Acid rain — perspectives on lake recovery

During the 1970‘s and 1980‘s, the acidification of surface waters by atmospherically deposited sulphur became a major international concern. Large sulphur emission control programs were implemented in Europe and North America with the expectation that many affected aquatic ecosystems would recover. Because of a variety of factors, these positive expectations have been slow to be realized. Only limited evidence of the chemical recovery of acid lakes has emerged from areas other than the Sudbury, Canada region, where sulphur emission reductions were particularly large. Lake response models indicate that when current sulphur emission control strategies in Europe and North America are fully implemented, many lakes will still be acid-damaged even though substantial overall improvements in lake chemistry are expected. An increasing body of evidence indicates that substantial biological recovery, among many groups of organisms,can be expected when chemical conditions improve in lakes. Not all species, however, are capable of unassisted recovery and some lakes can pose biological or physical barriers to colonizers. Thus, stocking may be an important element in management strategies for the restoration of some recovering lakes. Communities in recovered lakes may not achieve pre disturbance conditions, but establishment of typical communities appears to be a reasonable recovery target. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

β-lapachone accelerates the recovery of burn-wound skin

β-lapachone is a quinone of lapachol extracted from the bark of lapacho tree. Recent findings demonstrated that punched skin wounds of mice healed faster with β-lapachone treatment. The present study investigates the effects of β-lapachone on burn-wound skin of C57BL/6 mice injured by a 100 °C iron stick. Our results indicated that wounds treated with β-lapachone recovered faster than those treated with control ointment containing no β-lapachone. On the third day after burning, the area of β-lapachone treated-wound was 30% smaller than wound treated with control ointment. H&E and immunohistochemistry staining showed that burn-wound skin treated with ointment containing β-lapachone healed faster in its epidermis, dermis, and underlying connective tissues with more macrophages appeared than those treated with control ointment alone. RAW264.7 cell, a macrophage-like cell line derived from BALB/C mice, was used as a model for scrutinizing the effect of β-lapachone on macrophages. We found that the proliferation and the secretion of EGF and VEGF by macrophages were higher in cultures treated with β-lapachone and that ?-lapachone can also increase the release of EGF with TNF-α pretreatment. We conclude that β-lapachone plays an important role in accelerating burn wound healing, and that β-lapachone not only can raise the proliferation of macrophages but also increase the release of VEGF from macrophages.     

Seagrass recovery in the Northern Wadden Sea?

Aerial surveys on seagrass (Zostera spp.) indicate a three to fourfold increase in bed area from 1994 to 2006 with up to 100 km² or 11% of intertidal flats in the Northfrisian Wadden Sea (coastal eastern North Sea), observed at seasonal maximum in August when flying during low tide exposure 300 to 500 m above ground. When viewed from the air, difficulties in distinguishing between seagrass and green algae and a lack of contrast on dark-coloured mudflats are sources of error in areal estimates. Particularly the positioning of beds remote from shores was imprecise. However, the consistency in method over time gives confidence to the inferred positive trend which is opposite to the global pattern. Both, the spatial pattern and a recent decrease in storminess suggest that sediment stability is the key factor for seagrass dynamics in this tidal area. On exposed sand flats, high sediment mobility may be limiting and along the sheltered mainland shore land claim activities with high accretion rates may cause a scarcity of seagrass. The potential area of seagrass beds may be twice as large as the realized maximum in 2006 but eventually the rising sea level will reverse the observed seagrass expansion.     

Methods for recovery of ionic liquids—A review

Ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted much attention in both academics and industries as promising solvents for a diverse range of applications. However, there were little industrial processes employing ILs as current time due to the economical and efficient use of ILs. The economic efficiency can be improved by recycling and reuse of ILs. In the last few decades, several attempts have been made, by the researchers, for recovery and recycling of ILs. This review is intended to present a comprehensive summary on the methods used for recovery and recycling of ILs.     

Can roadside habitat lead monarchs on a route to recovery?

The Eastern North American monarch butterfly population has severely declined over the past decade. The decreasing availability of larval host plants (milkweeds) due to the use of herbicide-tolerant crops has been implicated in this decline. Roadsides could provide additional habitat for monarchs. In this study we document the occurrence of milkweed and monarchs on roadsides, and discuss whether roadsides are appropriate targets for monarch habitat restoration. We sampled roadside rights-of-way in the Upper Midwestern U.S. during the summer of 2015 to estimate the abundance, distribution, and diversity of milkweeds and the extent to which monarchs use these milkweeds. We then compared monarch densities in roadsides to other habitat types and modelled immature monarch densities based on several site characteristics. Our findings suggest that roadsides have conservation potential for monarchs, especially when other habitat is scarce and if wildlife-friendly management practices are enacted. Milkweeds were found on ~60% of roadside transects. Asclepias syriaca was the most common of the seven species encountered, occurring on 97% of transects with milkweed. Immature monarchs were observed in roadsides, but in lower densities than other habitats during the same time period. At lower milkweed densities, immature monarch density per unit area is positively correlated with milkweed density. However, milkweed density weakens as a predictor of immature monarch density over ~0.6 plants per m², possibly indicating a saturation effect.     

Rare vascular plant species at risk: recovery by seeding?

Abstract. Rare vascular plant species are endangered worldwide. Population losses are most commonly caused by human-related factors. Conservation management seeks to halt this adverse trend and if possible, to enhance long-lasting self-sustainable populations. In general, rare species are poorly recruited from seed banks, or disperse themselves very poorly. It may be a management option to translocate such plants by seeds and/or transplants. This paper asks which problems may be faced. It is argued that translocation is only acceptable if it is based on knowledge of species biology and ecology and the size and structure of its geographic range through time. Such knowledge of rare species is often lacking. The finite management goal can only be achieved if conservationists closely cooperate with both ecologists and geneticists.     

qTROSY – a novel scheme for recovery of the anti-TROSY magnetisation

In TROSY experiments, spin state selection (S³) retains only the single HSQC sub-spectrum with minimal T₂ relaxation and maximal resolution, yet at the cost of eliminating half of the available polarisation as undesired anti-TROSY component. We here introduce queued TROSY (qTROSY) as a novel scheme to partially recover and exploit this anti-TROSY polarisation in two concatenated scans. After initial orthogonal spin state separation (oS³), anti-TROSY polarisation is explicitly stored while its TROSY counterpart follows the desired coherence pathway recorded in a first scan A. The immediately appended scan B then quantitatively converts the recovered anti-TROSY polarisation into a second TROSY spectrum, skipping the time-limiting long reequilibration delay. Both concatenated qTROSY scans thus ideally exploit the full initial polarisation within almost the same measurement time. In practice, T₂ relaxation losses accruing during the coupling evolution delays reduced anti-TROSY polarisation recovery below 40%, obviating sensitivity enhancement through addition of both qTROSY scans; yet, scan B retained a complete scan A spectrum with up to 75% intensity. We therefore propose to employ qTROSY asymmetrically, compacting two separate conventional into one queued TROSY-type experiment with significantly reduced measurement time, implying primarily the concatenation of different three- or higher-dimensional experiments. Both anti-TROSY polarisation recoveries and possible time savings are largest for deuterated and smaller non-deuterated proteins, extending the rentability limit of the TROSY principle towards smaller molecular weights.Supplementary material to this paper is available in electronic form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10858-005-5618-z     

Can prefrontal theta cordance differentiate between depression recovery and dissimulation?

We present a case report of a 37-year old woman diagnosed with depressive disorder, first episode, who was admitted into a psychiatric hospital after a failed suicidal attempt. She responded to antidepressant therapy, as evidenced by a >50% reduction in MADRS total score. She was discharged after 4 weeks of treatment, denying any suicidal ideations. The following day the patient committed suicide; she burned herself to death. It is very likely that the patient dissimulated her symptoms and ideations. Subsequently, her quantitative EEG records were retrospectively analyzed. An increase of prefrontal theta cordance value after the first week of mirtazapine therapy was found. Recently three small studies have revealed that decrease of prefrontal theta cordance after 1 week of antidepressant administration can predict clinical response in patients with unipolar depression. In our previous study the absence of a decreased theta prefrontal cordance was associated with lack of treatment response with NPV 1.0 (Bares et al., 2007). Thus, we hypothesize that prefrontal theta cordance could become an objective marker of change of depressive symptoms, independent of patients' compliance and symptom dissimulation, more precise than objective and self-rated depression rating scales.     

Environmental impacts of end-of-life vehicles’ management: recovery versus elimination

Purpose

In Portugal, the management of end-of-life vehicles (ELV) is set out in targets of the European Union policy for the year 2015, including 85 % recycling, 95 % recovery, and maximum of 5 % landfilling. These goals will be attained only through more efficient technologies for waste separation and recycling of shredder residues or higher rates of dismantling components. Focusing on this last alternative, a field experiment was carried out. There is potential for additional recycling/recovery of 10 %.

Methods

Three scenarios were proposed for the management of ELV wastes: (1) scenario 1 corresponds to the baseline and refers to the current management, i.e., the 10 % of ELV wastes are shredded whereby some ferrous and non-ferrous metals are recovered and the remaining fraction, called automotive shredder residues (ASR), is landfilled, (2) scenario 2 wherein the ASR fraction is incinerated with energy recovery, and (3) scenario 3 includes the additional dismantling of components for recycling and for energy recovery through solid recovered fuel, to be used as a fuel substitute in the cement industry. The environmental performance of these scenarios was quantified by using the life cycle assessment methodology. Five impact categories were assessed: abiotic resource depletion, climate change, photochemical oxidant creation, acidification, and eutrophication.

Results and discussion

Compared to the other scenarios, in scenario 1 no benefits for the impact categories of climate change and eutrophication were observed. Scenario 2 has environmental credits due to the recycling of ferrous and non-ferrous metals and benefits from energy recovery. However, this scenario has a significant impact on climate change due to emissions from thermal oxidation of polymeric materials present in the ASR fraction. A net environmental performance upgrading seems to be ensured by scenario 3, mainly due to replacing fossil fuel by solid recovered fuel.

Conclusions

The proposed additional dismantling of ELV (scenario 3) not only brings environmental benefits but also meets the European recovery and recycling targets. The associated increase of dismantling costs can be compensated by the additional recycling material revenues as well as social benefits by a rise in employment.     

The recovery of L. Vesijärvi following sewage diversion

For 60 years the sewage of the City of Lahti was discharged into L. Vesijärvi. The eutrophication of the lake was observed as early as the 1920s but in the 1960s the pollution became obvious. The sewage was completely diverted in 1976. As a result of the diversion the bacteriological defects were eliminated within one year, restoring the recreational value of the lake. The recovery of water quality was rapid during the first two years. The oxygen content increased markedly but hypolimnetic oxygen depletion persisted. The phosphorus content decreased about 60% and the nitrogen content about 30%. After that period the recovery slowed down. The biomass of phytoplankton decreased but the abundance of heterocystous blue green algae increased causing blooms in July and August. The primary production has lately been reduced despite the lack of improvement in chemical water quality. Hypolimnetic aeration was started in order to accelerate the recovery. The results during winter stagnation have been encouraging.     

Phospholipase Dδ assists to cortical microtubule recovery after salt stress

The dynamic microtubule cytoskeleton plays fundamental roles in the growth and development of plants including regulation of their responses to environmental stress. Plants exposed to hyper-osmotic stress commonly acclimate, acquiring tolerance to variable stress levels. The underlying cellular mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we show, for the first time, by in vivo imaging approach that linear patterns of phospholipase Dδ match the localization of microtubules in various biological systems, validating previously predicted connection between phospholipase Dδ and microtubules. Both the microtubule and linear phospholipase Dδ structures were disintegrated in a few minutes after treatment with oryzalin or salt. Moreover, by using immunofluorescence confocal microscopy of the cells in the root elongation zone of Arabidopsis, we have shown that the cortical microtubules rapidly depolymerized within 30 min of treatment with 150 or 200 mM NaCl. Within 5 h of treatment, the density of microtubule arrays was partially restored. A T-DNA insertional mutant lacking phospholipase Dδ showed poor recovery of microtubule arrays following salt exposition. The restoration of microtubules was significantly retarded as well as the rate of root growth, but roots of overexpressor GFP-PLDδ prepared in our lab, have grown slightly better compared to wild-type plants. Our results indicate that phospholipase Dδ is involved in salt stress tolerance, possibly by direct anchoring and stabilization of de novo emerging microtubules to the plasma membrane, providing novel insight into common molecular mechanism during various stress events.     

Quantitative recovery of fungal biomass grown on solid κ- carrageenan media

The use of a dissolvable solid matrix, -carrageenan, to quantify biomass grown on solid media was studied. A firm gel was obtained with 2% (w/v) -carrageenan and 20 mM K+ which could be easily dissolved in demineralized water. Direct quantification of Coniothyrium minitans biomass grown on this medium was feasible. No effects of the dissolution on the amount of biomass recovered were detected.     

Optimization of pH and temperature for β-xylosidase recovery by reversed micelles

A mathematical model was found to represent the enzyme yield (Y) as a function of pH (X1) and temperature (X2): Y=36.89+10.83X1–12.17X2–6X1X2–17.24 X12–13.24X22. The optimum values for pH and temperature to attain the maximum b-xylosidase recovery (42%) were 3.3 and 24 °C, respectively.     

Do compression garments enhance the active recovery process after high-intensity running?

Lovell, DI, Mason, DG, Delphinus, EM, and McLellan, CP. Do compression garments enhance the active recovery process after high-intensity running? J Strength Cond Res 25(12): 3264-3268, 2011-This study examined the effect of wearing waist-to-ankle compression garments (CGs) on active recovery after moderate- and high-intensity submaximal treadmill running. Twenty-five male semiprofessional rugby league players performed two 30-minute treadmill runs comprising of six 5-minute stages at 6 km·h, 10 km·h, approximately 85% VO(2)max, 6 km·h as a recovery stage followed by approximately 85% VO(2)max and 6 km·h wearing either CGs or regular running shorts in a randomized counterbalanced order with each person acting as his own control. All stages were followed by 30 seconds of rest during which a blood sample was collected to determine blood pH and blood lactate concentration [La]. Expired gases and heart rate (HR) were measured during the submaximal treadmill tests to determine metabolic variables with the average of the last 2 minutes used for data analysis. The HR and [La] were lower (p ≤ 0.05) after the first and second 6 km·h recovery bouts when wearing CGs compared with when wearing running shorts. The respiratory exchange ratio (RER) was higher and [La] lower (p ≤ 0.05) after the 10 km·h stage, and only RER was higher after both 85% VO(2)max stages when wearing CGs compared with when wearing running shorts. There was no difference in blood pH at any exercise stage when wearing the CGs and running shorts. The results of this study indicate that the wearing of CGs may augment the active recovery process in reducing [La] and HR after high-intensity exercise but not effect blood pH. The ability to reduce [La] and HR has important consequences for many sports that are intermittent in nature and consist of repeated bouts of high-intensity exercise interspersed with periods of low-intensity exercise or recovery.     

β-Cyclodextrin modified anionic and cationic acrylamide polymers for enhancing oil recovery

Both of acrylamide and allyl-β-cyclodextrin are utilized to react with acrylic acid and dimethyl diallyl ammonium chloride respectively to synthesize the novel anionic acrylamide polymer and cationic acrylamide polymer by redox free-radical copolymerization. The structures of copolymers are characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Subsequently, the copolymers are evaluated on several aspects such as optimum polymerization conditions, intrinsic viscosity, interfacial tension and stability experiments. It is found that the anionic and cationic acrylamide polymers containing cyclodextrin moieties show better performances on interfacial tension, salt resistance, temperature tolerance, viscosification property and shear resistance than that of polyacrylamide. By the comprehensive comparison and analysis, the anionic polymer is more conductive to decrease the interfacial tension for the tertiary oil recovery process, while the cationic polymer is more suitable for enhancing oil recovery in high-temperature and high-mineralization oilfield.     

Modelling the recovery of hypertrophic L. Glumsø (Denmark)

Diversion of sewage from L. Glumsø reduced phosphorus loading from 6.0 g P.m^–2.yr^–1 to 1.6 g P.m^–2.yr^–1. Chlorophyll levels during summer were reduced from 6–800 mg Chl.m^–3 to about 200 mg Chl.m^–3 mainly by extended periods with phosphorus limitation. Internal phosphorus loading was significant in the first 2 years after nutrient reduction. Predictions of the recovery were made by both simple, empirical models and with complex, dynamic model versions. The actual responses of L. Glumsø were compared with both previously published predictions and predictions made with improved model versions. Objective functions of 0.18 and global correlation coefficients of 0.89 could be achieved.