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Environmental Interest (environmental + interest)
Selected AbstractsFinnish lake fisheries and conservation of biodiversity: coexistence or conflict?FISHERIES MANAGEMENT & ECOLOGY, Issue 1-2 2000P. Salmi The conservation of biodiversity in aquatic habitats has become an increasingly important challenge in the management of water resources. In addition to the complexity of the lake fishery and the management structure, the popularity of gill net fishing, in particular, has brought problems when re-establishing populations of Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus (L.), collecting genetically sustainable numbers of spawners of the land-locked salmon, Salmo salar m. sebago (Girard), and increasing the population of the Saimaa ringed seal, Phoca hispida saimensis (Nordq.) to a sustainable level in the Vuoksi watercourse, south-east Finland. The attitudes towards protection among the users and other interested parties vary. In order to enhance the coexistence of the lake fishery and endangered species over large water areas, improved institutional linkages are needed among the local, regional and governmental levels of the fragmented decision-making regime. Environmental interests should also be integrated into the communication structure. [source] Determination of refractory organic matter in marine sediments by chemical oxidation, analytical pyrolysis and solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopyEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2008J. M. De La Rosa Summary Seeking to quantify the amount of refractory organic matter (ROM), which includes black carbon-like material (BC), in marine sediments, we have applied a two-step procedure that consists of a chemical oxidation with sodium chlorite of the demineralized sediments followed by integration of the aromatic C region in the remaining residues by solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The efficacy for lignin removal was tested by analytical pyrolysis in the presence of tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH). Riverine, estuarine and offshore marine sediment samples were collected from the southwest Atlantic coast of Spain, a site of geological and environmental interest. Measured contents of BC-like material ranged between 3.0 and 45.7% of the total organic carbon. Greater relative BC contents were found in riverine sediments close to urban areas, which show an elevated input of anthropogenic organic material. The contents of BC-like material in offshore marine sediments (5.5,6.1%) were similar to those previously reported for these kinds of samples. However, NMR and pyrolysis-GC/MS of the isolated ROM reveals that abundant refractory aliphatic organic material remains in most of the marine samples after chlorite oxidation. We suggest that this pool of aliphatic carbon may play an important role as a stable carbon pool within the global C cycle. [source] Reference Materials in Geoanalytical Research -Review for 2004 and 2005GEOSTANDARDS & GEOANALYTICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2006Klaus Peter Jochum This review gives an overview of the use and development of reference materials of geochemical and environmental interest in the literature of the years 2004 and 2005. In these years the performance of existing methods has been improved and new geochemical applications using new techniques have been developed. Accordingly, there was an increasing need for new reference materials, especially for in situ microanalysis and for precise stable isotope measurements. In addition, there was a notable trend for further characterisation of existing reference materials, mainly for the platinum-group elements. This review focuses on five topics: reference materials for platinum-group elements, reference glasses for in situ microanalysis, zircon reference materials, isotopic reference materials, and the development and certification of reference materials. [source] Method for the elucidation of the elemental composition of low molecular mass chemicals using exact masses of product ions and neutral losses: application to environmental chemicals measured by liquid chromatography with hybrid quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometryRAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 23 2005Shigeru Suzuki A method for elucidating the elemental compositions of low molecular weight chemicals, based primarily on mass measurements made using liquid chromatography (LC) with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) and quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC/QTOFMS), was developed and tested for 113 chemicals of environmental interest with molecular masses up to ,400,Da. As the algorithm incorporating the method is not affected by differences in the instrument used, or by the ionization method and other ionization conditions, the method is useful not only for LC/TOFMS, but also for all kinds of mass spectra measured with higher accuracy and precision (uncertainties of a few mDa) employing all ionization methods and on-line separation techniques. The method involves calculating candidate compositions for intact ionized molecules (ionized forms of the sample molecule that have lost or gained no more than a proton, i.e., [M+H]+ or [M,H],) as well as for fragment ions and corresponding neutral losses, and eliminating those atomic compositions for the molecules that are inconsistent with the corresponding candidate compositions of fragment ions and neutral losses. Candidate compositions were calculated for the measured masses of the intact ionized molecules and of the fragment ions and corresponding neutral losses, using mass uncertainties of 2 and 5,mDa, respectively. Compositions proposed for the ionized molecule that did not correspond to the sum of the compositions of a candidate fragment ion and its corresponding neutral loss were discarded. One, 2,5, 6,10, 11,20, and >20 candidate compositions were found for 65%, 39%, 1%, 1%, and 0%, respectively, for the 124 ionized molecules formed from the 113 chemicals tested (both positive and negative ions were obtained from 11 of the chemicals). However, no candidate composition was found for 2% of the test cases (i.e., 3 chemicals), for each of which the measured mass of one of the product ions was in error by 5,6.7,mDa. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] High surface area membrane introduction mass spectrometry for analysis of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds in airRAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 17 2001Leah S. Riter The construction, optimization, and testing of a novel geometry for a semi-permeable polydimethylsiloxane membrane introduction mass spectrometry (MIMS) system is described. A long poly(dimethylsiloxane) capillary membrane (0.30,mm i.d., 0.64,mm o.d., 60,cm long) was positioned coaxially inside polytetrafluoroethylene tubing (0.80,mm i.d. and 1.60,mm o.d.), allowing for a large surface area membrane of relatively small thickness. Helium, flowing counter-current on the vacuum side of the membrane, swept the permeate into the mass spectrometer. This optimized geometry for permeation MIMS air analysis allows on-line detection of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds of environmental interest, with limits of detection in the ppt range and a linear response over 3 to 4 orders of magnitude. The system is characterized by short rise and fall times, 10 and 48,s, respectively, for toluene. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Environment and Modernity in Transitional China: Frontiers of Ecological ModernizationDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 1 2006Arthur P. J. Mol The process of institutionalizing environmental interests and considerations in Western (especially, but not only, European) industrialized societies has been reflected and theorized upon by social scientists, many of whom have adopted the ,ecological modernization' framework. One of the key questions on the research agenda of ecological modernization is its appropriateness for developing or industrializing countries in other parts of the world. This contribution analyses to what extent environmental reforms in contemporary China can be interpreted as ecological modernization. It focuses on the similarities and differences between Chinese and European modes or styles of ecological modernization with respect to the role of state institutions, market dynamics, civil society pressure and international integration. [source] Government, corporate or social power?JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2002The internet as a tool in the struggle for dominance in public policy Abstract This paper sets out to demonstrate to corporations the need to monitor closely and to respond genuinely to public opinion. It predicts a rise in the power of citizens and a government response to that power that will include regulation to protect social and environmental interests. The paper gives an overview of the ways in which the economic sector, embodied in corporations, has risen to and maintained a position of dominance both within nation states and globally. It provides a model that illustrates the power relationship between corporations, governments and the public, noting in particular that the fundamental key to corporate dominance is the positioning of the public as consumers. Using the framework of legitimation, the paper then demonstrates and theorises the rise of opposition to the dominant order and the corporate and government responses to such opposition. It is proposed that these responses may be insufficient to maintain corporate dominance and that a new model is likely to gain ascendance. In this new model the public make a shift from consumers to citizens in order to reassert their role in governance. Internet sites of activist groups are examined in order to determine the ways in which the sites are used as a tool to facilitate a shift towards the second model. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications [source] Local Institutions and the Politics of Urban GrowthAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2009Mark Lubell This article uses a political market framework to analyze how the structure of local political institutions affects the relative political influence of development and environmental interests in the context of urban growth. Using panel data from 406 Florida cities from 1998 to 2003, the empirical analysis finds important interaction effects between the structure of city executive branch institutions and interest group variables. The economic and political forces driving urban growth do not operate identically in all cities,they vary as a function of institutional context. Institutional structure helps determine which interest groups have their preferences reflected in local land-use changes and development patterns. The resulting patterns suggest a "sustainability paradox" wherein richer, environmental interests push for the preservation of environmental amenities while at the same time accelerating the number of residential units built in a community. [source] | |||||||||||||