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Rapid population growth invokes the need for a vast amount of water conservation. Many centralized water treatment systems will reach their limits and face difficulties to provide clean industrial water to rural areas. The infrastructure for water distribution is dilapidated in many regions and only little of the wastewater is currently being recycled. One solution could be the expansion of decentralized membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems in peri-urban areas. MBR achieves excellent water qualities, whereas the comparatively high energy consumption is the main drawback. Therefore, MBR plants need to be optimized in their specific energy consumption to obtain a high degree of self-sufficiency for decentralized locations. There is a dire need for innovative controlling strategies and efficient coupling with energy supply systems through novel applications. This chapter will highlight the basic approaches to reduce the MBR's overall energy consumption and ways to establish sustainable, autonomous operations without sacrificing the process quality.

We document a remarkable abundance of the tubeworm Serpula vermicularis Linnaeus, 1767, in bathyal coral habitats from the Bari Canyon System in the southern Adriatic Sea. Here, the specimens of S. vermicularis grow from muddy substrate either as isolated individuals or as localized clusters of multiple individuals. Peculiar tube aggregations are also associated with Madrepora oculata build-ups and other stony corals including Desmophyllum dianthus. Three types of coral-serpulid (C–S) frameworks have been recognized based upon size and shape. The abundance of S. vermicularis increases with the size of C–S frameworks, which results from superimposition, overgrowth, and/or intergrowth of scleractinians and serpulids. Several generations of S. vermicularis contribute to the C–S frameworks, each most probably accounting for more than 8 years and presumably existing in the area for the last hundreds of years. At a meso-scale, the distribution pattern of serpulids seems to be mainly governed by currents and siltation. A further constraint is the co-occurring solitary coral D. dianthus within frameworks. The successful sea-bottom colonization by S. vermicularis and associated C–S frameworks is possibly related to a high oxygen content and food supply derived from the North Adriatic Dense Water (NAdDW). The flourishing populations of S. vermicularis as well as the peculiarity of C–S frameworks suggest that deep-sea canyons provide important benthic habitats in bathyal environments.

In the Mediterranean area most of the public authorities need to enhance their institutional capacity in the field of Energy Efficiency (EE) and use of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in order to contribute to the Energy Performance of Buildings and the Energy Efficiency Directives, developing solutions suited to various regional contexts. The PrioritEE project, funded by the Interreg MED programme, aims at reinforcing the capacities of public administrations in selecting and implementing eco-friendly and cost-effective energy planning measures. This paper aims to describe the main efforts carried out by local public authorities and professional institutions from five MED countries (Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Croatia) in order to reduce energy consumption and prioritize EE investments in Municipal Public Buildings (MPBs). In particular, it focuses on the methodological framework describing the main components of the proposed toolbox, the main objectives and expected outcomes but also the current achievements and the way forward.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a time-efficient strategy to improve fitness and performance. Whereas the multiple and negative effects of high intake of alcohol have been widely studied, the effect of moderate alcohol doses after exercise is not clear, and it is currently under debate. For that, a total of 80 young healthy adults are studied and allocated into 5 groups, each including 16 participants. Four groups follow a HIIT program, while the fifth group is a control non-training group. The training groups will be randomized according to the characteristics of the ingested beverage (alcohol beer, beer 0.0%, sparkling water, or ethanol). The effects of HIIT on several aspects of physical performance and mental health in young healthy adults are evaluated, also the concomitant effect of daily and moderate alcohol consumption. The novelty of this study lies in the continuous measurement of the psychological parameters associated with carrying out a highly demanding training program in conjunction with alcohol consumption in moderate quantities, reflecting real-life conditions.

The growth cycle in nutrient-rich, aquatic environments starts with a diatom bloom that ends in mass sinking of ungrazed cells and phytodetritus. The low grazing pressure on these blooms has been attributed to the inability of overwintering copepod populations to track them temporally. We tested an alternative explanation: that dominant diatom species impair the reproductive success of their grazers. We compared larval development of a common overwintering copepod fed on a ubiquitous, early-blooming diatom species with its development when fed on a typical post-bloom dinoflagellate. Development was arrested in all larvae in which both mothers and their larvae were fed the diatom diet. Mortality remained high even if larvae were switched to the dinoflagellate diet. Aldehydes, cleaved from a fatty acid precursor by enzymes activated within seconds after crushing of the cell, elicit the teratogenic effect. This insidious mechanism, which does not deter the herbivore from feeding but impairs its recruitment, will restrain the cohort size of the next generation of early-rising overwinterers. Such a transgenerational plant-herbivore interaction could explain the recurringly inefficient use of a predictable, potentially valuable food resource--the spring diatom bloom--by marine zooplankton.

Infrared to visible upconversion (UC) is a promising way to enhance the efficiency of silicon based solar cells. In this paper, the spectral conversion and recovery of sub-band gap photons of the solar spectrum, from NIR-IR to the VIS-NIR wavelength region, is investigated in two fluorides hosts doped with trivalent erbium ions (Er3+). The efficiency gain due to upconversion in silicon solar cells is compared for single crystal samples of BaY2F8:Er3+ and LiYF4:Er3+ in a dedicated upconverter solar cell device (UCSCD) with monochromatic excitation in the 1.5 mu m spectral region. The highest external quantum efficiency due to upconversion was found for the UCSCD using the BaY2F8:30 at% Er3+ single crystal, reaching an EQE of 6.8 +/- 0.2% for (1.10 +/- 0.12).10(5) W m(-2) spectral irradiance at 1494 nm. We present a comprehensive spectroscopic study of the crystal samples also taking into account the effects of the different crystal symmetry as well as the different phonon energies. Our findings enable us to explain the higher efficiency of the BaY2F8:Er3+ compared to the LiYF4:Er3+ upconverter in terms of both static and dynamic properties. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This work aimed to investigate the contamination pattern in Kongsfjorden marine environment (Svalbard, 79°N 12°E) and to disentangle primary and secondary emissions. Surface seawater, sampled in two seasons, was analysed by GC-MS and LC-MS/MS to detect polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nonylphenols (NPs), bisphenol A (BPA) and perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). In summer, average ΣPAHs, BPA, ΣNPs, ΣPFASs and ΣPCBs concentrations were 17.3 ± 11.1 ng/L, 0.9 ± 0.3 ng/L, 10.0 ± 6.9 ng/L, 0.4 ± 0.7 ng/L and 1.8 ± 1.3 pg/L, respectively; while in winter, they were 13.6 ± 10.1 ng/L, 0.5 ± 0.2 ng/L, 6.8 ± 3.3 ng/L,