Pilot Experiments with Electrodialysis and Ozonation for the Production of a Fertilizer from Urine

Pilot tests were performed with a process combination of electrodialysis and ozonation for the removal of micropollutants and the concentration of nutrients in urine. In continuous and batch experiments, maximum concentration factors up to 3.5 and 4.1 were obtained, respectively. The desalination capacity did not decrease significantly during continuous operation periods of several weeks. Membrane cleaning after 195 days resulted in approximately 35% increase in desalination rate. The Yeast Estrogen Screen (YES), a bioassay that selectively detects oestrogenic compounds, confirmed that about 90% of the oestrogenic activity was removed by electrodialysis. HPLC analysis showed that ibuprofen was removed to a high extent, while other micropollutants were below the detection limit. In view of the fact that ibuprofen is among the most rapidly transported micropollutants in electrodialysis processes, this result indicates that electrodialysis provides an effective barrier for micropollutants. Standardised plant growth tests were performed in the field with the salt solution resulting from the treatment by electrodialysis and subsequent ozonation. The results show that the plant height is comparable to synthetic fertilisers, but the crop yield is slightly lower. The latter is probably caused by volatilisation losses during field application, which can be prevented by improved application technologies

Microseismicity of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 7°S-8°15′S and at the Logatchev Massif oceanic core complex at 14°40′N-14°50′N

Lithospheric formation at slow spreading rates is heterogeneous with multiple modalities, favoring symmetric spreading where magmatism dominates or core complex and inside corner high formation where tectonics dominate. We report microseismicity from three deployments of seismic networks at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR). Two networks surveyed the MAR near 7 degrees S in the vicinity of the Ascension transform fault. Three inside corner high settings were investigated. However, they remained seismically largely inactive and major seismic activity occurred along the center of the median valley. In contrast, at the Logatchev Massif core complex at 14 degrees 45N seismicity was sparse within the center of the median valley but concentrated along the eastern rift mountains just west of the serpentine hosted Logatchev hydrothermal vent field. To the north and south of the massif, however, seismic activity occurred along the ridge axis, emphasizing the asymmetry of seismicity at the Logatchev segment. Focal mechanisms indicated a large number of reverse faulting events occurring in the vicinity of the vent field at 3-5 km depth, which we interpret to reflect volume expansion accompanying serpentinization. At shallower depth of 2-4 km, some earthquakes in the vicinity of the vent field showed normal faulting behavior, suggesting that normal faults facilitates hydrothermal circulation feeding the vent field. Further, a second set of cross-cutting faults occurred, indicating that the surface location of the field is controlled by local fault systems

Massive Stars: Their Environment and Formation

Cloud environment is thought to play a critical role in determining the mechanism of formation of massive stars. In this contribution we review the physical characteristics of the environment around recently formed massive stars. Particular emphasis is given to recent high angular resolution observations which have improved our knowledge of the physical conditions and kinematics of compact regions of ionized gas and of dense and hot molecular cores associated with luminous O and B stars. We will show that this large body of data, gathered during the last decade, has allowed significant progress in the understanding of the physical processes that take place during the formation and early evolution of massive stars.Comment: Pub. Astron. Soc. of Pacific (Invited Review), 95 pages (Latex), 5 pages (tables, Latex), 11 postscript or gif figure

Sources of Uncertainty in Regional and Global Terrestrial CO2 Exchange Estimates

The Global Carbon Budget 2018 (GCB2018) estimated by the atmospheric CO2 growth rate, fossil fuel emissions, and modeled (bottom-up) land and ocean fluxes cannot be fully closed, leading to a “budget imbalance,” highlighting uncertainties in GCB components. However, no systematic analysis has been performed on which regions or processes contribute to this term. To obtain deeper insight on the sources of uncertainty in global and regional carbon budgets, we analyzed differences in Net Biome Productivity (NBP) for all possible combinations of bottom-up and top-down data sets in GCB2018: (i) 16 dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs), and (ii) 5 atmospheric inversions that match the atmospheric CO2 growth rate. We find that the global mismatch between the two ensembles matches well the GCB2018 budget imbalance, with Brazil, Southeast Asia, and Oceania as the largest contributors. Differences between DGVMs dominate global mismatches, while at regional scale differences between inversions contribute the most to uncertainty. At both global and regional scales, disagreement on NBP interannual variability between the two approaches explains a large fraction of differences. We attribute this mismatch to distinct responses to El Niño–Southern Oscillation variability between DGVMs and inversions and to uncertainties in land use change emissions, especially in South America and Southeast Asia. We identify key needs to reduce uncertainty in carbon budgets: reducing uncertainty in atmospheric inversions (e.g., through more observations in the tropics) and in land use change fluxes, including more land use processes and evaluating land use transitions (e.g., using high-resolution remote-sensing), and, finally, improving tropical hydroecological processes and fire representation within DGVMs.</p

Antibiotic knowledge, attitudes, and practices: new insights from cross-sectional rural health behaviour surveys in low- and middle-income South-East Asia

Introduction: Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are crucial in the global response to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but diverse health systems, healthcare practices, and cultural conceptions of medicine can complicate global education and awareness-raising campaigns. Social research can help understand LMIC contexts but remains underrepresented in AMR research. Objective: To (1) describe antibiotic-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the general population in two LMICs and to (2) assess the role of antibiotic-related knowledge and attitudes on antibiotic access from different types of healthcare providers. Design: Observational study: cross-sectional rural health behaviour survey, representative on the population level. Setting: General rural population in Chiang Rai (Thailand) and Salavan (Lao PDR), surveyed between November 2017 and May 2018. Participants: 2141 adult members (≥18 years) of the general rural population, representing 712,000 villagers. Outcome measures: Antibiotic-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices across sites and healthcare access channels. Findings: Villagers were aware of antibiotics (Chiang Rai: 95.7%; Salavan: 86.4%; p<0.001) and drug resistance (Chiang Rai: 74.8%; Salavan: 62.5%; p<0.001), but the usage of technical concepts for antibiotics was dwarfed by local expressions like “anti-inflammatory medicine” in Chiang Rai (87.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 84.9–90.0) and “ampi” in Salavan (75.6%; 95% CI: 71.4–79.4). Multivariate linear regression suggested that attitudes against over-the-counter antibiotics were linked to 0.12 additional antibiotic use episodes from public healthcare providers in Chiang Rai (95% CI: 0.01 – 0.23) and 0.53 in Salavan (95% CI: 0.16 – 0.90). Conclusions: Locally specific conceptions and counter-intuitive practices around antimicrobials can complicate AMR communication efforts and entail unforeseen consequences. Overcoming “knowledge deficits” alone will therefore be insufficient for global AMR behaviour change. We call for an expansion of behavioural AMR strategies towards “AMR-sensitive interventions” that address context-specific upstream drivers of antimicrobial use (e.g. unemployment insurance) and complement education and awareness campaigns

Effect of Weld Schedule on the Residual Stress Distribution of Boron Steel Spot Welds

Press-hardened boron steel has been utilized in anti-intrusion systems in automobiles, providing high strength and weight-saving potential through gage reduction. Boron steel spot welds exhibit a soft heat-affected zone which is surrounded by a hard nugget and outlying base material. This soft zone reduces the strength of the weld and makes it susceptible to failure. Additionally, different welding regimes lead to significantly different hardness distributions, making failure prediction difficult. Boron steel sheets, welded with fixed and adaptive schedules, were characterized. These are the first experimentally determined residual stress distributions for boron steel resistance spot welds which have been reported. Residual strains were measured using neutron diffraction, and the hardness distributions were measured on the same welds. Additionally, similar measurements were performed on spot welded DP600 steel as a reference material. A correspondence between residual stress and hardness profiles was observed for all welds. A significant difference in material properties was observed between the fixed schedule and adaptively welded boron steel samples, which could potentially lead to a difference in failure loads between the two boron steel welds