Water absorption, membrane swelling, and self-diffusivity of water in 1100 equivalent weight Nafion were measured as functions of temperature and water activity. Free volume per water at 80 °C, determined from water uptake and volume expansion data, decreases with water content in the membrane from 12 cm(3)/mol at λ = 0.5 H(2)O/SO(3) to 1.5 cm(3)/mol at λ = 4. The change in free volume with wat...

introduction natural and artificial radionuclides are the main sources of human radiation exposure. these radionuclides, which are present in the environment, can be dissolved into water. evidence suggests that radionuclides being entered the human body through drinking or hot spring water can be harmful for human health. materials and methods in this study,10 samples were collected from ground...

The ecological status of coastal and marine waterbodies world-wide is threatened by multiple stressors, including nutrient inputs from various sources and increasing occurrences of invasive alien species. These stressors impact the environmental quality of the Baltic Sea. Each Baltic Sea country contributes to the stressors and, at the same time, is affected by their negative impacts on water q...

 The development of shrimp aquaculture, in spite of its global necessity, is largely at stake as significant ecological and pathological problems are increasing in the vast majority of the shrimp producing countries. Shrimp immunology is a key element in establishing strategies for controlling diseases in shrimp aquaculture. The total haemocyte count (THC), differential haemocyte count (DHC), t...

While fidelity to breeding sites is well demonstrated in marine turtles, emerging knowledge of migratory routes and key foraging sites is of limited conservation value unless levels of fidelity can be established. We tracked green (Chelonia mydas, n=10) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta, n=10) turtles during their post-nesting migration from the island of Cyprus to their foraging grounds. After i...

The risks of contamination of finfish products with active pathogens largely depend on the type of product concerned and disposal methods of the importing country. Frozen fish used as bait or to feed high-value species present the greatest risk as vehicles of contamination because they are unprocessed. Freezing preserves viral- and some bacterial-pathogens, thus the use of such fish as bait can...

1. Biological and statistical complexity are features common to most ecological data that hinder our ability to extract meaningful patterns using conventional tools. Recent work on implementing modern statistical methods for analysis of such ecological data has focused primarily on population dynamics but other types of data, such as animal movement pathways obtained from satellite telemetry, c...

The Practice of Health Program Evaluation provides an overview of the evaluation process for public health programs while diving deeper to address select advanced concepts and techniques. The book unfolds evaluation as a three-phased process consisting of identification of evaluation questions, data collection and analysis, and dissemination of results and recommendations. The text covers resea...

Rubber dams are inflatable and deflatable hydraulic structures. Thousands of rubber dams have been installed worldwide for various purposes: irrigation, water supply, power generation, tidal barrier, flood control, environmental improvement, and recreation. Furthermore, rubber dams have been used in cold areas where the temperature is as low as –40°C. The simplicity and flexibility of the rubbe...

Monitoring marine top predators is fundamental for assessing the health and functioning of open ocean ecosystems. Although recently tracking observations have substantially increased, factors determining the horizontal exploration of the ocean by marine predators are still largely unknown, especially at the scale of behavioral switches (1-100 km, days-weeks). It is commonly assumed that the inf...