Article
Ecosystem and human health assessment in relation to aquatic environment pollution by heavy metals: case study of the Murmansk region, northwest of the Kola Peninsula, Russia
Throughout the Euro-Arctic region of Russia (Murmansk region), there is a substantial increase of metal concentrations in water, which are related to local discharges from the metallurgical and mining industry, transboundary pollution, as well as indirect leaching of elements by acid precipitation. This study collates data to investigate the relationship between surface water contamination by metals, and fish and human health. Fish are used as a biological indicator to show the impact of water pollution by metals on the ecosystem's health. The etiology of fish and human diseases are related to the water pollution and accumulation of metals in organisms. High concentrations of Ni and Cd in water drives an accumulation of these elements in organs and tissues of fish, especially in kidneys. The relation between the accumulation of Ni in kidneys and the development of fish nephrocalcinosis and fibroelastosis was established. Statistical analysis demonstrated that human populations in cities close in proximity to smelters show the highest incidence of disease. The results of histological, clinical, and post-mortem examination of patients shows the highest content of toxic metals, especially Cd, in livers and kidneys. Our complex investigation of a set of disorders observed in fish and human populations indicates that there is a high probability that the negative impact on human health is caused by prolonged water contamination by heavy metals. As a novel finding, this paper shows that based on the similarity of pathological processes and bioaccumulation of metals in fish and humans, examining the content of heavy metals in fish can be used to confirm etiology and evaluate the potential risk to human health by pollution of surface waters.
Fish muscle may constitute one of the main sources of iodine (I) for the indigenous peoples of the Russian Arctic, although limited information is available about its content in commonly consumed fish species. In the current study, bromine (Br), I, the essential elements (copper, selenium and zinc) and other non-essential elements — specifically mercury, arsenic (As), cadmium, lead and nickel — have been quantified in 10 fish species consumed by people living in the Nenets and Chukotka Regions. Fish muscle was analysed by ICP-MS after nitric acid or tetramethylammonium hydroxide digestion. Certified reference materials were employed and concentrations are reported as geometric means (GMs). Atlantic cod (6.32 mg/kg) and navaga (0.934 mg/kg) contained substantially higher amounts of I than all other fish species, while broad whitefish had the lowest (0.033 mg/kg). By comparison, navaga contained more Br (14.5 mg/kg) than the other fish species, ranging 7.45 mg/kg in Atlantic cod to 2.39 mg/kg in northern pike. A significant inter-fish association between As and I in freshwater and marine fish was observed, suggesting common sources and perhaps parallel absorption patterns. Only Atlantic cod and, to lesser extent, navaga constituted significant dietary sources of I.
Currently, monitoring of persistent organic pollutant (POP) content in various biological and environmental matrixes in the Arctic is an urgent task. The present study focused on the determination of POPs such as: PCB#28, PCB#52, PCB#101, PCB#105, PCB#118, PCB#123, PCB#153, PCB#128, p,p’-DDE, o,p’-DDE, p,p’-DDD, o,p’-DDD, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), cis-nonachlor, trans-nonachlor, cis-chlordane, trans-chlordane, mirex, 1,2,3,5-tetrachlorobenzene and 1,2,4,5-tetrachlorobenzene in fish consumed by the indigenous people of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO) of the Russian Arctic. Fish samples were analyzed by gas chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) using the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) technique. The obtained results show that the major POPs in fish were dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) breakdown products and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) congeners. The ∑PCB8 in pink salmon, Arctic char, navaga, humpback whitefish and northern pike were 1.54, 1.58, 1.24, 0.72 and 0.32 ng/g (ww), respectively. The main PCB congeners maximum average medium concentrations were 0.68 ng/g (ww) and 0.51 ng/g (ww) of PCB#153 in navaga and PCB#128 in pink salmon, respectively. The main DDT breakdown product was p,p’-DDE. In Arctic char, pink salmon, navaga, humpback whitefish and northern pike, the concentration of p,p’-DDE was 0.58, 1.61, 0.49, 0.63 and 0.08 ng/g (ww), respectively. A moderate positive relationship between ∑PCB8 and lipid content and a high positive relationship between ∑DDT and lipid content were observed. In fish samples with fat content <0.5% (northern pike, humpback whitefish), the amount of analyzed POPs was 2 or more times lower than that in fish species with fat content >1% (pink salmon, Arctic char). Despite the large number of fish in the diet of indigenous peoples from NAO, no significant risks were identified. Most legacy POP and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) tend to decrease, which can be explained by past national and regional bans and restriction on their use and emission.
The problem of protecting humanity from the effects of electromagnetic and ionizing radiation (EMR and AI) is now becoming increasingly important, because The number of sources of EMP and AI increases and their capacities increase. In particular, the use of electronic means (computers, televisions, radiotelephones, office equipment, household appliances, etc.) is growing, and the number of people who have health problems associated with exposure to this type of radiation proportionately grows. Goes into the category of global problems facing humanity. The book consists of three sections. The first section is devoted to electromagnetic radiation produced by industrial installations and household appliances. In the second section, ionizing radiation of both natural and artificial origin is considered. The third section considers the nature of torsion fields. The influence of all these radiations on humans and biological objects is shown. The methods and means of measuring these impacts are described. Recommendations for protection against electromagnetic and ionizing radiation are given. The book can serve as a training tool for studying courses "Life Safety", "Technospheric Security", "Environmental Protection" in higher and secondary educational institutions. It can be useful to specialists involved in the design and operation of devices that can be sources of dangerous electromagnetic and radiation radiation, as well as for specialists in preventive medicine, labor protection services, etc
The Italian trading stations in Tana were important in the system of long-distance trade of the Italian maritime republics Venice and Genoa. The deeds of two Venetian notaries (Nicolo de Varsis and Benedetto de Smeritis) who worked there during the 1430s are an important source for tracing the transformation of the issues and directions of the Italian trade in the Black Sea region, the trade, which was recovering from crisis of the fourteenth century. Notwithstanding the Venetian-Genoese struggle and previous crisis events, this recovery made the economic conditions favorable.
Although some scholars see a regionalization of trade in fifteenth century, the source evidence challenges this interpretation. Westerners began to import Italian, Flemish, and English textiles to the Eastern markets, and the local goods (fish, caviar) were widely exported to Europe (even to the markets of Flanders). Finally, the slave trade was intensive. My main argument here is that though there were considerable transformations in the Italian trade, there was no real regionalization of trade, which retained its long-distance character.
The Arctic region is one of the most sensitive and vulnerable to climate change. The dramatic melting of Arctic ice has several negative consequences for the whole ecosystem as well as for a way of life of native people but it also creates new opportunities for the region. First, it opens up potential for exploitation of large deposits of natural resources such oil and gas. Second, it shrinks Arctic shipping routes which offer significant economic savings for many countries. These benefits has already attracted many countries, both Arctic and non-Arctic, thus resulting in potential conflict of interests. In our paper we present a mathematical approach to the problem of conflict resolution in the Arctic. First, we propose an approach how the level of interest in each part of the region should be evaluated with respect to main resources - oil, gas, fish and maritime routes. Second, we present several models of areas allocation to resolve the problem of conflict resolution. As a result, we applied several scenarios of areas allocation, evaluated their efficiency based on the total satisfaction level and identified conflict zones in the Arctic.
Data management and analysis is one of the fastest growing and most challenging areas of research and development in both academia and industry. Numerous types of applications and services have been studied and re-examined in this field resulting in this edited volume which includes chapters on effective approaches for dealing with the inherent complexity within data management and analysis. This edited volume contains practical case studies, and will appeal to students, researchers and professionals working in data management and analysis in the business, education, healthcare, and bioinformatics areas.
This prototype development explains the challenges encountered during the ISO/IEEE 11073 standard implementation process. The complexity of the standard and the consequent heavy requirements, which have not encouraged software engineers to adopt the standard. The developing complexity evaluation drives us to propose two possible implementation strategies that cover almost all possible use cases and eases handling the standard by non-expert users. The first one is focused on medical devices (MD) and proposes a low-memory and low-processor usage technique. It is based on message patterns that allow simple functions to generate ISO/IEEE 11073 messages and to process them easily. MD act as X73 agent. Second one is focused on more powerful device X73 manager, which do not have the MDs' memory and processor usage constraints. The protocol between Agent and Manager is point-to-point and we can distribute the functionality between devices.
Developed both implementation X73 Agent and Manager will cut developing time for applications based on ISO/EEE 11073.
In the internal medicine wide spectrum the gastroenterology is one of the chapters, less enlightened by the scientific evidence. It does not mean that the practice of the grasntroenterology may ot be improved by the systematic use of the approaches of the evidence based medicine
The article is devoted to the study of the authoritarianism prevalent in the mass consciousness of Russians. The article describes a new approach to the consideration of the authoritarian syndrome as the effects of the cultural trauma as a result of political and socio-cultural transformation of society. The article shows the dynamics of the symptoms of the authoritarianism, which appear in the mass consciousness of Russians from 1993 to 2011. This paper proposes a package of measures aimed at reducing the level of the authoritarianism in Russian society.
This work looks at a model of spatial election competition with two candidates who can spend effort in order to increase their popularity through advertisement. It is shown that under certain condition the political programs of the candidates will be different. The work derives the comparative statics of equilibrium policy platform and campaign spending with respect the distribution of voter policy preferences and the proportionality of the electoral system. In particular, it is whown that the equilibrium does not exist if the policy preferences are distributed over too narrow an interval.
The article examines "regulatory requirements" as a subject of state control over business in Russia. The author deliberately does not use the term "the rule of law". The article states that a set of requirements for business is wider than the legislative regulation.
First, the article analyzes the regulatory nature of the requirements, especially in the technical field. The requirements are considered in relation to the rule of law. The article explores approaches to the definition of regulatory requirements in Russian legal science. The author analyzes legislation definitions for a set of requirements for business. The author concludes that regulatory requirements are not always identical to the rule of law. Regulatory requirements are a set of obligatory requirements for entrepreneurs’ economic activity. Validation failure leads to negative consequences.
Second, the article analyzes the problems of the regulatory requirements in practice. Lack of information about the requirements, their irrelevance and inconsistency are problems of the regulatory requirements in Russia.
Many requirements regulating economic activity are not compatible with the current development level of science and technology. The problems are analyzed on the basis of the Russian judicial practice and annual monitoring reports by Higher School of Economics.
Finally, the author provides an approach to the possible solution of the regulatory requirements’ problem. The author proposes to create a nationwide Internet portal about regulatory requirements. The portal should contain full information about all regulatory requirements. The author recommends extending moratorium on the use of the requirements adopted by the bodies and organizations of the former USSR government.