Improvement of Hydraulic and Water Quality Renovation Functions by Intermittent Aeration of Soil Treatment Areas in Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems

We tested intermittent aeration of the soil treatment area (STA) of onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) for its ability to restore and maintain STA hydraulic flow and improve the water quality functions of conventional OWTS. Evaluation was conducted on hydraulically-failed conventional OWTS at three state-owned medical group homes in Washington County, RI, USA. Testing was conducted in two phases, with Phase I (before intermittent soil aeration (ISA)) comprising the first 6 months of the study, and Phase II (during ISA) the remaining 7 months. Intermittent soil aeration restored STA hydraulic function in all three systems despite a marked reduction in the STA total infiltrative surface. Soil pore water was collected from 30 and 90 cm below the STA during both phases and analyzed for standard wastewater parameters. Although the STA infiltrative surface was reduced—and the contaminant load per unit of area increased—after installation of the ISA system, no differences were observed between phases in concentration of total N, NO3, total P, or dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Apparent removal rates—which do not account for dilution or differences in infiltrative area—for total N, total P, and DOC remained the same or improved during Phase II relative to the pre-operation phase. Furthermore, intermittent soil aeration enhanced actual removal rates —which do account for dilution and differences in infiltrative area. The effects of ISA on actual removal of contaminants from STE increased with increasing hydraulic load—a counterintuitive phenomenon, but one that has been previously observed in laboratory studies. The results of our study suggest that intermittent soil aeration can restore and maintain hydraulic flow in the STA and enhance carbon and nutrient removal in conventional OWTS

Ecological intensification: bridging the gap between science and practice

There is worldwide concern about the environmental costs of conventional intensification of agriculture. Growing evidence suggests that ecological intensification of mainstream farming can safeguard food production, with accompanying environmental benefits; however, the approach is rarely adopted by farmers. Our review of the evidence for replacing external inputs with ecosystem services shows that scientists tend to focus on processes (e.g., pollination) rather than outcomes (e.g., profits), and express benefits at spatio-temporal scales that are not always relevant to farmers. This results in mismatches in perceived benefits of ecological intensification between scientists and farmers, which hinders its uptake. We provide recommendations for overcoming these mismatches and highlight important additional factors driving uptake of nature-based management practices, such as social acceptability of farming

Impacts of Climate Change on indirect human exposure to pathogens and chemicals from agriculture

Objective: Climate change is likely to affect the nature of pathogens and chemicals in the environment and their fate and transport. Future risks of pathogens and chemicals could therefore be very different from those of today. In this review, we assess the implications of climate change for changes in human exposures to pathogens and chemicals in agricultural systems in the United Kingdom and discuss the subsequent effects on health impacts. Data sources: In this review, we used expert input and considered literature on climate change ; health effects resulting from exposure to pathogens and chemicals arising from agriculture ; inputs of chemicals and pathogens to agricultural systems ; and human exposure pathways for pathogens and chemicals in agricultural systems. Data synthesis: We established the current evidence base for health effects of chemicals and pathogens in the agricultural environment ; determined the potential implications of climate change on chemical and pathogen inputs in agricultural systems ; and explored the effects of climate change on environmental transport and fate of different contaminant types. We combined these data to assess the implications of climate change in terms of indirect human exposure to pathogens and chemicals in agricultural systems. We then developed recommendations on future research and policy changes to manage any adverse increases in risks. Conclusions: Overall, climate change is likely to increase human exposures to agricultural contaminants. The magnitude of the increases will be highly dependent on the contaminant type. Risks from many pathogens and particulate and particle-associated contaminants could increase significantly. These increases in exposure can, however, be managed for the most part through targeted research and policy changes

Mapping Regional Forest Evapotranspiration and Photosynthesis by Coupling Satellite Data with Ecosystem Simulation

Mapping Regional Forest Evapotranspiration and Photosynthesis by Coupling Satellite Data With Ecosystem Simulatio

Dynamically Driven Evolution of the Interstellar Medium in M51

Massive star formation occurs in giant molecular clouds (GMCs); an understanding of the evolution of GMCs is a prerequisite to develop theories of star formation and galaxy evolution. We report the highest-fidelity observations of the grand-design spiral galaxy M51 in carbon monoxide (CO) emission, revealing the evolution of GMCs vis-a-vis the large-scale galactic structure and dynamics. The most massive GMCs (giant molecular associations (GMAs)) are first assembled and then broken up as the gas flow through the spiral arms. The GMAs and their H_2 molecules are not fully dissociated into atomic gas as predicted in stellar feedback scenarios, but are fragmented into smaller GMCs upon leaving the spiral arms. The remnants of GMAs are detected as the chains of GMCs that emerge from the spiral arms into interarm regions. The kinematic shear within the spiral arms is sufficient to unbind the GMAs against self-gravity. We conclude that the evolution of GMCs is driven by large-scale galactic dynamics—their coagulation into GMAs is due to spiral arm streaming motions upon entering the arms, followed by fragmentation due to shear as they leave the arms on the downstream side. In M51, the majority of the gas remains molecular from arm entry through the interarm region and into the next spiral arm passage

Non-specific chest pain and subsequent serious cardiovascular readmissions

Background: The rates of readmission for serious cardiovascular events among patients admitted with a diagnosis of non-specific chest pain are unknown. Methods: A national retrospective cohort study in the United States was undertaken to evaluate the rates, trends and predictors of readmission for serious cardiovascular events (acute coronary syndrome (ACS), pulmonary embolism (PE) and aortic dissection (AD)) after an inpatient episode with a primary diagnosis of non-specific chest pain. Results: Among 1,172,430 patients with an index diagnosis of non-specific chest pain between 2010 and 2014, 2.4% were readmitted with an ACS, 0.4% with a PE and 0.06% with an AD within 6 months of discharge. Predictors of ACS readmissions were diabetes (OR 1.49 95% CI 1.17–1.32), coronary artery disease (OR 2.29 95% CI 2.15–2.44), previous percutaneous coronary intervention (OR 1.65 95% CI 1.56–1.75), previous CABG (OR 1.52 95% CI 1.43–1.61) and discharge against medical advice (OR 1.94 95% CI 1.78–2.12). Female patients (OR 0.82 95% CI 0.78–0.86) and patients in whom a coronary angiogram was undertaken (OR 0.48 95% CI 0.45–0.52) were less likely to be readmitted for ACS. For PE, predictors of readmission were pulmonary circulatory disorder (OR 2.20 95% CI 1.09–4.43), anemia (OR 1.62 95% CI 1.40–1.86) and cancer (OR 4.15 95% CI 3.43–5.02). Peripheral vascular disease (OR 8.63 95% CI 5.47–13.60), renal failure (OR 2.08 95% CI 1.34–3.24) were predictors of AD. Conclusions: Non-specific chest pain may not be a benign condition as readmissions for serious cardiovascular events occur in 3% of patients within 180 days. Research is needed to define measures that may mitigate readmissions among these patients

Investigating the structural compaction of biomolecules upon transition to the gas-phase using ESI-TWIMS-MS

Collision cross-section (CCS) measurements obtained from ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry (IMS-MS) analyses often provide useful information concerning a protein’s size and shape and can be complemented by modeling procedures. However, there have been some concerns about the extent to which certain proteins maintain a native-like conformation during the gas-phase analysis, especially proteins with dynamic or extended regions. Here we have measured the CCSs of a range of biomolecules including non-globular proteins and RNAs of different sequence, size, and stability. Using traveling wave IMS-MS, we show that for the proteins studied, the measured CCS deviates significantly from predicted CCS values based upon currently available structures. The results presented indicate that these proteins collapse to different extents varying on their elongated structures upon transition into the gas-phase. Comparing two RNAs of similar mass but different solution structures, we show that these biomolecules may also be susceptible to gas-phase compaction. Together, the results suggest that caution is needed when predicting structural models based on CCS data for RNAs as well as proteins with non-globular folds

Honeybee Colony Vibrational Measurements to Highlight the Brood Cycle

Insect pollination is of great importance to crop production worldwide and honey bees are amongst its chief facilitators. Because of the decline of managed colonies, the use of sensor technology is growing in popularity and it is of interest to develop new methods which can more accurately and less invasively assess honey bee colony status. Our approach is to use accelerometers to measure vibrations in order to provide information on colony activity and development. The accelerometers provide amplitude and frequency information which is recorded every three minutes and analysed for night time only. Vibrational data were validated by comparison to visual inspection data, particularly the brood development. We show a strong correlation between vibrational amplitude data and the brood cycle in the vicinity of the sensor. We have further explored the minimum data that is required, when frequency information is also included, to accurately predict the current point in the brood cycle. Such a technique should enable beekeepers to reduce the frequency with which visual inspections are required, reducing the stress this places on the colony and saving the beekeeper time

Dynamically Driven Evolution of the Interstellar Medium in M51

We report the highest-fidelity observations of the spiral galaxy M51 in CO emission, revealing the evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) vis-a-vis the large-scale galactic structure and dynamics. The most massive GMCs (so-called GMAs) are first assembled and then broken up as the gas flow through the spiral arms. The GMAs and their H2 molecules are not fully dissociated into atomic gas as predicted in stellar feedback scenarios, but are fragmented into smaller GMCs upon leaving the spiral arms. The remnants of GMAs are detected as the chains of GMCs that emerge from the spiral arms into interarm regions. The kinematic shear within the spiral arms is sufficient to unbind the GMAs against self-gravity. We conclude that the evolution of GMCs is driven by large-scale galactic dynamics --their coagulation into GMAs is due to spiral arm streaming motions upon entering the arms, followed by fragmentation due to shear as they leave the arms on the downstream side. In M51, the majority of the gas remains molecular from arm entry through the inter-arm region and into the next spiral arm passage.Comment: 6 pages, including 3 figures. Accepted, ApJ

Bacterially mediated removal of phosphorus and cycling of nitrate and sulfate in the waste stream of a "zero-discharge" recirculating mariculture system

Simultaneous removal of nitrogen and phosphorus by microbial biofilters has been used in a variety of water treatment systems including treatment systems in aquaculture. In this study, phosphorus, nitrate and sulfate cycling in the anaerobic loop of a zero-discharge, recirculating mariculture system was investigated using detailed geochemical measurements in the sludge layer of the digestion basin. High concentrations of nitrate and sulfate, circulating in the overlying water (~15 mM), were removed by microbial respiration in the sludge resulting in a sulfide accumulation of up to 3 mM. Modelling of the observed S and O isotopic ratios in the surface sludge suggested that, with time, major respiration processes shifted from heterotrophic nitrate and sulfate reduction to autotrophic nitrate reduction. The much higher inorganic P content of the sludge relative to the fish feces is attributed to conversion of organic P to authigenic apatite. This conclusion is supported by: (a) X-ray diffraction analyses, which pointed to an accumulation of a calcium phosphate mineral phase that was different from P phases found in the feces, (b) the calculation that the pore waters of the sludge were highly oversaturated with respect to hydroxyapatite (saturation index = 4.87) and (c) there was a decrease in phosphate (and in the Ca/Na molar ratio) in the pore waters simultaneous with an increase in ammonia showing there had to be an additional P removal process at the same time as the heterotrophic breakdown of organic matter