Effects of increasing cow urine deposition area on soil mineral nitrogen movement and pasture growth on a recent soil in the Manawatu region, New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Environmental Management at Massey University, Manawatū, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The cow urine patch is a major source of nitrate (NO3¯) leaching from grazed dairy pasture farms. Increasing the urine deposition area is a direct way of reducing the potential risk of this cause N leaching losses. Research is required to quantity the effectiveness of this mitigation across a range of different soil and climatic conditions. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of increasing the cow urine deposition area on NO3¯ leaching risk and short-term pasture accumulation on Recent soil in the Manawatu Region, New Zealand. A field trial was conducted, which consisted of three treatments evaluated on pasture plots: Urine (1 m2), Urine (0.2 m2) and No-urine. The two urine treatments received the same volume of 2.1 L urine/patch. Urine treatments were applied on the 6th of March 2017, and soil inorganic N was measured on three occasions; 15, 36 and 53 days after urine application (DAUA). At the third soil sampling time, which was 24 days after the drainage season was estimated to have commenced, the net inorganic N (inorganic N in the urine treatment minus the value for the No-urine treatment) in the 45-120 cm soil depth was 1.08 g net inorganic N/patch for the Urine (1 m2) treatment compared to 2.97 g net inorganic N/patch for the Urine (0.2 m2) treatment. Therefore, the Urine (1 m2) treatment resulted in a 63.6% reduction in the quantity of net inorganic N that was highly susceptible to leaching, compared to the more typical urine patch area of 0.2 m2. At a paddock scale, when net inorganic N from the urine treatments is multiplied by an estimate of the quantity of urine patches per hectare in a single grazing, this equates to a reduction of 2.53 kg N/ha from a single autumn grazing. It is expected that increasing urine deposition area at multiple grazings would result in greater reductions in the annual NO3¯ leaching risk. Over the two pasture harvests conducted in the trial, the pasture DM accumulation for the No-urine treatment produced an average of 3220 kg DM/ha. The two urine patch treatments achieved a similar level of pasture DM accumulation to that of the No-urine treatment. The lack of a pasture growth response from the added urine could have been influenced by the high clover content (35.9%) of the pasture, and in addition, there may have been adequate background soil mineral N levels, which together could have contributed to N not being growth limiting during the trial. This research has demonstrated that increasing cow urine deposition area in autumn has potential to be an effective mitigation for decreasing N leaching losses from grazed dairy pastures. Further research is required to investigate the effects of increasing cow urine deposition area at multiple grazings, in order to determine the effect of this mitigation option on annual NO3¯ leaching and pasture production

Full nitrogen recovery and potable water production from human urine by membrane distillation

Human urine offers some interesting possibilities for ammonia and potable water recovery. Membrane distillation holds possible advantages over existing urine treatment technologies, specifically regarding ammonia recovery. It was shown that up to 95 m% of all ammonia present in hydrolyzed urine could be recovered by increasing the urine pH to 10.5 or higher within a period of 2 hours, with a maximal separation factor of up to 16. The possibility of potable water production was investigated in human urine by assessing the permeate water quality, maximum recovery and mid-term process stability. It was shown that at least 75% of the available water could be recovered from non-hydrolyzed human urine without process failure. As such, membrane distillation is a viable alternative for existing urine treatment

Short term N2O losses in urine patches: a 15N labelling study

These results show that emission of N2O is greater when N is added as urine compared with mineral N. This can probably be explained by the presence of organic carbon compounds in the urine, which may fuel the N2O production. Moreover, there is a greater exchange of N between the applied urine-N pool and the soil indigenous N-pool compared with the added mineral N-pool and soil indigenous N, which also indicates an increased microbial activity in the urine patches. The urea content of the urine seemed to be of importance for N2O emissions, suggesting dietary regulations of urine N-composition as a N2O mitigation option

Lack of increased availability of root-derived C may explain the low N2O emission from low N-urine patches

Urine deposition on grassland causes significant N2O losses, which in some cases may result from increased denitrification stimulated by labile compounds released from scorched plant roots. Two 12-day experiments were conducted in 13C-labelled grassland monoliths to investigate the link between N2O production and carbon mineralization following application of low rates of urine-N. Measurements of N2O and CO2 emissions from the monoliths as well as δ13C signal of evolved CO2 were done on day -4, -1, 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 after application of urine corresponding to 3.1 and 5.5 g N m-2 in the first and second experiment, respectively. The δ13C signal was also determined for soil organic matter, dissolved organic C and CO2 evolved by microbial respiration. In addition, denitrifying enzyme activity (DEA) and nitrifying enzyme activity (NEA) were measured on day -1, 2 and 7 after the first urine application event. Urine did not affect DEA, whereas NEA was enhanced 2 days after urine application. In the first experiment, urine had no significant effect on the N2O flux, which was generally low (-8 to 14 μg N2O-N m-2 h-1). After the second application event, the N2O emission increased significantly to 87 μg N2O-N m-2 h-1 and the N2O emission factor for the added urine-N was 0.18 %. However, the associated 13C signal of soil respiration was unaffected by urine. Consequently, the increased N2O emission from the simulated low N-urine patches was not caused by enhanced denitrification stimulated by labile compounds released from scorched plant roots

Antibiotic prophylaxis during extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy in the prevention of urinary tract infections in patients with sterile urine before the procedure

Introduction: There are controversies in the literature regarding the need and the duration of antibiotic prophylaxis in patients with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL), who had a negative urine culture before the operation. This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of the antibiotic prophylaxis in patients with proven sterile urine before they underwent ESWL. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial, 150 patients with renal or urethral stones and sterile urine were examined for bacteriuria (positive urine culture) following ESWL. These patients were classified into 3 groups which received either a single dose of oral co-trimoxazole (Tab, 400/80 mg)- group A, a single dose of nitrofurantoin (Tab:100mg) -group B and no treatment- group C. Patients were followed with urine analysis and urine culture after two weeks. Results: The occurrence of post-ESWL urinary infections (positive urine culture) was 14% in group A, 10% in group B and 14% in group C. The complications among the groups were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The incidence of urinary tract infections after ESWL is extremely low, provided that in patients who had sterile urine before ESWL, prophylaxis antibiotics do not seem to be necessary

In situ N2O emissions are not mitigated by hippuric and benzoic acids under denitrifying conditions

This research was financially supported under the National Development Plan, through the Research Stimulus Fund, administered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Grant numbers RSF10/RD/SC/716 and 11S138).peer-reviewedRuminant urine patches deposited onto pasture are a significant source of greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) from livestock agriculture. Increasing food demand is predicted to lead to a rise in ruminant numbers globally, which, in turn will result in elevated levels of urine-derived N2O. Therefore mitigation strategies are urgently needed. Urine contains hippuric acid and together with one of its breakdown products, benzoic acid, has previously been linked to mitigating N2O emissions from urine patches in laboratory studies. However, the sole field study to date found no effect of hippuric and benzoic acid concentration on N2O emissions. Therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the in situ effect of these urine constituents on N2O emissions under conditions conducive to denitrification losses. Unadulterated bovine urine (0 mM of hippuric acid, U) was applied, as well as urine amended with either benzoic acid (96 mM, U + BA) or varying rates of hippuric acid (8 and 82 mM, U + HA1, U + HA2). Soil inorganic nitrogen (N) and N2O fluxes were monitored over a 66 day period. Urine application resulted in elevated N2O flux for 44 days. The largest N2O fluxes accounting for between 13% (U) and 26% (U + HA1) of total loss were observed on the day of urine application. Between 0.9 and 1.3% of urine-N was lost as N2O. Cumulative N2O loss from the control was 0.3 kg N2O–N ha− 1 compared with 11, 9, 12, and 10 kg N2O–N ha− 1 for the U, U + HA1, U + HA2, and U + BA treatments, respectively. Incremental increases in urine HA or increase in BA concentrations had no effect on N2O emissions. Although simulation of dietary manipulation to reduce N2O emissions through altering individual urine constituents appears to have no effect, there may be other manipulations such as reducing N content or inclusion of synthetic inhibitory products that warrant further investigation.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marin

Urine collection device

A urine collection device for females is described. It is comprised of a collection element defining a urine collection chamber and an inlet opening into the chamber and is adapted to be disposed in surrounding relation to the urethral opening of the user. A drainage conduit is connected to the collection element in communication with the chamber whereby the chamber and conduit together comprise a urine flow pathway for carrying urine generally away from the inlet. A first body of wicking material is mounted adjacent the collection element and extends at least partially into the flow pathway. The device preferably also comprise a vaginal insert element including a seal portion for preventing the entry of urine into the vagina

Urinary excretion of RAS, BMP, and WNT pathway components in diabetic kidney disease.

Abstract The renin-angiotensin system (RAS), bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), and WNT pathways are involved in pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). This study characterized assays for urinary angiotensinogen (AGT), gremlin-1, and matrix metalloproteinase 7 (MMP-7), components of the RAS, BMP, and WNT pathways and examined their excretion in DKD. We measured urine AGT, gremlin-1, and MMP-7 in individuals with type 1 diabetes and prevalent DKD (n = 20) or longstanding (n = 61) or new-onset (n = 10) type 1 diabetes without DKD. These urine proteins were also quantified in type 2 DKD (n = 11) before and after treatment with candesartan. The utilized immunoassays had comparable inter- and intra-assay and intraindividual variation to assays used for urine albumin. Median (IQR) urine AGT concentrations were 226.0 (82.1, 550.3) and 13.0 (7.8, 20.0) μg/g creatinine in type 1 diabetes with and without DKD, respectively (P < 0.001). Median (IQR) urine gremlin-1 concentrations were 48.6 (14.2, 254.1) and 3.6 (1.7, 5.5) μg/g, respectively (P < 0.001). Median (IQR) urine MMP-7 concentrations were 6.0 (3.8, 10.5) and 1.0 (0.4, 2.9) μg/g creatinine, respectively (P < 0.001). Treatment with candesartan was associated with a reduction in median (IQR) urine AGT/creatinine from 23.5 (1.6, 105.1) to 2.0 (1.4, 13.7) μg/g, which did not reach statistical significance. Urine gremlin-1 and MMP-7 excretion did not decrease with candesartan. In conclusion, DKD is characterized by markedly elevated urine AGT, MMP-7, and gremlin-1. AGT decreased in response to RAS inhibition, suggesting that this marker reflects therapeutic response. Urinary components of the RAS, BMP, and WNT pathways may identify risk of DKD and aid development of novel therapeutics