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Particulate matter (PM) is regulated in various parts of the world based on specific size cut offs, often expressed as 10 or 2.5 µm mass median aerodynamic diameter. This pollutant is deemed one of the most dangerous to health and moreover, problems persist with high ambient concentrations. Continuing pressure to re-evaluate ambient air quality standards stems from research that not only has identified effects at low levels of PM but which also has revealed that reductions in certain components, sources and size fractions may best protect public health. Considerable amount of published information have emerged from toxicological research in recent years. Accumulating evidence has identified additional air quality metrics (e.g. black carbon, secondary organic and inorganic aerosols) that may be valuable in evaluating the health risks of, for example, primary combustion particles from traffic emissions, which are not fully taken into account with PM2.5 mass. Most of the evidence accumulated so far is for an adverse effect on health of carbonaceous material from traffic. Traffic-generated dust, including road, brake and tire wear, also contribute to the adverse effects on health. Exposure durations from a few minutes up to a year have been linked with adverse effects. The new evidence collected supports the scientific conclusions of the World Health Organization Air Quality Guidelines and also provides scientific arguments for taking decisive actions to improve air quality and reduce the global burden of disease associated with air pollution.

Rising temperatures are associated with reduced body size in many marine species, but the biological cause and generality of the phenomenon is debated. We derive a predictive model for body size responses to temperature and oxygen (O 2 ) changes based on thermal and geometric constraints on organismal O 2 supply and demand across the size spectrum. The model reproduces three key aspects of the observed patterns of intergenerational size reductions measured in laboratory warming experiments of diverse aquatic ectotherms (i.e., the “temperature-size rule” [TSR]). First, the interspecific mean and variability of the TSR is predicted from species’ temperature sensitivities of hypoxia tolerance, whose nonlinearity with temperature also explains the second TSR pattern—its amplification as temperatures rise. Third, as body size increases across the tree of life, the impact of growth on O 2 demand declines while its benefit to O 2 supply rises, decreasing the size dependence of hypoxia tolerance and requiring larger animals to contract by a larger fraction to compensate for a thermally driven rise in metabolism. Together our results support O 2 limitation as the mechanism underlying the TSR, and they provide a physiological basis for projecting ectotherm body size responses to climate change from microbes to macrofauna. For small species unable to rapidly migrate or evolve greater hypoxia tolerance, ocean warming and O 2 loss in this century are projected to induce >20% reductions in body mass. Size reductions at higher trophic levels could be even stronger and more variable, compounding the direct impact of human harvesting on size-structured ocean food webs.

Potato plants (Solanum tuberosum L., cv. Désirée) were transformed with the polyphosphate kinase gene from Escherichia coli fused to the leader sequence of the ferredoxin oxidoreductase gene (FNR) from Spinacea oleracea under the control of the leaf specific St-LS1 promoter to introduce a novel phosphate pool in the chloroplasts of green tissues. Transgenic plants (cpPPK) in tissue culture developed necrotic lesions in older leaves and showed earlier leaf senescence while greenhouse plants showed no noticeable phenotype. Leaves of cpPPK plants contained less starch but higher concentrations of soluble sugars. The presence of polyphosphate in cpPPK leaves was demonstrated by toluidine blue staining and unambiguously verified and quantified by in vitro 31P-NMR of extracts. Polyphosphate accumulated during leaf development from 0.06 in juvenile leaves to 0.83 mg P g-1 DW in old leaves and had an average chain length of 18 residues in mature leaves. In situ 31P-NMR on small leaf pieces perfused with well-oxygenated medium showed only 0.036 mg P g-1 DW polyphosphate that was, however, greatly increased upon treatment with 50 mM ammonium sulfate at pH 7.3. This phenomenon along with a yield of 0.47 mg P g-1 DW polyphosphate from an extract of the same leaf material suggests that 93% of the polyphosphate pool is immobile. This conclusion is substantiated by the observation that no differences in polyphosphate pool sizes could be discerned between darkened and illuminated leaves, leaves treated with methylviologen or anaerobis and control leaves, treatments causing a change in the pool of ATP available for polyPi synthesis. Results are discussed in the context of the chelating properties of polyphosphates for cations and its consequences for the partitioning of photoassimilate between starch and soluble sugars.

With the aim of reducing the environmental burden of decentralized wastewater treatment plants in India, this project investigated five primary materials (stainless steel (SS), mild steel (MS), glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP), high density polyethylene (HDPE), and reinforced concrete cement (RCC)) in terms of the relative environmental impact that each would incur across 13 midpoint and 4 endpoint impact categories during the early life stages. The results showed that SS demonstrated substantially higher impact in total (5.47 Pt) and across each of the endpoint categories, most notably human health (3.12 Pt). Further investigations demonstrated that this was largely fed by the respiratory inorganics midpoint category that accounted for 50 % of the total impact (2.75 Pt), while global warming (0.93 Pt), non-renewable energy (0.70 Pt) and terrestrial ecotoxicity (0.62 Pt) were the only other considerable impacts. GFRP incurred the second greatest impact overall (2.32 Pt), while MS, RCC and HDPE followed with 1.82 Pt, 0.78 Pt, and 0.39 Pt respectively. HDPE afforded the greatest efficiency in all midpoint categories except carcinogens where RCC incurred the least environmental cost. Results were then compared with previous work and likely causal factors highlighted. Further study is recommended to investigate the longevity of the alternative materials in a wastewater containment role to support these results.

AbstractIntroductionFoetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are a set of preventable conditions where the foetus is exposed to alcohol in utero and as a result suffers adverse consequences. To develop a public health strategy related to FASD, it is important to first establish what is known by the public about this condition. This study aimed to assess the current level of knowledge about FASD in the UK general population.MethodsA mixed methodology study was conducted using a 17‐item questionnaire and focus group sessions. Four focus groups were held with an average of 10 people in each group. Semi‐structured questions and thematic analysis of interviews alongside quantitative analysis of the questionnaire data was completed. The research was approved by an National Health service (NHS) research ethical committee.ResultsA total of 674 people responded to the questionnaire and a majority (86.7%) had heard about FASD, with most receiving their information from the media (26.2%) or from their work (27.7%). Four broad themes emerged. Overall these were: a general lack of knowledge about the subject; information about the subject needed to be personally relevant; there was a need for further education; and there was a lack of clarity in the current guidance on alcohol use in pregnancy.Discussion and conclusionsCurrently there appears to be a superficial level of knowledge about FASD in the UK general public. More detailed work in subgroups, such as young women, to identify their specific needs may be necessary before targeted public health and educational interventions can be developed to meet the needs of the general public.

Striatal dopamine (DA) has been implicated in alcohol use disorders, but it is still unclear whether or not alcohol can induce dopamine release in social drinkers. Furthermore, no data exist on dopamine responses to alcohol in dependent drinkers. We sought to characterize the DA responses to alcohol intoxication in moderately large samples of social drinkers (SD) and nontreatment-seeking alcoholics (NTS).Twenty-four SD and twenty-one NTS received two [(11)C]raclopride (RAC) PET scans; one at rest, and one during an intravenous alcohol infusion, with a prescribed ascent to a target breath alcohol concentration (BrAC), at which it was then "clamped." The alcohol clamp was started 5min after scan start, with a linear increase in BrAC over 15min to the target of 80mg%, the legal threshold for intoxication. Target BrAC was maintained for 30min. Voxel-wise binding potential (BPND) was estimated with MRTM2.IV EtOH induced significant increases in DA in the right ventral striatum in NTS, but not SD. No decreases in DA were observed in either group.Alcohol intoxication results in distinct anatomic profiles of DA responses in SD and NTS, suggesting that in NTS, the striatal DA system may process effects of alcohol intoxication differently than in SD.

The potential for optimizing, in both economic and energetic terms, the final waste treatment system in the Netherlands is evaluated in the light of the performance of new technologies. Projections of the final waste supply and waste treatment technologies are combined to construct several scenarios for waste treatment in the year 2010. Technologies include processes currently in the demonstration or pilot phase. It is concluded that final waste treatment could be performed at lower cost and with substantially greater energy recovery than at present. In a minimum cost scenario, the final waste treatment might cost 300-600 MECU/year, compared to 1000-1600 MECU/year in a reference scenario, on the assumption that conventional, but improved waste treatment technologies are used. A maximum energy recovery scenario might save 80-90 PJ primary energy per year compared to 39-47 PJ/year for the reference case. Two major competing technologies are gasification, both for biomass waste and integral waste, and fluidized bed incineration. Further development of these technologies integrated with electricity production is recommended.