Reviews: A text for all reasons

J. Wellington. (2000). Teaching and learning secondary science: Contemporary issues and practical approaches. London: Routledge. ISBN 0–4152–1403–3     

Production of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids by Mortierella alpina Using Submerse and Solid State Fermentation

A new isolate of Mortierella alpina, > 98 % identical with M. alpina ATCC 16266, was cultivated in a defined glucose‐based medium with three organic nitrogen sources (glycine, urea and Na‐L‐glutamate) at three different concentrations in shaking flasks at 20 °C. The results were compared to the cultivation in complex medium with yeast extract as nitrogen source. In the defined media, high yields of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and arachidonic acid (ARA), respectively, were obtained with Na‐L‐glutamate. However, the absolute highest yields of PUFA and ARA were measured with the yeast extract medium. An optimized yeast extract complex medium was used for a submerse bioreactor cultivation in a 45‐L scale. Furthermore, M. alpina was cultivated in a solid state fermenter, using an oat bran water mixture as substrate.     

‘Green procurement’ of buildings: a study of Swedish clients' considerations

The results of a survey show that both public and private building clients in Sweden, to varying extents, include environmental requirements in their procurement documents. The requirements identified have been classified into six categories primarily related to building and demolition waste, building material, contractors' environmental work, ecological aspects, construction work and other. One conclusion is that requirements regarding the separation of waste and a contractor's environmental policy are considered important, since they are stipulated in the majority of projects. Another finding is that requirements related to operation and especially to energy use are not considered sufficiently. Structured interviews were conducted with three of the clients who at that time of the survey had developed the most complete procurement documents with regard to environmental requirements. The aim of the interviews was to investigate how the stipulation of requirements, the evaluation of environmental aspects and the verification of environmental requirements were carried out. The conclusion drawn is that Swedish clients find the stipulation of requirements relatively uncomplicated, but find the evaluation of environmental impact, mainly related to selection of materials, problematic due to inadequate evaluation models.     

Degradation of Phenolic Compounds in Aqueous Sucrose Solutions by Ozonation

The sugar industry is concerned with color formation due to the oxidation of phenolic compounds in the presence of carbohydrates. In this study, we investigated the ozonation of a mixture of five phenolic compounds in water and aqueous sucrose solution: p-coumaric (p-COU), caffeic (CAF), syringic (SYR), and chlorogenic (CHO) acids, as well as the flavonoid quercetin (QUE). The experiments were carried out in a 3-L glass reactor with magnetic stirring and a diffuser plate at the bottom to feed the ozone-oxygen gas mixture. Initial solution concentrations of 5 mg L?1 of each acid, 15 mg L?1 of quercetin, and 40 g L?1 of sucrose were used. The degradation of phenolic compounds followed apparent first-order kinetics, with rate constants and percent removals decreasing in the presence of sucrose. In water, average consumed ozone dosages of 10.4 and 18.7 mg L?1 were necessary for 50% and 90% removals, respectively, for CHO, CAF, and p-COU; for QUE they were slightly higher (13.9 and 20.5 mg L?1, respectively). At a consumed dosage of 20.8 mg O3 L?1, more than 99% removal was obtained for CHO, CAF, and p-COU, while 96.2% was achieved for SYR. In contrast, QUE revealed to be more recalcitrant during ozonation in the absence of sucrose, with only 70% removal at the highest consumed O3 dosage. The consumed ozone dosages for 50% and 90% removals were higher for CHO, CAF, and p-COU in aqueous sucrose solution, which may impact ozone consumption during real sugarcane juice treatment. Sucrose and t-butanol were the main influential parameters that significantly affected the total amount of phenolic compounds degraded.     

The nanostructure and dewetting of block copolymer thin films annealed in different neutral solvents

The morphology of polystyrene‐b‐poly(2‐vinyl pyridine) thin films annealed under various neutral solvents was investigated. The morphological transition depends on the vapor pressure of the solvent, the quantity of the solvent in the film, and annealing time. We introduced the volume fraction of solvent in a film (Q) to correlate these factors to the morphology. At low Q, the amount of solvent that penetrates into the film is limited and it cannot induce enough chain mobility. Thus, thin film shows short stripes or a worm‐like structure. At high Q, the great diffusion of solvent into the film facilitates polymer mobility, leading to an ordered structure. Our results also suggested that the dewetting mechanism of thin film depends on Q. At low Q, dewetting develops via the nucleation and growth. At high Q, the condensation of solvent on the surface removes some polymer and dewetting is dominated by spinodal mechanism. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2011. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Air Quality Monitoring Network Design to Control Nitrogen Dioxide and Ozone,Applied in Granada,Spain

This paper describes a method to design air quality monitoring networks for nitrogen dioxide and ozone and its application in Granada, a city located in Andalusia, southern Spain. The city has a population of 236,988 inhabitants, and traffic is its main source of air pollution. Sampling campaigns with passive diffusion samplers at 88 sites were carried out to obtain information on the pollution distribution in Granada. The average concentrations found for NO₂ and O₃ were 36.5 μg/m³ and 51.6 μg/m³, respectively. Maximum values of up to 57.1 μg/m³ NO₂ were found in Granada city center and O₃ reached 77.2 μg/m³ downwind from the emission source. After spatial interpolation of the obtained values with Geographical Information Systems, a selection of the best locations for the monitoring stations was made, in line with the macro- and microscale siting requirements of the European Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe. Another sampling campaign with diffusive samplers was carried out in 2007 to determine if the locations of the air quality assessment stations were still representative for their zone. A correction was made in the control network following results of this verification campaign.     

Blowing against the wind—An exploratory application of actor network theory to the analysis of local controversies and participation processes in wind energy

This paper analyses the deployment of wind power and the related local controversies using actor-network theory (ANT). ANT provides conceptual instruments for a fine-tuned analysis of the contingencies that condition a project’s success or failure by focusing on the micro-decisions that intertwine the material aspects of the technology, the site where it is implemented, the participation process, and the social relations in which they are embedded. By considering controversies as alternative efforts of competing networks of actors to ‘frame’ the reality and enroll others, ANT sheds light on the complex and political nature of planning a wind farm project, insofar as it consist in aligning material and human behaviours into a predictable scenario. ‘Overflows’ occur when actors do not conform to expectations, adopt conflicting positions and develop their own interpretations of the project, thus obliging designers to adapt their frames and change their plans. To demonstrate this framework, we apply it to the case of a wind farm project in the South of France, near Albi. Our analysis suggests a new approach to examining wind power projects in terms of the interaction between globally circulating technologies, unique characteristics of the site, the participation process and the social dynamics that emerge when these are combined.