Notes

Defense Result throughout Pneumocystis Microbe infections Based on the Number Immune System Status.
Oil pollution remains a significant local threat to shallow tropical coral reef environments, but the environmental conditions typical of coral reefs are rarely considered in oil toxicity testing and risk assessments. Here we review the effects of three environmental co-factors on petroleum oil toxicity towards coral reef organisms, and show that the impacts of oil pollution on coral reef taxa can be exacerbated by environmental conditions commonly encountered in tropical reef environments. Shallow reefs are routinely exposed to high levels of ultraviolet radiation (UVR), which can substantially increase the toxicity of some oil components through phototoxicity. Exposure to UVR represents the most likely and harmful environmental co-factor reviewed here, leading to an average toxicity increase of 7.2-fold across all tests reviewed. The clear relevance of UVR co-exposure and its strong influence on tropical reef oil toxicity highlights the need to account for UVR as a standard practice in future oil toxicity studies. Indeed, quantifying the influence of UVR on toxic thresholds of oil to coral reef species is essential to develop credible oil spill risk models required for oil extraction developments, shipping management and spill responses in the tropics. The few studies available indicate that co-exposure to elevated temperature and low pH, both within the range of current daily and seasonal fluctuations and/or projected under continued climate change, can increase oil toxicity on average by 3.0- and 1.3-fold, respectively. While all three of the reviewed environmental co-factors have the potential to substantially increase the impacts of oil pollution in shallow reef environments, their simultaneous effects have not been investigated. Assessments of the combined effects of oil pollution, UVR, temperature and low pH will become increasingly important to identify realistic hazard thresholds suitable for future risk assessments over the coming century. In order to control severe soil erosion, large-scale ecological restoration programs (ERPs) were undertaken, which greatly increased vegetation cover in the Chinese Loess Plateau. Although this has generated positive impacts on soil erosion reduction, the conflicts between water supply and the ERPs in the Loess Plateau remain debatable. The impacts of ERPs and climate change on soil erosion and water supply in the future received little attention. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the potential impacts of ERPs on soil erosion and water yield by 2050 in northern Shaanxi, the Chinese Loess Plateau. Soil erosion and water yield were modelled for 2050 based on land use and land cover (LULC) retrospective datasets and downscaled climate scenarios. We designed three 2050 conservation scenarios (protection, business as usual (BAU), and No LULC change) and compared them to the 2015 baseline. The results indicate that soil erosion under the protection and BAU scenarios showed similar decreasing trends compared with the 2015 baseline. The water yield decreased for all three scenarios by 28% (No LULC change scenario), 29% (BAU scenario), and 37% (protection scenario), indicating that climate change and ecological restoration are likely to place substantial pressures on water by 2050. Considering the water scarcity and climate scenarios in this region, stabilization of the vegetation cover at the 2015 levels may best support soil and water conservation in the future in northern Shaanxi. This study is expected to provide insights for decision-making to develop optimal soil and water conservation strategies in the semi-arid environment in China. V.The current work is focused on the use of nanofiltration in the removal of micropollutants, specially drugs (diclofenac and ibuprofen) and heavy metal (zinc sulphate and zinc nitrate) from wastewater. The commercially available nanofiltration (NF) membranes (AFC 80, AFC 40, AFC 30) were characterised by demineralised water and the ability of the membranes to reject drugs and zinc(II) was subsequently examined. The influence of the operating conditions on the rejection and the permeate flux was evaluated. see more The operating conditions tested included the transmembrane pressure (5-30 bar); the effect of the feed concentration on the heavy metals rejection (50-200 mg L-1); the effect of ionic strength on the diclofenac and ibuprofen rejection (0-10 g L-1 NaCl) and the volumetric flow rate (5-15 L min-1). It has been shown that increasing the transmembrane pressure increases the intensity of the permeate flow and rejection. Drugs rejection also increases with increasing bulk feed flow rates; however, decreases with increasing ionic strength (NaCl concentration in feed). Experimental data indicated that concentration polarisation existed in the membrane separation process. The stable permeation flux and high rejection of drugs and heavy metals indicated the potential of NF for the recovery of drugs and zinc(II) from wastewater. Particulate matter originated from traffic has attracted major interest over the last few years. The semi-volatile organic component of the particles may evaporate with dispersion away from the emission source, creating vapour which may oxidise to form secondary organic aerosol. Air samples were collected from a street canyon, the adjacent park and an urban background site during the winter-spring period in central London, UK. Emissions of semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) and intermediate volatility organic compounds (IVOCs) ranging from C10 to C36 in both the gas phase and particle phase were measured by using thermal desorption coupled to comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TD-GC × GC-ToF-MS). Main compound groups identified and quantified were grouped alkanes (n-alkanes and branched alkanes), monocyclic alkanes, bicyclic alkanes and monocyclic aromatics. The carbon preference index (CPI) of n-alkanes was estimated to distinguish the emission sources. Pearson correlations between I/SVOCs and traffic tracers (black carbon, NOx and benzene) in different locations were compared to analyse the influence of this emission source. The results indicate that while the major emission source at the roadside site is traffic, the lower correlations at background sites are indicative of other source contributions and/or differential reactivity of compounds. Gas-particle phase partitioning of n-alkanes is evaluated and compared between sites. The potential influence of gas phase I/SVOCs upon OH reactivity and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation is estimated and found to be relatively small.
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