Distribution,removal and chemical forms of heavy metals in polluted rice seed

In this paper, the distribution, removal and binding forms of heavy metals in polluted seeds of rice were studied using the methods of histochemistry and biochemistry. The results indicate that the distribution of heavy metals in rice grains was very uneven. The heavy metals in rice grains chiefly exist in association with the parts of high protein. Separation of proteins by Sephadex chromatography and subsequent analysis by atomic absorption spectroscopy revealed that Cd, Pb and As were mainly bound to protein of 54.5 and 5.50 kD molecular weights. During the rice processing, the concentrations of heavy metals in the edible rice decrease greatly, for some heavy metals in these parts of chaff, coarse rice bran and fine rice bran were removed.     

China's dairy crisis: impacts,causes and policy implications for a sustainable dairy industry

The dairy industry is an important part of the global economy, and the rapidly developing dairy enterprises in China have become increasingly important to the rest of the world. Due to increasing demand for dairy products and support from the government, China's dairy industry has thrived in recent decades. But rapid growth has been accompanied by a suite of industry/structural problems associated with raw milk supply, processing enterprises, product retailing and profit allocation. Thus, a major dairy crisis took place in 2008, triggered by a notorious melamine-contaminated milk event. The dairy crisis has had devastating impacts on China's dairy industry, negatively affecting farmers, consumers, processing enterprises and even government agencies. The Chinese government has developed rigorous measures to prevent future incidents of this sort, including the enactment of the Food Safety Law and reinstatement of the no-exemption quality inspection of food products. In this paper, we analyse the wide-ranging impacts and root causes of the recent dairy crisis in China. We also examine how the crisis has been handled and what measures have been put in place in its aftermath. Then we discuss policy implications for promoting the sustainability of China's dairy industry. Lessons learned from this crisis, as well as implications for policy improvements, should be valuable for the development of a sustainable dairy industry in other regions of the world.     

An AHP-ELECTRE framework to evaluate barriers to green supply chain management in the leather industry

ABSTRACT

The leather-processing industry (LPI) is constantly polluting the environment in Bangladesh. As a result, stakeholders are continuously pressurizing managers working in LPI to embrace green leather-processing activities. Thus, the green concept is attracting significant attention from managers in the Bangladeshi LPI. However, the industry is struggling with many barriers to implementing green supply chain management (GSCM). There are many studies regarding barriers to GSCM. However, those studies failed to show the possible pathways to implement GSCM. This study addresses the gap by evaluating barriers to GSCM considering effective pathways to GSCM. In this study, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is integrated with Elimination Et Choix Traduisant La Realite (ELECTRE-I) method to identify and prioritize the barriers and to rank the possible pathways to implementing GSCM in the leather industry. To accredit the proposed framework, it is implemented on a leather-processing factory in Bangladesh. A sensitivity analysis is performed to inspect the strength of the outcome of this method. The outcome of this study indicates that the high cost of advanced technology is the most important barrier to implement GSCM while green technology and techniques are the most effective pathways to GSCM. The findings of this research will support researchers and practitioners by giving insights on barriers and possible pathways to implementing GSCM.     

Fostering food and energy security through by-product valorization within agricultural and agro-industrial networks: study of the province of Santiago de Cuba

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to investigate of how the concept of ‘integrated food and energy systems’ or IFES production networks could be applied – within the specific context of Eastern Cuba’s agricultural and agro-industrial sectors – as an innovative approach to improve food and energy security. The Province of Santiago de Cuba in southeast Cuba was the focus of this study; its existing operations, infrastructure, resource flows and scarcities, and actor relationships provide the basis of the data used for the evaluation.

The authors investigated the regional context, identify potential members of an agricultural and agro-industrial network in three municipalities of the province, and identify the main residuals and by-products of key facilities. Potential avenues for by-product valorization are investigated along with the possible influence/impacts on the sustainability of the surrounding systems and actors. A conceptual model for a regional network for integrated food and energy production is then provided based upon the development of three agricultural/agro-industrial scenarios: influence at the farm level, regional agro-industrial networks, and ‘anchor tenant’ eco-industrial systems. The main challenges and opportunities for the development of the networks are described with recommendations for addressing such where possible.     

Sharing and preparing: cross-institutional,food security-based knowledge in Canada

This study proposes a framework for the collection and management of knowledge related to food security in Canada. This paper has several goals. First, the paper summarizes the current state of food security knowledge in Canada. Second, the paper presents data from an experiment where food security issues were discussed by stakeholders at two fora, the first of which was held in western Canada and the second held in eastern Canada. Finally, based on the notes taken during and feedback received after the fora, this paper suggests a framework for organizing and managing the multiple perspectives and complex types of knowledge about food security and sustainable development from a Canadian context. Two fora were held in Canada where food security issues were presented and discussed by multiple stakeholders. Most provinces in Canada were represented in at least one of the two sessions. Sessions were designed to be informative and interactive; agenda were designed to take advantage of the needs and experiences of multiple stakeholders in both western and eastern regions of Canada. To develop the framework, the sessions were also designed to assess the types of issues and knowledge about food security in Canada. Evidence presented from this experiment supports arguments that food security work must be approached in a collaborative manner, no matter the approach or discipline. Data from fora held in western and eastern regions of Canada indicate a number of specific ways in which those along the food continuum have the desire to share knowledge and enter into partnerships to work toward secure and sustainable food systems. Data also indicate how academia and institutions of higher learning might play a key role in sharing food security-based knowledge. The data from this study suggest that academia could play a leadership role in collecting and sharing information about food security-based knowledge from all disciplinary approaches that could help collaborative in addressing the complexity of food security challenges. The framework developed in this paper could provide the guide for organizing knowledge about food security and sustainable development. The framework could be used as a map to guide understanding about the different ways in which food security can be approached and understood; this could help reduce tensions among partners in projects where a wide variety of experiences are attempting to work collaboratively. The two food security fora brought together stakeholders with specialized knowledge about food security in a Canadian context. The analysis of data arising from the fora permitted unique insights to arise about the nature of knowledge by region. The data in this study also allowed us to build a framework for food security knowledge from these regional knowledge bases. This paper suggests that academia actively take a leadership role and openly share knowledge about food security. Open sharing of knowledge will help collaborates in dealing with complex food security issues understand in-depth other approaches; this sharing may help to make explicit the tensions that arise during collaborative work.     

2,4-D二甲胺盐对莲草直胸跳甲生存和繁殖的影响

为探究除草剂在防治喜旱莲子草(Alternanthera philoxeroides)的过程中对其天敌昆虫的影响,采用不同浓度的2,4-D二甲胺盐浸叶处理的喜旱莲子草饲喂莲草直胸跳甲,连续饲喂7d后,考察了莲草直胸跳甲的繁殖、存活和发育情况。结果表明,2,4-D二甲胺盐可显著降低莲草直胸跳甲成虫的取食量,且抑制作用随药剂浓度升高和取食时间延长而显著增强;较高浓度(1.72～3.44g·L~(-1))的2,4-D二甲胺盐还会导致莲草直胸跳甲雌成虫存活率和产卵量的明显降低,卵孵化率、幼虫存活率和蛹羽化率也显著降低。可见,高浓度(1.72～3.44g·L~(-1))的2,4-D二甲胺盐对莲草直胸跳甲的生长发育和繁殖有显著不利影响,在防治喜旱莲子草时,应将2,4-D二甲胺盐的施用浓度控制在0.22～0.86g·L~(-1)内。     

短链氯化石蜡及其环境污染现状与毒性效应研究

短链氯化石蜡是碳链长度为10至13个碳原子的正构烷烃经氯化衍生而成的复杂混合物.作为《关于持久性有机污染物的斯德哥尔摩公约》增列持久性有机污染物(persistent organic pollutants,POPs)中的一类化合物,2008年10月在瑞士日内瓦召开的联合国环境规划署POPs审查委员会的第     

A physical-microbial food web coupled model to study the evolution of the ecological functioning of a new reservoir after its flooding (Sep,Puy de Dôme)

The aim of this paper is to understand the temporal changes in planktonic populations and to highlight some important factors that control the biological functioning and evolution of a recently flooded reservoir, the Sep reservoir (Massif Central, France). To achieve this objective, a 1D vertical coupled physical–biological model was used and developed. It couples relevant physical processes (dispersion, advection and convection) with biological processes taking into account the complexity of interactions within the microbial food web, including the conventional grazing food chain with a microbial loop.     

Comparative network analysis toward characterization of systemic organization for human–environmental sustainability

A preliminary study in comparative ecological network analysis was conducted to identify key assumptions and methodological challenges, test initial hypotheses and explore systemic and network structural characteristics for environmentally sustainable ecosystems. A nitrogen network for the U.S. beef supply chain – a small sub-network of the industrial food system analyzed as a pilot study – was constructed and compared to four non-human carbon and nitrogen trophic networks for the Chesapeake Bay and the Florida Everglades. These non-human food webs served as sustainable reference systems. Contrary to the main original hypothesis, the “window of vitality” and the number of network roles did not clearly differentiate between a human sub-network and the more complete non-human networks. The effective trophic level of humans (a partial estimate of trophic level based on the single food source of beef) was much higher (8.1) than any non-human species (maximum of 4.88). Network connectance, entropy, total dependency coefficients, trophic efficiencies and the ascendency to capacity ratio also indicated differences that serve as hypotheses for future tests on more comprehensive human food webs. The study elucidated important issues related to (1) the steady state assumption, which is more problematic for industrial human systems, (2) the absence or dearth of data on contributions of dead humans and human wastes to feed other species in an integrated food web, (3) the ambiguity of defining some industrial compartments as living versus non-living, and (4) challenges with constructing compartments and trophic transfers in industrial versus non-human food webs. The two main novel results are (1) the progress made toward adapting ecological network analysis (ENA) methodology for analysis of human food networks in industrial cultures and (2) characterizing the critical aspects of comparative ENA for understanding potential causes of the problems, and providing avenues for solutions, for environmental sustainability. Based on this work, construction and comparative network analysis of a more comprehensive industrial human food network seems warranted and likely to provide valuable insights for modifying structures of industrial food networks to be more like natural networks and more sustainable.     

Social network analysis and valid Markov chain Monte Carlo tests of null models

Analyses of animal social networks derived from group-based associations often rely on randomisation methods developed in ecology (Manly, Ecology 76:1109–1115, 1995) and made available to the animal behaviour community through implementation of a pair-wise swapping algorithm by Bejder et al. (Anim Behav 56:719–725, 1998). We report a correctable flaw in this method and point the reader to a wider literature on the subject of null models in the ecology literature. We illustrate the importance of correcting the method using a toy network and use it to make a preliminary analysis of a network of associations among eagle rays.