The rapid population growth in China has increased the demand for limited water, energy and food resources. Because the resource supply is constrained by future uncertainties such as climate change, it is necessary to examine the connections among water, energy and food resources from the perspective of the relevant final demands. Based on an input-output model and structural path analysis, this study aims to explore the hidden connections among water, energy and food resources by identifying important final demands and examine how these resources are embodied in upstream production and downstream consumption processes along the supply chain. The water-energy-food nexus approach in this research identifies where and how these resources intersect in economic sectors. By simultaneously considering the water, energy and food footprints, synergistic effects can be maximized among these resource systems. The results reveal that urban household consumption and fixed capital formation have large impacts on water-energy-food resources. Besides, agriculture, construction and service sectors have the largest water-energy-food footprints. For each resource, we rank the top-20 supply chain paths from the final demands to the upstream production sectors, and six critical supply chain paths are identified as important contributors to the consumption of all these resources. Compared with independent approach to manage water, energy and food resources, the nexus approach identifies the critical linkages of the water, energy and food systems and helps to formulate integrated policies to effectively manage these resources across sectors and actors. Synergistic strategies for conserving water, energy, and food resources can be achieved through avoiding unnecessary waste in end uses and improving resource use efficiency along critical supply chains. This research can help consumers, industries and the government make responsible consumption and production decisions to conserve water, energy and food resources.

Food- and water-borne pathogens exhibit spatial heterogeneity, but attribution to specific environmental processes is lacking while anthropogenic climate change alters these processes. The goal of this study was to investigate ecology, land-use and health associations of these pathogens and to make future disease projections.The rates of five acute gastrointestinal illnesses (AGIs) (campylobacteriosis, Verotoxin- producing Escherichia coli, salmonellosis, giardiasis and cryptosporidiosis) from 2000 to 2013 in British Columbia, Canada, were calculated across three environmental variables: ecological zone, land use, and aquifer type. A correlation analysis investigated relationships between 19 climatic factors and AGI. Mean annual temperature at the ecological zone scale was used in a univariate regression model to calculate annual relative AGI risk per 1 °C increase. Future cases attributable to climate change were estimated into the 2080s.Each of the bacterial AGI rates was correlated with several annual temperature-related factors while the protozoan AGIs were not. In the regression model, combined relative risk for the three bacterial AGIs was 1.1 [95% CI: 1.02–1.21] for every 1 °C in mean annual temperature. Campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis and giardiasis rates were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the urban land use class than in the rural one. In rural areas, bacteria and protozoan AGIs had significantly higher rates in the unconsolidated aquifers. Verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli rates were significantly higher in watersheds with more agricultural land, while rates of campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis and giardiasis were significantly lower in agricultural watersheds. Ecological zones with higher bacterial AGI rates were generally projected to expand in range by the 2080s.These findings suggest that risk of AGI can vary across ecosystem, land use and aquifer type, and that warming temperatures may be associated with an increased risk of food-borne AGI. In addition, spatial patterns of these diseases are projected to shift under climate change.

Water, energy, and food, as the basic material resources of human production and life, play a prominent role in social and economic development. As the imbalance between the supply and demand of water, energy, and food increases, a highly sensitive and fragile relationship gradually forms among water, energy, and food. In this paper, Inner Mongolia in China is selected as a research area. Firstly, synergy theory is applied to establish the framework of a water&ndash:energy&ndash:food system. Then, a multi-objective programming model is constructed, where the objective functions are defined to minimize the integrated deviation degree and pollutant emissions of the water&ndash:energy&ndash:food system. Meanwhile, maximization of the water benefit, energy production, and food production is also considered. In addition, the model takes economy, environment, water, energy, and food as constraints. Finally, a genetic algorithm is designed for accurately assessing the most promising results. The results show that the cooperation degree of the water&ndash:energy&ndash:food system in Inner Mongolia is getting better and better, and the pollutant emission from the water&ndash:energy&ndash:food system is decreasing. In 2020, the proportion of agricultural water consumption fell by 1%, while that of industrial water consumption rose by 0.48%. The production of coal, natural gas, and power are all showing an increasing trend. Among them, the increase of natural gas production is as high as 38,947,730 tons of standard coal. However, the proportions of coal, natural gas, and power change inconsistently, where the proportions of coal and natural gas increase while that of power decreases. Corn production accounts for more than 80% of the total, which is in the eldest brother position in the food industry structure. Besides, there are differences between the planned values and optimal values of decision variables. Finally, suggestions are put forward to improve the sustainable development of water&ndash:energy&ndash:food in Inner Mongolia.

The effluent of food waste (FWE) is generated during food waste treatment process. It contains high organic matter content and is difficult to be efficiently treated. In this study, the sample was collected from a 200 t/d food waste treatment center in Hangzhou, China. Subcritical and supercritical water gasification were employed to decompose and convert FWE into energy. The effects of reaction temperature (300–500 °C), residence time (20–70 min) and activated carbon loading (0.5–3.5 wt%) on syngas production and the remaining pollutants in liquid residue were investigated. It was found that higher reaction temperature and longer residence time favored gasification and pollutant decomposition, resulting in higher H₂ production and gasification efficiencies. It is noteworthy that the NH₃-N was difficult to be converted and removed under current experimental conditions. The addition of activated carbon was found to increase the gasification efficiency. The highest total gas yield, H₂ yield, carbon conversion efficiency, gasification efficiency, total organic carbon removal efficiency and chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency were obtained from gasification at 500 °C for 70 min with 3.5 wt% activated carbon.

Juvenile Pacific abalone (Haliotis discus hannai Ino) are currently reared in land‐based aquaculture systems until they reach the necessary size for seeding in the sea. One problem that this industry faces is that an uneven distribution of juveniles in tanks can lead to variations in the growth rate. Understanding the cues that affect the sheltering behaviours exhibited by juvenile Pacific abalone—namely, the food distribution and the water flow velocity—will help optimize abalone culture settings. In this study, a group of 1,000 juvenile Pacific abalone (distributed across three tanks) was visually observed and enumerated during six experiments that were conducted over a 5‐month study period. It was found that juvenile Pacific abalone preferred to shelter close to food sources when the food was unevenly distributed. When the food was evenly distributed, the juveniles tended to avoid areas of rapid water flow and distributed evenly across the sheltered areas receiving the equal water velocity. This distribution might be the confounding effects between water flow velocity and food stimulus. Based on these findings, it was recommend that the food and water velocity be evenly distributed in an abalone aquaculture system.

In this work, water-insoluble bamboo shoot dietary fiber (BSDF) was prepared, and used as plant food particle stabilizer for oil-in-water (O/W) Pickering emulsions. The obtained plant food particle had novel emulsification ability, the prepared emulsions were stable against coalescence for at least 4 weeks and also insensitive to pH, ionic strength and pasteurization conditions. The BSDF suspensions and BSDF-stabilized O/W emulsions both exhibited shear-thinning behaviors; moreover, both viscosity and module were increased with the increase of BSDF contents. The surface coverage of emulsions was positively correlated with the content of BSDF suspensions. It indicated that the dietary fibers from bamboo shoot had a soft nature and suitable shape to produce stable Pickering emulsions, which could be used as food-grade particles for applications of food and cosmetics industries.

Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica sobre la recuperación de compuestos bioactivos (antocianinas, flavonoides y compuestos fenólicos, entre otros) de subproductos de la industria alimentaria que son desechados sin considerar que, una vez extraídos, pueden ser utilizados como aditivos o ingredientes para mejorar las propiedades de los alimentos. De esta forma se contribuye a valorizar esos subproductos de la industria alimentaria. Como tecnología estudiada para la recuperación de estos compuestos bioactivos, se ha seleccionado la extracción mediante mezclas etanol/agua presurizadas (PAE), tanto a temperaturas bajas como superiores a 100 ºC. Se ha podido comprobar que la adición de etanol en el agua, en proporciones variables, mejora la solubilidad de determinados compuestos bioactivos obtenidos a partir de diferentes matrices, como son los residuos de mora, cáscara de maracuyá, cebada cerosa, entre otras. Frente a otros procesos de extracción el empleo de PAE permite la extracción de familias más amplias de componentes antioxidantes y disminuye los compuestos de oscurecimiento de las reacciones de Maillard, minimizando las reacciones de fragmentación. | proyecto de Investigación VALORIZACIÓN INTEGRAL DE SUBPRODUCTOS DE LA INDUSTRIA AGROALIMENTARIA MEDIANTE TECNOLOGÍAS EMERGENTES (ALVALOR) financiado por la Junta de Castilla y León y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (BU301P18) y desarrollado en el Grupo de investigación Biotecnología Industrial y Medioambiental, reconocido por la UBU (GIR-UBU BIOIND) y por la Junta de Castilla y León como Unidad de Investigación Consolidada UIC-128.

Greywater is increasingly treated and reused for agricultural irrigation in off-grid communities in the Middle East and other water scarce regions of the world. However, there is a dearth of data regarding levels of antibiotics and herbicides in off-grid greywater treatment systems. To address this knowledge gap, we evaluated levels of these contaminants in two types of greywater treatment systems on four farms in the West Bank, Palestinian Territories. Samples of household greywater (influent, n = 23), treated greywater effluent intended for agricultural irrigation (n = 23) and pumped groundwater held in irrigation water ponds (n = 12) were collected from October 2017 to June 2018. Samples were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for the following antibiotics and herbicides: alachlor, ampicillin, atrazine, azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, linezolid, oxacillin, oxolinic acid, penicillin G, pipemidic acid, sulfamethoxazole, triclocarban, tetracycline, triflualin, and vancomycin. All tested antibiotics and herbicides were detected in greywater influent samples at concentrations ranging from 1.3 to 1592.9 ng/L and 3.1–22.4 ng/L, respectively. When comparing influent to effluent concentrations, removal was observed for azithromycin, alachlor, linezolid, oxacillin, penicillin G, pipemidic acid, sulfamethoxazole, triclocarban, and vancomycin. Removal was not observed for atrazine, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, oxolinic acid, tetracycline, and trifluralin. Pond water also contained the majority of tested contaminants, but at generally lower concentrations. To our knowledge, this is the first description of an extensive array of antibiotics and herbicides detected in household greywater from off-grid treatment systems.

Esta propuesta de preparación se centra en la recuperación verde posterior a la COVID-19 y en la importancia de diseñar esfuerzos de recuperación verde y resistente para la Seguridad Alimentaria en los países de América Latina, con beneficiarios directos como las instituciones públicas nacionales para la formulación de políticas públicas en los países seleccionados, incluidos los Ministerios/Secretarías de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (8), Agricultura (8) y Finanzas/Planificación (5), algunos de los cuales son Autoridades Nacionales Designadas. El objetivo central de esta propuesta es esbozar las vías para las estrategias de recuperación verde posteriores a COVID-19 en los sectores de la alimentación, la salud y el agua, apoyando los esfuerzos nacionales y regionales de los países destinatarios para fortalecer las innovaciones financieras y tecnológicas.