).This model was made flexible and applicable to any epidemics by means of adjusting model parameters. In this study, we proposed a new index "Vulnerability indicator to secondary infection(VISI)", which expressed a ratio of secondary infection to primary infection risks and calculated this index in a simulated norovirus(No V) epidemic that involved 10,000 households.The results demonstrated that households composed of more than three members including infant(s) had much higher levels of VISI(5–45) than two-member-households with VISI(0.1–4).These results concluded that the infants were likely to be a hub of secondary infections in highly dense families and therefore careful handling of diapers was deemed indispensible in such families to effectively control the secondary infections.     

生物加强超滤深度处理城市中水过程膜污染与清洗效果分析

金桥电厂采用生物加强超滤工艺对城市二级排放水进行深度处理,清水用于锅炉循环冷却水补给水。在连续半年的运行期间没有产生严重膜污染情况,通过反洗、在线反洗、鼓风曝气和适当操作条件能很好的防治并预防膜污染,保证系统的稳定运行。