Sustainable agriculture, which is characterized by farming profitably while minimizing damage to the environment, is not easy to practice. “Conventional” agriculture in the USA is commonly considered to involve practices that have potential to damage the environment. These include tilling the soil excessively, overapplying readily soluble inorganic fertilizers (“chemical fertilizers”), and over...

A recently developed algorithm (Zhang et al., 2005) has been applied to deconvolve the mass spectra of organic aerosols acquired with the Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) in Pittsburgh during September 2002. The results are used here to characterize the mass concentrations, size distributions, and mass spectra of hydrocarbon-like and oxygenated organic aerosol (HOA and OOA, respectively). HOA ac...

[1] Secondary organic aerosols (SOA), known to form in the atmosphere from oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by anthropogenic and biogenic sources, are a poorly understood but substantial component of atmospheric particles. In this study, we examined the chemical and physical properties of SOA at Bakersfield, California, a site influenced by anthropogenic and terrestrial bi...

Tillage practices and nitrogen (N) sources are important factors affecting rice production. Few studies, however, have examined the interactions between tillage practices and N fertilizer sources on NH3 volatilization, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and rice grain yield. This study aimed to investigate the effects of N fertilizer sources (no N fertilizer, inorganic N fertilizer, organic N ferti...

Coastal ecosystems are typically highly productive, and the sediments in these systems receive organic matter from a variety of local and imported sources. To assess if general patterns are present in the origin of carbon sources for sedimentary bacteria and their relation to the origin of the sediment organic carbon pool, we compiled both literature and new data on δ13C of bacterial biomarkers...

This article highlights the key observation of various studies conducted in Indian scenario. In India, the major sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are vehicle exhaust. Other sources include emissions from diesel internal combustion engines, oceanic emission and evaporative emissions. Various aspects of VOCs are studied in detail by various authors in the Indian context. VOC sampling ...

Average concentrations of adsorbable organic halogens (AOX) in sludge from the Gaza Strip reached 600 mg kg(-1) which currently represents a major limiting factor for sludge application in agriculture. This study aims to identify the main sources of AOX in Gaza where the area is small with limited industrial activities. The results showed that the AOX in effluent sludge is formed mainly inside ...

Though great improvements have been made in recent years, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) still have limited lifetimes. In general, the degradation of OLEDs manifests itself as a decrease in device luminance with time. Three distinct modes of deterioration have been recognized: dark spot generation, catastrophic failure, and intrinsic degradation.1 In the first mode, nonemissive regions a...

The mechanisms by which potentially soluble inorganic nutrients are retained and eventually recycled within ecosystems have been characterized by many studies. Substantial amounts of potentially soluble organic nutrients are also released as plants grow, die, and decompose. In this study, a conceptual model was developed which shows the pools and signi®cant processes generating and consuming di...