Environmental Monitoring

The Hsinta and Nanpu Power Stations are located in southern Taiwan. The Hsinta Power Station consists of five combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGT), whereas the Nanpu Power Station consists of four. A project was undertaken to develop and deploy a predictive emissions monitoring system (PEMS) on CCGT unit 3 of Hsinta Power Station (HT-3) and CCGT unit 1 of Nanpu Power Station (NP-1) with the long-term goal of developing a universal model for this kind of power plant.

Arsenic contamination of ground water is well understood while other environmental systems are rarely considered to be contaminated by arsenic. A vital issue is whether or not appreciable arsenic transmits through the food chain. Reportedly, ayurvedic herbal medicine products (AHMPs) manufactured in Asia were found to be contaminated by harmful level of Arsenic. This study was aimed to quantify the arsenic levels in water, herbal and soil samples collected from the same origin using highly accurate neutron activation analysis (NAA) technique.

The construction and electrodes characteristics of poly(vinylchloride) (PVC)-based polymeric membrane electrode (PME) and coated graphite electrode (CGE), incorporating 1,3-alternate thiacalix[4]crown as ionophore for estimation of Hg(II) ions, are reported here. The best potential response was observed for PME-1 having membrane composition of: ionophore (6.2 mg), PVC (100.0 mg), 2-nitrophenyl octyl ether (2-NPOE; 200.0 mg), and sodium tetraphenyl borate (NaTPB; 2.0 mg); for CGE-1 with the membrane composition: ionophore (3.5 mg), PVC (40.0 mg), 2-NPOE (80.0 mg), and NaTPB (2.0 mg).

Five Ayurvedic medicines with mercury concentrations of 85mg/kg and higher were characterized with respect to their speciation and their bioaccessibility. X-ray absorption spectroscopy revealed that the mercury in the Ayurvedic medicines was inorganic and best matched to cinnabar, even in samples that had been hypothesized to contain mercury through plant sources only.

Biogeochemical characteristics of the cattle are dealt based on the observations made in Ayurveda in the light of modern scientific developments in applied environmental geochemistry. The biogeochemical characteristics of certain important ecological components and animal products of the stall-fed animals were studied. For this purpose, a dairy farm of Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams, a religious organization in Tirupati, Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh was selected.

BACKGROUND: In adult populations, emerging evidence indicates that humans are exposed to arsenic by ingestion of contaminated foods such as rice, grains, and juice; yet little is known about arsenic exposure among children. OBJECTIVES: Our goal was to determine whether rice consumption contributes to arsenic exposure in U.S. children.

New ethical questions have arisen from our ability to intervene in the structure of the genome. Responsible use of this technique requires ethical evaluation in which experts, potential beneficiaries and the general public should all participate. The examples of genetically modified food and of human genetics help to illustrate the issues involved.

The European Commission has published a Communication on the Precautionary Principle and a White Book on Governance. These provide us (as research civil servants of the Commission) an institutional framework for handling scientific information that is often incomplete, uncertain, and contested. But, although the Precautionary Principle is intuitively straightforward to understand, there is no agreed way of applying it to real decision-making. To meet this perceived need, researchers have proposed a vast number of taxonomies.

BACKGROUND: Prenatal lead and cadmium exposure will not only influence the mother' organ systems, but also will provide an environment that may influence the fetus and neonate in a harmful way.In the present study, we detected the blood lead levels (BLLS) and cadmium levels for the duration of pregnancy and 6-12 weeks after delivery and to analyze the influencing factors of BLLs in healthy pregnant women. METHODS: A cohort study survey was carried out.

OBJECTIVE: A baseline microbial survey was conducted to identify the microbes present on the headpieces of chiropractic adjusting tables from across the Western States Chiropractic College, Portland, Ore, facilities. This included the instructional adjustive technique laboratories, the student health center, the campus outpatient clinic, and an off-site clinic. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of disinfection protocols over time at a chiropractic college. METHODS: Four samplings were done for a 12-month period. A total of 69 treatment tables were tested.