Degradation of Bezafibrate with UV/H2O2 in Surface Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluent

Bezafibrate (BZF), a widely used lipid regulator, is a potential threat to ecosystems and human health in water, and the recent research showed that advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are much more effective for BZF degradation. In this study, we investigated the photochemical decomposition of BZF in surface water and effluent from waste water treatment plants (WWTP) by UV/H₂O₂ process. The results showed that the UV/H₂O₂ process was a promising method to remove BZF at low concentration, generally at µg L^?1 level. When initial concentrations reach 100 µg L^?1 in the deionized water, >99.8% of BZF could be removed in 16 min under UV intensity of 61.4 µm cm^?2, at the H₂O₂ concentration of 0.1 mg L^?1, and neutral pH condition. Moreover, BZF degradation was inhibited in this process when humic acid (HA) and inorganic solution anions were added to the deionized water solutions, including chloride, nitrate, bicarbonate, and sulfate, significantly. In the surface water and effluent of WWTP, however, the removal efficiency of BZF was lower than that in the deionized water because of the interference of complex constituents in the surface water and effluent. Some main intermediates at the m/z range of 100–400 were observed by high performance LC‐MS (HPLC/MS) and a simple pathway of BZF degradation by UV/H₂O₂ was proposed.     

Peatland subsidence and vegetation cover degradation as impacts of the 2015 El niño event revealed by Sentinel-1A SAR data

Indonesia has the world’s largest tropical peatland, mostly located in the southern province of Sumatra, the south of Kalimantan, and Papua. The catastrophic fires between June and October 2015 induced by the El Niño event burnt most of these peatland areas. We analyzed spatio-temporal peat subsidence during pre- and post-fires in the peat hydrological unit of Sungai Sugihan – Sungai Saleh (KHGSS), South Sumatra using Sentinel-1 images by applying DInSAR-SBAS algorithm. Based on our analysis, the linear subsidence rate after the 2015 peat fires increased by a factor 6.4 compared to that of pre-fires. Generally, the estimated subsidence is temporally well-correlated with the precipitation variation. In addition, the subsidence patterns are spatially correlated with the hotspot distribution, peat thickness, and drainage networks. Furthermore, we mapped vegetation cover over the KHGSS by using the Sentinel-1 images as well. The results show that the vegetation degradation is correlated with the hotspot distribution and the highly-degraded vegetation associated with the 2015 peat fires. It demonstrated that the 2015 El Niño event has significant impacts on increasing the amount of the subsidence and the vegetation degradation in KHGSS area.     

河流中污染物衰减系数影响因素分析

污染物衰减系数是反映河流水质污染变化情况、建立水质模型、计算水环境容量的重要参数之一,其确定的合理性直接影响到水环境容量以及水质模型的可靠性。通过查阅有关文献,概述了国内外部分河流的COD和BOD以及氨氮的衰减系数,并分析了影响污染物衰减系数的主要因素,为研究河流水体自净规律、计算水环境容量、区域排污总量控制计划的制定提供科学依据。     

Degradation of rope properties under increasing monotonic load

This paper describes the development of a computational model to predict the response of synthetic-fiber ropes under both monotonic and cyclic loads. The model addresses the issue of damage to a rope cross-section and its effect on rope response. Isotropic damage is assumed and is therefore characterized by a scalar quantity known as the damage index. The damage index is used to quantify the amount of deterioration that takes place in a damaged rope throughout its loading history. For the current study, data obtained from static tension tests are used to determine the evolution relationship for the damage index. This relationship is based on the stiffness ratio between experimental data and simulation of rope response without any source of damage and is assumed to be described by an exponential equation. Numerical simulations of damaged rope behavior compare well with experimental results.     

Assessment of groundwater pollution due to tannery industries in and around Dindigul, Tamilnadu, India

The overexploitation of groundwater in some parts of the country induces water quality degradation. The untreated industrial effluents discharged on the surface causes severe groundwater pollution in the industrial belt of the country. This poses a problem of supply of hazard free drinking water in the rural parts of the country. There are about 80 tanneries operating in and around Dindigul town in upper Kodaganar river basin, Tamilnadu, India. The untreated effluents from the tanneries have considerably affected the quality of groundwater in this area. To assess the extent of groundwater deterioration, a detailed analysis of groundwater quality data has been carried out. The concentration of cations such as Calcium (Ca²⁺), Magnesium (Mg²⁺), Sodium (Na⁺) and Potassium (K⁺), and anions such as Bicarbonate (HCO₃^–), Sulphate (SO₄^2–), Chloride (Cl^–) and Nitrate (NO₃^–) in the groundwater have been studied. Apart from these constituents, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solid and total hardness (TH as CaCO₃) were also studied. The correlation of these constituents with the EC has been carried out. The highest correlation is observed between EC and chloride with a correlation coefficient of 0.99. Progressive reduction in correlation coefficients for Mg²⁺, (Na⁺ + K⁺), Ca²⁺ and SO₄^2– are observed as 0.91, 0.87, 0.86 and 0.56, respectively. It is found that the quality of groundwater in the area under investigation is deteriorated mainly due to extensive use of salt in the leather industries.     

Monitoring degradation in arid and semi-arid forests and woodlands: The case of the argan woodlands (Morocco)

Arid and semi-arid forests and woodlands (hereafter called «dryland forests»), in spite of their ecological and social importance, have received little attention in land change studies. Growing evidence shows that these forests have been receding at very high rates in many places, suggesting a need for a better understanding of the processes and causes of dryland forest degradation. Changes in the extent of dryland forests are debated in part because estimates of forest and woodland areas in drylands are uncertain. Causal explanations of the degradation tend to draw on the literature on desertification and tropical deforestation, and to emphasize either local or remote, and either social or biophysical drivers. This study contributes to a better understanding of dryland forest degradation as a basis for conservation policies. Firstly, we argue that monitoring arid and semi-arid forests and woodlands using area estimates may lead to an underestimation of the severity of change because tree density change often exceeds area change. Secondly, we argue that the analysis of degradation processes in these multifunctional landscapes should integrate both local and remote, and both social and biophysical factors. We use a case study of degradation in the argania woodlands in semi-arid to arid Southwest Morocco to test these two claims. We used gridded tree counts on aerial photographs and satellite images to estimate forest change between 1970 and 2007, and we tested several possible causes of change on the basis of original socio-economic field surveys and climatic and topographic data. We found that forest density declined by 44.5% during this period, a figure that is significantly underestimated if forest area change is used as a measure of degradation. Increasing aridity and, to a lesser extent, fuelwood extraction were related to forest decline. No effect of grazing by local livestock was found.     

Comparative proteome analysis of butachlor-degrading bacteria

A Pseudomonas putida strain, named ER1, was isolated from an agricultural soil and found to actively degrade the herbicide butachlor. The enzyme extracted from ER1 could degrade butachlor. Furthermore, incubation of ER1 in a medium containing 50 mg/kg of butachlor after 3 days resulted in the high butachlor-degrading enzyme activity of ER1. Response of ER1 to butachlor might be related to changes in protein composition at both quantitative and qualitative levels. Total proteins were extracted from control strain (incubated in the medium without butachlor) and the treated strain (incubated in the medium with butachlor). The proteins were separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Of the total number of ER1 protein, 11 spots were significantly changed under butachlor stress. Analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry coupled with database searching allowed the function of some proteins which were similar to the hydrolases activity or oxidoreductase activity.