Bioefficiency of Indigenous Microbial Rhodanese in Clean-up of Cyanide Contaminated Stream in Modakeke, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria

Cyanide pollution of aquatic environment has become a great concern in Nigeria because of the increase in cassava cultivation.

In Nigeria, cassava processing milling plants are usually situated around streams or rivers such that the waste from each stages of processing easily find their way into these water bodies as effluents and waste waters.

Extracellular rhodanese of Klebsiella edwardsii isolated from Atutulala stream, Modakeke, where cassava is being processed, was assessed for its bioremediation potential. Cyanide concentration of the stream was analysed for six months.

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Long-term Changes in Annual Precipitation and Monsoon Seasonal Characteristics in Myanmar

This paper compares the results produced by MODFLOW, a constant-density model, to results produced by SEAWAT, a variable-density model, to investigate the feasibility of using MODFLOW in a saline environment below an estuary known as the Indian River Lagoon.

The comparison was conducted over sixteen numerical simulation cases at different conditions of estuarine salinity CL, hydraulic conductivity anisotropy ratio Kr, and water table elevations on the freshwater boundaries in a two-dimensional vertical domain.

The use of MODFLOW at the study site under the calibrated Kr distribution ranging from 1000-20,000 was found to accurately match the field-measured and SEAWAT simulated results with a remarkable increase in accuracy at higher groundwater elevations.

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Diversity and Abundance of Avian Species of Owena Multipurpose Dam, Ondo State, Southwest, Nigeria

The use of wetlands and their resources is widespread among many diverse bird taxa of the world. The diversity and abundance of avian species in Owena Multipurpose dam was assessed out between January and June, 2016 to provide baseline information of the birds in this area.

The line transects method with lengths ranging from 350 m-1000 m was adopted for the survey. Birds recorded were categorized into order, family, species, migratory status and feeding guild.

Relative abundance of bird species and diversity indices were determined. Significance in mean bird density in the two seasons was determined using T-test while One-Way ANOVA was used to test for significance in bird diversity indices.

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Aged Refuse Characterization as Resource for Wastewater Treatment and Landfill Remediation

Landfilling has become the most effective solid waste disposal option in developing countries. Aged Refuse (AR) in this context is solid wastes from landfill which has become stabilized after several years of placement.

The aged refuse sampled from Air Hitam landfill site in Malaysia is characterized as follows: moisture content 29.5%, Loss on Ignition (LOI) 9.90%, porosity 51%, ash content 95.99%, bulk density 1.23 g/cm3, hydraulic conductivity 0.31 cm/min, electrical conductivity 143.10 ms/cm and Carbon-Nitrogen-Sulphur (CNS) of 0.64%, 0.04% and 0.009%, respectively.

Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) is 2.69 meq/100 gm, with exchangeable cations of Calcuim, Magnesium, Potassium and Sodium. The SEM/EDX showed available specific surface area of 3.376 m2/g and negligible heavy metals presence with abundance of Silicon and Oxygen as compounds.

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Climate Change in Chile: An Analysis of State-of-the-Art Observations, Satellite-Derived Estimates and Climate Model Simulations

Although there is a reasonably large body of work focusing on South American climate, few studies focus on just Chile and even fewer consider climate processes operating over longer timescales, such as those at which climate change becomes apparent.

This paper provides an overview of Chilean present-day and future climate, needed to plan for potential impacts of climate change. Firstly, present-day climate conditions are assessed using a number of observational rainfall and temperature datasets.

All available GCMs are then examined, to firstly assess their ability to simulate climate during the end of the 20th century and secondly to examine their projections during the 21st century.

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Isolation of Marine Bacteria From Visakhapatnam Coast For Degradation of Oil

Marine waters are the receivers of many wastes from different sources such as food waste, raw material extraction, recreational use, waste disposal and transportation.

In addition to this ship trafficking and industry releases enormous amounts of oil and grease to waters. The aim of the present study was to isolate bacterial strain from marine waters of Visakhapatnam coastal area in order to a strain suitable for the degradation of oil and grease.

Many bacterial strains were isolated including Aeromonas hydrophilia, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtiles, Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus. The results showed that the degradation of oil and grease was possible by the application of extracted bacterial isolates.

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Geophysical Assessment of the Upper Dja Series Using Electrical Resistivity Data

The upper Dja series consists of carbonates and shales deposits that date 580 ± 150 Ma. Petrography and mineral chemistry studies helped to differentiate this series into many sequences including massive limestone layers with calcite (CaO3) contents of about 30 to 42%.

In order to determine the subsurface distribution of these sequences, a geophysical prospection campaign was carried out in which a total of 24 vertical resistivity soundings were recorded over a surface area of 9 km2.

The processing and interpretation of data using the IX1D and OpendTect modeling tools permitted the distinction of two massive limestone layers in the upper Dja series.

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Bioefficiency of Indigenous Microbial Rhodanese in Clean-up of Cyanide Contaminated Stream in Modakeke, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria

Cyanide pollution of aquatic environment has become a great concern in Nigeria because of the increase in cassava cultivation. In Nigeria, cassava processing milling plants are usually situated around streams or rivers such that the waste from each stages of processing easily find their way into these water bodies as effluents and waste waters.

Extracellular rhodanese of Klebsiella edwardsii isolated from Atutulala stream, Modakeke, where cassava is being processed, was assessed for its bioremediation potential. Cyanide concentration of the stream was analysed for six months.

Four bacterial isolates were screened for their ability to degrade free cyanide and the best strain was further screened for rhodanese producing ability. The enzyme was purified by 85% ammonium sulphate precipitation and diethyl aminoethyl-cellulose ion-exchange chromatography.

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Occurrences of Human Wild Pig Conflict in Tamil Nadu - India

The study was carried out to assess the Human wild pig conflict and how the occurrences of conflict varied with the climatic factors.

The areas adjoining the Mudumalai wildlife region, Sathyamangalam wildlife region and Anaimalai wildlife region of Tamil Nadu, India were included in this study programme.

The documentation of the quantifiable meteorological factors in the identified conflict areas was done using the weather portal of TNAU. The occurrences of conflict were also classified as low, medium and high based on the intensity.

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Impact of Geophysics in Small-Scale Mining

Geological exploration for new mining ventures involves drilling campaigns, an expensive activity that maytake significant time, with no guarantee of financial success.

Small-Scale Mining

The literature review indicated that the average cost of drilling may reach over US $100 per meter drilled, and that the use of Geophysics can reduce by 30% to 50% the number of negative drill holes (holes that does not intercept the mineral ore body), thus reducing time and cost of mineral exploration. This paper shows how the application of Geophysics in two small-scale mining operations, a limestone and manganese mine, resulted in reduced exploration time with satisfactory results for the companies. In the limestone mine, Geophysics allowed the updating of the geological model. In the manganese mine, it contributed to the generation of a preliminary geological model for the deposit. In both cases, there was a significant reduction of the time spent on exploration.

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Accra Flood Modelling through Application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing Techniques and Analytical Hierarchy Process

Urban Flooding is one of world’s problems in recent times because of its frequent occurrence which results in loss of lives and properties. The first step in flood management is the development of hazard maps.

Flood hazard mapping forms the foundation of the decision-making process by providing information which is essential to the understanding of nature and characteristics of flooding to risk community or city.

Flood modelling is a complex problem and therefore a lot of factors should be considered before the final map showing flood prone areas are produced.

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The Water Isotopic Version of the Land-Surface Model ORCHIDEE: Implementation, Evaluation, Sensitivity to Hydrological Parameters

Land-Surface Models (LSMs) exhibit large spread and uncertainties in the way they partition precipitation into surface runoff, drainage, transpiration and bare soil evaporation.

To explore to what extent water isotope measurements could help evaluate the simulation of the soil water budget in LSMs, water stable isotopes have been implemented in the ORCHIDEE (ORganizing Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic EcosystEms: the land-surface model) LSM.

This article presents this implementation and the evaluation of simulations both in a stand-alone mode and coupled with an atmospheric general circulation model.

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Infill Development: an Approach to the Optimal and Intelligent Development of Cities - Case Study: Zone 8 of Tabriz

One of the most important issues in the development of modern cities is the dispersed and horizontal expansion of cities.

Due to a substantial effect of the form of a city on its stability, it is necessary to know study and understand its different dimensions and guide it to achieve sustainable development.

Thus, infill development that is the simplest interpretation of urban endogenous development is considered as one of the urban smart growth strategies. Focusing on the vacant and abandoned lands in cities, infill development tries to load development on these lands.

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Perspectives of Forest Biodiversity Conservation in Northeast India

Forests are major repositories of biodiversity and provide essential goods and services for humanity. Biodiversity loss is a major threat to forest ecosystem and emerging as a great challenge to humanity.

Estimation of biodiversity or biological richness of a region is a difficult task that is an impossible goal without technological inputs. The Northeast India, part of Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, is one of the still relatively undisturbed regions of the world harbouring almost 50% of the flowering plant of the Indian subcontinent.

This region is economically less developed and forests are under tremendous pressure from the anthropogenic influences mainly due to the local traditional shifting (jhum) cultivation practices.

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Prokaryotes: A Promising Agent in Environmental Bioremediation

Since long been known that microorganisms have different functions and unique detoxification of contaminated soil and, in recent years, this process is called bioremediation or bio reclamation.

The role of microorganisms and their limits for bioremediation is to better understand so they can be used more effectively. The application of the principles of microbial ecology to improve the methodology.

 Improving the microbial degradation to ensure the in-situ cleaning of contaminated soils has stimulated much research. Rhizosphere is an area of more microbial activity can improve the conversion and degradation of contaminants.

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Soil Erosion Assessment of the Poyang Lake Basin, China: Using USLE, GIS and Remote Sensing

Soil erosion is one of the most critical eco-environmental issues in the Poyang Lake basin, China. The purpose of this study is to discover the spatial pattern of soil erosion, and predict soil loss and sediment yield, and evaluate soil loss impacts on main reservoirs by using Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), GIS and Remote Sensing (RS).

Firstly, five erosion factors including rainfall erosivity (R), soil erodibility (K), topographic factor (LS), cover and management factor(C), and conservation supporting practice factor (P) were calculated and analyzed, respectively.

Secondly, annual soil erosion and its spatial distribution were evaluated, and sediment yield was subsequently predicted.

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Recycling as an Object of Study for Behavioural Sciences

The principle that has infused the recycling of waste is sustainability and, of course, the effectiveness and efficiency of recycling. It is this conviction and this value that has consolidated the field of social marketing as an ethical and cost effective approach to the study and promotion of recycling.

In this context, the aim of this article is simply to present the precursor disciplines pertaining to the analysis of recycling from the perspective of the social sciences, of which social marketing has become one of the most advanced approaches.

Similarly, it is not only to briefly review the present state of affairs, but also to propose some future lines of research, so that the objective study of recycling can continue progressing.

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Simulated Impact of Intensification of Irrigation on Indian Monsoon Rainfall and Surface Fluxes

Using Bio-sphere Atmosphere Transfer scheme (BATS) coupled regional climate model (RegCM4) the impact of intensification of irrigation on Indian monsoon atmospheric circulations and surface fluxes is being studied.

Land use/land cover change is performed in the model to study the design or sensitivity experiments. This is implemented by changing the vegetation/landuse type in the model.

Impact of increase in irrigation activity over Central India and Northwestern region of India is still an open question and hence it is attempted to answer them in this research work.

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Thermodynamics Reason for Dying of Urmia Lake, This is not Just an Aral Syndrome!

Urmia Lake is located in a closed basin between both the West and Eastern Azerbaijan provinces in the north-west of Iran (37°4’-38°17’ N and 45°-46°E).

The lake in its current form can be seen in Figure 1. Urmia Lake is one of the most saline lakes, as well as the second largest, in the world and the largest lake on the Iranian Plateau.

Surface flow, direct rainfall, and groundwater create the majority of the sources for the lake.

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Role of Cyclonic Storm as Natural Disaster and other Factors on Vulture Mortality in India

Post mortem analyses in vultures across India and its neighboring countries traced diclofenac and its derivative compounds in their carcasses. Therefore, it is inferred that biomagnification of diclofenac from the consumed infected domestic animal carcasses contributes mortality by causing renal failure and hepatic damages in vultures.

However, reports also indicate that both extrinsic environmental and intrinsic cellular causes might also be contributing factors. It offers a debate to confirm whether only diclofenac is the primary cause of vulture mortality versus their susceptibility to microbial pathogens, diseases or physiological conditions, such as oxidative stress due to diclofenac biomagnification.

It is observed that natural disasters such as heavy cyclonic storm which affect arboreal life may be one of the major causes of the death of vultures in some parts of India. Therefore, extrinsic insults such as heavy cyclonic storms are believed to be also contributing factor to affect arboreal life including vultures in some other parts of the world. A perspective is made on the above facts as a cause of catastrophic mortality of vultures in India.

Monitoring Forest Cover Change of Margalla Hills Over a Period of Two Decades (1992-2011): A Spatiotemporal Perspective

Forests play a critical role in the provision of the ecological interconnectedness, and essential ecosystem services. Deforestation is a serious environmental problem throughout the world including Pakistan where a striking depletion of forest reserves has been an ecological concern for quite some time.

Remote sensing techniques have been used to monitor land use and forest cover changes. The present study aims at visualizing the potential impacts of climate change and declining forest reserves on Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP).

ERDAS Imagine 9.1 and ArcGIS 10.2 softwares were employed for the spatial and temporal analysis and visualization of over the past two decades.

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Farmers Choice of Crops in Canadian Prairies under Climate Change: An Econometric Analysis

As climate is an uncontrollable yet essential input in the agriculture industry, the impact of climate change may have on crop production in Saskatchewan is of importance.

The main objective of this study is to investigate how farmers would adapt to climate change by switching their crop mix under future climate change scenarios.

A fractional multinomial logit (FMNL) model was used to assess how total area of cropland has changed over a thirty year time period.

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One World Community, Nearing Reality-Let it Snow!

November 21, 2014: Caught in the immobilizing Buffalo snowstorm you may have seen on your television sets, yesterday I received a valuable communication from an unmet colleague in Beijing, representing a University there that I actually visited and lectured for in October 1983 on bioengineering topics.

The occasion of this recent contact was in reaction to my electronic response to his team’s excellent article that just appeared in a specialty Journal, thus opening the way to our international collaboration on an important topic.

My message to him, along with a slide summary of our older data, had been publicly presented only in Sweden in the year 2003-and was poorly known otherwise.

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Lignocellulosic Residues for Biorefineries

The biorefinery concept is an important strategy in the development of biomass usage. It is based on the productive biomass chain similar to the oil chain fuels, energy, materials, bulk chemicals, and fine chemicals are the final products with a large variation in their market value.

Biorefineries use a large number of conversion processes (chemical, biochemical, and thermochemical) as a result of the chemical diversity of biomass and the high content of oxygen and water.

The increase in the demand for bio-derived chemicals not only offers a great number of opportunities for green technologies and processes which use lignocellulosic biomass in biorefineries, applying the green chemistry principles.

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Phytochemical Screening of Certain Medicinal Plants of Mizoram, India and their Folklore Use

The inhabitants of Mizoram (Mizos) use several plants for their healthcare and our main interest was to investigate the scientific basis of the medicinal use of these plants.

Therefore, the root-stock of Alocasia indica, mature leaves of certain plants including Biden pillosa, Blumeopsis flava, Chromolaena odorata, Cissus discolor, Croton caudatus, Elaeagnus caudata, Leucaena leucocephala, Passiflora edulis and Spilanthes acmella, the latex of Carica papaya and rhizomes of Curcuma caesia were dried and powdered.

The chloroform, ethanolic and aqueous extracts of each plant was prepared and subjected to phytochemical analysis and thin layer chromatography (TLC).

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Maternal Smoking during Pregnancy and Its Impact on Postnatal Neurodevelopment

In the last decades, in industrialized countries, nicotine from active smoking or from environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) has become the most prevalent substance of abuse during pregnancy.

In 2012, The European Perinatal Health Report stated that the prevalence of maternal smoking during pregnancy could be above 10% in many countries.

According to Ribot et al., 30% to 43% of pregnant women smoke actively at the beginning of pregnancy in Spain.

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Sorting-Composting of Biodegradable Waste in the Municipality of Chief (Algeria): The Key Steps

In developing countries, sorting-composting of the urban solid residues (USR) requires the use of tools adaptable to the local conditions.

To determine these optimal conditions of the process of sorting-composting of the biodegradable materials, an experiment was thrown at the level of the municipality of Chlef in Algeria. The parameters of follow-ups of the process of the fermentation were studied.

The produced compost contain of the rates in N, P, K, % in Carbon (%C), % in Organic matter (%OM) and reports in C/N acceptable by the standard NFU 44 051 (the french standard of the organic amendments).

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Seasonal Variability of Flow and Nitrate Flux in Gilgel Gibe River, South West, Ethiopia

Nitrate is a limiting nutrient for plant growth and vital for crop production to increase agricultural productivity. However, its excessive presence in aquatic environment poses risk turning in to major aquatic ecosystem perturbation.

Dissolved nitrate from lands to waterways is mainly exported via runoff and leaching. The transport of nitrate in a river is a function of the streamflow rate and its concentration, which render to the seasonal variation.

Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the seasonal variation of flow and nitrate flux. Streamflow data of the Gilgel Gibe River for the period of two years (2013-2014) were used.

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