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Total nutrient content of four types of commercially available birdfeeder insects given superior diet programs throughout growth.
The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development have acquired great relevance in scientific research about environmental issues, policies linked to environmental management, and industrial and agricultural production, among others. Although these two concepts are frequently used as synonyms, they are immersed in debates regarding their meaning and their possibilities for application to real systems. This review analyzes the main theoretical definitions of both concepts, together with their potentials and limitations, emphasizing the differences between their meanings. A bibliographic search was carried out in the Web of Science database and other sources from official organizations of international relevance and authors referenced by them. The works providing substantive definitions of sustainability and sustainable development from a complexity theory perspective were selected for discussion throughout the article. The main results showed a strong criticism of the concept of sustainable development due to its imprecise definition, the emergence of the concept of sustainability in the debate of the 1990s and its consolidation in certain fields of knowledge, and the emergence of new alternatives to sustainable development such as degrowth and buen vivir. The results also show the potential of the concept of sustainability as a still-developing framework for scientific research and environmental management.Improving our understanding of how different land uses and management practices affect soil nutrient outflows in sub-Saharan Africa could aid in developing sustainable practices. The objective of this study was to analyse the variation in outflows of soil total nitrogen (TN) and available phosphorus (Pav) as influenced by land use types (cropland, grazing land, and bushland) and land management practices (soil bunds for cropland and exclosures for non-croplands) in the three contrasting agro-ecological zones of the Upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia. Field data were collected for TN and Pav outflows by water erosion (Eo), leaching (Lo), product harvest (Ho), and gaseous emissions (Go) from 18 runoff plots (30 m × 6 m) for two years (2018-2019). TN and Pav losses significantly varied (p Go. In plots with land management practices, TN and Pav losses associated with Eo, Lo, and Go were reduced on average by 44-76%, 9-47%, and 1%-36%, respectively. These practices were most effective to reduce Eo nutrient losses. Further study is required to analyzing the soil nutrient balance and identify priority areas for implementing mitigation measures.Monitoring of COVID-19 infections within communities via wastewater-based epidemiology could provide a cost-effective alternative to clinical testing. click here This approach, however, still requires improvement for its efficient application. In this paper, we present the use of wastewater-based epidemiology in monitoring COVID-19 infection dynamics in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, focusing on four wastewater treatment plants for 14 weeks. The SARS-CoV-2 viral load in influent wastewater was determined using droplet digital PCR, and the number of people infected was estimated using published models as well as using a modified model to improve efficiency. On average, viral loads ranged between 0 and 2.73 × 105 copies/100 ml, 0-1.52 × 105 copies/100 ml, 3 × 104-7.32 × 105 copies/100 ml and 1.55 × 104-4.12 × 105 copies/100 ml in the four wastewater treatment plants studied. The peak in viral load corresponded to the reported COVID-19 infections within the districts where these catchments are located. In addition, we also observed that easing of lockdown restrictions by authorities corresponded with an increase in viral load in the untreated wastewater. Estimation of infection numbers based on the viral load showed that a higher number of people could potentially be infected, compared to the number of cases reported based on clinical testing. The findings reported in this paper contribute to the field of wastewater-based epidemiology for COVID-19 surveillance, whilst highlighting some of the challenges associated with this approach, especially in developing countries.This review aims to gather main achievements and limitations associated to the application of solar photocatalytic processes with regard to the removal of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) from municipal wastewater treatment plant effluent (MWWTPE). Solar photocatalytic processes were chosen considering the context of developing tropical countries. Among these processes, solar photo-Fenton has been proved effective for the elimination of ARB from MWWTPE at neutral pH in bench and pilot scale and also under continuous flow. Yet, ARG removal varies as according to the gene. Irradiation intensity and matrix composition play a key role on treatment efficiency for this purpose. The use of sulfate radical in modified solar photo-Fenton is still incipient for ARB and ARG removal. Also, investigations related to ARB resistance profile and horizontal gene transfer rates after solar photo-Fenton treatment must be further analyzed. Regarding solar heterogeneous photocatalysis, Tiutation rate as well as the removal of cell-free ARGs present in suspension in MWWTPE.Identifying critical spatial supply chain paths for embodied water flows driven by food demand can guide the development of more spatially explicit food-related policies for water savings. Previous studies have quantified water uses caused by food demand, but overlook intermediate transfer paths within and among regions. That is, spatial supply chain paths describing step-by-step transfer stages between water uses and final food demand have not been well characterized. Based on the multi-regional input-output model and structural path analysis, this study exhaustively identifies critical spatial supply chain paths for provincial water withdrawals driven by final food demand in China. Results show that the final demand of food products from critical sectors (e.g., agricultural products processing, rice, and swine) and regions (e.g., Xinjiang, Heilongjiang, and Guangdong) drives large amounts of water withdrawals. Critical supply chain paths indicate that agricultural products processing, food manufacturing, and catering should pay special attention to increasing the use efficiency of rice, poultry, cotton, water, and gas products, which can effectively reduce national water withdrawals. The interregional paths further provide evidence for interregional cooperation to save food-related water resources, such as the transfer of capital and technologies from agricultural products processing in Shandong to cotton production in Xinjiang and rice production in Heilongjiang. These critical supply chain paths provide spatially explicit and targeted hotspots for demand-side policies. They can also serve for the evaluation of measures in each stage of the supply chain paths.Phthalate esters (PAEs) are one of the most widely used plasticizers in polymer products and humans are increasingly exposed to them. The constant exposure to PAEs-contained products has raised some concerns against human health. Thus, the impacts of PAEs and their metabolites on human health require a comprehensive study for a better understanding of the associated risks. Here, we attempt to review eight main health effects of PAE exposure according to the most up-to-date studies. We found that epidemiological studies demonstrated a consistent association between PAE exposure (especially DEHP and its metabolites) and a decrease in sperm quality in males and symptom development of ADHD in children. Overall, we found insufficient evidence and lack of consistency of the association between PAE exposure and cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, atherosclerosis, and CHD), thyroid diseases, respiratory diseases, diabetes, obesity, kidney diseases, intelligence performance in children, and other reproductive system-related diseases (anogenital distance, girl precocious puberty, and endometriosis). Future studies (longitudinal and follow-up investigations) need to thoroughly perform in large-scale populations to yield more consistent and powerful results and increase the precision of the association as well as enhance the overall understanding of potential human health risks of PAEs in long-term exposure.Patterns of species rarity have long fascinated ecologists, yet most of what we know about the natural world stems from studies of common species. A large proportion of freshwater plant species has small range sizes and are therefore considered rare. However, little is known about the mechanisms and geographical distribution of rarity in the aquatic realm and to what extent diversity of rare species in freshwater plants follows their terrestrial counterparts. Here, we present the first in-depth analysis of geographical patterns, potential deterministic ecogeographical factors and projected scenarios of freshwater vascular plant rarity using 50 × 50 km grid cells across Europe (41°N-71°N) and North America (25°N-78°N). Our results suggest that diversity of rare species shows different patterns in relation to latitude on the two continents, and that hotspots of rarity concentrate in a relatively small proportion of the European and North American land surface, especially in mountainous as well as in climaticallhropogenic impacts on biodiversity.
In an epitheliochorial placenta, the apical membranes of trophoblast cells and of uterine epithelial cells are in contact to each other (feto-maternal contact). In addition, there are also folds in which the trophoblast membrane is in contact with itself (feto-fetal contact) and areas where apical uterine epithelial membrane is in contact with itself (materno-maternal contact).

We use transmission electron microscopy of placental samples from pigs. (n=3), cows (n=2), sheep (n=2), goat (n=2) and roe deer (n=1) to study the intermembrane distance in these three contact types.

The measured intermembrane distances vary between 8 and 25nm. One common feature is that the distance at feto-fetal contact sites is about 6-10nm wider than at materno-maternal sites and feto-maternal sites show intermediate values.

This finding suggests that the membrane distance at feto-maternal contact sites is determined by heterophilic binding of larger fetal to smaller maternal binding molecules. Homophilic binding of smaller maternal or larger fetal molecules lead to the smaller or wider intermembrane distances at materno-maternal or feto-fetal contact sites respectively. The observation that this similar pattern of membrane distances is present in pigs and in ruminants suggest that an evolutionary mechanism is involved in determining the intermembrane distance in epitheliochorial placentas.
This finding suggests that the membrane distance at feto-maternal contact sites is determined by heterophilic binding of larger fetal to smaller maternal binding molecules. Homophilic binding of smaller maternal or larger fetal molecules lead to the smaller or wider intermembrane distances at materno-maternal or feto-fetal contact sites respectively. The observation that this similar pattern of membrane distances is present in pigs and in ruminants suggest that an evolutionary mechanism is involved in determining the intermembrane distance in epitheliochorial placentas.
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