Search results for "pitoisuus"

How and why does willow biochar increase a clay soil water retention capacity?

2018

Addition of biochar into a soil changes its water retention properties by modifying soil textural and structural properties. In addition, internal micrometer-scale porosity that is able to directly store readily plant available water affects soil water retention properties. This study shows how precise knowledge of the internal micrometer-scale pore size distribution of biochar can deepen the understanding of the biochar-water interactions in soils. The micrometer-scale porosity of willow biochar was quantitatively and qualitatively characterized using X-ray tomography, 3D image analysis and Helium ion microscopy. The effect of biochar application on clay soil water retention was studied by…

Preconcentration and speciation analysis of mercury : 3D printed metal scavenger-based solid-phase extraction followed by analysis with inductively c…

2021

A selective method for preconcentration and determination of methylmercury (MeHg) and inorganic mercury (iHg) in natural water samples at the ng L−1 level has been developed. The method involves adsorption of Hg species into a 3D printed metal scavenger and sequential elution with acidic thiourea solutions before ICP-MS determination. Experimental parameters affecting the preconcentration of MeHg and iHg such as the sample matrix, effect of the flow rate on adsorption, eluent composition, and elution mode have been studied in detail. The obtained method detection limits, considering the preconcentration factors of 42 and 93, were found to be 0.05 ng L−1 and 0.08 ng L−1 for MeHg and iHg, res…

Occurrence of antibiotics and risk of antibiotic resistance evolution in selected Kenyan wastewaters, surface waters and sediments

2019

Active pharmaceutical ingredients, especially antibiotics, are micropollutants whose continuous flow into hydrological cycles has the potential to mediate antibiotic resistance in the environment and cause toxicity to sensitive organisms. Here, we investigated the levels of selected antibiotics in four wastewater treatment plants and the receiving water bodies. The measured environmental concentrations were compared with the proposed compound-specific predicted no-effect concentration for resistance selection values. The concentration of doxycycline, amoxicillin, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin within the influents, effluents, surface waters and river sediments…

X-ray tomographic method for measuring three-dimensional deformation and water content distribution in swelling clays

2015

A non-invasive method for simultaneous measurement of the 3D displacement field and the water content distribution of a wetted solid material is developed. The method is based on comparison of X-ray tomographic images of a material sample in the reference state and in the wetted and deformed state. The deformation and water content analyses were successfully compared with numerical results for a cylindrical rubber test sample under axial compression, and with gravimetric results from axially wetted and sliced cylindrical bentonite samples, respectively. The methods were applied in a 4D study (three spatial dimensions and time) of wetting and deformation of purified swelling bentonite doped …

Versailles project on advanced materials and standards (VAMAS) interlaboratory study on measuring the number concentration of colloidal gold nanopart…

2022

The advancement of analytical methods for nanoparticle measurements is critical both for the growing industrial exploitation of engineered nanoparticles and for developing robust strategies to understand and control the concentration of nanomaterials in humans and the environment. For high value nanoparticles, the measurement of nanoparticle number concentration in a liquid directly impacts the ability to assess the scale and reproducibility of the production process, it allows optimisation of efficiency and supports regulatory compliance. This measurement is also useful to monitor and control the intentional or accidental release of engineered nanoparticles into the environment at the produc…

Method development for determination and recovery of rare earth elements from industrial fly ash

2014

Rare earth elements (REE) are important in numerous high technology applications and in addition their supply risk is high, which gives rise to studying new sources for rare earth elements. Rare earth element concentrations in industrial fly ash samples collected from Finnish power plants, using a mixture of peat and biomass as a fuel, have been determined. Two sample pre-treatment methods, ultrasound- and microwave-assisted acid digestions, have been applied to fly ash samples. Measurement conditions for inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP–OES) have been optimized to reach robust plasma conditions and the reliability of the analysis has been investigated by using …

Occurrence and control of selected antibiotics and antiretroviral drugs in urban hydrological cycles

2018

Bacterial communities in stratified humic lakes

2012

Occurrence of pharmaceuticals in municipal wastewater treatment plants and receiving surface waters in Central and Southern Finland

2016

The presence of five selected pharmaceuticals, four anti-inflammatory drugs, diclofenac, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen, and an antiepileptic drug carbamazepine, was determined at four municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and in the receiving waterway near the city of Jyväskylä, in central Finland and also in the River Vantaa. First, an analytical method was developed including a pretreatment and purification followed by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in the multiple reaction monitoring mode. The studied pharmaceuticals were detected from influents and effluents of four municipal WWTPs and from surface water of eight locations along the water …

Effect of resource availability on evolution of virulence and competition in an environmentally transmitted pathogen

2018

Understanding ecological and epidemiological factors driving pathogen evolution in contemporary time scales is a major challenge in modern health management. Pathogens that replicate outside the hosts are subject to selection imposed by ambient environmental conditions. Increased nutrient levels could increase pathogen virulence by pre-adapting for efficient use of resources upon contact to a nutrient rich host or by favouring transmission of fast-growing virulent strains. We measured changes in virulence and competition in Flavobacterium columnare, a bacterial pathogen of freshwater fish, under high and low nutrient levels. To test competition between strains in genotype mixtures, we devel…