Hospital Stakeholders’ Perception on Environmental Effects Related to Biomedical Waste in Togo’s University Hospitals (UHC) in 2021

Introduction: Given its effects, hospital waste is an environmental concern and a threat to health personnel, users of health services and neighboring populations. Our objective was to assess the perception of health care stakeholders on the environmental effects related to biomedical waste produced in Teaching Hospitals (CHU) in Togo in 2021. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study held from June 24 to August 28, 2021. It targeted three university hospitals, 340 health care providers and services selected by a probabilistic method with a simple random technique in 25 services, 72 directors, deputy directors, supervisors and heads of services, 27 collection and incineration agents selected by a non-probabilistic method with a reasoned choice technique, 44 patients and attendants and 36 householders of neighboring residents selected by a non-probabilistic method with an accidental choice technique. Variables such as the spreading of disease vectors, soil, air and water contamination, the presence of unpleasant odors and unsightly living conditions were assessed. Results: According to the respondents, biomedical waste causes the proliferation of vectors (55.3%), an unsightly environment inside the hospital (47.1%), and unpleasant odors (61.2%). Incineration operations disturb hospital residents (52.8%), according to the householders of the residents. During observation, we note deposits of waste that have not been destroyed and wastewater flowing in some places. Conclusion: Biomedical waste in Togo’s university hospitals generates environmental effects and therefore potentially high risks for human health. Improving their management should be a concern for all hospital actors.

Dynamic Variation Characteristics of Phosphorus in Paddy Field Runoff in Saline Land and Its Potential Environmental Effect

[Objective] The aim was to study the dynamic variation characteristics of phosphorus in paddy field runoff in saline land and its potential environmental effect. [Method] Taking Qianguo irrigation district in soda-saline land in Songnen Plain as study object, the dynamic variation law of phosphorus in paddy field runoff under different irrigation conditions and its potential environmental effect were discussed. [Result] Surface water in paddy field was alkaline, and scattered soil had poor fertilizer conservation capacity. Phosphorus accumulated in soil surface, which could increase the risk of phosphorus loss. Phosphorus loss in paddy field mainly occurred in irrigation period and runoff period caused by rainstorm. The concentration of total phosphorus (TP), particulate phosphorus (PP), total dissolved phosphorus (TDP) and dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) in paddy field runoff decreased with time, especially PP. Phosphorus concentration exceeded critical value and resulted to eutrophication, which threatened the water quality security of Chagan Lake. Phosphorus concentration in water recession canal increased with time, and eutrophication with different degrees appeared under high temperature. TP concentration in surface water of paddy field was highly negatively correlated with that in water recession canal, and the correlation coefficients R2(α=0.05)in three paddy fields were 0.850 9, 0.896 4 and 0.915 3, respectively. The pollution load of phosphorus in paddy field with the best irrigation condition was higher, and its pollution risk was the highest. Thus, such fields should be monitored and controlled mainly as the critical source area of phosphorus loss. [Conclusion] The study could provide theoretical foundations for developing saline land rationally, establishing optimal management measure of phosphorus in saline land and controlling phosphorus loss from farmland to protect local water resources.

Research progress on behaviors and environmental effects of mercury in the cryosphere of the Tibetan Plateau:a critical review

The behavior and fates of environmental pollutants within the cryosphere and the associated environmental impacts are of increasing concerns in the context of global warming.The Tibetan Plateau(TP),also known as the"Third Pole",represents one of the most important cryospheric regions in the world.Mercury(Hg)is recognized as a global pollutant.Here,we summarize the current knowledge of Hg concentration levels,pools and spatio-temporal distribution in cryospheric environments(e.g.,glacier,permafrost),and its transfer and potential cycle in the TP cryospheric region.Transboundary transport of anthropogenic Hg from the surrounding heavily-polluted regions,such as South and Southeast Asia,provides significant sources of atmospheric Hg depositions onto the TP cryosphere.We concluded that the melting of the cryosphere on the TP represents an increasing source of Hg and brings a risk to the TP environment.In addition,global warming acts as an important catalyst accelerating the release of legacy Hg from the melting cryosphere,adversely impacting ecosystems and biological health.Furthermore,we emphasize on the remaining gaps and proposed issues needed to be addressed in future work,including enhancing our knowledge on some key release pathways and the related environmental effects of Hg in the cryospheric region,integrated observation and consideration of Hg distribution,migration and cycle processes at a key region,and uses of Hg isotopic technical and Hg models to improve the understanding of Hg cycling in the TP cryospheric region.

Reducing the Common Environmental Effect on Litopenaeus vannamei Body Weight by Rearing Communally at Early Developmental Stages and Using a Reconstructed Pedigree

Heritability estimates may be severely biased when a large common environmental effect on a family arises from a longlasting separate rearing at early stages(SRES)in traditional selective breeding programs,especially when bred populations have weak genetic ties.Communal rearing at early stages(CRES)may reduce common environmental effect since all families are reared in the same environment immediately after hatching.Here,we compared the effects of CRES and SRES strategies on genetic parameter estimation for harvest body weight in a selective breeding population of Litopenaeus vannamei with a small number of half-sib families.Genetic parameters of each strategy were estimated by using animal models excluding and including the common environmental effect(Model 1 and Model 2,respectively).Heritability estimates for body weight were 0.21±0.06(P<0.05)and 0.69±0.09(P<0.05)for CRES and SRES,respectively,in Model 1,and 0.21±0.06(P<0.05)and 0.52±0.27(P>0.05)in Model 2.The ratio of common environmental variance to phenotypic variance was 0.002±0.000 and 0.071±0.112 for CRES and SRES,respectively.Neither strategy precisely partitioned the common environmental variance according to likelihood ratio test.Lower heritability for body weight in CRES than in SRES implied that a large common environmental variance was confounded with additive genetic variance and was not effectively partitioned in SRES.Moreover,genetic correlation of body weight between the two strategies was 0.75±0.15,indicating that family rankings truly changed.The CRES should be followed in the selective breeding program of shrimp,especially in a population with a shallow pedigree and weak genetic ties between families.

Environmental Effects on the Room Temperature Ductility of a TiAl Based Alloy

The effects of different environments and strain rates on the room temperature ductility of a TiAl based alloy with the composition Ti-46Al-2Cr-0.2Si-0.1Nd have been investigated in this paper. The results show that the TiAl based alloy is susceptible to environmental embrittlement at room temperature. The tensile ductility of the TiAl based alloy in difFerent test environments decreases in the sequence of oxygen> air>hydrogen>argon saturated with water vapor. The ductility is also sensitive to strain rate. It increases with increasing strain rate when tested in hydrogen gas. Both H2O and H2 cause environmental embrittlement, with the former being a more potent

Research Progress of Maternal Environmental Effects in Resource-based Regions

Heavy metal pollution is common in resource-based regions.However,the morphological,physiological and biochemical mechanisms of plants transmitting environmental information to their offspring in environments polluted by heavy metals have not been studied yet.Taking soybean,an annual self-pollinated plant in Huang-Huai-Hai region,as the research object,the morphological,physiological and biochemical indexes and heavy metal enrichment and distribution characteristics of plants under heavy metal stress were monitored continuously for about three generations,and the trans-generational differences of soybean reproduction,vegetative growth,stress resistance and life cycle in heavy metal stress environment were elucidated.The results will be helpful to better understand the long-term adaptive strategy of plants to heavy metal stress and provide the theory basis for ecological security of soybean and other crops under heavy metal stress.

Atomic Level Dispersed Metal–Nitrogen–Carbon Catalyst toward Oxygen Reduction Reaction: Synthesis Strategies and Chemical Environmental Regulation

For development and application of proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) energy transformation technology, the cost performance must be elevated for the catalyst. At present, compared with noble metal-based catalysts, such as Pt-based catalysts, atomically dispersed metal–nitrogen–carbon(M–N–C) catalysts are popularity and show great potential in maximizing active site density, high atom utilization and high activity,making them the first choice to replace Pt-based catalysts. In the preparation of atomically dispersed metal–nitrogen–carbon catalyst, it is difficult to ensure that all active sites are uniformly dispersed, and the structure system of the active sites is not optimal. Based on this, we focus on various approaches for preparing M–N–C catalysts that are conducive to atomic dispersion, and the influence of the chemical environmental regulation of atoms on the catalytic sites in different catalysts. Therefore, we discuss the chemical environmental regulation of the catalytic sites by bimetals, atom clusters, and heteroatoms(B, S, and P). The active sites of M–N–C catalysts are explored in depth from the synthesis and characterization, reaction mechanisms, and density functional theory(DFT)calculations. Finally, the existing problems and development prospects of the current atomic dispersion M–N–C catalyst are proposed in detail.

Study on the Environmental Impact of Oil and Gas Field Development on the Ecological Red Line Area

To cooperate with the five ministries and commissions of the state to carry out joint investigation on the environmentally sensitive areas involved in oil and gas exploration and development,for the problems found in survey,containing complex type and numerous amount of ecologically sensitive space and ecological red line involved in oil and gas field enterprises,scientific nature of delimitation,lack of strong support of laws and regulations for forced withdrawal of oil and gas production facilities in these areas,some countermeasures and suggestions were proposed,such as further evaluating and combing scope and functional zoning of existing environmentally sensitive areas and ecological red lines,treating differently,enhancing pertinence of prohibition in ecologically sensitive regions,declining blindness of the withdrawal of oil and gas facilities in environmentally sensitive areas,strengthening seriousness of approval of exploration and mining rights of oil and gas resources,and establishing strategic reserve exploration and hierarchical development mechanism. Moreover,oil and gas field enterprises should integrate more efforts to ① accelerate to find out the current situation of environmental quality,② adhere to developing in protection,and protecting in development,③ increase attention and participation strengthen of providing technical support for national oil and gas exploration and development strategy evaluation,④ accelerate communication and docking with local governments on the ecological red line,⑤ actively strive to be included in the positive list management of local governments,⑥ accelerate to establish and perfect primary database of oil and gas production and facilities construction,and ⑦ document management information system of the ecological red line.

Satisfaction with the Environmental Condition in the Italian Regions between 2004 and 2020

In the following article, the “Satisfaction with the Environmental Condition” in the 20 Italian regions between 2004 and 2020 was estimated using ISTAT-BES data. The data were analyzed using the following econometric techniques, namely: Panel Data with Random Effects, Panel Data with Fixed Effects, Dynamic Panel, Pooled OLS, WLS. The results show that satisfaction with the environmental situation is positively associated with the following variables “People with at least high school diploma”, “Satisfaction with leisure time”, “Concern for the deterioration of the landscape” and negatively associated with “Gross disposable income per capita”, “Dissatisfaction with the landscape of the place of life”, “Perception of the risk of crime”. A cluster analysis was then carried out using the unsupervised k-Means algorithm optimized through the Silhouette coefficient and 3 clusters were found. A comparative analysis was then carried out between eight different machine learning algorithms to predict the trend of satisfaction by environmental situation. The analysis showed that the Tree Ensemble Regression algorithm is the best predictor and estimates a reduction of the variable of 0.05%. Subsequently, using augmented data, a further prediction was made with an estimated result equal to -1.93%.

The Research on Land-Use Change and Ecological Environment Effect of Urban Landscape in China

The rapid expansion of urban construction land has become the major characteristic of urban land-use change in China today. Meanwhile, the rapid urbanization process has led to the great changes of urban landscape in China, and it also has had certain impacts on environmental factors such as climate, soil, hydrology, biodiversity, etc., then it has made the overall ecological environment deteriorated. This study is based on the summary and analysis of research on land-use change and ecological environment effect of urban landscape in recent 20 years in China, and it aims at providing scientific bases and theoretical supports for the planning and construction of urban landscape, the sustainable land-use of city and the protection of ecological environment in China.

Analysis of the negative effects of groundwater exploitation on geological environment in Asia

This paper summarizes the negative effects on geological environment caused by groundwater exploitation and its distribution. There are seven main types of the geological environment negative effects, which are generally as follows:(1) Constant decrease of groundwater level is mainly distributed in China(East Asia), India(South Asia), Tajikistan(Central Asia) and Saudi Arabia(West Asia);(2) land subsidence occurs mainly in eastern plains of East Asia and west Siberian Plain of North Asia;(3) seawater intrusion occurs mainly in China, Japan and South Korea in East Asia, Philippines and Indonesia in Southeast Asia, the Indian coastal areas in South Asia;(4) groundwater level decline caused by groundwater exploitation in oil fields;(5) mining collapse is mainly in 50° to 70° north latitude band;(6) the total area of karst collapse in China of East Asia is as much as 197.05 km^2; and(7) ground fracture is mainly distributed in the North China Plain, Fenwei Plain and the Yangtze River Delta. Asia can be divided into 6 zones in terms of the geological environment negative effect caused by groundwater exploitation. According to analysis, with the increasing intensity of human activities, geological environment issues become more and more serious, therefore it is vital to control the human activities within the scope of 5× 10~5 people/km^2 to 9.9× 10~5 people/km^2 for the effective control of the size of the affected area by geological environment problems.

A Reconstruction and Discussion of the Effect of Diagenetic Environment on Hydrocarbon Generation Based on Diagenetic Mineral Assemblage in Mudstone

Inorganic minerals in mudstone are composed of clay minerals,carbonate and detrital minerals.Detrital minerals(such as quartz and feldspar)are mainly original deposit.However,clay minerals(kaolinite,illite,and chlorite)and carbonate(calcite and dolomite)are mostly diagenetic minerals.Furthermore,conversion of the four kinds of clay minerals are common.The formation of clay minerals and carbonate is controlled by temperature,pressure,p H,Eh and type of cations during diagenesis.Therefore mineral assemblage can indicate the characteristics and change of diagenetic environment.In addition to inorganic minerals,there are also organic matter of different sources and chemical properties in mudstone.Traditionally,it is considered that evolution of organic matter is controlled by thermal effect.Now studies show that inorganic and organic matter can interact with each other and form clay-organic complexes.This suggest that attention should be paid to the influence of diagenetic mineral assemblage and diagenetic environment on the evolution of organic matter* Samples of mudstone from 1500-4500m of the Palaeogene in the Dongying Depression,China,were collected to investigate the changes of mudstone diagenetic environment.XRD,thin section and SEM were used to detect diagenetic minerals and assemblage characteristics.Results showed that content of detrital minerals,which are floating in mud matrix or preserved as silt laminae,is basically unchanged from shallow to deep strata.Clay minerals which are gathered as argillaceous matrix or preserved as argillaceous laminae have growth and decline relation to carbonate which mainly appear as micropoikilitic ferriferous calcite and ferriferous dolomite.All these characteristics indicate that detrital minerals are exogenetic,whereas carbonate is diagenetic minerals.Based on the SEM analysis of the clay minerals,it was found that smectite present honeycomb and reticulate structure,while illite present filiform and schistose structure and there are growth and decline relationship between them.Nevertheless,hexagonal tabular and stratified kaolinite has the highest content from 2400m to3300m.Rosette and stratified chlorite shows increase trend when the burial depth is deeper than 3300m.These characteristics indicated that clay minerals are diagenetic minerals and there are conversions among the four types.Therefore form shallow to deep,three diagenetic mineral assemblage zones can be divided based on the characteristics of carbonate and clay minerals in mudstone.Namely,smectite+illite/smectite zone in the depth of 2000-2500m;kaolinite+illite/smectite zone in the depth of 2500-3300m and illite+chlorite+carbonate zone below 3300m.Previous studies showed that kaolinite is stable under acidic conditions,while other clay minerals and carbonate are stable under alkaline conditions.Hence according to mineral assemblages feature,it was inferred that diagenetic environment of mudstonehasundergonethechangeof alkaline-acid-alkaline.For the organic matter with different chemical properties in mudstone,the hydrocarbon generation will be different in the acidic and alkaline diagenetic environment even if the conditions of temperature and pressure are the same.Therefore,for hydrocarbon generation we should not only focus on thermal effect,but also pay more attention to the differences of diagenetic environment which have great significance for the understanding of hydrocarbon generation,hydrocarbon expulsion and reservoir formation in mudstone.

Current state of research on microplastics in the marine- atmosphere environment of the Arctic region

Microplastics,plastic particles smaller than 5 mm in size,are a growing source of environmental pollution.Microplastic pollution has been observed in situ in the remote Arctic,where it has been found in the land,sea,cryosphere,and atmosphere.This review summarizes the sample pretreatment techniques and analytical methods commonly used in microplastic research,as well as the pollution status of microplastics in the Arctic,their sources,and their effects on the environment.In the Arctic,the size distribution of microplastics is more inclined to small-scale aggregation,the shape of microplastics is mostly fibrous,with the proportion of fibers often accounting for more than 70%.There are marked differences among studies in terms of abundance and polymer composition,but polyester is generally dominant in seawater.Many microplastic particles are transported to the Arctic by ocean currents and rivers,but atmospheric transport and deposition are slowly being recognized as an important transport route.Sea ice is particularly important for the temporary storage,transport,and release of Arctic microplastics.The average storage of microplastics in sea ice was estimated to be approximately 6.1×108 items.Given their properties,microplastics can affect glacier melting,sea surface temperature changes,and even the carbon cycle.Urgent measures must be taken to improve research standards and overcome sampling difficulties in the Arctic region to achieve time continuity and large-scale distribution patterns of Arctic microplastics.

The Environmental Functions and Ecological Effects of Organic Carbon in Silt

Silt is a kind of unconsolidated sediment consisting of fine particles;silt is generally deposited across wide areas on the surfaces of drainages and in oceans under static or slow-hydrodynamic conditions. The organic carbon(OC) in silt has multiple essential environmental functions. This paper elaborates the morphological and environmental indication functions of OC in silt, and the effect of its own migration and transformation on environmental deterioration. Organic carbon exists in silt in two forms, free and mineral-binding. Meanwhile, based on its formation and structure, OC can be divided into light and heavy fraction of OC. Environmental information including data related to paleoclimates, ancient levels of productivity level, and variations in regional organism abundance can be discovered from total organic carbon, the C/N ratio, and OC isotope content. Degradation of OC is believed to participate in the emission of greenhouse gases, release of heavy metals and other contaminants. Finally, from the view of silt deposition, the possible influence of complex water-rock interaction in which OC is involved during the evolution of silt to a clayey aquitard on the hydrochemical composition of groundwater is discussed, which provides a new perspective for future research on the carbon cycle in nature.

Metal-doped(Cu,Zn)Fe2O4 from integral utilization of toxic Zn-containing electric arc furnace dust: An environment-friendly heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst

Pure metal-doped(Cu,Zn)Fe2O4 was synthesized from Zn-containing electric arc furnace dust(EAFD)by solid-state reaction using copper salt as additive.The effects of pretreated EAFD-to-Cu2(OH)2CO3·6H2O mass ratio,calcination time,and calcination temperature on the structure and catalytic ability were systematically studied.Under the optimum conditions,the decolorization efficiency and total organic carbon(TOC)removal efficiency of the as-prepared ferrite for treating a Rhodamine B solution were approximately 90.0%and 45.0%,respectively,and the decolorization efficiency remained 83.0%after five recycles,suggesting that the as-prepared(Cu,Zn)Fe2O4 was an efficient heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst with high stability.The high catalytic activity mainly depended on the synergistic effect of iron and copper ions occupying octahedral positions.More importantly,the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure(TCLP)analysis illustrated that the toxic Zncontaining EAFD was transformed into harmless(Cu,Zn)Fe2O4 and that the concentrations of toxic ions in the degraded solution were all lower than the national emission standard(GB/31574-2015),further confirming that the as obtained sample is an environment-friendly heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst.