Why social values cannot be changed for the sake of conservation

The hope for creating widespread change in social values has endured among conservation professionals since early calls by Aldo Leopold for a “land ethic.” However, there has been little serious attention in conservation to the fields of investigation that address values, how they are formed, and how they change. We introduce a social–ecological systems conceptual approach in which values are seen not only as motivational goals people hold but also as ideas that are deeply embedded in society's material culture, collective behaviors, traditions, and institutions. Values define and bind groups, organizations, and societies; serve an adaptive role; and are typically stable across generations. When abrupt value changes occur, they are in response to substantial alterations in the social–ecological context. Such changes build on prior value structures and do not result in complete replacement. Given this understanding of values, we conclude that deliberate efforts to orchestrate value shifts for conservation are unlikely to be effective. Instead, there is an urgent need for research on values with a multilevel and dynamic view that can inform innovative conservation strategies for working within existing value structures. New directions facilitated by a systems approach will enhance understanding of the role values play in shaping conservation challenges and improve management of the human component of conservation.     

Trace metals distribution and their dependence on some physico-chemical parameters in creek sediment

The concentrations of the trace metals Mn, Zn, Cr, V, Co, Ni, Ba, Pb, Cu, Cd, As and Hg, their spatial distribution, and their correlation as a function of physico-chemical parameters were investigated for grab sediment samples collected from different locations across the Thane Creek, Mumbai, India. Hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry, and differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry were adopted for chemical analyses. Various geochemical indices were evaluated. The studied metal/metalloids were compared with sediment quality guideline values. Besides, the role of different physico-chemical parameters of the sediments such as pH, CaCO₃, cation exchange capacity, total carbon, and of the relative composition in respect to very coarse, coarse and medium sand, fine sand and very fine sand, silt and clay fraction were also critically investigated. Positive one-to-one correlations between fine sand and very fine sand, silt and clay, and total carbon with sediment metal concentrations have been noticed. Multiple regression analysis reveals strong positive correlations between sediment metal concentrations and total carbon content only.     

稀有鮈鲫成体神经发生相关基因的分子克隆及序列分析

成体神经发生是脊椎动物中广泛存在的一种生物学特征。成体硬骨鱼类的脑展现出强烈的神经活性以及出色的脑修复能力,这使得硬骨鱼类成为研究成体神经发生和脑修复的一个理想的模型。本文克隆了成体稀有鮈鲫(Gobiocypris rarus)脑组织中神经发生及脑修复相关的hes5、pax6、sox11和prox1基因的部分c DNA序列并进行了序列分析。序列分析结果表明,pax6和sox11基因片段与斑马鱼(Danio rerio)对应的基因片段的同源性最高,分别为97%和94%;hes5基因与鲤鱼(Cyprinus carpio)相对应的基因片段的同源性最高,为92%;prox1基因在物种间的同源性最低。基于稀有鮈鲫和已知物种相应基因的核苷酸序列构建了系统发育树,发现稀有鮈鲫prox1基因与其他硬骨鱼类的亲缘关系最远。本文为进一步开展神经毒性类化学品对水生生物鱼类的成体神经毒性作用机制研究提供了分子生物学基础。     

Growth in urban extent and allometric analysis of West African cities

Urban area expansion is happening at much faster rates in Asian and African cities than elsewhere in the world. This study uses multi-temporal Landsat images to map the urban extent of six small to large cities in West Africa at four different time steps from the early 1970s–2010. The selected cities are Kumasi of Ghana, Daloa of Cote d’Ivoire, Abuja and Kano in Nigeria, Kindia of Guinea, and Ouagadougou of Burkina Faso. All cities revealed significant urban growth in both urban area and population; however, it was apparent that there was a lot of variability in urban area development. Exponential urban growth rates in the cities were measured as ranging between 0.026 and 0.077, with allometric scaling factors matching those of other countries.     

Review of advances in the thin layer chromatography of pesticides: 2004–2006

Applications of thin layer chromatography and high performance thin layer chromatography for the separation, detection, and qualitative and quantitative determination of pesticides, other agrochemicals, and related compounds are reviewed for the period from July 1, 2004 to November 1, 2006. Analyses are covered for a variety of samples, such as food, crops, biological, environmental, pharmaceuticals, and formulations, and for residues of pesticides of various types, including insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides, belonging to different chemical classes. In addition to references on residue analysis, studies such as pesticide-structure relationships, metabolism, degradation, and lipophilicity are covered, many of which make use of thin layer radiochromatography.     

Effects of methamidophos on the community structure,antagonism towards Rhizoctonia solani,and phlD diversity of soil Pseudomonas

A microcosm incubation study using an aquic brown soil from northeast China (a Cambisol in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization FAO Soil Taxonomy) was conducted to examine the effects of different concentrations (0, 50, 150, and 250 mg kg^?1) of methamidophos (O,S-dimethyl phosphoramidothioato) on Pseudomonas, one of the most important gram-negative bacteria in soil. Amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) was performed to study the Pseudomonas community structure, an in vitro assay was made to test the antagonistic activity of isolated Pseudomonas strains against soil-borne Rhizoctonia solani, a major member of the pathogens highly related to soil-borne plant diseases, and special primer amplification and sequencing were performed to investigate the diversity of phlD, an essential gene in the biosynthesis of 2, 4-diacetylphloroglucinol (2, 4-DAPG), which has biocontrol activity in phlD ⁺isolates. With exposure to increasing methamidophos concentrations, the total number of soil Pseudomonas ARDRA patterns decreased significantly, but with less change in the same treatments over 1, 3, and 5 weeks of incubation. The number of isolated Pseudomonas strains with antagonistic activity against R. solani as well as the diversity and appearance frequency of the strains' phlD gene also decreased with increasing concentrations of methamidophos, especially at high methamidophos concentrations. Applying methamidophos could increase the risk of soil-borne plant diseases by decreasing the diversity of the soil Pseudomonas community and the amount of R. solani antagonists, particularly those with the phlD gene.     

Supercritical Fluid Extraction for Forensic Analysis of Hydrocarbons in Soil

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) was investigated to evaluate its potential for obtaining high quality chromatographic fingerprints from soils encountered in environmental investigations. While the volatile and semivolatile fractions of light nonaqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) samples can be “fingerprinted” in a single chromatographic run, it is commonly not possible to obtain samples of LNAPL in the locations of interest. For this and other reasons, it was desirable to develop this method (SFE) of soil extraction, which allows chromatographic fingerprinting of the same quality routinely obtained with LNAPL so that environmental forensic investigations could be extended to areas beyond those containing LNAPL in monitoring wells. In this study, SFE was compared to conventional dichloromethane extraction. Both artificially spiked soil and soil from petroleum release sites were tested. Since water can be a problem when using the SFE method, particular attention was given to handling soils with high moisture contents. The SFE extracts showed excellent retention of low molecular components, including pentanes. Gas chromatography of SFE extracts yielded molecular distributions that showed no significant bias toward either low or high molecular weight components. These results show that SFE can be used to obtain an unbiased, single-run chromatographic “fingerprint” of both volatile and semivolatile hydrocarbons in contaminated soil samples.     

可旋转径向式微粒捕集器消声特性影响因素灰色关联分析

为降低可旋转径向式微粒捕集器中的排气噪声,采用有限元法建立可旋转径向式微粒捕集器声学特性模型,分析得到了其消声特性和传递损失曲线,并采用灰色关联分析方法研究可旋转径向式微粒捕集器结构参数对消声特性的影响程度。结果表明,可旋转径向式微粒捕集器具有降噪能力,且对高频噪声消声效果明显好于低频噪声,平均消声量为20 dB左右;直径比和扩张管锥角是影响可旋转径向式微粒捕集器消声特性的2个主要因素,适当选用小的直径比和扩张管锥角,有利于提高可旋转径向式微粒捕集器的消声性能。     

化学沉淀法强化常规工艺应急去除水中的镉

在常规工艺基础上,通过投加氢氧化钠,实验进行了应急去除重金属镉的研究。实验结果表明,该方法能有效去除饮用水水源的镉,效果稳定,可进行应急处理。对pH、镉初始浓度和混凝剂投加量3个影响因素的灰色关联分析表明,3个因素对镉去除效果影响的大小排序为:滤后水pH>混凝剂投加量>镉初始浓度。在水源镉突发污染时,在原有常规水处理工艺基础上,通过控制滤后水pH可实现对重金属镉的去除,pH的控制值与水源水质有关。     

一种新型活性半焦吸附剂的制备及其表面特征分析

对一种原料半焦进行粉碎、筛分,取其中10～20目的颗粒;用去离子水冲洗后高温下烘干至恒重;依次进行HNO3活化、KOH活化和加压水热化学活化,制备出活性半焦吸附剂。经实验证明,该活性半焦吸附剂对甲苯的吸附等温线符合Langmuir模型,其甲苯吸附容量可达207 mg/g,穿透时间由80 min延长至235 min。该活性半焦吸附剂的比表面积为555.56 m2/g,碘值为811.38 mg/g,表面酸碱总量为0.8649 mmol/g,并通过SEM扫描进行了表面微观形态分析。数据表明,经改性后制备出的新型活性半焦对甲苯的去除率明显增加,其表面物化性质也有明显改变,是一种优良的有机废气吸附剂。