Search results for "Environmental Monitoring"
showing 10 items of 609 documents
Reply to Castellano and David: Long-term fate of nitrate fertilizer and nitrate from agricultural catchments
2014
We thank Castellano and David for their insightful comments (1) on our paper (2), in which they point out that short-term changes in land use and agricultural management can lead to rapid reductions in nitrate leaching from agricultural systems. We fully agree with Castellano and David that in diversified cropping systems, this N distribution may be different, potentially resulting in reduced nitrate leaching.
Enantioselective transformation of fluoxetine in water and its ecotoxicological relevance
2017
European legislation focusing on water quality is expected to broaden to encompass several pharmaceuticals as priority hazardous substances. This manuscript aims to challenge current regulatory approaches that do not recognize stereochemistry of chiral pharmaceuticals by testing the hypothesis that environmental transformation and effects of chiral pharmaceuticals are stereoselective. Our experiments revealed that, while degradation of chiral fluoxetine (FL) in river water occurs via non-enantioselective photochemical and mildly-enantioselective microbial processes favoring the (R)-enantiomer, a pronounced enantioselectivity favoring (S)-FL (leading to the formation of (S)-NFL (norfluoxetin…
[Legionella spp. contamination in indoor air: preliminary results of an Italian multicenter study].
2014
Obiettivo. Rilevare la presenza di Legionella spp. nell’aria attraverso un protocollo standardizzato, a fianco dei tradizionali metodi impiegati per la rete idrica. Disegno. In dieci strutture sanitarie è stato selezionato un bagno, la cui acqua presentava una contaminazione da Legionella >1.000 unità formanti colonie (ufc)/litro. La contaminazione dell’aria è stata valutata tramite campionamento attivo (Surface Air System, SAS) e passivo, impiegando piastre di sedimentazione per la valutazione dell’Indice Microbico Aria (Index of Microbial Air, IMA). I campionamenti sono stati effettuati per 8 ore consecutive, a circa 1 m dal pavimento e a 50 cm dal rubinetto. Con il campionamento attivo, …
Practical strategies for stable operation of HFF-QCM in continuous air flow
2013
Currently there are a few fields of application using quartz crystal microbalances (QCM). Because of environmental conditions and insufficient resolution of the microbalance, chemical sensing of volatile organic compounds in an open system was as yet not possible. In this study we present strategies on how to use 195 MHz fundamental quartz resonators for a mobile sensor platform to detect airborne analytes. Commonly the use of devices with a resonant frequency of about 10 MHz is standard. By increasing the frequency to 195 MHz the frequency shift increases by a factor of almost 400. Unfortunately, such kinds of quartz crystals tend to exhibit some challenges to obtain a reasonable signal-to…
Current air quality analytics and monitoring: a review.
2014
This review summarizes the different tools and concepts that are commonly applied in air quality monitoring. The monitoring of atmosphere is extremely important as the air quality is an important problem for large communities. Main requirements for analytical devices used for monitoring include a long period of autonomic operation and portability. These instruments, however, are often characterized by poor analytical performance. Monitoring networks are the most common tools used for monitoring, so large-scale monitoring programmes are summarized here. Biomonitoring, as a cheap and convenient alternative to traditional sample collection, is becoming more and more popular, although its main …
Sampling and analysis of pesticides in ambient air.
2008
Developments in the sampling and determination of pesticides in ambient air have been discussed and data on the occurrence of pesticides in atmosphere have been presented. Developments in active sampling methods were reviewed and the different materials used for trapping pesticides from gas and particulate phases were discussed. Likewise, the use and developments of passive air samplers were reviewed. This article pays special attention to the analysis of pesticides trapped from ambient air, and recapitulate the procedures for extraction, clean-up and determination of these substances. Improvements in sampling procedures, analytical methods and monitoring activities are necessary to advance…
Nucleation particles in diesel exhaust: composition inferred from in situ mass spectrometric analysis.
2005
Mass spectrometric measurements of size and composition of diesel exhaust particles have been performed under various conditions: chassis dynamometer tests, field measurements near a German motorway, and individual car chasing. Nucleation particles consisting of volatile sulfate and organic material could be detected both at the chassis dynamometer test facility and during individual car chasing. We found evidence that if nucleation occurs, sulfuric acid/water is the nucleating agent. Low-volatile organics species condense only on the preexisting sulfuric acid/water clusters. Nucleation was found to depend strongly on various parameters such as exhaust dilution conditions, fuel sulfur conte…
Energy efficiency in Spanish wastewater treatment plants: a non-radial DEA approach.
2011
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are energy-intensive facilities. Thus, reducing their carbon footprint is particularly important, both economically and environmentally. Knowing the real operating energy efficiency of WWTPs is the starting point for any energy-saving initiative. In this article, we applied a non-radial Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology to calculate energy efficiency indices for sampling of WWTPs located in Spain. In a second stage analysis, we examined the operating variables contributing to differences in energy efficiency among plants. It is verified that energy efficiencies of the analyzed WWTPs were quite low, with only 10% of them being efficient. We found…
Is Active Moss Biomonitoring Comparable to Air Filter Standard Sampling?
2022
Recently, significant attention has been paid to air quality awareness and its impact on human health, especially in urban agglomerations. Many types of dust samplers for air quality monitoring are used by governmental environmental monitoring agencies. However, these techniques are associated with high costs; as a consequence, biological methods such as active moss biomonitoring are being developed. The main disadvantages of such techniques are the lack of standardization of the preparation procedures and the lack of reliable comparisons of results with data from instrumental analyses. Our study aimed to compare the results obtained from active biomonitoring with the use of three moss spec…
Possible markers of traffic-related emissions
2007
Looking for robust indicators of motor vehicle emissions it has been found that brake wear and linings are significant contributors of Cu, Mo and Sb to air particulate matter. These trace elements, whose mutual ratios in airborne particulate matter resulted quite different from those in crustal material, appear to be available fingerprinting tools to identify the contribution of on-road vehicles to traffic-derived particulate matter. In this study, the results of analytical determinations of Cu, Mo and Sb on PM(10), PM(2.5), vegetation and brake dust samples, together with gas (CO, NOx) concentrations, are discussed. Highly significant correlations among Cu, Sb and Mo were observed in parti…