M. Mainuddin et al., 'Adaptation options to reduce the vulnerability of Mekong water resources, food security and the environment to impacts of development and climate change. Report to AusAID', CSIRO. Water for a Healthy Country National Research Flagship ; Mekong River Commission (MRC); International Water Management Institute (IWMI), 2014 | The report aims to provide critical input to the Mekong River Commission's (MRC) regional Climate Change and Adaptation Initiative (CCAI) which was launched shortly after the formulation of this project. The CCAI is a collaborative regional initiative designed to address the shared climate change adaptation challenges of LMB countries in response to the potential effects of climate change on the socio-economic characteristics and natural resources of the LMB region. MRC has identified need for a more informed understanding of the potential impacts from climate change. To contribute to this aim, the purpose of this report is: 1. To present the framework of climate change analysis and its application to the Basin Development Plan (BDP) Scenarios; 2. To present the results from the application of the Decision Support Framework (DSF) models of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) in order to analyse the impacts of climate change and selected BDP Scenarios on flow regimes; 3. To present climate change impacts on floods and fisheries in the LMB; 4. To present the impact of climate change on the productivity of major crops grown in the basin and their consequences on the overall food security of the basin considering future population growth. 5. To present the results of applying simple adaptation strategies related to agriculture and food security; and 6. To determine further studies necessary to identify suitable adaptation strategies for dealing with such impacts

The modification of the phase inversion temperature (PIT) of C10E4/n-octane/water emulsions was studied as a function of increasing amounts of additional second surfactants in order to rank them according to their hydrophilic lipophilic balance. Twenty five surfactants, selected from a wide range of chemical families, were studied. Well-defined polyethoxylated alkyl surfactants (CiEj) show a linear variation of the PIT with their concentration C and can be used as standards to calibrate a scale in terms of dPIT/dC. This parameter leads to a simple classification of surfactants with respect to C10E4. Positive and negative values correspond to more or less hydrophilic surfactants compared to C10E4, respectively. Several industrial surfactants used in cosmetic and food industries (lecithins, sorbitan derivatives Spans and Tweens, sucrose esters, monoglycerides) were investigated and results are discussed with respect to the HLB scale of Griffin.

Report submitted to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) under the project, "Comparative assessment of water usage and impacts arising from biofuel projects in SOUTHEAST ASIAn Countries?, commissioned by the Letter of Agreement No LOA/RAP/2009/38. Thailand and Malaysia are two SOUTHEAST ASIAn countries with rapidly growing biofuel demand. Increasing use of biofuel envisages reducing dependence of petroleum products for transport and mitigating environmental impacts by reducing carbon emissions. It also expects to contribute to rural development and poverty reduction. However, the impacts of expanding production of feedstock for biofuel on water supply are not well understood. This paper assesses the water footprints and impacts of sugarcane molasses and cassava based bioethanol in Thailand, and palm oil based biodiesel in Malaysia. The water footprint of a commodity or service is the water depleted in its life cycle of its production or consumption. The total water footprints of sugarcane molasses and cassava bioethanol production in Thailand are estimated to be 1,646 and 2,304 m3/tonne, respectively, and of palm oil biodiesel in Malaysia is 3,730 m3/tonne. However, the contributions from irrigation are only a small fraction --9.0, 0.7 and 0.3%-- of the total water footprints of molasses and cassava bioethanol, and palm oil biodiesel respectively. In terms of irrigation water use,cassava is a better feedstock for bioethanol production than sugarcane molasses. In Thailand, the total annual irrigation water footprints in bioethanol production --54 million m3 (mcm) for molasses and 15 mcm for cassava-- is only 0.02% of the total renewable water resources. In Malaysia, total annual irrigation water footprint of palm oil biodiesel production is only 0.001% of the total renewable water resources. A significant spatial variation of irrigation water footprints of molasses based ethanol exists across provinces in Thailand, indicating potential for reducing water footprints. The total irrigation water footprints in biofuel production in the future in both countries will also be negligible in comparison to total water availability. However, the impact of wastewater generated in the production processes can have significant impacts on quality of local water resources. A part of the waste water, called 'spent wash', is applied as fertilizer, and over use of it can affect soil and neighboring water resources. The proposed plans on biofuel production in the future can generate more 'spent wash' than that can be used in crop fields as fertilizer. Spent wash has found to have high PH value, temperature, biological and chemical oxygen contents etc. The usual practice of storing spent wash in a pond for a long period near a plant can have detrimental impact on soil, streams' and groundwater quality. In sum, this study concludes that from the perspective of quantity of irrigation water use, the increasing biofuel production does not pose a major problem in Thailand or in Malaysia, and cassava is a better feedstock than sugarcane molasses for bioethanol production. However, the quality of water resources with increasing effluents generated by the biofuel plants could be a major environmental bottleneck to guard against | Upali A. Amarasinghe, Nishadi Eriyagama, Wannipa Soda, 'Growing biofuel demand in Thailand and Malaysia: water use and impacts. Project report submitted to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) under the project, "Comparative assessment of water usage and impacts arising from biofuel projects in SOUTHEAST ASIAn Countries?', International Water Management Institute (IWMI), 2014

Habilitación de cangahua en Ecuador una necesidad prioritaria para la seguridad alimentaria, provisión de agua y captura de CO2 en áreas erosionadas del país

AIMS: To evaluate synergetic effect of slight acidic electrolysed water (SAEW) and fumaric acid (FA) on inactivation of total viable count (TVC) and Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella Typhimurium in fresh beef and to study shelf life and sensory quality of beef. METHODS AND RESULTS: Inoculated samples was dipped for 1, 3 and 5 min and immersed at 25, 40 and 60°C in SAEW, strong acidic electrolysed water (StAEW) and SAWE + FA. Treated meat was air‐packaged and stored at 4 or 10°C. During storage, sampling was performed at 2‐day intervals for microbiological and sensory changes. TVC was decontaminated at 40°C for 3 min by more than 3·70 log CFU g⁻¹, and examined pathogens were reduced by more than 2·60 log CFU g⁻¹with SAEW + FA treatment. This treatment prolonged shelf life of beef meat up to 9 and 7 days when stored at 4 and 10°C, respectively. CONCLUSION: The combined treatment of SAEW + FA showed greater bactericidal effect and prolonged shelf life compared with individual treatments. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Combined treatment of SAEW and FA can be a suitable hurdle technology reducing bacteria in fresh beef, substantially enhancing their microbial safety and decreasing pathogens growth during storage.

A solid phase extraction procedure has been developed using multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as a solid sorbent and quinalizarin [1,2,5,8-tetrahydroxyanthracene-9,10-dione] as a chelating agent for separation and preconcentration of trace amounts of some heavy metal ions, Cd(II), Cu(II), Ni(II), Pb(II) and Zn(II) before their determination by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS). The influences of the analytical parameters, including pH, amounts of quinalizarin and adsorbent, sample volume, elution conditions such as volume and concentration of eluent, flow rates of solution and matrix ions, were investigated for the optimum recoveries of the analyte ions. No interference effects were observed from the foreign metal ions. The preconcentration factor was 100. The detection limit (LOD) for the investigated metals at the optimal conditions were observed in the range of 0.30–0.65 μg L ⁻¹. The relative standard deviation (RSDs), and the recoveries of standard addition for this method were lower than 5.0% and 96–102%, respectively. The new procedure was successfully applied to the determination of analytes in food, water and environmental samples with satisfactory results.

UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, International Water Management Institute, 'Smallholder system innovation in integrated watershed management: strategies of water for food and environment security in drought prone tropical and subtropical agro-ecosystems, Tanzania and South Africa', 2014

4 pages, 2 tables .-- DOI of original article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmarsys.2014.04.002 | The authors regret that the printed version of the above article contained a number of errors. The correct and final version of Table 1 and Table 2, Acknowledgments and Amores and Monserrat (2014) reference follow. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. | This research was supported by the project CTM2008-04489-C03-01 and CTM2008-04489-C03-02. The isotope analyses were funded by the Government of the Balearic Islands, Acció especial: AAEE0138/09 (DireccióGeneral de Recerca, Desenvolupament Tecnològic i Innovació, Conselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovació) | Peer Reviewed

In this work, a simple, rapid and sensitive method using in situ surfactant-based solid phase extraction (ISS-SPE) combined with UV–vis spectrophotometry has been developed for the preconcentration and determination of trace amounts of quinoline yellow in food and water samples. The Box–Behnken design was employed to optimize the extraction efficiency. The variables of interest were pH, surfactant volume, extraction time and NaI volume. In the optimal conditions, the calibration graph was linear in the range of 10.0–750 μg L⁻¹with a correlation coefficient of 0.9982. The limit of detection (LOD) was 2.1 μg L⁻¹, and the preconcentration factor was calculated to be 51.8.