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Groundwater chemistry and the Gibbs Diagram
Get PDF© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 24 month embargo from date of publication (August 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyThe ‘Gibbs Diagram’ represents some of the key processes controlling surface water chemistry. This review highlights that the processes listed on the Gibbs Diagram may not be applicable for assessing processes controlling groundwater chemistry. We discuss the importance of geochemical processes governing groundwater chemistry in the Gibbs Diagram framework. We show that the processes represented on the Gibbs Diagram—originally developed for surface waters—are unlikely to represent key processes controlling the chemistry of most groundwater systems
How Widely are Supportive and Flexible Food Service Systems and Mealtime Interventions Used for People in Residential Care Facilities? A Comparison of Dementia-Specific and Nonspecific Facilities
Get PDF© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).While improved mealtime practices can reduce agitation, improve quality of life, and increase food intake for people in aged care, the degree of implementation of these strategies is unknown. This study describes food service practices in residential aged care facilities, focusing on units caring for people with dementia. An online survey was distributed to residential aged care facilities for completion by the food service manager (n = 2057). Of the 204 responses to the survey, 63 (31%) contained a dementia-specific unit. Most facilities used adaptive equipment (90.2%) and commercial oral nutritional supplements (87.3%). A higher proportion of facilities with a dementia-specific service used high-contrast plates (39.7%) than those without (18.4%). The majority of facilities had residents make their choice for the meal more than 24 h prior to the meal (30.9%). Use of high contrast plates (n = 51, 25%) and molds to reform texture-modified meals (n = 41, 20.1%) were used by one-quarter or less of surveyed facilities. There is a relatively low use of environmental and social strategies to promote food intake and wellbeing in residents, with a focus instead on clinical interventions. Research should focus on strategies to support implementation of interventions to improve the mealtime experience for residents
OzPythonPlex: An optimised forensic STR multiplex assay set for the Australasian carpet python (Morelia spilota)
Get PDF© 2018 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (March 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyReptile species, and in particular snakes, are protected by national and international agreements yet are commonly handled illegally. To aid in the enforcement of such legislation, we report on the development of three 11-plex assays from the genome of the carpet python to type 24 loci of tetra-nucleotide and penta-nucleotide repeat motifs (pure, compound and complex included). The loci range in size between 70 and 550 bp. Seventeen of the loci are newly characterised with the inclusion of seven previously developed loci to facilitate cross-comparison with previous carpet python genotyping studies. Assays were optimised in accordance with human forensic profiling kits using one nanogram template DNA. Three loci are included in all three of the multiplex reactions as quality assurance markers, to ensure sample identity and genotyping accuracy is maintained across the three profiling assays. Allelic ladders have been developed for the three assays to ensure consistent and precise allele designation. A DNA reference database of allele frequencies is presented based on 249 samples collected from throughout the species native range. A small number of validation tests are conducted to demonstrate the utility of these multiplex assays. We suggest further appropriate validation tests that should be conducted prior to the application of the multiplex assays in criminal investigations involving carpet pythons
Active heat pulse sensing of 3-D-flow fields in streambeds
Get PDF© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.Profiles of temperature time series are commonly used to determine hyporheic flow patterns and hydraulic dynamics in the streambed sediments. Although hyporheic flows are 3-D, past research has focused on determining the magnitude of the vertical flow component and how this varies spatially. This study used a portable 56-sensor, 3-D temperature array with three heat pulse sources to measure the flow direction and magnitude up to 200 mm below the water–sediment interface. Short, 1 min heat pulses were injected at one of the three heat sources and the temperature response was monitored over a period of 30 min. Breakthrough curves from each of the sensors were analysed using a heat transport equation. Parameter estimation and uncertainty analysis was undertaken using the differential evolution adaptive metropolis (DREAM) algorithm, an adaption of the Markov chain Monte Carlo method, to estimate the flux and its orientation. Measurements were conducted in the field and in a sand tank under an extensive range of controlled hydraulic conditions to validate the method. The use of short-duration heat pulses provided a rapid, accurate assessment technique for determining dynamic and multi-directional flow patterns in the hyporheic zone and is a basis for improved understanding of biogeochemical processes at the water–streambed interface
Healthy and sustainable diets: Community concern about the effect of the future food environments and support for government regulating sustainable food supplies in Western Australia
Get PDF© 2017 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 24 month embargo from date of publication (Feb 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyObjective
To determine the level of community concern about future food supplies and perception of the importance placed on government regulation over the supply of environmentally friendly food and identify dietary and other factors associated with these beliefs in Western Australia.
Design
Data from the 2009 and 2012 Nutrition Monitoring Survey Series computer-assisted telephone interviews were pooled. Level of concern about the effect of the environment on future food supplies and importance of government regulating the supply of environmentally friendly food were measured. Multivariate regression analysed potential associations with sociodemographic variables, dietary health consciousness, weight status and self-reported intake of eight foods consistent with a sustainable diet.
Setting
Western Australia.
Subjects
Community-dwelling adults aged 18–64 years (n = 2832).
Results
Seventy nine per cent of Western Australians were ‘quite’ or ‘very’ concerned about the effect of the environment on future food supplies. Respondents who paid less attention to the health aspects of their diet were less likely than those who were health conscious (‘quite’ or ‘very’ concerned) (OR = 0.53, 95% CI [0.35, 0.8] and 0.38 [0.17, 0.81] respectively). The majority of respondents (85.3%) thought it was ‘quite’ or ‘very’ important that government had regulatory control over an environmentally friendly food supply. Females were more likely than males to rate regulatory control as ‘quite’ or ‘very’ important’ (OR = 1.63, 95% CI [1.09, 2.44], p = .02). Multiple regression modeling found that no other factors predicted concern or importance.
Conclusions
There is a high level of community concern about the impact of the environment on future food supplies and most people believe it is important that the government regulates the issue. These attitudes dominate regardless of sociodemographic characteristics, weight status or sustainable dietary behaviours
Sustainable Polysulfides for Oil Spill Remediation: Repurposing Industrial Waste for Environmental Benefit
Get PDF© 2018 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Crude oil and hydrocarbon fuel spills are a perennial threat to aquatic environments. Inexpensive and sustainable sorbents are needed to mitigate the ecological harm of this pollution. To address this need, this study features a low‐density polysulfide polymer that is prepared by the direct reaction of sulfur and used cooking oils. Because both sulfur and cooking oils are hydrophobic, the polymer has an affinity for hydrocarbons such as crude oil and diesel fuel and can rapidly remove them from seawater. Through simple mechanical compression, the oil can be recovered and the polymer can be reused in oil spill remediation. The polysulfide is unique because it is prepared entirely from repurposed waste: sulfur is a by‐product of the petroleum industry and used cooking oil can be used as a comonomer. In this way, sulfur waste from the oil industry is used to make an effective sorbent for combatting pollution from that same sector
Blasting Vibration Safety Criterion Analysis with Equivalent Elastic Boundary: Based on Accurate Loading Model
Get PDFCopyright © 2015 Qingwen Li et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.In the tunnel and underground space engineering, the blasting wave will attenuate from shock wave to stress wave to elastic seismic wave in the host rock. Also, the host rock will form crushed zone, fractured zone, and elastic seismic zone under the blasting loading and waves. In this paper, an accurate mathematical dynamic loading model was built. And the crushed zone as well as fractured zone was considered as the blasting vibration source thus deducting the partial energy for cutting host rock. So this complicated dynamic problem of segmented differential blasting was regarded as an equivalent elastic boundary problem by taking advantage of Saint-Venant’s Theorem. At last, a 3D model in finite element software FLAC3D accepted the constitutive parameters, uniformly distributed mutative loading, and the cylindrical attenuation law to predict the velocity curves and effective tensile curves for calculating safety criterion formulas of surrounding rock and tunnel liner after verifying well with the in situ monitoring data
The Effects of Housing on Health and Health Risks in an Aging Population: A Qualitative Study in Rural Thailand
Get PDFCopyright © 2014 Ratana Somrongthong et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background. Over the last decade, Thailand has experienced an aging population, especially in rural areas. Research finds a strong, positive relationship between good quality housing and health, and this paper assesses the impact and living experience of housing of older people in rural Thailand. Methods. This was a mixed-method study, using data from observations of the physical adequacy of housing, semistructured interviews with key informants, and archival information from health records for 13 households in rural Thailand. Results. There were four main themes, each of which led to health risks for the older people: “lighting and unsafe wires,” “house design and composition,” “maintenance of the house,” and “health care equipment.” The housing was not appropriately designed to accommodate health care equipment or to fully support individual daily activities of older people. Numerous accidents occurred as a direct result of inadequate housing and the majority of houses had insufficient and unsafe lighting, floor surfaces and furniture that created health risks, and toilets or beds that were at an unsuitable height for older people. Conclusion. This paper provides an improved and an important understanding of the housing situation among older people living in rural areas in Thailand
Cultivation of Isochrysis galbana in Phototrophic, Heterotrophic, and Mixotrophic Conditions
Get PDFCopyright © 2013 Yousef Alkhamis and Jian G. Qin. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This study compared the growth and biomass production of Isochrysis galbana under hetero-, mixo-, and phototrophic conditions using different organic carbon sources. The growth of I. galbana was inhibited in heterotrophy but was enhanced in mixotrophy compared to that in phototrophy. Subsequently, the influences of organic carbon and environmental factors (light and salinity) on the growth of I. galbana were further investigated. Algal dry weight increased as glycerol concentrations increased from 0 to 200 mmol and the highest algal production occurred at 50 mmol glycerol. At a range of light intensities of 25–200 μmol photons m−2 s−2, the highest algal growth rate occurred at 100 photons μmol m−2 s−2. The growth of I. galbana was significantly affected by photoperiod, and the maximal dry weight was obtained at 12 h light and 12 h dark. In the salinity test, I. galbana could grow in a wide range of salinities from 10 to 65‰, but the 35‰ salinity was optimal. This study suggests that the growth and production of I. galbana can be improved using mixotrophic culture at 50 mmol glycerol in 35‰ salinity
Short Tools to Assess Young Children's Dietary Intake: A Systematic Review Focusing on Application to Dietary Index Research
Get PDFCopyright © 2013 Lucinda K. Bell et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Dietary indices evaluate diet quality, usually based on current dietary guidelines. Indices can therefore contribute to our understanding of early-life obesity-risk dietary behaviours. Yet indices are commonly applied to dietary data collected by onerous methods (e.g., recalls or records). Short dietary assessment instruments are an attractive alternative to collect data from which to derive an index score. A systematic review of studies published before April 2013 was conducted to identify short (≤50 items) tools that measure whole-of-diet intake of young children (birth-five years) and are applicable to dietary indices, in particular screening obesogenic dietary behaviours. The search identified 3686 papers of which 16, reporting on 15 tools (, infants and toddlers birth-24 months; , preschoolers 2–5 years), met the inclusion criteria. Most tools were food frequency questionnaires (), with one innovative dietary questionnaire identified. Seven were tested for validity or reliability, and one was tested for both. Six tools (, infants and toddlers; , preschoolers) are applicable for use with current dietary indices, five of which screen obesogenic dietary behaviours. Given the limited number of brief, valid and reliable dietary assessment tools for young children to which an index can be applied, future short tool development is warranted, particularly for screening obesogenic dietary behaviours