Ambient monitoring to inform the protection of beneficial uses and achieve water quality goals in Sinclair and Dyes Inlets, Puget Sound, WA

Currently discharge limits enforced under the Clean Water Act are focused on meeting National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) limits at the end of the pipe and environmental performance is measured based on meeting the NPDES discharge limits; but meeting discharge limits has very little to do with achieving water quality goals for coastal and estuarine ecosystems. Therefore an effective monitoring and assessment program is needed to assess continuous process improvement, evaluate the ecological conditions, and provide metrics that can inform effective management of coastal and estuarine water quality. Here we report on an ambient monitoring program within Sinclair and Dyes Inlets, WA that was established to characterize environmental conditions, assess potential impacts, and track environmental quality trends within the Inlets. A network of water, sediment, and biota monitoring locations were selected that were co-located near suspected sources (industrial, waste water, and stormwater outfalls; marinas, stream mouths, and other sources) and locations that were representative of ambient marine and nearshore conditions for periodic sampling. Water column stations and effluents from industrial outfalls were sampled seasonally for trace metals, conventional parameters, and toxicity. Indigenous mussels have been sampled semi-annually for contaminant residues of metals and toxic organic compounds, and sediment monitoring is being conducted at five-eight year intervals. Key management questions include: (1) Are discharges from the naval shipyard protective of beneficial uses? (2) Are discharges from all sources of contamination impacting the quality of water, sediment, and biota in the Inlets? (3) What is the status and trend of water, sediment, and biota residue quality in the Inlets? Results from 2009-2016 monitoring provide metrics that are being used to evaluate ecosystem recovery and assess progress toward meeting environmental quality goals for the watershed

Diffusive gradient thin-films in seawater: time integrated technique for aqueous trace metal monitoring in impacted waterways

As part of an ambient monitoring program being conducted for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Sinclair and Dyes Inlets of the Puget Sound, receiving waters of the Inlets are routinely monitored for trace metals and toxicity to assess water quality status, track progress in achieving water quality goals, and demonstrate protection of aquatic life. Recently, aqueous metal bioavailability using diffusive gradient thin-film (DGT) passive samplers has been incorporated into the monitoring program. The DGT samplers allow for the measurement of trace metal concentrations integrated over time via in situ chelation of labile metals. The DGT samplers are selective for free and weakly complexed metal species, allowing uptake to mimic diffusion limited bioavailability. This provides a monitoring solution by which episodic events are captured that provides a better representation of the potential for biological effects. A combination of laboratory performance tests and field deployed DGTs have been used to assess the reliability of the method to accurately measure labile concentrations Cu, Pb, and Zn under baseline and episodic storm events. Based on the results from DGTs deployed over different intervals spanning continuous deployments of 1-56 days and rainfall events of 0.4 – 3.2 inches/24 hr, reproducibility was affected by the presence of partially labile complexes, mass loading rate (time to equilibrium) which is proportional to free ion concentration, and variation in resin blank values. Best results were obtained for 3-7 day DGT deployments which showed high resolution of labile metal concentrations over varying spatial and temporal scales. The ability to conduct constant surveillance of metal bioavailable for a variety of freshwater and nearshore marine environments under varying environmental conditions greatly improves the assessment of potential ecological effects from exposure to metals

Assessing 21st century contaminants of concern using integrative passive sampling devices to obtain more meaningful and cost effective data on impacts from stormwater runoff

In many cases stormwater compliance monitoring is labor intensive, expensive, and largely unsuccessful in providing the data needed to support stormwater management goals. In addition, data from manual grab sampling and automated composite sampling are rarely collected in a manner that provides the information required to identify sources of contamination, evaluate the effectiveness of Best Management Practices, and inform effective decision making. Furthermore, monitoring is often driven by the need to meet low concentration benchmarks for metals and other constituents that do not take into account loading into the receiving waters, resulting in arbitrary monitoring requirements (monthly or seasonally) that are not tied to the driving forces within the watershed such as hydrology (flow regime), weather (storm events and antecedent dry periods), and upland land use and cover. To help address these issues, passive sampling devices including Diffusive Gradients in Thin films (DGT) for metals and Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Samples (POCIS) for a wide range of household, personal care, pharmaceutical, and endocrine disrupting compounds are being used to monitor stormwater runoff. In the Puget Sound a network of monitoring stations was established in Sinclair and Dyes Inlets to assess runoff from industrial areas of Naval Base Kitsap as well as commercial, residential, and rural areas within the watershed. Passive samplers were co-located with autosamplers to provide a direct comparison with grab and composite sampling. Preliminary results from multiple DGT deployments showed that time-dependent variability in stormwater impacts on ambient metal concentrations could be detected on small time scales, as well as over multiple days of rainfall. The POCIS samplers showed that a wide range of organic compounds could be reliably detected from the surveillance monitoring which should prove very useful for finger printing likely sources of contamination in stormwater runoff in the areas monitored

UNBOUND

UNBOUND showcases the graduating class from the fashion design school at Fanshawe College.https://first.fanshawec.ca/famd_design_fashiondesign_unbound/1007/thumbnail.jp

Differences in Brain Function and Changes with Intervention in Children with Poor Spelling and Reading Abilities

Previous fMRI studies in English-speaking samples suggested that specific interventions may alter brain function in language-relevant networks in children with reading and spelling difficulties, but this research strongly focused on reading impaired individuals. Only few studies so far investigated characteristics of brain activation associated with poor spelling ability and whether a specific spelling intervention may also be associated with distinct changes in brain activity patterns. We here investigated such effects of a morpheme-based spelling intervention on brain function in 20 children with comparatively poor spelling and reading abilities using repeated fMRI. Relative to 10 matched controls, children with comparatively poor spelling and reading abilities showed increased activation in frontal medial and right hemispheric regions and decreased activation in left occipito-temporal regions prior to the intervention, during processing of a lexical decision task. After five weeks of intervention, spelling and reading comprehension significantly improved in the training group, along with increased activation in the left temporal, parahippocampal and hippocampal regions. Conversely, the waiting group showed increases in right posterior regions. Our findings could indicate an increased left temporal activation associated with the recollection of the new learnt morpheme-based strategy related to successful training

Dalla progettazione all’utilizzo di un sistema informativo geologico al servizio del rilevamento geologico: la banca dati della Regione Lombardia e la cartografia geologica derivata

In questa Tesi è descritto il processo di creazione di un Sistema Informativo Geologico e degli strumenti informatici per la gestione dell’informazione su base geografica, o più semplicemente GIS (Geographic Information System), al servizio delle attività di rilevamento geologico, finalizzato alla raccolta dei dati ed alla loro rappresentazione cartografica nell'ambito di un Sistema Informativo Territoriale (SIT). Un SIT è definibile come l'insieme di uomini, strumenti e procedure che, nell’ambito di una organizzazione, permettono l’acquisizione e la distribuzione dei dati relativi alla conoscenza dei fenomeni e degli attori presenti su territorio; tutto questo è facilitato in gran parte dalle capacità e funzionalità dei GIS. Il Sistema Informativo Territoriale orientato alla Geologia (SIG – Sistema Informativo Geologico) della Regione Lombardia è costituito da un gruppo di lavoro composto da geologi, informatici e geologi-informatici dell’Ente regionale e della società Lombardia Servizi (Gruppo Lombardia Informatica). Ho fatto parte del team di consulenza tecnico-scientifica incaricato da Lombardia Servizi per la realizzazione del SIG regionale. I compiti del gruppo di lavoro sono: - definizione di ruoli e metodi per la costituzione del SIG; - definizione delle logiche per la creazione di strumenti finalizzati all’archiviazione del dato geologico in una banca dati geologica e loro manutenzione; Il progetto è inserito nel più ampio processo di aggiornamento della Cartografia Geologica nazionale (progetto CARG). Il SIG ha come principali obiettivi: - la pianificazione ed esecuzione del rilevamento geologico di dettaglio (scala 1:10.000) del territorio lombardo; - la costruzione di un database della geologia di superficie (ma anche del sottosuolo per le aree di pianura) interrogabile e aggiornabile ; - il supporto ai processi di analisi finalizzati alla descrizione della geologia superficiale e ricostruzione degli eventi che hanno creato il paesaggio attuale; - la rappresentazione cartografica dell’ambiente geologico a partire dal database creato. - la distribuzione dell’informazione geologica archiviata in vari formati (cartaceo e digitale); Sono qui descritte ed analizzate criticamente la filosofia di costruzione delle procedure e le soluzioni tecniche e metodologiche adottate per realizzare gli obiettivi prefissi. L’APAT (Agenzia per la Protezione dell'Ambiente e per i servizi Tecnici nazionali) ha ereditato dal Servizio Geologico il compito di rilevare, aggiornare e pubblicare la Carta Geologica d'Italia (progetto nazionale CARG) quale organo cartografico dello Stato in base alla legge 68/60. Nel 1976 era stato completato il rilevamento della Carta geologica d'Italia alla scala 1:100.000 costituita da 278 fogli a copertura del territorio nazionale; per il suo aggiornamento sono stati definiti strumenti normativi idonei a garantire l'omogeneità dei contenuti e della rappresentazione cartografica; la definizione delle norme discende dall'applicazione di linee guida, frutto dell'attività di Commissioni e Gruppi di lavoro, pubblicate nei Quaderni della serie III (ed. APAT). L’Ente Regione Lombardia, per rispondere all’impegno istituzionale di aggiornamento della Carta Geologica, all’interno del più ampio e strutturato Sistema Informativo Territoriale regionale, ha dunque creato il Sistema Informativo Geologico (SIG) regionale. Il rapido evolversi delle ricerche nel campo delle Scienze della Terra e l'importanza che riveste la cartografia geologica nella gestione del territorio, hanno spinto la Regione Lombardia a progettare un rilevamento geologico di dettaglio per dotarsi di una banca dati geologica dalla quale derivare la propria cartografia geologica (alla scala 1:10.000). Sono stati quindi definiti standard specifici rispondenti a questa esigenza di maggior dettaglio (rispetto a quanto indicato dal progetto nazionale CARG) ed è stato pianificato e in gran parte realizzato un rilevamento ex-novo finalizzato alla pubblicazione del dato alla scala del rilevamento e per la sua generalizzazione alle scale 1:25.000 e 50.000. Alla fine del processo saranno stati realizzati 14 fogli del territorio lombardo relativamente alle aree alpine e di passaggio alla pianura (Bergamo, Bormio, Breno, Clusone, Lecco, Iseo, Malonno, Ponte di Legno, Sondrio, Vimercate, Milano, Bagolino, Seregno, Voghera). In tale progetto sono anche coinvolti le Università di Milano, di Pavia e di Bolona, il Politecnico di Milano e il CNR - Centro di Studio per la Geodinamica Alpina e Quaternaria di Milano. L’attività di rilevamento geologico è di competenza dei funzionari regionali della Struttura Sistema Informativo Territoriale della Direzione Generale Territorio e Urbanistica che, coadiuvati da geologi rilevatori, realizzano tutte le fasi del lavoro, dalla raccolta del dato fino alla sua pubblicazione. L’ambiente informatico GIS sviluppato, denominato CARGeo (Cartografia Geologica), permette di inserire i dati raccolti da geologi rilevatori in un database appositamente predisposto, mediante interfacce grafiche semplificate e procedure standard di archiviazione e controllo di correttezza formale. La banca dati è costruita in modo da facilitare l’archiviazione della maggior parte dei dati che normalmente il geologo registra nella carta e nei taccuini di terreno e, allo stesso tempo, guidarlo nella raccolta organica dell’informazione geologica. Nella strutturazione del database è stata privilegiata la possibilità di inserire attributi direttamente associabili agli elementi geometrici anziché attraverso schede associate a punti di osservazione. Il geologo rilevatore interviene per correggere errori di digitalizzazione o di attribuzione con un processo ciclico, fino ad ottenere una banca dati corretta secondo gli standard predefiniti. Gli strumenti di creazione della banca dati permettono anche di: - disegnare gli schemi accessori (sezioni geologiche, schemi stratigrafici e strutturali etc.); - eseguire lo “sfoltimento” e posizionamento delle annotazioni sulla mappa (sigle di unità litologiche e parametri di inclinazione delle giaciture) secondo criteri di leggibilità della carta - creare le legende; - creare banche dati a scala inferiore (1:25.000 e 50.000); - stampare e pubblicare carte geologiche complete di schemi e legende. Il sistema contiene gli strumenti necessari alla migrazione della banca dati dalla struttura proprietaria CARG-Regione Lombardia a quella CARG-APAT secondo la struttura definita nei Quaderni della serie III Il Sistema nel corso del biennio 2006-2007 ha raggiunto la fase di consegna dei dati (derivazione e generalizzazione della banca dati CARG-APAT 1.50.000 da quella 1:10.000 CARG-Regione Lombardia) dei primi fogli completati (ISEO, MALONNO, LECCO e SONDRIO) con ritardo rispetto alla programmazione. Sono state analizzate le cause che hanno portato a questo rallentamento del flusso di lavoro, quindi apportate le necessarie modifiche al Sistema. Sono qui descritti i problemi e le soluzioni trovate per migliorare l'efficienza del sistema. Attualmente il Sistema Informativo Geologico è in una fase di ristrutturazione, che vede la migrazione verso un’architettura informatica basata sulla piattaforma ARCGis® 9.x. Attraverso il Sistema Informativo Geologico viene tentata una sintesi fra le logiche metodologiche dei due ambiti tecnico-scientifici coinvolti (Geologia e Informatica), in un ambiente dove ricercatori e tecnici lavorano sperimentando l’interazione tra le conoscenze e le metodologie conoscitive tipiche delle Scienze Geologiche e le tecnologie e processi logici delle Scienze Informatiche. Con questa Tesi è documentato tutto il percorso di costruzione della banca dati geologica attraverso e all’interno del sistema realizzato assieme gruppo di lavoro composto da geologi e tecnici informatici, cui ho partecipato, riassumendo gli oltre 9 anni di lavoro dall’ideazione del progetto CARGeo, anche in funzione del suo miglioramento

Derivation of Biomonitoring Equivalents for cyfluthrin

Recent efforts worldwide have resulted in a growing database of measured concentrations of chemicals in blood and urine samples taken from the general population. However, few tools exist to assist in the interpretation of the measured values in a health risk context. Biomonitoring Equivalents (BEs) are defined as the concentration or range of concentrations of a chemical or its metabolite in a biological medium (blood, urine, or other medium) that is consistent with an existing health-based exposure guideline, and are derived by integrating available data on pharmacokinetics with existing chemical risk assessments. This study reviews available health-based exposure guidance values for cyfluthrin from Health Canada, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and the World Health Organization/Food and Agriculture Organization. BE values corresponding to the oral reference dose (RfD), or acceptable daily intake (ADI) estimates from these agencies were derived based on data on excretion fractions of the urinary metabolite 4-fluoro-3-phenoxybenzoic acid (FPBA), which is a metabolite specific to cyfluthrin. These values may be used as screening tools for evaluation of biomonitoring data for cyfluthrin as the metabolite FPBA in the context of existing risk assessments and for prioritization of the potential need for additional risk assessment efforts for cyfluthrin relative to other chemicals

Derivation of Biomonitoring Equivalents for di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (CAS No. 117-81-7)

Recent efforts worldwide have resulted in a growing database of measured concentrations of chemicals in blood and urine samples taken from the general population. However, few tools exist to assist in the interpretation of the measured values in a health risk context. Biomonitoring Equivalents (BEs) are defined as the concentration or range of concentrations of an environmental chemical or its metabolite in a biological medium (blood, urine, or other medium) that is consistent with an existing health-based exposure guideline, and are derived by integrating available data on pharmacokinetics with existing chemical risk assessments. This study reviews available health-based exposure guidance values for di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) from Health Canada, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the European Chemicals Bureau (ECB), and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). BE values corresponding to the oral reference dose (RfD), minimal risk level (MRL) or tolerable daily intake (TDI) estimates from these agencies were derived based on data on excretion fractions of key urinary metabolites. BE values based on the sum of three, four, and five of the most predominant and commonly-measured metabolites of DEHP are presented. These values may be used as screening tools for evaluation of biomonitoring data for DEHP metabolites in the context of existing risk assessments and for prioritization of the potential need for additional risk assessment efforts for DEHP relative to other chemicals

Derivation of Biomonitoring Equivalents for di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), benzylbutyl phthalate (BzBP), and diethyl phthalate (DEP)

Recent efforts worldwide have resulted in a growing database of measured concentrations of chemicals in blood and urine samples taken from the general population. However, few tools exist to assist in the interpretation of the measured values in a health risk context. Biomonitoring Equivalents (BEs) are defined as the concentration or range of concentrations of a chemical or its metabolite in a biological medium (blood, urine, or other medium) that is consistent with an existing health-based exposure guideline, and are derived by integrating available data on pharmacokinetics with existing chemical risk assessments. This study reviews available health-based exposure guidance values for di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), benzylbutyl phthalate (BzBP), and diethyl phthalate (DEP) from Health Canada, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). BE values corresponding to the oral reference dose (RfD), minimal risk level (MRL) or tolerable daily intake (TDI) estimates from these agencies were derived for each compound based on data on excretion fractions of key urinary metabolites. These values may be used as screening tools for evaluation of biomonitoring data for metabolites of these three phthalate compounds in the context of existing risk assessments and for prioritization of the potential need for additional risk assessment efforts for each of these compounds relative to other chemicals

Biomonitoring equivalents for hexachlorobenzene

Recent efforts worldwide have resulted in a growing database of measured concentrations of chemicals in blood and urine samples taken from the general population. However, few tools exist to assist in the interpretation of the measured values in a health risk context. Biomonitoring equivalents (BEs) are defined as the concentration or range of concentrations of a chemical or its metabolite in a biological medium (blood, urine, or other medium) that is consistent with an existing health-based exposure guideline. This study reviews available health-based exposure guidance values for hexachlorobenzene (HCB) from Health Canada, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and World Health Organization (WHO). HCB liver tissue concentrations in chronic rodent bioassays and information on human elimination rates and tissue distribution of HCB were extrapolated to estimate serum lipid-adjusted HCB concentrations that are consistent with the exposure guidance values for HCB. Estimated serum lipid-adjusted HCB concentrations ranging from 16 to 250. ng/g lipid were consistent with non-cancer-based exposure guidance values from various agencies. Concentrations associated with cancer risk-specific doses at target risk levels of interest were also estimated. These BE values may be used as screening tools for evaluation of population biomonitoring data for HCB in a risk assessment context and can assist in prioritization of the potential need for additional risk assessment efforts for HCB relative to other chemicals